“Mr. Guide, sir!” Alina said, “Bishop and I have recovered all of our mana and are ready to go!”
Right, I never did tell them my name, even at this point. Guess I’ll just stick with being called the Guide.
“Still got some minor wounds that need tending,” Bishop stated as he bandaged up a more egregious wound, “But the major stuff’s tended to. I can speed up the body’s natural recovery a little, but we’re not going to recover much more here. I’m good to go as well.”
I nodded at them. Myra came over as well, she had completed a few more production rounds and replenished some of her more exotic ammunition, and was busy stuffing the last of them into her bag and inventory.
“I’ve basically run out of materials,” Myra added, “So I’m about as ready as I can be. We’re good to go whenever you want, sir.”
“I’m just here to guide,” I said to them before turning my attention to Myra, “It’s your choice as party leader to go or not.”
“But-” she started to say.
“But nothing, I am not the one in command of your people,” I said, tone final, “So Myra, are you ready to set out?”
“Yes!” she answered quickly, as if she was afraid that I would be displeased with her if she didn’t answer immediately.
Myra and her comrades moved quickly to dismantle and clean up the things they left. Once again I was a little surprised by how efficient they were at all of this; these three were used to working as a team. I could see a lot of potential with these three, but that’s assuming that they’ll survive; with how little combat capability was left in this group, I’ll have to do something about getting them team members once this stage is over. Maybe I can make new lineups with the survivors.
“Alright,” Myra said once everything was set again, the others quickly gathered around her to hear her instructions, “Our goal remains the same, we have to get to the center of town.”
The others nodded.
“Our situation hasn’t fundamentally changed, even with the Guide here,” she continued, “But his presence will allow us to operate a little more freely.”
The woman turned to me, “Do you have anything else to add?”
“Yes,” I said, “With only three of you here, we need to make it to the exit as fast as possible. As we reach closer to the center of this stage, the enemies you will face will increase exponentially, and there will not be any more opportunities to rest like we can here. Any small wound or fatigue you three incur will add up steadily, and coupled with Myra’s limited resources, it will be a race against time.”
“I’m sorry everyone…” she muttered.
I shook my head, “You have nothing to be sorry about. Every class has their own limitations, it’s how you accommodate those weaknesses that will determine your future success.”
She blushed again and immediately perked up. It was quite unnerving… I need to limit how often I give out praise when I’m with normal humans.
“Thank you…” she said quietly before collecting herself once more, “And you’re right, we need to move fast. We’ll avoid confrontation with the mutants while we can to conserve strength, but if there’s no way to do so, then we fight with overwhelming force. If our guide is correct, then we need to show them that we are to be feared; spare no resources then.”
“Got it, boss,” Bishop answered.
“Do we conserve mana?” Alina asked.
“Bishop should if he can afford to,” their leader replied, “But you need to go all out. We need to avoid an extended fight.”
“Understood!”
“Lastly, make sure that we stay in partners to avoid being ambushed, no one is to leave each other’s immediate vicinity under any circumstances. Bishop will be with me, Alina, sick with the guide.”
Alina looked more than happy to follow those instructions, while Bishop just grunted an acknowledgement. Once a concrete plan was in place, the three of them moved with such calm and skill that I was starting to wonder how they got to their sorry state in the first place.
They didn’t have any issue making it to the first set of those really big monsters guarding the narrow streets that led to the interior of the town. Now that Myra was able to scout properly with a partner, it was relatively easy to traverse around the mobs of mutants. Their smaller number worked in their favor in this case.
I just followed along for the most part, and only needed to help out when we reached the chokepoints. They were unsure on how to proceed past the big abomination, but the solution was clear to me when I asked them to fully explain their abilities. Bishop was underestimating the Aspirant’s ability for stealth when he made that first remark, and it highlighted the one advantage that the humans had over the rest of the Aspirants: their creativity.
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
The brief introduction of their abilities did not do their true strengths justice. For example, Alina’s buffing ability boiled down to her injecting her own mana into someone else and giving them a boost that way. What type of boost they got depended on how she moved that energy; what was important here, however, was her ability to manipulate mana in a tangible way, and that ability wasn’t limited to just people. Alina simply never thought about the usefulness of injecting mana into inanimate objects.
Bishop’s debuff abilities were a lot more nuanced than just slowing down the foe or making them a little more susceptible to damage. He was just so ingrained with the idea that his abilities only apply in a straight-up fight that he wasn’t able to see the other uses. The same could be said for the other two. Then again, these normal Aspirants only had a few months’ time to get used to their abilities, and they certainly didn’t have the unique perspective that the Regressor had. It was understandable why they would be so narrow-minded in the usage of their skills.
