Evil Avalon - Volume 1 - Chapter 13

Chapter 13: Bridge-Dropping

I exited the classroom, leaving behind the gloom the career fair had stirred up, and set out to raid the dungeon. At home, I examined my rental weapons and new armor. Putting on the intimidating (in my opinion) armor energized me. I practically skipped back to the school building, then tiptoed down the stairs to the empty classroom in the first basement level with the gate. Like before, the room was dark with nobody inside.

“Cool, let’s see if I can access the gate from this side,” I said.

The other day, I’d registered my magic in the gate room on the fifth dungeon floor, so I should be able to activate the magic circle in this room and open a warp gate back to the fifth floor... But I wasn’t sure it would work.

I allowed magic to go through my hands and slowly concentrated it on the wall. A blue light glowed on the magic circle while it produced a low rumbling, and the gate opened.

“It worked. This is how I’ll get into the dungeon from now on.”

I’d been hoping that I could use this as my entry point, so I was relieved. The usual method of entry into the dungeon, through the ticket barriers outside the Adventurers’ Guild, had hordes of adventurers roaming. Sundays were the busiest day, so it wasn’t uncommon for half an hour to pass to get to the portal.

As I jumped through the gate, my vision stretched and distorted, then restored itself to show my new surroundings. I pulled up my tablet to check my location, which it read as the fifth floor of the dungeon. It was the room I remembered, so I was confident that the warp had been successful.

Opposite the gate room was the main street leading to the sixth floor, which was why no other adventurers were nearby. That was convenient for me as I had plans for the fifth-floor raid.

Unlike the broad, level maps of the first four floors, the fifth floor had a convoluted layout, with some parts divided by ravines and connected by rope bridges. The terminal’s map function compressed this onto a two-dimensional image, making it difficult for navigation. Adventurers needed additional information about such areas to avoid getting lost.

My destination for today’s raid was a rope bridge in one of those difficult-to-navigate areas. Players in DEC had a strategy: you lured monsters to a bridge to cut the ropes and send them to their demise to get their experience points without fighting. Of course, this meant you’d have to climb down to where the monsters had fallen if you wanted their loot or give up on retrieving it.

The fifth floor was also home to a secret boss, the orc lord. At level 10, the orc lord was significantly tougher than the other monsters that spawned on the fifth floor since it used weapons skills. Even worse, its devastating War Cry skill summoned multiple level 6 orc soldiers and strengthened every orc nearby. Adventuring parties unaware of the orc lord’s existence had lost almost all their members upon encountering this monster. It was so dangerous that the Adventurers’ Guild had released regular alerts for adventurers to stay vigilant.

However...

The orc lord wasn’t fast, and I could use its War Cry ability to create a train of orc soldiers without running all over the dungeon to pick up mobs. I could then lead that train to a rope bridge and take them all out, reaping the big experience point bonus from the high-level orc lord and those who followed it. This defect made the orc lord a valuable target. I was grateful its ability didn’t attract orc mages or archers.

Only one orc lord could exist on this floor at a time, and it would take an hour to respawn. The same applied to rope bridges and traps, so I’d know when the orc lord had become active. It was as though the devs had designed everything in this area to make bridge-dropping possible.

But I had to check a few things before I could begin bridge-dropping.

I had to ensure no one else had dropped the bridge I planned to use. If someone had done so, I wouldn’t be able to use this exploit. Since many people had known the trick, I’d rarely used this strategy. Although, I doubted anyone from this world knew about bridge-dropping based on the warnings posted about the orc lord. Having other adventurers doing this would mean the orc lord wouldn’t spend enough time alive to threaten them, and the orc lord room would almost always be empty.

Next, I wanted to check which traps lay between the rope bridge and the orc lord room so I wouldn’t waltz straight into a pitfall at the head of a train of orcs. Squaring off against the orc lord in a cramped hole was nightmare fuel. I would need to study the map on my terminal to know if I could go to the bridge. I’d memorized the map already, but better safe than sorry.

Finally, I had to probe the orc room to confirm nobody else was there. If there were, they might get caught up in the train.

None of these would take too long, so I started. I passed goblin soldiers a few times on the way, which I got rid of by ambushing them as they passed a corner or backstabbing them.

I reached the rope bridge and confirmed that it was still standing. After that, I went to the orc lord room on the western edge of the map.

Good thing I didn’t come across any adventurers, I thought. How about the orc lord? Ah, yep, there he is. He looks stronger than he did in the game.

The orc lord was the only monster in the twenty-square-meter room and stood taller than other orcs at over two meters. Its sizable arms bulged with muscles, and it carried a gigantic club, although “log” seemed more accurate. It remained still, making me think it might sleep standing up. Occasionally it babbled, “Ooh! Gaaar gaar...” So perhaps it was dreaming.

Luckily for me, my assumption that nobody else was bridge-dropping was correct. Only one group could do this on the fifth floor at a time, and leveling up would take more effort if I couldn’t access this strategy.

Bingo! I thought. Let’s get going!

I used a lighter on the fuse of a firecracker I’d brought and threw it into the room. The firecracker went off with a loud snap! Snap, snap, snap!

The orc lord swiveled its head around to see what was happening and spotted me by the entrance. When our eyes met, a cruel smirk formed on its lips, and it activated its War Cry skill.

“Ooh gaaaaaaaaar!!!” it growled.

Five clouds of black mist formed simultaneously around the orc lord, from which orc soldiers wearing leather armor and wielding curved swords like scimitars emerged.

Let’s get this train started! I thought.

