“Amy,” Diniel said as she shot some arrows to scout the area, “You’ve been trying too hard to work with Tsutomu. Focus on the fight.”
“Huh? Was I really doing that badly?” Amy’s cat ears twitched.
“I wouldn’t say TOO badly… but yeah, kinda. Like I said, you should focus more on the fight, not him.”
“…Uh, I guess…”
The two of them often had conflicting opinions, but they never resulted in any significant argument. As such, Tsutomu said nothing and observed from the side, but then his eyes eventually met with Amy’s.
“Any comments on this, Tsutomu?”
“I dunno… How about you give it a try first? Just fight how you normally would — pay no attention to how I support you.”
“Got it!” Amy agreed immediately and banged her dual blades together, waiting for monsters to appear.
From the following fight on, she fought without paying any attention to Tsutomu’s actions.
Amy had always kept the direction of the God Eye in mind, so she had a broad field of vision and could easily adjust her moves to make it easier for Tsutomu to support her. However, it was true that she had been too focused on the latter aspect, resulting in her neglecting her actual battle performance.
In the end, Amy’s change of fighting style yielded positive results, and her performance improved significantly. Amy herself seemed to be aware of that, as apparent from how she was pouting while twirling one of her swords in one hand.
“Okay, that was much better… but it must’ve made things more difficult for you, right?”
“It’s what a Healer is supposed to do — don’t worry about it. You’re doing perfectly fine, Amy.”
“I just felt like I could do both, you know? Like, something just needs to… click — you get what I mean?”
Amy groaned as she crossed her arms and closed her eyes, and after sorting out her thoughts for a moment, she regained her composure. In the end, she decided that she would be fighting without paying too much attention to Tsutomu’s support on layer eighty.
Afterward, a minor argument broke out between Garm and Xeno, largely due to their differing natures.
“Your aura is way too bright. Can’t you tone it down at least a little?”
“Hmm? Ah, apologies. I was sure I have already toned it down; the thrill of battle seems to have compelled me to intensify it back up! Hahaha!”
“Don’t just laugh it off…”
Garm was one to focus solely on practical combat, while Xeno also considered how he could entertain an audience. As such, it was only natural for differences in priorities to arise.
“Well, I’d say it’s fine either way,” Tsutomu said, interrupting the two, “If you take the flair away from Xeno, he’ll lose the brand he’s built for himself, so he’ll be fine doing things as he is.”
“You think so?”
“How about you give it a try too, Garm? You could turn your <<Combat Cry>> indigo to match your hair.”
“No,” Garm immediately rejected the idea, prompting Tsutomu to chuckle.
Garm did not say anything more about the matter, seemingly since he was aware of the tangible benefits of Xeno’s style.
As for the team’s basic Attacker-Tank combinations, Amy was paired with Xeno, while Diniel was paired with Garm…
“You know,” Tsutomu said to Amy, trying to suggest that she changed her mind, “You and Garm have worked together pretty well — especially during the Stampede. Maybe you should think about pairing with him.”
“Nah~~! I ain’t gonna team up with that useless little pupper~~!”
“I should be the one saying that… furball.”
Both Garm and Amy immediately rejected Tsutomu’s suggestion — which was disappointing to the latter, since he had seen them work exceptionally well when they needed to, especially during the battle against the Devourer Dragon.
Afterward, once the team went through a few more battles, they decided to call it a day. On the way back, Tsutomu took the time to talk to his teammates about their performance, as he had been observing them during today’s trip.
“Xeno, make sure your <<Ember Aura>> is never disengaged — this is important. And DO NOT set your sights on the monsters Garm is already pulling. You’re already taking on more than enough.”
“Oh, I certainly have no intention of doing either of those…” Xeno said and flashed his white teeth, pretending not to be concerned by Tsutomu’s reminder.
“And Garm, I understand that Xeno can be quite distracting, but I’m sure you’ll get used to him after some time. Make sure you two don’t pull monsters away from each other. After all, if that happens when we’re up against something powerful — like, say, the Winter General — it might result in all of us being killed.”
“I know.”
