Dungeon Tour Guide ch. 10 (Patreon)

Name: Lucas

Class: [Dungeon Core] lv. 2

Spells

[Spawn Monster]: D-

> [Spawn Snake]: D

> [New spell available!]

[Reshape]: D+

[Create Water]: F+

[Create Fire]: F+

[Replicate]: F-

[Dungeon Perception]: C

Stats

[Spawn Speed]: F

[Capacity]: D-

[Mana]: C-

[Endurance]: D

Name: Lucas

Class: [Healer] lv. 2

Unique Skills

[Divine Healer]

Spells

[Rejuvenating Pulse]: lv. 20

[Healing Zone]: lv. 20

[Healing Stream]: lv. 20

[Antivenom]: lv. 20

[Spare the Dying]: lv. 20

[View more]

Stats

[Magic]: 100

[Agility]: 15

[Strength]: 14

[Focus]: 20

[Endurance]: 12

I had two separate stat screens, which tracked. One for the human half, one for the dungeon. I hadn’t bothered checking them that much even when I’d been only a human, since the only purpose of doing so was to track how much progress one had made on their spells. [Divine Healer] granted me ridiculously strong healing, so it wasn’t like I needed to track how many spells I had.

One interesting thing to note was that the interface apparently used a different system to track progress for my dungeon half, using letter grades rather than numerical statistics. It had been a surprise to start with, but I supposed the manner of existence that a Dungeon Core had was very different from that of a human adventurer. Still, the stat screens really only mattered after interface messages for level-ups. The stats themselves were generally quantifications of abilities that one had, not the driving force behind them. Obsessing over them all the time wasn’t going to help anyone, least of all myself.

Now that I’d actually gotten a level-up, it might be time to peruse it, but…

I dismissed the window. I was still in the middle of something, after all.

“You good there?” I called out, cupping my hands to amplify my shout.

“Ow, yeah, I’m good!” Ryan shouted back. A moment later, the snake died.

I cast another [Antivenom] at him. He really needed to get some form of protection going for himself… yeah, the plate worked, but it wasn’t quite good enough when faced with this many snakes. Without any healing items, he was certainly suffering quite a bit. When he wasn’t in this dungeon, that could mean problems.

“The [Knight] is too careless,” Lisa said. “Especially with no healing items.”

“I know,” I grimaced. “He’s better than he was before, believe it or not.”

“Really.”

“The first time, he didn’t even have any armor.”

“Gods above.” Lisa shook her head. “It’s a wonder they survived.”

“I don’t want to say it’s thanks to me, but…”

“Point taken.”

“I mean, they’re getting better.” I pointed at the [Bard]-[Apprentice Mage] combo. They hadn’t gotten hit this time. “Defense is getting better. They almost got hit a bunch of times last time.”

“He’s careless, but he’s keeping his party safe,” Lisa admitted. “With some more training, he could be a great asset to any adventuring party.”

“They seem to be pretty sold on adventuring together,” I said. “Oh, look at that.”

Ryan had come down to the ground again, skillfully dodging the depressions in the ground where air vents would trigger, and he was retreating. Meanwhile, Troy was building up a spell. A [Fireball], if my senses weren’t misleading me.

[Song of Mana], Rose sang, and Troy cast a [Fireball] that was way bigger than it should’ve been.

“Now!” Troy shouted with a grunt of effort.

Ryan got the memo and… threw a fistful of coins?

I wasn’t sure what he was doing, but then they came within close proximity of multiple compressed air traps and I realized.

“Oh, those clever little shits,” I muttered.

“Something the matter?” Rose asked.

“Nah,” I replied. “Just that they might be kind of reckless, but they’re not dumb.”

I could’ve been a dick about this, made it so that the vents only triggered when humans came close to them, but I had to give them points for creativity. I opened vent after vent as coins landed on them—iron ones, I realized, not the same ones I’d given them yesterday—and the ground hissed, releasing the held air of half a dozen traps straight into the path of the [Fireball].

The offensive spell expanded, the flames hungrily devouring the oxygen presented to them and growing larger. When the spell detonated in the center of the room, it did so with a huge burst nearly filling up half the entire area, far larger than the spell would’ve given on its own at that level. Snakes died by the dozen, and a [Shield] spell tossed up by Troy at the last second kept the three newbie adventurers safe from their own attack.

For the two of us in the back, the temporary oven-hot heat was barely noticeable. I’d suffered through worse

“They fanned the flames,” Lisa realized immediately. “You said this part of the dungeon was new?”

