Into the Dungeon Gate
I stepped inside the Gate with Ah-young and Gyuri. The interior of the Gate was... a damp, musty cave. A damp cave with barely any light...
"So this is why they pack flashlights." I switched on the flashlight I had brought along, illuminating our surroundings. Then, I strapped two flashlights to Ah-young's waist to light the path ahead and mounted another one onto her helmet. "This should do, right?"
"Yes, thank you."
"And Gyuri, you should carry one too." Didn't she say she was a mage? In that case, I could just clip one near her collar and have her hold another in her hand.
"Hmm..." I decided to just hold mine in both hands. "Alright, let's go!" Gyuri cheered, while Ah-young let out a soft sigh and stepped forward.
The goblin den was a cave of moderate height and width, and its layout wasn't particularly complex. Still, there were small crevices and hollows in the cave walls where goblins could lie in ambush, so we had to be careful. Ah-young maintained a standard guard as she led the way.
After walking for about ten minutes, a pack of goblins came into view. Even if we had tried to sneak up on them, the beams from our flashlights gave us away instantly. The monsters noticed us immediately and lunged.
"Now then, show me what you've got," I said, playfully provoking Gyuri.
"Hmph! Of course I will!" she declared, immediately activating a skill.
As she cast her spell, a ripple of mana manifested in the air, and arrows made of pure magical energy materialized around her. Fire Arrow and Thunder Arrow, huh? Two highly destructive elemental attacks. Judging by the flow of her mana, they didn't seem to be part of a specialized magic tree but rather individual, standalone skills.
"Ah-young!"
"Right...!" Ah-young thrust her shield forward.
Taunt
Ignoring the threatening magic gathering nearby, the goblin pack charged straight at Ah-young as if she were their only target. Gyuri didn't miss the opening. She fired her spells, picking them off one by one. Ah-young blocked their attacks and parried with her weapon to buy time, while Gyuri seized those moments to bring the monsters down with her magic. It was a solid, textbook coordination. I watched the display from behind.
It didn't take long to clean up the eight goblins. Watching them finish, I clapped my hands. "Not bad at all." Ah-young's movements were better than I had expected. Despite wearing fairly heavy gear, she managed her distance well while blocking attacks. Meanwhile, Gyuri carefully aimed her spells, taking down the goblins without ever risking hitting Ah-young.
"How's that?!"
"Impressive." I strolled over to the goblin corpses and began extracting their mana stones. Not every goblin possessed one, and the ones that did were incredibly tiny. "At this rate, I wonder how many of these things we'll have to kill."
"That's just how goblins are." Gyuri, who had more experience, explained with a smug grin. She told me that if we went all the way to the end and defeated the boss, we would get larger mana stones. Of course, I already knew that from my own training.
"They say high-speed clearers can run this place three or four times a day."
"That sounds like it would take quite a while..." A single run of a goblin den usually took about three to four hours, though a fast party could wrap it up in under two. To run that three or four times...
"We shouldn't waste time standing around. Let's move."
"Yes, ma'am."
"By the way, we're going to pick up the pace from here on out." I decided to stop hiding my strength entirely and show a reasonable amount of it. There was no real reason to keep it under wraps anyway, and honestly, holding back was starting to feel too stifling. I immediately cast a blessing of Divine Magic on the two of them.
"This is..."
"Just a simple buff."
"A-A buff?!" Didn't everyone know about buff skills? Why were they reacting like this? "A-A buff skill is at least B-Class..." Is it really that rare? "Stop exaggerating." The two of them checked their own bodies after receiving the buff, looking utterly astounded.
"It's so much easier to move my body!"
"Well, that's what a buff does." The buff I gave Gyuri amplified the power of her magic. "My magic is this strong?!" Since it was a skill, I hadn't been sure how it would manifest, but since she used mana just like standard magic, the effect applied perfectly under the same category. Both of them looked completely flabbergasted.
