Live Dungeon!

Chapter 129, Eunice鈥檚 True Feelings

While moving in the direction Leon had chosen, members of Absolute Helix and Golden Tune had some downtime to mingle with one another. As they chatted, it was apparent that Diniel, perhaps due to being a former member of Golden Tune, was disliked by Eunice, but the rest of Absolute Helix got along just fine with Barbara and the two others.

Hannah and Daryl talked mainly with the Tanks, while Amira chatted with the fellow greatsword-wielding Attacker and Leon, keeping her usual casual tone. Leon, seeing that Amira was not at all nervous despite him being somewhat of a celebrity, was quite amused by the conversation that took place.

鈥溾€hat are you looking at?鈥?

To Tsutomu鈥檚 side, Eunice鈥檚 ears wagged as if to spell out her curiosity. She turned to scowl at Tsutomu upon noticing that he had been looking at her. In turn, Tsutomu snickered at her upon observing that her attitude had not changed one bit.

鈥淟ooks like you鈥檝e been working hard.鈥?

鈥溾€mph, of course. We鈥檙e already at layer sixty-nine, you know. What about you? Looks like you鈥檙e not in a hurry at all.鈥?

鈥淗ow about you beat layer seventy before bragging, Miss Number Not-Top-Three?鈥?

鈥淯gh鈥?鈥?

It was apparent that Eunice had been closely following the Dungeon Maniacs鈥?Healer rankings articles, what with her immediately being riled up by Tsutomu鈥檚 sarcasm. A groan leaked out of her nose.

鈥淗mph! What are those articles even good for, anyway!? They call themselves 鈥榤aniacs,鈥?but they鈥檙e just a bunch of ignorant hobbyists! You鈥檇 have to be an idiot to listen to them!鈥?

鈥淩eally? I think their assessments are pretty fair, and they鈥檙e some of the most open-minded people around here, too.鈥?

鈥淪ay what you want. Unlike you, I don鈥檛 care what they think. They don鈥檛 matter to me at all.鈥?

鈥淐ool.鈥?

Tsutomu turned to look at Leon instead, paying no mind to Eunice as she directed her attention elsewhere. After a little more walking, during which none of them made any eye contact, a few monsters appeared just as Leon had predicted.

The monsters the two parties encountered this time were Hell Scorpions.

鈥淎ll right, we鈥檒l go first,鈥?Leon said.

鈥淕ot it,鈥?Tsutomu replied and told his Clan members to be on standby. For this encounter, they were to simply observe.

Golden Tune鈥檚 general party structure was the same as that of Absolute Helix鈥檚, and their Attackers were high-leveled. Watching them in action would serve as a good reference, especially for Amira.

鈥?lt;<Haste>>, <<Protect>>.鈥?

Eunice waved her White Staff, casting support spells for her four teammates. Barbara and the Paladin pulled all of the Hell Scorpions鈥?aggro to them. Leon proceeded to rush ahead at blinding speed and stab one of the Scorpions with his long sword, and the Greatsword Fighter, clad in a blue power aura, approached the rest of the monsters.

As one would expect, Leon was the strongest fighter among them by a long shot, thanks to his unique skill <<Gold Bless>>. In fact, in and out of his Clan, he definitely was one of the best Attackers around.

The Greatsword Fighter was level seventy, and her skill rotation was refined. Due to not having trained extensively in the other Dungeons before, her swordplay was behind Camille, but she made up for it with superior tactics suited for God鈥檚 Dungeon specifically. Amira was at first uninterested due to having no reference point other than her mother, but then she started observing the Greatsword Fighter鈥檚 moves more and more closely.

Daryl kept an eye on Barbara, whose Job was the same as his. In terms of overall skill, Daryl was the stronger one, but that did not mean there was nothing he could learn from her. Hannah was shivering, in awe of Leon鈥檚 absurdly fast maneuvers, while Diniel simply yawned through the fight, holding no particular interest in anyone or anything.

Eunice鈥檚 performance, from Tsutomu鈥檚 point of view, could be described as 鈥榩erfectly fine鈥?for a White Mage 鈥?not bad but not particularly good either. Comparing her to Stephanie and Lorena, however, it was clear that she was rough around the edges. Her basic support and healing effectiveness were not as good as Stephanie鈥檚. She did not have any effective personal spins on the formula like Lorena鈥檚 improved aggro management and teamwork, either.

[Well, she IS doing well, though.]

Tsutomu was not looking down on Eunice, however. Both Stephanie and Lorena had been in this scene for a long time, while Eunice had only started exploring God鈥檚 Dungeon four years ago. It was natural that there would be a difference in their skill levels. Although her personality was not doing her any favors when it came to Tsutomu鈥檚 evaluation of her, he did consider her to meet a certain standard of Healers. The people she was comparing herself to were just too good.

As for the two Tanks, Barbara had gotten much better, and the Paladin, who had assisted Garm against a Black Dragon during the Stampede, was also showing improvement. Their movements still needed work, however, as they were not quite as refined as Daryl.

After sufficiently observing Golden Tune鈥檚 other members, Tsutomu turned to look if Eunice was properly managing aggro and buff durations. By the time that was done, the Hell Scorpions were defeated, and Leon proceeded to collect the dropped Magic Stones with blinding speed.

鈥淭hat was great. Now it鈥檚 our turn, yes?鈥?

鈥淵up. Looking forward to seeing what y鈥檃ll got! Well, here I go again.鈥?

And so Leon zoomed away like a gust of wind on another scouting round. In the meantime, the two Clans鈥?members proceeded to chat with one another again. Amira was particularly passionate in questioning the Greatsword Fighter, causing the latter to be somewhat taken aback.

