“H-how did you get here!?”
I ask once again. But the enemy player just shrugs his shoulders and doesn’t answer my question.
“Hah, you don’t need to know. Because you’ll die soon!”
At the same time, he jumps at me and swings a pair of daggers. I try to defend with my staff, randomly swinging it around, but he avoids it and hits me.
Then, Lightning Shield activates and he takes some damage, it’s a very little amount, but everything counts. I’m unlucky the special stun doesn’t trigger, so he keeps attacking me in melee as I try to avoid his strikes.
Fuck this! I can’t defend myself, and he avoids most of my staff attacks! Why is he so good!?
Oh, yes! Startled because there are two of them and because he appeared right behind me, I forgot I’m actually a spellcaster… Why am I trying to fight against an enemy in melee!? Am I stupid or what!?
“Chain Lightning!”
I cast Chain Lightning. I know it isn’t the best spell against a single target, but I need to kill him before it’s too late…
But when I try to release it, nothing happens.
“W-what!?” I shout.
Then, I look at my status screen and see I‘m still at full MP.
Hmmm… what’s this icon here…? Wait, I’m inside a silence field!? Did this guy create a silence field to prevent me from using skills!? So now, only passive and triggered skills should work… I’m screwed…
Oh, no, wait, Andreu! Don’t throw the towel yet!
If it’s the skill I’m thinking about, it also prevents him from using other skills, so he can only hit me with melee attacks right now! And that skill consumes a lot of MP each second, so he can’t maintain it for long… I just need to survive long enough!
The problem is: HOW!? How can I survive in this situation…?
I look around. There’s nothing I can use here… only the buttons to activate the traps, and there’s obviously no trap in this room. Both for safety purposes and to save cp.
The only other thing in the room is the passage to get here, but I don’t think I can run away from him… and showing my back to a melee fighter that might be faster than me is asking for death.
Meanwhile, he continues to attack me. I try to avoid his attacks but I mostly fail at it.
Oh, yeah! I got an idea! I can jump through the window! I call it a window, but in fact, is just a big hole in the wall. I implemented it like this to be able to attack enemies from this place. If there was a glass pane in between, I wouldn’t be able to do it at all.
I can jump to the trapped area below and win as much time as possible like this! There are also a few automatic traps there, traps that don’t need anyone pushing the buttons, and only I know where they’re placed!
“See you later!”
I say to the enemy player before jumping. I drop to the ground below, taking a little fall damage and immediately start to run.
Why do I feel I’ve been only running away all the time in this match!?
I must be dreaming. There’s no way I, the greatest genius of all times - when it comes to random stuff - am losing so much in this match, forced to run away continuously…
Ah, no! I know! It’s because they’re so crazy! That must be it! I’m not running away because it’s dangerous, but because I don’t want to stay close to them, just in case their madness sticks to me.
As I try to delude myself, an explosion occurs in a close place.
“That was… a trap? W-wait, there’s no way, r-right!?”
I look at the Control Room, the room with the Control Panel, and see that player waving at me as he presses more random buttons, activating several more traps.
He grins before pushing another of the buttons, and another trap springs to action. This doesn’t look good… I expected him to jump after me instead of staying there and randomly activating all the traps…
“D-did I… mess it up…? Maybe I should have tried something else…”
“Good job, Al! Now’s the time to finish our mission! Fufufu! Hahaha!”
The Leader takes this chance to rush in my direction. He and the support mobs jump from the higher path to the one I’m currently in.
Now that I look properly, the ‘Al’ right next to the Leader doesn’t have the Champion’s mark that appears on top of every player… It’s impossible for it to be a player. It must be some kind of mob, maybe a Doppelganger or something similar.
…though this doesn’t explain how did the real Al manage to reach the Control Room.
“Aaagh! You managed to fool me! But don’t think you got me yet! Hahaha!”
I find myself in a difficult situation: there’s the Leader and some support mobs chasing me, and Al pressing buttons and randomly activating traps.
Everywhere, explosions, fire bursts, acid buckets, pitfalls… any kind of imaginable trap activates at random places. Sometimes I take damage, and sometimes the Leader or his mobs do; but most of the time they don’t hurt anyone at all.
The only saving grace is Al doesn’t know where the traps are placed.
If only I had planned to create a few rat-sized passages so I could run away using the RATT… I really didn’t expect to find myself in this situation. In theory, there was no need for me to be in this area, I should be overlooking everything from the Control Room….
As I run, a snaring trap activates right below me and vines and roots quickly wrap my arms and legs, forcefully stopping me. Then, I have to stay put while the Leader and the other monsters catch up to me.
