Chapter 87: Easy Olive Harvest – Chapter 87

Susans walks over to the opening into the next room and does a quick check for traps. “Okay, looks like they haven’t saved up enough for another trap yet. Everyone ready?” The others nod. “Good! Let's get the fight started!”

Susan and Jeremy rush into the room. They don’t exactly have the element of surprise but they don’t exactly need it either. With the only magic user left on the monster side being the healer the two don’t have to worry about ranged threats.

Right behind them the other four enter the room with a little more grace. Each of them charging up some action or another. Doctor holds, having readied up a healing spell in each hand. Bell makes up for this by having two arrows strung up at once. Though with the invocation of [multishot] it becomes clear she is using some system skill to do it. Still the arrows fly true with one being blocked by the lead kobolds shield and the other slamming home into the left kobolds throat.

Susan comes in right after the kobold blocks the arrow and slips behind the shield. One well placed dagger later and she is past it and moving towards the kobold healer that is frantically trying to save the two.

On the right the second shield kobold has blocked a vine thrown by Zach. Not that Zach hadn’t planned on it doing so as the vine splats against the shield and wraps around, grabbing the startled kobold. On the far right Jeremy ignores the shield kobold to take out the last melee kobold that hasn’t been attacked yet.

He didn’t need to bother with the shield kobold anyway. While it took her longer to charge it up Kelly comes in with a blade of fire that sweeps through the kobold, shield and all. This fire blade continues on towards the healer.

The kobold healer glances to its right and sighs. With Susan on the way he couldn’t see any way this was going to end. Certain of defeat he chooses the way that seems most painless. As the fire blade sweeps in on him he headbuts it.

Susan comes to a halt with a confused look. “Well. I wasn’t exactly expecting that to happen. Anyway, Zach can deal with the olives. The rest of us can go and deal with the last room. If things go bad he can come help but I don’t see that happening. The kobold is tougher than the others but the goats are the basic ones for the floor.”

Zach shrugs and goes over to work his magic on the olives. Though before he starts he turns back to Susan, “Do we want the actual olives or should I just render it down to oil?”

Susan just waves absently in his direction as the team lines up outside of the last room. “Keep the olives for now. You can oil them later if we start to run out of pack space.”

Zach shakes his head and sighs. ‘I only needed one level anyway. The less experience I get the better for my plan. Now how do I want to do this?’ Behind him he can hear the combat start but he ignores it. ‘I could throw them in one of the bags but that if the bag gets ripped at any point they will go everywhere. I wonder if I use the wood, will it stick around? I guess this is a good time to test that.”

He gestures at the tree and channels his magic. From the trunk of the tree the wood bulges out with the bark sloughing off. A box starts to take shape and as the inner space deepens branch after branch of the tree bends over and drops the olives in. Once the box is full another has already formed enough and the olives continue to harvest themselves.

All the while the noise of combat goes on behind him. With the tree half harvested he does consider checking on if they need help but shrugs. If they need him they will call for him. Zach just buckles down and finishes the harvest. Luckily the fight ends during the time it takes and so he doesn’t have to worry about it.

With four small boxes of olives he turns around and asks, “So what took so much time?”

Susan shakes her head, “So apparently, while the kobold leader isn’t all that much stronger physically, more mental stats let it command the goats better. This isn’t much of a problem. That is, isn’t much of a problem if you have a proper stand there and take it type of tank. With five goats while we could dodge the goats we couldn’t kill them as easily.”

Zach shrugs, “Still, you beat them quicker than others probably can.”

Susan laughs, “We aren’t founders just for show! What is more impressive is how quickly you harvested the olives. I don’t think pre-system tech could harvest them that fast. Now let's move onto the second floor.” and she claps her hands.

With how easy the fights had been no one needed a rest so they trundled through the gate to the next floor without pause. On the second floor while the monsters are tougher the group has gelled. They breeze through the first half of the floor. The two dagger kobolds are a joke, the goatherds and their flocks are easier than the first floors last room, and the axebeaks can’t manage to stand up to the party.

In the ramp room they see the first bit of difficulty. While the enemies aren’t all that much harder the fact they are spread out and have ranged attacks. That last one makes all the difference when none of the tanks have a shield. Especially since the slinger kobolds have rocks to hide behind. Still the room doesn’t hold them back and the group heads into the last room on the second floor.

Most of the group had beat the last room multiple times so they ignore the sights and the Barrais lead them directly to the kobold tribe. Knowing what is coming Kelly has a special spell readied and once they spot the monsters she releases it. A shower of sparks explodes outwards, catching the entire herd of goats. While the spell doesn’t kill any of the goats it does set them on fire. This freaks them out greatly and they start rampaging around.

