Joshua was currently inside of a cavern of ice. Seeing various items that had caught his attention. Behind Joshua were corpses of ice centipedes that tried to attack him, including a few winter scorpions and cavern spiders. They had good loot but what was on Joshua's mind was breaking through all of these things that are a mixture of rocks and ore. Most of these need to be identified by a skill known as 'Decryption' or 'Analyst' to allow for everyone to see what the items are.

Not having that skill is something that may be bad for Joshua. He should invest in such skills when he can. Joshua continued mining through the caverns. There was a lot of things inside. Continuing until he found an open clearing with an Ice Golem in front of him.

Ice Golem Level 75 HP 25,500 MP 50,000 Skills Rage of Ice Inflicts Ice Damage. Territorial Being Enemies in territory suffer effects of its environemnt Frost Burst Creates a ball of ice spheres that explode into ice shards to strike its intended target.

Joshua readied his shotgun as the Ice Golem was preparing its attacks. He was not going to take his time with it. Blasting its arms off, then its legs. Then its head. There was the blue gem inside that was its core and Joshua could see its health did not even drop at all so that means he just has to fire at it more. Tilting the shotgun to the side, then quickly reloading it. That was something Joshua had gotten used to, and keeping his eye on the Ice Golem as it restored its body parts.

Taking aim again to blow its chest area off, then firing two shots to the chest. Left hand grabbing Rayland's Unforgiven to fire off the finishing blows into it. Though he did manage to get two bullets in, the remaining four weren't able to go in. Ice Golem readied its frost burst. The sphere exploded, unleashing icicles everywhere. Joshua reloaded the revolver with one hand while his other hand loaded shells into the shotgun. The icicles were neverending they were going without any direction and the Ice Golem was trying to keep track of Joshua's movements.

Joshua managed to blow it away with a few shots, tearing through its chest cavity with the shotgun in his right hand. Then firing a shot with the revolver. Managing to blow the chest away. Even then, Joshua could feel his arm getting a bit tired thanks to that. It was mainly due to a status effect.

'Pushing Yourself Too Hard' - Tingling sensation in arms and a bit of stress on muscles.

That was very new, but it wasn't anything bad per se. First thing's first, the loot.

Lootable items

Ice Golem core (Fractured) x 1

Ice Golem shards x 25

Ice Golem energy crystals x 3

Joshua grabbed what he could and headed back, when he arrived the Fortress was all quiet. The Resource Workers and Venerators were all resting and it was due to the barrier made by Ferno. Joshua put the ores down for the rest of them to identify. Lugasa seemed to be bored out of his mind as he was just laying on the ground all cozy, this time in his wolf form instead. The kids were lying on his body, perhaps his crimson fur was soft or it was fluffy to them.

Whatever it was Joshua headed back out again, he did notice the fortress was quiet but that did not mean the dark elves were not observing them. They were observing the humans, Joshua got close without them noticing and twisted their heads backwards. Then he took out a knife to get the most of the meat from their bodies. He was definitely not going to be eating these in front of the kids. It might be too scary.

Joshua put the meat aside and went back to the fortress. There was a bit more time until the 4th Wave. He was going to wait it out. This time he was going to use Barton's Burden, loading the magazines and waiting for the dark elves to make their way.

They were more sadistic. Willing to torture, to hurt humans in whatever way possible. Those kinds of traits made it easier for Joshua to kill them. No remorse, but the dark elves back on Mulligan were docile after... Well after most of the male population had been killed by him. Then again, Joshua realized he had killed quite a number of dark elves considerably. He even ate them.

The 4th Wave began but it was all quiet.

"Where are they?" Joshua had suspected the dark elves were focusing on attrition instead of anything else. They were not one to play by the rules or even follow any form of regulation that the system had set. They would work their way around regulations as long the system granted them the chance. Waves don't operate on a timer, they operate by number of enemies killed. There were only 30 but the trouble with them, is their nature. Joshua watched how a Venerator had taken an arrow to the head and instantly went to the Dead Zone.

