Live Dungeon!

“Good work!”

Stephanie had just finished a brief talk with the three others when Tsutomu, previously levitating over them with <<Fly>>, came down to congratulate the team. Tsutomu then pointed in the direction of the Queen Spider.

“The enemy seems to have dropped a treasure chest, too — why don’t you go open it?”

“Ah, it did, yes! Come on, everyone!”

After the Queen Spider’s corpse had dispersed into particles of light and faded away, a silver treasure chest sat where the body had once been. Since chests dropped by Bosses were quite rare and have high chances of containing quality loot, Stephanie led her party members to open the silver chest, to celebrate the moment together.

“…A one-handed sword and a shield, I would assume? They look to have poisonous properties.”

Stephanie retrieved a green-bladed sword and a shield from the chest, narrowing her eyes in suspicion as she observed them. Tsutomu, seeing the items, looked satisfied as he proceeded to bring up a proposal,

“Oh, I happen to have some business with the Guild’s appraisal staff — can you leave the process to me? I’ll cover the fee, too.”

“Huh? Well, I certainly don’t mind, but… what about you three?”

Even if the team were to end up selling the items and split the earnings among themselves, getting them appraised by a Guild Staff Member first would still be helpful. As such, the three others agreed, letting Stephanie hand the sword and shield over to Tsutomu, which he accepted with thanks.

“Now then, shall we make our way back outside?”

“Yes!” Stephanie replied cheerfully, then returned through the Black Gate to the Guild.

The three others, immediately upon arrival, nervously stepped away with the intention to leave. Before they could, however, Stephanie called them to stop,

“One more thing, everyone. I’ve had a great learning experience these past three weeks — thank you.”

“Oh, no… I should apologize, for causing you so much trouble.”

“…I’m sorry.”

Stephanie’s gracious words of thanks had Rigas flustered, while Dorssia only bowed her head down. The Attacker kept himself silent.

“…I do have some knowledge of how well you all are faring within the Clan. But please don’t worry. I’ll put in some good words with Rook for everyone.”

“Um, that doesn’t sound right…”

“I mean it — I can, with confidence, voice my approval of all three of you to Rook. I’ll definitely not let any of you be expelled.”

Stephanie’s confident words brought tears to Rigas’s eyes. And from behind her, Tsutomu added,

“Oh, I’ll be saying something myself as well. Surely that will keep you all from being kicked out, at least for now, so please do remember to work hard from here on out.”

Back when Rook had assigned the three to this training session, Tsutomu had actually raised a condition for their expulsion to be postponed. As such, their position would be safe for another two months, after which things would be decided by the extent of their efforts.

Afterward, Tsutomu and the whole team went together to the Appraisal Office, where they requested Amy to appraise the sword and shield after she was done with the ongoing things. Amy, alternating her sights between Tsutomu and Stephanie, twitched a corner of her mouth as she accepted the items, then immediately turned away grumpily and shooed them away.

In the end, Tsutomu managed to get in a brief chat and an appointment to go explore the Dungeon together on Amy’s next day off. He then left the office and turned to talk to Stephanie,

“Well, that concludes your training program, Stephanie. Thank you for your hard work.”

“…Huh? That’s it?”

“Yes. You’ve done well these past three weeks — oh, before I forget, may I have my tools back?”

“A-ah, yes, of course…”

Stephanie, though upset to hear that her training had already concluded, returned to Tsutomu the Blue Potion vials that she had borrowed. She had thought that her training would never end so abruptly, what with her having so high expectations from Tsutomu, whom she greatly respected.

Tsutomu had no way of knowing that without being told outright, however, so he continued to say,

“To be honest, I didn’t think your team would get through layer thirty, but then you managed it in the end. Your skill control and timing have gotten much better, too — that’s good. You’ll be able to maintain your position in Ealdred Crow’s main party, I’m sure.”

“…Thank you very much,” Stephanie said and quietly bowed her head to Tsutomu. She could not help but doubt that the training was actually over.

It was true that all the morning practice had greatly improved her skill control, and although not yet perfect, she was now able to count the time by the seconds in her mind, without using her hands and feet. Those were thanks to Tsutomu’s teaching style, with her using his skill control methods as a frame of reference. The mixture of by-the-book knowledge and unconventional methods had helped her improve both technical and practical.

She still had her doubts when it came to the afternoon explorations, however. Unlike in the mornings, Tsutomu would say nothing and watch from afar, only moving to supply her with Blue Potions, which had been paid for by Ealdred Crow. The only advice she had gotten was on how to be both a Healer and a leader at the same time, without any demonstrations or even by-the-book explanations.

