Chapter 334: The Other Teams

Kalli sighed. "That’s a good point. I might also have to reach level twenty before I can give out better stuff. I still see all the same things in the System Store, though I’ve reached level sixteen and my power jumped with the Ascended status.

The others considered the options, and then slowly realized that they might just be waiting for the first of them to start hitting new milestones, so that they could find out what was coming next for humanity.

Right now, they could make guesses, but nobody would truly know until it happened.

Sanchez took out a folding chair and settled down in the clearing. "Well, no point in standing around playing guessing games. We’ve finished our runs, but we’ll wait here for the others to come out, so that we can get a better idea of what sorts of teams will be able to clear the dungeon.

If we can find a way for everyone over level sixteen to pass the dungeon bosses, we’ll get much better rewards, and should push the teams in a more balanced way.

Having a few of us with the power is good, but more is better.

Because I’m getting a suspicious feeling that things are about to go horribly wrong, and likely in a way that we never saw coming. Only with enough power will we be able to stop it, and the way the System phrased it, I don’t think that our current defences or equipment are going to be able to handle what is coming."

Esmeralda gave him a curious frown. "Why didn’t you bring up those concerns at the meeting of group leaders?"

"And panic every team that’s not as close to Ascending as we are? No, that would just cause chaos in the city for no good reason. It’s better that we discuss it here, where it’s just us and the Coordinator, away from those who might get disheartened or take the message as criticism of their work.

Not everyone got the same placements, or the same opponents in the past. So, even with the same work and the same experiences, they are still behind in the growth chart.

Not by much, but enough.

Those hitting level sixteen now are still strong, but they’re not going to make it to level twenty in a week or two. It’s going to take them a month or more, most likely.

Depending how this dungeon situation works out.

If we can find another that’s around level fifteen, that would be a perfect stepping stone, so they could do the Ogres and the new one. But as it is, we’ve got too big of a jump."

Kalli shrugged, knowing that there was nothing they could do about it for now.

Most of a cup of coffee later, the teams started coming back out of the dungeon, looking much more ragged than the first two had.

"Well, how did it go?" She asked, ready to make notes.

"Not as well as we hoped, but the bosses died, and three of us levelled up. Now, we were likely close already, but a win is a win. We also got about the same rewards as the first groups. An Epic Item and two Rare items, along with a bunch of common grade random stuff.

We did get some uncommon grade furs, though.

They’ll make great decorations for our apartments, and once we’ve got more of them, they’ll likely be popular for winter clothing as well. They’ve got cold resistance on them.

"Good work, next team, how did it go?"

"We barely survived. Damage output was too low for the final boss, and it ran our healer out of mana. If we didn’t have bandage packs, we would have lost members for sure."

Kalli sighed. "I was afraid that would happen. Alright, I will make notes of your group composition, so that we know what the minimum output levels are going to be. It might be a matter of getting more buffs and rest before the final fight, but it could just be that we need to swap in a different type of damage dealer.

I see that you’ve got plenty of sustained damage, but not a lot of burst, so you were likely more tired than you needed to be before the final fight.

After them came the group with John, the gunslinger who had arrived alone after the last Trial.

"We did alright, took plenty of breaks, got some rest, no real rush. Honestly, we could have used some more damage, but that will come with a few more levels. There’s a debuff if you’re below the monster’s level, I could see that my bullets weren’t doing the damage that they should be.

Then, I reached level seventeen, and the damage jumped. Not by a lot, but enough to be noticeable, and even five or ten percent more damage makes a difference when you’re struggling.

That’s why we took so many breaks," the old cowboy explained.

"I can’t argue with that logic. The cleaner the run, the better you’ll do next time. If your team did well enough, they can likely remain as they are without the shuffle, and then when a few more of you level up, you’ll be in good shape."

John nodded. His team was newly assembled from those who had recently arrived, plus a few longer time residents who weren’t happy with their team, so they were still perfecting their teamwork.

This run had functioned, but they could have done better if they were more experienced in working with each other in that sort of situation.

It was a small thing, but once they had all the small details worked out, and they were used to the rhythm of their teammates, they would improve their clear times and reduce their mana usage dramatically.

"Anyone run into a new issue that we haven’t covered yet?" Kalli asked.

The teams shook their head. The dungeon might not be easy, but it was fairly predictable. You just had to meet the standard, and preferably have some ice magic resistance. Those who had it on a shield made the very best of tanks.