Almost a day had passed since the intense battle, and we were sitting down, eating another stew I had made.
"Thank you for the food," Stormy said.
"You're welcome," I replied.
"Helps recovery. Every team should have a cook," Harren said.
"Any changes to the stew?" Sam asked.
"No. It is simple and easy to make. If you want something else, there is hardtack, salty meat, or you can wait until we go back to the surface."
"Ah, never mind," he said.
"It is warm and tasty; that is enough," April said.
"Thank you. I think it is time we discussed what happened," I said, and my teammates nodded. "First, good job. Everyone pulled together, and no one died or was seriously hurt."
There were smiles all around until I continued.
"The main issue was our Mana output. The Indomitable outputs the Mana of around ten adventurers and up to twenty in high-intensity combat. Anyone disagree with this?"
April bowed her head when no one said anything.
"We all seriously overlooked the fact that large groups aren't done in the dungeon because Mana attracts monsters. However, instead of trying to assign blame or ending our descent, I think we should take advantage of this."
"Take advantage of a horde trying to kill us, you mean?" Harren asked while looking at me like I was crazy.
I nodded. "I gave it a lot of thought. We survived, so we can handle the pressure. And it would make clearing faster once we get into a rhythm. We can also set up more defenses ahead of time. My idea is thus: we find a chamber, clear it without The Indomitable, then set up a position. Then lure all the monsters from the nearby chambers to our position."
Everyone was silent as they considered my idea.
"We can't pick our battles. We risk a terrible combination overrunning us," April said.
"That is possible, but we survived the last wave. There is no other way to use the warmech in combat. It outputs too much Mana when it goes all out," I replied.
Surviving one near-death situation was not proof that we would survive the next one, but it was no longer impossible. Once done, something was much easier to achieve a second time.
"We all have Mana exhaustion, and our Alchemical toxicity is high. How would we even handle such a situation another time?" Stormy asked.
"We can handle one chamber on our own, just Harren and myself. Then, you and Sam build up stone defenses. We can dig a hole in the chamber's wall or use the tunnel we came through. Just fortify it better so it isn't a last-minute thing. I could also prepare runic countermeasures beforehand."
"Why don't adventurers do this regularly?" Sam asked.
"There is a lot of risk. It is better to be slow and steady than to clear monsters like this. But with the war mech, there is no other option," I explained.
“I can reduce the Mana expenditure, but we can't conceal the output without doing a lot of rework," April added in.
"My concern is the monsters we might attract. That was too close," Harren said, "even though we are fairly well rounded as individuals and more so as a group."
"I can prepare traps. We hit the first waves and trap the entire chamber," Sam said.
"What traps?" Harren asked.
"Mana explosions. Simple and easy to make in large numbers. We would need a Mana core for each explosion, but then we set up 500, which would wipe out around 1,000 to 2,000 monsters. The main thing is that we would maintain our reserves," he said.
"That would be a large contribution," Stormy said.
All my cores are needed to fuel the war mech and for repairs. I am just covering my costs. "I have nothing extra," replied April.
Stolen story; please report.
"Traps and the expense would be fine by me. We can try a more controlled battle and see how it goes. One more day of rest and then we move to find a suitable chamber," I said.
"Stone pillars would work well in front of the tunnel entrance to break up the flow of monsters. Can you make them?" Harren asked Stormy.
"Yes, it will take a bit of work. Ideally, I would need a day to set up defenses and recover," she said.
"That would be more than enough time for me to prepare traps," Sam added, rubbing his head.
His bald head was amusing. It made me think of an egg.
I focused back on the conversation while containing a smile at his new appearance. At least my helmet had protected my head from the bursts of heat and fire, the same with Harren.
Stormy clearly had her own defenses for her appearance while April had been in the war mech.
"Teach me Stone Wall; it isn't a skill I specialize in," Harren said, and Stormy nodded.
"I can give you a basic course," she replied.
I would be carefully preparing a complex runic array ahead of time.
"How will we trigger the monsters if we clear the chamber beforehand?" April asked.
"I can do something with a runic array. Creating a large burst of Mana and noise is simple enough. Could The Indomitable fire multiple attacks from its High Impact Cannon?" I asked.