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Being closer to the kobolds they are the first to be affected by the goats. While the group hadn’t exactly planned for this specifically, Bell and Zach were ready. Zach had grabbed out three vines from his pack before hand and so a simple toss spread them among the melee kobolds.

Bell on the other hand had her eye on the prize. Ever since the group had gotten down wooden stairs she had been charging an arrow. Now she releases and the arrow flies so fast no one is able to keep track of it. One moment it was drawn back on her bow, a yellow glow pulsing dangerously. The next moment the arrow is sunk deep in the ice mage kobold’s eye. Though only for a moment before the dangerous looking glow turns explosive. With a sharp bang the arrow shatters and a crater is left in the very much dead kobold’s face.

The Barrais on the other hand are reaving through the goats that have made it over to them as they advance towards the melee kobolds. Not that they are much of a threat at the moment as Zach has managed to tie down three of them. In fact, one of the tied up kobolds has been stomped to death by a crazed goat.

All the while Bell is sending more arrows down range at the last kobold mage. The healer isn’t as defenseless as the one on the previous floor though. With a wave of his wand a barrier springs up before him and blocks arrow after arrow as he channels his magic into the spell. Bell isn’t having it though and spends a moment to channel more power into an arrow before releasing it. This time though instead of the glow being spread over the entire arrow it has been condensed on the arrows point.

She releases the string and the arrow flies out. While still fast the arrow is going much slower than even the normal shots Bell had been firing off just moments before. Then the arrow connects with the kobolds barrier. Without any loss of speed the arrow continues on its journey while leaving behind a shattered barrier.

The kobold panics and throws up barrier after barrier but without even a pause the arrow continues through them, shattering them one by one. At the last moment he tries to dodge out of the way but the arrowhead explodes taking the kobold out. Bell is proud of this but with how worn out she looks it isn’t likely she will provide much else this fight. Not that it will matter as the rest of the group is easily cleaning up the remaining melee kobolds. With the Barrais slicing in and Kelly releasing a fire ribbon or two the fight is soon finished.

Susan glances over the battlefield and nods. “Okay, so we’ve cleared the second floor. Do we want to go harvest the plateau? Me and my husband personally are all for it but you could have guessed that already. That place has all the herbs we’ve seen in the dungeon so far and a nanny goat to milk.”

Zach shrugs, “There are some more olive trees and a lemon tree up there I could harvest.”

Kelly nods, “Plus we need the milk. While it isn’t too much of an emergency. A balanced diet with some source of calcium is probably still needed. Or at least that is the assumption we are going by right now. Who knows what the system might do to combat mineral deficiencies.”

Doctor sighs, “There are so many things we might have to change our way of thinking on. Though I do believe we need to save the old knowledge. After all, the system isn’t everywhere. Who knows what our future might hold?”

Susan smiles, “Then let's go harvest! Kelly, Doctor, and Bell can stay down here or I guess you can go and climb the cliff again or something. Really, just do what you want while I get to go play with the plants.” And with that she hurries off towards the cliff. Jeremy shakes his head and follows his wife while Zach goes at a more sedate pace.

Bell doesn’t even wait for them to reach the cliff before she gets bored. “I’m going to go and climb a tree or something!”

This leaves Doctor and Kelly by themselves but this doesn’t bother either of them. In fact they like it that way. With no one to interrupt they get down to discussing some of Kelly’s recent discoveries about how magic interacts with chemicals on a macro scale to cause alchemy to work.

Time passes and the three up on the plateau finish harvesting the plants and milking the goat. After they come back down they find Doctor and Kelly right where they left them but can’t see Bell anywhere. Zach just shakes his head and looks up. “Yep, there she is up there.”

Everyone else looks up and finds that Bell has managed to settle on a comfy branch. The others don’t want to shout at her because she appears to have fallen asleep. Zach sees this and sighs, “Don’t worry, she will be fine.” Then he yells up at her, “Time To Leave! Get Down Here Bell!”

The shout wakes her up and she rolls off the branch. Everyone else is shocked by this but Zach motions for them to wait. As Bell falls she doesn’t seem to react to the sudden plummet. Instead she stretches and yawns as if she was still on the branch. Just before she hits the ground though Bell curls up and her body glows. With a thump Bell sinks into the ground without any rebound. Then she stands up and stretches again. “Well what is everyone waiting for? Let's head out!”

Akhier

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