Dungeon Tour Guide ch. 54 (Patreon)

Please leave feedback! Let me know if the kind of montage-y chapter worked for you!

The training sessions were starting to blend together now. After Anderson had left, I’d successfully [Assimilate]d the [Devouring Ooze], and I’d set aside another room to keep spawning them in.

Anderson came back with his full party, and this time, they didn’t even wait for me to introduce them before they started.

Second room. Almost complete. Ended to an ECDV teleporting itself with a [Fake Hydra] and downing Anderson + Lisa.

I had pen and paper, so I started scrawling down the results. It would be handy to have a record of what we’d run through. I didn’t have previous records to compare them to, but I wanted to know how effective the training was.

“I leveled,” Lisa said. “Twelve.”

“Both of us as well,” Jackson said. “Eleven, both.”

I thought about it, then wrote down a little more just below the first row.

Levels: Lisa 12 (+1), Jackson 11 (+1), Ed 11 (+1), Anderson 4 (+0)

“Come again,” I said.

They acknowledged me, but that was it. The mood wasn’t sour, not exactly, but they were suffering from the same crushing seriousness that M-1 were.

We knew what was coming, and we knew we weren’t going to be enough.

_____________________________

Second room. Half complete. One [False Hydra] killed, two ECDVs killed/disabled. Insufficient manpower.

“I’m still surprised the two of you were willing to team up,” I said.

“The other two are resting,” Rose rasped, her voice slightly broken from overuse. “I was singing, too, but I got my mana back and I needed to practice.”

“My tricks aren’t mana-intensive,” Anderson said, dusting his pants off where they’d ripped when a [Fake Hydra] had slammed him into a wall in its death throes.

“Still,” I said. “Not a pairing I expected.”

“We need to get stronger,” Rose said.

“I need strength,” Anderson agreed.

“I can forgive him,” Rose said. “For now. This is more important.”

Levels: Rose 5 (+1), Anderson 4 (+0)

__________________________

Second room. 3/4 complete…ish? Both [Fake Hydra]s killed. [Minor Redo] saved two lives. Required intensive healing, weren’t able to stay up against the forces of the ECDVs.

“Good stuff. I wasn’t expecting you to clear that so easily.”

“We’ve been practicing,” the [Swashbuckler] said. “We have more synergy than we’d thought.”

“That’s good,” I said. “I’m glad that you’re learning.”

“We need to do more,” he said. “You said the Kingsguard will have monsters even stronger than this?”

“Almost certainly,” I said. I wasn’t sure how the [Divine Assassin] would’ve scaled against the [Fake Hydra]s, but someone like the [Astral Monk] under their control? That was far scarier than a teleporting rock and a massive snake with four heads.

“Then we need to gain power,” Jess said, the [Arcane Archer] restringing the bow that had broken in melee combat against said teleporting rock. “We need to be able to steamroll this fight before we can stand a chance against them.”

“We’ll come back better next time,” the [Moon Cleric] promised.

“I’ll have so many new tricks,” Sylva said. “I picked up [Lesser Temporal Shunt] and a few standard utility spells.”

“We all will,” Arthur said.

Levels: Arthur 3 (+0), Jess 3 (+1), [Moon Cleric] 4 (+2), Sylva 3 (+1)

__________________________________

“You again?” I asked. “So soon? It’s not even noon yet.”

“They finished,” Rose said, her voice still showing hints of the raspiness. “And Anderson was in the area.”

“We’re ready,” Ryan said. “I’ll be faster. Stronger.”

Second room. 3/4 complete. Ryan unveiled new [Thunderdash] skill, extension of [Agility Boost]. Rose revealed [Song of Harm] against a [Fake Hydra], killing it. Troy has not dipped into his expanded pool. Anderson has enough mana to regularly fire [Void Bullet]s now. Fight ended when the majority of them ran short on mana and the surviving [Fake Hydra] found a second wind.

Levels: Rose 6 (+1), Anderson 4 (+0), Ryan 5 (+1), Troy 5 (+1)

Note to self: tell Rose to take care of herself more, holy shit. She was bleeding from the throat at the end, and she was still singing.

