Lija, Hera, and a few other mages spent most of their preparation time setting up traps and things that could block the monsters from reaching the wall. If that didn't work, the hopes were that it would at least funnel them a bit and leave less ground for each team member to cover. However, they would have to protect an area about 40 meters wide each. Helena suggested that they keep the mages and people with long-range attacks in the middle. That way, if anything happened, they could assist those in the edges. While they were getting ready, Leo appeared and joined the team. Having him and Tiger along would help a lot. The frog had grown a bit, but the biggest change was its build. Before, he looked like just that round creature with small limbs compared to its body. Now, his body was sturdier, and his limbs a bit longer and more muscular. It still looked like a rain frog, but it seemed like that would change eventually.

"Glad to have you here, Leo. Now each of us has to cover less ground," Alex said.

"Well… sort of. In the end, each of us has to take care of 37 meters. Actually, 36 and some change, instead of the 40 we would have to cover without him," Silah replied.

"It's still better than nothing, isn't it?" Alex scoffed.

"I mean, yeah. I guess."

"Alex… you don't have to be mean," Hera then turned to her girlfriend, "Last time we were part of a rampage, we had to appreciate every little advantage we got. In the last few days, we were dead tired."

"How long did the rampage last?" Silah asked.

"About a week. Right?" Hera turned to Alex.

"Nah, it was just three days. It felt like a week, though," Alex replied.

Everyone got some extra supplies from the guild and some food and water. It was just some rations, but it was better than nothing. Seeing that, some of the dwarves who were still around appeared carrying trays of food and drinks. Nothing alcoholic since no one wanted their protectors to be inebriated. Most of the people of the city refused to leave, even after Rutigan himself went around asking for people to stay in hotels. In the end, only the elderly, the children, and a few others went away. Everyone else was going to stay and help with what they could. Right now, that help would be in the form of food and water for the teams who would fight against the monsters. Another thing everyone was instructed to do, was to keep an eye out for creatures in the city. If anyone saw something that seemed suspicious, they should warn the guild.

Despite all of the people being considered civilians with no combat experience, all dwarves that were still in the city were high level when considering the level of the room itself. There wasn't a single person living in the town under level 10, but if counting the average, it would be much higher. That happened only because of a few outliers like Naka and Risli.

While they were eating the meal prepared by the dwarves, Silah approached Hera, "Can I take a look at your weapons and armor for a moment?"

"I can give you my chest piece, but I can't exactly take off my pants here," Hera replied.

"Don't worry, I can't do much with leather pants anyway. I still don't get why change from a full metal armor to this mixed match of leathery and steel."

"It's better to move like that, and Daskka kept trying to climb inside my armor."

"Where is she, by the way?"

"On the necklace. I know that most people here still get spooked when I walk around with her. I mean, you don't even have pets here, so I kind of get it. Since the rampage is going on, I figured people would be a bit on edge about her. I'll wait until we are in our positions to call her here," Hera explained while taking off her armor.

"Well… you're not wrong. Even I took a while to get used to her. It's weird to see a monster being so nice. Like even those dogs or cats that humanity seems to love so much. They can kill someone if they want to."

"That's the point. We don't let them want to. I guess explaining that is a bit weird, but they are adorable."

"That they are," Silah nodded as she started to cast a spell on Hera's gear. A few minutes later, she was done and gave the items back to Hera, "Here. The buff lasts for nine hours. It takes a lot of mana, but I'm using a couple of crystals to cast the spell," Silah explained.

Hera picked her gear and took a look with her [Inspect]. She started off with the handaxe that Silah had given her. It was good that she had figured out she could edit how much information was shown. That way the windows didn't need the full description of the items and she could just look at the important information.

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Dwarven Hope

Rarity: Rare

Attribute scaling: (Buff Applied)

Strength x 1.8 (3.6)

Agility x 1.8 (3.6)

Endurance x 1.8 (3.6)

Charisma x 1.8 (3.6)

Weapon Skill:

I will protect you

An intense desire to protect the user was present during the crafting process. When the user takes damage, there is a 10% chance that this skill will activate, increasing the user's endurance by 20% for 5 seconds. During that effect, any healing the user receives is increased by 10%.

Current Buff.

Doubles the scaling of the weapon.

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Executioner's Blade

Rarity: Uncommon

Level restriction: level 20

Attribute scaling: (Buff Applied)

Intelligence x 2.9 (5.8)

Charisma x 2.6 (5.2)

Dexterity x 2.2 (4.4)

Weapon Skill:

Executioner's strike.

Attacks that hit a vital spot in the target will deal 100% more damage.

Current Buff.

Doubles the scaling of the weapon.

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Protection Breastplate - Mass-Produced - Failure

Rarity: Rare

Level restriction: Level 25

Attribute scaling: (Buff Applied)

Charisma x 4.3 (8.6)

Luck x 4.2 (8.4)

Agility x 3.9 (7.8)

Armor passive skill:

Magic protection

Reduces the effect of any magic attacks by 10%

Current Buff.

