She shifted back and forth as the sun rose fully over the trees of the forest. The dim light of spring's dawn was enough to illuminate the trees, and for the first time, Astrid fully saw the first stage of the influence on the world by the surge. The trees, previously bright and lively from the advent of spring, were darker. They weren't nearly the same black as the trees in the Dungeon below, but they were dark and foreboding, warning about the impending impact of the mana. The leaves darkened as the Dungeon's tendrils snaked up into the world above.
The major surges had created all the nonhuman races in the world, and the increase in the density of mana could poison, mutate, or even kill people who were too close. Here on the surface, in what was, supposedly, not a true surge, the mana wouldn't be a direct threat to any of the delvers, but the environment would carry the vestiges of the influence from the surge for months or years.
All the delvers were waiting for the information that Grom and Eleah were supposedly about to deliver. They'd gathered loosely together, ready to do whatever they were assigned, but without any instructions, they were left just sitting and waiting. It wasn't long, though, before Grom strode forward and smashed his shields together. Everyone's attention immediately went to him.
"Listen. This is all of us. We're not getting any more delvers. We're all. Look around you, see who's near you, see who you're going to party with, and figure out who you're trusting your backs to. Our Dungeoneer here will have more information on exactly how big our perimeter is going to be, but it's larger than we want though not so large that we need to write off the possibility of keeping Schteld standing.
"Now, just before I turn this over to Eleah, I have two more things. First thing. Look at the people around you. This is dangerous. This is a surge, and even though it won't be across the entirety of the continent, it will be large. Eleah says there'll be 179 entrances affected by it behind the Bulwark. As ours is the weakest of the Dungeons that's going to be hit, we only have this single party coming to help. For the rest of us, we're going to be fighting for our lives.
"Second thing. Get your arse up here, Tobias."
Grom's voice held a barely contained rage, and the arrogant Healer approached with gritted teeth but no audible complaint.
"Do it." Grom demanded.
"I'm sorry, Madam Eleah, for—"
"I'm not a madam." Eleah recoiled with a scoff.
Tobias opened his mouth, his eyes flashing as he was about to snap at her, but Grom cuffed him in the back of the head hard enough to send the man sprawling. As the Healer struggled to his feet, he started to open his mouth again. As Grom lifted his fist a second time, Tobias thought better of it. Instead, he audibly gritted his teeth. Astrid had to fight back the laughs of schadenfreude as the Healer was forced to humble himself.
"Eleah Dungeoneer." Tobias grated out. "I apologize for my foolishness and my discourtesy. My intent was not to offend, and I repeat, I am sorry for my words and actions. Please, forgive me."
"Yeah, sure." Eleah shrugged. "You can go back now."
Tobias stiffly bowed his head as he walked away. Astrid grinned widely as the apology occurred. She'd never get the same from the shallow Healer, but this was healing enough for her.
"Great. Now that that's out of the way, Eleah, we're waiting for your report."
"Ok! So, I listened to the Dungeon, and went in for a little bit. Just like my mentor suspected, this is going to be a low amplitude, high breadth surge."
She paused, as if that would mean anything to anyone. Astrid had no clue what that would imply for her, and looking around, nobody else understood either.
"Well, surges are generally measured in two general ways: the amplitude and the breadth. There's a whole lot more to it, such as elemental predilection, mana viscosity, mana toxicity, monstrous mutilation and mutation, human susceptibility, longevity… It's so much more interesting! Anyways, that's not what I was trying to say. In general terms, amplitude refers to the increase in strength that the monsters experience while the breadth refers to how widely the surge will affect the Dungeon.
"The Great Surges that morphed the face of the planet and created other races were, of course, of the highest amplitude and breadth. From the records of the fourth Great Surge, we know that the amplification of those were at a 437% increase in strength for the monsters, to say nothing of the mutability and toxicity of the mana. Of course, they were also worldwide. Some of the scholars on the matter believe that what makes the Great Surges so overwhelming is actually that their breadth is so wide that they end up covering the same parts of the Dungeon multiple times! If that was the case, then—"
"Eleah Dungeoneer." Grom interrupted. "That has nothing to do with the surge we're fighting against. Please give the information that we need."
"Oh. Yes." Eleah grinned as she apologized. "Sorry! This surge is extending to 181 Dungeon entrances now. It's extending, but slowly. The amplification is currently holding steady at 36%. As such, this, as one of the weakest points of entry to the Dungeon on the continent, has been left to the Guild's representatives, delvers, and my party. We are all high Bronze, and will be focused on supporting lines as they falter and the wargs above level 5. For any of you newer delvers, the physical change in a warg once they reach level 6 is the ruff around the neck. They get thick fur, almost like a mane. If it has a mane, it will have a Skill. If you haven't faced one of the level 6s and one appears, they'll be really strong. Like, really strong."