Indeed, Garm — due to being a relatively new addition to the team — had been distracted by Xeno’s unconventional approach to combat. As things seemed right now, though, time was all he would need to resolve that issue.
“As for Diniel… you’re doing perfectly well in combat. But you know… how about raising your voice a bit more?”
“Nah,” Diniel replied without a care as she continued fixing the string of her bow.
“Come on, don’t be like that. You’re supposed to be a wise lady, not a spoiled brat…”
His words falling on deaf ears, Tsutomu groaned in exasperation.
Still, it was a fact that Diniel’s skills were outstanding enough for her to land a spot in this team even if she were to not speak a single word. Every arrow she shot would hit its mark with near-perfect precision, and she was the highest-leveled combatant of Absolute Helix — and not to mention that she was largely considered the best Archer in town.
Furthermore, she seemed to put in more effort whenever she was on the same team as Amy, and Xeno’s <<Ember Aura>> worked wonders to fix her weakness in cold environments. Her anti-personnel combat performance was still unknown, but since she would be keeping her distance due to her fighting style, there should not be any issues.
“Talking messes up my concentration.”
“Sounds like you need some extra training, then. Just… keep that in mind, all right? I could barely hear you whenever we were in a snow storm.”
“Mm-hm,” Diniel, covering her mouth with her scarf, responded as if she agreed — but with a heavily non-committal tone.
Knowing that he could not expect much improvement from her on this front, Tsutomu sighed, feeling even more disappointed. He proceeded to turn to Amy, who was walking beside him.
“Any, I know you started paying too much attention to my support again. Don’t do that — just focus on getting through layer eighty for now.”
“Nah!”
“Gotcha. No more <<Haste>> for the two of you.”
“Nah!”
“Nah,” Diniel joined in the nah-ing with a completely deadpan tone.
And with Amy cracking an ear-to-ear grin, Tsutomu felt the urge to facepalm. These two were practically impossible to keep under control when they were to join forces — it was like being a teacher dealing with delinquents who would simply never take their classes seriously.
Amy, noting that, stopped joking around and turned to Tsutomu.
“C’mon, just lemme do it how I like sometimes! I won’t be like that when we fight the boss! Promise!”
“Nah, you’re TOTALLY going to be like that. You have to get used to it now, or you’ll mess up when it actually counts.”
“…Okay, okay. Sorry,” Amy immediately backed down after realizing from Tsutomu’s tone that he was actually serious.
“Cool. I appreciate your willingness to cooperate. Now don’t worry about me — I can handle you just fine.”
Tsutomu looked around at all four of his teammates as they walked.
“Most of this team’s members have been Explorers for pretty long now, so I expect us to cooperate just fine eventually, but I’ll still be a little strict when it comes to how we should fight. And if there’s any problem with my performance, be sure to tell me, all right?”
Everyone nodded in response to Tsutomu’s words, and they returned to the Guild by passing through the Black Gate.
―▽▽―
“I’m exhausted~~!”
“I’m always exhausted.”
“Good job down there today,” Tsutomu said to Amy and Diniel as they threw themselves on the sofas in the Clan House’s living room.
Tsutomu himself felt a sense of accomplishment as he was finally able to focus on exploring the dungeon after a long time. Today had been quite a productive day for him.
The other team, led by Daryl, seemed to also be doing well without any major issues. Daryl, Hannah, and Amira had always been close to one another due to being part of the same batch of recruits. Korinna did not seem like the type to cause problems. Leleia definitely lived up to her claim when it came to her capabilities, and she had recently started paying attention to Amira, who she would previously ignore.
Later that night, everyone gathered for dinner. This would not always happen nowadays due to conflicting schedules as a result of exploring too late into the night to entertain the audience or Xeno being unavailable. However, the Clan would designate at least one day per week for everyone to come together, and for this week, that day was today.
“So I’ve heard that Ealdred Crow’s main team recently got a new member — an Enchanter. Pollux, was it? Is he the Buffer that you trained a while ago, Tsutomu?”
“He is, yeah. I think he’s even better than me when it comes to skill control, actually.”
“Oh-ho… so you have yourself a new rival, eh?”
“Not really. The roles of Healer and Buffer are too different to overlap, I’d say.”