Why did I put this trap here again!? An ensnaring trap doesn’t deal damage at all, it only stops enemies from moving, so it makes no sense if I wanted to kill them!
Oh, yeah… it was to make fun of the enemies and have an easier time aiming my ranged attacks and spells...
Well… it backfired. I’m completely screwed right now. The enemies surround me, and assail me from all directions at the same time.
“You got me, but I’ll take as many of you as I can to the grave with me! Hahaha!”
As my HP gets lower, I spend all my MP in spells. The Chain Lightning spreads through the enemy’s ranks, and their HP bars take a huge hit, but it isn’t enough with a single one. With the second, there are a few of them with less than a quarter HP, but still no stunned enemies.
I could use Grand Finale right now to kill all the surrounding enemies, but it’s a useless thing to do. I don’t know if some enemy would survive or not, and if they did, I would be killed anyway…
Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.
But what’s more important is that Al isn’t inside the skill’s range. After using the Grand Finale skill my stats would decrease so much, there won’t be any way for me to escape from him. I’m doomed anyway.
So if I used Grand Finale here, I would reveal our team’s secret weapon and achieve nothing at all. Better keep it a secret for the case that Ricard, Laura, and Clara manage to destroy the enemy core and win this game.
“T-this won’t be my end! Remember my words! I’ll return! And I’ll be stronger than ever! Fufufu! Hahaha!”
As I laugh for the last time, I release the third and last Chain Lightning.
This is my most epic and cool pose! Engrave it in your retinas so you never forget my valiant sacrifice! If I’m going to die anyway, let’s do it with style.
Let’s hope the other three can destroy the enemy’s core before they do and we win this match.
Hope is the last thing you lose. That’s what they say.
“Fufufu! Hahaha! We did it! We achieved our objective! The prophecy has been fulfilled!”
In my phantasmal form, I can hear the crazy stuff the Leader keeps saying. In the tournament, when you die, the other players can’t see you or communicate with you at all, but you can still see and hear everything.
Usually, I wouldn’t mind it at all, but right now… can somebody shut him up, please? Or at least, let me leave the match and return to the waiting room so that I don't have to listen to him anymore!?
…please?
----------------------------------------
“Hehehe, I’ll be the one to break the core… Lalala! Hehehe...”
Switching between laughing and humming, Clara swims in the underground lake. She’s now close to the surface again, and the Plump Drops continue to fall into the water all around her… though she doesn’t take any damage because the water reduces their velocity.
There truly seems to be no end to those falling monsters at all.
From time to time, she grabs a few of the poor guys, switching them for the ones she grabbed before, who aren’t moving anymore… those that died because they were touching her champion for too long.
“I really like their tiny trunks! They somewhat look like a less versatile and minuscule furry tentacle. Hehehe!”
She brings one of them right next to her ‘face’ and squishes it a few times before the Decaying Touch skill activates and it dies to the damage.
“I really want a plushie that looks like them. But how can I find one…? Hmmm…”
She keeps talking to herself until something catches her attention.
Further ahead, coming from outside the water, there’s a bright purple light. When it touches the water, it refracts and imitates the typical sunlight rays, except they are purple. It could mean lots of different things, but in DMA this light usually means the dungeon core is close.
“Ah! The dungeon core! Yeees, I made it!”
She spins around in glee. She even forgets about the Plump Drops and even releases all of them.
“Hehehe! We’ll win thanks to me, and then I’ll be praised! Hehehe!”
Clara speeds up and moves in the direction the light comes from, forgetting about everything else.
She doesn’t even notice that, as she reaches the surface of the lake, the number of Plum Drops falling on top of her decreases until they completely stop. For being so obsessed with them until a short while ago, she sure forgets about them pretty fast.
Of course, it’s because her only and true obsession is more important: getting Andreu’s recognition.
In fact, if she were to look upwards, she would see there are no holes in the ceiling anymore. It’s impossible for more Plump Drops to drop on top of her. Furthermore, if she were to take a closer look, she would notice she’s now swimming through a different cave, the entrance to it being underwater.
“Hehehe!” But she can only think of one thing right now. “...I’ll win this game! Hehehe!”
She brings her head out of the water and looks at what’s ahead. As expected, there’s the dungeon core a few meters away, emitting purple light and illuminating the whole area, and sitting on top of a crude stone altar.
A gentle slope stretches from the shore and goes straight to it.
“Finally! The victory is mine! Come to me, little core! Your mama will hug you to death! Hehehe!”