“Added since they came here yesterday,” I said, unable to completely keep the pride out of my voice.

“Impressive adaptation,” she muttered, something about her expression making it seem like she was taking notes without having paper or pen. “Good fits for adventurers.”

“They are,” I agreed.

“Was that the room clear?”

“It was.” I still had a few bonus snakes hidden away in traps, but given that they hadn’t triggered them, I wouldn’t count them.

“How’d we do?” Ryan asked, turning towards us. “We pass?”

“Pass?” I asked. “I mean, yeah, you cleared the room, and it was a really neat tactic. Who’s idea was that, anyway?”

“Mine,” Rose spoke up. Of course.

“You have assuaged some of my concerns,” Lisa said. “Some. We shall see whether or not you maintain this pace.”

“Got it, chief,” Ryan said. “We’ll make sure to do that.”

Huh. They’d spoken like they were looking for her validation there.

“They have surprised me, I’ll admit that,” Lisa said. “I figured them for bumbling idiots, rich kids with more money than sense, you know?”

“I know the type,” I said.

Her word choice… I wasn’t the only one she was assessing, was I? The way they looked to her for approval kind of cemented that.

“Is this an initiation test or something?” I asked. “You seem awfully lenient on the whole ‘testing the dungeon guide’ part.”

“You got me,” Lisa said, giving me a wan smile. “Look, unless you’re some secret backstabbing piece of shit—“

“I’m not a politician, don’t worry,” I cut in.

Lisa snorted. “Well, if that’s the truth, then I’m pretty sure you’re good. You seem to be one of the few actively helpful dungeon mobs I’ve seen, and [Insightful Edge] is rarely wrong.”

“Glad to hear it,” I said.

“So that means I have to do the other part of my job,” she continued, letting out a long-suffering sigh. “Assessing those shits.”

“Speaking of those shits,” I said, pointing at them, “I think they’re ready to move on.”

“Everyone ready?” Rose asked. “This area is complete. I think.”

“Room’s complete!” I said, raising my voice enough for them to hear it at their position halfway down said room. “Let’s get moving!”

While we walked to the next room, I opened my interface again. A new spell was available, huh? I had only leveled up my dungeon half, since my human [Healer] part had been at level two before I’d gotten into this whole situation.

The new spell slot was in the submenu of the [Spawn Monster] slots, which most likely meant a new monster of some kind. My deductive skills rival those of Sherlock Holmes, I know.

I’d been assigned a snake the first time, but I felt instinctively that this spell was going to have a bit more variety. It was probably still going to spawn pretty weak monsters as a baseline, though I knew I could tweak the spell to create something new like my pseudo-hydra.

I snapped out of my thoughts. I had to introduce the next room before I could focus on leveling up.

“Welcome back to the parkour room,” I said, smoothly turning and bowing to my audience of four. “Here, we have a similar setup to before, in which you will be tasked with crossing to the other side through this gymnastics course made of the cave’s own rock.

“However, there’s a twist! Today, our walls feature creative uses of the recently introduced air traps!”

For emphasis, I opened one of them, shooting a rock the size of my head out. It wasn’t the fastest, no faster than a BB gun shot but the pop it produced certainly had an effect on the adventurers.

“Also, there are snakes in the water,” I finished with a grin. “Good luck and have fun!”

The adventuring party put their heads together, discussing a strategy in murmurs and whispers that I couldn’t hear, and I once again stepped back with the [Spellblade].

“An agility room,” she said. “I haven’t seen many of these before.”

“Would you like to have a go at it?” I asked.

“I’ll have to in order to cross,” she said.

“That’s true. Would you like a guide?”

“I’ll be alright.”

I shrugged. “More power to you.”

The others were still discussing their strategy, so I went back to the interface. A new monster… ideally, something that paired well with snakes. I hadn’t changed the last room much beyond the addition of a few air vents. Was there something new I could introduce to compliment them?

I could do bugs. Spiders, centipedes, the like—I could feel the mana waiting just beneath the surface, ready for me to accept the new [Spawn] skill to creat them.

Nah, fuck that. I hated insects and arachnids and all their creepy crawly folk. If I was going to add another mob in, it was going to be something that could be cool without actively scaring me to create.

There were a few more esoteric things there too. [Spawn Imp] was an option, as was [Spawn Shadow]. Not things that I really vibed with, though.

Realistically, I wasn’t going to be able to create a new boss monster in the next few minutes. They weren’t going to take that long to clear this room, which didn’t leave me enough time to manipulate my spells in a way to create a new boss. Still, having new minions in there might spice up the fight.

