Blacksmith of the Apocalypse

<Ding! You have leveled up! You are now lv.92!>

The gasping party looked at the massive creature they had just felled. Faenys tried her best to regain her breath, looking at the lv.95 Colossus they had just barely managed to kill. If Yulecat's Fur or Seth were present, they may have suspected that this was the place the Maestro had gotten the materials for his colossus creation.

After ascending the staircase to the next floor, they had once again entered an expansive hallway, but this one was lined with doors. The rooms inside were in a much better state than the desolate ones below. With the intact giant furniture and forest-like carpets, also came the original inhabitants of this dungeons.

Each room was home to one of these giant humanoids, that made even giants look like toddlers. They had battled the creature for a long time, but it was finally revealed, that even these giants had weaknesses.

In the same way, a human could die from the bite of a tiny spider, they could also stack on the damage and slowly but surely take the giant's life. It was just like it had nothing going for it, except its size and physical prowess.

Lydia and Archer had managed to blind the beast with their arrows. Afterward, it was up to the vanguard to fell it like a tree by focusing their attacks on the ankles. Azul and Jess used their magic in the meantime to distract and stun the blinded colossus. Their fight revolved more around strategy and didn't involve any big or flashy attacks.

MVP of the fight was ultimately Duhu, with his Ave of Polytechnus and the increased damage of cleaving attacks, he contributed the most in severing the creature's Achilles sinews and making it fall. With the meat mountain finally on the ground, they were able to calmly attack its head, being careful of the wildly flailing arms.

They had taken almost two hours to fell the one in the first room, in exchange, they gained almost 10% of the experience to reach lv.92, which brought most of the over the threshold. The other reward for their kill was some colossal teeth and a colossal femur.

They were sure Seth would have wanted one of the bodies, but since they were in a traditional dungeon, the bodies could only be looted, not taken with them. It was different from the hive, which was not a complete dungeon.

Faenys had wanted to try and use the powers of Phobos on the creature, but they had decided to save divine powers for later. She accepted that. This was only the second floor, so they had to keep some aces up their sleeves in preparation for what may come next.

Instead, she had relied on the power of Yatagan Mim. Taking the metaphorical role of the spider, Faenys kept stinging the giant with the short sword that could change size and appearance. Stacking the sword's powers of poison and decay the Threatwalker kept weakening the beast until it finally surrendered to their attacks.

Although taking them down took a long time and was tiresome, it was very efficient if they took the amount of experience into account. They took their time to recover, before going to the next room.

...

A spear burning with green flames and emitting black smoke stabbed through the incorporeal chest. As the flames licked along the body of air, the smoke filled it, like a drop of ink falling into water. The creature became more visible and much slower, it was clear that it was severely poisoned.

Tekar's Pipe and the Sword of Chains were similarly dipped in a chemical solution burning with green flames and emitting toxic smoke. The whole party had a jump in ability, as strengthened magic and attacks "defended" against the newly arrived enemy.

The creatures that had managed to flee had come back with reinforcements, but these reinforcements faced unprecedented resistance. They met the party after Alison had enough time to thoroughly distribute her drugs among her party members, tremendously increasing the party's firepower.

Especially the alchemical oils she gave the vanguard to cover their weapons in worked wonders, once Ray enchanted them with his <Tribal Fire>. Now the idyllic meadow was covered in heavy swathed of black smoke.

The emissions of the burning oil had severe effects unless one had already taken an antidote. While beings with a physical body would feel confused, drowsy, and dizzy after short contact with the smoke and wouldn't die, it was especially effective on the creatures with bodies made of air.

Even when they used storm and wind magic to attack the party and get rid of the smoke, the toxic cloud barely budged. With Alison's doping, made with the assistance of her legendary ring, the party suddenly had an advantage in attacks and battlefield over the airy opponents, where they had been almost helpless before.

The resilient elementals were still no easy opponent, but they finally had enough crowd control to stop them from simply running away or hiding their presence. When they ultimately finished off the group of almost 100 elite monsters that had surrounded them, they all had reached lv.92, too.

"Don't celebrate too early. Yes, we can fight them effectively now, but there was not even a miniboss among these guys. This is still just the start of this place."

They were all in high spirits, but Monique spoke up to caution them and dampen their spirits. They couldn't afford to loosen up. A dungeon was not the place to become negligent, they had to stay on edge.

Her warning soon came true. This time they were not only surrounded by an even bigger crowd materializing from thin air, this time there were two minibosses and the floor boss among them. This time they were in a real pickle.

"Ray, I think it's time to try your Idea.." Monique mumbled.

"Sure, give me a few minutes to set everything up," the shaman said and brought out a few vials he had gotten from Alison.

As a shaman, the caster's skill set was very varied. In combat, he usually took the role of support, as he had buffs to strengthen and heal his allies, while he could weaken the enemy with curses. But this wasn't all, he also had quite a few non-combat skills and he believed one of them could get in handy.

"Alright, we will buy you that time. Everyone, In <Formation>!" Monique shouted her instruction and used one of her skills as a chosen. The <Aura of Combat> was based on being the strategic leader of the group and allowed her to raise the power of all troops under her by 250% for the time they stayed in a specific formation on the battlefield. It was still the same setup, with Tekar taking the brunt of the damage and aggro, while Shay, Alison, Monique, and Jonah did their best to buy Ray the time he needed.

The difference was that they were all covered in the silver halo of Athena's divine power. With the boost of her divine skill and the doping, the only problematic opponents were the boss and the two minibosses.

"I will take the boss," Monique announced.

"Leave the miniboss to the left to me." Azul asserted, raising her Palpatating Spear. She was a lighting mage, but as the former leader of the Chimeras, she was also very confident in her melee combat.

"Then I will take the right one." Jonah acknowledged.

"I will protect Ray!" Shay called out motivated. He was a mage of water and ice, but the weapon he wielded was the Tauren Trident of the Deep. Since his magic had little effect on the airheads, he had also rubbed the toxic oil on the trident, to fight the elementals. Alison and Ray were the only pure casters of the group, albeit Alison's Storm Caller still packed quite a punch when used as a club.

"Tekar, take good care of those three," Monique said, deflating Shay's enthusiasm, before throwing herself into battle with the boss.

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