“Alright everybody calm down, ok? No, this is not unique, yes that means that there are monsters like this roaming outside, no, I do not know if there are any other dungeons with monsters like this. We will have to wait for a group of escorts to come to keep you squishy low leveled people alive. But that will take time, so buckle up. The guild was barely able to send us a few extra hands when they noticed something was wrong on their own. My guess would be that yes, there are more dungeons like this. No, I do not know anything more than this. End of questions.” Said the instructor, not actually letting people ask the questions.
After the announcement the instructor went back to what they were doing, which was resting up from their rotation. Now that the group was bigger they were able to stay off rotation permanently. This left them to watch to make sure that they weren’t overrun by anything untoward.
And so time passed and the instructors brought more and more people back. The final tally was 98 total with 1 severely wounded that would need to have their wounds professionally treated. These were the first real casualties of the class so everybody was somber, no, no this class was not safe.
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Micky would often stay on rotation for hours, support like him just stayed on to supply buffs, though he would occasionally take the time to wack a few monsters. The healers simply mopped around until needed. Hopefully keeping the target on the frontlines but often not getting to them in time till they had to be pulled back. Battle healing was more art then practice.
They didn’t actually have the supplies to camp, though the instructors just so happened to have the stones needed to camp in a dungeon. These stones were spread around a room to stabilize it, preventing the dungeons powers from effecting the room. Nobody actually knows what a dungeons powers were or how the stones worked. So people often said it was a trap by dungeons themselves, or the stones were a good luck charm. But [Arcane Mage]s assured people the stones did things to the aether and thus mana.
So the students just milled about, eating whatever stashed food they might have had, and fighting over that food as well. Micky had a small stash he was willing to share with Prin and Squishy, but nobody else. However he had to be sneaky about it, it was easy enough to bully a support out of their food, let alone a [Pink Mage]. These were ‘desperate times’ for the class, some of these people had never actually gone without food before, and were thus ravenous.
Oddly enough Micky was able to eat his food just fine, it was when he tried to sneak the food over to Prin that he had problems. He found her resting on a sack relatively alone. When he tried to casually give her a sack with bread inside it was snatched by a man.
“What, a present for you’re girlfriend and none for me? Can’t have that now can we? You’ve got to pay a toll for that!” Said a weezy little voice. The ‘man’ was a teen that was one of the nobles offspring. He had a couple of cronies following him around, like the rest of the nobles. It didn’t actually do anything for him since the instructors tended to single these kinds out, and well, make sure they stayed single and doing the tasks they set out for them.
“Really? As if the bugs aren’t enough of a problem you have to be a pest too?” Said Micky. This caused the man to look up from the sack, preventing him from discovering what was inside. He new that if the bread salted meat and cheese was discovered there would be trouble, and possibly a fight. Micky wouldn’t mind because it would be this ass that would get tanned, but then Prin would lose her meal. That he couldn’t have.
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
“Oh, Oh! The support has jokes? Giving this frontline solder lip are we?” Said the backline DPS. Micky had been to the front more than this guy.
“You realize that stealing another adventurer’s belongings is theft, and punishable. If not by the adventurer but also by the law. And you did it in sight of one of the instructors.” Said Micky. The instructor looked at him with an expression of ‘What did I do?’ then gave him a teasing grin. The point got across, the instructors dealt with enough shit.
They wouldn’t involve themselves until things went down. Otherwise it was training. But they would involve themselves eventually. So Micky really didn’t understand what this pompous asshat was trying to prove.
Especially considering Prin was sneaking up behind them. “You know that I have to check to make sure whatever you bring is worthy enough for the beauty, right? Besides it might be poisened or tainted from a poor pissant like you!” This got a round of laughter from his crownies.
“Really? What’re you accusing me of? Cudies! Are you a child? Seriously go back to your moma man. This place is not for kids, it’s scary there’s zombies around. And even giant ants!” Said Micky.
“Are you making fun of me? Support?” Said the pompous asshole. He took a step forward, minus a sack.
“Yoink.” Said Prin.
“What who dares? Prin!” Said the asshole. It was almost like he thought nobody had noticed him stealing. That was when he realized all eyes were on him and how this would play out. Well most eyes, they were still in the middle of a hostile dungeon.
“Give that back! It doesn’t belong to you. It isn’t fit for a beauty like yourself, I’m sure I could give you better.” Said the pompous prince.
“Possibly, but not right now you can’t. So buzz off little fly, cuz I don’t give a shit.” Said Prin. Meanwhile Micky was wondering if he was related to those clanners. They said practically the same thing. He wondered if it was a specific form of Tourretts? It was very specific, probably called asshole’s syndrome and the symptoms included but were not limited to speaking out of their ass.
“You! You can’t talk to me like that! Get her, and bring her to me!” Screamed the noble.
“There we go.” said Micky. [Mass Decelerate].
*Clap Clap Clap* “Alright you’re little performance is over, get back to the line. You’re on rotation!” Said the instructor watching this whole debacle. It appeared the noble brat with the squeaky voice just realized that he had been watched, the entire time, by a high level adventurer. He wasn’t in the town with a guardsmen that had been paid off to let him off the hook. He was right here, where his body could disappear at any time.
His cronies seemed to have noticed before he did and tried to drag him away, but too late. Now they were all on the frontlines again. You could see it in their faces, they all thought ‘Is it really worth it to work with him?’. Well most thought that way, some of them were righteously outraged!
Prin brought Micky and herself away from prying eyes. Then he brought out the food. She had already eaten all of her own. “Ah, Micky you shouldn’t have! You really know how to treat a girl special!” Said Prin.
“Yup, all my girls get this treatment. It’s called Micky’s special #1! Figured you pick it off the menu.” Micky said. Prin dug right in.
“What, no kiss? I just fought off nobility with my commoner self. I might be a hero but I still need time to power up!” Said Micky. He received a slap to the shoulder instead, it kinda hurt.
Micky fell down, “Oh no! I have been struck down by this mortal blow! Who shall cure this wayward prince?” said Micky. *Pfft* Prin just laughed.
“I thought we were trying not to attract attention, not stage a drama for ourselves here?” she said. And they both laughed.
After that, people fought and the instructors intervened when it looked like it would come to blows, but none of it involved Micky, or Prin for that matter. Something about the big half ork and her giant blade kept people in check you know? Micky didn’t understand why...