December 20th, 2022 (Floor 3: Dessel)
While the third floor was interesting with its wars between the dark and wood elves, it just wasn't worth much attention on the Hunters' part. That said, Kirito and Asuna managed to get sucked into the war questline so we ended up completing as much of it as we could. Trying to balance a war we had no stakes in, the quest to formally declare ourselves as a guild, and exploring the labyrinth was difficult but it resulted in some hard-core levelling for us all. Kirito, Heidan, Maisie, and I were all level 16 while Asuna and Blake were trailing slightly at level 15.
I'd gotten to work a lot on my smithwork when Kirito realized exactly how high my skill was and asked me to upgrade his Anneal Blade even more. When I got eight viable upgrade out of his blade's eight tries, that led to more commissions from my guildmates, even if I didn't get paid at all for the labor. At the end of the day, my guildmates received better arms and I got easy experience so I wasn't complaining too much.
"Nerius the Treant," Lind was announcing at the strategy meeting. As per usual, Lind and Kibaou felt comfortable running the show. I felt comfortable letting them unless they messed something up and my guildmates were all satisfied watching the inevitable fireworks. "Basically, the information we have on him is this: he is a tree monster, base dimensions 10 meters by 2 meters. He attacks using vines and branches with an attack pattern more complex than we've seen so far. He is capable of reacting to situations quickly and attacking multiple targets at once.
"He spawns minions, which are referred to as Rooted Treants, from the center of his roots. There should only be four at a time, but their thick bark armor makes them difficult to destroy unless you have a particularly heavy weapon." I exchanged a smirk with Heidan at that.
"During the beta, Nerius has a total of 8 health bars. He has 4, and each of his major roots has one. The roots must be killed before Nerius can be killed so we have to take those out quickly or we'll be in for a long battle, which is something we don't want. Again, they are protected by thick bark. I would head to an NPC or player-smith to get your weapons and armor checked out before this one. It'll be tough if you're not prepared.
"Now, for our plan of attack we're going to split everyone into parties as usual. DKB and ALS will be split into three parties each. Agil will lead a team of solo players and the Hunters will formed the last group. DKB will cover groups A, B, and C. ALS will be groups D, E, and F. Agil, you're group G. Riva, you're group H. Groups A and E will be attacking Nerius directly. Until the roots are gone, we are keeping one health bar maintain on him. We don't need a berserk tree on the loose. Group B will attack root 1, C will attack root 2, E will attack root 3, and F will attack root 4. Group G will float around and take down the Rooted Treants. Group H, you're floating. If one part of the room needs your help, be there. Riva, will your group members be able to work full-raid support again?"
I looked to Blake who nodded before opening her mouth.
"I resupplied while we were in Zumfut but I don't know if I have enough to cover the entire battle. If anyone in your parties has drug mixing skill or a surplus of supplies, talk to me. You won't be able to use them during battle; I will."
"You heard the girl. Does anyone else have anything to say?" Lind looked directly at me as if to dare me to speak and Nymer growled lowly at the wannabe-knight. I didn't have anything to say; Lind had covered all of the information from the beta as well as what we'd seen given our scouting trips into the labyrinth.
"Actually, yes!" Maisie exclaimed, raising her hand. "If you guys can't afford to get your gear upgraded by an NPC, Riva's offering dirt-cheap upgrades. It'll still cost you some cor, but I think we'd all rather be a little poorer than blindsided by a tree!"
"Thanks, Mais," I grumbled. Since she volunteered me though... I looked up at the others. "Yeah, I'll upgrade any gear you give me for a small fee. You have to collect whatever materials I say you need. If you need the Hunter's help retrieving the raw materials, then we get half the loot from hunting as well. Message me or talk to me after we're dismissed if you're curious and don't get too used to this. I don't want to put any player-smiths out of business."
Needless to say, I was much busier after the meeting. With almost fifty people in the raid party looking for cheap and easy upgrades, I was the best thing since sliced bread. Maisie and Blake calmly and cruelly loved every minute of my suffering, painstakingly counting each cor in front of me as I worked.
"This is what you get for spending so much on that sword in the first place," Blake nearly sung. I pouted.
"But it was so pretty!"
"And that collar for Nymer?" she shot back. I glanced at my wolf and he rubbed his head up against me happily, his silver and gold collar gleaming in the light.
"He loves that collar! And don't drag him into this!"
Over a hundred grueling upgrades later, I just wanted to go to sleep. My levelling didn't even matter at this point.
"Just look on the bright side. Take a look at our guild inventory."
I did as Blake ordered and swiped into the shared inventory, which displayed several fun numbers. I caught a brief glimpse of the many items we've had a chance to hoard through the looting of the 2nd floor labyrinth and through the war campaign on the 3rd floor, but I also saw the guild's cor balance. Not including our personal money, the guild had just over a staggering 89,000 cor. That was well on the way to buying a house. If we sold off some of our rarer items, we'd be living the life.
"Is that... is this real?" I asked hesitantly, staring at the menu as if it would change. Everyone laughed but I was too transfixed by the number in front of me to care.
It didn't even occur to me that Kirito was no longer a solo player until I took the time to really look at our guild's menu but there his name was, right under Heidan's in the member list. Asuna was second on the line, listed just under me, since I was guild leader.
