Live Dungeon!

“Shall we call it a day?” Stephanie said. “…This turned out to be a more meaningful session than I anticipated. I appreciate your time.”

Two hours had passed since Tsutomu had fled the battlefield, and still the feed on Monitor #1 remained unbroken. In a silence thick as mourning cloth, Stephanie, Eunice, and Lorena carried on with their Healer discussion circle. But unlike usual, the mood was subdued, and the air was heavy with unspoken thoughts. As the crowd thinned out around the Pedestal Market, the three exchanged opinions for an hour before Stephanie, her expression firm with resolve, rose to leave.

“…What will you do now, Stephanie?” Eunice asked quietly.

“I intend to take on the hundredth layer.”

“…And what about Tsutomu?”

“Much as I hate to admit it… it seems he won’t be reappearing anytime soon. He truly doesn’t want to die, does he?”

“…”

On Monitor #1, the only things visible were the aimless sparring of the undead Garm and Amy, and the now fully-revived Corroded Elder Dragon, looming in the background like a nightmare. Not once had Tsutomu’s figure reappeared, with him likely having intentionally directed the God Eye away from himself, and now word was spreading that the rest of his party had already been forcibly returned to the Guild.

For the first thirty minutes, many still believed his retreat was part of a greater plan. But as the minutes became hours and the return of his companions became known, that hopeful illusion shattered. The Pedestal Market erupted in boos, and the crowd dispersed.

In the end, even Stephanie could no longer deny that Tsutomu had ran away. His party was lost, their revival impossible, and the Corroded Elder Dragon had restored itself to full strength. If he lingered in the Ancient Castle now, it was only because he could not bear the thought of dying.

Stephanie alone had realized that Tsutomu had been training Korinna to take on the hundredth layer ahead of him. But she had assumed, perhaps naively, that some noble intention beyond her understanding was behind it. Now she could see the truth: he had simply wanted to use Korinna as a shield to preserve his own life. Even she, one of his most devoted believers, could not defend that.

“Well then. I’ll be on my way now.”

It would’ve been a lie to say she was not disappointed. And yet, unlike the jeering spectators, Stephanie could not bring herself to cast Tsutomu aside with scorn.

She had been disappointed, yes; her blind faith in him had been dispelled. But that was all it was. A man had revealed himself to be human after all. And because of that, she would now take Korinna’s place, offering herself as the perfect shield the latter could not be. That, she believed, would be the only true way to help him now, and perhaps keep his life as an Explorer from crumbling away entirely. With brisk steps, she turned and made for the Guild.

“…What about you, Lorena?” Eunice asked quietly once Stephanie had gone, her fox ears drooping low.

Eunice had taken the public ridicule of Tsutomu almost personally and looked as though the words had wounded her. Even Stephanie’s detachment, on the surface, felt to Eunice like an expression of sympathy.

Between Eunice and Stephanie, Lorena was a closer friend to the former. They had begun dining together in the evenings after their Dungeon runs, and through that, Lorena had come to understand the depth of Eunice’s emotional sensitivity. So when she responded, she chose her words carefully, so as not to hurt her.

“If I think Tsutomu needs help, I’ll help him. If I think he doesn’t, I won’t… But to be honest, I have no idea exactly what I should be DOING right now.”

Back when they had stalled completely at the Corrupted Shell guarding the ninetieth layer, and when Silver Beast faced mounting troubles with both Dungeon progress and the care of their orphans, Lorena had felt utterly drained. And Tsutomu, her Healer mentor, had done anything in particular to help.

She’d tried subtle gestures to draw his attention, sighing exaggeratedly as she passed him in the Guild venue. He ignored her completely. And when she heard from others that he was offering guidance to Stephanie and Eunice, she had been so furious she’d nearly talked herself into dropkicking him the next time they crossed paths.

But in the end, she and her Clan had pushed through, clawing their way forward with fierce debates and agonizing decisions, ultimately resolving both the orphan issue and their Dungeon progress. Looking back, it was clear that Tsutomu’s help had not been necessary. That trial hadn’t been about clearing the ninetieth layer; it had been about Silver Beast finding their identity as a Clan. Considering that, Tsutomu’s intervention might have worsened the situation by making it unnecessarily complicated.

But even now, Lorena found the choice between helping and not helping to be deeply difficult.

Tsutomu’s brilliant track record and occasionally infuriating personality had made it easy to forget the fact that he had remarkably little experience with death. Since the day he pulled the Black Staff from a golden chest, Tsutomu had somehow descended all the way to the hundredth layer while sidestepping the near-universal rite of passage among Explorers: dying and returning.

