Dungeon Tour Guide ch. 51

Hands on fire today. Let me know if you spot anything that needs fixing!

The Duelists of the Weave recovered before Minus One did. That made sense, in some way—M-1 had fewer members, so they had to expend more mana per person during the fight, and they’d already been tired before they’d entered the dungeon to do their first training run-through—but it still surprised me.

The four level 2s were fresh and ready on their return. Robes had been patched up, wounds mended, and mana regained.

“Hello, everyone,” I said. “Ready?”

_________________________

“Behind you!” Sylva screamed.

“What the fuck is that?” Arthur shouted, the [Swashbuckler] batting away a [Displacer Snake] just in time.

Props to them, they’d listened. Their lineup was more fluid now, entering the goldilocks zone of being spread out enough to avoid being wiped out by one attack or interfering with each other and not being too loosely organized to help allies. They were still getting used to it though, and it showed.

“I got it!” Jess called out, nocking a normal arrow. “Keep your attention on the construct!”

She fired, then fired again when the snake [Displace]d itself out of the way of the first one.

I winced as the snake died. [Combine] took a fair amount of mana, and unlike [Spawn Monster], I didn’t get that all of that mana back when my monsters died.

Oh well. I’d gained more than enough from this battle to make up for all the [Combine]s I’d done in the past few days, and even if I hadn’t, losing mana was acceptable when it was for a good cause.

“Just fuckin’—“ Arthur grunted, parrying an attack from one of the two remaining earth constructs before launching a counterstrike of his own. “—die already!”

With the [Moonlit Clarity] from the [Moon Cleric] and his own passive [Audacity] skill, his strikes dealt enough damage to finally smash the construct to pieces.

“New monster!” Sylva called, pointing to the air as I finally deployed the [Mephit]s.

Their approach had been a lot better this time, but I still considered them weaker than M-1. As a result, even though I’d tossed the entirety of the first room at them rather than a weakened version of it, I’d decided to do this fight in stages. Snakes and constructs first, then introduce the special snakes and now finally the [Mephit]s.

“I’m on it,” Jess said, adjusting her bow to aim upwards.

Sylva was running a mixture of offense and defense, using a [Ray of Weakness] to make the remaining construct more brittle while casting her own [Magic Missile]s from time to time.

The [Moon Cleric]—I still didn’t know his name—was being a little more dynamic now too. His [Moonbeam] came out once or twice, and every now and then he activated a [Cure Wounds] or [Lesser Heal] when an errant attack hit one of his teammates. He was primarily sticking to support roles, and he was doing more than one thing.

All in all, they’d taken my advice down to the letter, even those of them that had initially ben reticent.

That, however, didn’t mean that they were doing this perfectly. Jess the [Arcane Archer] sniped one of the [Mephit]s out of the air, then another and another.

One of them apparently actually knew what these were, because the [Time Mage] fired three separate [Manaburst]s to double-tap them, preventing them from detonating where they landed next to the [Swashbuckler].

I gave her an approving thumbs-up, though I was pretty sure she didn’t see it.

It did, however, take a lot of mana out of her, and when Jess felled another four of them, Sylva had to burn both of her [Minor Redo] on keeping the [Swashbuckler] from losing his head. Even then, it was a narrow thing, and he was knocked off his balance enough that the weakened construct got in a solid blow on him.

_____________________________

“Much, much better,” I began, healing the concussed Arthur. I tried out a [Remove Greater Affliction] and found that it almost completely annihilated the concussion. That was handy. “All of you were significantly more capable this time. You figured out some of your individual issues, understood more of how to work as a team, and ultimately cleared the room.”

“But we fucked up,” Jess said, tilting her head. “Right?”

“You did let your strongest fighter get knocked unconscious even after two separate [Minor Redo]s,” I said. “There were a number of factors leading up to that.”

“Those were [Mephit]s, Jess,” Sylva said in a tone that I might’ve taken to be gloating if she didn’t look so embarrassed. “They explode when they die if you don’t hit them a second time and defuse them. I learned about them in university.”

“Yeah, I was wondering why you shot them again after I killed them,” Jess said, wiping her bow off where snake and [Mephit] blood had gotten onto it.

“Both of you made mistakes here, both of which involved communication,” I said. “The lesson learned from this should apply to the party as a whole, not just to the two of you, you hear me?”