So, I sprinted toward the rope bridge quickly, leading a long train of monsters behind me. As it chased after me, the orc lord reused its War Cry skill, summoning more orc soldiers. Stray goblin soldiers that had spawned nearby added themselves to the mix. More passengers for the train.

I knew the orc lord could run no faster than an ordinary orc and figured this stage would be a breeze. But I turned my head slightly and glanced from the side...and saw the bloodthirsty eyes of a monster horde intent on killing me, kicking up clouds of dust as they chased me.

“Oh, God! Running for my life from a train is terrifying!”

If they caught me, I’d be a goner. Cold sweat soaked my body, and I wanted to curl up into a ball out of fear. Instead, I clenched my teeth and ran as hard and as fast as possible through the dungeon for the next minute and a half. Then, the rope bridge came into sight.

The bridge was just a series of planks suspended from two wires, so the whole thing would come down if one cut those wires. Other rope bridges like this resided on the fifth floor, but this was the best one due to its proximity to the orc lord room, and its location made recovering loot easier. Many other bridges were too far away, too close to the ground, or built above areas difficult to reach.

“O-Oh God, stop wobbling!”

I leaped onto the bridge and tried to keep my running pace up, but the bridge was wobbling so much that I nearly lost my footing. My weight probably made it worse. I slowed down, still trying to get across quickly and taking care not to rush so much that I’d make the bridge unstable again.

The monsters caught up and piled up on the bridge, which was only fifty meters long and one meter fifty wide. This new rush of dozens of orcs and goblins made the shaking much worse than before. Leading the pack was the orc lord, towering over the rest.

Between the wobbling and the group of monsters, I almost got scared stiff. But the orc lord was behind me, and I had to keep moving.

My “Aaaaah!” and the pursuing orcs’ “Ooh gaaar!” harmonized and echoed throughout the dungeon ravine. I felt my heart was about to burst, yet I pushed myself forward for one last spring, diving head-first past the end of the bridge and back to land.

I snatched a rented knife from my belt and held it aloft. Then, I swung it down with all my strength toward the wires supporting the bridge.

“Ha...ha... See you in hell!!!” I yelled.

“Ooh gaar? Ooh gaaaaaaaaar!!!”

The orcs stared at me in shock as they fell. Dropping the bridge had taken them completely by surprise. The drop was a good eighty meters, and the potential energy from this height was too much to be survivable.

Ten seconds later, my body grew hot, the signal that I was about to level up.

“So many...experience points,” I said, panting. “Level 6...in just one go.”

About thirty or forty monsters had followed me. The orc lord and orc soldiers came with bonus experience points because they were at higher levels. Plenty of goblin soldiers were also mixed in, so a single bridge-drop had earned me many experience points.

After catching my breath, I rose unsteadily and walked toward the ravine the monsters were in so I could collect my loot. There, I found several magic gems and a few glimmering metal coins.

“Hmm... Oh! These are dungeon coins.”

People from various fantasy races ran specific shops in hidden areas of the map, which were difficult to find. But players loved visiting them because they sold rare magic and appraisal items, and they had enabled players to change their job. These special shops didn’t accept Japanese yen for payment, and players had to remember to bring dungeon coins or try to trade magic gems if they wanted to buy items. The exchange rate for magic gems wasn’t great, making trading expensive. So, it was best to collect a decent supply of dungeon coins before venturing in.

The coins the orc lord had dropped were three copper pieces. Each copper piece was one lir, the lowest division of the currency. A silver piece would be ten lir, and a gold piece would be one hundred. A lir was worth the same as a magic gem from a tenth-floor monster. I wanted to keep these coins to spend them in the hidden store on the tenth floor.

I had an hour before the bridge repaired itself. After I picked up the magic gems and the lir coins, I stopped for a break and took sips from the sports drink I’d brought. I unfurled a mat on the ground, lay down, steadied my breathing, and thought about the chase.

Before enacting my bridge-drop plan, I’d convinced myself I was fast enough to outrun orcs despite my weight and debuff halving my agility. However, my lead on the monsters in the train had been much narrower than I’d hoped. I also hadn’t anticipated how much the orc lord’s loud pursuit would paralyze me out of fear. The aftermath of the chase let it sink in that I was betting my life on this plan, which I hadn’t grasped in the past. Now, I understood how difficult the people of this world had it compared to the game.

Because of the short travel time, I’d initially planned to bridge-drop another five times. Yet, the first one had worn me out mentally and physically. I needed to remember that, although I was level 6, Piggy’s obesity and debuff skill meant I was weaker than I thought. My body needed more time to rest for it to function.

That said, I was ecstatic that bridge-dropping worked like in the game. I now had a surefire way to power level.

“I’ll let my level get to a comfortable number, then bring my family,” I said.

The bulk of experience points gained from bridge-dropping went to the person who cut the rope, which meant another person could steal my points by cutting it, even after I’d lured the monster to a bridge. I’d need to level up more to ensure I kept the train at a safer distance than today. Essentially, I wanted nothing to go wrong when my family was around.

There were a few other spots deeper in the dungeon where we could power level by exploiting the geography or traps. Still, my sister was dying to go on a raid, so I wanted to bring her here with me soon. My father would probably benefit from the bridge-drop trick, seeing he got stuck raiding the fourth floor for years. As for my mother, I wasn’t sure whether she was interested in raiding. I’d have to ask her at some point.

“Okay,” I said. “Time to start the next train. I’ll kill some goblins on the way.”

I slew a few goblin soldiers as I headed to the orc lord room and had no trouble following their attacks. Even my response time was great, so I was in no danger. I was now strong enough to beat them in a fair fight without ambushing them.

Overall, I led another three trains to the bridge that day before my body and mind reached their limit, so I called it a day. By then, I was level 7.