Live Dungeon!

Tsutomu’s team of four wasted no time to head to the Wasteland of the thirty-ninth layer, getting there before noon. Tsutomu had told Diniel that he would like her to fight with a little less force, and had also confirmed a few things with Barbara beforehand.

Barbara hadn’t been able to use her skills much in battle since then, so for now, Tsutomu instructed her to unleash Combat Cry as soon as she had enough mental energy to spare. Then, after reminding her to not hesitate to tell him if there was anything else she wanted to do, the team began exploring the thirty-ninth layer. If one were to ask why they had chosen this layer specifically, it was because Tsutomu had found a location perfect for training scenarios.

Somewhere in this layer existed a location called the ‘Team Graveyard,’ in which Skeletons respawned almost infinitely. The area was home to the monster called Demi-Lich, which reconstructed the great quantity of human bones in the area into its Skeleton minions; occasionally, those who teleported through the Black Gate to this layer would pop up here as well.

As long as one did not defeat the Demi-Lich itself, its Skeleton minions would keep reviving upon being destroyed, and would not fade into light particles nor drop any Magic Stones. To get out of the area meant one had to walk a considerable distance, too, so this area was quite infamous for being an annoyance to Explorers.

Still, there were catches to this mechanism — the maximum number of Skeletons that could be active at any moment was ten, and Holy-elemental attacks would destroy the Skeletons without leaving any bones for them to reconstruct. As such, a party would have an easy time breaking through, or even avoid battle altogether, if they had a White Mage, Gray Mage, or Paladin in their ranks.

Then again, the Skeletons minions could eventually be replaced by higher-ranked monsters depending on the passage of time and the number of Skeletons that got eliminated. There were secret Boss-like situations that could happen on rare occasions, too, such as the spawning of a Demi-Lich stronger than the Wastelands’ Layer Boss, or a large group of Skeletons or other reanimated bone-type monsters.

Back in Live Dungeon, the Team Graveyard was well-known as an early leveling spot; as such, Tsutomu intended to have the party practice through actual combat here, and then have Eunice practice her skills. As soon as they arrived, Tsutomu immediately focused his energy to set up an > below his feet, seeing that the bones littering the ground were beginning to rattle.

The bones congregated together to form the shapes of humans, and then, after pushing their skull down as if setting them firmly onto each of their necks, the Skeletons closed in on the four.

Diniel took the preemptive strike, shooting an arrow at the skull of one of them. Her shot had been let loose with such force that it pierced through the layers of bone, leaving a hole. She then inclined her head to the side and shot another arrow, but this time, at the ground, in order to adjust the strength of her next shots.

“>!”

Barbara unleashed a red aura which proceeded to wrap around the Skeletons. Five of them began to head towards her at once, prompting her to grip the buckler in her left hand tightly.

“>, >, >.”

Tsutomu set up an > large enough to encompass everyone, then cast support skills for Diniel and Barbara while keeping an eye on the latter’s movements. Considering her much-improved skill level now, Barbara could square off against six Skeletons without any buffs. Using her buckler, she blocked the Skeletons’ sharp bone weapons as she steadily retreated.

Diniel’s well-aimed arrow flew straight at one of the Skeletons, but it ended up slipping through its torso, failing to inflict damage. Having hit every other Skeleton square in the skull so far, Diniel looked somewhat annoyed as she nocked her next arrow.

Being an Attacker of Golden Tune’s main party, Diniel’s movements were already quite swift even without the help of >. And since Archers had only one skill they could use in melee combat, it was important above all else that she did not let monsters get close to her. As such, she usually would always be moving around and firing arrows.

But this time, she had to stay within the effect of > to match up with and provide support to Eunice, so Tsutomu was somewhat conscious of her swift movements as he pointed his white staff around.

“Barbara! Do you need healing?” Tsutomu suggested to Barbara, seeing that by this time, she had taken a few blows to her arms and the Skeletons were close to fully reconstructing

“Huh? Ah, yes!” Barbara gave an immediate reply in reflex.

“>,” Tsutomu nodded and shot a healing spell at her arm while looking around.

Five new Skeletons emerged from the ground, and they began randomly approaching the three. Tsutomu gave Barbara the signal,

“> now!”

“>,” Barbara activated her skill after a brief glance in Tsutomu’s direction.

“Nice!”

All ten Skeletons’ gazes fixed back onto Barbara, prompting her to feel the cold sweat stream down under her helmet. Previously during her training, the most she had been able to take on was six. Although she did have a team backing her this time, she was still worried about how long she could last.