Although that did help her improve, she had always wondered whether or not there was actually a reason for Tsutomu to be there. She had instead wanted it to be more like the mornings, with Tsutomu joining in on the action and showing her what to do, so that she could have at least some frame of reference.

[…Is this REALLY it?]

Stephanie cast her eyes down, feeling as if there was some lump stuck in her throat. Now that she had thought about it, Tsutomu had not delved any deeper into the Dungeon after his victory over the Fire Dragon. Stephanie, on the other hand, had already advanced through a few of the subsequent layers, so she was technically ahead of him when it came to Dungeon exploration progress.

Now she wondered if it was in fact not the case that he had not taught her anything in the afternoon, and that the subjects in question were simply things that could not be taught by conventional means. As Stephanie’s doubts swirled in her mind, Tsutomu looked through his Magic Bag and pulled out a stack of documents.

“Also, Stephanie, I’d like you to have these.”

“Yes…? What are they?”

Stephanie’s downcast eyes raised up at the sight of Tsutomu’s documents; they contained a detailed review of her performance thus far. They recommended that she used <<Medic>> more frequently, what with it having the effect of fatigue alleviation in addition to its expected status effect recovery. They also had a reminder that she had sometimes forgotten to set up the <<Area Heal>>. And then there was how she had badly positioned herself when faced with monsters with long-ranged attacks — through these documents, Tsutomu pointed out the shortcomings of Stephanie’s performance, having observed her in battle over the past three weeks.

Further pages went on to detail the strategies of a Healer with the assumption that she was working with Ealdred Crow’s main party, and also the methods of using pick-up placements and skill quickshots, the concept of aggro, the priorities of using <<Raise>>, and other tidbits.

The latter part of the documents were Tsutomu’s own records of everything related to his current Dungeon exploration experience.

“Oh, and please treat them with care. They’re handwritten — can’t be replaced.”

“…Are you sure I can have all these?”

Stephanie’s hands trembled as they held the stack of documents, while her eyes were filled with suspicion as they locked on to Tsutomu. What Tsutomu was seeing, however, was a cheerful smile.

“Yes, I’m sure. You’re talented, Stephanie, so I have no doubt that you’ll put them to good use.”

“This is too much…”

Despite Tsutomu having spread the knowledge of long-ranged skills himself, Stephanie still had not expected him to pass on to her the knowledge of the other varieties himself. They were some of his unique weapons, not something one would expect him to teach to others so easily.

At any rate, Stephanie was confident that she would be able to learn these skills with some practice, what with the documents having detailed instructions on using and practicing them, almost like her morning training sessions. Moreover, Tsutomu’s method of using <<Fly>> for increased maneuverability as a Healer had also been written down in great detail, including different skill levels of it, in reference to Tsutomu initially not being very good with it at first.

Thanks to Tsutomu’s lack of spoon-feeding guidance for half the time, Stephanie felt, without a doubt, that she could think over things and learn them on her own. And she was unsure whether or not it would be right for Tsutomu to give her documents so detailed that they practically told her everything, wondering if he was not scared of losing his currently dominant, special position.

But then Stephanie connected the dots together, and was ashamed of herself.

[…What a fool I was.]

She remembered that Tsutomu had taken it upon himself to hold the press conference, spreading the word of long-ranged healing spells and the three-role composition. Tsutomu was the kind of person to spread information to help others without regard for his own position.

And once again, just like he had already done for others, he was now helping her out by providing her with information without worrying about his own benefits. Stephanie felt like hitting herself in the face for almost losing respect for Tsutomu, even if only briefly.

With all that he had done, Stephanie considered Tsutomu the best instructor she had ever known. She bowed deeply once again, expressing her respect to him.

“I promise to master everything in these papers, Mister Tsutomu.”

“All right, very good. I have high expectations for you, Stephanie.”

Stephanie hoped, through relentless training, that she would one day be Tsutomu’s equal, and eventually even surpass him.

[That would be the best way to repay him,] Stephanie thought as she shook hands with Tsutomu, the latter smiling back at her.

――▽▽――

[Man, Stephanie sure is an excellent learner. Well worth all those Blue Potions I paid for.]

Stephanie, after saying her thanks again, had said that she would go get in some more practice, and Tsutomu had seen her off with a smile… and he still smiled even upon seeing how much his Forest Apothecary Blue Potion had dwindled. That said a lot about how excellent he considered Stephanie to be, and his expectations for her future improvements.

In regards to Stephanie’s training, Tsutomu had been able to see a clear improvement of her skill control and timing, just as intended for the morning section.

And for the afternoons, she had eventually managed to succeed, and in turn give herself a boost of confidence. The coming layers of the Dungeon would all be quite predictable for Tsutomu, that that would not be the case for Stephanie. As such, he had wanted her to be able to do and learn things by trial-and-error, instead of simply following the instructions of others.

