As the Wyvern was sprinting towards Briggs"s position, Orai updated me on the current situation."I did a scan of the hostiles in the area and it looks like 60% of them are B+. I"ll send you the Army Composition Report in a few minutes. Also, the traps in front of Briggs have been activated so make sure you remember the positioning. I think he added a few prototype traps as well so make sure you stay alert. I"ll try to activate the traps in front of the Dungeon so make sure you stay alive! You have 20 hostiles inbound", Orai stated.
After Orai contacted me, I got the Army Composition Report from her:
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(Army Composition Report)
60 B+: [a.s.sessment: Potential source of DP during battle. Killing efficiency will be required.]
37 A: [a.s.sessment: Express caution when confronting units.]
3 : [a.s.sessment: Consists of Behemoths. Report u0026 Strategy Pending.]
1 Draconic Valkyrie: [a.s.sessment: Commander Of The Army. Report u0026 Strategy pending.]
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After reading the report, I decided to look at the remaining mobs that were in the Corridor. The Orcs were my favorite unit so I decided to move the C+ and B rank Orcs near the front of the formation. I also made the controversial move of moving the rest of the B rank units to the front of the formation. If the Dungeon saw the B+ units as potential DP, I could upgrade Vrudius while the battle was ongoing! However, the Core Room would be temporarily defenseless since the Core Room Defenses would be under construction. As I looked at our current Mob Demographics, I pondered over additional troop movements. As I was doing so, the Wyvern finally stopped near Briggs. I remained on its back as Briggs turned to talk to me.
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Slimes x8 [B]
Elementals x7 [B]
Golems x10 [B]
Orc x10 [C+]
Golems x 2 [C+]
Cyclops x2 [C+]
Giant Centipede x1 [C+]
Giant Spider x1 [C+]
Giant Serpent x1 [C+]
Young Cerberus x2 [C+]
Lich x2 [C+]
Vampire x2 [C+]
Skeleton Warrior [C+]
Skeleton Archer [C+]
Skeleton Mage [C+]
Mimic [C]
Cyborg [C]
Wyvern x3 [C]
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"Oi! What do you think you"re doing, lad? I thought you were guarding the Core Room?", Briggs asked.
"Silence, you f.u.c.king Dwarf! Sorry, it"s a force of habit. We are here to save your a.s.s, little man.", Vargoz said.
"Vrudius told me you had a 75% chance of dying without any backup so...here I am. Vargoz actually introduced the idea of saving you, despite his fragmented personality state", I stated.
"Wh? No! He"s Lying! I only wanted to quench my thirst for eternal blood and suffering! D-Don"t twist my words!", Vargoz said embarra.s.sed.
"A King May Watch His Men Die But A Friend Will Fight Alongside Them. Isn"t that what you told me? If I didn"t know any better, it seems like you aren"t as evil as you think, Vargoz ", I teased.
Before I got to continue teasing Vargoz, we heard the Corridor doors begin to crack, as a familiar roar began to fill the entire hallway.
"Well...s.h.i.t. Bigger minotaurs", Briggs said.
"What do you mean bigger minotaurs?", I asked.
My question was quickly answered, as a super jacked Minotaur rammed through the Corridor"s doors with its horns. Unlike the four B+ Minotaurs next to him, the A rank Minotaur was not only tall as h.e.l.l but he was also dual-wielding two large battleaxes. Instead of the runes being on the weapon, the runes were on the Minotaur itself!
"I feel like we might be f.u.c.ked, lad", Briggs stated.
"What do you mean? Aren"t you and Bose ? We"ll be fine, right?", I asked.
If it was a regular A rank Minotaur, yes. But this one is...different. He"s an artifact holder, lad. He doesn"t have to draw power from the axe anymore. The axe draws power from him. In other words, this Minotaur is essentially overpowered", Briggs stated.
That wasn"t the only problem we had. I noticed that behind the minotaurs were 5 goblins, 3 Demonic units, 3 Dark Magic Golems, 2 Angellic units, and 2 giant Tentacle Monsters. Luckily, these other units were B+ but that didn"t make our job any easier.
"s.h.i.t! What do we do now, Briggs? Can we take them on by ourselves?", I asked.
"No. But with the help of these traps, I think we"ll have some type of fighting chance", Briggs said.
As you would expect, the B+ Goblins were the first unit to run towards our formation since they were primarily rushing units. However, upon triggering the hostile sensor, the traps of constrictor began to activate. Popping out of the squares in the wall were multiple prototype turrets that Briggs made. However, it would be better to call them "Turret Golems", as they were Artificially intelligent like Bose. Additional traps that were activated by the rushing goblins were the weight-sensitive pitfall traps, which only activated once a certain amount of weight had been reached. Upon activation, the floor in front of the pitfall would turn to solid ice, which was exceptionally effective against rushing mobs like the goblins.
As the trap was activated, the goblins tried to slow themselves down but to no avail. All but one Goblin managed to fall into the pitfall trap but it was still too fast to be struck by the turrets. Since the turrets were prototypes, they weren"t accurate enough to hit the rather agile goblin. However, the goblin wasn"t fast enough to dodge Obsidian, especially given his new form. As the goblin tried to rush past us, Obsidian flew straight for the goblin"s neck, benefitting from his newly obtained rank of A. As he repeatedly shook the goblin in his mouth, he increased the pressure of his jaw, causing the head of the goblin to fall off and the Dire Wolf to devour the rest. As if by the use of a switch, Obsidian was back to being his brutal self, with a fresh coat of blood around his mouth. He also began glowing a familiar dark purple, indicating his wish to begin his hunt.
"Hey, Vrudius! I hope you can hear me. We got 1000 DP from some goblins we killed so we have enough to upgrade the Core Room to B rank. How long is the Core Room going to be defenseless?", I asked.
"If I had to make an estimate, I would say 5 minutes. Since the Core Room will be in the process of upgrading itself, the Core will be heavily exposed for that period of time. You"ll need to buy time before we can get the defenses working again. But why are we upgrading the Core Room so soon? Isn"t this a bit premature?", Vrudius asked.
"It seems that...uh. It seems we have a long battle ahead of us. Hopefully, we"ll have a better chance of surviving this challenge if we can get you to B rank. Most of the hostiles are B+ so they"ll definitely improve our odds of surviving the challenge. Contact me when it"s complete", I said.
"Good luck, my friends", Vrudius said.
With a defenseless Core Room behind us and an Overpowered Minotaur in front of us, it seems The Road To h.e.l.l Is Paved With Good Intentions.
However, as the hostiles began their a.s.sault on the Dungeon, I realized an important fact.
Whoever wanted to become powerful the easy way?