Dungeon Tour Guide ch. 11 (Patreon)

“Okay, I could technically use [Song of Displacement] two or three times,” Rose said. She was sitting on the edge of the safe zone, kicking her feet over the water as if there weren’t a whole bunch of snakes in there. “Chaining them together would definitely get me enough speed to get across.”

“You seem opposed to the parkour,” Ryan said. “Can’t do it?”

“Not my thing,” Rose said. “My agility stat is low.”

“You—“ the [Spellblade] started.

“Stats don’t matter,” Troy sighed, and I got the impression that this was a discussion they’d had before. “Stats are an effect, not a cause. If you worked on your agility more, you’d be better with it.”

Lisa actually looked pleased at that. That statement about stats not being the end-all be-all was in line with the Guild’s beliefs, then. I hadn’t spent enough time with them to figure that out.

“I think I’m alright,” Rose said. “I can run for my life well enough. That’s what’s important.”

“I think you’re just lazy,” Ryan laughed. “Come on, out with it.”

“Maybe I am,” Rose said. “Troy? You up yet?”

“Yeah,” he grunted, pushing himself to his feet. “Pretty much back to full.”

“Just so you know,” I said. “A short rest is sufficient to recover most of what you need right now, but that won’t be enough to restore yourself back to full once you continue leveling up.”

“Got it,” Troy said. “It’s enough for now, right?”

“For now,” I agreed.

“Right. Rose, what do I need to do?”

“You see the water?” Rose pointed at the pool beneath her. A snake leapt out of it, doing its level best to take a bite out of her ankle, but it couldn’t quite make the jump.

“Yeah,” Troy said. “What about it?”

“I want you to [Thunderspark] it. That costs a lot less for you than [Song of Displacement] does for me, right?”

“It does. Wait, you want me to—“

“You’ll get loads of experience for it,” she said. “Lots of snakes to kill in there.”

“You want me to fry the snakes so you can do the same thing again?” Troy asked.

“Basically, yeah.”

“Aren’t you still spending mana to use [Song of Displacement]?”

“Yep. But this saves the mana of chaining multiple! C’mon, please?”

“Fine, I’ll do it,” Troy said, preparing to cast. “Only because you’re right about the experience.”

With the level-up, I was feeling the mana in the air a little more clearly now. It was a minor benefit, but I was pretty sure my ability to perceive the inside of the dungeon had increased. Handy. I had noticed a slight increase in my stat sheet.

It meant that I could detect the mana that Troy gathered for his spell. It was interesting how the mana turned from flavorless and unnoticeable—no more than magical air—into electric power practically raring to be let lose.

Troy cast his [Thunderspark], aiming it straight at the center of the water. The electric shock spread through the water blazingly fast, and the lightning-tinged mana enhanced the effect. I was fairly sure that an actual lightning strike that matched the size of Troy’s spell wouldn’t have done nearly as much damage as his did—within moments, every last fish in there was dead.

“Give it a few moments,” I warned, my enhanced senses giving me a better idea of just how damaging the water would be. It wouldn’t be outright lethal to anything larger than, well, a snake, but it still wouldn’t be pleasant to jump in there.

“Yep,” Rose said. “Giving it a minute.”

Precisely sixty seconds later—I counted—Rose did the same maneuver she’d done last time, hopping into the water. I still gained the mana from her jumping into my ‘trap’, I noted. Useful information.

Fortunately for her, I’d absorbed the corpses into the ground while she’d been waiting, so she didn’t have to swim through a pool full of dead snakes. She made her way to our side and once again sang her [Song of Displacement], popping her out soaking wet right next to me.

“Do you just like swimming?” I asked.

“…maybe,” she said.

“Hey, Guild lady!” Ryan shouted. “You going to be okay?”

“I’ll be more than alright, don’t worry about me,” Lisa said, huffing out a massive sigh.

She drew a sword from her back, a three-foot long beauty with dark gems embedded in its hilt, and she raised it up, pointing it at the ceiling. Mana swirled around it, gathering into a spell.