Nobody disagreed, so I continued. “Jess, you didn’t realize what your teammate was doing. It’s best to assume that each of you actually has a reason for what you do—unless Sylva explicitly said that she made a mistake, you should’ve realized that there was something special about these monsters.”

“Right,” the [Arcane Archer] said. “But—“

“But,” I said, catching the tail end of her sentence, “Sylva, you should’ve called it out. Information is one of the most important things on the battlefield. Knowing what your teammates are doing and why, knowing what the enemy does… that’s critical. You need to be loud and clear to your teammates.”

“Understood,” Sylva said. “Sorry Jess. Sorry Arthur.”

“It’s all good,” the [Swashbuckler] said. “I leveled up.”

“Really?” the [Moon Cleric] said. “Man, I’m jealous.”

“The rest of you should level soon as well,” I said, considering the amount of mana surrounding them. “Before you leave, I have a few more things to tell you. The most general one is once again about priorities. This time, it’s about who’s attacking what. Jess, you do excellent single-target damage. You’re wasted on attacking the little minions unless you can volley your arrows at them. Does anyone here have area of effect damage?”

“[Moonbeam] is AOE,” the [Moon Cleric] offered.

“I have a couple,” Sylva added.

“Then use them,” I said. “Take out the hordes of weaker enemies so your heavy hitters can take down the strongest threats. Balancing support with damage is tough, but it’s something that you’re going to need to learn how to do. Got it?”

“Got it,” Sylva said.

“I want to discuss a little more with you about the intricacies of some of your skills,” I said. “Make sure to be here again tomorrow. Tonight, if possible, but I understand if you can’t.”

_________________________________

“Hey, Lucas,” Rose said. “We’re back.”

She was a lot more chipper this time. Her [Song of Rest] must’ve done numbers for them, because all three of them looked a lot better than they had this morning.

“Glad to have you,” I said. “Are you ready?”

“Always,” Ryan said, drawing his sword.

___________________________

They were, in fact, ready. This time, they decimated the hordes in instants. Troy [Thunderspark] chained the shit out of the snakes before they could even finish falling from the ceiling, though a [Rock Snake] or two escaped the carnage along with all four [Displacer Snake]s.

Rose had her [Song of Strength] imbuing Ryan’s strikes with enough force and speed to smash through the constructs without expending a single [Adamantium Strike].

“Swap!” she shouted, ending her song and firing off a [Song of Displacement] to send a [Displacer Snake] flying away from her. It met its demise in the form of a bright-blue [Manaburst] rendering flesh from bone. “Back on strength!”

Honestly, there weren’t many things more enjoyable than fighting with a bard. She provided running background music for the battle, almost like Minus One was clearing a hard level in a game rather than fighting for their lives and the lives of those around them.

“Heads up!” Troy shouted. “Incoming construct!”

He sprinted towards Ryan, who was still engaged in a duel against a construct laden with [Rock Snake]s. As he did, he cast a [Shield].

An air vent opened underneath his feet, but he took that in stride, twisting in midair and casting a [Gust] to propel him into the path of the construct. The oncoming construct slammed into the thin white forcefield he created, and it shattered underneath its fist. The spell had slowed its fist enough for the construct’s strike to be utterly unthreatening, though, and that was what counted.

“[Mephit]s!” Troy shouted, looking up. “They arrived!”

I’d deployed them late, just as I had against the Duelists, and the response was immediate.

“Swap!” Rose declared, and she used her [Song of Displacement] to shoot the construct that Troy had blocked a strike from sky-high, sending it soaring into the air.

It crushed a [Mephit] or two as it flew. It wasn’t terribly fast, but it was heavy and the [Mephit]s were some of the weakest creatures health-wise.

The detonations happened midair, assisted by another chain [Thunderspark] from Troy. Fireworks of gore and demonic flesh popped across the air, the sound deafening enough to drown out Rose’s song, and then that was the entire [Mephit] threat dealt with in one go.

Ryan was waiting for the construct when it fell, taking a massive overhead strike at it the moment it hit the ground.

The construct split into three pieces where his magical blade hit it, and the room was over.

“Well done!” I told them. “It only took you one fight to figure out the weaknesses of the new enemies you were facing, and you were able to deal with it pretty easily afterwards.”

“Thanks,” Rose said, barely even breathing hard. “I’m good on mana. You two?”

“Burned a little more than I should’ve on those [Thunderspark]s,” Troy said, shaking his hands. “I could’ve done more with less.”

