Chapter 39: The Second Raid

"The dungeon is just in front, everyone, remember to watch each other's backs and always keep an eye out for ambushes from above," Irie stated in a commanding position at the front of the 12-man dungeon raid party. "As long as we don't let them catch us by surprise and we stick together, we should be okay."

The dungeon raid party were a bit nervous at first as the last team had practically been entirely wiped out save Kalvin and Irie. Her words at this moment did help bolster their courage though, but they would have entered regardless. There was a saying for this after all.

Gold changes hands so carelessly, yet men would die to acquire it.

Thankfully society was more developed than a true medieval setting and the global corporation known as the adventurer's guild also provided the option of life insurance should adventurers have family, in which they would be paid out the insured sum to the wife, husband, or next immediate family member, should said adventurer die.

Irie first used earth magic to split and shatter the spear traps behind the entrance walls that had been repaired since the last raid.

"Last time, you were just unlucky," Kalvin whispered to her in encouragement on seeing the tension in her movements. "You can do much better, you levelled up to <Lv. 6> last time and are still very strong for your level."

"I know."

Irie inwardly sighed as Kalvin was mistaken on the reason for her tension. She was currently in cahoots with the dungeon, so held no fears of her safety. She was slightly nervous about entering, but the greater tension would be if she could earn merits from this trip and not be seen through.

The raid party entered while weaving around the stone stalagmites piercing out from the ground and walls. The new party members marvelled at the intricate designs, which were something only an eccentric nobleman would do to a dungeon, most merely focused on expansion and efficiency while disregarding all cosmetics.

"Can you sense anything?" Kalvin asked the racoon beastman in the party, who had the keenest senses out of everyone present.

"No monsters," His nose twitched as he identified all the scents in the room. "All I smell is water, a lot of it too. I also smell elves of some kind, but they smell strange. And finally… I don't know what it is, but it's chaotic and is causing my fur to stand on end."

In this world, there were beastman and beastkin, which were distinctly different from one another. Beastman were generally covered in fur and had the bodies of animals while being bipedal with human equivalent hands.

They had greatly enhanced senses compared to humans and naturally stronger bodies too. They also usually carried a bloodline of some kind which served as a growth supplement as well as direction for their development and class advancements.

Beastkin were the mixed species of humans and beastman and highly numerous as a beastkin mating with a human nearly always gave birth to another beastkin.

They were human in just about all appearances, but also carried the traits of their beast ancestry which took the form of animal ears, tails, or less noticeable aspects like sharper canines or exotic pupils. They shared the same benefits the beastkin had, but to a far lesser degree.

At this beastman's response, Kalvin nodded his head in understanding.

"I see. Well, the dungeon lord will know we are here from the moment we entered, so pay close attention to anything approaching. We have run into the monsters in here before and there isn't anything we can't handle if we aren't careful."

Irie wasn't to be left out and added, "We also need to keep a clear line of retreat, so let us know if you detect our escape route being intercepted."

Kalvin considered what happened last time and nodded his head in approval as it was a careless mistake that shouldn't have happened.

The party headed beyond the entrance area and descended a wide set of stairs onto the bridge that ran through the labyrinth area. There was the faint sound of some grating in the distance, but it was impossible to accurately identify the source with the sound echoing through all the huge passages.

"Everyone be prepared for combat," Irie stated and held her staff aloft, ready to begin channelling her spells at a moment's notice.

Unlike last time, no enemies immediately ambushed them, leaving their tension at a constant high point.

Styx did this deliberately, deciding to wait until their attention waned before attacking, but prepared to attack them at any moment given they went in a direction he didn't want them to.

Several of the adventurers walked over to the side of the bridge and peered over the stone railing.

"Hooh, that's pretty deep. I assume anyone who goes off the edge isn't coming back up without help."

Whilst she was on the dungeon's side, Irie was also secretly uncomfortable on the bridge as being suspended cut her off from the earth and restricted a good deal of her spells.

