Live Dungeon!

The fourth day into the individual training routines, Tsutomu spent his morning like usual, casting <<Medic>> to disengage Amira’s berserk <<Dragon Form>>. He started feeling that something was out of place though.

[…Is it just me, or are her moves different?]

While the transformation was active, Amira usually would like a famished wild beast. The overall status boosts further added to her speed, rendering her practically invincible against run-of-the-mill monsters. The one-note nature of her rampage meant she would be easily predictable, however, so Tsutomu had been landing <<Medic>> shots on her without much difficulty.

But he felt that Amira’s moves had been gradually changing over the past three days. Occasionally, he would sense the feeling of ‘being in control’ in the way she acted. In game terms, it was like when NPCs were sometimes secretly controlled by humans.

“AAAHHH!!”

Moreover, her ear-splitting roars now seemed to contain a more deliberate display of anger. Nervous about Amira’s changing tendencies, Tsutomu cast <<Medic>> to disengage her <<Dragon Form>>.

“Ah– whoops.”

Amira regained consciousness and quickly counteracted her momentum, successfully retaining control of her flight. She still had difficulties controlling her direction immediately, but at least she no longer fell straight down. Her being able to achieve this in three days was thanks not only to good instincts, but also to all the flight training she had done each day after exploring the Dungeon.

“Amira, are you sure you’re still not in control of your transformation?”

“What? I’m sure, yeah.”

“Huh…”

Tsutomu tilted his head, doubtful of what he had been told. He was sure that her movements while transformed were different now — and after another hour of practicing her flight, he felt that her movements were getting even more deliberate.

[Nah, she clearly looks like she’s in control to me.]

Her movements while transformed now were completely different from two hours ago, causing Tsutomu to feel more and more suspicious as he kept on casting <<Medic>> for her. Until now, dispelling her <<Dragon Form>> had been like dealing with a monster, but now, he somewhat felt that he was actually dealing with a person. It was clear to him that she was acting differently.

After finally landing the <<Medic>> shot on Amira, Tsutomu approached her as she controlled her direction and stopped in mid-air.

“Amira, you were actually in control, weren’t you?”

“…Tch, so you noticed, huh?”

Amira pouted, seeming as if she was confessing to mischief. Tsutomu, exasperated, put his hands on his hips and asked,

“Why’d you hide it?”

“Because… I wanted to do this!”

“What–“

Suddenly, Amira lunged at Tsutomu, grabbing him, and spinning around then throwing him straight down. Tsutomu managed to partially counteract the momentum with flight control, but still ended up with his face buried in a Slime cushion.

“Hah! THAT’S HOW IT FEELS!!”

“…Damn it.”

Amira flew down over to Tsutomu and stuck her tongue out at him, venting her frustration from all the flight training. Tsutomu seemed upset at first, but upon pulling his face out of the cushion and seeing Amira’s hearty smile, he simmered down.

“Well… Anyway. Now that you can control your <<Dragon Form>>… Congratulations.”

“…It’s NOT perfect yet, though. Just managed to stay conscious a bit.”

“Huh, so the same level as Camille before she fought the Fire Dragon?”

“Yeah. And I just felt like hitting you.”

Amira clenched one fist and painted a comically evil grin on her face.

“Ooh, sho scawwy,” Tsutomu replied.

With Amira’s <<Dragon Form>> training over for the day, the two proceeded to leave the training room.

“So… it sounds like you can’t put it to practical use yet — not in time for the Mount Golem fight, at least. So, let’s save the <<Dragon Form>> teamwork practice for after that.”

“Mm-hm.”

“I can see things becoming easier for me already, though — since I won’t have to keep casting <<Medic>> for too much longer.”

“Now that I think about it, you had to do that for the ancient Dragon too, huh? Don’t worry. I’ll get it down soon!”

Amira laughed in good humour and slapped Tsutomu on his back a few times, prompting the latter to scoot away.

“Hey, careful who you hit. I’m not built like Daryl, you know?”

“Sorry, sorry. Force of habit.”