But what she did not stop to consider was that last time, all six Skeletons had been buffed with >, and she had received no helping hand from Tsutomu when not absolutely necessary.

“>.”

The shot flew toward Barbara while she kept an eye on Diniel beside her. Although she had to sidestep a Skeleton’s attack, the > shot could sense her movement; it turned at a sharp angle, landing on her without difficulty. Feeling a successive boost to her VIT, the slight pain she was still suffering from lessened even further.

Although was up against four more Skeletons than usual, she was quite surprised by how well she was faring — the Skeletons’ movements were slow, she was beefed up with >, and > shots would always fly for her the moment she thought she needed one.

[This feels... awesome!]

With > being constantly in effect, the bruises on her body healed naturally before they became too painful, and what little pain she still felt did not obstruct her ability to move. Moreover, she felt that the Skeletons were moving somewhat slowly. A result of her training, perhaps — Barbara wondered to herself as she moved around so as to not be surrounded.

“If you need healing, just say the word!” Tsutomu said with a smile, perhaps conscious of coming off to others as ‘scary’ as he had been told before.

“Yes!” Barbara gave a brief answer as she deflected a Skeleton’s tackle attack, sending it crashing into two other Skeletons behind it. Then she swung the short spear in her right hand, so as to make sure that a Skeleton would not slip into the range flank her.

For now, she made sure to minimize the number of blows she dealt, what with her not having the need to destroy them herself. After all, that work was best left to the Attacker.

“>,” Diniel shot an arrow power-enhanced by her skill, pulverizing one of the Skeletons’ pelvis. The monster tried to crawl toward Barbara, but then another arrow pierced through its skull, raising a satisfying, cracking sound.

“>,” Tsutou applied the buff for Diniel the second before it expired, extending the boost to her AGI. Satisfied by the constant effect of >, which she’d had the pleasure of experiencing once back in the Canyons, Diniel briefly looked at Tsutomu before starting to run off, her ponytail hair swaying in the wind as she picked up her pace.

Having been asked by Tsutomu to hold back, Diniel had so far been running without trying much. But this time, she was running with her full strength, as if she was up against a Fire Dragon.

Diniel had gotten to observe Tsutomu’s skill shots a fair bit back in the Canyons; he had never doubted his accuracy, and the shots had hit all allies without fail. An Archer and a White Mage — they were in completely different lines of Jobs, but one similarly they shared was the shooting of targets. As such, Diniel wanted to test how precise Tsutomu’s shooting really was.

At the speed she was going, Diniel’s field of vision was practically a blur. While she ran, she adjusted her angle and pulled on her bowstring, then as she jumped, she released. Seeing the arrow bounce off the target Skeleton’s shoulder, she reached into the quiver-like Magic Bag on her waist and grabbed some long arrows.

“>.”

Activating the skill to fire two arrows in one shot, she let loose the long arrows to the left and right. They pierced the Skeletons on both Barbara’s sides, and also two behind them, destroying a total of four Skeletons. Barbara, although shivering inwardly from having the long arrows fly right past her face, unleased a > right as the Skeletons were reconstructed, just like she had been instructed by Tsutomu.

Tsutomu, though quite surprised to see Diniel suddenly turning as energetic as a rabbit running in the field, matched up with her movements. While following her movements with his eyes, he reapplied Barbara’s nearly expired >. Then, deciding that no one needed healing at this time, he simply waited for Diniel’s > effect to almost finish.

[...She’s clearly changed her movement patterns. What gives?]

From what Tsutomu had seen of Diniel so far, she was not one to move around if not necessary, and she had come off as resourceful, always retrieving arrows that she could still use off the around. Back in the Canyons, he had even observed her holding back in aspects that were not absolutely necessary, so he had always pictured her as someone who disliked wasted effort.

But now she was moving around as if she was an entirely different person — quite a lot of unnecessary moves had been made, as if she had transformed into a wild beast. He proceeded to shoot her another > while somewhat worrying about what might have happened to her.

The blue energy ball of > had been shot out with some time on the old effect to spare. When it was about to hit Diniel, she suddenly stepped to her side, causing it to pass her by.

But then Tsutomu bent the course of the shot in the direction she had avoided, ultimately applying the buffing effect onto her. Her body wrapped in a blue aura, she stood still and stared at Tsutomu.

He had the same sleepy look on her face as usual, but the way she looked at Tsutomu now was clearly different.

