Tutorial — Fifth Floor

The Underground Waterway. A straightforward dungeon.

Honestly, the difficulty itself was nothing I couldn't clear alone at my current level. Still, a 200% experience bonus—triple ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the usual take—made the efficiency more than worthwhile. Ratmen and Slimes weren't particularly strong, but at triple experience they outclassed Goblins by a wide margin. We'd reached the fifth floor, sure, but this was still the tutorial. Stronger monsters were hard to come by.

My level was still only seven, after all.

I unfolded ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the map Johann had given me.

"It's an underground waterway, so the interior's pretty complicated. This is going to take a while."

"You're right. Just looking at the map... if we lost it, we might never find our way out."

Joo Ha-yeon spoke with a note of worry in her voice.

"We have to sweep the whole place. That's the commission. I'd still like to wrap it up before the privilege expires, though."

The party nodded as one, as if they couldn't agree more. Fair enough. The Underground Waterway was pitch-dark; we'd be relying on torchlight the entire way. Nobody wanted to linger in a place this damp and foul-smelling. And besides me, the other four were all women. They had even more reason to hate it.

"Let's move. Na-yeon and I will handle the light. My armor's solid enough, and Na-yeon... well, you know."

A nod.

Na-yeon focused for a moment, then called the name of her contracted spirit.

"Casa!"

Fwoosh. A small ball of flame took shape.

We'd agreed she'd summon it in advance. Simply maintaining a summon didn't cost much mana.

"Wh-what? Did it fail?"

"Huh? It's right here."

"Uh... I don't see anything..."

Spirits were invisible to anyone without mana.

"I can see it too. Looks like you need mana to see a spirit. Seoyun and I both have mana stats. She and Na-yeon can both use mana now."

"...So all three of you can use mana. If we're careful, this commission should go smoothly."

They'd felt the power of mana well enough on the fourth floor. They might have been jealous, but they seemed more relieved that they were safer now. I hadn't been close enough to them in my previous life to know what they were thinking. Both of them had better personalities than I'd expected.

"Let's get moving. We can't stay here forever."

I took the lead, with Seoyun positioned slightly behind me at a diagonal. Now that she'd acquired the Dual Wield skill, she needed to start learning the frontline role, one lesson at a time. Na-yeon had been worried, but she didn't object—she'd already learned the Tower wasn't a place that went easy on anyone.

Joo Ha-yeon and Nam Eun-ju were assigned to protect Na-yeon in the rear.

I was the main tank—though honestly, I was also the strongest damage dealer. Na Seoyun would handle melee DPS or off-tank duties, Na-yeon was the main DPS, and the other two were Keepers protecting the back line. We didn't really need two Keepers, but neither of them had unlocked mana yet, and Na-yeon was worried about them. So that was how I set it up.

We each had a weapon at our belts that could resist Slime acid. Fire was a Slime's weakness, so Na-yeon could handle them easily, but we'd taken the weapons just in case.

The party advanced, step by step. True to a dungeon overdue for a cleaning, we ran into monsters before long.

Skree!

A pack of Ratmen and three Slimes.

I spoke to the party at once.

"Seoyun and I will handle the Ratmen. You two, stop anything that slips past us. Na-yeon, focus on the Slimes."

The party nodded, showing they'd heard me clearly.

I charged forward immediately. As a tank, holding the line against incoming enemies was one approach—but at my current stats, it was better to wade in and disrupt them from the front. Keeping a close eye on Na Seoyun, I struck at the backs of Ratmen that hadn't spotted us yet.

Squeak!

I swung the custom-forged sword I'd received as a reward for the reconnaissance commission.

A weapon with ten attack power. And that was a longsword hitting ten. For a Normal-grade weapon, that was exceptionally high. Considering the mace I'd used in the tutorial had an attack power of two, this was a fivefold increase by simple math. There was a difference between a sword and a blunt weapon, of course, but with my stats and a weapon like this, I could punch through even the armor I was wearing.

The Ratmen spotted Seoyun and me charging them and tried to raise the alarm—too late.

Thuck!

Squeak...

A single strike punched through a Ratman's throat and killed it. The others scrambled into a defensive stance.

Wiping them all out myself would have been easy. But this fight was also about training Na Seoyun, so aside from that first kill, I started drawing their attention and focusing on defense.

My mouth, however, did not rest.

"Na Seoyun, too slow! Move faster! At that pace you're just going to tangle our lines!"

Unlike the kind image I usually cultivated, I deliberately went hard on her. This was live combat. It was also the easier way to earn trust.

"Yes!"

"Don't answer in combat! Look for openings! You've got a skill—that means you've got talent! Stop moving like you're awkward!"

Na Seoyun was still growing, so a long-reach sword was hard for her to handle. She was a girl, too—how much taller was she really going to get at this age? Her stats also weren't high enough for a heavy weapon ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠yet, so I'd come up with a workaround. One hand held the tutorial dagger; the other, a custom-forged shortsword.

