Live Dungeon!
chapter-58

For the next three days, after having trained in the Grasslands to avoid being surrounded by monsters, Barbara went on to practice against the Skeletons in the Wastelands, the process of which was now in progress.

Skeletons were humanoid monsters that were as tall as an average adult human man; they could move despite being all bones, and their kind was often encountered in the Dungeons outside of town. In those other Dungeons, they also came in female and child-sized variations, but most of the ones that appeared in God’s Dungeon were of the adult male type.

The weapons they wielded were mostly pieces of their own bones sharpened into the shapes of short spears and swords; their movements were swift, and although they did not hit so hard, their strength was fairly high when compared to that of the Goblins. As such, they were ranked only barely below the Orcs as intermediate-level humanoid monsters.

Unlike the Goblins in the Grasslands, the Skeletons’ weapons were actually sharp, and they employed conventional fighting techniques. Because of that, Barbara found herself having a hard time even in one-on-one fights with them. She lowered her stance to block her opponent’s attack, then immediately thrust her spear forward. The Skeleton’s collarbone fractured with a dull crack; Barbara got ready to rush the monster down.

“Take it down with minimum attacks! Make every hit count!” Tsutomu raised his voice in a harsh tone at Barbara, who still was attacking on reflex without any regard to timing, perhaps because she had gained some confidence after being able to deal with Goblins without difficulty.

Tsutomu did not want her to defeat any Skeletons yet — a fact that Tsutomu had voiced time and time again these last three days. Barbara silently complied with Tsutomu’s instruction, pulling back her spear.

“<<Heal>>.”

From the sidelines, Tsutomu shot a green sphere of energy at the Skeleton, causing its cracked collarbone to begin to regenerate. As for Eunice, she had managed to learn the long-ranged <<Heal>> in two days, just as she had declared that she would; now she had the basics down.

Although her direction and mental energy allocation still needed work, the shape of her <<Heal>> shots were getting better and better. Eunice stood on an <<Area Heal>>, held up her staff, and proceeded to utter,

“<<Haste>>,” Eunice cast the spell in the same image as her long-ranged <<Heal>>, hitting the Skeleton and granting it a speed boost.

The Skeleton, wrapped in a blue aura, rushed at Barbara with increased swiftness in its movements.

“One, two,” Eunice started counting the seconds right when the <<Haste>> took effect on the Skeleton.

After having learnt to use long-ranged healing and support skills, she had been instructed by Tsutomu to work on achieving the same effect durations across all skills.

Tsutomu had been able to output a uniform level of healing power in all uses of his healing skills by fixing the amount of mental energy he expended. Then, while keeping an eye on the monsters’ aggro levels, he would increase or decrease the amount of energy used so that he would get maximum results while keeping himself from being targeted.

He operated his support skills similarly, increasing or lowering mental energy depending on the situation, but with the important addition of maintaining at least a certain level of minimum value, so as to keep effect durations somewhat uniform. The caster themself not knowing the mechanisms of their skills meant that they would not know how long the effect of each cast would last on their allies, and that in turn would result in either wasted energy in making the duration excessively long or the effects lasting too short and running out before the next cast.

As such, Tsutomu had wasted no time in giving Eunice the next set of instructions, not letting her get smug about her little triumph in achieving her previous claim of learning long-ranged healing skills in two days. Eunice, after starting at Tsutomu as the latter nonchalantly jotted out new instructions for her, proceeded to silently practice timing her skill effects.

[I’m watching you… I’ll quickly copy your skills, show off my power, then kick you out!]

While glaring at Tsutomu from behind as he gave new instructions to Barbara, Eunice counted the seconds and adjusted her mental energy to make sure that her <<Haste>> would last exactly one minute. The move Tsutomu had done in the Canyons was burned into Eunice’s mind — she was convinced that if she could use it as well, she would definitely be able to maintain her position as the Healer of the main party.

What occupied Eunice’s head now was an image of a future where she mastered that move and received praise and head pats from Leon… and also drive Tsutomu away from associating with the Golden Tune. After confirming that the Skeleton’s <<Haste>> had worn off in forty-two seconds, she cast another one for it, this time slightly increasing her mental energy input.

[This girl… I can just tell that she really wants to get out of here.]

Tsutomu, occasionally feeling Eunice’s unpleasant stare coming from behind him, cracked a bitter smile while he kept his eyes on Barbara’s stand against the Skeleton. Seeming to have gotten the point after thirty minutes of continuous fighting, Barbara’s movements were starting to get better, and she was not being pushed back by the Skeleton anymore.

Barbara’s status ratings were overwhelmingly higher than the monster to begin with, so even if she were to lose in terms of actual skill, she could have easily made it through with raw power alone. It would have been a different story if her opponent was a master swordfighter, but what she was dealing with now was, at the end of the day, a mere monster. Although unusually powerful Skeletons would spawn on very rare occasions, the normal ones were not exactly the pinnacle of martial arts mastery.

