The team’s Beach exploration was called off and they returned to the Guild. They updated their Status Cards, and headed straight back to their Clan House. When they turned the corner, they noticed a plainly dressed woman standing in front of the Clan House’s door.
“Good afternoon, Mister Tsutomu.”
“Ah, hello. I wasn’t expecting you this early.”
“I was watching the Monitor, you see, so I thought I’d come here at the same time.”
The woman was perfectly normal in appearance — neither beautiful nor ugly. She squinted into a smile, little wrinkles forming in the corners of her eyes, as she pointed one hand toward the market where the Monitors were. Behind Tsutomu, his four companions looked curiously at the woman, unsure of how to act.
“Oh, I haven’t introduced myself yet, have I? My name is Ollie, and I will be responsible for the housekeeping and management of the Clan House starting today. Please do treat me well.”
“Y-yes! Likewise! It is nice to meet you, ma’am!”
Daryl bowed, and everyone followed suit. Once they were done with their greetings, Tsutomu gestured his hand toward the Clan House, inviting Ollie to join them inside. Tsutomu knew very well how hard it was to do five people’s worth of housework. After all, he had been doing almost that much for the past week or so — almost, because Hannah was the one responsible for the women’s laundry; that was the one thing he had been unwilling to do, and Diniel and Amira had refused to do theirs themselves. At any rate, Tsutomu certainly was happy to have Ollie take over full-time.
Tsutomu proceeded to explain to Ollie the layout of the Clan House and the extent of her housework. Then, after going over the upcoming activities schedule and taking a short break, all Clan members gathered for an evaluation meeting.
“First of all, Amira…”
“Yeah? What about me?”
Amira, vulgarly spreading her legs far apart on the sofa, promptly shot Tsutomu a displeased look as if she was a Fire Dragon looking at an enemy. That ended up startling Daryl instead.
“You’re not used to fighting in a team with a three-role composition, I assume? Have you taken a look at the documents I gave you the other day?”
“Yeah, I did look. Forgot most of it though,” Amira answered indifferently.
Tsutomu shook his head and sighed, as if he was dealing with a clueless child.
“Well, first of all, you need to make sure that you don’t generate more aggro than the Tanks do. Actually controlling that might be difficult at first, so take some time to figure out a suitable approach by yourself.”
Things would have been easier in the game, where one could see the monsters’ aggro gauges, but there was no such function in this world. As such, one needed some training to manage aggro with just their senses, and to achieve that, they needed to get used to fighting monsters in the Dungeon.
Tsutomu, having played Live Dungeon for six years, could get a rough idea of a player’s aggro generation if he knew their level, Job, and skills. In addition to that, were the observations he had made in this world, by himself and through the monitors, that allowed him to adjust the information as he went. Although not perfect, all that was enough to help him effectively estimate aggro levels here.
“The hell? What a pain in…” Amira started to complain, but promptly cut herself off, waving her hands. “I mean, fine. I can do it. I’ll do it.”
She sounded reluctant, but still played along, seemingly scared of Camille’s rage in the case that she was kicked out.
“Amira will probably generate too much aggro for some time longer, so… the two Tanks, I hope you’ll tolerate it.”
“Understood!”
“You got it!”
Hearing the two Tanks’ cheerful replies, Tsutomu nodded and looked around to see if anyone else had anything to say. Amira, seeming to have recalled something, spoke up,
“Oh yeah, the Tanks generating less… aggro-whatever… than me, don’t you think that’s a bad look? Both you guys are over level 50, right?”
“……”
Daryl looked down, seemingly spooked by how Amira was looking at him, as if he was an upstanding student being accosted by a delinquent. Despite his larger build, his non-confrontational mindset still needed some work.
Hannah, on the other hand, was trying to maintain her composure, but at least a little bit of frustration was already showing on her face. She knew that she was in fact a skilled Attacker, and was stronger than Amira, currently. But if Amira were to bust out her unique skill, she could dish out more damage than Hannah, so the latter did not feel like saying anything back.
Tsutomu, seeing what was happening between those two and Amira, heaved a deep sigh, prompting Amira to hold up her hands in fear.
“Look, man, I’ll follow your order. Don’t worry…” Amira said, and her intimidating aura immediately dissipated.
