And right before using my new [Spell] for the first time, I understood the significance of what I had done: When I tried doing something similar in the past, I felt the [Matrix] resist my attempts as if I was trying to do something that I shouldn’t be capable of, just like it did this time, but [Adaptability] changed the game.

I worked around a limitation on my own, without doing it on purpose, and it was at that point that I got the suspicion that it was the whole point of my [Class], believing that I can overcome anything, and operate while having the surety of it.

Switching my focus back on the fight, I decided to cast [Betterment] on both Sheeno and everything I had summoned.

As soon as I began casting, I realized the weight of my folly.

[MP] critical!

MP:

7%

I felt like my head had just been used as a battering ram against one of those black doors, with a very strong migraine following the pain train soon after; it even got to the point where my vision got darker at the edges, from all the pain I was feeling, but even after that my body refused to collapse, since it knew that the fight was yet not over.

I couldn’t see exactly what happened, but once everything swam back into focus everything I had used my [Spell] on was now glowing with a purple haze, while hitting both faster and stronger than they were before: Sheeno was practically a white blur, constantly dashing in range of the [Mini-Boss] to cut into its armor, and getting out of the way of its attacks when needed, while using the advantage of being distant to pepper him with ranged attacks; meanwhile my [constructs] were launching everything they had at it, with the [Flying Trappers] being able to shoot fast enough to aim for its ligaments and bind them with nets of light, and my [Forceful metallic pizza Dispensers] firing disks so fast that they went right through the [Monster], without giving it time to catch its projectiles into its semi-liquid body, like it was previously doing.

All in all, the enemy already looked like it was dead in anything but in name, with a noticeable portion of its body either outright missing, or currently trying to slither on the floor to rejoin the main mass.

“Not on my watch”, I grunted out, reaching with my hand forwards, while grasping for that little [Mana] I had left in me: I probably couldn’t take it out, but with [Manakenisis] I should still be able to stop the smaller pieces from moving.

And so, once the [Matrix] was ready in my mind, I released it, imprinting the idea of morphing the mana that I was affecting into [Life Mana], in the hope it would cause at least a little bit of harm.

The result was that the smallest pieces exploded into grey mana, which got greedily reabsorbed by the [Dungeon], while the bigger ones started sizzling and wriggling where they stood.

“Well… now I feel stupid for not having used it sooner.”

After another attack from Sheeno, that left the walking suit of armor looking as healthy as a cheese grater, it decided that enough was enough and sent out explosions of green fire from every hole in its body, with enough strength behind them to make my [barriers] tremble, but not enough force to break them yet. But the screen of fire was enough to obscure our vision, and when it became visible again its armor was a glowing cherry-hot red, but with still a green hue to it, and looked like its feet were melting on the floor.

That last detail distracted both of us from what it was doing, and it managed to catch my companion by surprise by flailing its melted arms like a whip at her, catching her with the new extended reach of its sword.

My [Barriers] didn’t hold the damage back that time.

With the sound of shattering glass Sheeno was sent flying against the wall, which rebounded her body to the ground. She quickly got back to her feet, but her left arms were folded against her sides, showing that the hit had been enough to incapacitate her.

“Sheeno!” I screamed, distraught.

Worst of all, once the [Mini-Boss] had heated up she had to stop using her [Ice Magic], since it would only provide him with a steam screen, and since it was an [Undead] it was very likely that it didn’t use actual sight to see, so it would only impair us.

I checked the [Party Status] to see just how bad the situation was:

Darwin Dulcet

HP: 95%

MP: 5% (critical)

FP: 88%

Sheeno Fyratta

HP: 23%

MP: 67%

FP: 67%

The situation was bad, the ‘we’re going to die’ kind of bad, and there was little I could do.

So that’s when [Kenny] decided to remind us that it was there too, by shooting a beam of light at the enemy so wide, that it enveloped it completely.

“[Kenny]!? Where did you-“ I started asking, but was shocked into silence when a reverberating, giddy, robotic voice came from my lantern: “Master Forgot Order. I Help Anyway!”

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“I- uh… ok?” I intelligently replied.

Which seemed like the signal it needed to increase the intensity of its attack, making it brighter and… ‘golder?’.

“[Buddy], a little help here?”

You may have forgotten, but [Kenny] has a rudimentary soul made by you, so it's capable of independent thought.

Now, you somehow forgot that it was there during the entire fight, and failed to give it any commands; so, it took matters into its own “claws” and decided on its own course of action after seeing you struggle with your current opponent.

I felt incredibly stupid and shameful at the revelation that I had completely dismissed my [familiar] the entire fight, only to have it come and save our collective ass at the last second.

And it was during that last thought that the [Mini-Boss] decided to shout one last pained scream, revealing that it already was on its last leg.

You have defeated the [Mini-Boss]:

Through your actions you have been awarded +3 [Acuity] and [Insight], +6 [Energy], and +9 [Will].

You have reached [Lvl 8]:

+2 [Acuity], +4 [Insight], [Energy] and [Serendipity], and +10 [Will]

[Kenny] cut off its beam, revealing that there was nothing left of the [Monster], even the grey [Mana] from the [Dungeon] was gone, and it started bouncing in place, like it was happy with its own accomplishment. Meanwhile, a chest grew from the ground, where the lump of metal the [Mini-Boss] originally came from once stood, and another set of black double doors appeared on the opposite wall from the one I was leaning against.

I looked at Sheeno, and she appeared to be just as exhausted as I probably felt, so I de-summoned all my [constructs], bar [Kenny], and used the recycled [Mana] to cast [Repair] on the both of us, making me able to think straight again, and her to stop cradling two of her arms.

“Thanks.”

“No problem.”