Amira proceeded to put her arm around Tsutomu’s shoulders, disregarding all sense of personal space.

“And get off me already.”

Tsutomu gave Amira a subtle glare and took a few steps away, prompting the latter to stare at him with a mischievous look.

“Man, unfriendly much?”

“Yeah, yeah.”

“Guess you prefer the ancient Dragon, huh? How ’bout you start dating her… then get married sometime down the line? Then we can party up all the time!”

“No.”

“What the hell!? The ancient Dragon ain’t too old yet, you know!?”

“If you’re gonna get upset, try to stop calling her by that weird nickname first…”

With Amira suddenly in a bad mood, the two of them proceeded to walk to the Guild’s Dining Hall.

――▽▽――

“I’m exhausted…” Diniel groaned.

Tsutomu, having come to oversee her and Hannah’s afternoon training on layer sixty-eight, chuckled a little… because they had just arrived here after lunch break ended.

“Come on, we’re not even a minute in yet.”

“Being stuck for three days with… HER is gonna do that. Honestly, we’re going too fast and wasting too much energy.”

“Oh, really?”

“I mean, Hannah doesn’t let us rest very often. Which makes ME constantly tired… and we’re not seeing much improvement, either. It’s a waste of time. Won’t hurt to take more breaks instead.”

Watching Hannah roaming around whistling a tune as if she was on a picnic, Diniel heaved a deep sigh.

“I see. Let’s ask Hannah about that later, then.”

“I take three steps, and I already feel my head going empty…”

“Hey,” Tsutomu replied to Diniel’s exaggeration with a stern stare, prompting the latter to shrug.

“How does she even keep going like that?” She groaned while continuing to observe Hannah with an unamused look in her eyes.

“…Diniel, are you not having fun exploring the Dungeon?” Tsutomu asked her.

“It IS fun, but not something I’d commit my whole life to. Not enough to do extra training on days off like Amira, either. I enjoy other things too — like reading and sleeping.”

“Hmm, all right. So, you DO enjoy exploring, at least?”

“Mm-hm.”

“Sounds good enough to me. As long as you do your job.”

“Cool,” Diniel muttered, the emotion in her eyes now unreadable.

She proceeded to look at Hannah, who had just found a Lava Golem and was pulling its aggro. Then, once the monster’s attention was on Hannah, she nocked one arrow and shot it out.

This particular was special in that it emitted a sound by absorbing the air from when it was let loose. It passed over Hannah’s head, and once she heard the sound from it, she quickly moved away from the Lava Golem. Diniel proceeded to nock another arrow — this one of the ice element.

“<<Stream Arrow>>.”

The ice arrow flew into the sky, and then it glowed… and what followed was a curtain of countless arrows, streaking down like a meteor shower. One after another, they easily pierced into the Lava Golem’s body, quickly turning it into a dispersing mass of light particles. Diniel knitted her brows, disturbed by the amount of mental energy expended, and then quickly repositioned herself.

By using sound-emitting arrows, Diniel could signal Hannah to retreat — such was how they had agreed to do things whenever <<Stream Arrow>> was going to be used.

Moreover, there were different kinds of sound-emitting arrows to choose from, so they could agree on different signals if they wanted. Tsutomu had also thought of incorporating them into various other strategies, but as it turned out, Amira and Hannah were not so good at memorization. As such, he decided to limit its use to <<Stream Arrow>> signals, at least for the upcoming Mount Golem battle.

Still, Hannah was motivated to get things right, so she was working hard to associate Diniel’s sound-emitting arrows with their respective verbal instructions.

“What’d you say? Repeat? You want me to try that move again?”

“RETREAT. It’s retreat.”

“Ah, okay. Sorry about that! Do correct me if I get it wrong again!”

“……”

Tsutomu, getting a look of complaint from Diniel, reflexively looked away. Considering how Hannah likely would keep on training endlessly — and drag Diniel along as well — unless told to stop, Tsutomu figured that the latter’s earlier comment about the former’s bad memory was probably true.