However, Dary and Hannah still were wrinkling their brows, showing their doubt. Seeing that, Tsutomu pondered things over for a moment, then made an offer to Amira,
“…Okay. Why don’t we have a little test, then?”
“Huh?”
“You’ll go against Daryl and Hannah, the former as a Tank, and the latter as an Attacker — and if they perform better than you, you’ll stop complaining all the time, yes?”
“…What? You’re saying I’m gonna lose to those guys or something?”
“Yes. As things stand currently, you are the least competent and experienced among all of us.”
Amira narrowed her red eyes and glared at Tsutomu, annoyed that she was being called incompetent, but the latter did not even flinch, having gotten the same look before from the much more powerful, transformed Camille. Amira then smirked, amused by the reaction she was getting.
“Okay, fine. I’m in,” she continued to say.
“All right… We’ll be doing this tomorrow, then. Against Daryl, we’ll see who’s able to generate more aggro from the Shell Crab. And against Hannah, how long it takes to eliminate the enemy monsters, which will include… the Rotten Swordsman. How about that?”
“Sounds good to me. But I want to add two conditions, if you don’t mind.”
The discussion progressed smoothly, with the second target being decided as the Rotten Swordsman, the Wasteland biome’s Layer Boss. But when Tsutomu was about to stand up, Amira interrupted him by raising two fingers, prompting him to sit back down on his sofa.
“What kind of conditions?”
“First of all, have her in this as well.”
Amira pointed to Diniel, who was nodding off on another sofa.
“…Diniel? Well, would you be willing to?”
“Nah, don’t wanna,” Diniel answered without a second thought while leaning down on one end of the sofa, about to doze off.
“Hah! Just admit it — you’re afraid of losing to me!”
“There will be a reward for the winner. How about that, Diniel?”
“Hmm… sounds good. I’m in,” Diniel answered and gave a thumbs up to Tsutomu for the mention of rewards, while still showing no reaction whatsoever toward Amira’s taunting.
“Okay, Amira, what’s the other condition?”
“Well… if I win, you’ll make me the Clan’s second-in-command. That’ll make it so that I can never get kicked out.”
“…Really? Second-in-command?”
“Yup.”
“All right.”
“…Huh? Wait a sec! You sure!?”
Amira was gaping in surprise by how easily Tsutomu had agreed to her terms, especially since she was already convinced that she would win all of it.
“BUT under one condition from me,” Tsutomu said, and raised his index finger as if to interrupt Amira’s early celebration. “I’ll be deciding the rewards Hannah, Daryl, and Diniel will get when they win. Hannah will have the authority to expel members of the Clan. Daryl will become the Clan’s second-in-command. And Diniel will… let’s see… she’ll have the same authority level as the Clan Leader. And you, Amira, will receive the respective opponent’s reward instead if you win against them.”
“…That’s your condition?”
Amira showed nothing but suspicion toward the totally outrageous proposal.
“That is my condition, yes,” Tsutomu replied with a smile.
If Amira were to at least win against Hannah — in a test of performance in the Attacker role, no less — she would no longer have to worry about being kicked out of the Clan.
“Wait, this won’t mean you will kick me out if I lose against Hannah, right. If not, they would kick me out?”
“No, of course not. Both the Clan Leader and second-in-command have the authority to unexpel members as well, after all.”
“…Okay, good to know. I’mma win it all anyway, so that doesn’t really matter. Oh, and also…”
“I won’t throw you into a multi-wave battle or anything, so don’t worry. And of course, I’ll be providing support and healing during combat. If you catch me skimping on those, I’ll give you Clan Leader authority immediately.”
“Gotcha. That’s cool… Now let’s see how things play out tomorrow, you guys!”
Amira, seemingly already believing that she would win everything, chuckled and rested her elbows on the table, and shot a menacing glare at Daryl in front of her. Then, seeing that the latter was spooked, she chuckled again.
“So, this meeting’s over yet?”
“Yes. It’s all free time for the rest of today, so you are all dismissed.”
“‘Kay, I’ll go out for a little walk. Oh, and don’t let that ancient Dragon know about this, yeah?”
“She won’t.”
“Cool, cool.” Amira said as she walked out of the Clan House, quite apparently in a good mood.
Tsutomu saw her off. All the others still remained in the living room — Daryl, eyes welling up with tears; Hannah, deep in serious thought; and Diniel, eyes closed and already half asleep.