_______________________________________

“Just the level 10s, huh?” I asked.

“I can go all out now,” Lisa said. “There are certain skills I have that have a huge area of effect. I can’t use them while Anderson’s here.”

“I’m excited to see it,” I said.

Second room. Full complete. All three level 10s were playing it a lot more aggressively. Ed leveled up and started firing [Lesser Nuclear Arrows] that Jackson used [Shield Projection] on to prevent massive damage. Fight ended when Lisa used her magic sword’s [Vorpal Blade] feature. Resulting detonation killed every remaining in the room, also took Jackson’s arm off. Lisa called a stop to it afterwards, said she blew her load.

Levels: Lisa 13 (+1), Jackson 12 (+1), Ed 11 (+0)

___________________________________________

Nightfall, then midnight. I’d thought nobody would come again, but when the moon was high in the sky and it was pitch black outside…

“You should be sleeping,” I said.

“I couldn’t,” Rose said. “I know I’m alone, but I was tossing and turning and nothing was helping.”

“Rose,” I said, stepping forward. “Please.”

She stepped back, shaking her head. “I need this. I want to live. I want my friends to live. I want you to live.”

The [Bard]’s face could’ve melted the coldest heart, and mine stood no contest against her.

Second room. Half compl—

Full complete. Rose insisted on continuing after losing both legs. Used every part of her mana to [Song of Harm] on enemies and [Mephit]s, used [Song of Displacement] to keep herself mobile and use dead [Mephit]s as explosives. Never slowed down. Passed out shortly after from mana overuse, coughed up blood.

Rose leveled up to level 7. She’s 2 ahead of M-1 now.

I sighed, finishing the note. I glanced over to the shallow hole I’d smoothed out for Rose to sleep in. Her chest rose and fell ever so slightly, the only indication she was still alive, and her blouse was stained with the blood she’d coughed up.

Iris’ wagon hadn’t only come with monsters. [Assimilate] was still on cooldown, but I could take in the other materials she’d given me with my innate skills.

Wood. Steel. Cloth.

With a gesture, I repurposed and reshaped cloth, forming a soft, thick rectangle large enough to fully envelop her body, then pushed it over to drape it over her sleeping form.

I knelt by her, patting her head lightly.

“Rest well, Rose,” I said.

_______________________________________

Day three.

[Level up!]

[Effect of [Divine Healer]: Mana restored.]

[Effect of [Divine Healer]: Spell proficiency cap increased to lv. 40.]

[Spell list expanded.]

[A dungeon as a training facility. You truly are full of surprises.]

I hadn’t been expecting that, but I supposed it was bound to happen at some point. [Divine Healer] nerfed my experience gain rate, but the artifact had been pumping it along.

The levelup came midway through healing the [Time Mage]. She’d run out of [Minor Redo]s and that had been the end of the second room. She’d misjudged how much she could do, and the [Fake Hydra]’s tail sweep had knocked them off their feet, bisecting her and heavily wounding the [Moon Cleric]. At least I’d gotten to her before she’d actually died.

New spells, huh?

No [Resurrection] or anything similar, unfortunately. I hadn’t been expecting it, but I had hoped, and it was looking more and more like [Revivify] was going to be my only option. I didn’t like its time limit and its inability to work on people who were sufficiently damaged, but beggars couldn’t be choosers.

Second room. Almost complete. Creative new uses of synergy with the [Moonlit Clarity] + arrow spam from the [Arcane Archer] as well as using [Chronal Retry] on big attacks that missed. During the process, the [Swashbuckler] gained [Pursuit] after a level up. The [Moon Cleric] gained [Skyshatter], killed an ECDV with it. Jess got [Seeking Arrow], which she can combine with some other effects. Sylva leveled twice, revealed usages of [Time Pulse], [Tidal Wave] indoors (which was pretty devastating), [Lesser Temporal Shunt].

Levels: Arthur 4 (+1), Jess 4 (+1), [Moon Cleric] 5 (+1), Sylva 5 (+2)

_________________________________________

[Successful activation of [Assimilate] complete!]

[New species [Mirror Beast] discovered!]