I went to check the chest, and, after making sure that it wasn’t booby-trapped (it was, but disabling it was a simple matter of using [Annul] on an [Enchantment]), I checked inside and…

I grabbed the chest with both hands and flung it away in a fit of rage.

“Wha- What happened?” Asked a startled Sheeno.

“It was -fucking- EMPTY!” I shouted at the ceiling.

I started storming for the exit, with Sheeno following only after a moment of contemplation, which ended once she sported a thunderous expression on her face. We didn’t talk, but simply kicked the door open, noticed that we were in the initial room, with the only difference being that now there were a set of stairs leading either down or up, and we just fucked right off and exited the [Dungeon].

You are now exiting [the Knight’s Mansion Dungeon]

* * *

I don’t know how long it took, nor do I remember if we were especially speedy or cautious while traveling, all I know is that we now were in one of the outpost towers, after I was able to navigate in a fugue the forest while I think still avoiding most dangers, and we were just done with eating… something, most likely a soup made of rations, but my short-term memory was as numb as my body felt.

All I registered was that the tower looked like it was made of packed earth, likely solely raised by [Earth Magic], while still managing to be thick enough to stop any roots to poke through the structure; that, and that the [Guard] that welcomed our sorry assess looked humanoid, but with dog ears and digitigrade furry legs.

We made our way to the common sleeping rooms, and got ourselves a single room with bunk beds, where, to my chagrin, Sheeno hoisted me up to the upper one, while she laid down in the bottom one.

And there we still were, laying down, motionless, staring above us, and with only the sound of our breathing to keep us company.

I thought we were trying to get a moment to compose ourselves, and a repetitive tapping through the mattress notified me that my companion was ready to talk.

I laid belly down, poking my head out of the cot, meeting Sheeno’s eyes, who was angled sideways, to get a better look at me.

“So…” she started, but the long pause afterward made it clear that she hadn’t really thought about what to say.

“That was a shitshow and we are lucky to be still alive”, I simply stated.

“Yeah”, she responded. After another couple of seconds of silence, she continued, “we are lacking something, or someone, that could soak up the damage, like a proper [Defender], and we need to develop further our teamwork, since we mostly work around each other, and not with one another”.

I started nodding, but she surprised me by continuing with “also, don’t think I didn’t see you under-utilize your [familiar], but I can’t exactly blame you, since I also had dismissed its utility from my mind, since during our spar it was more annoying than anything, but the beam it released at the end there was something else…”.

“To be honest, I didn’t know it could do that. It even talked right before shooting, another thing I didn’t know it could do. So I guess most of the faults lay with me, since I didn’t explore fully what I could bring to the [Team], and-“, I started rambling, but was interrupted.

“Yeah, no. Shut up. You’re at fault just as much as I am: I am the more experienced one, and I kept making rookie mistakes in the ‘name of fun’; I was the one that pushed to go after a stronger [Monster] even when we had yet to develop any kind of strategy; and it was me that pushed to enter the [Dungeon], taking advantage of your fixation with them”. Sheeno kept going, and I didn’t dare stop her, since while I was a self-deprecating idiot, her statement seemed to only further firm her resolve. “Next time”, she started concluding, “we must do better”.

And to that, I extended my right arm for a shake with a “to the both of us being less stupid in the future, together”.

She chuckled at that, but grabbed my arm anyway to shake it, “to the both of us being less stupid in the future, together”.

That was apparently enough for both of us to make relative peace with our past decision, and we soon drifted off to sleep.

Ok, no, I was lying to myself: My nightmares plagued by visions of Sheeno getting hurt were the only proof I needed to reason that this mess wasn’t something I would easily get over.

* * *

Sheeno was laying down on the cot, listening for any change in the breathing pattern of her teammate. Once she was sure that he was asleep she stepped out of the room, released an enormous sigh, and dropped her shoulders.

That [Dungeon] dive went much worse than she could have guessed: She had gotten overconfident, and her companion was still too green to juggle all his [Spells] and [Skills].

She had been a [Princess], for goodness sake, and yet here she was, still with some hairline fractures on her left arms, only because she acted like a meathead and kept going with straightforward attacks against the [Mini-Boss], instead of working around its strengths.

But who would have expected a [Mini-Boss] on the first floor!? Nobody, that’s who!

But she was only throwing blame around now, [Aberrant Dungeons] were nothing new, and after their report there will likely be formed an expedition to close the damned thing, and Sheeno could feel some sort of sick appeasement that the source of so many worries would be soon brutally squashed.

She almost lost her life during that fight, and if it wasn’t for Darwin she wouldn’t be able to stand there and ponder over what she could have done better. First of all, she should have tried to get the [Human] to open up a little, once they were out of danger, but his morose expression made that extremely difficult, and after having lived most of her life among the deceitful faces of [Nobles] she wasn’t the best at handling people that were as direct with their emotions as him.

So here she was, walking through the tower to look for an [Healer], instead of asking her companion for further assistance. Not that he wouldn’t be able to provide it, but she already owed him too much, and was wary to let him give her even more.

Sheeno thought back to that last attack from the floating lantern, and had to shake her head at its absurdity: What was there even to say? How could she just accept that he had ‘created’ a [familiar], and not only that, but that said [familiar] was capable of shooting such strong beams of [Mana] that they could obliterate most that stood in their path? Not that the [Mini-Boss] wasn’t practically dead already, but still!

And thinking about that beam… she didn’t have the best [Mana Sense], but the rudimentary one that was taught her when she was still a royal was enough to discern that, without a shadow of a doubt, the [familiar] had used [Divine Mana], and of a kind that felt particularly dense, maybe a sign that it was [Aberrant].

…Yeah, in the end, she would have to have a long talk with her partner.