The healer among the raid members began creating a map as they went deeper inside the dungeon, which helped them avoid getting lost or double checking areas.

"Monsters incoming!" The beastman informed the party while tightening his grip around a two handed sword.

The attacking party consisted of three stone-tail foxes, one living golem, six forest goblins, two forest assassins along with Elena and Therina.

"You're kidding, right?" Kalvin asked in a moment of disbelief.

All the monsters, including the forest goblins, had been fitted out with various degrees of heavy armor.

The stone-tailed foxes stood a meter tall and two long, with dark grey fur and long tails which appeared to be covered thin stone needles rather than fur. They flicked their tails overhead and flung a deadly rain of stone needles on the party while narrowly missing Irie.

The bared their sharp fangs and continued to charge, aiming to rip and tear with those fangs while wrapping their tails around the pray and crushing them while also turning them into a pin cushion at the same time.

The living golem was 3 meters tall and looked to be made out of rock, but that rock flexed and moved like skin. It looked like a structure, but was very much alive.

Its body was incredibly strong and had no fatal spots, so it formed the frontline defender to attract all their attacks while trying to crush the humans with its overwhelming strength. Not to mention that being covered in steel armor half an inch thick made it very difficult to kill.

The forest goblins were fully armed and armored, and even Kalvin's arrows wouldn't pierce the armor in one shot unless he used a skill. They served as the vanguard, charging behind the stronger and much larger monsters, preparing a surprise attack when the front line monsters were intercepted.

The forest assassins hid in the shadows and were the lightest armored out of all of the monsters. This was because they needed to maximize their agility.

Each assassin held curved steel hunting daggers in their hands, striking the moment an adventurer was busy with another monster.

Therina joined the goblins, hiding behind the heavily armored living golem with her sword and a dagger drawn. Meanwhile, Elena scouted around with a myriad of throwing knives, aiming for any openings.

One adventurer at the front without enough armor was turned into a pin cushion by the stone-tailed foxes' needle rain. He didn't even get a chance to struggle before dropping to the ground with blood quickly soaking his clothing and forming a small pool under his body. It was even more grewsome as several needles had even pierced through his eyes, turning them into a liquid seeping mess.

[

Horadine (Apprentice Blade Wielder <Lv. 13>) slain by Stone-Tailed Fox!

+ 57 exp

]

Half of the remaining adventurers had suffered damage to varying degrees, the worst being a bow wielder having one of his arms turn limp and being forced to draw a dagger. The rest managed to shrug off the damage with their superhuman bodies.

"We need to retreat and heal, now!" Irie cast a stone spear spell and launched it at a stone-tailed fox, which managed to intercept and knock it out of the air with a vicious flick of its long tail.

"No, we will kill all these monsters now and set up a defensive perimeter to heal. We can't show them our back," Kalvin, with his experience as an adventurer, immediately refuted and gave a different order.

"We cannot win, retreat, immediately!"

The party ended up listening to Kalvin, but their losses were severe.

Kalvin was the strongest at the Second Step, his arrows deadly and skills even more so. He shot many arrows off with rapid shot, penetrating shot, even higher level explosive burst arrows, but the living golem was relentless.

It blocked the powerful archers ability to target the other monsters with its body, and while the arrows did a lot of damage, it still lived and Styx forced it to keep being a meat shield. Its limbs would have been blown off immediately should it not be for the extra thick armor it had along with Elena striking from the side and a noble sacrifice by a forest assassin.

The healer of the raid party had his mana drain at a fast rate as he cast healing spells and defensive shields over the front line warriors as quickly as he could, but the stone-tail foxes overpowered them nonetheless.

The first to die was a shieldbearer who struck back one of the forest goblins trying to do a surprise attack when the fox's tail wrapped around him and constricted in a death grip.

"Arrghhhhh!!!!" The man screamed in pain with whatever air was left in his lungs as bones were crushed and right before the thousands of stone needles broke through the resistance of his body and pierced through every inch of his skin.

[

Lorem (Novice Shieldbearer <Lv. 11>) slain by Stone-Tailed Fox!

