Chapter 164: Height of Enthusiasm

Daryl, Diniel, and Korinna spent the next morning confirming their preparations in the Clan House. Ollie assisted them, re-checking if they had forgotten anything in the long list of items they needed for layer seventy. At the same time, Hannah and Amira came to talk to them.

"So you're going down there today? Give it your best shot, Daryl!"

"Right. We will."

"Meh, you're gonna curl up like a little puppy again anyway."

"I won't!"

"We'll see about that," Amira said, groaning arrogantly. "How about you win first before talking back, huh?"

Daryl stared back at her, somewhat annoyed.

"Don't worry, I will."

"...Yeah, whatever."

"C'mon, why you gotta always be like that, Amira?" Hannah asked and looked up at Amira. "I wouldn't hurt trying to be nice once in a while."

"Shaddup!"

Amira looked away and promptly walked back to her room. Looking at her go, Hannah shrugged and proceeded to give Daryl some advice, then went back to her room to change into her combat gear.

In the meantime, Korinna asked Tsutomu some questions, and Diniel discussed her supply of arrows with Ollie. Xeno and Melchor were not here in the Clan House right now, and were supposed to meet up with the rest at the Guild.

Once Ollie finished checking the team's equipment and Potions, Korinna carried the Magic Bag that contained them on her back. She looked as if she was being crushed by the weight of all the items' monetary value, prompting Tsutomu to say something to help her not worry about it so much.

And as Daryl looked on at the others, he did not notice Ollie walking towards him until she spoke to him,

"We're all set over here."

Although spooked by her soundless approach, Daryl then noticed that she had brought him his red armor.

"Shall we put this on now?"

"Yes, please."

While Ollie helped him equip the armor, Daryl took the time to see how Diniel and Korinna were doing. As he expected, Diniel was the same as ever, while Korinna seemed understandably nervous. Tsutomu seemed to understand that, too, with him also being a Healer, so he knew what to say to help her calm down. Daryl, seeing Korinna's expression gradually turn better, was assured that she would be fine.

"Surely you're more than ready this time, Mister Daryl?"

"Hmm?"

"I know how hard you have been training yourself ever since you passed layer seventy. I'm sure you'll succeed this time."

"...T-thank you very much," Daryl said somewhat awkwardly and nodded, embarrassed by Ollie's unexpected remark.

Then, once the whole armor set was put on him, he walked with Korinna and Diniel to the entrance of the Clan House.

"All right, we'll be going now."

"I wish you all the best of luck."

"Yeah, go get 'em!"

Seen off by Ollie and Tsutomu, the three headed to the Guild. Then, after meeting up with Xeno and Melchor, they lined up at the reception.

"Oh? That is quite a flashy set of armor you have there, Daryl."

"And I don't think I've seen you wear that before, Sir Xeno."

"Hehehe... My beloved wife has been secretly preparing it just for me!"

In contrast to Daryl's new red armor, Xeno's new silver armor had blue trimmings as its standout feature. They actually were a part of the armor's cooling function, which would protect him from heat ray attacks to some extent.

While the two were discussing their new equipment, the team's turn at the reception came, so they went ahead and updated their Status Cards and signed the party contract. After that, they used a Magic Circle to teleport to layer sixty-nine and started to search for the Black Gate down to layer seventy.

Korinna cast the <<Adventuring Deity's Protection>>, mitigating the Dungeon's terrain effects on them. Diniel searched the area with her arrows, and Melchor did some light stretching to relax himself.

Then the mission team's exploration started, with Diniel leading the way as they avoided encountering monsters during their search for the Black Gate.

"There it is."

After Diniel found the Black Gate, the team also hunted some monsters along the way to it as a warm-up. Xeno seemed more confident and dazzling than ever, perhaps thanks to what had happened yesterday. Daryl also turned out to be surprisingly good at keeping his cool today, leaving Korinna as the only one who was still nervous.

