Chapter 22 – Kobold Base.

["Wow, you are fucked."] – said Kitty while using video call.

"Isn't there way to deal with this? I already contacted the support center, but they say they can't do anything about this." – said Forge.

["You are pretty screwed my guy. Maybe you should try leveling up a lot and then return back. You said that nobody can enter expect you or the people that completed those hidden quest, so it's good idea to level up a lot before trying to clear it."] – said Hype.

"I tried going away from the dungeon and quickly head to the higher level area, but a bloody messenger appeared as soon as I tried getting away from it."

[Warning! You are leaving the quest area! If you leave the quest area the quest will automatically count as failure.]

"I'm fuking stuck here! On top of that monsters don't spawn here, meaning I can't bloody level up right now or anything."

["What about the dungeon rewards? You cleared those 3 hidden dungeons so they should have given you something."] – said Hype.

"I only got a random trash from all three of them and the quest bonus only gave me EXP and gold. I got about 4 good items, sword, medium sized shield, bow and ropes. The only stuff that I can't use are the ropes, they are specially made for the spellcasters and they provide low defense bonus, they are completely useless for me. Sword, shield and the bow are good, but they all are weapons, I didn't get any armor better that my current one that I could use."

["Huh, well that is quite bad."] – said Hype.

"Is there really no way you can help me?"

["Sorry, can't think of anything right now. We could bring you some potions, but you already told us that you bought a lot of them before you went looking for the hidden base."] – said Kitty.

["There is option of getting new combat type class inside of the dungeon as you level up, but getting a brand new class with 1 or 2 levels won't provide much value, it would be worth it if you could at least get it to level 5, then there is a chance of getting something useful."]

"But there are 2 problems, firs is the bonus reward is only given after I complete the dungeon, so there is no way I can level up 5 times while conquering it and the second problem is that I leveled up my [Advance Blacksmith] from the levels I just got. On top of that I don't what level are the monsters. If they are lower level than me then my leveling speed will drop and could result in not even getting a single level until I beat the dungeon."

"My combat classes [Insectian Warrior - Beetle] and [Insectian Warrior – Rhino Beetle] are good classes, but most of the skills they provide are passives, I lack combat type active skills"

"Other thing that I have is my arsenal of weapons that I carry on me and that's pretty much all I have. Honestly speaking, I don't I can beat it."

["Well, you don't have much of the choice. You can't run or anything. The only option you have is to try and beat the dungeon."] – said Kitty.

["But hey, if you somehow beat the dungeon, you will get good rewards. Quest usually with harsh failure penalties were often giving better rewards compare to the other quest. On top of that there is the fact that you are forced to do quest against your will and can't do anything about it, this may to influence the rewards as well."] – said Kitty.

"But that will only happens if I clear the dungeon and I only have single attempt to clear it. On top of that did you forget that I'm the hybrid class user?"

["So, what are you planning to do? Cry? Just get your ass there and at least try instead of whining, you could at die trying."] – said Kitty.

["Go the fuck in."]

"Ok, ok. Stop yelling at me mom. I'm going, I'm going." – replied Forge.

(I'm so fuking dead.) – though Forge while entering the dungeon.

[You have entered hidden dungeon: Kobold Hidden Base.]

[Dungeon conquest completion:

-Slay all enemies inside of the dungeon to unlock the dungeon boss room and defeat the Kobold Chieftain Azruk.]

"Kill everything and then kill the boss. Same as before, are these condition are always the same for each dungeon?"

["Well, this is the most common type in dungeons, but there are sometimes conditions like defeat specific powerful monsters or destroy the device that spawns monsters nonstop to procced, those conditions often make dungeons way harder to beat. You are kind of lucky that they didn't' this time.] – said Hype.

["Anyway, it's better if we end the call now. We will probably end up distracting you, but if something happens and you need something just call us."] – said Hype.

"Okay."

[The video call has ended.]

(This place is obviously different than the other places. The floor, walls and even the roof is made out of brinks. There are also a proper support columns instead of just wooden planks. This place is well made unlike those hidden dungeons from before that were made half assed. It kind of shows that this place is more important than other 3.)

(I kind of feel like I'm inside of some sort of castle or fortress right now, well, underground one, since I'm underground right now.)

While Forge was walking though the dungeon corridors, he encounter a door way and guarding it was the duo of plate armor wearing kobolds. After noticing them, Forge quickly hide behind the massive column and then peeked at the pair of monsters while still trying not get spotted.