As the team proceeded on with the battle, another fight just up and started — a fight between Diniel’s dodging of > shots and Tsutomu’s firing of them to keep the effect going. Gradually figuring out how the shots were tracking her, Diniel started increasing her speed and even feinting in places... All of which Tsutomu anticipated as he continued to hit her without fail.

Tsutomu’s skill having homing properties made them effective against such feints, but they still were barely able to keep up with Diniel’s raw speed. Diniel grinned inwardly, having found a way to ‘win’ against those skill shots through much trial and error.

She proceeded to run away from the > shots at full speed, while also destroying a few Skeletons along the way. Tsutomu, looking slightly irritated, kept on directing his > shots at her.

[What the hell is wrong with that Elf!?]

Tsutomu saw that, clearly, Diniel was actively avoiding his buffing skills. Baffled by her incomprehensible behavior, he turned to shoot a > and a > for Barbara instead. Then he turned back to Diniel — still running away — and placed a > pick-up in the direction she was going in.

A blue sphere of energy suddenly emerged from the ground. Diniel hit it on her next step, receiving a boost to her AGI. Feeling somewhat bitter, she turned to shoot at a Skeleton while thinking how she had also already seen this back at the Canyons. From that point on, the team fought against the Skeletons normally until Tsutomu started shooting > again.

Tsutomu guessed that Diniel would probably run again, so he shot off his > early... and as he had predicted, she started running immediately. Seeing that she ultimately never ran all that much distance-wise, Tsutomu thought to himself how she should have gone a little farther if she actually did not want to be hit by >.

In the end, Tsutomu deduced from her behavior that she was taunting him to try and hit her with support skills at certain speed levels and ranges.

Thinking to himself and subtly grinning at how, if that was the case, he should accept her challenge, Tsutomu had his > shots chase her while he kept an eye on Barbara.

At times, he had to instead use the > shots to simply influence the direction she moved in, luring her to step on a > pick-up. Then Diniel adapted once again — once she saw a blue glow on the ground, she would jump. The challenge was practically the only other thing that occupied her mind while she shot down the Skeletons with her arrows.

Eventually, she succeeded in both dodging the > shots and jumping over the pick-ups. Although she failed on several successive attempts, she was eventually able to jump over and step away from the pick-ups reliably.

Tsutomu changed to occasionally placing the pick-ups in mid-air instead, and succeeded in getting her to take the buffs again, but she adapted to them soon enough, dodging them with agile movements and great reaction speed.

Now the effect of Diniel’s > was about to wear off, and pick-up placement was not an option anymore — she had ‘won’ against both it and the homing shots. Confident of her petty victory, she groaned up her nose as she kept on avoiding the buffing skills.

Then again, Diniel did recognize the extent of Tsutomu’s accuracy and precision. He was managing everything, from applying > to himself and making sure that none of Barbara’s buffs wore off. Diniel inwardly praised Tsutomu, admitting to the fact that the team would have already been wiped if not for Barbara and her enhanced strength.

When Diniel’s > had only five seconds left on the clock, Tsutomu heaved a sigh as if he was giving up. Diniel thought that it was finally over, but then she saw him lightly waving his white staff.

That same moment, Diniel’s body was enveloped in a blue aura.

[What... just happened?]

Diniel could not understand what had happened to her, but it was an undeniable fact that her body was covered in a blue aura. She coughed lightly to clear her throat — and hide her agitation — before running off again.

But now, Tsutomu stayed still, no longer shooting and placing down > buffs.

[Is he waiting for me to be distracted...?]

Diniel now moved around while watching for when a > pick-up would suddenly emerge from the ground. Tsutomu, however, kept himself eerily motionless. Diniel could not figure out what he was aiming for.

And then, five seconds before Diniel’s > expired, Tsutomu waved his White Staff, and the > effect was immediately applied to her once again. She had been hit by a blindingly fast > shot, shaped like a rifle bullet squeezed but in the size of an index finger.

[That’s the secret alternative I have. Hope she doesn’t take it personally...]

Tsutomu, having not expected Diniel to be able to dodge both the shot and placement varieties of >, smiled to show his admiration for her achievement. Then, seeing how baffled Diniel looked, he shook his head to imply to her that she should give it up.

[...Now they’re just messing around.]

Eunice, having watched the whole scene, stared coldly at both Diniel and Tsutomu — the former for being a slacker who never put much effort into her movements until now, and the latter for practically putting on yet another show of his superiority.

