Live Dungeon!

One week passed, during which the team continued to fight on the Snow Field layers to improve their cooperation. In the process, Tsutomu learned how to move properly as a Tank, and got used to Leleia’s moves and the feeling of getting his MND boosted by her Spirit. His movements were no longer stiff, and he could be now considered a decent Tank.

“That was awesome, Teach!”

“It’s not that big of a deal. Amira had a part in it too, for working together with me and all.”

“…Tch.”

As Tsutomu smiled at her, Amira clicked her tongue and turned the other way. Over the past week, she had also had extra training sessions with Tsutomu after each Dungeon run, in order to practice her > more. Thanks to that, she was able to understand that he had always been thinking about things and trying to implement the best strategies ever since this team had been formed.

In addition to practicing his skill control, which had become a habit at this point, Tsutomu had to test out various moves for his new role as a partial evasion-based Tank. He had to use attack skills more, find better ways to operate the > spell that had already been difficult to use to begin with, and develop his spatial awareness so that he could land his skills on targets without having to aim with his eyes all the time.

Moreover, he had become even more accustomed to mentally tracking time by the seconds and managing aggro, and was getting better at perceiving all monsters’ and allies’ behaviors. Now, Tsutomu was able to easily handle the flow of information that Amira would overheat from just thinking about them.

[…Why does he look like he’s having so much fun?]

Most normal people were sure to quickly abandon their responsibility of being both a Healer and an evasion-based Tank at the same time. Amira could tell that much, despite her still lacking understanding of the Healer and Tank roles. Tsutomu, however, would always perform his role with a perfectly composed face during battle, and even looked to be having the time of his life during evaluation meetings and practice sessions.

Tsutomu already was an excellent Healer — ranked as one of the three best Healers ever, and in Amira’s opinion, he was the best of them all. Despite that, he had been so eager to try out Tanking, and was aiming to get better and better at it.

[If I don’t master my > soon, he’s sure as hell gonna drop me.]

As he was always so willing to patch up any flaw that came up in his style, Tsutomu’s performance as an evasion-based Tank was getting more and more stable. Amira, from pairing up with him, knew quite well that he would eventually get good enough at it that he would no longer need her to accommodate his strategies. If things continued the way they were now, her getting left behind was only an inevitability.

[I can’t afford to take it slow. Gotta get it down, and fast.]

Perhaps to fulfill her wish to become stronger and not be left behind by her comrades, Amira’s > was beginning to change.

She had more control of her consciousness while transformed, and she was coming close to being able to disengage the transformation by herself — albeit still not all the way. What was important now, however, was that she had enough control to slow down her own movements.

“Hey, looking good. Looks like I won’t have to aim my > spells as much anymore.”

“Hell yeah.”

And so, today, while practicing with Tsutomu at the guild training grounds, Amira succeeded in disengaging her > by herself. While she still could not do it as quickly as being hit by >, the fact that she could do it at all was significant. This meant Tsutomu would not have to cast > as often anymore, increasing his range of strategic options.

“So here’s the deal — From now on, I’ll only cast > when I REALLY want you to stop attacking.”

“Yeah.”

“All right, let’s give that another try, then.”

“…Yeah.”

Tsutomu had always agreed to help with her training, but recently, it turned to being more like an uninterrupted supervision. Diniel and Daryl were busy with their mission team, and the Hannah-Leleia pair also trained by themselves after each Dungeon run, so Tsutomu naturally ended up having more time to spend practicing with Amira.

Although she had never said it out loud, Amira was actually grateful for this. It was obvious — even just from looking at how much better she had gotten at controlling her transformation — that the current environment she was in was much more efficient than back when she had been practicing her > by herself. Tsutomu had also been willing to help her with any other collaborative training, and as a result, Amira actually felt that she was getting stronger with each passing day.

“…And that’s generally how long a > cast will last. There’s a little deviation depending on the situation, but it doesn’t hurt to keep that one number in mind. I’m sure that knowledge will help you in some way.”

“Yeah.”

“Also, you’ve been experimenting with using your skills more, haven’t you?”

“…What, you have a problem with that?”

“No? Why are you so defensive about it, anyway?”

Tsutomu forced out a smile and put his hands out in front of his face, seeing that Amira was moving her face in uncomfortably close. He paid just about as much attention to his allies’ movements as he did the monsters, and as such, he could tell that Amira had recently started using her skills more liberally.

“Now, you might think it’s better to just use more skills — and I understand that, too, but from what I’ve seen, your variety still isn’t all that great. So for now, see if you can make use of all the skills you have, and try to learn how much mental energy each of them consumes. After that, you can focus on practicing specific skills you use most often.”