[Kobold Knight – Level 55]

 (They look almost identical to that second son boss kobold, but the main difference is obviously their armor. The second son had fancy looking equipment while those two have just normal looking ones. Since they look very similar, does that mean that they too have [Sword User] and [Shield User] classes? I should probably take similar approach that I did with that guy.)

 Forge rushed out from his hiding spot and began approaching the kobold knights at quick rate.

"Intruder! Kill!" – said one of the kobold knight.

After noticing the Forge, the two kobolds rushed straight at him. Forge swinged his hammer, but the kobold blocked the attack, the kobold that blocked the attack tried swinging his sword, but before he could do that Forge attack the monster with his horn right in the chest, pushing it away.

(He didn't used another skill to block it? Interesting.)

The fight continue, but not for long, Forge quickie ended the fight with few exchanges between him and the kobolds.

(So, they straight up down graded version of the second son. They are weaker, have worse equipment and don't have access to all of their class skills just like regular kobold. But overall they are harder to beat than the kobold capitan with buff active.)

(I know how to deal with the second son and they seems to resemble some of his attack patterns, I shouldn't have much problem dealing with them?)

Honestly speaking, I was still kind of stressed and everything. Even though the first fight was quite easy, I was still doing the unique hidden quest, so there is no way dungeon would be this easy and I was right.

As I explored more of the area inside of the dungeon, I ended up encountering two more types of enemies, the shooter kobold and the high mage kobold, they too were down graded version of the first and third son.

At first dealing with those two new ones were quite easy, but then problem arose when I was trying to fight a group that had of each type of them in it. When I tried going for the spell caster and archer the knight blocked me. When I tried to make opening or gain distance the archer would shoot and when I was trying to finish off the knight the mage attacked. They were supporting each other just like players, that took me completely off the guard

[EXP: 59%]

(At this rate it won't be long before I level up. The thing that influences the gain of EXP from slain monsters are two things: monster level and how powerful they were. It's good thing that those guys give good amount of EXP, but they are extremely annoying to beat if the 3 types are together. I only fought 3 times against that kind of groups and was forced to already use to some of my potions. I can't bloody go on like this or I will run out of the potions before I fight the boss.)

(I kind of wish that my regeneration passive would be better at least, so I can at least use less potions.)

[Blacksmith] skill.

[Hard Worker: Blacksmith]

[Passive] [Skill level: 1/1] 

[You have not given up and continue the path of the blacksmith, training both mentally and physically along the way. Your hard working effort have borne fruit and now you slightly recover faster.]

[Effect:

Grants regeneration buff to your HP, MP and SP points by 0.01% of their max amount every second. This skill will be only active when outside of the combat for 30 minutes.]

(If I wait 100 seconds, I get 1% back of my stuff, I could kill every monster in dungeon and then just let the regeneration to the work. I would recover 10% of HP and other stuff after 16 minutes and 40 seconds, this is very slow. On top of that, I still needs to wait half an hour before this skill be active.) – though Forge while drinking health potion.

In some games there is mission to "Catch the target before it escapes." but truth to be told in most of those mission there is nothing like time limit or culprit really running away. It's just said for the mood or stuff.

"But in this bloody game apparently this isn't the case. Kitty told me that monster may try to stall me while the invisible count down is ticking, some missions in beta were like that apparently. I got to hurry, that means I have to use that thing."

Forge put away the hammer in his inventory and took out a giant crossbow with 4 limbs and a single giant crossbow bolt.

[Savage Wolf Crossbow Ballista]

[A special made weapon that is hybrid between crossbow and ballista, a great crossbow or giant crossbow. The weapon is very heavy but powerful. Unlike normal crossbow, this creation require special made bolts. The crossbow itself possess arms that are used to wind up the weapon. The weapon itself seems to have some sort of inspiration from the windlass crossbow.]

[Attack Power: 138-157] 

[Restrictions: Minimal User Level 57.]

[Item Tier: 17]

[Savage Wolf Great Crossbow Bolt]

[A big crossbow bolt that can't be used by any regular type of crossbows but only by special made ones.]

[Attack Power: 28-35] 

[Restrictions: Minimal User Level 57.]

[Item Tier: 14]

(This is one of my experiments related to crossbow. I tried making a great weapon version of the crossbow like great sword, shield and other big weapons. While making this weapon I tried maximize the weapon attack power as much as possible with my current available materials at hand. So far, I only tested some of the experiment versions and some I tried with bit different type of approaches.)

