"Why the hell are you late?!"
I sigh as I scratch the back of my head while facing Savior's goons surrounding me in front of the
"Still, not being late to the dive is part of the deal, mule," one of them shouted. "You're our navigator and one of our best supporters! If you're a second late, the whole party falls."
Yeesh. Like you guys care about me being early at all.
"Now, now. Lowry got our stuff and everyone's here just like we promised," Savior says in his worst friendly tone while approaching me and his goons. "As long he got the goods, then we're all set." He then turns to me with a glare hidden behind his smile. "Besides, he already knew what would happen if he played hooky, right?"
I glare back at him, but I simply take a deep breath and say, "Can we get this over with? I already set my [VeilCon] up for sleep mode and we need to finish this quickly before lectures start tomorrow."
"Right, right." Savior turns to everyone else in the party. "You heard him! We'll head into the forest in T-7! Get your gear ready and prepare for the dungeon dive!"
I watch the Viper guild head off to whatever they're doing, leaving me alone for a while. As much as I want to stop this dive, I know that jerk isn't the type to listen to everything I say. Even if he does, he would still proceed as they plan anyway. I would leave, but now that I know more, I might as well stay and keep an eye on Savior and [Viper Fangs] until I make the right time to strike.
"Teach?"
I turn to a familiar voice behind me. "M3GAN! You got everything I suggested?"
She nods with a smile. "Yep! Everything down to the [Iron Dagger] and everything else!" She then frowns when she sees someone behind me. "But are you sure you still want to do this, teach? You were against this [Quest] for a while now."
Right, she is still worried after the confrontation earlier. But I found my resolve and I'm not going back on it.
"Don't worry. I'm fine and I'm not the type to abandon a newcomer to those jerks in charge." I turn to every newbie participating in the dive. "As long they get their heads together, we might able to get through this without any casualties on our side. I promised we'll get through this without any penalties."
It's not an exaggerated promise. Those viper jerks tend to abandon other players who are not part of the guild and sometimes throw them as meat shields when we face a stronger monster. Not to mention how they treat them less than teammates and more like slaves than me. I don't want them to suffer because of my cowardice and this time, I won't make any excuses for this [Dungeon Quest].
"Alright! Let's move out, everyone!"
There's the signal. Looks like it's time to start this life-changing [Quest].
----------------------------------------
[3rd Clearing]
"Dammit! I'm on red!"
"There's too many of them!"
"Tanks! Get those wolves away from those mages!"
"My buffs ran out! Can someone buff me?!"
"GAH!!! I've been [Poisoned]!!!"
As expected of [Viper Fangs], they just started this [Quest] with a chaotic fight to the death. In most [Dungeons], you can tell the difficulty by the stars on their description or the stars on their associated [Dungeon Quest]. Since the
Anyways, from the current state of the party, I have a feeling we might lose some players to this dungeon run. If it happens, the chances of reaching the boss room will be slim and it may be impossible to defeat it with only about 2-5 players. At this point, I have to intervene or our run might be cut short on this floor.
"Save, before you start throwing everyone else, I have an idea to push through this floor!" I call out.
"Why do I want to listen to you, Lowry?!" Savior shouted while he kept swinging his broadsword toward most of the wolves and goblins coming his way.
"Because I'm the only one who can increase our chances of reaching the last clearing. Unless you want to be blamed for your stupidity, let me lead on this floor for once!"
I know for a fact that he had no choice in this matter. While I'm not usually the one who helped them clear most of the dungeons, I was able to mitigate the losses before the boss room. By studying the patterns of each monster, I may be able to turn the tables in our favor.
"Fine! But you know the drill by now. It will be on your head if you f**k this up!"
Like I ever did. I turn to everyone currently fighting the remaining monsters. "Newbies, if you don't have [Shield] or armor with you, fall back! Focus on the back row if you have any ranged [Masteries] or magic! Supporters, use your AoE buffs to the frontlines! I'll take care of the injured and poisoned!"
Once I sent the orders, I proceeded to heal most of the injured players including ones that were afflicted with [Poison]. While my [Healing Aura] is weak as a healing spell, I do have [Curing Light], a spell that dispels any player from [Poison], [Paralysis], and [Blindness]. Thanks to my [Insignis] passive and [Magical Affinity], I managed to heal about 3-6 players while buffing some physical attackers with [Gift of Strength]. Ironically, [Life Mastery] is the highest combat-related [Mastery] in my arsenal. I may be weak, but I'm not weak when it comes to support and strategy.
Eventually, all of that healing and buffing left me with half of [MP]. I can feel a bit of exhaustion as I catch my breath from those repetitive incantations. But I think I can manage with a few small fries.
"Are you okay, teach?" M3GAN runs to my side with a worried look on her face. "That looks like a lot of players you healed."
"Don't worry about me. I would worry about those goblins though."