Clara rushes to the dungeon core, trying to break it as soon as possible, even if it’s only a single second earlier. But in her rush, she forgets to look around yet another time… and pain follows.
*Fwooosh!*
A few steps after leaving the shore, a gigantic burst of fire hits her, burning her intensely. Luckily she can’t feel pain because this is a game, but the damage her champion takes is quite significant.
Still, she just stops for an instant before continuing.
“A trap right before the core? Well, nothing’s going to stop me now!”
She resumes her unstoppable march. And again, she ignores everything around her and focuses only on the core. Which leads her to activate the next trap.
Four metallic poles rise from the floor, surrounding her. Their tips emit bright bluish light and electric sparks. Then, the four release an electric arc against her, electrocuting her at the same time.
*Bzzzt!*
Luckily for her, the metallic poles don’t do a lot of damage, but it’s a continuous effect and they can stun her with a certain chance, forcing her to stop for a short while.
“A-aah! I… can’t… move, properly…! But, I can’t… stop!”
Slowly, moving in bursts between the effects of the stuns, Clara pushes onwards. She ignores the trap and continues to move forward. If only she took the time to destroy the lightning rods she would move faster and take a lot less damage, but she’s too obsessed with the dungeon core right now and forcefully moves forward, ignoring everything else.
She finally gets out of the lightning range, but more traps await her. The classical pitfall, a quicksand trap, poison arrows… but she ignores them all and continues her almost unstoppable march.
Her eyes can only see one thing right now: the dungeon core.
After the arduous journey, which could have been a lot easier if she looked around and broke or avoided the traps instead of ignoring them, she comes within five meters of the core.
“I’m almost there…! Yes!”
But then, as if to mock her one last time, the dungeon trembles, and rocks fall upon her. They fall in such a way they create a rock prison around her, with small gaps she can see from but that aren’t wide enough to move through.
If fact, those aren’t normal rocks but the last trap.
Similar to what Andreu did with his dungeon with the Falling Corpse trap, this isn’t a lethal trap but just a trap to make the other players angry: something to hurt the enemy’s pride when they thought they already won.
“Aaagh! I can’t reach the core from here! Why did they have to fall on me!?”
Most players would look for a way out of this trap after being trapped by it. In fact, it’s as simple as attacking the rocks a few times and they will break, releasing the player that’s inside.
But not Clara. Clara is too obsessed with the dungeon core, that's just about arm’s reach. It’s close enough to think you can reach it if you extend your arm through one of the holes, but just far enough to not allow you to do it.
“Just a little bit more…!”
She extends her tentacles through a hole between the rocks, but she only manages to graze the dungeon core. She needs to grab it before she can break it.
“It’s so close! Maybe if I do it like this…”
She keeps trying to grab it, switching positions inside the rock trap. She tries and tries once again. Then, she tries to squeeze her body through the hole.
“Come on!”
From an outside point of view, the scene is quite perturbing. Imagine a bunch of tentacles coming from a dark hole from which nothing can be seen, repeatedly stretching and wildly swinging around before reaching out to a glowing purple crystal… but never coming close enough to grab it.
Clara changes positions one last time.
“Now, now I’ll get it… Y-yes! YES! I got it! Hehehe!”
She doesn’t waste any more time before crushing the dungeon core. It breaks into fine dust that disperses through the air. The purple light disappears with the last remaining remnants.
The rock prison vanishes too, liberating Clara once again, similar to what happens to every trap and monster in the dungeon.
Immediately after, the game message announcing the end of the match appears in front of all players that participated in it.
A thing most viewers couldn’t understand is how could Clara keep her calm after activating so many traps. Most players would be very angry in her shoes. Maybe even to the point of blaming themselves for their stupidity.
The reason is simple: she didn’t even register them at all. To her, she was just reaching out to the dungeon core. Everything that happened in between was simply ignored because the goal was the only important thing.
“Hehehe! Now brother will praise me! And he’ll pat me too! Hehehe!”
This was the beginning of another session of an activity called ‘pestering Andreu until he surrenders and does her bidding’.
[https://i.imgur.com/ZGSK4Pl.png]
After this match, Clara finally won the long-awaited head pats, accompanied by the ‘you did well’ praise she much wanted. Andreu did it in real life to avoid that disgusting and slimy texture her champion has, which he hated so much.
In Andreu’s opinion, she really deserved it. After all, he was dead and the enemies could go and win the match at any moment they so desired… though first, they would have to stop laughing like deranged maniacs and proclaiming to the world their beliefs.
By the way, when the match ended, Laura and Ricard were still ‘mining’ inside the giant monster.