(Each crossbow performed very well, but there is obviously down sides that hits quite hard.)

(I couldn't use this guy before because of level restriction, but now it's time to use this bad boy and see if it can help me right now. Well, there is a chance that this thing will fall apart the moment I try shooting with it, about half of the prototypes I made destroyed themselves the moment I tried using them. There is also that one that somehow made bolt go backwards and ended up hitting me instead, it somehow also landed headshot on me. And there was also the one that I could not aim at all and bolt went into random directions.)

(… I kind of started having doubt about using this thing.)

(Ah, fuck it.)

With the giant crossbow in his hands, Forge beginned exploring the dungeon once again. It didn't took long for the Forge another group of mixed kobolds monsters.

The kobolds noticed the Forge from afar and instantly took battle formation with kobold knight at the front and other two right behind him, while Forge held his crossbow with both of his hands, one on the underneath holding grip where the trigger is located and holding handle on the left side of the weapon. 

Forge aimed the crossbow and moment later he pulled the trigger, releasing and launching the giant bolt as high speed.

Before kobold knight could react and block attempt to block the attack, the bold already pierced it body, but the bolt didn't stopped, it flew with the kobold knight and it then pierced the kobold spell caster that was standing behind the kobold knight. The bolt flew with kobold knight and kobold spellcaster still attached to it, before moments bolt ended up hitting the wall.

[You have slain: Kobold Knight – Level 56.]

[You have slain Kobold High Mage – level 55.]

The kobold archer looked in shock towards the corpses of two of his allies that died instantly. When kobold archer looked back, it saw Forge with two hand axes in his hand. Kobold tried shooting the Forge, but Forge continue running straight until he leaped forward, using [Horn Charge] skill, hitting the kobold archer and then finish it off with axes.

[You have slain: Kobold Shooter – Level 56.]

"Thank god it worked."

"I was planning on just killing the kobold knight, but by look of things I had way more power than I thought besides high damage, it bloody manage to hit and kill the spell caster as well."

[Piercing and vital hit.]

[When you are hitting enemy, the spot where you hit them matters. Hitting the vital spot or weak spots like eyes, hearth, joints and other stuff will deal way more damage, this can also apply negative status effects, like destroy enemy eyes resulting in blindness or destroy monster core resulting in instant death.

The piecing attacks fallow that kind of logic, the deeper your attacks go into enemy body the more damage you do. Doesn't apply to some enemies that have unique bodies, like a slime for example.]

(The attack went right though their chests, resulting in vital attack that deal lot of damage and pretty much instant death for both of them.)

This weapon is deadly.

Not only it has high attack power, but it also possess tons of piercing power that end up increases the damage dealt further.

But as I said before, this weapon type has down sides.

1. Weight.

This bloody thing is very heavy, heavier than my hammer. Because of that not many people can use it, unless they have [Strength] related passives and their classes have good [Strength] stat grow. I think only I and Avalanche can use this thing in the entire group.

 This also influences the aiming. Because how heavy this thing is, it is hard to aim with it because of how slow you point this thing around. You literally can't aim with it at the moving target. The obvious answer to this problem would be to have more [Strength], it could somehow help with aiming time, but as of right now I can pretty much only use it on the target that aren't moving too much or are just standing still.

The only reason why it worked this time was because I remember the battle position of those 3 annoying guys. The kobold knight won't move and stay still, right in front of the spell caster and archer and only moves when I try getting close to them, because of him not moving until I get close, I used it for my advantage since it was just standing still in one spot.

But in normal scenario where target is moving, this thing is probably completely useless.

2. Reload time.

This thing takes lot of the time to reload, very long. It takes too long to reload so I can't reload during combat, unless I have somebody protecting me or have a very long time where enemy can't attack me or something. So pretty much I have this thing prepared before the combat and probably be able to fire only one shot during the entire combat.

3. Recoil.

Using this thing makes a nasty recoil. I tried with shooting and running around at the same time with the working prototype, it's kind of didn't ended good. The recoil kind of messes up with balance, so it's better to not move and stand still while firing this thing.

In short:

-Takes long to aim with this thing and pretty much can't aim it at the moving target.

-I can only fire 1 shot.

-I can't move while trying to shooting with it.

"Fuck me, this thing went deep." – said Forge while pulling out the giant crossbow bolt from the wall.

(Well, now I at least know that I can use it against those bastards by exploiting their battle formation.)

"I ain't planning on falling this god dammed troll quest at any fuking cost!"