Into the Dungeon (2)
Enter the dungeon?
Works for me!
This was perfect. Everyone had worked hard, so if I just said we'd go in with Carl from here on out...
"Our party will be the people gathered here. Myself, Carl, Ferbi, and the Young Lady. Four of us is the ideal size for a dungeon."
Uh. That's a bit of a problem.
That bald knight over there, fine, whatever — but Forsell, there's no shaking you off even if I wanted to.
Not that I'd be allowed to wander off on my own anyway.
'So...'
"Do we really need that many people?"
"It's standard practice to enter a dungeon as a team of four, my lady."
I know that.
Even in Soul Academy, I'd gone in with NPC parties of four.
But that only applies to dungeons at the appropriate level, doesn't it?
Overkill. It's called overkill.
Evans Dungeon was a small-to-medium dungeon meant to be cleared in the early game.
It was weak enough that Carl alone could raze the place to the ground.
Now drop Forsell — stronger than Carl — plus Ferbi the Bald Knight, who's roughly on Carl's level, into a place like that.
That wouldn't be training. That would be me sightseeing a massacre.
When I grumbled out roughly that complaint, Forsell let out a chuckle and added something else.
"Don't worry, my lady. It's not as if we'll only be entering the dungeon once, after all. You'll be coming back so often you'll be sick of it — so for now, just treat this first run as a taste of the experience."
I was just starting to relax at the news that this wasn't a one-time thing when a chill crept up my spine.
Sick of it? How many times exactly were you planning to drag me back and forth through this dungeon?
Evans Dungeon is not a good farming spot!
The layout is convoluted, the monster drops are garbage — once you've farmed Ruel's blunt weapon, there's zero reason to come back!
And you want me to grind here, of all places?!
As a hardened veteran, I simply cannot allow it!
Not that I could say any of that out loud.
You can't go talking about farming and drop rates and grinding to people who think they're living real life.
My image with the knights had actually improved a little lately, and I had no desire to be written off as a lunatic again.
So I said nothing and gave a quiet little nod.
Well. A dungeon was a dungeon, regardless.
Might as well get some levels in.
The moment we crossed the dungeon's entrance, the scenery changed.
The bright meadow swaying in the autumn breeze was gone, swallowed by a darkness so thick it was hard to see a hand's length ahead. Only after one of the knights lit a torch did the gloomy, oppressive face of the cavern come into view.
Maybe it was because I'd stared at dungeons through a monitor screen so many times, but even standing inside a real one, I felt no sense of wonder.
All I felt was a familiarity that had long since curdled into boredom.
"Now then, my lady. We'll take the front and rear, so you stay in the center and take in the dungeon."
Right up until they entered the dungeon, Forsell and the knights had been trading idle banter. But the instant they stepped inside, they changed like different men, their expressions turning grave.
Watching those earnest faces, so determined not to let their guard slip for even a second, was honestly a little awkward.
Couldn't you people clear this dungeon with your feet?
Did you really need to be this tense?
...Ah. Is it because I'm here?
'Commander, do you know the way?'
"Do you know the way, idiot Forsell?"
"Not precisely yet, but we'll find out shortly. Remember this, my lady. Even the same dungeon can have dozens of different layouts. Even if you've cleared a dungeon before, you must never place blind faith in your memory of it."
I know.
After all, I'm the one who wrote full strategy guides for every dungeon in Soul Academy.
Back then I'd written them hoping to rope in a few more newbies to that trash game — who'd have thought that experience would ever come in handy?
"Evans Dungeon has nine route patterns in total. The way to tell them apart is—"
Wrong.
A few of the routes look deceptively similar at a glance, easy to confuse — but by strict count, there are twelve patterns.
Two of those have higher difficulty than the rest, but they pay out far better rewards.
And from what I can see, this run has already landed us on one of the high-difficulty patterns?
"The monsters here are mostly goblin-types. Still, never underestimate them. In numbers, they're absolutely vicious."
That much was true.
Strange things do pop up now and then, but goblins are the backbone of Evans Dungeon.
Dungeon goblins are a far cry from the ones on the surface — they're genuinely dangerous.
Individually, each one deserves to be called the weakest monster there is, but once they form packs, the story changes.
Goblins knew how to hunt as a swarm, and they were merciful souls, generously offering clueless newbies the chance to demand a refund on their purchases.
"Since this is your first time, my lady, just treat it as a chance to watch and learn. Follow along."
'Got it.'
"Okay."
Hmm. Given how things were, I'd have to give up on the Trial of Ruel today.
With Forsell around, improvising was out of the question, and with a high-difficulty map in play, any number of variables could pop up.
I'd content myself with quietly getting the dungeon experience.
After all, I needed to check how different the real dungeon was from the one in my memory anyway.
Watching the knights clear the dungeon, one might sooner have called them butchers than explorers.
When a goblin appeared, they split it clean in half along with its armor.
When a goblin set a trap, they simply smashed straight through it with their bodies.
Arrows and spells were brushed aside as though they weren't worth the trouble of dodging.
It was brute-force breakthrough, powered purely by raw specs.