“My swordplay is on point today,” Ryan said. “I need to figure out how to use that [Agility Boost] better, though. I need such a large amount of area to wind up for it.

“It’s good that you three are making judgments about your own performances,” I said. “Knowing what you need to improve on is key to actually improving.”

“I still think we did pretty good all around there,” Rose said. “But we didn’t really come up against anything new.”

“Want to try the second room?” I asked.

______________________________

“Okay, so maybe we should’ve held off on that a little longer,” I muttered.

At least none of them had died. Using [Revivify] on the party would’ve been a huge dampener on this.

On the flipside, none of them had made it out of that room conscious. A few [Greater Restoration]s and [Remove Greater Affliction]s were able to remove any concerns I might’ve had about long-term damage, but the verdict was clear.

They hadn’t been ready for it.

I’d admit that they’d done their best. They’d followed my advice, protected Troy as he analyzed what they were up against, and they hadn’t made the mistake of assuming everything worked the same way as it had before. Troy had even successfully identified that the ECDVs were using [Displacer] abilities before he’d engaged in combat.

The problem was that they just weren’t powerful enough. Rose’s [Song of Displacement]s didn’t work to do anything other than buy a little bit of time against the ECDVs. Any offensive use of it was stymied by the fact that the [Fake Hydra]s were simply too large and the ECDVs too heavy. Ryan’s speed was good enough for him to catch up to one ECDV and destroy it with an [Adamantium Strike], but the combination of the constructs and the [Fake Hydra]s that were still active, it just wasn’t enough. Troy had managed to severely one of the [Fake Hydra]s, at least, but he’d not lasted much longer after both his teammates went down.

Maybe they just needed more people. This room was multitudes harder than the hardest bossfight I’d thrown at them so far, and it was ridiculous to expect three level 4s to clear it.

The three of them started to blink awake, and I sighed.

They hadn’t even done anything wrong. As a matter of fact, they’d performed better than I’d even dared to hope they would.

But they just didn’t have enough firepower.

If I had a few more weeks…

Maybe it was worth switching tacks.

“Let’s call it a day, you three,” I said. “I think there’s a path to defeating them, but it requires near-perfect coordination from you. For now, get some rest. It’s only the first day.”

But we only have five more, I didn’t say.

______________________________

I had to keep training the adventurers that came into my dungeon. That wasn’t even a question. They were going to be protecting the city, and I wasn’t going to be out there to heal them.

But from what I’d seen of the Kingsguard and from what I’d seen of the adventurers, I was sure that any organized force was going to crush us. The raw level difference was just too damn high for a week of training to surmount.

And that meant I had to take some different measures.

For one, I knew that the Kingsguard were prioritizing me in particular. I didn’t know whether they knew about the fact that I was half Dungeon Core or not, but they had the intelligence that there was a tour guide that was thwarting their plans or something, and that was what I had to contend with.

They were going to try to kill me, and I had to stop that.

Up until this point, I’d been playing fair. I’d made it so that all the adventurers that entered me could survive. Made it so that there wouldn’t be any unexplained bullshit that took people by surprise.

That was going to end at the end of this week.

If the Kingsguard were going to attack me, they were going to suffer for it. I had an entire dungeon to manipulate, and I had so much on my side.

Buffing up my defenses gave two benefits. First, it would increase my survivability if I had a difficult dungeon to hide behind.

Second, I could be a shelter.

The Guild here was weak. With Lisa as the only real adventurer supporting this Guild, there was no way they were going to be able to stand up to a sustained attack by several high-level Kingsguard. There was a knight order too, but I didn’t know how effective they would be.

I could work with the people of the town and give them somewhere to go if our other lines of defenses failed. There was enough room underneath my dungeon to fit a few hundred people if they were okay with being a bit squished.

The one issue was that my monsters weren’t all that powerful right now. Sure, I had the [Displacer] and I had the monstrosity that I’d been preparing in the third room, but I wasn’t sure how effective that would be against multiple people on the level of the last Kingsguard that’d attacked me.

That meant I needed to get creative with designs, and maybe…

A presence entered my safe room, striding towards the training room with purpose, and I sprinted to meet her.

Just who I wanted to see.

“Lucas,” Iris said, “we need to talk.”

“We do,” I said, and I was sure that there was a bit of a crazed look in my eyes. “And I need you to feed monsters to the dungeon.”