To him, death remained a terrifying, unfamiliar thing, as it was to an average person. In the eyes of Explorers, overcoming that fear was a given, and yet that ‘common sense’ simply did not apply to him.

Tsutomu had risen too far, too fast, without paying the toll most Explorers did. He had tasted death only once. And now, here he was, paralyzed. He might abandon the Dungeon entirely, like those who never managed to conquer that fear. Or, perhaps, he might surprise them all and return to the hundredth layer wearing that same unreadable smile.

No one could say which way Tsutomu would lean, and that very uncertainty was what left Lorena wavering. Should she, like Stephanie, forge ahead toward the hundredth layer and walk that path beside him? Or should she prepare, like Eunice, to help him return from the trauma of death?

“Eunice… you’re planning to wait for Tsutomu to come back, right?” Lorena asked.

“I… I don’t know,” Eunice murmured, unable to meet her gaze.

But Lorena, who had come to understand Eunice’s temperament over time, was fairly certain that the moment Tsutomu returned, Eunice would rush to see him. With a gentle smile, she gave her a little nudge.

“Maybe he’ll be just a little shaken up after facing death, seeing that it’s his first real time… so I’ll go visit too. We can go together, okay?”

“…Okay.”

“I mean, come on. This is Tsutomu we’re talking about. There’s no way he’s retiring over this.”

“That’s exactly what I’m afraid of!” Eunice cried, her voice trembling. “Everyone piles their expectations on him, and when he can’t live up to them, they turn their backs and say whatever they want! It’s not fair! He doesn’t deserve that!”

“Yeah… I get it. But hey, let’s take a deep breath first, okay?”

Lorena handed her a handkerchief, offering a soft laugh as Eunice’s eyes filled with tears. She let the fox-eared girl vent for several minutes, listening patiently until Eunice’s breathing began to calm. Then, entrusting her to the rest of the Golden Tune members, Lorena made her way back to Silver Beast’s house.

▽▽

In the Clan house of Absolute Helix, dinner preparations were well underway in the living room… but the seat that was usually filled without fail remained empty.

Garm sat staring listlessly at the chair where Tsutomu should have been. Amy, across from him, fidgeted in silence, idly pressing her thumb against the tips of her fork’s prongs to distract herself.

Both had been returned from the Dungeon five minutes after succumbing to becoming undeads, ejected by the Guild’s Black Gate. Afterward, they had reunited with Daryl and Amira, and for nearly three hours, the four of them had watched Monitor #1, waiting for any sign of Tsutomu. They had insisted on sticking around even when it became clear he was not coming back, but Camille, the Guild Master, had finally ordered them to return to the Clan house, promising to bring Tsutomu back herself when he reemerged.

Just as the final touches of dinner were being set out, the front door burst open with a bang. Heavy footsteps thudded through the corridor, and the living room door swung wide, revealing a storm-faced Amira. No one followed her in. With a slam that made Hannah leap out of her chair, the door shut behind her.

Maribel, the apprentice helping serve dinner, stiffened visibly. She began moving with exaggerated care, terrified of making a mistake. Korinna and Hannah both held their breath as they reached for their glasses of water. Daryl’s eyes darted nervously from person to person.

Leleia let out a long, exasperated sigh.

“You really do express anger like a child.”

“…What?”

“I said you’re acting like a child. Slamming doors, putting everyone on edge. You’re doing the exact same things you did years ago. Haven’t changed a bit, have you?”

“…”

Amira clenched her jaw but didn’t reply. Her wild, reptilian glare, the same one she had during her transformations, wavered, then faded as she exhaled and slumped into her usual seat with a reluctant calm.

“…I lost my temper. My bad.”

“It’s all right,” Korinna said gently.

“Just don’t break the door, okay? That thing does cost money,” added Hannah.

Maribel released a quiet breath of relief. But Amira’s eyes, though less fiery now, still simmered with frustration.

“Still pisses me off, though,” she growled. “Damn Tsutomu… how long’s he gonna hole up in there?”

“At this rate, he may stay until the Dungeon collapses around him,” Leleia replied dryly.

“God dammit…!” Amira snarled, grinding her teeth.

If she noticed the faint satisfaction on Leleia’s face, she gave no sign of it. All she could do was vent, feeding her anger with every word.

Amira had worked tirelessly since her loss to Leleia during the ninetieth-layer selection, honing her skills in hopes of joining Tsutomu’s party. And though things had not gone exactly as she had hoped, she had made it in. She had been proud to stand beside him, to trust her back to him not just as a Healer, but as a commander.

But in the end, he had abandoned her. She had not realized it at that moment, but when she was revived and learned the truth, rage had very nearly torn her apart.

