Hahaha, puns.

So last chapter, we got a day of preparation. Now we get a night of dungeon crawling. This'll be a short chapter, mostly because me writing endurance isn't what it used to be.

Anyway, here is the next chapter. Enjoy if you can - if you can't I apologize

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The [Gate Dungeon] was an expansive underground cave system with an entrance built into and hidden by a rock formation at the very northern edge of the plains. The maze-like tunnels were a claustrophobic two meters wide and two and a half meters high, making for low maneuverability. Visibility was abysmal as well due to the only light sources - they were tiny little crystals embedded into the ceiling in a seemingly random distance from each other. Finally, every hallway was inconveniently long, with a mob or two patrolling from corner to corner.

All of that combined made the act just navigating the dungeon an incredibly trying task. It didn't help that a good chunk of the map for the area was still blacked out and unexplored.

For the hundredth time in as many minutes, Crescent Rose and company rounded a corner and encountered a [Kobold Guard] - a level 15 mob that looked like a cross between a red scaled lizard and a man wearing armor. It was four feet tall and had three variants wielding scimitars, spears, or axes respectively. The one in front of them held an ax.

She and Gambol could handle it no problem, though. All it took was a simple [Linear] stab from Rose to hold it in place and Gambol could repeatedly attack one of the enemy's weak spots until it died - for the kobolds, normally the neck or spine was targeted.

However, their problem with said kobolds was not the difficulty in dispatching them - or lack thereof - but the sheer frequency of encounters. For the past hour and a half, they've been subjected to mob after mob with very little break in between. After thirty minutes, Rose had already gotten tired of the dungeon's battle music - most notably, the first 10 seconds of it since that's the only part she ever hears before the mob dies.

"I'm getting really tired of fighting these things," Rose said, jamming her spear straight through the kobold's open jaw.

"Agreed," Gambol said, stabbing it in the back, thrice in quick succession.

Once again, they were treated to a wireframe explosion and an increase in experience and Lien.

Rose brought up her map and put down a cursor directing them to which hall they came from. "Okay, we've got straight or left. Which way next?"

Gambol activated [Detection], causing her eyes to begin glowing, like a cat's. "Left spirals into itself and leads to a dead end," she noted. "There's a really powerful mob there, though. Probably a linked encounter since it ends in an actual room." She scowled. "I can't really tell, though. There are too many walls and too much distance between me and that place to get a good read."

"There could be treasure there," Rose muttered. "What about straight?"

"It just leads to more and more paths"

"Hmm"

Rose thought for a bit. Going left would entail them needing to backtrack after they see what the deal was with that dead end. In all likelihood, it was probably a chest that filled with a rare item and rigged to summon high level enemies upon any attempts to open it. Still, since they were mapping the dungeon, they might as well. They were the ones who discovered it, so it only made sense that they get the loot - provided that its actually loot in the first place.

"I say we go left," she decided.

"Well, lead the way."

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Myrtenaster cautiously peeked past the corner. Sure enough, a [Kobold Guard] was making its way towards them, most probably unaware still if their presence behind the bend.

"I swear, if this is another dead end," she growled, running up to the mob and stabbing it three times - once between the eyes and twice in the chest where the heart normally would be. As it died, she ran past and suddenly found herself facing a wall. It was another dead end.

"Oh, for the love of - this is so frustrating!"

For the past several junctions, Mytenaster had lead them to either dead ends or linked encounters with multiple mobs.

The latter took an inconveniently long time to deal with as both Myrtenaster and Stormflower used rapiers and were thus ill equipped for fighting more than one enemy at a time. However, the pay off was quite good in that said linked encounters were all guarding treasure. The last one she got was a piece of head gear that looked like a crown which she immediately equipped.

The dead ends however were just that - dead ends - which wouldn't necessarily be a problem had they not run into a dead end at every turn for the past nine times they chose a direction. She found it quite aggravating and she was progressively being more vocal about that fact.

Stormflower stared stoically at the girl in white's increasingly irritable behavior. Myrtenaster, of course, could feel his gaze burning a hole through the back of her head. It wasn't quite pleasant, but it was a welcome sensation as it reminded her that someone competent had her back.

She'd have preferred to be with Gambol, Wilt, or Milou, but the logic behind being paired with Stormflower made sense.

She just wished that the boy talked more. The way he spoke was quite direct, explicitly avoiding the pitfalls of idle conversation, something Myrtenaster admired, and his quiet monotone had a calming effect on her. Unfortunately he was not a very talkative person due to the very reason Myrtenaster enjoyed hearing him talk in the first place.

She supposed it was one of the reasons she was as annoyed as she was. With very little to talk about or listen to, she kept focus on the things around her - and said things were things that irritated her quite a bit.

You have received a message from [Crescent Rose]. Read? Y / N

Myrtenaster couldn't help but smile after reading the contents.

"Stormflower, I'm transferring you some map data. We just found the boss door."

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Crocea, being the de-facto strategist for their raid team, had divided their group into pairs.

Team A, the DPS team, was Myrtenaster and Stormflower, whose job was to deal as much damage to the boss as possible. They had the highest damage-per-second out of all of them, so it made sense.

Team B, the Tank team, was Milou and himself. Since the two of them had the highest defense and wielded shields, they were tasked with protecting the DPS team. They had to block strikes from the boss or take the hit themselves.

Team C was Wilting Blush and Magnhild who were perhaps the two strongest players in the game in terms of raw attack power. A swing from Maggy's ax or Wilt's scimitar could deal over 100 damage. With how early in the game it was, that was an amazing feat.