"Um... Miss Nix? Are you not just a simple healer?" True, I had never mentioned anything about buffs to them. I smirked playfully. "A beautiful woman is entitled to a secret or two, isn't she?" I teased, but the two of them blushed and quickly looked away. Did that actually work...?
Walking ahead, the two of them whispered to each other, trying to keep me from hearing. Too bad my hearing was sharp enough to catch every word.
"Hey, who on earth did you bring with you? And what was with that seductive smile...?" "I-I don't know either..." "A healer with buff skills is at least B-Class, you know..." "I told you, I don't know!" "With a buff of this caliber, couldn't she even be A-Class?" "How should I know? I'm only E-Class." "W-Well, I'm only a D-Class!" Watching them bicker back and forth was so adorable. It made me want to tease them even more. They'd probably lose their minds if I actually showed my real strength... But that felt like bullying, so I decided to just watch for now. I'd only step in if something went wrong.
After buffing them, I kept a close eye on their performance. Ah-young was surprisingly solid, but as time passed, the physical stamina limitations of her body began to show, while Gyuri struggled with mana management. Even though low-tier arrow spells were relatively cheap to cast, the sheer frequency of her casting meant her mana drained rapidly. It would have been better if she had a high-powered spell that could clear multiple goblins at once, but the arrow spells were too weak, forcing her to diligently take down the monsters one by one. To make matters worse, she couldn't always finish them off with a single shot, which only increased her consumption. If not for my buff, they would have had to slow down their clearing pace significantly. On top of that, the constant tension was starting to wear down their concentration.
"Hmm..." I noticed a small crevice in the corner of the cave just now. It was likely an ambush spot for the goblins. However, Ah-young and Gyuri seemed to have missed it. To be sure, I cast Life Detection and confirmed five presences. What should I do? Up until now, they hadn't missed a single one, preemptively attacking and clearing them out. But they missed this one. I could tell them and order them to handle it. Or... I could just leave it be. Getting ambushed sounded like it could be quite entertaining. Even if they got ambushed, I could easily help them, and any injuries could be healed instantly. Besides, I was curious to see how they would react when caught off guard. I grinned slyly, maintaining my relaxed facade. About a minute later, the goblins launched a surprise attack from behind. There were only five of them, not a massive threat, but...
"An ambush?!" "Huh?" Since they had approached silently and opened with a ranged volley, it was actually quite a dangerous situation. A poisoned dart shot by a goblin flew straight toward me... only to bounce off my tough skin. Even so... "Ugh!" I pretended to be hit.
"Miss Nix!" Ah-young cried out in shock, leaping in front of me to taunt the goblins. Gyuri was flustered but quickly regained her composure and readied her magic. Since there were only five of them, the skirmish was over in an instant.
"Are you alright?"
"Yes, I've already healed myself, so don't worry." I hadn't actually been hurt, but it was better to say this.
"We're so sorry..." I smiled warmly.
"It's fine. Anyone can make a mistake."
"We will be more careful." The two of them bowed their heads in apology. Their earnest, upright behavior made me feel like a total jerk for playing a prank on them. I shouldn't do this next time...
We continued our slow, steady progress, and after about four hours, the boss room finally came into view. "So this is..." It had taken us a bit longer than a typical party. Gyuri needed time to recover her mana, and our small party size naturally slowed down our clearing speed.
"Let's have a quick snack." Ah-young suggested taking a break, pulling out some rations she had packed in her bag. Simple bread and canned drinks... I like this kind of stuff! After wolfing down the food, we discussed our strategy for the boss room. It wasn't much different from our usual approach, but...