“With all the new roles being introduced, we might be left behind if we don’t stay on top of our game…”
During the meal, the men discussed Dungeon-related topics, and they were quite enthusiastic, particularly when it came to talking about Ealdred Crow.
“By the way, Sir Tsutomu, their team also has this girl… Miss Stephanie? She’s been featured a lot in the news, doing lots of amazing things. I heard she’s just as good a Healer as you!”
“Yeah. I think she’s currently the best Healer around — and if her team gets past the eightieth layer before us, that’ll show that she’s gotten better than me, too.”
“Hmph. Comparing him to other Clans’ Healers is fine and all, but don’t forget what actually matters: how well you perform in Absolute Helix.”
“Ah… I’m sorry, Sir Garm.”
“Don’t worry about it too much. Doing comparisons can be pretty interesting.”
Tsutomu let out a dry chuckle, seeing that Garm started lecturing Daryl for bringing Stephanie up. Tsutomu himself recognized Stephanie as an outstanding healer — and that she was probably the one who put in the most effort and achieved the most among his students.
Still, he had also heard about Stephanie’s recent conflicts with Lorena and Eunice. He had been particularly ticked off by the part where she trampled over the latter’s dumpling-type <<Haste>>.
[Yeah, that’s not nice of her… But am I really in a position to criticize her?]
Tsutomu, looking back on his experience, saw Stephanie’s behavior as being akin to hardcore players looking down on casual players. He understood that because he had once gone through that phase himself. And precisely because he understood, he wanted to put a stop to Stephanie’s disastrous situation that could create an embarrassing phase in her career. However, for some reason, Ealdred Crow’s teams seemed to be avoiding him as of late, so he could not exactly meet up and confront her about this.
Still, leaving things as they were would be unfavorable, even if their relationship was no more than that of a teacher and student. As such, Tsutomu considered working up his courage to visit Ealdred Crow’s Clan House.
“Mmm! This looks nice!”
“Whoa! It’s so sparkly!”
“You should try wearing one too, ‘Hannie!’ I know — a white hairpin would totally suit you! And for ‘Ammie’… well, a black one, I guess?”
“What the hell!? I ain’t gonna wear no hairpins!”
“Don’t be like that, ‘Ammie’! You wanna thrive in this business, you gotta be STYLISH!”
The women, on the other hand, were completely engrossed in discussing their personal matters. Amy and Hannah were particularly engaged in the conversation, and now Amira was being dragged into it. Even the non-talkative ones — Diniel, Korinna — were also forcefully included, making it quite a chaotic conversation.
“Dini, pass me the sauce~~!”
“Mm-hm.”
“Thanks! You want some too, Ammie?”
“Gimme.”
“Nah! Stop talking like a spoiled brat, and mayyybe I’ll give it to you!”
“Why you little furball…”
Perhaps due to being so completely defeated by Amy in their recent sparring matches, Amira was surprisingly non-aggressive today. Leleia, observing that behavior, turned to ask Korinna while keeping her voice down,
“Korinna, you hang out with Amira sometimes, yes? What do you two usually do?”
“Huh? Well… watching the Pedestals, I guess…? And shopping, checking out the weapons, that sort of thing…”
“Is that so…”
Leleia nodded solemnly as she observed the kind smile on Korinna’s face. Korinna continued to share various things about how she would spend time off with Amira, and Leleia listened attentively.
“She’s pretty amazing, really! It’s like, at first she seemed imposing and forceful, but then it turned out she’s a bit of a goofball, so I just couldn’t help but follow along!”
“……”
“And she did this super awesome stuff this one time! So here’s the story…”
As Korinna spoke nonstop, Leleia remembered how she had initially felt the same way. She could not help but continue listening to Korinna’s enthusiastic stories.
“Here are your seconds!”
At one point, Ollie’s apprentice brought more food for the girls, prompting Amy, Hannah, Amira, and Diniel to pass her their empty cups.
“Thanks! Oh, could I get a drink too?”
“Yeah, me too.”
“Same here.”
“Mm-hm.”
“Eep! R-right away!” the apprentice screamed as she rushed back to the kitchen.
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