The two blades didn't need to be the same length, and I figured this setup would serve her better. Dual Wield still activated this way, and she'd still build proficiency. Even if she picked up mismatched blades later, once the proficiency was there she'd adapt in no time. The sooner she started stacking it, the better.

While I was teaching Na Seoyun, Na-yeon in the rear targeted the Slimes with spirit magic.

"Casa, Fireball!"

In the past, she'd just shouted "Fireball" and waved her hands. Now she called the spirit's name as well—maybe because there was no one here she needed to be wary of. Hiding the spirit had been useful in a crisis, that much was true. Even at Lowest rank, Casa could sense danger at short range and do some scouting. She'd kept that secret because in the previous timeline, there hadn't been a single person she could trust.

The first cycle and this one were already very different.

Thanks to Seoyun and me, the Ratmen never reached the back line. With that breathing room, Na-yeon could focus entirely on the Slimes, and I led Seoyun as far from them as I could.

Boom! Boom! Small explosions. The Slimes writhed. Hissssss!

The attack was fatal to them. They shuddered as if in agony, then—cores shattered—they dissolved and died on the spot.

Slimes were nasty if they got hold of you. But our party had their natural predator.

Thuck, thuck!

S-squeeeak...

Na Seoyun's final strike brought the first hunt to a clean close. She stared at her own hands, trembling slightly. The two Keepers hadn't done a thing—just watched. We were a party, so experience was split either way. It didn't matter.

"...That was easy."

"Letting your guard down is dangerous."

"I know. But... the Slimes went down to spirit magic, and the Ratmen couldn't even get past you two. This feels like we're just being carried."

I snorted.

"You two holding the rear is what lets us fight without looking back. We're still at the entrance. Later on, things might come from behind. Don't relax."

"Yes, Shin-hoo. Don't worry."

Joo Ha-yeon seemed a little deflated, but she nodded right away, apparently finding my point reasonable.

As we prepared to leave, the Ratman and Slime corpses crumbled into motes of light.

"Ah!"

They wouldn't know this, but dungeons were different from the forest. Dungeon monsters, like the Goblins on the first floor, left drop items and vanished when they died. The only drop was Slime Essence. It had been the same in the first cycle. The Ratmen were all so broke they dropped nothing.

"...Dungeons are... strange."

The party was unsettled, but they steeled themselves and pressed deeper. I sketched out a rough route, and we fought our way through, one encounter after another. We took breaks here and there, but our clear speed was remarkably fast. By the end of the day, we'd cleaned out close to thirty percent of the dungeon.

Our coordination tightened as we moved, confidence built, and the pace picked up. If Na-yeon's mana pool had been sufficient, we could have finished even faster, but her mana stat was still far too low. Maintaining a summon barely cost any mana, and she still had to unsummon Casa from time to time. That said it all.

I checked Na-yeon with the Administrator's Eye.

The dungeon efficiency was so good that she'd already hit level five after clearing just thirty percent. She'd entered at level three, same as Na Seoyun—that was two levels already. She'd probably be seven by the time we finished.

I'd be past eight myself by then.

We found a relatively dry, safe spot and pitched the camping tents.

"...At this pace, I think we can wrap it up cleanly within three days."

"I was worried, but the Lord did give us a relatively easy job."

Nam Eun-ju cut into Na-yeon and Joo Ha-yeon's conversation.

"E-even so, it was too much. We'd barely gotten back and they already handed us a commission..."

"It's the Tower. The Tower's the problem... Getting dragged here out of nowhere..."

They'd been summoned in the Korean early morning, so they hadn't seen the Giants invade. For a while yet, they wouldn't know what had become of Earth. Rumors circulated, but most people didn't believe them. They'd find out once they reached the Middle Floor and met people from other countries.

That was a side effect: trainees from the East, lacking the desperation of those from Western Europe and the Americas, developed more slowly.

I let the women's conversation wash over me and stroked Na Seoyun's hair as she leaned lightly against me. At the same time, I turned the problem over and over in my head.

How do I slip away from them as naturally as possible and loot the Lord's Secret Warehouse?

I was privately working through ways to split off from the group, or to stage some kind of crisis. The dungeon difficulty was too low. Even without ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠me, if they hunted as safely as possible, the four women could clear it themselves. It would take forever, but it wasn't a hard dungeon.

Going while they slept wouldn't leave me enough time. And I couldn't just abandon a watch shift. Who knew what might happen while I was gone? If Ratmen and Slimes ambushed them while I was away, and they were too slow waking up, the whole party could be wiped out.

It was a genuinely awkward situation.

...In the end, only one method came to mind.

I pulled from my inventory the key I'd stolen from Hans, along with the map I'd grabbed because it came with it.

The Undead Lizardman.

That was the only option. The only thing I could use to stage a crisis. This dungeon didn't even have a boss.

While I was thinking, Na Seoyun had started nodding off, worn out.

"Let's get some sleep. I'll take first watch."

"Then I'll leave it to you."

Everyone was tired, so I just took first watch. First watch was easier anyway, and I didn't want to cut my thinking short. The others headed to their bedrolls without protest.

I studied the map, turning over tomorrow's clearing route and how I was going to stage a crisis.