The [Snare Goblins]. They are infamous for ambushing unprepared players in forest dungeons and robbing a random weapon or rare consumable from your inventory right before you get the penalty. However, if you know their patterns and movements, you may be able to avoid their robbery skill and kill them in one go.
"What's your suggestion?" M3GAN asked. "Should we have the tanks deal with them?"
"No, just follow my lead and we can take out the rest of the goblins."
It sounds overconfident, but I already dealt with those goblin trolls a few times now. If anything, the only risk is losing my dagger and it's only the one I got when starting the game. First things first, we have to make some preparations. I turn to M3GAN and raise my arm to start the incantation.
“Spirits of life, hear my call. Give my ally the strength from your power. [Gift of Strength].”
I see a white light glow on her body as soon as I cast the spell. Once that's finished, I cast the same spell on myself.
[Your [ATK] has been increased by 5% for two minutes.]
"We got two minutes. You go on the front and I'll take the back," I instructed. "Get their attention and leave once I give the signal."
"Got it!"
This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
And she's off. Honestly, this is the move that's not recommended to use against [Snare Goblins]. However, this hasn't been the case with two or more players in your party. With the right timing, you can interrupt their robbery skills and with M3GAN running closer and closer to them, I run to the back and start my incantation.
“Spirits of flames, show yourselves! Pierce my enemies with the burning arrows from the scorching sun!" Flames begin to emerge around me as they form into arrows. "[Fire Arrows]!"
With a flick of my wrist, I throw the arrows at the goblins and let them make their marks on their backs. Thanks to my spell, they are so shocked by it to the point their robbery skill is interrupted. Since I'm currently at the back, this makes it a perfect place to use my temporary trump card. I hop away from my position and charge to one of the confused goblins.
"[Backstab]!"
My dagger quickly connects to the goblin's back as soon as I chant the skill's name. It screams in pain before it explodes in data and items in front of me. While my [Starter Dagger] is too weak against stronger monsters such as [Snare Goblins], it makes up for the [Dagger Mastery's] high critical rate and speed.
"M3GAN! Now's your chance!" I call out before I attack the next goblin who just notices my recent kill.
"R-Right!" M3GAN shouts. “Spirits of thunder, heed my call. Help me gather your power and mold them into bolts which I can smite my foes!"
As soon as I hear her chanting and electricity appearing next to them, I back away from the goblins as fast as possible.
"Target the ones who will oppose my path and scatter them all to dust! [Lightning Scatter]!”
I smile as I watch several bolts of electricity hit most of the goblins. While they don't kill most of them, it's enough for most of the players to take care of the rest.
"Son of the gun, they did it." I hear Savior muttering behind me. "Alright, ladies and gents! Let's take care of the rest of the [Chaos Room]!"
Once again, he's rushing. But it doesn't matter since we took care of the problematic goblins' numbers as I turn to M3GAN.
"You heard him. Let's take care of the wolves next and finish this annoying floor."
"Got it, teach!"
With that, we use the same tactic to deal with the rest of the monsters.
----------------------------------------
[7th Clearing]
"Yeah! 6 floors down!"
"And we got some awesome loot, too!"
"Not only that, the [Viper Fangs] are so powerful!"
"Not to mention their navigator is awesome! Why isn't he part of the guild already? They look so awesome together as guildmates!"
I dryly chuckle when I hear those comments while walking through the next clearing. This one is a bit easier along with the previous ones after the 3rd floor, so it's mostly focused on navigation and clearing out some monsters along the way. However, what's more impressive is the newbies' skills in battle, especially M3GAN herself.
"Wow, it's everything I want from the Mystery Dungeon series and all! Well, except with the Monster Houses and goblins," M3GAN commented. "I'm surprised you survived all of that, teach."
"You can say that. It might be dangerous for someone like me, but I have reasons to dive into [Dungeons]. I can't say why out of privacy, but I tend to explore the world-building and lore of the game," I explained.
"Lore? As in you have to go through those cutscenes? Man, that's rough."
I shake my head. "No, it's not annoying for me. Believe it or not, I aspire to become a writer for LitRPG and Fantasy."
"Lit...RPG?"
"It stands for "Literature RPG". Just think of them as a Western version of those isekai light novels, though that's a poor way to describe them. Either way, I'm open for inspiration, so that's another reason why I pursue the lore of
"Wow, that's awesome! I bet you might become a bestseller author if you keep it up!"
"Bestseller" might be an overstatement. When I first started playing this game thanks to that gift, I didn't have any motivation to do anything beyond fighting monsters. However, I learned after taking a few [Quests] that this game world was not as cut and dry as any MMO world I've played before. I learned later that the game's worldbuilding was actually made by a bestseller author of "The World of Seraph" fantasy novel series, Wayne Enigma. He made the novel's world unique and immersive in terms of lore and mythology woven around the story. If he could make Seraph on par with Tolkien's Middle-earth, then I don't know what would make me hook into
"Yeah, you can say that. But I still haven't got through the publishing phase of my career yet," I said. "Besides, my web novel still only has about 20 followers and I still have no luck when it comes to monetary earnings."