Her mother had respected him. She herself had seen his worth during the battle with the Devourer Dragon. She had believed in him. And now… now he was hiding, choosing self-preservation over the party he led. To think that she had once admired a man like that made her stomach churn.

“When he comes back, I’m gonna kill him.”

“He certainly shouldn’t have left you all behind like that,” Leleia said. “But even so… perhaps half-killing him would be enough. And you don’t know, he may have had a reason.”

“What kind of reason could justify leaving your comrades behind? That’s not what a man does. He’s nothing but a coward.”

“…”

Amy said nothing. She wanted to speak, to defend Tsutomu, to say something. Anything. But she couldn’t. She had been the first to fall, had become a pawn of the Corroded Elder Dragon and helped drive their party into a corner. Garm, too, remained silent, weighed down by the same guilt.

Amira, unaware or unwilling to acknowledge their pain, simply kept ranting, her anger spurred on all the more by Leleia’s goading.

“Would you shut up with your pathetic whining?” A sharp voice cut through the room. “You’re ruining the food.”

Everyone turned in surprise. It was Diniel.

“…Whining?” Amira parroted, her brow furrowing.

“Right. Whining. That’s all it is.”

“What part of saying ‘he’s a coward’ counts as whining? It’s just the truth.”

“True, Tsutomu isolating himself on the hundredth layer is a problem. He’s earned the right to be called out for it. But you, still spouting useless complaints despite your own lackluster showing on that floor? That’s just unpleasant. I can’t say I saw anything from you that warrants this much righteous fury.”

“…The hell did you just say?”

“I watched the pedestal. Aside from running away at the end, I don’t see anything worth condemning. In fact, I think he handled that hellish situation extraordinarily well… leading the party, keeping up support, disrupting the enemy. Frankly, I’d say he went well beyond the role of a typical Healer.”

Even if his final retreat was indefensible, there was no denying what Tsutomu had done up to that point. He had maintained the support flow even when the unexpected blood clones appeared. As the party’s leader, he had continued directing the destruction of the Dragon’s organs without missing a beat. When Amy and Garm turned undead, he responded swiftly, holding the Corroded Elder Dragon’s aggro himself while continuing to support his allies and sabotage the enemy.

“In contrast, all you did was follow orders and swing your sword around like a good little Attacker. So no, I don’t understand how you can be this furious with him.”

“…What if this had been an outer Dungeon? He left us to die.”

“You’re shifting the goalposts. That was a Layer Boss fight, where you either live or die. Outer Dungeons can be retreated from at any time. And do you really think someone like Tsutomu, someone even Christia from the Labyrinth Conquerors would recruit, would screw up a judgment call like that?”

“So you’re saying he was right to run?”

“I’m not saying everything he did was right. He ran. That’s a fact. If he comes back, I think we’ve all earned the right to punch him once. But sitting here throwing blame around doesn’t help anyone. All it does is please the person sitting next to you.”

Diniel gave Leleia a pointed glance, her eyes narrowing briefly before she turned her gaze out the window.

“No matter what we say here, Tsutomu’s going to get chewed out when he comes back. And there’s no guarantee he’ll bounce back. He might not have the spine to overcome death… and if he breaks for good, he might actually quit being an Explorer. That’s the worst-case scenario. And I don’t think you want that, do you?”

“…”

After everything he had said to her, for Tsutomu to simply break and walk away from it all, that was something Diniel could never allow. Not until the day he looked her in the eye and acknowledged her once more as a first-rate Attacker.

“If you leave a tree broken by a storm unattended, the rot will reach the roots and kill it. But with proper care, it can grow new branches. We need Tsutomu to grow again.”

“Wow,” Hannah said. “That’s actually… kind of poetic coming from you.”

“For all his flaws, he’s still the leader of this Clan. So once everyone’s gotten in their one good punch, we help him back on his feet. That’s our duty as fellow members.”

“Ugh, you’re meaning it literally? That many hits and he’ll never get back up.”

“It’s worse to only half-break him. If we’re going to snap him, we’d better finish the job. I’m thinking we should leave that part to you, Amira.”

Amira, still scowling, said nothing. Instead, she picked up her glass and downed her water in one long gulp, as if trying to swallow her fury along with it.

“I haven’t forgiven him. Not even close. But when he comes back, I’m first in line to punch him.”

“Sure. Korinna can just heal him right up after that.”

And with that, the mood began to shift. As the rest of dinner was laid out, the tension slowly faded. Even Amira began to crack a smile.

“…Thanks,” Amy said softly to Diniel, and with a sheepish look, offered her half of a grilled fish fillet.

Diniel gently pushed the food back, uninterested in sharing food… but as compensation, she reached out and gave Amy’s tail a long, satisfying stroke.