“……”

“Also, I’ve noticed this with Camille, too — You seem to really like using > a lot more than other stuff. Why? Is it passed down in your family for generations or something?”

“Shaddup. It’s the most satisfying thing to use, that’s why.”

Being told so, Tsutomu was surprised for a second, then he started chuckling. Then he promptly apologized to Amira as the latter clenched her fists and started approaching him.

“Heh, sorry, sorry. There’s nothing wrong with that — in fact, you might consider it your main skill, and see what other moves go well together with it. The stuff I personally recommend are…”

Tsutomu proceeded to give advice to Amira regarding the Greatsword Fighter Job’s skills based on his knowledge from Live Dungeon. A large part of his advice actually worked in this world, since he had some good experience playing as an Attacker and understood how skill combos worked. Amira tried to listen to Tsutomu’s explanations but was starting to lose him about halfway through, so he decided to end the training session for today, so that they could leave and pick the technical talk up later back at the Clan House.

“You really know a lot about stuff, huh?”

“Oh, y’know… I just watched the Pedestals quite often,” Tsutomu said, looking satisfied with himself.

Amira put her greatsword on her back, and together, the two left the training area.

“You know, Amira, you should try watching them more, too. You used to reference the style of one of Golden Tune’s Attackers, right? Like, you started using a bit moe e variety of skills after watching her, and stuff.”

“…Dude, how much have you been looking at me these days? That’s creepy.”

“I always look at all my Clan’s members. It’s just what a leader should do.”

Amira narrowed her eyes, disgruntled that Tsutomu had guessed correctly the reason why she had started using more skills. Then, seeing that Tsutomu was perfectly fine looking back at her, Amira realized something, and promptly cracked a grin.

“What, so you’re THAT interested in me? Hmm?”

“Get off me. You’re really starting to pick up your mom’s nasty quirks, you know that?”

Tsutomu kept Amira away from him as she approached with clearly mischievous intent. Seeing his resistance, Amira only grinned wider.

“Aww, don’t be shy, man. I gotta thank you for all the training somehow — C’mon, I’ll do whatever you say.”

“How about I dock your pay?”

“Hah, there you go. That’s some virgin behavior you’re showing.”

Amira started teasing Tsutomu more and more, prompting him to brush her off as they walked toward the reception counter.

――▽▽――

During the week that Tsutomu spent training with Amira, Leleia and Hannah also got together to try and improve their mid-battle synergy, but things seemed to not be going as well as they had hoped.

“Hannah, you don’t need to go that far away.”

“Got it!” Hannah cheerfully replied.

She certainly was motivated enough. From Leleia’s point of view, Hannah’s attitude was not bad at all, with her endless supply of cheerfulness being one of her positive qualities. In fact, Leleia was rather pleased to be teamed up with her.

However, no matter how many instructions she had gotten, Hannah would forget about them eventually. This reminded Leleia of what Diniel had once said, about the bird girl always being only three steps away from forgetting what she had just been told.

[No — I just have to be patient. She’s sure to understand eventually.]

Believing that, Leleia took it slow and rational with Hannah, but their synergy took forever to show any sort of improvement. Hannah would indeed fall back whenever she was given a warning, but the distance to which she would go was so great that it defeated the point of her being an evasion-based Tank. In fact, it downgraded her Tanking performance to be on Tsutomu’s level.

“…And so, I would like to ask you for any tips and tricks you may happen to have.”

With Leleia asking her for advice again, Diniel looked a little disappointed as she closed the book she was in the middle of reading.

“All right, I’ll go with you, see if I can help.”

“Thank you very much. You’re a lifesaver.”

And so Diniel agreed to join them for one post-exploration training session.

“Hannah, whenever Leleia shouts out a skill name, move out of the way. But unlike when I use >, don’t get away too far. And keep on attacking as much as you can.”

“Got it!”

“All right. Let’s go.”

After Hannah agreed to Diniel’s suggestions, they went together for a practice run. And once Diniel got a good look at Hannah’s grounded movements, she immediately instructed Leleia to start unleashing her skills.

“Wait, what? Am I not supposed to give her a sign first?”

“No need. Just go ahead and use your skills.”

“But that’s…”

“Don’t worry about hitting her. She won’t learn otherwise, anyway.”

Pressured by Diniel’s cold gaze, Leleia went ahead and cast her skills. The Salamander’s heat beam passed right by Hannah’s side and pierced the monster’s body. Hannah promptly turned to the two Attackers, surprised by the beam that seemingly had appeared without warning.