Of course, their stats were higher. Around the 70s, so it made sense to why the Venerators were not prepared. It was also because the dark elven rangers had skills known as 'Sudden Death' where an arrow that strikes the target will die instantly. For Wave Spires it was nothing but for any other Spires that was asking for a lot of trouble. Joshua fired Barton's Burden into the treetops. He noticed the number on the screen went from 30 to 29.

It meant that he did kill one, but there were more. They threw bottles of potions to their path, the nose reached the noses of the humans inside the fortress, causing them to slowly cough and tear up.

"Oh it burns!"

"I FEEL LIKE I PUKED THROUGH MY NOSE." Joshua heard the comments from the others, it was likely their equivalent to tear gas. Joshua fired a few more shots into the trees. Only to watch the trees vanish from his vision, so the dark elves were using magic to mess with their senses. This was a bad match up for the long ranged ones because they can barely seethings properly. Ferno's flame barrier was protecting the Resource Worker members.

Joshua felt a tingle from the back of his neck, he ducked to avoid a knife from a dark elf that snuck up behind him. Joshua shoved the barrel of the rifle to the elf's chest, unloading into it and then drawing Priest Alex's Blessing to fire off a few shots into the other dark elves that were running everywhere else. Joshua could keep up with them but the problem was to ascertain which of the dark elves were real and which was the illusion. His left hand was reloading the rifle while his right hand held the pistol. Having a red dot on it has helped him snap on targets easier but it doesn't change that dark elves were trickier. If the environment was a bit more like an indoor area, there would be more options but because of how open the fortress was. Joshua did not have much to work with.

Even if he has higher speed it does not change much. Joshua was still human and his vision could be messed with and dark elves are masters at crafting at using magic to mess with the sensors. Joshua was starting to see everything in his area as a dark elves, even the position where the Resource Workers were. The other Venerators were attacking each other.

"Lugasa be my eyes." Joshua said, closing his eyes. It may have been as a result of inhaling the gas or whatever chemical they used.

"2 at your twelve." Joshua fired the pistol, letting the rifle hang over his chest. He heard two beeps which meant he must have managed to take them down.

"3 on your 4." Joshua turned to his 4 o'clock, firing off a few more shops. Only hearing one beep, it meant that the other two must have moved.

"Arrows coming from your 11. Knives coming from your 6. Roll to the left." Joshua did as he was told, hearing the sounds of the string from the bow ringing in his ears. He got up firing away into the area where the arrows came from. Then he quickly swapped magazines, right thumb flicking the slide release.The moment he heard the slide track forward, Joshua readied himself to fire. Opening his eyes, he could see the effect has lessened.

"Lugasa... Can you take care of them?"

"Yeah. Just needed you to dwiddle them down a bit. They may get a bit more annoying if we aren't careful."Lugasa slammed his paws together, unleashing crimson flames that purged the entire area within seconds. It helped clear the 4th wave but Joshua was a bit uneasy.

The 30 dark elves were already giving trouble and every Venerator assigned to this was in the Dead Zone. It may be due to how they operate or dark elves may be part of the few rare enemies that they see.

Dark Elves did not exist until you came out your spire, Lord.

Newer Black Spires tend to have hidden enemies that have not been discovered and it is also why Black Spires have a very high level requirement to use them in the first place.

Even Minotaurs, Bipedal Golems and Dryads did not appear into the world until your spire had ended. It is also why Venorators are unable to fight them effectively.

Now that made sense, the Venorators were C-Ranks and maybe they thought dark elves were like their normal elven counterparts. So even veterans can get thrown off by a lot of things eh?

The 5th wave was going to be the same as the current wave. The only thing that changed was the number and there was a clear part of no ambushes. 48 Hour time frame was given, the Venorators and Resource Workers joined together to do some exploring since they all felt safe.

The no barrier restriction was removed too. Now this has Joshua feeling uncertain. Akin to a nagging feeling in the back of his head, a punch in the gut and the kind that may trigger a 'flight' or 'fight' response. Whatever it was, Joshua was hoping for it to be uneventful.