"No. The power is too much, and the weapon needs careful servicing after each use," April answered with a shake of her head.
That was unfortunate, but not unexpected.
"If we have monsters that are immune to fire and with fire-based attacks, we would be in trouble," Harren pointed out.
"That's why we are around, and Stormy can counter with other elemental-type spell skills."
"If a monster is immune to fire, then it will take a lot of damage from cold-based spell skills, normally. It is highly unlikely it would have something more complex unless it was an Abnormal or Champion," she said.
Harren said, "The plan could work, but we also have to consider the other option: that the war mech isn't suited for fighting monsters in the dungeon as it is."
Everyone went quiet after that statement. He was basically saying we should return to the surface and kick April and The Indomitable out of the team.
That would mean the end of the team, since Stormy would probably leave as well. Sam wouldn't be useful unless he were part of a larger team. That would just leave Harren and me. But I wouldn't want to adventure just with him.
He looked over at me to get my opinion on the matter.
"It is a valid suggestion, but we also won. The worst of the danger is behind us now that we know what happened and how to manage things from now on. I am slightly inclined to keep going and see how things work out," I said.
"Even with all the problems?" Harren asked, and I nodded.
"It's new. Of course, there are going to be issues. But the war mech also did the most damage out of any of us. Unlike us mere flesh and blood beings, it can draw on Mana directly from Mana cores. That allows it to use its weapons constantly if they are working. So, while the pressure is greater, it helps shoulder more of that pressure."
"I am making adjustments to the firing speed and the other weak points in the weapons of The Indomitable. Also, it is gaining levels. It reached its first class and passed level 20 in the last battle. It now has an orange class titled Ranged War Mech, granting a boost to its firepower and how much its weapons can endure. In addition, there are several skills it has gained that will help things along," April explained.
Now that was an interesting development.
"How do the stats work?" I asked.
"Similar to a person's stats. Beyond that, it is classified along with the exact skills," April said and I frowned. "I can share anything that will greatly affect combat like weapons, but passive support skills, no one shares all of them."
That was true, and it was rude of me to ask, but I was overly curious. How would a thing of metal and components improve with stats?
"We would need to have very careful positioning. Even then, the last battle was too close. Also, we will go through a lot more potions," Harren said.
"All true. But this method should only get easier, not harder," I replied.
"I am for continuing. While it got incredibly dangerous there at the end, we managed," Stormy said.
"I will follow the will of the group," Sam said.
That was a poor attitude to have. One should always vote. Saying that he didn't want to vote or be neutral was basically admitting he had no sense of what was happening. These were the little things that came with experience, experience he didn't have. Correcting him in this discussion would have been incredibly rude.
The look Harren was giving Sam was one of extreme distaste. He had the same thought as I.
If you elected a leader, then you could abdicate your thinking responsibility to the team, but we didn't do that. Technically, anyone called out combat instructions, and they did, but I was the one who managed most of them because I was the best for the job.
I would need to speak to Sam in private and then explain why adventurers found abdicating incredibly offensive.
"I say we continue, and both The Indomitable will and I work harder," April said.
Now that was the right attitude to have. Even though Harren disagreed, he did not become annoyed with her decision. Team dynamics were exhausting in certain ways, but I could handle this much after dealing with my parents.
"Looks like we are staying. Another day off?" Harren asked me, and I nodded.
"Tomorrow. Gives us time to fully recover, especially from the Mana exhaustion. Our reserves must recover slowly. At least they are for me," I said, and there were nods from the group.
"Will give us time to work on other skills and take some time evaluating how to handle such a battle next time," Stormy said.
It wasn't an efficient strategy, but it was the only strategy that would work with the war mech tagging along. We should recover to around 90 to 95 percent with another day of rest, which was what we could expect after a battle like that.
Even if we rested for a week, there would only be a minor improvement in our states. We needed a much longer rest if we wanted to fully recover, which wasn't possible in the dungeon.
That was the biggest risk for adventurers, not the enormous battles, but becoming too exhausted.
I kept thinking about that, since one couldn't easily evaluate it on their status, and it was a matter of life and death.