――▽▽――

After an hour or so, Skeleton Archers started spawning, so the party headed back to the Guild to get some rest before resuming their training in the Team Graveyard of the thirty-ninth layer. Barbara still had her hands full with ordinary Skeletons, so the other variations of them would have to wait.

“Say, what was that thing you just did?”

“I call it a quickshot skill. Now, I’d really appreciate it if you explained what your problem is...”

“Quickshot, huh...”

Diniel ignored Tsutomu’s inquiry and only stared at him; eventually the latter lost his patience and agreed to demonstrate his quickshot for her to see properly. He had not practiced it much since opportunities to actually use them were few and far between, but he had indeed trained enough to be wieldy with it, as apparent from his significantly improved accuracy.

Tsutomu’s demonstration involved generating an earthy-yellow > bullet and shooting it at Barbara in front of him. Diniel, seeming to have been quite interested in this particular skill form, opened her usually sleepy eyes wide.

“What!? Monsters!?” Barbara, alarmed by the gesture, immediately put on her helmet and looked behind her.

“Oh, apologies. False alarm,” Tsutomu quickly told her otherwise, clasping his hands together as a gesture of apology, prompting her to remove her helmet once again.

“Okay...”

Barbara was relieved to be told that; she did not like wearing helmets since they pressed down on her bear ears, so she only wore one during battle.

Tsutomu, after a little chat with Diniel, called out to Eunice before the party reached the Team Graveyard.

“Eunice, I’d like to remind you that this is a training session in real combat — is there anything you would like to ask?”

“...Not at the moment, no.”

“All right. If there’s anything you want to know, feel free to ask me whenever you want.”

“Hmph. All I have to do is learn the moves you use. I can do it by myself just fine.”

Eunice turned away and walked quickly past Tsutomu. She proceeded to exchange a few words with Barbara and Diniel, then kept herself silent for the rest of the time.

When the party arrived at the Team Graveyard and entered it, the bones piled up on the ground began to rattle and form into human shapes. Tsutomu stretched his back and yawned, while the three others prepared for combat.

“>,” Barbara used her skill to draw the aggro of the Skeletons as soon as the maximum ten spawned.

Diniel lightly snapped her bowstring, and Eunice pointed her staff at Barbara.

“>.” First, she shot the skill’s earthy-yellow ball of energy at Barbara’s back, then cast > on Diniel.

This time Diniel worked with the team without a fuss, perhaps because Tsutomu had reminded her beforehand not to dodge >.

“>.” Eunice proceeded to set up a healing perimeter large enough for two people and stepped inside; the fox ears on her head were standing upright. Her large tail was also standing on end, as if she was bracing herself.

[One, two...]

Since she had applied > and > of the same duration at almost the same time, Eunice counted the time uniformly as she observed the course of the battle. Since none of the Skeletons wielded projectile-worthy weapons this time, there was no need to watch out for ranged attacks, and Barbara was well-focused on the timing at which she used >. As such, the only time the Skeletons’ aggro went to another target was only at each time they were newly reconstructed.

Diniel ran at a steady pace and fired at the Skeletons, hitting two of them in the shoulder and ankle respectively, causing them to flinch from the impact. Barbara tanked the Skeletons’ attacks while considering to use > when enough of her mental energy was restored.

[...Forty. Almost time.]

Eunice’s > and > had a fixed duration of one minute. Eunice aimed her staff at Barbara first, thinking to shoot the buffing spells to her with time to spare.

“>.”

An earthy-yellow energy sphere flew off from the tip of her staff, heading in a straight line toward Barbara’s back. However, since Barbara was also constantly changing her position to avoid being surrounded by monsters, she needed to correct the shot’s trajectory on the way.

Just as the > was about to land, Barbara moved to the right to avoid a thrust from a Skeleton’s sharpened arm bone. Eunice hurried to change the course of the shot.

But the course correction ended up being too late; the shot hit the Skeleton’s outstretched arm bone instead, giving the monster a boost to its VIT. Eunice, annoyed that she had misfired on the Skeleton, shot another >, this time managing to hit Barbara just before the previous buff on her expired.

This meant that Diniel’s > had already expired, however. With the skill’s AGI enhancement having a natural side effect of changing the sensation of the target’s body, the skill wearing off would make one feel as if their body had suddenly become slow.

Diniel, confirming that her > had indeed run out, switched out the magnitude of force she exerted onto her body to the normal level. There had been times in the previous battles where there were intervals between > effects, so she had gotten used to the change in sensation.

