Chapter 103: Last Stand
Coop managed to get into a solid groove, smashing his way through the regular Ruin Excavators at a constant pace with his heavy morning star. He didn’t need to rush, but he still expanded his hunting grounds to account for the monsters’ spawn rates and prevent himself from catching any downtime. His was a strategy of consistent, uninterrupted combat. It was quite the contrast with Camila’s burst of power against the Ancient Defenders, where she needed to pause to wait for her own cooldowns as well as a full wave of monster respawns.
He was a little jealous of her speed at the time, but slow and steady wins the race, and Coop wasn’t even that slow. One hit kills and unwavering movement kept him efficient. It wasn’t the first time Coop had compared himself to the turtle racing a hare, this was just the most recent example. The leaderboards had become evidence of his straightforward persistence.
Eventually, he was cycling along the edges of the darkness engulfed walls, catching the Excavators as they entered the chamber from deeper within, in a constant series of battles. He charged from one point to the next, his footsteps becoming a rhythmic precursor to the thumping of his slamming attacks as they formed a steady beat that echoed through the expansive caverns. The entire first chamber was within his rotation.
He was curious about what he would find deeper in the tunnels that spat the monsters out, but he refrained from exploring and interrupting his first grind in the pearlescent chambers. He had a sneaking suspicion that he wouldn’t actually find much of interest in Felrog’s meandering side tunnels, yet the possibility of elites remained tempting. Odds were that he would simply find regular Ruin Excavators in prepared ambushes instead, and that would be an annoyance that interfered with his pace. New monster variants would need to be outside of the settlement’s territory if they didn’t get a wave during the siege, and he doubted he could penetrate the depths enough to exit the perimeter of their territory by taking stroll through the dim tunnels.
Balor’s enthusiasm for the underlayer didn’t include the pockets of earth in between, and Coop trusted the stonedwarf’s judgment when it came to the underground. The gaping chasm in the center of the chambers was the important feature, the gateway, as the alien called it. The stonemason would need to crack it open before they could access the real subterranean stratum and judging by its current depth, it would be a real significant project, far greater than anything they had done before. Coop wasn’t even sure how they would get to the bottom of it right now, considering the depths already appeared to go on forever. Setting up their gateway would be a long term project, for after they got all of their other ducks in a row.
Part way through his grind, he shifted to one of the adjacent chambers, further away from the entrance tunnel. A quick weapon swap and mistjump across the gap gave him a fresh chamber to roam. He left the initial cavern to the surprise company that arrived in the night.
Gibson’s party ventured into the depths beneath the settlement in order to start their own quests to defeat the regular monsters, apparently forgoing sleep in order to continue their progress. They were feeling comfortable with the particular Excavator variants of the Primal Constructs after their contribution against the Frenzied version during the siege event. They planned on hunting them until they received their own Slayer titles. Coop respected the enthusiasm, but he made sure to encourage them to pace themselves, reminding them that the quests were a marathon and not a sprint. They promised to heed his advice. Coop just hoped they wouldn’t be discouraged when they really dug into the stage with a 5,000 kill requirement.
Coop inspected them before he happily ceded the first chamber’s hunting grounds.
[Human (Level 60)]
[Argent (Body)]
[Chosen of the Allies of Genesis]
[Human (Level 57)]