23 Chapter 23: Garden of Eden (Bees)

The duo made their way up to the next floor and repeated the strategy.

Although this time, there were still a few treantlings standing by the time the flames went out. The few treantlings were quickly dealt with using [Sonicbolt] and [Firebolt] a few times.

There were no more ability books that dropped but the pair stayed on the second floor. They decided to rethink their strategy.

"We need to buy more of those incendiary grenades. The ones we have currently may not even last us until the 5th floor not to mention enough to take out the boss.

We should also no longer place them all on the floor. It seems like a waste to me since they all burn for the same amount of time," stated Persephone.

The duo knew that there were more and more treantlings per level in the tree but they thought that 20 per floor would be more than enough. Both had underestimated the difficulty of the dungeon once again but not too much.

They were both proud due to their abilities and ranks but neither were arrogant. They were smart and had been exposed to enough of the world to know that their strength was very weak in it at the moment.

Mordred decided to purchase another 200 incendiary grenades to ensure that they had burned enough of the treantlings without having to get involved in direct combat.

After dividing up the grenades and passing a few to Persephone, the pair made their way to the next floor. Now, instead of setting them up beforehand, the trio only placed a few on the ground to use as traps while they threw the rest into the charging crowds of the treantlings.

Using this strategy, the pair had been able to safely make their way up to the 8th floor. But it was here that they faced a dilemma. After clearing the 8th floor, there were two paths they could take.

The first was to continue going up the tree and clearing the 9th and 10th floors before clearing the dungeon. The second option was to head to an alternate path on the 8th floor that led to the beehive.

The beehive contained not only several types of bees who had chances of dropping various skills the treantlings didn't, but there was also a bonus boss, [The Bee Queen], who was able to be slain.

The only downside of taking out the beehive was the fact that they were not as weak to fire like the treantlings were. They could still be set on fire as most creatures could with enough effort but Mordred was unsure of the power of thermite in the incendiary grenades.

He had not gained much information about them when he purchased any of his skills, only that they were good for when things needed to be burnt fast and rapidly.

In order to clear to the out the beehive, the duo would need to put in much more effort before they had to take on the Bee Queen and then double back to take on the Dryad.

The duo shared a look before making their way down the path toward the hive. Their goal that day was not to just explore dungeons and level up but to gain actual combat experience.

Neither was afraid of death or getting hurt so they would make full use of their chance in the dungeon to take on as many opponents as they could.

Nyx led the way while Mordred and Persephone followed about ten meters behind. Persephone had her hands ready to cast a spell at any moment while Mordred had his P90 at the ready to shoot on sight.

"We need to be careful of these bees. Inside the forest, the trees blocked the number of directions they could come from.

But in here, they could literally come at any angle. And the fact that the sound of their wings echoes off the walls means that preparations are almost impossible."

Mordred nodded at Persephone's statement in agreement. He also knew just how dangerous the bees were.

He had studied the various creatures that would be in the low-rank dungeons and could recall their strengths and weaknesses immediately.

[

Species: Giant Killer Bees

Rank: B

Element: Arcane

Level: 25-30

Skills: Toxic Sting, Stinger Shot, Hive Mind

Description: These creatures are usually harmless by themselves to any half-decent warrior. Their defenses are low for their rank and their main advantage is their speed.

In large groups, they are much more dangerous due to their toxic stingers and the ability to shoot them from a distance with perfect coordination.

Comparable to A rank species in their hives due to their increase in the level of the hive mind and their natural advantage of being unable to be tracked using normal methods.

Final Statement: Suggest taking on small groups of them in teams of 3 with a healer in the group. If attacking a hive, should bring a group of at least 6 warriors who are 5-10 levels above the bees.

]

Mordred paused before passing his P90 to Persephone and pulling out his AK to use for himself.

"These things are fast and we may not have time for spells. Let's retreat to a lower floor and give you some shooting practice so we do not end up dying due to our overconfidence."

Persephone took a moment to think about it before agreeing to the idea.

"Sounds good to me. We use this as a chance to increase our levels and then come again tomorrow or another day this week to actually level up our skills."

Being on the same page, the Witch and Oni made their way down to the sixth floor in order to get some shooting practice. Mordred purchased several targets before sticking them to the walls of the level.

He then gave Persephone hands-on and detailed instructions on how to shoot, the right way to hold her gun, and how to reload efficiently.

The pair spent 3 hours doing that before they finally felt comfortable enough in her skills to ensure that she did not shoot Mordred, Nyx, or herself on accident.