No one had really questioned when they had officially joined the guild but there they were: living and joking around with us as if we'd all known each other before this and would still know each other long after this. I supposed that this wasn't something we'd just outgrow and get over, though. Anyone who was in the game would never fully be able to leave it but, if that was the price of survival, I'd take it.
The next day, we entered the labyrinth. Following the map data provided by Lind, we soon reached the boss room and had our last minute instruction/pep talk, as per usual. Lind, to my surprise, gave me the floor.
"Great. A boss will be nothing after being put on the spot like this..." A few people laughed at my poor joke and I cracked a smile. "You all know what we're here for. We've got a good plan, built on solid information. You're fighting alongside the best in Aincrad, if I do say so myself, and that means something. If you get in a tight spot, let me know and we'll come running. We've got some great leaders here, some excellent support, and a very nice dog-monster. So let's get this done. I don't want to go tell the boys waiting in the Town of Beginnings that we got our asses handed to us by a tree!"
Blake, Kirito, and Heidran all smacked their faces in a weird mixture of disbelief and irritation but everyone else in the raid party seemed to think my pep talk was good enough. With the fun stuff over, I continued in a lower tone.
"A and E, head straight for Nerius. B, target the main root on the far left. C, mid-left. E, mid-right. F, far right. Once you've killed your root, help the guys next to you. Do not take attempt to take Nerius down until all roots are dead. G, take those Rooted Treants down and keep them off everyone's backs. The Hunters will be moving around in pairs to assist if you need to get out of a tough spot. Blake and Nymer will be working raid-support once they establish a safe area for wounded. Only use sword skills. Nothing else will get through that armor. Let's do this thing."
I stood in front of the door and touched it with the palm of my hand. It opened at the faintest touch and I took the staff off of my back in preparation for the battle ahead.
I wasn't sure exactly what I was expecting based on the information, but it wasn't this. I didn't take part in the 3rd floor raid during the beta- I had been too busy with the elven war- so it took me a moment to recover upon seeing Nerius quite literally grounded. When the book said he was a tree... Well... I underestimated its sincerity.
The boss room was a relatively small atrium built in rough hewn grey stone covered in soft moss and ivy. Light drifted in from skylight high above us and Nerius, a massive oak tree, grew in the dead center of the room. The trunk that was his body reached nearly to the top of the room, which could be seen between the branches of the canopy. Larger branches extended near a hollow in the tree and vines hung low from the tall branches. His roots covered the entire floor, but the four roots discussed in the guidebook were clearly larger than the rest. The roots made the ground difficult to navigate and, as we watched, two eyes and a mouth appeared in the darkness of the hollow in the tree. The eyes that gleamed at us were intelligent and hungry.
The raid party moved forward to attack and, out of the base of the tree, four roots loosened and tore away before standing up as independent creatures: the Rooted Treants. One of their arms was still connected to Nerius, limited the Root Treants' maneuverability and range of attack.
As a floating group, I had the Hunters divided into pairs to better assist the other parties. Kitio and I made one pair, with Maisie and Asuna as another. Heidan was helping Blake with the potentially wounded and, if it proved that she didn't need his help, he'd moved to help Agil's forces with the minions.
"Maisie, Asuna, go to F! Cover right roots against treants! Kirito, to left roots!"
We moved out to either side of the tree and, whenever a treant got a little to close for comfort, we took the would-be attackers down.
A pattern soon emerged. Whenever any of Nerius's health bars- either his main health bar or one of his roots'- reached the yellow, a large group of rooted treants were spawned to protect him. When one reached the red, he sent out his vines and roots to attack the offending players.
"Switch when he's attacking! He can't track well!" Kirito shouted as I buried my blade into a rooted treant. The blade stayed lodged into the monsters and I scowled, kicking it in the chest and knocking it back and out of my way.
With Blake and Nymer running support and Heidan protecting the downed players, everyone was working seamlessly. The battle was long and tiring but, after nearly an hour, all of the roots were destroyed and Nerius was finally on his last bar of health.
"Groups B and F! Detach! Assist G in taking down those treants! Hunters, converge on Nerius!"
With Nerius on his last legs, the Hunters rolled in. Calculating how tall the shortest branch was, I took a running start and dug my staff into the ground, launching myself into the air with a grin. While Blake would probably comment later that the maneuver was reckless and stupid, I was in the perfect position to attack Nerius's only remaining defenses and, Gwaedu in hand, I did exactly that, slicing through branches and vines like there was no tomorrow.
At this stage of the fight, it was clear that we had won. We could handle the treants with ease and Nerius was too busy defending himself from the Hunters' direct attacks to do anything about the fighters destroying his trunk. When the vines stopped swinging at me, I activated one last sword skill and, spinning around, slammed my axe-like blade into Nerius's trunk. To my surprise, the attack was the final blow and Nerius shattered both in front of me and under me and I was suddenly falling.
"Gah!"
My staff fell to the floor with a resounding clang of metal and I closed my eyes to prepare myself to hit the floor in a painful and undignified way- probably karma for the way I laughed at Kirito after the defeat of Asterius, the second floor boss- but someone's arms rose up to catch me and I landed softly.
"Gotcha," someone murmured in my ear. I opened my eyes and scowled as Kirito smirked at me.
"You're never letting me live this down, are you?" I asked dryly.
"Not a chance in hell," he chirped. I scowled darker and he laughed. The rest of the raid party approached us, laughing and cheering as a bright Congratulations banner rose up above us.
Updated 22:06, 1.27.2022