"Wow, that's a shame. Maybe after this, you should share a link on your web novel sometime. I would love to get a kick out of it especially since this is my third day in this game already."
"I don't know. It's more of a psychological horror side..." But I was met with her puppy-dog eyes. I guess there's no saying no to a girl like her. "Okay, I'll DM you the link later."
"Thanks, teach! You're the best!" She says that while she hugs me tight with her chest getting closer to my face.
"Uh? You're welcome?"
Before I can ask her to let me go, I hear one of Savior's accomplices.
"Hey! We found the boss room!"
Well, so much for the casual talk. Most 3-star [Dungeons] have about 8-10 floors (treasure rooms included). So I expected as much. However, this looks like more of an entrance to a shrine than a menacing boss room to me. It has a wooden door with a brown Shinto shrine-like structure above it and a wooden carving of a wolf's head hanging in front of it.
"Huh. That was easier than I thought it would," Savior says before he turns to us next. "Alright, everyone! Behind this door is the last obstacle to the big reward ahead! Once we defeat the monster hiding behind it, the [Quest] will be complete and everyone will get most of the rewards of your choice!"
Everyone cheers after his declaration. Of course, they're all lies as he tends to only give the rewards to the guild and the ones that he deemed as useful. As for me, all I got were only [MEXP] and exploitation.
"Hey, Savior! There's something at the door!"
Savior and I quickly approached the sign where his goon was pointing at. I dust it off to see it's written in Common (much to my relief) and read the contents out for everyone to hear.
[Outsiders beware.
This is the sacred ground of the
However, the hearts who only desire to rob for riches and power will be punished.]
Huh. This gets stranger and stranger. Why does a [Dungeon] have this strange warning? It's as if this is genuinely a place we shouldn't ransack in.
"Outsiders?! What the hell is that sign spewing about?!" Savior complained. "Besides, there are ruins around here. Nobody visited this place in basically years in game time!"
I take another good look at the sign. "But judging by the sign's condition, it doesn't seem too old. Heck, it looked very recent to me."
But all I get from Savior is a menacing glare. "Since when did I ask your opinion, Lowry?! Abandoned or not, nobody visited here for a while. So it would be a waste if we leave those treasures alone if we abandon this [Dungeon]. Unless you want to make a vote for it."
I would say yes. But of all things rotten, he's a very charismatic leader. He will take advantage of it to turn against me. I know it's cowardly, but I'm running into a Morton's Fork with this guy in charge.
"No, it's getting too late. If we don't act quickly, we might face some stronger nocturnal monsters soon," I answered while looking around the entrance and the players looking at us. "Besides, I don't want to be the party pooper since we're closer to the end."
"Hmph... Good choice." Savior grins while patting my head like a dog. "Now let's go inside. Drink up your potions, heal, and buff as fast as you can, people! Cause once we go in, we cannot go out! The only way out is to defeat the boss or die trying!"
"YEAH!!!!"
He and his goons open the door as we prepare ourselves for the last battle of the dive. Everyone was preparing themselves as we took a few potions to recover while most healers buffed us up. As for me, I mentally prepare myself while staring at Savior grinning ear-to-ear as we enter the boss room. I look at M3GAN, who is somehow concerned about me after that. But I respond with a smile and nod. I'm not the type to go down that easily and I'm not the type to have more casualties in this run.
But once all of us were inside, we heard a door closed shut and a gust of wind blew past us. I hear most of the players muttering their confusion and fear as I see a new notification popping out in front of me.
[WARNING] [You feel a strong dark mana emanating from this clearing.]
[Mana]?! Dark, not corrupted?! Why do I have a bad feeling about this?
"Save, something big is coming!" I call out to him.
"You heard the mu- I mean, navigator! Ready your weapons a-"
Before he can finish, we hear a loud howl. A large shadow covers all of us as we look up and gasp at what we see. It was a large pitch-black wolf with its fur flowing like a misty shadow and its eyes were glowing red. Not only that, it has a strange red circular mark patterned on its forehead. It lets out a howl loud enough to break the sound barrier and several windows pop up in front of us. I froze upon seeing the large monster appear right in front of us. But it's only seeing the contents of the UI that makes us realize what it is.
[NEW DUNGEON GOAL]
[Defeat the boss monster of the
----------------------------------------
[Lowry's Masteries]
[Dagger] Level 6
[Fire] Level 4
[Life] Level 6
[Magical Affinity] Level 4
[Alchemy] Level 8
[Scribe] Level 7
[Magecrafting] Level 1