Live Dungeon!

“Daryl, try launching a [ at that red mass. Amira, assume it’s a humanoid and prepare to intercept,” Tsutomu issued his orders the moment the strange red double appeared and lunged for Amira. He couldn’t help but wonder, [What is that red thing, anyway?]

Amy, hearing him, touched the crimson scale clinging to the back of her hand, suppressing her [ transformation while letting her mental stamina recover naturally. All the while, she calmly took in the situation unfolding before her.

That red clone had emerged the instant the monster’s lungs were destroyed, rising out of the black blood. That much suggested it had been born as a defensive reaction, designed to eliminate those who damaged its internal organs. Yet, during Korinna and the others’ earlier battles, no such figure had appeared, despite them also having destroyed organs. It might be a newly added threat, one that only manifested when organ destruction occurred early enough in the fight.

“Daryl, you idiot! DIE!!”

“That’s not ME, you know! [!”

And judging by how the clone withstood Amira’s strike head-on with nothing more than a tower shield, it had to be at least as durable as Daryl himself. That, too, was beyond doubt.

“…”

“…Wait, seriously!?”

[Daryl’s being ignored? That’s not normal. Could it be…] Tsutomu groaned inwardly as he processed the strange behavior of the enemy, before firing off his next set of commands, “Well, then… looks like aggro skills won’t work on that thing. Daryl, support Amira! Take as many hits in her place as you can! Garm, we’ll handle the blood clone here! Keep dragging the Corroded Elder Dragon’s attention. If your side collapses, the whole line falls apart! I’m counting on you!”

With that, Daryl, who had been rattled, and Garm, whose focus had wavered, were kept from falling into confusion. At the same time, he sent a round of healing and buffs toward Amira.

“Is that…?”

“Probably something like the Devourer Dragon did, yeah. Aggro doesn’t work on it, and it’s safe to assume that it’s automatically going after whoever’s trying to destroy the Dragon’s organs.”

“…Yeah, that’s what I thought…”

It wasn’t just the battle itself that Tsutomu had full command of. He seemed to be aware even of Amy’s quiet musings about the red clone. Maybe Diniel was right. Maybe Tsutomu really did have multiple brains… and eyes in the back of his head, for good measure.

[He’s a total Dungeon brain, as usual…]

Before entering the hundredth layer, he had seemed a little unlike himself. But now that they were in the heat of battle, it was the same old Tsutomu. That brought Amy a strange mix of relief and disappointment.

“Your mental energy’s back, right?”

“Yeah. I’m good to go.”

“Hmm… this might sound a bit weird, but Amy, are you feeling on point today?”

The sudden, vague question caught Amy off guard, and she gave the safest answer she could,

“…Huh? Umm, well, I guess I’m doing okay…?”

Tsutomu’s eyes dipped downward in thought, but only for a moment. He looked back up almost immediately,

“From what I’ve seen, you’re performing way above expectations today. Your skill rotations are clean, and you’ve been a great help with destroying those organs. That’s why I want you to take over for Amira and destroy the organs yourself. Honestly, we’re running on a pretty tight schedule right now.”

“…”

Amy stared at Tsutomu, stunned at how he had said what he did so casually. The meaning of it meant much more to her: he was asking her to replace Amira. The sheer normalcy of his tone left her unable to react.

“Start with the stomach. Once it’s damaged, look for a tear and cut repeatedly to make it bleed. THEN wait for the liver to regenerate a second time, then destroy that as quickly as possible.”

“Oh. So it’s already decided I’m doing it, huh?”

“Yeah, pretty much. That blood clone probably has VIT on par with the real Daryl. Even if we decide to take it down, it’ll take time. So rather than asking, I’m telling you what I think needs to be done. Really, I’m counting on you to target the stomach. And watch out for the gastric acid.”

With that, he gestured with his staff toward the Corroded Elder Dragon. Amy stepped forward, still unsure how to process the fluffy, surreal feeling in her chest.

[…I don’t know if I can really take Ammie’s place. But the situation does sound like an emergency… Yeah! It’s up to me!]

Having made up her mind, Amy cranked her [ to full power and kicked off the ground, soaring upward as though sprinting through the air. Using that momentum, she slashed at the newly regenerated stomach’s base with her dual blades.

“[! [! [!”

She fired off the standard Dualblader skill combo from Live Dungeon, using [ to ignore inertia and snap her movement back at the desired angle. With [, a heavier-hitting technique, she pierced deep into the wound, and then chained another [ to wrench her blades sideways, tearing the gash even wider.

As of late, Amy had been rising in reputation as an Attacker. But within Absolute Helix, she remained overshadowed. Amira, with her unique skill, and Diniel, the peerless Archer, stood out far more. Amy’s own self-perception wasn’t far off from that same pecking order.

Still, her current performance was closing in on the level of Live Dungeon’s most seasoned Attacker players. Enough that Tsutomu found it genuinely impressive, in fact. And the reason she had gotten that far was simple: she had followed Tsutomu’s Attacker training with a painful degree of sincerity.