"They say there are two possible types of bosses." Information about goblin dens was already widely available. The boss room would contain the boss and its minions. One possible boss was a Hobgoblin, which was a rare boss. Despite being a goblin, it was a high-tier species with a build and physical capabilities similar to an Orc. It also possessed leadership abilities, making it quite tricky to deal with. It was a completely different lineage of high-tier monster compared to a Goblin Chieftain or Lord, which made it annoying, but being a rare boss meant its mana stone would be quite large. The other possibility was a standard Goblin Shaman, which used simple hexes and black magic, requiring a counter-magic strategy. The minions were just about twenty standard Goblin Warriors. The only real issue was their numbers and how they synergized with the Shaman. Honestly, it was nothing special. Of course, that was only by my standards...
"So, Ah-young, you're going to taunt the minions and kite them around?"
"Yes. While I do that, I'd like you and Gyuri to focus on taking down the boss first, Miss Nix." Instead of wasting time on the lackeys and letting the boss coordinate them, she wanted to split our forces and handle them separately.
"But what if the boss calls the minions?"
"Once they're under the effect of my Taunt skill, they won't listen to his commands." Oh? Honestly, I had learned about the mechanical effects of Taunt skills at the Academy, but since it was a technique I had never seen in the Other World, I hadn't been too familiar with it. So it actually had an effect like that? Well, I suppose that's why it's called a taunt.
"Got it." I lightly swung a crude goblin weapon I had picked up on our way here.
"Are... are you really going to stand on the front line?" Gyuri asked hesitantly.
"With my buffs, I should be able to hold them off for a bit." Honestly, I could wipe them all out by myself, but...
"Here we go." Ah-young pushed the door to the boss room, and it slowly creaked open. Creeeeak... Inside, we saw... "Not the rare one, I guess." It was a Goblin Shaman. A bit disappointing, but...
Ah-young immediately dashed in, using her Taunt skill to draw the warriors away from the Shaman, while Gyuri and I headed in the opposite direction. The Goblin Shaman seemed flustered as its warriors ignored its commands. Gyuri and I didn't miss the opening and launched our assault. I lunged forward first, whacking the goblin right on its noggin. I held back just enough to keep from crushing its skull.
"Kieeeek!" The Shaman shrieked, opening its filthy mouth as it swung its staff. I lightly dodged the swing and stepped aside, clearing the way for Gyuri to fire her prepared spells—Fire Arrow and Thunder Arrow. The Goblin Shaman gasped and tried to cast a defensive spell to block them. Its reaction time was surprisingly fast... However... it couldn't block Gyuri's magic.
"It worked!" Gyuri's magic, amplified by my blessing, was not something a mere Goblin Shaman could block. Gyuri kept firing her spells, quickly finishing off the Shaman. Meanwhile, I kept watch around her, making sure no other monsters crept up. Once Gyuri finished off the Shaman, we immediately went to help Ah-young, who was busy running around with the Goblin Warriors in tow. Ah-young looked completely out of breath, but she was running with everything she had. Once Gyuri and I joined the fray, the remaining monsters were cleared out in no time. I blocked a few goblins that tried to approach Gyuri, and as soon as Ah-young caught her breath, she launched a counterattack. And just like that, the boss room was cleared.
"We did it...!" Ah-young looked absolutely thrilled. It made sense, considering it was her first clear. As for me... it was moderately fun. Once we gathered the mana stones, a small portal appeared in the center of the boss room. "Is this the exit?"
"Yes. Um, thank you for your hard work."
"I barely did anything besides tag along, though." I smiled softly, but Ah-young frantically waved her hands in denial.
"It would have been so much harder without your buffs, Miss Nix."
"I wonder." Honestly, if they had brought someone else instead of me, it probably would have been much easier. I had heard that other healers didn't just stand around doing nothing like I did. Although I had provided buffs, I barely participated in the actual combat. If they had recruited a more dedicated healer, their run would have been much smoother. By the time we stepped outside, a significant amount of time had passed.
"Shall we go for another round?"
"Are you sure you're up for it?" Since we had plenty of time...
"Yeah. But this time, I think I'll do a bit of fighting myself." Moving around earlier had been surprisingly fun. This time, I was going to beat some goblins to a pulp myself.