Jason sighed and chuckled to himself when he thought back to how the first floor went. They had a bit of teamwork but then they regularly mixed in with some stupid decisions. Rarely had he seen teammates fight like this. He wished for this excursion to end as soon as possible. This trip had started off bad and had only gotten worse as they traveled deeper into the dungeon.
“Give it back,” shouted Ian his voice hoarse from the screaming.
“Nuh-uh,” said Naomi holding the first magical item of the dungeon run.
She danced around him with her agility skills in the open area of the boss room.
“I got the final shot, so it is mine,” Naomi giggled, “And guess what it helps me more with my agility.”
She slid it on her finger before doing a flip over the head of Ian. He was firing fireballs as quick as he could, but he required more time to charge up a spell and aim than she would give him. Wes stood against a wall trying to melt away to avoid the confrontation and fireballs. Derek just egged Ian on from the side but avoided entering the scuffle directly. Naomi continued to flip and twirl seemingly just to show off always as she was always missed by Ian’s hands and fireballs by inches.
James took out his bow and charged up a skill. Only Wes noticed from the side before the two fighting were caught in his trap. The arrow was timed perfectly to when Naomi did another flip. She and Ian were soon after enveloped in a net keeping both of them tied up and somewhat restrained.
“Enough! There will be no more fighting. No more bickering and if I see another trap mistakenly go off that I know shouldn’t have then we are leaving immediately. Right now, your teamwork score is at 0. Do you understand? And if these next floors go similarly then I don’t expect you to make it to floor twenty. Let alone the dream of hitting 25 today.
“Over the past ten floors, you have fought little more than enlarged animals that you should have trained against over the past year at least. Today you have only shown me that you know how to fight amongst yourself. That does not help me know you can work together. little about I can't see how you would work together to fight something bigger than yourself,” he turned to Derek first.
“Derek, while your sword is nice you have no idea how to wield it. From the stances, you have shown you were trained with either a rapier or saber, but the training has not transferred over well to your greatsword. It is slowing you down and slowing your team down when fighting enemies.
“Wes, your role is a tank, but you are cowering in the corner being one of the worst tanks I have ever seen. Why someone pushed you into the role of the tank is beyond me but if you don’t want to drag the team you have here then things need to change. As soon as a group of enemies comes activate your ‘stand your ground’ ability and do your job confidently. If you keep being so shaky then the Ogre of level 15 will throw you around like a ragdoll.”
James focused on the small amount of mana in his arrow and released it causing Naomi and Ian to tumble to the ground.
“Naomi you are smart but almost as arrogant as Ian. I have seen every time you miss a step and let your teammates take the hit because you can dodge the problem when it comes. And now your team is down three health potions and a mana potion. These were all avoidable problems and injuries and I know that you chose to ignore some of them. And now what? You have a teammate that hates you and would like to see you fail almost as much as he would like to see himself complete his other dungeon goals. If you keep missing these traps and problems then there will be a time when you miss other things unintentionally. And some of those will cause more problems than burnt fingers and toes. As for the ring, it will be kept in my bag along with anything else that drops from the monsters and future bosses we encounter. This I would hope will prevent you from fighting over shiny items like street beggars. I will make sure to return the bag of goodies you have earned at the end of the trip but there is no reason to be squabbling over it now.”
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Finally, James turned to Ian who held a smirk on his face.
“And you. Now I have had my share of smug and entitled noble children come by me over the years and I expected something great from you. I mean your brother was quite notorious before he got married off, but you are something else. I can only infer why you would think you could get to the 25th floor by yourself with this team. I am fairly certain that you could have bought a more competent novice team, but you didn’t. Regardless of that fact, you have been nothing but rude to me and to your teammates. You have also failed to cooperate with them in any significant manner. The only thing you seem to care about is the amount of damage and loss to your mana that you have sustained. Now starting with you, explain to me why we shouldn’t walk through the portal and exit right now.”
As James had explained his thoughts to Ian his face grew dourer. Finally, it had begun to sink into his thick skull at least some of the shit he had done. Still holding on to the noble way he argued offensively.
“Those are false and outrageous claims and you have no prove of what I have done. And if I did want to alter the roster of my team I would have done it properly and not half-assed as it is now. It is a matter of fact that I wished to complete the 25th floor on my first run of this dungeon. I have regularly stated that because it is one of the accomplishments my brother failed to complete. It is now a looming challenge that my father put upon us boys and if we did complete it he would grant us a wish of our choosing. I will try to avoid starting fights, but I will not tolerate mocking others or injured unnecessarily.”
James looked at him evaluating him and his statements.
“Very well.”
Next, it was Wes’s turn to plead his case.
“I know I am not great at this adventurer stuff. I mean I’ve been at this for four months and this is only my second dungeon run. I want to get better, but I also want to leave. Be with another group that doesn’t treat me like crap.”
James turned to Naomi and held out his hand. She slowly walked up to him and handed him the agility ring.
“Ian is a piece of shit. That thing is mine when we get out of here. He forced me onto his team, and I know it. As long as I don’t hear another word from him about me then I will continue for the sake of my evaluation if nothing else. I need the high scores and I won’t let him drag me down.”
“Fair enough. What about you?” James said turning to Derek.
“These dungeons are a place for us to train are they not? Well, that is what I am doing here. Maybe not much better than our skinny tank over there but I am improving. I know I will probably make some mistakes but that is why you are here. I’ll try to avoid something major, but I expect to mess up. Just give me some more time to practice. I’ve only ever fought humans with this thing and never to the death or anything like that. It is just that I know I can be much better with this than my saber. I just need time.”
“You have until floor twenty. Maybe floor 15 depending on how I am feeling. This next floor has imps and then will continue to grow in difficulty. I know I can solo floor 15 if there comes a serious problem but I would rather not waste the time and energy. If you want to make up some of the teamwork points so you get half instead of zero you will need to do a few things. First, no fuck ups on the traps. Second, stay out of others' way and communicate at the same time. Third, clear them reasonably quickly if you want to make your goal of hitting 25 but also don’t rush. I can help with a timer if you need it but at least for these next few floors, you should be able to clear them in under thirty minutes each. Finally, I don’t want you to start another fight amongst yourselves. I understand that you can have some banter but once blades face each other then we are out of here. Do you understand?”
There were small nods of agreement and faces made but the four novices all agreed to his words for now.
“Then let’s go. The monsters await on the next floor,” James said leading his group of novices toward floor 11.
After their group left the boss room for floor ten there was silence. Then there was a rumble unheard by the adventurers who had just left the area. The crack began to form along the ground and the walls which sounded like the cries of people