He had constructed a good chunk of the dungeon in preparation for the fifth wave. If the boulder trap still worked well for the fourth wave then he would keep it. If it didn’t, then he was going to scrap it to create a complex maze like what he used in the first two waves to, hopefully, slow the monster king down.
He struggled to think about defenses for his dungeon. He had abandoned the idea of using spike pits for these more powerful creatures. His intuition told him that even if the boulder trap still worked well, it wouldn’t work on the upcoming king. He didn’t want to bet completely on his own monsters defeating it; it was safer to use multiple fronts of attack than to rely on one.
However, the list of structures and tactics to use the environment to repel and kill his enemies was rapidly shrinking. He was sure that with enough creativity, knowledge, or precision he could create something but he didn’t have a lot of any of those attributes. His biggest weapon was his knowledge of the game which, while important, wasn’t everything.
If he could, in some way, create a cave-in like he saw in movies and fiction, he was sure that the king-level monster would be weakened. After all, a cave-in was essentially the mountain falling down on top of whatever poor thing was underneath it. He didn’t think that the main boss of the first few waves could shrug off the weight of a mountain falling on top of it.
That was only true if both his assumptions were correct and he could actually use them. He was neither a geologist or mathematician to verify the crushing force of a cave-in and he had very little clue how to set one up in a controlled way that could be used as a weapon.
He hadn’t figured it out yet though. He could only shrug and push his thoughts to the side as he focused on the timer ticking down towards the fourth wave. He watched the animals collected outside the dungeon and saw that the leading monsters were stronger than the last. He could only guess that these monsters were in the late stages of level 30, maybe even more. He couldn’t view their status until they came into the dungeon.
There were few individual creatures in this army, but there were more magic beasts and stronger magic beasts than in the previous waves. If he had decided to stick to a more traditional dungeon layout, he struggled to imagine the kind of destruction these creatures could do. Even in the game with their much more tamed AI, the lack of powerful defenders would leave his dungeon a complete mess.
The time continued to tick downwards to the final seconds of preparation. The bear and deer had started to adapt to the change in the mana that they experienced. The mana not only increased the power or casting frequency, it slightly improved their characteristics. For example, the bear’s [Strong Skin] and [Strong Bones] were now slightly stronger and magic resistant than before.
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The bear and the deer both needed to level up for the slight buff of higher mana to become apparent. He had entertained the idea of not using the boulder so that the bear and the deer could level up, but he had decided against it. The lesson from the dungeon core getting damaged was etched into his soul. It was better for him to choose the path with the most safety.
The timer reached zero and the fourth attack began. The army of magic beasts rushed in and mimicked the previous wave. The difference was that there were many powerful earth magic users that loved to stop and start digging holes in the tunnel. One even managed to dig through to a sealed off portion of the dungeon.
This didn’t ruin his boulder trap though. The parts of the dungeons they wandered into were empty for the most part and none of these monsters had any interest in exploring. With their sensitivity to mana, they could vaguely sense the dungeon core and so they returned to the trapped tunnel.
At the right moment, Jacob gave the command and the boulder was released at the top of the tunnel. This time the boulder didn’t jump and rushed straight to the invaders.
Sensing the danger approaching, the smarter general monsters sent the weaker creatures out in front while using their magic to create defenses. When the boulder appeared, they seemed to realize their mistake but it was too late.
The weaker animals that were sent forward were flattened. The strongest of this wave combined their might and magic, using vines, stone, ice, and wind. The combined power of these spells managed to not only slow the boulder, but bring it to a fragile standstill.
The weight of the compacted stone that the boulder was made from was too much for any of their spells, independent or combined, could hold stably. They were forced to keep pumping their mana into the spells to keep the deadly massive rock from crushing them.
They realized the precarious situation they were in and those with earth magic broke off and started to create a tunnel into the sealed off part of the dungeon a little away from the boulder. They combined their might and dug through fast then cried to announce the newly created safety.
Slowly, the animals moved back and retreated down the new path, but each movement weakened their hold on the boulder. It started to roll again and quickly recovered the momentum that it had lost. Many magic beasts and a few of the strongest had managed to get out of the way, but many key ones failed to reach safety in time and were crushed.
The once mighty invasion force had been reduced severely as the stronger were forced to hold to boulder at bay while the weaker had the luxury to retreat. There were still a few of the stronger ones but the boulder had drained a lot of the mana, especially from the strongest remaining.
Jacob didn’t give them the time to recover. He marked the bear, deer, and ant to bring them to the invaders to finish them off. The bear was the first and started to attack them. He commanded it to use its power sparingly, using the [Reinforcement] spell for defense instead of attack for now.
The ant was then used to attack while the deer healed and provided support. The magic beasts were distressed and failed to fight strategically. They fell one after another until they were all killed and the fourth wave was defeated.