“Hey,” Rose said, shaking me out of my thoughts. “Could you demo the room for us again?”

“Sure thing,” I said. I hadn’t spent a whole day adding new trinkets to this dungeon without testing them. That would’ve been silly of me.

This time, my route was a little different.

First, a leap off the safe part of the platform. Then, use the momentum to sprint across that same tilted flat plane of cave rock, then launch off of it into the same stalactite, then stop.

Ahead of me, a vent in a wall opened up, and another pop signified my makeshift airsoft cannon triggering. A perfect sphere of rock exactly one foot across sailed across the empty space in front of me, and then I continued, swinging on the monkey bar stalactite onto the next platform. I paused, waiting for another cannon to trigger, then sprinted off the platform onto a series of tiny poles that approximated steps, jumped, kicked off the wall, and landed.

“There you go!” I said, the acoustics of the rocky room meaning my voice carried across the pit. “Same as yesterday, just a little harder!”

“Hey, tour guide,” Rose said, the word sounding more like a term of endearment than a title, “I have a way to break this room.”

“You had one last time,” I replied. “I did tell you there’s snakes in the water, right?”

“I have another one,” she said. “Can I use it?”

“I mean, yeah, go ahead,” I said.

“I think I’m the only one that can, though,” she said. “I’ll wait for the others to go first.”

“Sure thing.”

This time, Troy was first. He was a lot more careful than he’d been last time, pausing on every single step to ensure his [Shield] hadn’t taken too much damage from the cannon hits. The rocks weren’t even going that fast! They were maybe the same speed as a fast-ish Nerf bullet, no faster. To be fair, he might’ve been cautious because a foot-wide sphere of rock probably weighed a fair amount. Kinetic energy was a motherfucker and a half.

At length, he made it across, expending three separate [Shield]s in the process and nearly five whole minutes.

He was sweating when he finally landed next to me, and he dropped to his knees, breathing hard.

“Nicely done,” I congratulated him. “It’s hard work doing a parkour course slowly.”

“Didn’t… get hit,” he said.

“Good stuff,” I told him. “You didn’t fall, either. Great improvement. Now go take a break. Recover your mana and stamina. You’ll need it.”

Ryan was next, and I was beginning to wonder how he was going to accomplish this in full plate when he activated [Agility Boost] and took off.

I whistled. “He wasn’t that fast yesterday.”

“Wasn’t… wasn’t taking it serious,” Troy said, still gasping for breath. “Running star.”

And he seemed like one, sure enough. Maybe he had some innate skill that let him maneuver well in plate? It didn’t seem to be hampering him at all—boosting him, even. Rose didn’t even have an active song going.

His steps were a lot more sure today than they were yesterday. That was interesting as well. Yesterday, he’d nearly fallen at the end, but so far he seemed to be having not a single problem with his coordination. Maybe it was because he’d been training as a [Knight] for some time? That would explain why he was so comfortable in plate, though not why he hadn’t brought it yesterday.

Ryan triggered the first cannon halfway through the course, and something in his [Agility Boost] spell changed.

Suddenly, he was even faster than he’d been before, and he leaped straight into the path of the cannonball and kept going—

Had he jumped off the fucking cannonball? It had been thrown straight down to the ground, trajectory altered, and Ryan had gained speed midair, so I was forced to conclude that he’d just pulled off some incredible anime-level bullshit.

He dodged the second shot. Figures.

“Well done,” I congratulated him once he’d landed. “What was with that sudden speed boost?”

“Skill of mine,” he said, grinning. “Fun one.”

“Of course,” I complained, but I did it with a smile.

“Hey, Troy, you good?” Rose asked. “You up to casting?”

“Not yet,” Troy replied. “Need… five minutes, maybe.”

“Alright, fine, I’ll wait,” Rose said, sitting down on the other side. “I had another way I could do it, but it’d burn too much of my mana.”

“Sure, conserve your mana,” Troy fired back.

“It’s valuable!” Rose protested.

Five minutes, huh?

I tuned back into the interface while the others bickered. I still had to pick one of the options for my new [Spawn Monster] subspell.

Wolves, sharks, bears, kobolds, something called a shrieker, hawks, and so many more… there were way too many low level options that I could pick and choose from.

Now or never. Soon enough, the adventurers were going to be ready to hit the final room, and I wouldn’t have any extra mobs in there if I didn’t pick now.

I made my choice.