+ 41 exp

]

The tail gave another bone crunching constriction as the now dead body was twisted and torn beyond any recognition, all the blood in the adventurer's body being squeezed out by the now dark crimson tail and pouring onto the floor like rain.

The next adventurer was the female Paladin Initiate who had demanded a high price during recruitment, but had party buff skills that made the investment worth it.

She hardly got to show her value before a flying dagger from Elena hit the slit in her armor behind the knee and caused her to stumble. A stone-tailed fox then knocked her over and pinned her to the ground. It immediately used its sharp fang to bite through armor and into her neck before ripping her entire head off in one swift motion and immediately cutting her scream off.

[

Ultina (Paladin Initiate <Lv. 14>) slain by Stone-Tailed Fox!

+ 65 exp

]

Therina and Elena then killed one adventurer each. Elena pierced a distracted sword wielder with an arrow through his neck, while Therina appeared before the earlier injured bow wielder like a ghost and thrust her sword through his eye and out the back of his skull with a single, deadly movement.

[

Ovarine (Apprentice Swordsman <Lv. 11>) slain by Dark Elf!

+ 40 exp

Alan (Novice Ranger <Lv. 8>) slain by Elf!

+ 29 exp

]

The beastman was barely surviving off instinct and the sheer tenacity of his body alone, but his fur was already matted with blood and it was only a matter of time.

"Retreat, now!!" Irie shouted in desperation, this time nobody in the party going against her order.

Kalvin was bleeding from a cut on his neck which had nearly been deadly, and whilst it was against his better judgement, he didn't refute the order this time. He used his bow to cover the front line while everyone began retreating as fast as was allowed.

They shortly broke away from the monsters and ran back toward the entrance at full speed. Irie was at the back of the party now due to her weaker body and inadvertently lower running speed as a mage, and a low level one at that.

Kalvin stuck back with her to protect her as best he could, but if it came down to his own life or death, he was prepared to choose his life over saving the young mage mistress whom he fancied.

At this moment, a loud buzzing filled the tunnel as a giant swarm of bees appeared from a side passage and chased after the adventurers.

"Devil bee swarm!!" Kalvin called out in shock and fear.

Everybody in the party felt their hearts leap out of their chest in pure fear. Even Irie had a moment of panic, and had it not been for Styx constantly consoling her in her mind, she felt even she would have had a mental breakdown at this point.

Blood crystal bees were one of the bee types known as devil bees, and were greatly feared by all adventurers and monsters alike. They were a swarm type monster, which were a hundred times more deadly than any other monster.

Any adventurer would prefer to face a pack of Second Step bloodwind wolves, rather than a swarm of bees.

Following what the dungeon was telling her to do. Irie tapped her staff on the ground while running, secretly casting a spell. Nobody noticed this small movement and they couldn't see mana directly either, although the beastman's ears and nose did twitch slightly in response, indicating that he sensed something at least.

The spell activated and caused a small pothole to form just below where Kalvin's foot was to land.

The Hunter couldn't do a thing as he stepped in the hole and tripped forward. Irie kept running briefly before turning and crying out in apparent shock and pain.

"KALVIN!!" She cried, but turned and continued running as if recognizing there was nothing she could do to save him.

This was true, but even if she could have, she wouldn't have done so as this was the dungeon's sinister plan to take down the Second Step ranker.

Kalvin just lied their in shock and disbelief, staring in confusion toward the woman who looked at him with a cold gaze.

'What, did I ever do to you? I always treated you as well as I could,' He barely had time to think to himself and thousands of finger sized bees swarmed onto him, their stingers piercing straight through steel, leather and flesh without discrimination.

His body was instantly turned into a bloody pincushion as it was attacked by an obscene amount of poison while also having his blood sucked dry.

His death came so quickly he never felt fear, just confused, as his soul felt like it was sucked out of his body along with his blood.

[

Kalvin (Hunter <Lv. 25>) slain by Blood Crystal Bee!

+ 455 exp

]