A moment later, she pointed the sword at us and activated a skill that my interface helpfully labeled as [Bladestep]. Lisa blurred, and for a moment I could swear I saw a long, greyish line.

The moment ended, and the [Spellblade] was before us, stowing her weapon back in the sheath strapped to her back.

I flinched back a moment late. That could have killed me and I wouldn’t even have realized it.

Well, my human half, at least. I was pretty sure I was going to live beyond the destruction of my fleshy bits, but I was rather attached to those fleshy bits.

“Sorry about that,” she told me. “It’s my only nonlethal movement spell.”

“All good,” I said. “Just don’t hit me with that, yeah?”

“Not unless I need to,” she said, defusing the statement with a wink. Lisa turned her attention to the adventurers. “That was well played to conserve mana and strength, but you must be ready to adapt to changing circumstances. [Bard], would you have been truly able to make it across if your comrades had been in danger?”

“‘Course I could.” Rose shrugged. “Could’ve given them a [Song of Strength] or something to boot. I just wanted to conserve myself for the final fight.”

“Speaking of which,” Ryan said. “We ready for that?”

“If we’re safe here, I’d like to recover a little more,” Troy said.

“One minute,” I said. “This dungeon is on the lower level, but entering a higher level dungeon may mean significantly reduced rest times. Being able to rest in a dungeon is a luxury, not a guarantee.”

“Sure thing,” he said, already sliding back down a wall to a slouched-over sitting position.

“There’s a few new elements to the final fight,” I said. “Just as you saw before, there will be air vents and air traps. Furthermore, today’s tour includes new enemies to fight other than the unique boss, meaning that its difficulty will likely be significantly higher than before.”

“This could be interesting,” Lisa said.

“Should the final encounter prove to be too difficult, please inform me,” I said. “I will do my utmost to ensure you are able to exit the tour safely.”

“We’re not going to give up on the last room,” Rose said, glaring at me defiantly.

“Of course not,” I agreed. “Just a precaution is all.”

“I’ll take over if the fight is too hard,” Lisa said. “Official Guild policy is to minimize adventurer deaths when clearing a dungeon unless the dungeon is at risk of a break.”

“Good to know,” I muttered. I’d never dealt with a dungeon break myself, but I’d seen the consequences of them. Preventing adventurer deaths wasn’t really an option there. “Alright, we ready to go? Troy?”

“Yep,” he grunted, pushing himself off the ground. “Not back to full, but good enough.”

“I am so ready,” Ryan said, practically bouncing on the balls of his feet.

I entered the passage, and the rest of them followed.

Once again, there was a safe zone in the final room. If I’d wanted to make it much harder, I could’ve removed it, but I still did need to introduce the room itself.

“Welcome to the boss battle!” I said, gesturing across the room. At a glance, it appeared much the same as it had yesterday, though with far fewer obstructions than before. “As before, you will be entering combat against the fearsome pseudo-hydra!”

The room had been partially cleared of its many stone obstacles not to make the fight easier, but to make it more interesting.

With a mental gesture, the ground just next to one of them opened up. This time, there was no air vent. The adventurers had been introduced to it well enough with the last two rooms—there was no need to keep on reinventing the wheel with the display of my air cannons.

No, what came crawling out of my brand new hole in the ground was a single suit of armor. With my ability to [Replicate] and modify items in the process of replication, it was no longer recognizable as the armor that the dead Kingsguard member had dropped. It was the most basic plate I could muster.

From another hole in the ground, I summoned the unarmored form of my new minion mob. Crackling with traces of mana, a vaguely humanoid shape of compacted earth and rock pushed its way out of the ground.

“These,” I announced, “are rock constructs. They’re relatively weak, but don’t underestimate them—they pack a mean punch, and some of them are armored.”

I had had too many options to pick from. So many of them had been so enticing, but I’d ended up dropping them because I only had five minutes to work with.

