There was a popping noise over the buzzing sound of the spell, and then a thud as the first fell, then the second, then the rest of the pack, as they came around the corner and hit the spell’s range, collapsed in rapid succession.
I let the spell drop as I realised that mobs had been utterly annihilated by its power. The blue light faded, replaced briefly by the red glow from the dog's eyes, which faded slowly out.
“I…” Clark began, his mouth open in disbelief, a look matched by the three other players who hadn’t seen me cast spells. “I hadn’t realised you were a mage…” he said as he shook his head.
“I thought spell casting was slow and weak…” muttered one of the three, but too quietly for me to work out which.
“We have a couple of graduates from the school, but they are exclusively a part of the two teams who delve the deepest. I don’t think Diane knew you were a mage, or she wouldn’t have asked me to assess your basic combat ability. I’m going to have to ask you to hold back, so I can see what the others are capable of.” he seemed to pause for a moment before responding more soberly, “If that is ok with you?”
I nodded at him. I really hadn’t expected them to fall over so quickly. Clark led us over to the eight bodies of the cyber-mastiffs.
“Part of the assessment is confirming you know how to strip and what to strip from the monsters which exist in the delve. Robots like these are quite common. In the deeper levels, you might find them fighting against the more flesh-like creatures, but they are also just as likely to turn on your party. We don’t know why, but the monsters fight each other more than they fight us. These ones are quite basic. The eyes will get a good price, as will the cables.” He said as he demonstrated how to remove the eyes without damaging them, and then proceeded to pull the cables from their sockets. “If you have the capacity, the bodies themselves can be sold for their weight as scrap, though I know a lot of the deeper delvers usually ignore that for more valuable resources. Some teams have become dedicated hauliers who are paid by the stronger teams to gather up the scrap and return it topside. Now is probably as good a time as any to discuss loot distribution.” He said as he removed the claws and sharp metal teeth from the one he was stripping. “The smiths particularly like the metal from these. Some teams go for the ‘you keep what you kill’ system. If you are involved in the fight, you get a cut. This encourages full participation and people not leeching off their party mates. Some go for a you keep what you gather approach. Others go for a split at the surface. As we hadn’t discussed it, the default is ‘you keep what you kill.’”
“Sounds like a recipe for selfishness to me,” I said.
“Most of the deep teams prefer a split at the end approach,” he admitted. “The teams which have established themselves and been together long enough for trust to have formed. A lot of people, though, have been burnt by others that they prefer to get theirs. Teams rotate quite often…”
“I think I would prefer split on greed,” Peachy said. Jacobs and I nodded in agreement.
“I’ve not heard of that?” Clark asked.
“Roll on need, otherwise we pool and sell?” Ant asked. Peachy gave him a wide nodding grin.
“Again, I know those words, but…” Clark trailed off.
“If someone in the party can use it, like a new shield for Peachy there,” I say, my tone switching into teacher without my intending it. “They get it. If it makes the party stronger, i.e. they need it. They get it. If it is an upgrade for more than one person, they roll for it. Makes it random chance. We prefer it over rock, paper, scissors, which seems fairer. Otherwise, it’s a greed thing, taking it for the money. Since we are going to be selling it anyway, might as well pool all of those, sell them and then evenly split the profit. So instead of rolling for greed, we agree to split. If we were a more permanent group, a share might be put aside for future runs, to help cover the costs of healing if one person tends to be the one taking most of the damage, for example…”
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The man nodded in thought for a moment. “That seems like a fair way to do it… If you are a permanent party… Well, if you are all happy to go with that,” he looked around at us, and we all nodded in agreement. “Good, then I suggest splitting up and taking a corpse each, and I can sign off that none of you will be making a mess of stripping.” He leveraged up a chest plate to reveal a shattered grey crystal. “That said, this is the monster's heart. It’s normally glowing. Sometimes they break if you hit them the wrong way, or apparently overpower them with magic. They usually break when you try to remove them, but if you can get an intact one back up top, it's usually worth the hassle of being careful.”
“Should I refrain from the strong spells?” I asked.
