Week 11 Strategy Battle (2)

Krrrumble.

No sooner had we entered the dungeon than thunder came rolling across the sky. I tilted my head back to find it blanketed in storm clouds, pitch-black as far as the eye could see, with electric currents threading between them at a frequency so relentless it bordered on excessive. It looked ready to rain down bolts of lightning at any moment.

Dropping my gaze to survey our surroundings, I found we were standing in the middle of a ravine—not especially wide, with steep cliffs rising sharply on either side. And close by, a lone goddess statue stood in solitary silence.

I pointed at it and spoke to Seo Ye-in.

"We're going to protect this. Confirm?"

"Confirmed."

In an above-ground dungeon, it would have courteously waited until we finished preparing, then kicked things off with a countdown. But the underground floors extend no such courtesy. The battle had effectively begun the moment we set foot inside. Enemies would come swarming before long, and there was no time to hesitate.

First things first—the replay.

Earning strategy battle points on the underground floors hinged on saving a replay, so I fished out my replay crystal and fed mana into it. The crystal hummed to life, and fragmentary information floated up.

Next, I summoned this week's sub quest and gave it a once-over.

"Performance" in this strategy battle factored in not just the statue's remaining HP, but the average HP between Seo Ye-in and me as well—how well we weathered a hostile environment was part of the grading, after all. And the benchmark for maximum sub quest achievement was—

Everything at 100%.

Only by finishing with a perfect game could we claim the finest reward. The catch was that this place, as its name made abundantly clear, was a lightning-attribute hostile environment dungeon—a place where a mere graze could shave off a full 1%. Lightning was harder to evade than flame, which made grazing all the more likely.

So why, passing over every other dungeon, had I gone out of my way to choose this one?

Because if a graze doesn't shave anything off, it's not a problem.

I cast Bestow on Seo Ye-in.

At F rank, Bestow had stripped three stages off any skill it passed along, but now that it had reached D rank, the penalty had eased to two. Two stages was still a hefty drop, mind you—not that it mattered when the original was S-rank. Even two stages down, it was a full-blown B-rank. And with ten minutes of duration, there was more than enough time to clear the dungeon.

"...?"

Seo Ye-in stared at the empty air. No doubt notification messages had surfaced before her eyes—trait acquired, time remaining, and the like. Before long her gaze traveled back to me, and I spoke in a tone of unmitigated arrogance.

"Do you feel the power?"

"Power strong."

I thrust out a hand and pointed to the far end of the ravine.

"Go forth, and show them your power."

"I'll punish them."

Seo Ye-in hefted her magic guns and marched briskly off. As befitted an F-rank dungeon, there was no elaborate storyline to speak of: protect the goddess statue from the enemies swarming in from either end of the ravine, and that was the whole of it. No sooner had the thought crossed my mind than the enemies revealed themselves—great spheres of condensed electricity, drifting toward us through the air.

Lightning spirits.

Spirits composed of pure lightning, exactly as the name implied. They had two attack patterns: anything that strayed within a certain range got zapped with electric currents, and if it pressed closer still, they detonated themselves in an explosion of current. True to their spirit nature, their magic resistance ran fairly high, making it difficult to deal meaningful damage with spells. The best counter was to apply a solid dose of impact—raw physical force.

And that, too, was among the reasons I'd picked this dungeon. When it comes to physical force, there's Wind Force.

Whooooosh— Wind gathered and spun up into a massive vortex. The oncoming spirits were dragged toward its heart, tangling together and crackling against one another before erupting in a chain of explosions.

BOOM-BOOM-BOOM! The fate of those following behind was no different—they were sucked into the whirlwind and burst, one after another. A total cakewalk. So long as I kept chaining Wind Force into Twister, this side of the defense was as good as sealed. All that remained was seeing how smoothly Seo Ye-in held the opposite end.

Ratatatatat! Her assault rifle spewed blue fire in wild bursts. It looked like indiscriminate spraying, yet every ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠single magic bullet struck a lightning spirit dead-on. The bullets thudded home, the spirits shuddered violently in place, and then they simply blew apart.

BOOM-BOOM-BOOM!

Seo Ye-in dropped every lightning spirit the instant it appeared. I watched her work for a while, then lifted my eyes to the sky. About time for them to start falling.

This was the decisive reason the dungeon bore the name Thunderbolt Ravine: the lightning spirits' final trait. When they exploded, they scattered faint static in every direction, and as that static accumulated, it began to function as a sort of lightning rod—calling the lightning down. And as luck would have it, the sky was thick with storm clouds.

Crackle-crackle-crackle! Sparks suddenly ran wild through the empty air, and the next instant a bolt of lightning came crashing down and slammed into the ground. It had struck bare, empty ground, so the current—robbed of anywhere to go—spread wide across the floor.

"...!"

Seo Ye-in threw herself backward at once, but the current spread faster still, swarming up her legs and delivering jolt after jolt.

Zap!

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠

"...?"

But nothing that feeble could punch through B-rank Elemental Resistance. Even a bolt striking her square on the crown of her head would have been touch-and-go. Seo Ye-in cocked her head, then turned around to look back at me. I gave a small tilt of the chin.

"Power strong."

