I'll Take the Last Hit (1)

"I'll cover the rear, so don't worry about anything else and just swing that sword!"

"You got it!"

At Shin Jaeha's order, the swordsman laid into them with a will, blade singing. This was already the eighth room. A ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠dungeon only gets meaner the deeper you go, and a party that had been wheezing by the fourth ought to have been face-down on the stone by now.

"The ghouls are shoving forward too hard. That's an extra spawn coming. Watch yourselves."

"Mage, concentrate your fire on the right! Supporter, Strength buff on me, please!"

"Big one's coming! When I signal, everybody jumps!"

If anything, the clear only picked up speed. Instruments that had been sawing away in their own keys, all discord, were locking into harmony and making something worth hearing.

"Khaha! Nothing to worry about. I could get used to this!"

"This side's clear!"

The creaking pieces of the roster found the beat, and synergy started to take. Everyone felt it. The cause was obvious.

A Level 6 Warrior.

Shin Jaeha's direction, near enough to perfect.

On the far side of Taeya's stream, the people watching had no choice but to stare. The first time or two, they had laughed it off. Lucky. Or he'd seen it somewhere and was good at the imitation. But three times, four, five, stacked and stacked again, and there was nothing left but to admit it.

That a Level 6 volunteering to lead had not been empty stubbornness. And the person in that room who knew Shin Jaeha's real skill better than anyone was none other than—

He's insane… yeah…

Taeya. He skimmed the climbing chat and reeled, quietly.

Who the hell is that hyung-nim?!

Just as the rumors said, he had a love call from Eclipse, a Tier 1 KPL team, and the talks were going well enough. Along the way he had actually met the famous players over there and the head coach, traded a few conversations, even taken notes on his own play. None of them had been like this. Fine eyes, all of them. Shin Jaeha sat on another track entirely. A sense that the man saw through every last part of you, and at the same time that not one detail of the battlefield was getting past him.

"Three ghouls setting an ambush on the left! Intercept them with your daggers!"

You moved as he said. You acted. And then—

Pap-pap-pak!

"Kyaaek!"

"Khk!"

"Kegegegek…!"

The best possible result. Every time.

"……."

He didn't want to admit it. He really, wretchedly didn't want to admit it.

I'm waiting for the orders.

Shin Jaeha was better than him. Maybe better than anyone in the KPL.

I checked that the number had ticked up again, then let the strength out of my shoulders.

"Good work."

I worked the stiffness out of my arms and gave a small nod. Honestly, I still wasn't satisfied.

Better than the start, though.

At least it was cooperation now. A team is not supposed to come out to ten plus ten plus ten equals thirty.

Forty at the low end. On average, you ought to be seeing sixty.

Otherwise there is no reason to bind yourselves together and fight as one. Before I took the baton, this team had been a twenty-five. In a word, the worst state there is: eating one another's strength.

Easy mistake to make. What was hard alone starts to feel easy the moment other people are standing next to you.

But that is only because a solo ten became a twenty-five. Look at the whole, and total power has gone down. That is why you need a good coach, or a good leader. Someone in the middle, drawing the plan so the members can actually help each other, handing out positions. A signpost they can trust and walk toward. Pro teams do not pay serious money for coaches out of charity.

"What, it's over already?"

The swordsman smacked his lips. Stuck tanking out front until someone finally let him deal damage, he had been flying. These days, show him a ghoul and he was the first one in, sword already moving.

"Nice work!"

The mage laughed, bright about it. Her mana must have come back a fair way. Color in her face again, hands gone still. She was an Archer position, so all the running had left sweat on her brow, but that was nothing beside mana collapse.

"Good work."

The supporter was… expressionless. Same as ever. Somehow she had worn that exact face since the moment we stepped into the Underground Prison.

And this woman… I know that face from somewhere.

The déjà vu flickered and went. Nothing came to mind, so I let it pass.

"The eighth room already. I can't believe it!"

"That's what I'm saying. Not a scratch on us since the fifth! Khahaha!"

The two of them chattered on, then clamped their mouths shut at the same instant. Both looks swung to one person.

"……."

Taeya. Former leader, now, back from collecting the daggers he had thrown.

"Well, well. Fast. Real fast. Keep this up and I won't have any face left."

"Wouldn't going easy on us have cost you more?"

"Haha! That too!"

He let a smile slip. Half his face was hidden, and reading him was difficult.

"So… time to choose."

With that, each of us had led and cleared four rooms. All that remained was the vote.

On raw skill, I'm obviously ahead.

