Beyond M-Eclipse: Easy Mode LIVE

———Karra———

“Hope they’re not late…” I said, not wanting to wait for long.

“It should be fine… I think.” Jass said, inspecting the broadsword I gave him. Kinda surprising he’s the first to show up. I know he’s usually quite punctual, but I never get that impression from him, or much impression at all. He’s very much introverted. “I’m surprised so many actually agreed.”

“You and me both…” I said, wondering if being stuck at home is that boring or what… Then again, it’s not like I stayed holed up in my home for long. “Say, have you learned any magic yet?”

“Yeah. Just a simple one, should be good enough.” He said, not elaborating at all. All things considered, he’s already pretty good with just a weapon alone, so I’m not too concerned if he doesn’t learn any yet. “By the way, did that friend of yours get hounded for the knife?”

“Huh? A little bit, but nothing has leaked out of the Harmoni group yet.” Hm? Bit of a sudden question.

“That’s good…” He said while sighing in relief. Not sure why he feels so worried about it. “I swore she had to carry like… ten weapons, where did she put them?”

“I wanna know that too. Is it like… an items menu? I never get to ask her.” I answered, sharing the same sentiment.

“If there is such a thing…” Jass then mumbled something.

“Yo. Sorry to keep you guys waiting.” Malk chimes in, being the third to arrive. His clothes are only slightly less plain than what Jass has, having a black shirt and gray pants. His blonde hair and green eyes also make him a bit more noticeable. “Hmm… seems like I’m the third one here.”

“Yeah. You’re technically early.” I remarked before looking through the pile of weapons, then remembering something. “Just to be sure, you’re not using a weapon, right?”

“Yep. I’m fine with just my fists alone.” He confidently said. “So… Kenni, Useph, Orrel. Those three still aren’t here yet.”

“You would think Kenni can come here quickly with her wings…” I can’t help but mention that fact.

“Maybe she just doesn’t wanna do so in a no-flight zone.” Malk jokingly said. Is that even a thing right now I wonder…

“I’ll fly wherever and whenever I want, jackass.” Talk about bad timing to say that. Kenni descended down from the sky and glared at Malk. Her dark blue hair is very fitting with the big feathered wings on her back that also share the same color, which combined with her black shirt and gray pants it’s an overall dark color scheme, black bird, like a crow. Her green eyes are noticeably contrasting the theme though…

“That shirt looks like a pain.” I remarked, walking around and seeing it from the back. The shirt doesn’t actually have a back,,,

“Meh, I’m used to it by now.” She said, ignoring my concern. “...Why do you even have a stash of weapons? You only need to give Jass and Useph any weapon. I don’t use it. Orrel doesn’t use it. Malk here doesn’t use it.”

“Hey. It’s not like I can put all these weapons in my house anyway. Wiina offered to organize this secret stash for us to use, so she put it right here.” Don’t mock her efforts like that. “Also, this is for tomorrow’s group as well.”

“Sounding quite defensive.” Kenni sarcastically remarked. “But speaking of tomorrow’s group. Sucks for Jeff, he’s not gonna be part of this group despite talking with us personally.”

“He had been taking it in stride, at least.” Malk pointed out. “Thankfully no one in our class had a feud with each other, at least as far as I know.”

“I think it’s pretty unlikely Jeff will be beefing with someone.” Jass gave his own opinion on the topic, and I also think that way as well.

“Sorry, are we late?” Oh. The two boys finally showed up. Useph and Orrel.

Useph wore his usual white jacket and blue shirt, as well as gray pants. His black hair and green eyes aren’t too unusual, compared to some of us.

Orrel meanwhile wore a… robe? A red robe over his black shirt. I can see a red short that managed to fit his ill-fitting lower half. The red scaled lizard lower-half is certainly bizarre, with a long tail and rather bulky shape. The animal characteristics aren’t this weirdly proportioned out for most I’ve seen. Also, his eyes are orange, and his hair is still black.

…Maybe I was dumb for thinking the changes would be so uniformed.

“Not sure about late, but you two are the last ones.” Malk answered for the rest of us.

“Were you two busy doing something?” Kenni said teasingly. Are you really asking something like that?

“Ugh. No. Get your mind out of the gutter.” Useph replied in disapproval. “Anyway… Weapons?”

“Ah. Right.” Almost forgot about that. Let me just go get him… a sword and shield. “Here you go.”

*Swing* *Swing*

“Heh, nice.” He said, swinging the sword around with a smirk on him like a little kid getting a new toy. “Guess we’re going in now?”

“If you all are ready, then yeah, we should go in.” I answered, looking at our group of six… Half is magic, half is melee, if I remembered right. “So our basic strat is… The designated mages will shoot the large target while melee fighters fend off mooks and finish off the weakened boss. Got that?”

“Yep. Though I definitely would like to get a lot of action in myself, which you three would probably like, since you can conserve magic power that way.” Malk responded, clearly rather confident.

“I don’t think we need to conserve that much power. Also, we’ll only go for floor five, that’s not exactly a lot of floors.” Kenni meanwhile has the opposite plan in mind.

“Two floors was considered too much just a few days ago…” Orrel remarked. He’s not wrong in saying that. In fact, it probably is still too much for other dungeons that aren’t heavily explored like this one. This dungeon is just safer simply because Wiina and I have traversed through so many floors, exposing the gimmick.

“Alright you two, let’s not argue and go in already.” Useph said, clearly starting to get impatient. He probably really wants to use that sword to kill some shit.

