The second and third groups both had a mage with them, copying Dana in appearance, but they could only use a water bolt spell.
That made them manageable, but they were still doing fairly impressive damage to the barriers.
“Your barrier ability is too strong. They can’t hurt us at all. How are we supposed to be learning anything?” The female Orc asked.
“Do Orcs learn best with pain and not practice?” Karl replied.
They all nodded, as if that should have been obvious, and Karl had Thor take the barrier off them, while leaving it on Dana and Ophelia.
There was no need to make his team suffer just because the Orcs were stubborn.
The next group fight actually went better, as after they had taken a few hits, the Orcs began to adapt their tactics and deal damage more efficiently to the monsters.
It was a fascinating change, even if it did start an argument between Cara and Rae as to whether an entire species could be masochists.
The eventual consensus was that the evidence supported the hypothesis, and the Orcs might actually need the pain in order to function, which might be directly related to the reason that they were constantly looking for a fight. Without it, they weren’t at their best, so casting a numbing spell, or using a numbing poison, on them might be the equivalent to torture in addition to crippling their combat skills.
Then, they were at the first boss, or what passed for it in this dungeon. It looked just like the other slimes, but when they stepped on the platform, a timer started.
[Enrage in 1.00.00]
[Enrage in 59.00]
“One minute to burn the boss down.” Karl explained, in case the Orcs couldn’t read.
He finally took his maul out, and stacked [Disintegrate] on it to deal with the threat.
The boss was mid-Commander Rank, and as durable as the monsters here had proven to be, there was a good chance that the thing might actually survive a regular hit with Bone Crusher or another ability that wasn’t stacked.
Karl’s hit caused the boss to splatter, and an announcement appeared above the platform.
[Member Karl has completed the challenge.]
[9/10 members remaining] fɾeewebnoveℓ.co๓
The Orcs laughed and lined up for their turns to attack the boss. It was the most ridiculous thing that Karl had ever seen inside a dungeon, and he wondered if his attempt to help had broken something within the system.
If the clerics had to deal with an enrage timer, they might have a very hard time defeating this creature. Well, maybe not Tessa, who could actually fight quite well, but Lotus wasn’t known for her offensive output.
She did have a [Thorned Vines] spell, thanks to Karl, but she rarely used it, and he didn’t even know how much damage it did. The spell was primarily used for crowd control, to keep enemies from running around.
The female Orc valiantly hacked at the beast for the full minute, while also needing to be healed four times, but didn’t beat the timer. The creature increased in strength and size by about a quarter, and now she was struggling to fight it alone.
“Maybe we just need someone to get the killing blow on it?” Ophelia suggested as she realized that the boss had hardly taken any damage.
“Good idea. Everyone help her out, and I will reset the timer if needed by killing the boss again.” Karl offered.
That seemed to work, and there was no penalty applied when fifty-eight seconds later, the female Orc got the killing blow.
The boss reformed seconds later, back at original size, and Lotus wrapped it in vines.
That did the first bit of damage, and the rest of the team, save for Karl, went back to work on it, killing it before the timer.
[Member Ophelia has completed the trial.]
That settled it, they just needed everyone to get a last strike.
So, they all rejoined the fight against the boss, then stopped just before it was defeated to take turns finishing it off.
The only one who struggled was the youngest of the Orcs, who was having a terrible time landing a strike once the others had backed off. The boss was faster than he was, and stronger. It even made it past the enrage timer before the unfortunate Orc finally managed to get the last strike in.
“Good work everyone. Now we know how to do it, and we can warn the others about who to send in. You’re going to need a healer, but one that knows how to fight, or they’re not going to have an easy time of that one.” Karl announced.
“Who knew that it would make us work as a whole team? That’s not how a normal fight works.” The Orcs’ complaint made sense, logically. But in a dungeon, almost anything was possible, even if it was interspecies cooperation and doing things that were not the normal role of your class.
The boss’ body disappeared, and a chest formed in its place, waiting for someone to open it.
“You go ahead, human. You are strongest, you get the first choice.” The Orcish woman announced.
Karl flipped the lid open, and an announcement appeared both in the air over the chest, and in his System display.
[Loot has been auto-assigned to eligible members.]
That left five weapons in the chest, and Karl’s whole team stepped back to see what they had gotten.
“That’s all for the five of you. The rest of us have had experience with this sort of anomaly before, and it just gave us what it wanted us to have.” Karl explained.
“It can do that?” One of the Orcs asked.
“Apparently. I’ve never seen it do that before, but this sort of Anomaly isn’t a regular occurrence. Have any of you been in one before?”
They all shook their heads.
“Then maybe next time you come in, it will for you as well.”
If they equipped a piece of gear, that was virtually guaranteed, but Karl couldn’t give away the fact that he knew for certain this place could awaken at least some features of the System for them.
The Orcs were sure to have some legends about it, and this could become a holy site to the tribe once they did realize. That would be amusing, but more amusing if he wasn’t around to see it firsthand.
The Orcs were less eager to prove anything with the fights that came after the first boss, as it was clear that Karl was massively overpowered with that Maul in his hands. It made the Orcs more eager to work as a team and less eager to prove themselves.
That alone was hopefully going to be enough that they could get out of here before dark, and before all hell broke loose outside.
They moved on to the next groups, and Karl realized that this was actually a very small instance. There was only one more platform, and then they would be finished.
“Let’s hope that the next one isn’t as annoying as this one was.” Karl muttered as he led the group through the slime monsters. The groups were still the same, copying his own team, so there was no need to change tactics, just keep pushing and try to get out of here as soon as possible.
Or at least before everyone was exhausted and ready to sleep.