"Delvers!" Grom interrupted again. "Do not engage with any level 6s that appear. They will be stronger than you expect. Only Lariche's party, if you have all five at the same time, can engage with a single level 6. Even then, that is only if you have to. The 36% amplitude should keep there from being any level 7s from appearing, but that isn't an impossibility. In addition, the Skills can overlap with each other."
Astrid's heart thumped in her chest. More and more, the surge was feeling real, and she wasn't sure how to react. There were dozens and hundreds of monsters that would appear over the course of the surge, and it would be her responsibility to stand as a shield for the citizens of Schteld. As she thought about it, there was a question that occurred to her. With Grom and Eleah both fading into quiet, she raised her hand.
"Yes, Astrid Warrior?"
"Why… why don't you Irons and high Bronzes just kill them all to keep the casualty rate down to zero?"
"That was a large part of our plan. It remains that way." Grom answered. "However, with the breadth of the surge, which hasn't yet been explained, the spawn radius for the wargs is too wide to feasibly do so."
"Yes." Eleah chimed in. "There will be a spawn radius of 4.82 kilometers, and thus we will be patrolling and exterminating in an area over 9 kilometers across. Strictly speaking, it will be impossible for the higher leveled individuals to be the sole participants in the extermination. We can't move fast enough."
"Even so, our focus will be, as previously stated, on exterminating the most powerful individuals and helping the people who are being overwhelmed. That said as an early demonstration of the Guild's gratitude for your participation, there is a healing potion for each of you. Don't use them recklessly, but don't forget that your life is worth significantly more than any single potion."
Stark walked around, carrying a massive blocky pack. Inside was a box with little compartments for the potions. Different from the concoctions, draughts, and tinctures that Guinevere provided, these were genuine potions. Even though they were sure to only be Bronze tiered, these potions would immediately heal wounds and save lives. Astrid felt into the pouch on her left hip and slotted the potion in there. There were two draughts on either side, and the difference in quality of the glass of the potion compared to the draughts was like night and day. Disregarding that, Astrid focused on her other failsafe. The feeling of the talisman still hanging on her breast under her armor calmed her enough and she breathed deeply.
"All delvers will be placed in a party, and each party will be as near to the full five as possible. Each party that does not currently have five party members within it, step forward."
Astrid stepped forward, and was struck that there were only three parties that weren't full. Each had three delvers, and Grom stepped forward and pulled one out. Her name… Pursene. Yes, Astrid had spoken with her a couple times. She was an Archer, and given that the other merged party already had a Ranger, it wasn't too surprising that one of the two was pulled out.
Before Grom pulled the leather-armored woman over, though, he stopped in front of Svana.
"Can I trust you to put aside stupid grievances?"
"Yes." She didn't hesitate.
"Can I trust you to keep Tobias safe?"
"Yes."
"Can I trust you to deal fairly and prioritize the survival and safety of every delver and citizen in this area?"
"Yes."
"Then don't disappoint me. Take care of yourself, and the people around you."
As Svana nodded, Stark appeared beside her. Somehow, in retrospect, Astrid knew he'd been there for a little while, but she couldn't remember when he'd returned from giving everyone else their potions.
"Your job is quite different during a surge." Stark instructed, and Astrid turned her attention from the conversation to Pursene.
"Hey there."
"Hi, Astrid." Pursene waved back. Her armor was well-suited to a life spent hiding and hunting, optimized for mobility and general camouflage above everything else. "Are you ready to work with us?"
"Of course." Astrid answered. "I've been with your party once already, and I'd like to think that I was an asset at that time."
Pursene wordlessly nodded back. Her exotic dark skin was similar to Astrid's own, but her petite frame and nearly black hair were enough to convince anyone that saw her that she was no Barbarian. The Archer hadn't been difficult to work with before, and Astrid didn't expect that'd change during the surge, but she wished that she'd been able to work with Lariche's party instead.
"The monsters will begin spawning outside of the Dungeon in 15 minutes. Spread at the outskirts of the spawning range, cause we'll take care of the ones in here!" Eleah chirped, painfully excited. "You'll be more on containment than anything else. The worry is that the monsters will be too close to you when they spawn, so they'll come to you. It shouldn't be that way, but unfortunately, the mana always likes to change. The strongest ones should be closer to the Dungeon's entrance itself, so there's that!"