[Spawn Kobold] had been intriguing, but I was too worried that I might accidentally create intelligent life and have to deal with the consequences of sending them off to die. [Spawn Skeleton] had been interesting as well, but I knew that the Guild had extremely negative views on dungeons with necromantic aspects. I’d even borne witness to the total destruction of a Dungeon Core near my hometown that had started pumping out zombies.

Other options like more traditional animals had been too boring to add. [Spawn Plant] was a subclass of [Spawn Monster], and it had its own variety of options that I had could’ve selected, ranging from [Spawn Slashing Vine] to [Spawn Glowing Lichen] to [Spawn Sporebush], but I hadn’t figured out how I could work them in as minions for the pseudohydra fight. All the proper monsters formed of plants were still unavailable to me, unfortunately.

As such, I’d ultimately settled on [Spawn Rock Construct], the only spell from the [Spawn Construct] subclass that I was allowed to select as my new slot. It had been a rush job, especially with the armor and all, but it’d come out pretty well.

“Alright,” Rose said. “Constructs. Ryan, can you deal with the armored one?”

“Sure,” he said. “I should have something that helps with the armor, but I’m not sure what I can do to the rock itself.”

“As a warning,” I said, “these monsters are more vulnerable to blunt impact than they are to stabbing or slashing attacks.”

“Oh, duh,” Rose said, slapping her forehead. “Rock.”

“I might be able to help,” Troy said. “I have [Create Water]. Magical water should be able to soften them up, right?”

Gods, how many spell slots did Troy have? Were these kids really just that talented? What kind of coincidence brought that on?

Not that [Create Water] would do much on its own. Maybe if he turned it into a cannon somehow, the force could loosen the bonds that made the construct up—it was a fairly weak construct, after all—but just dumping water on them would only make them wet.

“Oh!” Rose said, snapping her fingers. “I could [Song of Displacement] your water and make it hit them real fast. That could work.”

I opened more holes in the ground. Six total, including the two I’d opened already, spaced around the room roughly evenly. Of the remaining four constructs, only one was armored for a total of two. This plate was pretty strong, I was sure of that, so I made a mental note to break the constructs myself if they overpowered the adventurers too hard.

“A fast burst of water may be able to take down the unarmored beasts,” I said. “But the armor—“

“I got it,” Ryan said. “We ready?”

“Ready.”

“Ready.”

“Don’t get yourselves killed,” Lisa said.

Ryan charged forward with an [Agility Boost], his sword glowing with mana. As he ran, targeting the armored construct closest to him, Rose sang a [Song of Strength].

He got close to the construct almost immediately thanks to his spell, and before the monster could react, he swung his blade. As he brought it around in a beautiful arc, the sword shone bright white, an [Adamantium Strike] ringing out.

It was a magical sword, and it proved its worth as it cleaved into the armor like butter. The construct took less damage, what with its resistance to slashing damage and all, but the sword still sank deep regardless, and I could feel its life force slipping away immediately.

“I have two more of those left for the day!” Ryan shouted, disengaging from the monster. “I’m going to clear the other one’s armor!”

So the sword had limits. It was still a broken item for such a low level, though. I could feel the construct’s health, see how that one strike had almost totally taken it out.

Troy and Rose sealed the deal. The [Apprentice Mage] cast [Create Water], forming a sphere of water exactly five feet wide in front of him, and the [Bard]’s [Song of Displacement] cast a stream of it forth like a hose, precisely targeting the gaping hole in the damaged construct’s armor. With a focused stream of high-pressure water pouring into its already-struggling body, the construct died, falling apart into a puddle of rocks and mud.

“Yes!” Rose shouted. “One down!”

“I’m going for the second one!” Ryan shouted back.

Maybe I underleveled the final fight, I mused, watching as the [Knight] sprinted right past the attacks of the unarmored constructs on his way to the next armored one.

Except I hadn’t, and I remembered as he was halfway there.

“Hey!” I warned. “There’s still a—“

The pseudo-hydra, long since awoken from its slumber, chose that moment to strike, and Ryan fell.