“>.”

But then the spell hit her as she was pulling her bowstring. Feeling somewhat irritated because she had yet to adjust her exertion, she narrowed her eyes while re-orienting herself, then loosened her pull on the bowstring.

[Forty-five seconds left for >, sixty seconds left for >.]

While Eunice was inwardly sorting out the durations of her support skills by the seconds, Barbara was facing off against ten Skeletons. Diniel, seeing that Diniel was taking quite a lot of hits, nocked her arrows and shot three of the Skeletons, hitting their skulls in quick succession.

Eunice, afraid of accidentally hitting a monster again, shot out a > for Barbara thirty seconds in advance this time. The shot had been made to travel somewhat slower to guarantee that it would land on Barbara when she stopped moving; it overrode the effect’s remaining twenty seconds, resetting the clock to a full minute.

With how support skills’ durations worked, the overwritten twenty seconds of the > effect was practically wasted. It would not be much of a problem if it happened only once or twice, but added up, it would make a difference of one full cast or more. As such, a basic rule of effectively utilizing support skills was to not waste more than sixty seconds.

Eunice shot a > for Diniel as well, but the latter’s constant movement, even when slowed down, required her to pay a fair bit of attention to direct the shot properly. The slowed shot took some time to connect on Diniel.

By now, Diniel’s previous > had already expired for three seconds. One moment she felt her body grow heavy, and then lighter again the next moment. This affected the speed at which he could draw her bowstring and shoot while running; with an irritated groan, she reached into her quiver-like Magic Bag.

[>, sixty. And Protect...]

“Sorry! I need healing here!” Barbara suddenly called out to Eunice.

She had been taking far more hits now than she had in the previous battle, partially due to Diniel’s attacks being disrupted by her fluctuating sense of speed. Eunice did as Barbara asked, preparing to cast >.

“>,” Eunice shot the spell with her staff pointed at Barbara.

The sphere moved slower the closer it got to Barbara, and once she stopped moving, the shot sped up to land on her back. The issue now was that Barbara’s injured spot was her arm. The healing would still take effect from hitting her back, of course, but landing directly on the injuries would be more effective.

[Haste... thirty? And Protect? Gah, damn it! I forgot!]

Barbara, still aching somewhat on her arm, was about to call for another >, but then she saw how annoyed Eunice was and decided not to say anything.

When the arrows from Diniel’s bow pierced the skulls of the Skeletons, the bones that formed their human models crumbled apart and fell to the ground. Within the next ten seconds, however, they congregated together again to form new human shapes; the reconstructed Skeletons pressed lightly on their head with both hands as if adjusting their replaced skull.

One of the newly-reconstructed Skeletons faced Barbara, while the other headed for Eunice. Although Barbara’s mental energy was not an issue, she had just used > moments ago. Eunice was forced to raise her staff at the Skeleton herself.

“>.”

A strong pillar of light rose up from the ground and purified the skeleton that had come towards Eunice. Tsutomu was going to stand back and watch whatever happened, but he felt the need to set Eunice’s course of action back onto the right track.

“Eunice! We’re in a training session, so don’t try to beat the enemies up by yourself!”

Despite hearing him loud and clear, Eunice ignored Tsutomu’s words as she proceeded to cast > and > for her teammates, seeing that both their effects had already expired by now. The battle continued for another twenty minutes with the only spoken words being the names of skills, ending when Barbara reached her limit, at which point Tsutomu intervened and had the party withdraw from the Team Graveyard.

Eunice had not demonstrated her mastery of team fighting concepts at all — she had accidentally hit monsters with support and healing skills, let support skills on her allies run out, did not heal enough to stay in the comfortable range, and had failed to manage the enemies’ aggro on her on the basic level. It was particularly bad towards the end, when there were signs that her shot had taken a half-vapour like form, and by then, she had also given up on trying to count the skills’ durations by the seconds. And as a party, Eunice and Diniel’s respective frustrations had combined to create an uncomfortable atmosphere — it was, in a sense, a perfect score... at creating the worst situation possible.

Eunice’s yellow tail was hanging down, in a contrast to how it usually stood up so energetically, as if she was aware of what she had done wrong this time. Barbara looked dispirited as she laid on the ground, and Diniel looked as sleepy as ever, but also subtly unsatisfied.

“All right, I think we ought to call it a day for now! Good work, everyone!” Tsutomu declared in a cheerful voice, sounding somewhat forced to sound excited.

“Right,” Diniel only gave a curt reply.