". . ."
". . ."
"But what about the rest of the dungeon?" Rafaela asked worriedly.
Silvia briefly looked at Ren's direction and said, "I have an idea."
Ren seemed to know what he was doing. She'd ask his help later . . . with money involved, of course. She had enough of Robert and his companions anyway.
"It's just an item, you guys," Pamela said, voice like bells gently ringing a lullaby. "I'm okay leaving this place empty handed as long as we get firstblood. Isn't that what we agreed upon in the first place?"
Silvia cast an appreciative smile in Pamela's way. Leave it to her best friend to make everyone's temper disappear.
Rosie took in a deep breath. "Fine."
"It's just infuriating since they didn't even do anything," grumbled Alicia.
With the majority agreeing, Robert and Vida both equipped the items while Silvia approached Ren.
"Ren, can I talk to you for a second?"
"What is it?" Ren asked when the girls approached him.
"We can't continue like this," Silvia started, staring at Ren seriously, "If we continue like this, attacking all over the place, we will surely die."
"I'm glad you know."
Silvia's lips twitched while the rest giggled.
"Can you be the substitute leader? That is until we reach Vulcan's Cave. I'll up your fee if we manage to get to the Boss's Room alive."
Ren didn't have a problem with that. He was going to do that anyway, even if Silvia didn't ask.
"Yeah, no problem."
The women's faces lit up, and their impression of Ren became favorable . . . even though he was a money-hungry mongrel, at least his services were brought. Unlike Robert, who promised them the full package but later on had a hidden charge for everything.
"However," Ren chimed in, cutting the women's exciting faces, "You have to follow my orders to the letter."
The women looked amongst themselves and shrugged.
"Sure," Alecia replied.
"I'm okay with it," said Rafaela with a playful wink.
"Whatever." Lucia flipped her hair.
Pamela and Ruru just gave a thumbs up.
Rosie tilted her head and crossed her arms under her bountiful breasts. "Whatever you say, leader," she slurred the final word.
Ren looked the other way and cleared his throat. "From now on, all of you are forbidden to use MP related spells."
"Huh?" That didn't sit well with Lucia. "If we don't fight then–!"
Ren held a hand. "Let me finish."
The women who were about to make their complaints shut their mouths.
"My damage output is high, and I have a skill that lets me regenerate MP. So you guys leave the monsters in this area to me while all you have to do is heal Nikolai while he takes the aggro on him and anyone that needed healing using Potions. Understand?"
". . ."
". . ."
None of the ladies answered before Lucia broke the silence.
"What kind of spell that generate MP?"
"Lucia," the others reprimanded.
How many times do they have to tell her that Ren's ATP and list of skills and spells were secret?
Lucia's eyes widened, and she defended herself. "I'm just curious. Don't tell me that all of you aren't?"
Silvia shook her head while sighing at the ceiling, "Don't mind her. Continue."
Ren then stated his team's mistakes after having observed them earlier in the fight with the Lava Hounds.
"Nikolai."
Nikolai stood straight in alarm. "Y-yes?"
"You're the ST, in this case, the most important character in this group at this point."
Nikolai's eyes shone. "The most . . . important."
"Don't be afraid of facing the enemy head-on. Use Taunt whenever possible. Don't hesitate to use it again after its cooldown."
Since Nikolai had [Mana Potion], his MP wasn't going to be a problem. Bedsides [Taunt] wasn't dealing any damage, so its MP cost was only about +5.
Nikolai fisted his hands and nodded. "R-right!"
"Silvia, if you're going to help, then just use your normal attacks. But be careful not to OT. Meaning having damage output higher than Nikolai causing the aggro to switch on you."
Silvia's fist hit her palm and a light bulb appeared on top of her head. "Oh. So that's what it is." And she faced the girls in glee. "We should have controlled our attacks and made sure that the aggro doesn't shift to us!"
Lucia and the others nodded in understanding. Seemed doable. They thought.
"It's just mean that no barrage of attacks unless you're sure that you can finish off your enemies with your attacks," Ren explained further, just in case.
The women all nodded with a serious expressions.
"Rosie and Rafaela, you both are healers and not damage dealers. Your main job is to heal Nikolai, the substitute tank, while paying attention to the overall health of your team.