“S-Sir Tsutomu!! Did you seriously agree to all that arbitrary nonsense!? I mean, she’ll be second-in-command if we lose! That’s a lot of authority!!”
Daryl stood up as if he had regained consciousness, and proceeded to grab Tsutomu and shake him. It was clear that Daryl had issues with the deal Tsutomu had agreed to.
“Oh, you’ll be fine, Daryl. You already went through Garm’s training, after all — and not to mention, I did see how well you performed today. You’ll have no trouble winning.”
“Y-you think? …But Miss Amira has her unique skill, right?”
Daryl was somewhat satisfied at first, happy to hear some praise for his skills, but then he quickly changed his expression and started shaking Tsutomu again. Then Hannah joined in on the conversation, looking quite serious,
“That’s what I’m thinking, too. She’s got the same unique skill as the Guild Master, doesn’t she? In terms of raw power, I don’t think I’ll win against her.”
“T-that’s right! It’s the <<Dragon Form>>, you know!? Like, she’s going to grow big wings and get a power boost and stuff! I won’t be able to keep up!”
Tsutomu could not help but chuckle at Daryl’s exaggerated gestures as the latter talked about the <<Dragon Form>> unique skill. Ticked off by that, Daryl moved in closer to Tsutomu again.
“Please take this more seriously! My second-in-command authorities are on the line here!”
“I know, I know. Still, Daryl, I don’t think you’ll have a problem even if she uses it. Things might be a bit more difficult for Hannah, though.”
“…Right.”
Hannah cast her eyes down, discouraged, in contrast to Daryl who had calmed down somewhat after some persuasion.
“But, well… she probably won’t transform. There’s no need to worry so much.”
“Huh? What makes you believe that’s the case?”
“It’s the feeling I got when going through the newspaper articles and seeing the Guild Master’s reactions — and I’m sure of it after seeing her in action today. Just think about it. She’s got this sense of rivalry going on toward Diniel, and if she could use her <<Dragon Form>>, she would’ve used it to one-up her perceived rival, right?”
“…Aha.”
Hannah had always thought that Amira’s aggressiveness had been aimed at her, but now she understood that it was actually meant to try and one-up Diniel. It was indeed strange that, despite Amira’s annoyance toward Diniel’s attitude, she had not used her <<Dragon Form>> to make a bigger display of power.
“Well, transformed or not, I don’t think you’ll have much trouble, Hannah. She hasn’t mastered her <<Dragon Form>> yet, so there’s a good chance you’ll win either way. Still, I didn’t intend to involve you in this at first… so sorry about that. I’ll call off your match, if you’d like to be out of it.”
“…Wait a second? Don’t you have anything to say to me as well?” Daryl said, half-pouting at how Tsutomu had apologized only to Hannah.
“No, Daryl, you’ll be just fine,” Tsutomu answered casually.
“Why do I feel like I’m getting the short end of the stick here!?”
Seeing the exchange between the two, Hannah proceeded to chuckle.
“Well, I’m perfectly fine with it. If anything, it’s a perfect chance to cut her down to size — and I’m annoyed how she called me by my old nickname that time, too!”
“Oh, that’s the spirit! You might want to try being as enthusiastic as her for once, Daryl.”
“That’s… asking for too much…”
Despite Tsutomu’s rough handling of the situation, Daryl did not actually dislike how things were going. This was the same Tsutomu who had teamed up with Garm and defeated the Fire Dragon twice, and contributed greatly to the town’s defenses during the Stampede. Despite the man himself not thinking himself to be that big of a deal, Daryl was determined to live up to his standards and expectations.
“…And what about Diniel? Is she in on this?”
Daryl looked at Diniel, worried whether or not she was processing any of this at all, what with her almost falling asleep by now.
“Of course she is,” Tsutomu said and lightly chuckled. Then, as if to clear the tension in the air, he clapped his hands together twice and said,
“So, if you’re all free, I’d like to have another strategy meeting later today. Do any of you have anything scheduled after this?”
“Nope, nothing! I can join, no problem!”
“I’m free, too!”
“Count me in,” Diniel suddenly spoke up and raised her hand.
“All right. Let’s get started right away, then.”
The four of them proceeded to discuss the coming battles against the Shell Crab and the Rotten Swordsman.
