It was hard to see, what with the trees in the way, but Ace could tell they weren't hardly any distance into the floor. Maybe if this floor had monsters distributed like the others, that wouldn't have been a problem. However, with the way the bird monsters were attacking? Each swoop of the giant birds required a lot of effort to deflect or defend against.

So, if they waited until they needed to turn back, chances were they wouldn't make it. Ace had no delusions the birds would stop attacking just because they were retreating. Though he did guess that there wouldn't be any golems to deal with, not that he would bet on that either.

Ace focused on his party members, one by one. They all seemed fresh enough, so he decided to keep going for the moment. It just wouldn't feel right to turn around so soon after taking a long rest. Besides, they had just spent so much time training, how could they turn back now?

With that thought, Ace almost froze up. There was the taste of hubris, something that had already gotten one of their own killed. While it might not have been his party, that didn't mean he couldn't learn from the disaster. "We're turning around!"

The others all feel they could go longer, but don't question him. Not that the return trip is easy. While in the end, no more golems attacked them, the birds certainly didn't stop until they reached the safe zone. Not that entering the safe zone dropped aggro or anything. Rather, the birds just wouldn't enter and so stayed just outside, waiting for them.

Ace realized they could totally use this to rest up and try again, but he felt things wouldn't turn out well if he tried that. It wouldn't have, Doyle hadn't really thought about this trick. Though he did have a solution and set it to go into place once the floor was empty. From that point on, after the safe zone is left for the first time, it only has so much use time before it is removed.

As for Ace and company? They collected the gathered rewards from the loot chest and left. In particular, Ruby saw the mithril found on the floor as a possible solution to their problems. When used as a wand core, the mystical metal would reduce the strain accumulated while casting.

While the golems are magic resistant, the bird monsters certainly weren't. If she could cast longer and more rapidly, that would help change the stalemate. Though calling it a stalemate is being a little optimistic. They had killed less than 40 birds and only a handful of golems. Attrition would have brought them low well before the halfway point.

Though being able to cast magic faster and for longer wasn't, the only thing they needed. All of their training had been focused on enemies that walked, whether on two legs or four. After all, not only is that all they have seen until now, but they don't exactly have a suitable method to train against flyers.

While they consider all this and are leaving, Doyle is facing a strange feeling. He was disappointed that they didn't do better. In theory, this was the best possible outcome. After all, they hadn't managed to defeat his second to last floor.

However, he had been watching them prepare and while not rooting for them, Doyle felt they should have been able to go further. Not that this stopped him from making the changes to the safe area. It did however force him to do some thinking. So far, while his dungeon is quite challenging, he's always treated the townsfolk with kid's gloves.

This was important early on, as he wanted some stability around his main entrance. However, at this point and as he has said and promised what feels like a few times, he had to go tougher on them. No feeling sad when they have to turn back early. Such things should be celebrated.

And so, with an ignited passion, he begins looking through the options again. Doyle feels there has to be a way to make it so some people have to start from the start or some such. It is a very basic reaction that should be available somewhere. Well, he could tell that if all he wanted to do was set it up, that wasn't hard. Except he also wanted this to be hooked into the Guilds stuff, if only because they had a much more extensive and time-tested list of things delvers aren't allowed to do in a dungeon.

Not only would that make things much easier on his end. No one is going to figure out all the edge cases on their own, after all. But would likely put him further in the good books for the guild. Which couldn't hurt, if only because Jim is the local guild leader.

While Doyle is searching, Ruby is out in the town analyzing the mithril ingot and ore. Though it is actually the ore that helps the most in identifying the metal as she can examine the rock it came from. Sure, it still takes her a couple days before she is willing to admit the metal is just mithril and nothing fancy. However, considering the tools she has available, including asking Ace to watch a few times with his ability to see magic, this could be considered a fast turn around.

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Of course, out in the wider universe a special lab just for analyzing such things would be able to return that it was regular mithril in about an hour. More than that, in the same time it took Ruby to figure out it was just mithril, the lab would have analyzed the actual quality of the mithril. Though the town certainly doesn't need the extra details at the moment. The only people who care about such things are those high enough level that they're always on the lookout for better gear or if it is to be used in a machine which needs a certain transfer rate.