Once the team got to the Black Gate, they waited for Korinna to recover her mental energy, and Daryl took this chance to go over the strategies with everyone one last time. After that was all done, they completed their preparations and headed down to layer seventy.

――▽▽――

The Mount Golem's footsteps echoed loudly through the arena as it waded through the sea of lava like a moving multi-story building. The sight of it stunned Korinna, and Xeno cracked a grin as if to knock away his fear.

"Miss Korinna, there's still some time before the Mount Golem gets to us. You might want to cast some spells now."

"A-all right! <<Adventuring Deity's Protection>>!"

Korinna, startled by Daryl's voice, promptly cast a support spell for everyone. By the time everyone was ready, the Mount Golem was starting to scatter rocks around with waves of its enormous arms.

"Sir Xeno, keep the little Golems' attention on you. And Sir Melchor, please focus on attacking them."

"Very well!"

"Leave it to me."

Xeno brushed his silver hair and dashed to the spot where the rocks were falling, and Melchor tapped on his Gauntlets that he had fitted with Colorless Magic Stones.

"Miss Diniel, focus on getting rid of the Bomb Golems for now. Miss Korinna, keep up the usual pattern of support."

"Gotcha."

"A-all right!" Korinna answered, sounding quite nervous due to having just noticed a single-digit number on the God Eye.

Diniel nodded and immediately started shooting at the rocks that had just touched the ground.

As the Mount Golem slowly rose up from the lava, Daryl blasted it with his indigo blue <<Combat Cry>>. The Mount Golem looked down at him, its eye glowing a pale red.

Despite the Mount Golem's size, it was not much of a threat during the first phase. Perhaps it would be dangerous if one were to engage it in close combat, but even Korinna could distract it well enough if she kept a decent distance. As such, Daryl was sure to have no problem having its aggro all on himself for now.

The difficulty of this phase mostly came from the smaller monsters the boss spawned — a variety of Golems, like foot soldiers guarding siege vehicles.

"<<COMBAT CRY>>!!"

Xeno's silver aura was brighter than it had ever been as it pulled all the Golems' attention to him. He crossed his buckler and short sword and cracked a grin, showing his well-ordered, shining white teeth.

"Bring it on, you little clay dolls! The one and only XENO will be your opponent!"

As he said that, the Golems threw some rocks at Xeno, which he deflected with his buckler. Then they added explosive rocks into the mix, wrapping him up in a series of explosions, but then he emerged from the dust unscathed.

"Heh, such an explosive welcome was unnecessary," Xeno said, still cracking the same smile.

"How noisy," Melchor said as he walked past Xeno.

He proceeded to punch one of the Golems, blasting it with magical energy that destroyed the core of its body, stopping its movement completely.

"And these things are as solid as ever," he grumbled, reminded of the other Golems he had fought on the earlier Volcano layers.

Then he turned his attention to the next target. Daryl's instruction for him had been to prioritize the Throw Golems, the long-ranged attacks of which could interrupt the rest of the team, so he looked around for the ones with large arms and attacked them.

Diniel destroyed the Bomb Golems, shooting them with ice-elemental arrows to prevent them from exploding. She had already done this once before, so she was getting things done even more quickly this time.

At one point, she shot up a signal arrow as a sign to Daryl that she would be using <<Stream Arrow>> to deal some damage to the Mount Golem. Her being able to attack the boss while still dealing with the smaller Golems made her an indispensable aspect of the team.

Daryl, happy to see no issue in Diniel's performance, unleashed a <<Combat Cry>> on some of the medium-sized Golems, making it a focused blast to not pull too much to himself. Five Throw Golems turned to Daryl and started attacking him.

"Whoops."

Daryl's excellent sense of hearing allowed him to detect incoming attacks — even ones coming from behind him — by paying attention to the sounds of the enemies' movements. This made him especially effective at close combat.

Moreover, it allowed him to distract some of the Mount Golem's minions while taking on the boss — something that most would consider reckless. And his high VIT meant the Throw Golems' attacks, which would hit him occasionally, were not much more than minor annoyances. During this phase, the Mount Golem's attacks were slow, so Daryl was sure not to get hit despite his low AGI, too.