Rosie looked to the side while twirling her hair, pouting while murmuring incoherent words.
Rafaela's brow creased. "But we can help . . ."
"We don't need much damage in this dungeon. Me is enough," cut in Ren. "What we need is a healer."
Rafaela still wanted to object but decided against it when Silvia batted an eyelid at her.
"Fine . . ."
"Alecia, you're a Blue Mage, right. Do you already have the spell Butterflies of Deceit?"
Alecia nodded, amazed that Ren knew her skill even though he wasn't present when all of them showed their ATP and list of skills and spells.
Butterflies of Deceit could hide a single target from the enemy for ten seconds.
"Good. Cast that when we faced the final boss. However, in the meantime, I want you to conserve what mana you had left until the final boss."
Ren then shifted his attention to all the women. "All of you. You're forbidden to use your mana from now on."
Lucia objected. "But I have the most magic damage, maybe I should . . ."
"Save it for the boss. From now on, every one of you will never shed a single MP. Use your potions to heal and nothing else. Understood?"
The women all nodded and said, "Yes."
After assigning roles to the party, the group continued forward to the main path.
Thanks to Pii, they've discovered more hidden paths on the walls that Ruru couldn't uncover with her [Detect]. It was maybe because of the low level of her skill or the unique ability of a pet, but Pii took the lead and became the secret room finder.
Ruru wasn't entirely useless, though. With her passive, she had found numerous traps like a floor that collapsed onto a magma-filled room below or a wall that spurted steam when a player accidentally stepped on a trap on the floor.
They were the basic traps in the dungeon, and more were waiting for them as they reached the middle of the cave.
The group also learned to ignore Robert and his friends, who steal all the loot every time they found a chest, even though Ren took care of the monster guarding the chest.
Thanks to what Ren said, they regained their calm and no longer argued about those items.
"Those items were basic. They would respawn again. You can just attempt this cave once more. The important thing is the goal. The first blood and the Platinum Chest that came with it."
Moreover, after traversing nonstop the many twisting and spiraling paths, they finally reach half the cave after half a day. Eventually, they have their first encounter with the monsters in the dungeon.
"Looks like they have respawn now." Nikolai was happy to be able to grind again.
"Remember not to use mana," Ren warned the others.
"Geez, stop being a broken record. We know already," Lucia said and assumed her position at the back.
Since Alecia and she wouldn't be going to attack, they were responsible for ensuring that all the party members were in good health. They had now become a supporting healer.
Up ahead were Lava Ants. Monsters that were a meter in height and three meters wide. There were four of them who were carrying boulders between their sharp mandibles. They were native to Vulcan's Cave, and their attack was considered weak, but their DEF was high against physical damage.
"Remember what I told you," Ren said, and the other nodded.
"Nikolai, don't be scared at their intimidating appearance. Your DEF can take their hit even if it's four of them. There are plenty of healers (rich ladies who have plenty of Health Potions) who will support you from the back."
Nikolai nodded and used [Taunt] and drew the aggro on him.
With someone tanking the Lava Ants, Ren didn't have to move all over the place, and cast [Water] spell against the Ants.
The Lava Ants HP also didn't reach +400, unlike with the Lava Hounds, whose HP reached +1000. The only problem was their numbers.
One hit from Ren and a single one went down without much effort.
"Alright, I'll use my health potions first and heal Nikolai," Lucia said.
"Why are you going to heal him when you're not even a healer?" argued Rosie.
"I'll heal him. I have plenty of health potions with me." Rafaela chimed in.
"Ladies!" Silvia took in a sharp breath and released it in one go. "Let's go by alphabetical order, okay? Alecia first, then Lucia, Pamela, Rafael, and Rosie. Okay?"
"But what about Ruru?" Ruru muttered. Her weak voice only got drowned with the battle raging on.
Before the others could complain again, Silvia escaped and joined Nikolai, helping him lower the Lava Ants HP so Ren could one-shot it. Though he probably didn't need it.
At the side, Robert, Vida, and Jack all looked at Silvia and the others with bitter faces.
It was like they were totally invincible in their eyes!
