Chapter 2010: Why Not Go?

"Branch Leader Karl, why don’t you lead a team in? You’ve been collecting data all this time, surely your Guild can spare you for an hour when you’ve got so many people already here to work security?"

Karl chuckled as Oak snacked on some sort of lemon pound cake.

Some security they were.

"You know what? That sounds like fun. Why don’t I go with a mixed group, instead of just taking my own people through? We live here, we can go any time that we want."

The crowd went silent for half a second. That actually made entirely too much sense. There was no need for the Darklight Host members to go together, they could do that whenever they had spare time. It wouldn’t always be as busy as it was today, and missing a single day wouldn’t be a huge loss for them.

"Wait, before you go. I have to know the real answer. Why did you agree to a full day of free trips into the dungeon in exchange for run data?" A young white dragon Priestess asked.

"To decide how we’re going to price it tomorrow, of course.

We’ve got to set a price that’s going to be worth coming to try your luck, but not so low that we’re just giving away top grade loot. Unlike most dungeons, we will have to price by Rank, and then the team can decide how much to risk going for a harder run."

The Priestess made a note of her own, and used a spell to send it to someone.

That was no issue to Karl. It wasn’t like the price was going to be a secret, and he already knew that everyone was going to try to game the system by sending in the absolute strongest team at that rank possible.

Unless they were bringing a major Clan outing here, as he suspected that the Almeixei Sect would want to, most would be only the peak of their Rank, with strong combat skills, to try to maximize the difficulty level.

What they didn’t know was that the System didn’t set the difficulty levels based on the Rank of the entrants, but on how challenging it thought the run would actually be for them, based on individual capacity.

"Well, you’re Ascended, but not Peak Immortal, so should we send Elders, or Clan Leaders with you? I don’t know how the balance works?

Others at your progression, or others near your combat ability?"

That made Father Oak laugh. "If you’re sending others near his combat ability, you’ll need to send some of the Supreme Ranked Clan Leaders with him. Inside a dungeon, a Pet Sitter is an absolute monster on a level that no duel result could capture.

And he’s already a monster in a duel."

One of the Clan Leaders scoffed, but the old green dragon shrugged. "He’s got five times the health that you do, and more damage reduction, plus percentage-based regeneration."

The Clan Leader turned a suspicious glare at Karl, who realized that the man’s System didn’t show him the name plates.

"You likely can’t see that I’ve got a Peerless Grade constitution. The ones who don’t look shocked can already see it." Karl explained.

"Seriously? How do you even? Never mind. Alright, just send him with any team and see what happens."

Father Oak laughed at the man’s annoyance, "That’s the spirit. Now, who should we send? Who hasn’t gone yet? Oh, over there. We’ve got a bunch of small Clans with Peak Immortal leadership who have not assembled a team yet right? Why don’t you go with Karl, and he can fill whatever role it is that you’re all short on."

"He’ll fill whatever role? How does that work?"

"Well, I can tank because I have huge damage reduction, a dragon form, and defensive skills. Or I can heal because I have a full range of healing spells, both nature and holy. Or I can deal damage, the Pet Sitter class is a summoning type class, and I used to be a Beast Master."

He could tell that most of them didn’t understand what he could actually do, but they didn’t have the members they needed, so they were willing to take a chance.

"Well, we’ve run into a small issue. You see, almost all our groups are Sword Sects. So we’ve got plenty of damage dealers, some mediocre tanks, and no healers willing to go with us," one of the Clan Leaders informed him.

Karl laughed. "I can work with that. Bring nine of you, and I will sort it all out. Trust me, it’ll be great."

In the Tiny World, Thor perked up. [Do you need me to come help?]

[No, I’ll be fine alone, I think. I’ll just summon a couple of demons to tank and then do the healing and call some extra damage dealers.]

Thor considered the options. [Okay, I will go with some of the others, and the sisters, later.]

[Make Tian go with you too. He’s getting lazy, just napping in someone’s arms all day.]

[Hey!]

Thor chuckled at the fox’s complaint. He had indeed been napping in Leon’s arms as they finished the temple tour.

"Alright, I think that we’ve got the group. One Dragonkin Berserker, eight Blademasters, and a Karl."

The other Clan Leaders laughed at the thought. That was an absolutely horrible group composition, by any standard. But with the way that the Clans were organized, it was really the most likely combination, and more than one group had gone like that already, with nothing but warriors and a healer.

It didn’t always go as planned, but for difficulty one and two type dungeons, it didn’t go as poorly as most would have expected.

They were all experienced in compensating for the areas where they lacked, so all the combat specialists learned to defend themselves, essentially become secondary tanks, while the healer just did their best to keep everyone alive.

As long as nobody failed their task and let danger get to the healer, they were fine.

You couldn’t call it effective teamwork in any way shape or form, but it was survivable. However, when they got into the dungeon with Karl, they were going to learn a valuable lesson in versatility.