Last time, Daryl had experienced firsthand how heavy of a burden it was to deal with the smaller Golems during the first phase. That was why he had come up with the current strategy — a strategy an evasion-based Tank like Hannah would not be able to carry out.

"Now this is quite enjoyable."

Melchor was busy taking on the Golems as their numbers gradually increased, but fortunately, as a master of martial arts, he had an advantage over those monsters due to them being bipedal humanoids. Moreover, his Magic Fist fighting style was undeniably powerful, so he was in fact more effective than Amira when it came to clearing out the minions.

The team was doing quite well — Daryl reduced the load on the others by distracting some of the minions, Diniel and Melchor had more than enough destructive power, and Xeno was tough enough to withstand even explosions.

"Miss Korinna! Ray!"

"<<Ray of Grace>>."

All that, and especially Daryl's leadership, made the first phase even easier than anticipated, which gave the team's Healer, Korinna, enough breathing room to plan out her actions.

"<<Blessing of Protection>>. <<Blessing of Recovery>>."

While things were too busy for her to cast <<Blessing of Swiftness>> for the Attackers, all she had to do to be considered good enough for now was keep up the support and healing for the Tanks. Seeing that she had been able to perform at her usual effectiveness so far, Korinna gradually became less nervous.

Eventually, new minions stopped spawning, and as their numbers decreased, the Mount Golem's movements grew smoother and smoother. Noticing that, Daryl had Xeno use <<Warrior Howl>> to pull everything towards him at once, while he himself focused solely on the Mount Golem.

Xeno, now with all the smaller Golems ganging up on him, was briefly under heavy fire before he got away by blasting them with a flash of silver light. Korinna had anticipated Xeno's death, but decided against casting <<Blessing of Resurrection>>, instead using the <<Blessing of Recovery>> and <<Verses of Prayer>> combo to keep him alive.

"You're a lifesaver, Korinna! Can you do that two more times!?"

"...How does he even shout THAT loudly?" Korinna grumbled, annoyed by how she was able to hear Xeno despite him being so far away.

She proceeded to clasp her hands together and cast <<Blessing of Recovery>> again, then a <<Blessing of the Sacred>> to help recover her mental energy before casting the <<Verses of Prayer>>. A green energy aura surrounded Xeno, healing the bruises he had sustained from being hit by the Golems.

Channelers, unlike White Mages, had no effective means of attacking monsters in the case when Tanks were having too much on their plates. Although they did have access to the attacking skill <<Blessing of Purgation>>, it was so slow to take effect that even <<Verses of Prayer>> would not activate it immediately.

Due to their limited options when it came to intervening in combat, many of them preferred to wield close-ranged weapons, typically morning stars. Korinna, however, had opted to wield a talisman — the very one hanging from her neck — to increase the duration of her skills.

"Are you all right!?" Daryl turned to ask Xeno.

"Don't worry about me! You're already busy enough — just focus on the enemy!" Xeno said while defending himself against the Bomb Golems, prompting Daryl to focus solely on the Mount Golem.

The boss monster had been getting faster since it stopped spawning minions, so Daryl could no longer afford to let his guard down.

Noticing a signal arrow flying overhead, Daryl moved around the Mount Golem to try and keep it standing in the same spot.

"<<Stream Arrow>>."

Then, once he heard Diniel shoot up an ice arrow, he promptly flew away. The <<Stream Arrow>> was a skill that created a rain of arrows in a specified spot, so if the target were to move away, the attack may miss its mark completely.

Due to Daryl keeping the Mount Golem close to its original spot, however, Diniel had an easier time adjusting her aim. As a result, all of the arrows landed on the Mount Golem, while Daryl safely got out of the attack's range.

The increased accuracy of <<Stream Arrow>> naturally resulted in higher damage output, which in turn resulted in the first phase of the fight ending earlier than expected.