Doubles the scaling of the armor.

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"Holy shit, Silah. This is ridiculous. Since when can you make a buff this strong?" Hera gasped while looking at armor.

"Since a couple of weeks ago. I was toying with the idea of just bringing out the natural power of the armor. The only problem is that I need to know the material used like the back of my hand for the spell to work," Silah explained.

Alex leaned over, "Dam, this is stupid. How does the spell work?"

"Basically, I make a copy of the item made out of mana and mash them together. That's why I need to know what the item is made of and why I can't work with wood or leather, and why the special effects can't be affected by that. Essentially, I have to know how to make the item myself for this to work," Silah explained.

"Oh, right. Raise your hand if you can use some elemental buff on any weapons," Helena asked the group.

"I can give a wind buff," Alex replied.

"Lightning for me," a dwarf added.

"I can do a fire one, but it only lasts 10 minutes. Any more than that, and it's just not worth it with my mana," Leo said.

"OK. Alex, and …. Sorry, I don't know your name," Helena turned to the female dwarf.

"Rangalian, dwarven fighter, level 37."

"Right, Rangalian and Alex. How long will your buffs last?" Helena asked.

"Depends on how much mana I use. I can make it last maybe 12 hours if I spend all my mana. To last 9 hours, it would take about half of it," Alex explained.

"Mine lasts for 5 hours, but I can stretch it. I can even recast the spell as long as I see the weapon," Rangalian added.

"Perfect. I have a spell that doubles the duration of any elemental buff. Between us three, we can give everyone an elemental weapon. Leo, I can use that on your weapon too, but once I cast the spell, it only affects the current buff. Also, if any of the monsters are resistant to that element, I can trigger the spell to remove the elemental buff entirely," Helena explained.

With a nod, they spread out their weapons so everyone could get a buff. The spells used were pretty standard. They just added a portion of the damage dealt as elemental damage. Hera ended up getting one handaxe with a shadow buff and the other with a lightning one. She could use wind spells herself, and she wanted to get a wider coverage of elements just in case. After giving everyone the available buffs, they headed to the rocky beach.

Despite Hera having some ways to fight at a distance, she ended up being on the third spot by the north side of the wall. Now she called Daskka and kept the snake that was the size of a scarf on her shoulders. To her left would be Silah, and to her right, closer to the end of the wall, was Alex's spot. The assassin was a melee attacker, she had a spell that allowed her to close the gap quickly, but that wasn't going to help cover other areas. If she did that to help someone else, her position would be left vulnerable.

Blue was almost in the middle of the pack. Despite her being someone who favored close-quarters combat, the controller could affect almost the entire battlefield because of her legacy. She even prepared a large cloud that would be in the cave's ceiling. If anyone needed her, they could either give her a signal or use one of the small balls of wool that she gave to everyone. During the past year, she learned a lot about her legacy, and one of the things she could do was use some random materials as targets for a larger cloud. The only issue was that doing so would destroy the material. In the end, even if that was a problem, she also had a limited amount of mana in the cloud. Having a limited amount of 'emergency lightning' would make things easier for her.

Leo stayed in the opposite corner of the wall. The hunter had ways to pull monsters close to him and bring flying creatures to the ground, but he lacked any significant long-range attack. Smack dab in the middle of the field was Helena's spot. Even if the mage was level 24, she was still much stronger than anyone around that level. Even some dwarves well into level 40 would get impressed with some of the spells she could use.

When the three-hour timer was over, Ogryn warned everyone to get ready, and they all waited for the monsters to come. Some time passed, but nothing was happening. After about half an hour, some noises came from the other side of the city. Thanks to the mages that were scouting the area, the information was quickly passed along. It seemed like the sheep from the Woolly Plains appeared and started attacking the team in the farmland. So far, only the people in the lake weren't fighting.

Another two hours went by, and everyone was feeling relaxed. The one monster that appeared might have been an outlier, or maybe even a wendigo. Everyone was keeping to their posts, but at the same time, they were all talking through their communicators.

At the end of the third hour, all the water in the lake started to be splashed around. It seemed like they were watching a feeding frenzy of a school of fish.

"Everyone, get ready!" Helena called, understanding that this could signal that things would start.

The splashing got stronger and stronger until it suddenly stopped. All the water started to calm down as Hera looked towards the bottom of the lake. A bright light was still there, but she still couldn't see anything moving around. Fifteen minutes passed after the water returned to its peaceful state, but everyone was still on edge. Waiting for the moment when the monsters would strike. That changed when dozens of dog-sized fish jumped out of the water, snapping their turtle-like jaws at the team.

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Brown-Fin Snapper - Level 5 - (Scale affinity)

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