See, Bishop’s debuffing ability was quite powerful. He could all but cripple someone’s senses and their ability to perceive their environment. He told me that he would normally try to slow down the individual’s reaction times or weaken their body, but he could do so much more to his opponents if he was given enough time to prepare. With a little bit of guidance, I was able to show him the full spectrum of his abilities.
“You sure this’ll work?” he asked me as we peered down on the monstrosity that was blocking our only access to the inner sanctum of the city.
“Come on,” Alina urged, “Give it a try, worst case we just run away; they don’t seem very fast.”
“It’s the size of a house,” Bishop mumbled, “And you’re not going to be the one pissing off the house-shaped monster.”
“Just do it,” Myra added from her vantage point, “I can provide covering fire if things go wrong.”
I turned to her, “Don’t forget your part as well. You have the shell loaded?”
“Ready to go, sir.”
Bishop grunted an affirmation and made his move. He took out a little gadget, some rod-shaped object the size of a can of coke that he said focused his powers and started to mutter something incomprehensible under his breath. Now I’m sure that something cool and magically was happening as he was doing this, but since I had no ability to see any of that, it just looked like the dude was muttering to himself like a crazy person.
Whatever Bishop did work, however, as I saw the house-sized creature in general grunt in frustration as its ability to see with any clarity faded away. It started to swing its massive arms around, trying to find the foe that caused it to lose its sight.
“Go for it now, Myra!” he shouted, “My ability won’t last long!”
Without a word, Myra fired her pre-prepared shot in front of the now half-blind monster. The bullet burst apart quickly and a thick smoke started to erupt out of the shot.
“Alina, your turn!” Myra added.
The other girl gave a small nod and infused her mana (at least that’s what I’m assuming is happening, I still couldn’t see any of this with my damn mana-less condition) into the cloud of smoke. She guided the smog into the form of a human, it was a pretty shoddy job all things considered, but with the creature already half-blind, it was enough to get the thing’s attention.
I activated the Absolute Luck Skill and whispered, “Alina, continue as planned; Myra, shoot on my count…”
Alina made the smoke-construct wave its arm in a vaguely threatening gesture, and at the same time, Myra shot another bullet at the creature. If they got the timing correct, then it would appear as if the smoke-construct did the actual damage. With a mere 1 Luck Charge used, I didn’t have to worry about the timing being off, and the simple plan went off without a hitch. The house-creature shouted in rage as it ran towards the smoke.
“Go now!” I shouted as I activated the Absolute Luck Skill once more, “Follow behind me!”
The others scrambled as quickly as they could while the creature was distracted. I saw my very limited amount of charges go down as we narrowly avoided the creature’s attention, going all the way down to 63, but we did get out of the situation safely. Using a few dozen Luck Charges wasn’t an issue normally, but when I had so little available, it did hurt, and it wasn’t like I had the opportunity to slowly recharge them either.
“My skill’s about to end now,” Bishop grunted as he ran as fast as he could.
“Same here,” Alina added, “I’m almost out of range to manipulate the smoke.”
“Then run faster!” Myra yelled.
I saw my Luck Charges deplete to 50 before it stopped going down. That was generally the indication that whatever unlucky scenario that was the most beneficial to me had occurred. Just to make sure though, I glanced back at where the monster was and saw that it was still frantically searching for the people that annoyed it, but it was going the opposite direction that we were in. I knew I could always count on Noe to get us out of a tricky situation… assuming I had enough resources available to power her skills of course.
“We should be far enough away now,” I said as I slowed the group down from the sprint, “But heads up, we’re in the inner circle now. Take a few minutes to recover, but expect frequent encounters with mutants and other foes.”
Unfortunately, the four of us never got that chance to rest, because just as those words left my mouth, a band of roaming mutants rounded one of the streets and noticed us. They were still quite a distance away, but once they saw how tired we looked, the leader of their group sent a signal and all of them rushed at us at once.
Without needing any other instructions, Myra loaded a new clip into her space-gun while the other two started their weird chanting. I stayed close by, deliberately placing myself inbetween the path of the oncoming mutants so that I could properly “defend” myself. It wouldn’t be a breach of the rules if I just happened to be standing a little in front of the other three, although I don’t think I could stretch the rules more than that.
Myra seemed to understand my intentions, at least in part, as she give me a small nod of appreciation. Without wasting any more time, the woman screamed a battle cry and unleashed a barrage of bullets into the oncoming mass. This would be the first time I was going to witness how they did in combat when they’re in ideal starting conditions. Hopefully they won’t disappoint.