“Your life’s worth more than a crystal,” he said. “Wipe the pack if you need to. But if the heart’s intact and the field’s secure, take your time. They’re worth it.” I considered if I could tone down any of my spells… holding back power wasn’t something I had been practising for.
We each took a monster to strip, and Clark oversaw the eight of us as we worked. A lot of the parts used snap connectors and seemed to have been designed so that it was easy to remove and replace parts. The modular nature and design of the chassis definitely gave me the impression this was a mass-produced model designed with maintenance in mind, not some randomly generated monstrosity.
I could hear Beatnik quietly asking Darksider about my spell casting as they worked, and saw the whispered conversation and occasional glances from the other two, showing they, too, were impressed.
With all the cyber-mastiffs stripped and the loot in one pile, Clark then went through it and explained the rough values of the different parts. It was worth about nine gold in total, so split between us, and after the town took its share, we were looking at half a gold each. Assuming we loaded up on the scrap metal as well. So four silver without them.
“There is another pack roaming about ten minutes away, but with a mage with us, I think our time would be better spent heading down to the fourth floor. A couple of the teams took today as a rest day, so it’s only been half explored today. The monsters on that floor are stronger than on this one, but are worth considerably more. So there is a much bigger risk, but if you are all willing to do it…”
“How much tougher?” G asked.
“About fifty per cent stronger, and smarter as well,” responded Clark.
“Oh? Is that all? Yeah, I’m up for that.” Nodded G.
“Please don’t underestimate that.”
“We’re not,” Peachy said. “We’ve just fought against stuff that challenges Aenara.”
Ten minutes later, we were on another flight of stairs and heading down.
I stood next to a gobsmacked Clark as Peachy hammered the edge of her shield into the gap between scales on the mecha-snake's neck, disconnecting its head with its controlling CPU from the power storage. It was the third one we had faced since coming down to the fourth floor, and the quickest one dispatched yet. This floor had a lot of chalk marks on the walls, which Clark explained was normal to see from the fourth floor onwards. The additional danger meant they tended to move more slowly and leave more markings to indicate searched areas. He’d taken us off the marked routes and started chalking up lines as we moved around. Explaining the system that was used, all marks went on the left wall or the left door jamb. So if you wanted to get off the floor, keep them on the right, and it would lead you out. The first Mecha-snake G had cut it in half while I stood back. The second Darksider had done in by frying its power conduits after Peachy had it taunted.
“Why are you all taking such risks?” Clark finally asked, while Peachy and Beatnik worked to strip the machine she had just killed.
“Risks?” I asked, but nothing we had done had felt really that risky.
“Injuries taken here will mount up. You and your team are good, but you are risking injuries, which will mean you have to pull back to get healed, and while we have had a good haul so far, they won’t heal you up if you don’t make quota often enough.”
“Oh.” It clicked. “Risk is low, it’s why we lug him along.” I pointed at Jacobs, who was being his normal lazy self.
“Hey!” the target of my pointing said in response. “I’m also here for my wit, good looks and intelligence.”
“Wit is debatable…” put in Darksider.
“What good looks?” G asked from the other side of Clark, he’d also stepped back after demonstrating his fighting skill.
“Hey!” Peachy said as she picked up the snake’s head, “I like my himbos' looks!”
Ant, Chango and Beatnik took the lead in the next chamber, Peachy and Jacobs stood alert to assist, but the rest of us observed from the door. It was what Clark had described as a treasure room, bolts of cloth in storage chambers, only it was guarded by some kind of giant spider. Chango had stopped his friends when they looked into the room and saw the loot; he’d been the only one to think to look up. They’d quickly come up with a plan, one involving Ant playing bait. I saw Peachy wince and tighten the grip on her shield.
He boldly moved into the room as if heading for some of the loot, but he was paying enough attention that when the beast in the shadows moved, he was already dodging. Which saved him from the ambush predator's blob of sticky web, and he was already dodging when the cat-sized black furry lump with four-foot-long spindly legs came down on where he had been standing. Luckily, he kept paying attention, as he dodged another blob as a second spider dropped…