However, due to how enemy targeting works, mobs facing multiple opponents will normally target the one who hits hardest. Wilt and Maggy had reasonably high defenses and health but they were no tanks. Crocea and Milou couldn't protect two teams at once so they weren't going to fight the boss at all.

Instead, they were crowd control. They were to drive away any nearby mobs by tagging them with an attack and moving some distance away from the rest of the group. It also helped that Maggy's axe stunned most enemies that try to block one of her attacks - their recoil lasted up to an entire second.

Team D was Rose and Gambol. While they did have the highest agility among the eight of them, their choice of gear did not mesh well with any of the other teams. That said, they made a fine strike team.

With how fast they were, they would be able to assist whichever team happens to have trouble. That kind flexibility in terms of positioning was very much an asset in Crocea's mind.

They were grouped in the most efficient way he could think of. Not only that, they were also some of the highest level players in the game. Rose and Wilt were currently at the soft level cap which was 25 - making those two the highest level players in the game. Not only that, they had three - arguably five - people who had real world skills with a sword. With all that, he was quite confident that they'd be able to beat the entire boss on their own.

However, he never expected that their chance for clearing the dungeon had come so soon. Thus, it came as no surprise that he'd feel nervous standing in front of the five meter tall door that blocked their entry to the boss room

The room that Rose found contained one last challenge - a group for 4 [Kobold Gate Keepers] who were all level 20 and wielded scimitars. Rose and Gambol had to lure them out of the room and fight them two at a time in the cramped hallway - thus giving Rose the advantage with her thrust-type weapon that had a lot of range. Upon their victory, they returned to the room and suddenly found a flight of stairs leading down. At the very bottom was the boss door.

Shortly after, she had sent Crocea and the others a PM, asking everyone to go to her. Crocea was halfway across the map at that moment so by the time he and Milou arrived at the door, all the others had were already there.

Now he stood, listening quietly as Rose briefed them about the boss.

"His name is [Ilfang the Kobold Lord]. I remember him being level 30 with three life bars. He uses an ax and buckler but once he's down to his last life bar, he'll throw down his gear and switch to this curved sword called a talwar and start using sword techniques on us."

Crocea gulped and whispered to Milou. "The enemies in this game can use sword techs too?"

Milou nodded. "Only the very powerful ones - so mostly bosses. I believe we encounter regular mobs that can do them once we unlocked the 10th region. That is the latest area we've played in the beta. I can only assume they become more common as we progress through the game"

Crocea gulped again. A small part of his mind wondered what those enemies would be like after midnight. The very thought of it brought chills running through his spine.

Oblivious to Crocea's internal struggle with fear, Rose continued the briefing.

"He's surrounded by other mobs called [Kobold Sentinels] which are basically more powerful versions of the [Kobold Guards]. There can be six at any given time. They share a hate table with [Ilfang]. Aggro the boss, you aggro them too."

Crocea couldn't help but smile at that. As was the case for most other MMOs he had played, the boss had minions. He made the right call with Maggy and Wilt. They could do more than enough damage to catch those mobs' undivided attention and lure them away from the boss.

Rose reiterated to Maggy and Wilt what their job would be and added one important detail. "You tag them and run. Nothing more. Every time those mobs die, they respawn fifteen seconds later with 5% more health and attack power."

Again, Crocea tried to imagine what this boss fight would be like after midnight and, again, he had to take a deep breath to calm himself. They had over two hours to beat the boss. Surely they'd realize whether or not they could win before midnight.

"This boss is going to be hard to beat. For the most part, it's still a mob, but when you're fighting it, you need to treat it like a duel with another player. That thing's AI is smarter than it seems and that makes it dangerous. Don't under estimate it." With one final warning, Rose finished the briefing and stepped back.

Myrtenaster then stepped forward. "We're all ten levels above the minimum requirement for this place. We may not know each other very well but, from the few hours we've been together, I already trust you with my life. I know you all are skilled. If we stick together and keep our heads, we'll defeat this boss. Now are we ready?"

Rose, Maggy, and Milou responded with a resounding cheer, while Gambol, Stormflower, and Wilt remained silent but nodded in agreement. Crocea couldn't bring himself to do either, something Myrtenaster noticed quite easily.

"Crocea Mors, if you have doubts then I suggest you tell us. We have a lot at stake and if you're not at 100% on this, then we will turn back right now and return once you are."

He grit his teeth. He was sure they could do it but just now he realized it wasn't an absolute certainty. There were so many possible ways things could go wrong. What if at the very start, they encountered a problem? Would his strategy and planning even matter?

He felt a hand on his shoulder. It was a familiar hand, on he had felt on said shoulder countless times before. "Crocea," Rose said. "You can't prepare for everything. The only time you think you're ready is when you're being careless. We're not completely sure we'll win either, but we at least have to try."

He nodded silently. "Okay..."

The boss door was opened and the eight of them entered the room. As they did so, Crocea couldn't help but sigh. This is crazy, he thought. I'm freely walking into my possible death AGAIN. This is amazing...

Well, we at least have to try...

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Try you will, Jaune. Here's hoping that your strategy will work as well as everyone believes.

So, this is a week late and short. Not only is it short, majority of it is an info dump. And to top it off, I end it with another cliff-hanger. I am so sorry guys (not really).

My writing endurance is pretty low right now and is currently being split between several stories. Don't expect a new chapter next week, nor the week after the next. It will take an unspecified amount of time for me to finish it.

However, a new chapter will arrive soon. Who knows? Maybe it will arrive next week. No promises, though.