Ruby is just happy she could confirm it. Though this brings up a new challenge. They don't have a good way to forge it. Sure, if Ruby stood next to the smith and constantly bathed it in fire magic, they might manage it. However, her magic would likely run out first and it would allow for a good temper.

The best way the town currently has for working mithril is actually the small little smelter on the thirteenth floor. At least, that would be the case if not for something else they had picked up on the thirteenth floor, clay from the golems. Specifically, crystal clay, as part of what provided the magic resistance was those crystals. While it would take a lot of work, all they need to do is make a forge with crystal clay bricks.

Now, this wasn't a perfect solution. Once this was brought to Ruby's attention, she put together a couple small-scale experiments and found that while it would work. You will still need a mage occasionally pumping more Mana into the forge. That, and you'll need to keep the door closed as much as possible.

All the clay does is resist Mana and not actually block it. Mana can still slowly work its way through the stuff and it isn't like any openings will be protected. To make a proper forge would require enchantments or similar to truly keep a consistent pressure within the working area. For now, though, needing a magic user on hand to keep the pressure up isn't the worst outcome. At least this way, you don't need multiple mages trading off to cast fire spells at the metal.

Of course, there is one improvement they could make. All it required was for the inner area of the forge to be coated in the crystal scales that the golems had. There was just one problem with this. Those scales were rare drops and they had only received one for the entire trip. Which, compared to how much space would need to be covered made that a long-term project at best.

Over in the dungeon, Ally, who had been watching this all, couldn't help but laugh. By her math, a full clear of the floor would give around 12 scales if they're lucky and eight or less on a bad run. The only reason the group had received one within the first ten golems was simply because so many trips had already been made to the floor.

It is like with the sixth floor's cattle. Most times the cattle will just drop a generic steak, but rarely they'll drop a better cut of meat. While Ally wasn't able to scare up an exact reason from the system, it seems that such rare drops are based partly on the delver's expectations. If a group believes a T-Bone steak is the best, that is what the rare drop will be. So, with the golems, since the scales looked special, that was likely why they ended up being the rare drop.

Not everything has a rare drop. Or rather, most things that drop tend to drop in relatively equal quantities. A kobold on the first floor is just as likely to drop some berries as they are a goat steak. What makes a rare drop ironically seems to be that people expect there to be rare drops. If a group came in without any expectations and didn't value one option over another, it is entirely possible that all basic drops would drop equally.

Ally laughs and shakes her head at the thought. Even if she went and spelled this out to Ruby or one of the others, they couldn't exactly do anything about it. Since they inherently value the crystal scales more than the crystal clay, they can't ever change how things are. It also means that any future guides that mark out what the rare drops are will be a sort of self-fulfilling prophecy.

Ally sighs and turns to the core room. While she doesn't have a screen open, she can tell he is working away at something in the system itself. She isn't sure if she could help with what he is looking for, but it would be nice if he had checked with her. Then again, he did have a habit of just jumping into things the second he thinks about it.

She shrugs, if he needs her help, he'll come and ask. Not like he is shy about it, thank goodness. Ally had heard some horror stories about fairies paired with mages who turned themselves into dungeons. They'd rather suffer than ask for help on something they think they should know.

As if any amount of time living as a human is going to prepare you for being a dungeon. The fact Doyle is adjusting so well is a blessing, though it also shows how odd he must have been as a human. Not that Ally minds, the Fae aren't exactly known for being "human", even when they take a form similar to one.

After that excitement, a few days pass with Ace and Jim's team trading off on delving the thirteenth floor. Though they don't bother with a rest. Yes, they still take out the kobold camp, there's mithril to gather, after all. However, since they only intend to fight on the main path until the first group of golems, they don't need to be fully rested.

It is only after the fifth day that Jim decides to explore the jungle some more. After all, no one had seen the three kobolds carrying ore except that first time. While Jim didn't expect much, finding the source of that ore wouldn't hurt. Besides, at some point someone will want to mine it. If only because once they get a proper smelter up and running, the town should be able to extract more of the metal and at a higher purity.

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