This one was going to come in handy, I was sure. It could mimic the effects of spells and skills that were activated in its area, and though it was expensive to spawn them, they would be worth it.

If my understanding of it was right, they would be critically useful against the Kingsguard. If I could steal something like the [Astral Monk]’s trump card, I’d increase my firepower by a lot.

[ARI: new review received!]

Huh?

★★★★★ WARNING KINGSGUARD IMMINENT From WARNING TWO DAYS

Reviewed at: TIMETABLE SHIFT

Recommended party level: IMMINENT MOBILIZATION

Advanced intelligence has revealed that Kingsguard have been mobilizing with a stealth skill in play. Landfall is likely within the next FORTY-EIGHT HOURS.

Ah. Shit.

Looks like I’m not getting through all those monsters.

_____________________________________

Third room. [Displacer Hydra]’s skills were spotted out. Party was short on mana after completing room two, so firepower was insufficient. All they can really do is build stamina.

Rose revealed a [Song of Destruction] halfway through. Troy showed [Wall of Force]. Ryan’s [Thundersprint] has evolved into [Flashdrive] which is a weird fucking name but makes him super fast and strong. Duelists are also seeing solid progress. Anderson’s bullets are somehow doing more damage even at base?

“It was a good try,” I said. “Hell, I never even expected you to make it to that room.”

Granted, the party had been twice the size it usually was, but I was hoping that we’d get every single adventurer in the area to gather together and fight the Kingsguard as one in the end.

Rose was looking a little better, at least. When she was in a party this big, the load on her was a lot less.

Levels: Arthur 6 (+2), Jess 6 (+2), [Moon Cleric] 6 (+1), Sylva 6 (+1), Ryan 7 (+2), Troy 8 (+3), Rose 9 (+2), Anderson 6 (+2)

Also, there was definitely something up with these three. The artifact was boosting them all at the same rate, but Minus One was still advancing at a breakneck rate compared to those around them. Granted, level 10 was always supposed to be a bit of a bottleneck, but they were still growing scarily fast.

Good. Hopefully this continues.

__________________________________

Note after note after note after note, and my pile of records rose. On night two, only Rose had come, but on night three, it was all of Minus One.

By the next morning, it was everyone.

On the fourth day, I [Assimilate]d a [Skeleton Dragon]. Iris hadn’t been able to wrangle a full dragon—apparently, dragging them out of dungeons was near impossible even with the resources Iris could bring to bear—but they were still strong. I could only make one of them an hour, even with the massive amount of mana I was gaining through regular usage of my dungeon, but I managed three of them.

As the sun started to set on the fourth day, the records were at least twelve pages deep, front and back.

Third room. [Displacer Hydra] was disabled after extensive fighting. Kill didn’t fully go through. Monster ran. Didn’t deploy the other combinations I had because morale was so high.

This is the last practice run.

Overall levels: Rose 11, Troy 10, Ryan 10, Arthur 8, Jess 7, [Moon Cleric] 7, Sylva 7, Anderson 8, Lisa 15, Ed 13, Jackson 14

Tomorrow was going to be it. We weren’t going to have another shot at improving their levels.

Iris came at sunset, two sets of wagons behind her.

As they entered, my senses lit aflame with so many artifacts.

I could’ve used these, I thought.

“Please place them in the most secure place you can find,” Iris said. “The evacuation will take place tomorrow. Tonight, the few citizens of Ketz will enter the dungeon town. They will enter the dungeon the next day.”

“I’ll put them away,” I lied.

I had the artifacts now, and I had the dungeon.

I would secure them, sure, but I wasn’t going to give up a single advantage to fight these Kingsguard off. If any of them looked useful, I’d activate them and pray.

“Thank you,” Iris said, and there was a finality in her words. “I need to coordinate my response. Good luck. May the goddess allow us to meet again.”

__________________________

Morning. Day five.

I stepped into the safe room, glancing outside, and I saw chaos.

First, I noticed the commotion. People were running amok, a good chunk of them making their way towards the dungeon. To me.

The second sign that something was wrong was the smoke already beginning to rise from the back of the city.

And then there was the screaming.

The town was on fire.

They’re here.