People do not sort themselves out that neatly. If the ones who worked well got promoted and the good ones were paid back honestly, the world would have no quarrels in it.

Prove it with skill all you like. I'm a Level 6 Warrior with nothing to my name, and he's a famous streamer with a Tier 1 contract rumor hanging off him.

Choose between a capable new hire and the company president's grandchild. I left the rest to their consciences and was drawing a breath when—

"But I get a say too, right?"

Taeya's hand went up out of nowhere.

"I have a vote, yeah?"

"…Pardon?"

"You said the team members would vote. I'm a team member. If it's going to be fair, I ought to have a vote!"

Sudden enough to throw me. A candidate does have the right to vote, true. Nine times out of ten they vote for themselves, and it means nothing.

"Then I'll go first."

While the rest of them were only watching one another, the first ballot came from him.

"One vote for Jaeha Hyung-nim!"

And not for himself. For me.

"T-Taeya?!"

"Honestly, if I picked me here, that'd be shameless, right? I can tell, objectively, who did the better job."

Taeya shook his head and shrugged.

"I lost, Hyung-nim."

A clean concession. A laugh got out of me before I noticed.

"I also think it would be better if Player Shin Jaeha took the lead."

Next, unexpectedly, was the supporter. She held me in a steady, clear look.

"That skill… I'd like to see a little more of it."

So she could talk at that length. I blinked, privately surprised, and two more votes landed at once.

"Th-then me too…!"

"One vote for the Level 6 gentleman."

Which left me.

"Then I'll vote for myself."

Of course I did.

"Unanimous!"

"Krgh— if I'd known it'd go like this, I never would've promised all the clear gear…"

And so an absurd combination was born. A party averaging past Level 20, led by a Level 6.

"Thank you for trusting me."

I let out a short breath of a laugh and set the bat on my shoulder.

"Then, as promised. I'll take responsibility and clear it."

Thinking of the reward waiting at the end of this run, I could already feel myself drooling like a waterfall.

· · ·

· · ·

Once I properly held a leader's authority, we drove straight ahead without a snag.

People avoid the Underground Prison because the patterns are filthy and the place is nothing but traps.

Know nearly everything about a dungeon, the way I did, and it turns easier than the rest. Same idea as a five-year-old solving a hard sheet with the answer key open beside them, copying it across.

"This trap needs the whole team moving at once. One mistake and monsters pour in from every side, so be careful."

"Don't touch that chest. Open it and the trap goes off. The clear condition is to smash it."

"Here… just stick behind me and follow. Step on any other platform ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠and it's over, so keep your heads on."

Every trap pattern along the way already had its answer sheet in my head. They were nothing but stretches to catch our breath. We pushed on, and at the end of it—

Twenty ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠rooms, cleared at last.

"Twenty… this isn't a dream, right…?"

"My record was nine…!"

The swordsman and the mage stamped their feet, faces soaked through with feeling. From the outside, you would have thought the dungeon was already clear.

"The boss fight hasn't even started. Put the early celebration away."

Right now, a guide for the Underground Prison still isn't common knowledge, so simply arriving here counts as a feat. Later, once people only have to study the method, almost anyone will get this far.

And still, the reason they kept calling the Underground Prison vicious.

Because this damn boss is disgustingly hard.

"A boss fight… think we'll be all right, Hyung-nim?"

"All right how?"

"I've actually seen it on a stream. The Underground Prison boss fight. An American pro team streamed it, saying they were the first to reach it."

Taeya scratched his head.

"The way we are now, I don't think we can punch through that monstrous defense."

"Ah! I saw that too."

"So did I. It was noisy for ages."

Thinking back, I was fairly sure I had watched that livestream myself, before the regression. I remembered it as the broadcast that had advertised, far and wide, just how difficult the Underground Prison's boss fight was.

Too many things to track, and the boss's defense is out of its mind.

The known method, for now, was to cram your damage into a single point and force something through. Do anything else and attacks basically do not land.

"Will we be enough, Hyung-nim?"

"No?"

"…What?"

"Of course we aren't. The only one of our classes who can put out real burst is the mage, and her mana pool makes it effectively impossible. We cannot break that defense."

"Uh… uhhh…"

At the blunt confession, every pair of eyes shook at once, as if the ground had moved.

"Which is why you'll need to do exactly what I tell you, and do it well."

Obviously. Cramming attacks in and brute-forcing a defense is not the standard clear.

From here on, what I meant to do was the orthodox clear for the Underground Prison, 131st Floor. The way to beat this dungeon's boss.