Once the monsters were defeated, Hannah returned with a wide-awake look painted on her face.

“You weren’t trying to get me killed, were you!?”

“You agreed to do this, Hannah.”

“I mean, yes, I did, but–! Couldn’t I at least get a signal beforehand!? That almost gave me a heart attack!”

“If you’d just learned to listen, we would have done that. But you never did, so you won’t get it,” Diniel said to Hannah with a straight face.

Back at the Clan House, Hannah had indeed been told that this would happen during today’s training session, but in the back of her mind, she believed that a sensible person like Leleia would never go through with it — but she had actually prepared for it to happen after being told that Diniel would be coming along. And in the end, the two Attackers did unleash their skills without mercy.

And then Diniel, realizing something, clapped her thick-gloved hands together and said,

“It’s all right. Even if you’re hit, it’s only accidental. You’ll just die. God won’t be mad at me or Leleia at all.”

“Whoawhoawhoa!? That’s some crazy logic you’re working with there! And yes — if I get hit by that, I won’t just get hurt! I’ll definitely die!”

“Here comes the next one. Go pull its aggro, Hannah.”

“Uh, we’re not done talking yet…”

Diniel pointed at the approaching Snow Wolves, but Hannah was not about to let the conversation get cut short. Diniel then looked down at her with a straight face for a second, then cracked an evil grin.

“Just do it.”

That rare smile from Diniel — and especially that order — were enough to make Hannah tremble.

“Damn it! I’ll show you…!”

Shedding a tear, she unleashed her > and charged at the pack of Snow Wolves. Seeing the bird girl’s tears glisten over the snow, Leleia turned to Diniel, intending to criticize her methods.

“That might have been a little too much. Surely sure she would understand with enough patience, even without getting so heavy-handed at her.”

“You know how stupid that girl is, which is why you came to ask me for help. Isn’t that right?”

“…Yes, but I can’t bear seeing her receive this treatment.”

Hannah’s current fear of the Attackers was akin to a bird being chased by a hunter with a hunting rifle. Despite that, Diniel only shook her head.

“Just… give it a try. You’ll understand.”

“…All right.”

It was true that she had had almost no success after trying to teach Hannah the same things again and again for a whole week. Deciding to believe Diniel, who had been paired with Hannah for a good while before, Leleia reluctantly ordered the Salamander to unleash a fire breath.

Not seeing the heat beam coming, Hannah got grazed on one of her wings and some of her blue feathers caught on fire.

“AHHHHHH! I’M BURNING!”

“I-I am so sorry!”

Leleia immediately bowed her head in apology after the accidental hit. Diniel, seeing that Hannah was rolling around on the ground, quickly killed the Snow Wolves with quick, well-aimed shots before they could attack Hannah.

After all the monsters were killed, Hannah cooled her wings in the snow and leaped straight at Diniel. Then she pointed at her wings, looking a little happy for some reason.

“Diniel! Look! LOOK! It’s all burnt up!”

“No problem. It’ll heal once you’re out of the Dungeon.”

“T-that’s true, BUT…! Isn’t this a bit too cruel!?”

“Your fault for not dodging it.”

“Oof…”

The way Hannah dejectedly put her head down was pitiful, but Leleia saw in her expression that, for some reason, she was not actually sad.

“Here comes the next one. Go pull its aggro, Hannah.”

“D-damn it! I’ll show you!” Hannah exclaimed and ran off, seeming somewhat excited.

Diniel, after looking at Hannah go, turned to Leleia.

“She’s the kind of girl who will do whatever she’s told to, even if it sounds unreasonable. And she’ll enjoy the challenge, too. Don’t you think so?”

“…Perhaps that is true.”

Back when Hannah pointed out how her feathers had been burnt, she actually looked like she was having fun, for some reason. Leleia, with that in mind, looked on as Hannah was fighting the Snow Wolves to pull their aggro.

“I’ve never shot her accidentally,” Diniel proceeded to say. “But she’d always look like there was something… missing. You must have noticed that too, if you’ve seen the look on her face just now.”

“Was that… what it really was?”

It was normal for anyone to be angry after getting mistakenly hit by their allies. Hannah, however, was only putting up an act. In fact, Leleia now saw that the girl was actually enjoying this situation.

“So go ahead and hit her as much as you want. She’ll learn more quickly, and have a good time doing it. Two birds with one stone.”

“……”

Leleia was puzzled by Diniel’s words, but at the same time, she understood what they meant. Leleia proceeded to unleash her skills more liberally, and following that, Hannah’s competency improved rapidly after the one-week period of apparent stagnation.