In addition to that, there was not even a need for Barbara to defeat the Skeleton by herself. If she were to keep herself from attacking and took care to not overexert herself, her high status ratings would keep her from losing, since the Skeleton could not possibly take her down with brute force. Now that Barbara knew how to properly use her power to her advantage, she was no longer taking critical hits from the Skeleton, stabilizing the situation of the battle.

“<<Holy>>,” Tsutomu chanted while waving his white staff, erecting a pillar of light from the ground.

The Skeleton, hit by the <<Holy>> under its feet, turned bright red as if it had been set ablaze. As the integrity of its bones diminished, the monster crumbled down in pieces and faded away, leaving behind a Small Colorless Magic Stone.

Most of the monsters in the Wastelands were weak to holy-elemental magic skills that White Mages and Gray Mages could use, so a team having a White Mage would find themselves having a much easier time going through these layers. Tsutomu could naturally make do, but with Eunice and her level-seventy power, the team was sure to not have any trouble here.

Humanoid and quadrupedal beast-like Skeletons occasionally tried to intrude on the duel, but were promptly burned down by Tsutomu’s <<Holy>>; their Magic Stones were then collected as Tsutomu paid as much attention as he could to Barbara’s fighting approaches. Tsutomu himself had never taken the Tank role outside of the game, so he could not actually teach her how to move her body, but the technical knowledge he had garnered from the game was otherwise applicable to his guidance.

After another hour or so, Tsutomu felt that Barbara no longer had any issue in one-on-one fights, so he proceeded to neutralize the current Skeleton and had Barbara take a break. He reached into the Magic Bag that he had been carrying for Barbara and took out a canteen and a towel, then passed them over to her.

When Barbara removed her helmet, her large bear ears stood right up as if they were pleased to be out of the pressurized space. She wiped her drenched brown hair with the towel and chugged down some water. Once she was done, Tsutomu spoke to her,

“So, Barbara… you might want to use your active skills more. Make sure to always have enough mental energy to use <<Combat Cry>> twice, and then, you could use either <<Defensive>> or <<Shield Bash>>. Oh, but using <<Defensive>> or not is just up to your preferences, by the way.”

The <<Defensive>> was a skill unique to Heavy Knights; it lowered the user’s AGI in exchange for boosting their VIT. Since it increased Heavy Knight’s Tanking potential by further increasing their already high VIT, Tsutomu had always thought it was best to use <<Defensive>> right at the beginning of a fight.

In this world, however, one losing their AGI also meant that their bodily sensations would change accordingly; it was not at all a good idea to think solely in terms of video game mechanics here. As such, Tsutomu had chosen to let Barbara decide for herself whether or not to use the <<Defensive>>.

“All right. I’ll give it a try.”

…But then Barbara agreed to Tsutomu’s teachings without a moment of hesitation. As a matter of fact, she, like Eunice, had been wary of Tsutomu’s suggestion that the three of them explored the Dungeon together. It was not uncommon for there to be problems between men and women in Clans, and Barbara had heard stories from her acquaintances with unfavorable Explorer Jobs having been demanded to carry out unsavory deeds. As such, she had been initially concerned that Tsutomu might make such demands in exchange for his guidance.

But as it had turned out, Tsutomu’s guidance was on point and without any ulterior motives; Barbara’s doubts quickly changed to a favorable opinion on his teachings, and she was getting good results out of it. As long as Tsutomu’s suggestions were nothing out of the ordinary, Barbara would most likely not refuse them.

Afterward, Tsutomu had Barbara try fighting two and three Skeletons at once, and got the impression that three was her limit for now. She was clearly struggling when she was stabbed through the gaps of her helmet with their bone weapons, taking a series of critical hits.

Barbara shifted her concentration onto defending her head from attacks, but then one of the Skeletons hooked her leg with a curved bone weapon. As she fell to the ground, Tsutomu pointed his white staff in her direction.

“<<Holy>>. <<Heal>>.”

He neutralized one of the Skeletons with a pillar of light, then shot a healing skill at Barbara. Following him, Eunice also used <<Holy>> to destroy the two other Skeletons. Barbara, worn out, and realizing that the Skeletons had been wiped out, shook her head.

“All right, let’s take a break before we continue. Try taking on three at once for a few more rounds.”

“Got it.”

“You’re getting there — no need to rush!”

Barbara did not seem particularly discouraged. As Tsutomu raised his fist to her, she patted her slightly dented helmet before raising her own fist and smiling at him.

“……”

Eunice, frustrated to see how well Barbara and Tsutomu were getting along, spit on the ground, cast <<Haste>> on herself, then started counting the seconds.