[I did mess it up at first, though. Might’ve turned out a disaster if we never talked it over, even. I’ve got to be more careful from now on.]

At first, however, Tsutomu had taken the afternoon section as somewhat of a game. Having carried out a test of stress while initially failing to understand Stephanie’s personality, he had ended up causing quite a meltdown. Tsutomu had admitted that it was a mistake on his part, which he was very much ashamed of; thankfully, things had turned out alright by the end.

[Right, I really need to stop thinking about things like I’m playing a game. Glad I didn’t choose the Canyons for the training…]

Tsutomu’s original plan for the afternoon training was to have Stephanie join one of the reserve parties as their Healer, and have them go through the multi-wave battles and the Fire Dragon of the Canyons. But if he were to go that path, it would be very much possible that he would die whenever the party was routed. Explorers were generally not afraid of death, but Tsutomu still was, and as such had decided to consider other methods of training.

His next choice, the Swamps, had ended up being a good fit — on the regular layers, he could keep himself safe by using <<Fly>>, and on the final layer, he would be able to easily defeat the Boss as long as Stephanie was still alive. He had reconsidered the training he provided for the sake of his own protection, so to speak, but that ended up being the better choice as far as results were concerned. Thinking in retrospect, if he had gone ahead with the original Canyon plan, Stephanie would surely have been too overwhelmed to continue.

[I’m counting on you all to overtake the Scarlet Devil Squad, people… Good luck!]

Tsutomu still remembered Alma, the woman who had bought his Black Staff from the auction and inadvertently given him the nickname of ‘Lucky Boy.’ Currently, thanks to their Clan Leader’s raw power and one of their members having the Black Staff’s cheat-like levels of benefits, the Scarlet Devil Squad’s progress had yet to hit a complete roadblock. Still, they were sure to hit a momentary snag at layer seventy, just as they had back on layer sixty-five. It was there where Tsutomu was expecting Ealdred Crow to progress past them.

Currently, the Scarlet Devil Squad was the farthest Clan down the Dungeon, and they had yet to adopt the three-role composition and learn the long-ranged <<Heal>>. And since they appeared on Monitor #1, the lower-leveled Explorers still considered their way the best to go with. Tsutomu wanted Ealdred Crow to replace them on the top spot, and in turn change the public perception of what the ‘best’ was.

If that were to happen, then the lower-leveled Explorers would no longer think Healers and Tanks were useless, which would help with their still-lower share of rewards when in parties, and also lead to more balanced party compositions across the whole Exploration scene. Although Attackers may lose out slightly due to the new dynamics, that did not mean that they were no longer needed in parties. Sticking to the four-Attacker composition would still always be an option, too.

Also, if Ealdred Crow were to progress through the layers at a rate consistent to now, Tsutomu would be able to observe them and prepare for his own progression as well. Although he remembered much of his knowledge of Live Dungeon, many of the things here were quite different from the game. The other major Clans conquering the Dungeon layers ahead of him would give him opportunities to see things in advance.

And above all, the Scarlet Devil Squad falling from their current position would give Tsutomu quite an ego boost, what with them having Alma, the one who had named him the ‘Lucky Boy,’ in their ranks. As such, Tsutomu wanted, by all means, for Ealdred Crow to do their best.

The Guild’s Monitor #1 showed Alma with her usual Black Staff. Tsutomu looked on as she kept casting her preferred magic spell <<Meteor>>, effortlessly clearing her way through the enemy ranks.

[Wonder if she’ll eventually ditch the Black Staff for a more fitting one… Well, probably not anytime soon.]

The Black Staff, which Tsutomu had brought along into this world from Live Dungeon, was originally a weapon exclusive to White Mages, and it had a myriad of beneficial effects for White Mages such as extending support skills’ durations and amplifying healing skills’ effects. In this world, however, anyone could equip it, enabling a Black Mage like Alma to wield it in battle. Although its extra benefits would not take effect, what with them being exclusive to White Mages, its high base values still served to greatly boost the power of her skills. All in all, Tsutomu still considered it a big waste.

Looking away from Monitor #1, Tsutomu left the Guild and headed for the inn.

[Next up is the Enchanter. I’ve got to modify my training program based on Stephanie… Wait, I haven’t even heard a word from them yet. Is something going on?]

Rook had, after accepting Tsutomu’s offer to teach the Enchanter, sent out a message through an express courier to the distant town in which the Enchanter lived. But the messenger had not yet returned. Rook had sent out another message a week ago, but nothing had yet to come of it, either, effectively labeling the Enchanter as unreachable.

[What’d I do instead they don’t show up tomorrow?] Tsutomu thought to himself as he walked back to the inn.