“Right then…” Jass stood back up and started walking towards the dungeon entrance, disinterested in the possible argument.

Oh he’s already going in. Then we might as well follow in that case.

…He already cleaned up the first floor. I could’ve sworn he only reached this floor like… ten seconds before us.

“Well that was fast.” Kenni said dryly. “I would say stealing the glory, but this is the first floor, no offense.”

“It’s fine.” He said, clearly disinterested.“Let’s just move to the next floor and let all of you do the heavy-lifting.”

Certainly not one for many words, but he’s still reliable nonetheless.

“You heard him.” I said, taking the charge as we went down to the second floor where this giant wolf resides with its fuzzy lackeys. “Okay. So who wanna-

“Dibs!” Before I can even finish what I’m saying Kenni already ran in with her mana reading spiking. “[Wind Blades]”

*Whirl* *Slash*

She swung her arms like they were blades, creating a barely visible yet violent torrent of wind aiming right at the wolf’s eyes, managed to smash it in and cause it to bleed out in both eyes.

“Right… Never piss her off, ever again.” Useph said semi-jokingly upon seeing the result.

*Dash* *Slash*

He then ran in and started taking out the mooks while the wolf was still reeling from the surprise attack. That’s like, twice now that it got hit in the eyes.

“[Spikes Launcher]!” Orrel shouted as suddenly two large stone spikes were formed and launched right at the wolf still rampaging, lacking any vision.

*Stab* *Graze*

“Tch!” He managed to hit its side with one projectile, but the other only managed to graze it.

“[Spectral Enchant]!” Jass suddenly shouted as he ran towards the rampaging wolf.

*Shine*

Suddenly his broadsword shines brightly as he ran at the giant wolf

*SLASH*

…Okay, wow. That was quite sudden, but definitely eye-catching.

“Phew… Can’t exactly do it like that Wiina person can, but I can manage this much.” He said, looking at the nasty gash that is practically almost splitting it open like a book.

“Ugh.” Kenni doesn’t let her disgust go unshown. This is definitely not a pretty sight to look at. For me, after seeing Wiina slaughter through so many monsters, I started to feel desensitized a while back.

*Shine*

While we were looking at the end result, two potions appeared out of thin air as our rewards. They’re… just two health potions.

“Don’t really need these right now… Anyone gonna hold onto them?” I said, crouching down to look at them. They’re not the more potent variety either.

“I’ll do it.” Orrel offered. “I’m the one sitting in the backline anyway.”

“Do that then.” I said, letting him walk over and grab the potions.

“I didn’t even get to do anything…” Malk complained. Tough luck.

“We got two more floors of monsters. You’ll be fine.” I said to reassure him. Let’s keep moving, and make sure no one dies.

*Grab* *Smash*

He grabbed onto one of the green men and slammed its head right into the sharp ragged walls. Yeesh.

“Sure hope your fangirls at school didn’t see this shit.” Kenni remarked in both amusement and being slightly disturbed by the gore. It’s just gonna happen, these things aren’t made of air.

His fighting style is definitely more brutish than his appearance would suggest. More clean-looking than Jeff who also fights pretty similarly.

*Slash* *Slice*

Meanwhile both Useph and Jass also ran in and helped clean things up rather quickly.

*Shine*

When it is all over the rewards show itself. Just more potions.

“Alright. Let me hold onto those.” Orrel walked over and did just that.

Now there’s only one floor left, and a very simple plan.

“Okay then! Let’s go!” I said, starting to feel a bit excited, leading the team down to the fifth floor where this crumbling cube resides.

We arrived and like last time it looks like it is by its lonesome, when in actuality that is not the case at all. Certainly a mean trap.

“Go!” I said as a signal for others to start running and trigger the gimmick while I gather power. This time, it’s not gonna be a struggle.

Once the five of them approached the other golems were quickly constructed and attacked alongside its commander.

*Whirl* *Crack* *Blast*

Magic starts being thrown around and small beams from the cube golem start destroying the area and makes the gang start to scramble about.

Just hold on a little bit longer…

“[Earth Spikes]!” Orrel shouted and created a wall of spikes to grant some distance between the two sides.

“[Wind Buster]!” Kenni then followed up by jumping up and shooting a large burst of wind that pushed the smaller golems back.

Come on… It’s… almost… there!

“Now! Get out of the way!” I shouted at them and quickly they ran to the sides, basically hugging the walls. I aimed my two hands at the group of golems and… “[Plasma Cannon]!”

*BLAST* *BOOM*

…Heh. All too easy.

“...How is this place not caved in already?” Kenni remarked, seeing the golems vaporized.

“Spectacular, if terrifying.” Orrel chimed in, with sweats forming on his face.

“Seeing it in person is a completely different beast…” Malk said, also barely maintaining his cool.

Jass meanwhile… Doesn’t really show any emotions.

“Anyway. Good job everyone!” I said, trying to distract them from that and to be proud of what we did. No guns, no large numbers of people, or Wiina!

“R-Right.” Orrel is the one to speak up, his voice shaking a bit.

“Wait. Right. Not many people have even done this.” Useph said, just realizing the feats. “We just fight monsters, in real life. Blood and gore, real weapons… Kinda actually crazy…”

“We’re probably six of the very small amount to even dare to do it, let alone get anything done.” Malk said, much more assured of our performance.

*Shine*

And the reward is… Meh.

Now then. Let’s collect that and go back to the surface. We all deserve a rest I would say.