"Power strong."

Crackle-crack! ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Sparks burst in the air yet again. Having learned firsthand that lightning was about to fall there, Seo Ye-in put distance between herself and the spot well in advance. A bolt came down; then sparks flared in two more places, and she retreated from those too. Even as her feet never stopped moving, she kept up a ceaseless stream of fire from her assault rifle, mowing down lightning spirits.

Ratatatatat!

The remains the spirits scattered piled ever higher and spread ever wider, and with every bit of ground they claimed, the bolts fell more frequently. Lightning that had come one or two at a time now crashed down in ropes of three and four.

KRAKA-BOOM!

Seo Ye-in reacted quickly and kept her feet moving, but the bolts were simply too numerous, and each one that struck the ground sent current fanning out over a wide area at frightening speed. Taking a shock now and then was simply unavoidable.

Even so, her HP held stubborn at 100%, thanks to Elemental Resistance earning its keep. Still, being electrocuted was apparently no picnic, because Seo Ye-in was striving hard to take one fewer bolt wherever she could.

"!"

Then, as if seized by a sudden realization, an exclamation point all but materialized above her head. She fiddled with her bracelet, and a cumulus cloud the size of a fist popped into existence. Crackle-crackle-crackle! The cloud zipped toward the sparking spot and gulped it down in one swallow—and the bolt that should have fallen never did.

That's it.

The clouds of the Cumulus Cloud Bracelet carried a magic-nullifying effect. Defending against the bolt itself might be beyond them, but swallowing a lightning rod? Easy. From where I stood, I'd been hoping she'd arrive at that realization on her own, so I'd held my tongue and simply watched—and sure enough, she caught on in no time and was already putting it to use. The cumulus cloud bustled about, gulping down lightning rods one after another, and thanks to that, Seo Ye-in finally had room to breathe.

Holding my Twister steady, I sent a cheer her way.

"Keep it up just like that. We're almost there."

"Confirmed."

Seo Ye-in leveled her muzzle at the enemies ahead.

Ratatatat!

The lightning spirits ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠that had come teeming in from every direction had vanished without a trace. The sky, once pitch-black beneath its heavy blanket of clouds, slowly cleared, and pale light broke through. Bright sunshine poured down on the goddess statue like a spotlight.

And naturally, the HP of the statue and of the two of us—

A perfect game, from start to finish.

Seo Ye-in trudged over to me.

"Punished them."

"Good work again. High five."

We raised our hands to slap them together, but—zap!—static crackled between our palms, and we pulled them right back apart. Perhaps from taking so many bolts, Seo Ye-in had been transformed into a static-charged sloth.

I hummed in thought for a few seconds. Hmm. Then I lifted Root and held it above her head. Her gray hair drifted up on the static and clung to the rod.

"..."

Seo Ye-in slowly raised her head and looked up. She reached out a hand as if to shoo it away, but I dodged this way and that—until it seemed a pot shot might come sailing my way, at which point I decided to quit while I was ahead.

Turning my gaze to the base of the goddess statue, I found a small box sitting there all alone.

One lone F-rank box. The dungeon's level was low, so there was nothing to be done about it. I asked Seo Ye-in.

"Want to open it?"

"Yeah."

I still had the sub quest reward coming to me, after all. Besides, I'd be leaning on my lucky charm for the random boxes dropping in the other underground dungeons anyway—surely I could afford to graciously hand over one measly F-rank box.

"..."

Seo Ye-in scooped up the random box and stared down at it in silence for a moment, then flipped the lid open as if it were nothing.

Flash!

And in the next instant, she was holding not a box but a single sheet of parchment marked with a question mark.

"Not bad."

Even if it was only one sheet, it was a rather fine pull for an item out of an F-rank dungeon.

"..."

Seo Ye-in studied the Random Rank-Up for a long moment, then sent a questioning look my way. It seemed to ask whether she could use it now, so I nodded without hesitation.

"Yeah, go ahead."

Random Rank-Up. An item that randomly designated one skill or trait in the user's possession and, with a certain probability, raised its rank. You had to beat the odds twice over, and luck-related bonuses had no influence on it whatsoever. Of the Random Rank-Ups I'd obtained at the downtown game center, only one out of three had actually connected, bumping Inferno Fist's rank—miraculous, looking back.

In other words—

Even a lucky charm can't clear this one.

Deep down, I found myself hoping Seo Ye-in would fail this time. For the sake of her emotional maturity, shouldn't even a lucky charm taste the bitterness of failure once in a while? Like Shin Byung-cheol, collector of wooden cups.

Whether she had any inkling of what I was thinking or not, Seo Ye-in used the Random Rank-Up with a perfectly blank face.

Flash! The parchment slowly brightened, and then—FWOOSH—!—a wash of light seeped into Seo Ye-in's body.

She actually pulled it off.

She'd raised a rank with a single scroll. Apparently the bitterness of failure—and with it, emotional maturity—would have to be postponed for another day. Still, Seo Ye-in's stats climbing was cause for celebration.

"What went up?"

"Bullet Time."

"D to C?"

"Yeah."

I blinked twice.

"What the—why do you keep cheating?"

[205] The Support Ate It All