Barracks, Former Ulis Farmstead

"So, what's this dungeon we're after?" Jupiter asks eagerly once the last of us logs in.

"Jade, can you just go check that there's nobody else hanging around?

"Gotcha," Jade saunters across the room and dips her head around the door before calling back, "Nope. All clear."

When she comes back, I clear my throat, "This is more a question for Windy and Jade, since I don't know how much you know about Farmer's Folly and the story behind it. When I told you what happened to The Farmer, did you not think that something about it was odd?"

"What do you mean?" Windy asks, confused.

"I'll be more specific. Why did The Farmer die?"

Jade frowns, "Eaten by Gratts?"

"Less literal," I roll my eyes, "He disregarded the threat to his own life and died trying to reach the bottom of the tunnel. When a sensible man would have commissioned aid from the Empire of Stone or the Pioneers Alliance. Why?"

"Because he didn't have any cash? Poor people do desperate shit when they're feeling cornered," Jupiter chips in.

"You're half right there. He was desperate and cornered, and money was on the line, but The Farmer was by no means a poor man, in fact he was incredibly wealthy," I decide to just tell them, "Not because of the success of his produce at market, oh no. He was a smuggler - more specifically, he was the caretaker of one of the stops on the road for various smuggling outfits."

"So, his stash was down where the Gratts settled in to nest?" Angelus observes, "I suppose calling in reinforcements would have clued the authorities in to his activities or seen the goods looted, respectively."

"Yes. But it goes a little further than that," I lick my lips, "He was no ordinary farmer or smuggler - He was Geronil's predecessor."

"He ran the Pioneers Alliance in Meteo City?" Jupiter tilts his head.

"No, he means he was The Magpie Demon's errand boy," Angelus corrects him, "Correct?"

I nod seriously, "Correct. The Farmer may have died and left his memories behind as Farmer's Folly, but further down, past the rubble of the cave-in, is The Farmer's Secret, an Anguished Core, which could be said to be what's left of his corrupted heart and soul - though not literally. Anguished Cores are like...Reminiscences+1. They're rarer, more dangerous and permanent. While a Reminiscence will eventually dissipate, either because the overseeing spirit was sufficiently sated or because of other external reasons, an Anguished Core is so viscerally intense that nothing can shift it short of a Tier 9 existence. That is to say, demigods and above."

"So, like, the difference between a run-of-the-mill ghost and say, a vengeful spirit? Danny Morecomb and The Dreaded Bane of Gallowfield?" Jupiter questions, referencing a couple of old horror movies from the mid-nineties.

"For the sake of argument, yes," I scratch my ear, "The point is, this dungeon is uncommonly dangerous."

"No shit, it's a dungeon," Jade huffs, "It's dangerous by definition."

Windy elbows her, causing her to yelp in protest, "Cut it out."

Jade grumbles but shuts up after some more staring from the group.

Pulling out some writing supplies Windy filched from City Jail while she was waiting, I draw a circle on the parchment, a cross in the exact centre and two dots on the left and right sides of it at the edge of the circle.

"This is the basic layout of the arena. The dungeon is a single very dangerous boss encounter. Said boss is represented by the cross, and these two dots here are where the adds spawn in, are we clear so far?" I ask, receiving confirmation from the other four, "Ok, this fight is entirely based around how well we handle the adds - every time one of them comes within a certain distance of the boss, it will be absorbed by it and grant an infinitely stacking damage bonus."

"So we need to have one person on each side to keep killing the adds while the other three focus on the boss?" Angelus asks.

I shake my head, "Not quite, but I'll get to what we need to do after I explain the boss's abilities, if that's alright?"

"Go ahead."

"The boss has two forms. It's default form is Nightmare Form - visually and functionally similar to the last boss in Miner's Nightmare. Every minute and a half, for a duration of one minute, it will switch to it's second form, called Covetous Form, which is functionally a black hole. Both forms have different mechanics to bear in mind, and the adds will spawn constantly at a rate of at least one every ten seconds from both sides and up to three or five per spot depending on difficulty," I explain.

"Difficulty? Wasn't this Iron-Tier?" Windy enquires.

"Iron-Tier and above dungeons have different difficulty options that scale the challenge and rewards - but they're still within that general ballpark of difficulty. An Easy Gold Dungeon would be somewhere a little above a Hard Silver Dungeon, essentially, though that's a generalisation, as dungeon complexity and difficulty varies wildly," I answer, "Iron-Tier Dungeons only have Easy and Normal options, as far as I know."

"So we're doing Normal mode?" Jade asks, anticipating loot.

"No. Not at first, tempting as it is," I deny her, "Please remember that even on Easy it will be more challenging than any dungeon encounter we've undertaken together. Moreover, Jupiter is relatively inexperienced."

The greedy fox looks disappointed, but Angelus and Windy seem approving. The healer smiles, "It's not good to overestimate ourselves, you'll hear no objections from me."

"Same. Treat it as practice for the real thing, Jade," Windy encourages her, "What are the differences between rewards like, by the way?"

I shrug, "Not sure, exactly. If I had to guess, it'd be a difference in droprates rather than quality. We still have to take the completion rate into consideration for that as well - an evaluation score decided by the system, in much the same vein as Satisfaction ratings for Reminiscences, but less esoteric and puzzle-like. Most dungeon-types use it."

"So, we don't have to appease this asshole by bringing him the Mask of Goobaghast and the Eight Gems of Gofukusuf?" Jade snarks, "I'm down with that. Kick ass, get paid."