Someone whose voice Astrid didn't recognize asked, "What do we do if a level 6 warg charges our position?"
Grom sighed. "Whatever you think you can to survive. Even though you're all new to the path, you're also all delvers. Trust yourselves, trust your party, and kill the damned monsters. May the Duchess's presence guide you."
Astrid shouted a wordless cheer in response, which wasn't echoed by anyone else. A flash of embarrassment filled her, but she kept her head up. The party turned and jogged nearly directly north, and it wasn't long before Svana held her hand up.
"I'll create the party now. Accept it. We need to pick up the pace. Less than ten minutes to get another 3 kilometers."
"Svana, please." Tobias whined, but the Scout leveled a withering gaze at him as the rest of the people allowed themselves to get pulled into the same party.
"I am in charge. You've been told as much. If anything goes wrong, it's on my head, and I refuse to destroy my future prospects for you."
Tobias's mouth opened wide like a gasping fish, but Svana didn't answer except to continue running. Astrid, Petr, and Pursene kept up without too much effort, but Tobias struggled, given that his attributes skewed away from physical effort, and his personality was weak and untested. Maybe pushing him so hard was by design, Astrid wondered. Svana had always gone along with Tobias in the past, but now she was seemingly relishing the opportunity to be on top. The thought that Svana was just mean crossed Astrid's mind. If that was the case…
That didn't matter, at least not right now. Astrid pushed any analysis from her mind and instead she looked out for any appearing monsters. There were, according to the Dungeoneer, due to appear in just a couple minutes, but not before that. Astrid didn't trust her own ability to keep track of the minutes over longer periods of time, so instead of guessing, she, while still running, pulled her shield off her back, and set about strapping it to her arm. It slowed her and was frustrating, but much better that she be ready and a little slower than be there on time but get seriously harmed by the first warg they came across.
"She's got the right idea of it." Svana called out. "Everyone, weapons out, be ready."
She followed her own advice, and her sword immediately found its way into her hand. Petr and Pursene followed suit thereafter, and they continued their flight through the forest. The pounding of feet, the clanking of armor, and Tobias's gasping breaths were all that they could hear.
"Less than a kilometer to the edge of the spawning perimeter!" Svana shouted. "Be ready to—"
She was cut off by a warg that appeared directly beside her. Though the Scout moved to counter the beast as soon as she realized it was there, the monster was driven by monstrous fury. Its fangs flashed as it bit into Svana's leg and she shouted as her sword flashed down at the creature. The blade scraped off its hide, and it turned its neck to try to break the bone.
Astrid arrived at nearly the same time as Pursene's shot. The arrow buried itself up to the fletching in the monster's torso, and Astrid kicked it in the throat. It gagged and loosened its grip on the Scout long enough for her to pull her leg free. Astrid raised her hammer to kill the beast, but another arrow buried itself in the warg's eye before she could let her weapon fall.
Warg slain. 5 Experience gained, split among party.
"That was only a level 1?" Svana asked, limping towards Tobias. "Death of the Duchess."
"Surge." Astrid said, ignoring the curse. "They're all gonna be like this."
Before Tobias could finish healing Svana, another pair of wargs jumped out of the nearby brush. Prepared for the attack this time, Astrid took a heavy step forward and smashed her shield into the first beast's snout. Petr stopped the second, and Astrid smashed her hammer down into hers. Before long, the party dealt with the two wargs, and Svana was fully healed.
"Keep moving!" She shouted. "We need to get to the edge!"
The party nodded and sprinted forward, the snarls of wargs filling the air. Astrid roared in challenge and stayed to the side of Petr. Her hammer continued to swing, and even when she failed to kill her target, the rest of the party made sure to finish off the monsters. Like a well-greased wheel, they continued to turn, and, now that sudden monstrous appearances were expected, no others sustained a single injury as they charged towards the border of the wargs' spawn range.
Over a dozen wargs died to the party's attacks as they reached the perimeter. More appeared, but the highest was a level 2, and it was dealt with without much trouble. A small part of Astrid couldn't help but think about how she'd be over 900 experience, were she fighting alone, but that didn't matter. Once they stood at the edge of the perimeter, where Svana was sure they'd gone far enough, Tobias got just enough time to get a little rest in. The Healer actually fell to his knees, panting and gasping, and Astrid couldn't help herself.
"You're pretty weak, huh?"
He couldn't muster the strength to backtalk. The exhausted man did have the energy to shake his fist at her, and Astrid didn't mind. Instead of continuing, she just grinned widely and turned to face the place the monsters were coming from. Then, the first wave of wargs burst through the brushes, and Astrid rethought her optimism.