Inside the 2-Star Dungeon

With his preparations done, Alex joined the others who were gathering together near the crack.

The tall man with a piercing gaze was likely to be Arnulf Kunze. He was among the top dogs of City #11, so in theory, he could carry the team through this dungeon. He was joined by the huge guy Alex met before, and surprisingly enough, Lukas, the pilot. He sported two big half-shields, and it looked like he was going to join them in clearing the dungeon.

What surprised Alex the most was that he didn't see any firearms on three of them, but then, if one thought about it, he was likely given one to conserve mana.

Alongside the first three, there were three more people by the side, speaking amongst themselves. Alex quickly made his way towards them and learned that those three were in similar situations to him. One of them was a spiritualist named Stefan and two others were melee fighters named Dominic and Martin. Stefan sported the same rifle that was issued to Alex, confirming his speculation about mana conservation.

After a short conversation, he learned that Stefan specialized in support with [Soothing Wellspring] skill that continuously restored the health and stamina of the caster and his allies, albeit slowly. The usual trait for skills that scaled with Spirit was low mana consumption and long duration, but very limited offensive powers. Almost all healing, illusion, and buff-type skills are scaled with Spirit instead of Magic. It was also reflected in the nature of the skill, if the effect was quick and explosive, it scaled with Magic, if it was slow and steady, it scaled with Spirit. Thankfully for Alex, he didn't need to bother with the stat dependency.

Alex took a mental note to look around for more Spirit-based skills in the future. The shops he visited previously were mostly focused on offensive magic, so they mostly escaped his attention, but after gaining some experience in handling multiple active skills at the same time, he realized that he could basically turn buffs into passive skills now that he had his Force reach 50.

'Instead of becoming an unstoppable force with an unlimited spam of offensive skills, I am rather turning into an immovable object. If I keep my defensive skills up at all times, I could just win every fight as a battle of attrition... I just need to wear a bunch of items that boost my mana regeneration and it will be effectively infinite.'

The problem was that much like the items and skills with reduced skill cost effect, mana regeneration items, and skills were also extremely rare and always in demand since having just one more cast could define the outcome of a life-and-death battle.

Alex shifted his attention back to his new companions.

Dominic was a knight-type awakened sporting a sword and shield combo while Martin was a striker armed with a spear.

What Alex didn't like was the fact that those three were suspiciously relaxed, given the fact that they were pretty weak for this kind of dungeon, with Dominic being the strongest one, ranking somewhere in the middle of a 1-Star power scale.

As it turned out, Kunze and his two companions were 2-Star ranked, with Kunze himself being pretty much at the peak of 2-Star awakened. Lukas and the big guy whose name turned out to be Adam were somewhere between the middle and high level, which made a little bit of sense when it came to the relaxed vibe since higher-level teams had a trend of having fewer members delving at the same time.

Still, it made Alex a little nervous.

"Alright, it is time to start." A booming voice sounded out.

Alex turned around and saw that Kunze and his subordinates finished their conversation and approached them.

"I will be short. Follow the orders given to you and you will have a good chance of surviving this delve. Since it is the first 2-Star dungeon for the lot of you, Lukas and Adam are going to be responsible for the zoning and you four will focus on eliminating the monsters. Conserve your energy as much as it is possible and try using your skills only during the boss battle. We will distribute the drops after each battle since you guys will need a lot of rest time. Now for the dungeon information."

The man had a domineering and somewhat dismissive tone to his speech, even though he didn't say anything out of the ordinary.

Kunze made a gesture to Holt, who quickly got to an explanation. 

"Based on the information we have gathered, this dungeon is an irregular one. Instead of having dedicated zones following one another, it consists of a single large arena. The monsters mainly come from one direction and arrive in waves, with each wave only coming after a pedestal in the middle of the arena is activated. The scouting team consisted of three peak 1-Star ranked melee awakened so they had to retreat after a few waves, thus, we have no information on the later stages of this dungeon, but a retreat is an option if any of you are concerned."

Holt cleared his throat and continued.

"The monsters themselves are pretty weak but come in increasing numbers. Based on the topography of the dungeon, we have a plan that will allow us to funnel the monsters into an uncomfortable path that could be bottlenecked by a couple of 1-Star melee fighters with support, hence the composition of the team. That's all."

The plan itself was pretty good despite being simple. And up to this moment, aside from a disdainful attitude, the Kunze's guys didn't show any particular aggression, so maybe Alex could just ride it out without much problem.

The team did a last check on their equipment and entered the dungeon.

The transfer-induced nausea was almost as strong as what Alex experienced the first time he entered a dungeon. It looked like with the increase of the rank the stress of spatial travel rose as well.

Still, Alex took it a lot better than the rest of the 1-Stars in the team, with Stefan even leaving his breakfast on the arena's floor. After taking several minutes to recover, Alex finally turned his attention to the surroundings.

The spatial crack was located in the middle some kind of ruin, vaguely reminiscent of Ancient Greek architecture. Half-eroded pillars surrounded the dungeon entrance in a circle, probably supporting a now non-existent roof over it. In one direction, the pillars were missing and an ancient stone road led further.

The team took the stone path and arrived at a large stone plaza, now being gradually overtaken by moss and creeping vines. There were ruined buildings on the far side of the plaza, likely what was going to be used to funnel the monsters in one path. The ruins themselves were surrounded by thick vegetation, so thick that it practically created a wall of wood encircling the arena. The trees were surrounded by a thick fog that for some reason did not cover the arena, as if stopped by an invisible barrier.

In the center of the arena, there was a ruined circular shrine, with some kind of an altar in the middle. The altar was around one and a half meters tall and sported an indentation identical to a human hand in the middle of the slanted marble slate that crowned it.

"Here we are." Kunze's booming voice tore the eerie silence of the place. "Those ruins there are the place where we are going to set up our defenses." He gave a sign to Lukas.

Lukas produced a folder out of his backpack and gave a copy of a plan to Alex and three others. It was a simple sheet of paper with a schematic of the ruin and placement positions.

Alex and Stefan were stationed on elevations, while Dominic and Lukas were responsible for blocking the sides of the main path, likely relying on some shield-bash type of skill to zone the monsters that tried to take the side paths. Kunze, Adam, and Martin were stationed in the middle of the path, likely taking the brunt of the waves. Stefan was placed on the ruined building right behind them, probably to be able to support them with his skills, while Alex's position was on the roof of a ruined two-story building that offered a surprisingly good overview of the path in front of them.

The situation looked simple enough at first glance, but Alex's gut feeling didn't let him relax completely. Unfortunately, the [Precognition] was useless up until the few moments before he actually faced the real fatal danger, so he wasn't sure if he was just being too anxious.

"Take up your positions and pay attention to my orders. I will oversee the situation and respond accordingly. As long as you keep doing what you are told, you will have the highest chance of survival."

Kunze looked over the team and stopped his gaze on Alex.

"Try to keep yourself from using your [Spark] until the boss appears. You were enough rounds, and judging by the monster amount of progression between waves it should be enough to take care of enough of them to decrease the pressure on melee fighters to a manageable level." He glanced at Stefan and continued.

"Focus fire on the back lines of monsters, the closer ones will be taken care of by us."

Kunze wrapped up his speech after addressing some minor details and the team took their positions. Kunze activated the altar and it shone in a red glow that quickly dissipated moments later. He rushed to his position.

Right as he took his place, dozens of menacing growls sounded out of the fog. They were coming.