"Back to the boss," I cut off Jupiter before he can spout some no-doubt nonsensical drivel, "In Nightmare Form, it has basically the same tactics as in Miner's Nightmare, but with a slight twist. Every 30 seconds, it will grab a player and deal continuous damage to them until either the victim dies, or until the boss takes enough damage - that means you, Windy. Do not attempt to run away from it, as tempting as it might be to try and kite it this time, or you'll risk taking it close to an add and having it get absorbed."

The tank and healer grimace at that, Angelus in particular looks unhappy, "Is there really no avoiding it?"

"The damage it'll deal to Windy with her current gear and stats is more than manageable, and the damage threshold to force it to drop her isn't very high. The second ability is a tankbuster - it will charge up a punch, then follow it up with a second immediately after. They're faster than The Nightmare's Jealous Strike, but individually weaker. While it's possible to dodge the first punch easily, the second will likely catch you out if you're not ready for it," Windy nods along as I talk, "Just be careful not to move towards either spawn point for the adds when you're dodging, try and keep it still."

"Understood, boss," the tank agrees, "So it's just a straightforward tank and spank?"

"For the first form," I nod, "The second form is where it gets spicy. Anything within a certain radius around the boss - which will be stationary throughout this phase - will take periodic damage, and if you get pulled into the boss itself...well, you can imagine."

"We find out what it's like to enter a singularity?" Jupiter asks, a little too excited. He better not jump in to see what happens.

"Don't you dare jump into the black hole," Angelus glares at him.

"What if, and hear me out, I said it was for the sake of science?" Jupiter grins, obviously joking around.

"I will push you before you have the chance to jump," Jade threatens.

I clap once for attention, "I'm not finished. Thank you."

Clearing my throat, I continue, "Covetous Form's absorption radius for adds, likewise increases, and every add it absorbs will increase the radius, until it effects the entire room. Sufficed to say, that's grounds for an instant wipe."

"So, again, just kill all the adds," Jade comments.

"Unfortunately, no," I furrow my brow, "Which is what makes this fight such a fucking pain in the ass. It's a trick."

The group doesn't seem to understand what I mean, and honestly, it took a long time before people stopped brute-forcing the fight and figured out the gimmick to Covetous Form, so who can blame them. It's honestly pretty mean, as mechanics go, since conventional wisdom when confronted with a boss that endlessly buffs itself by eating adds is to just kill all the adds before that can happen.

"I'll explain the two abilities it has in this form first, then why that's a terrible, terrible idea so you have context for why you absolutely do not do that," I sigh, "First is Pulse of Oddity. Every twenty seconds, the boss will emit a debilitating wave that damages for roughly 200 then reduces movement and thinking speeds by 60% for three seconds. Simple, and extremely annoying. Second, is Curiosity's Pull, which will randomly target one of us, then yank them ten-ish feet towards the boss and apply a 30% slow for five seconds. Depending on how close you are to the boss, this can spell death for you. I should also mention that it takes massively reduced damage for the duration of this phase and the maximum number of adds will spawn every time."

I take a moment to catch my breath and a swig of water from my stockpile of waterskins, "It will do these things, unless it has absorbed an add. Whenever it absorbs an add, the next instance of these two abilities will be negated, though only one at a time."

Angelus' eyes flash with understanding, "In other words, you feed it an add to skip the mechanic at the cost of having fed it an add?"

"Sounds like it," Jade concurs.

"That's a nasty trick," Windy comments, "But is it really that big of a deal?"

I waver, "It is possible to just ignore that as an option and beat our heads against it until it dies, but it's ultimately less efficient on our supplies and less stressful to let one through periodically. Pulse of Oddity can cause us to quickly lose control of the situation and the pull causes unnecessary damage, while you can more or less avoid or mitigate the effects of the ramping damage buff. It is, ultimately, a race to kill it before it absorbs too many, but not letting it absorb any at all is punished."

Taking my quill up, I write the summarised abilities down alongside the arena diagram, "Any questions?"

Jade raises a hand, "What's the loot like?"

"The boss has a chance to drop Level 9 weapons of many varieties. Doing particularly well gives us a chance at a Level 9 Accessory. I don't know what the first A clear gets us, but it'll need to be completed on Normal Mode at a minimum for us to be eligible. Anyone else?"

"Who's doing what, exactly?" Jupiter asks next, "I know I'm on like, add duty, but uhh I only have one single target damage Spell and there's two camps."

I write the first letter of our names on the diagram to denote our positioning. Windy on the north side, me on the west side, and the three ranged team members stood at a distance in the south, "I'll be whacking down adds as they come from the west camp, while you handle the east camp. Jade will alternate between the boss and any camp that's getting out of control. As for your Spells, don't worry about it, I've already taken care of it."

He cocks his head, "Whaddya mean?"

"I called in a favour with one of the groups I'm in contact with to see if Lamnon is still alive after ratting out Geronil's master, and buy some Minor Spell Manuals off of him on my behalf. If they're not already waiting outside, then they'll be here soon," I inform him. In exchange for a small premium, I asked the Wolf Hunt rep Miss Leovoldt to send them last night for around noon today, and she agreed to do it herself.

Jupiter stands to attention immediately, "Seriously?! Fuck yeah!"

I grab him before he runs off, "She's not going to give them to you, Jupiter, it's me they're delivering it to, and I'm the one paying them for it."

"Theeen what're we waiting for?" The Silva mage side-eyes me.

"For any further questions," I turn to the rest of the group.

"I'm ready to go when you are, boss," Windy smiles, thumping her breastplate dramatically.

"Ready to get going," Jade follows-up, with Angelus shrugging after.

"Alright, let's pick up your new spells, and get to work. We'll move up to Normal mode when I feel we've gotten the hang of Easy," I promise, standing up and tearing up the parchment. Best not to leave evidence.