The knights did lecture me on the fundamentals of dungeon clearing as they went, but coming from men who flagrantly ignored every one of those fundamentals themselves, it didn't carry much weight.
Teachers, I'm hardly an expert on pedagogy, but I'm fairly sure this is not how you teach!
'Commander...'
"Idiot Forsell. How is this training if you're just smashing everything to pieces?"
This time I genuinely wanted to know.
If you break through by demolishing everything in your path, does that actually count as training?
At this rate, wouldn't you all get more out of just sparring with each other back at the knight order?
Your levels are disgustingly high anyway — the exp here wouldn't even register.
"We only do this because we're still on the first floor. The dungeon is weak compared to our level, so we simply skip through floors one and two."
Evans Dungeon does get harder from the third floor on, but is there really much difference between this and that?
Well, I suppose it makes sense if this is just how you always operate.
"Commander, since we're already at it, how about we let the Young Lady try her hand at clearing it herself?"
While I was still talking with Forsell, Carl stepped in with a proposal.
"Clearing the first and second floors, you mean?"
"Yes. Nothing beats firsthand experience, isn't that right? With us standing by, she'll be in no danger. I believe this is the perfect opportunity."
"Hmm. True enough. A fine suggestion for once. My Lady — what say you?"
Oh. So you're telling me to take command of clearing floors one and two?
Haha. Aren't you asking for far too little?
Do you have any idea how many times I've cleared Evans Dungeon?
I came here and wrecked the place every time I leveled a blunt-weapon build — the count would blow past a thousand with ease.
'Sure. Let's do that.'
"Good. I'll be commanding, then. Follow me, you deadweights."
"Rusty trap on the right. Don't bother stepping over it — just blast it away."
"Take that corner and you'll find four dumb, smelly goblins who have no idea they've been spotted. Idiot Forsell — charge in like a beast and smash them."
"Baldy. There's a bunch of perverts trying to flank us from behind. Deal with them."
Lucy, at the helm of the dungeon dive, was a commander in complete command of her craft.
Not once did she err — she always found the correct path,
never once stumbled over a trap she'd failed to spot,
and didn't let a single monster ambush or flanking maneuver slip past her.
That wasn't mere detection. It bordered on prediction — on prophecy.
At first, the knights didn't quite trust Lucy's command.
There was no way a girl on her first dungeon dive could lead properly, after all.
Naturally, they assumed she would stumble, fail, and fail again — that was just how it went for beginners.
That was why Carl had proposed she take command in the first place: fully prepared for her to fail.
Where else would you find the chance to fail in complete safety and then be taught better by seasoned experts?
The knights had fully intended to sacrifice their own comfort for the sake of Lucy's growth.
And so, when Lucy's first orders landed true, they chalked it up to beginner's luck.
Good fortune, they thought. A wild guess that happened to hit.
But then it happened a second time. A third. Success upon success, stacked without end.
That was no luck.
No amount of good fortune could let someone pick the one correct answer from a field of options, over and over.
One success might be chance — but when it kept happening, it became certainty.
In other words, sustained success was, unmistakably, Lucy's skill.
"Hey, Carl. Does the Young Lady happen to have some dungeon-related blessing?"
Ferbi — the man Lucy called the Bald Knight — marveled silently every single time one of her orders came down.
Command this sharp and unerring was something only a rare handful among veteran knights could produce.
And the Young Lady was displaying it on her very first dungeon dive!
No ordinary word could explain it.
Nothing short of a blessing — a miracle handed down by the gods themselves — could account for it.
"Could be."
Carl agreed with Ferbi.
Bearing two blessings at once was extraordinarily rare — but if that wasn't the answer, there was simply no making sense of the situation.
If the Young Lady truly possessed two blessings, she might become a hero whose name would be written into history.
After all, among the countless famous heroes of the past, how many bore more than one blessing?
So it was, about the time Lucy took command and chewed through half of the first floor, that Forsell spoke up.
"My Lady."
"What is it, idiot Forsell?"
"Would you care to try your hand at combat as well, not just command?"
"You want me to fight myself?"
"Yes. At first I assumed simply taking in the dungeon's flow would be plenty for you — but frankly, you've exceeded all expectations. The talent you've shown may well surpass my own."
"Idiot Forsell. Isn't that just because you're so pathetic?"
The needle-strike made Forsell stiffen for an instant — and then he broke into a soft laugh.
Compared to the talent Lucy had just displayed, he truly was nothing.
"Then let us move on to the advanced stages. I shall arrange a battle suited to your level, my Lady."
On the surface, Forsell looked like a thoughtless, jovial-born warrior — but the truth was otherwise.
He was a seasoned commander second to none.
A middle-aged man who had survived countless dungeons and battlefields over long decades was not a presence to be taken lightly on this continent.
Precisely because of that, he never let a newcomer experience real combat on their first dungeon dive.
Until one adapted to the claustrophobia and fear a dungeon inflicted, one could not draw out one's true strength.
But Lucy was the exception. Fully adjusted to the dungeon in under an hour, she was even now more than capable of holding her own.
"Go build your experience against the goblins."
And so Forsell resolved to give Lucy her first taste of battle.