His training regimen began with exercises that did not seem useful in the least: things like skill combos repeated endlessly, or fighting with depleted mental strength while keeping movement clean. It was grueling, mentally draining, and even dismissing those, utterly boring.

Fighting on near-empty energy, her mind fraying at the edges, had been especially bad. For most Explorers, that was a fate worse than death. It wasn’t the kind of thing someone could be asked to do.

In fact, Tsutomu himself had believed only someone like Stephanie’s unique mentality could manage it. He had never expected to pass that method on to anyone else.

But as it had turned out, Amy’s mentality was no less unusual. Despite the sheer brutality of the training, Amy, blinded as she was by her pursuit of Tsutomu’s affection, somehow managed to keep up. And once she reached the point where she could fight without her movements faltering even with her mental strength heavily drained, Tsutomu had wasted no time exploiting that new threshold. Without mercy, he pushed her through one grueling exercise after another, each designed for direct application in live combat.

Amy, for her part, carried with her something that fueled her drive: a trauma so deep it could only be called a scar. It dated back to her first battle against the Fire Dragon, when she, as an Attacker, had failed to keep pace. The situation, the overwhelming difference in ability between her and Camille… It had made her feel as if she simply did not belong in that fight. And when she had watched others’ battles broadcast on the Monitors afterward, the despair she felt at her own inadequacy had been seared into her memory.

That was a feeling she never wanted to experience again. It haunted her like a ghost; part fear, part shame. In the end, it had driven her to follow Tsutomu’s guidance with near-religious devotion. That same complex over her lack of a unique skill pushed her to throw herself into mastering [ alongside Leleia, her rival in resolve.

The result of that obsessive effort was a transformation. Amy had honed her Attacker skills to such a degree that one could easily mistake her for another Earthling sent to this world, armed with years’ worth of Live Dungeon play time. Her control over [ was unmatched within Absolute Helix, and when combined with Korinna’s anatomical knowledge, she was now capable of outperforming even Tsutomu’s expectations in organ destruction.

[Even if things are hectic right now… I can’t help feeling happy.]

That joy echoed within her as she recalled Tsutomu’s earlier words. He wasn’t the type to hand out hollow praise, certainly not when it came to matters concerning the Dungeon. Which meant that he truly believed in her; that he had chosen her to replace Amira not out of desperation, but because she had earned it. That alone made Amy’s heart lift. And coming from someone she admired so deeply… it was a reward beyond measure.

“[! [! [!”

With that emotional one-two punch, Amy’s morale shot sky-high. Her potential surged with explosive force. She racked up damage with relentless efficiency, constantly triggering bleeding effects, and at times seemed to move with the impossible logic of a video game, dodging jets of acid in ways that defied physics. Like Tsutomu himself, Amy now fought like someone from another world, going against the Corroded Elder Dragon on even footing.

“Damn it…! All right, let’s finish this thing already! Help me out!”

“I’m doing my best!”

Inspired by Amy’s ferocity, Amira also cranked up her [ power, increasing the intensity of her scales’ burning red glow as she joined Daryl in an all-out assault on the blood clone. Garm, his expression still as grim as a drawn blade, batted aside a blood weapon with his armored forearm and pressed the offensive, soaking up aggro while receiving constant healing.

Eventually, Daryl managed to hold the clone in place, and Amira landed a clean critical hit and severed its head, bringing the drawn-out exchange to a close. But she had taken serious punishment, hammered by the clone’s tower shield and battered all over; she was in no condition to move directly into the next organ destruction phase.

“Tch, this thing’s really wastin’ our time…”

“Amira, fall back!” Tsutomu called out. “My aggro level is getting dangerous. You’ll have to make do with a Potion for now!”

“I’m still good over here!” Amy added.

Thanks to Amy’s uninterrupted assault, the destruction phase proceeded without delay despite the clone’s interference. The stomach had been torn apart, and even the liver had been reduced to pulp after its second regeneration. With that, the liver’s regenerative loop was cut off entirely. And perhaps because the black blood had been diverted to produce the clone, even the normal regeneration cycle for the organs was beginning to lag.

“Daryl, swap with Garm. Amy, come back for now.”

“Whaaat!? But I can still go!”

“Your buffs are running dry. If you’re fine going without them, I won’t stop you.”

“Uuugh… fine, I’m coming back!”

Her stamina had not seemed to falter even with [ and constant skill chaining, but that was partly thanks to the [ shots consistently being sent her way. Once that stopped, she knew better than to push her luck. With a frustrated sigh, she pivoted and retreated.

Tsutomu, watching her return with a weary gaze, sucked thoughtfully on a Blue Potion candy to recover his energy. Though the battle had been progressing smoothly, his eyes remained fixed on the black blood still pulsing unnaturally, seeking to regenerate the destroyed organs.