鈥淒o you not have anything to say to me, Tsutomu?鈥?

Eunice strutted over to Tsutomu and looked up at him. She seemed confident in her performance during the battle just now. Tsutomu looked down at Eunice as she proceeded to narrow her eyes and proudly puff up her chest.

鈥淵ou did all right, I guess.鈥?

鈥溾€hat? That鈥檚 it?鈥?

鈥淭hat鈥檚 it.鈥?

鈥淎nything else?鈥?

鈥淣ope.鈥?

鈥溾€ut you taught Lorena and Stephanie a lot of stuff. It鈥檚 not fair鈥︹€?Eunice said, sounding grumpy as she turned away.

That comment left Tsutomu quite annoyed.

鈥溾€isten, try putting yourself in my shoes for a minute. Lorena is a member of Silver Beast, a Clan that has helped me out when I was struggling with鈥?things. And Stephanie asked me to teach her, so I did. Then there鈥檚 you, adding yourself onto my workload 鈥?why would I want to teach you?鈥?

鈥淵es, I understand. It鈥檚 because Stephanie flirts with you, but I don鈥檛. Now try putting yourself in MY shoes 鈥?you know that I鈥檓 never going to do that, right?鈥?

鈥淯h, there鈥檚 no flirting involved 鈥?you just have to ASK. Which is something you don鈥檛 really do, apparently?鈥?

鈥淗mph, don鈥檛 misunderstand. If I REALLY wanted to get stronger, I would ask and beg and even roll around on the ground. But Leon would be disappointed in me if I do that, so I won鈥檛.鈥?

Seeing that Tsutomu apparently did not understand her reasoning at all, Eunice shook her head and cracked a mischievous grin.

鈥淚 wouldn鈥檛 expect you to understand, since a troll like you is never gonna get a girlfriend or boyfriend anyway 鈥?but doing that would be cheating! You do know what cheating means, right?鈥?

鈥溾€ait, you think asking people to teach you things is like cheating on your partner?鈥?

鈥淗mph, it鈥檚 too late to try and explain yourself now, Tsutomu. I know you鈥檝e been doing weird stuff with Stephanie. I鈥檓 not about to sink to her level, you know?鈥?

鈥淣ow you鈥檙e just getting all the wrong ideas. Nothing is going on between me and her at all.鈥?

鈥淣o way! You should listen to how she talks 鈥?she praises you like crazy every chance she gets! It鈥檚 like she鈥檚 a fanatic or something! I know you鈥檙e trying to make me do something like that, too!鈥?

Eunice pointed at Tsutomu as if she was a superhero calling out a villain, causing the latter to drop his shoulders, tired of dealing with her. Her assumptions did not come out of thin air, however, since she had indeed listened to Stephanie singing excessive praises of Tsutomu during the post-Stampede celebration.

鈥淵ou know, if you wanted guidance, you could just鈥?ask, like a sane person.鈥?

鈥淢y heart belongs only to Leon, and I won鈥檛 give up until he鈥檚 mine alone! We鈥檙e gonna go back to the countryside and have a lot of kids鈥︹€?

And so, Eunice was stuck in a fairytale-like delusion. Tsutomu looked around trying to find help, but the other Golden Tune members only shook their heads. It seemed that Eunice would not be back for a while.

鈥淚鈥檓 back, y鈥檃ll鈥?huh, what鈥檚 happenin鈥?鈥?

鈥淎h, Leon. So, here鈥檚 the thing鈥︹€?

Tsutomu explained the situation to Leon, who had returned from his scouting round at just the right time. Leon then looked up at the cave鈥檚 ceiling and scratched his hair.

鈥淕otcha. I鈥檒l try and talk her out of it.鈥?

鈥淧lease do.鈥?

After that was out of the way, Tsutomu鈥檚 party proceeded to explore the area that Leon had pointed out. They almost immediately encountered some monsters, which they fought with relative ease.

Daryl was holding up quite well as a Tank and was now as strong as Garm and Bittman. He still lacked the confidence to think and act on his own, however, but Tsutomu鈥檚 instructions cancelled that out for him.

Hannah鈥檚 performance as an evasion-based Tank was getting better as well, thanks to her getting used to the Volcano layers鈥?environment. The ability to fine-tune her aerial maneuvers using her wings, which had already been an advantage during her Attacker days, also served to help her attack-and-evade Tanking style. It could even be said that this was her true calling all along.

Amira had been doing extremely well since the first Bolseyer battle. As for Diniel, she had always been a nigh-perfect Attacker, so there was no particular thing to point out. She did have a problem when it came to motivation, what with her tendency to not participate in exploration and training sessions unless convinced, but at least she had been carrying out her necessary duties without fail so far.

Soon enough, the monsters were wiped out. As Tsutomu collected the dropped Magic Stones, Barbara excitedly ran up to Daryl and talked to him.

鈥淭hat was awesome! You鈥檙e as strong as the rumours say, Daryl!鈥?

鈥淚t鈥檚 thanks to Sir Garm and Sir Tsutomu鈥檚 training! I still have a long way to go, though.鈥?

鈥淵ou think? You seem to already be as strong as Garm, from what I saw.鈥?

鈥淥h, no! I鈥檓 not quite there yet!鈥?

Daryl denied all the compliments, waving his hands and his black-furred tail. Seeing that, Barbara decided not to say anything more, though it was apparent that she disagreed.

[Sure would be nice if he was more confident鈥 Tsutomu thought to himself. Just as he was done collecting the Magic Stones, Leon approached him, wolf ears folded down.

鈥淗ey, Tsutomu. I had a talk with Eunice 鈥?she shouldn鈥檛 have any wrong ideas now.鈥?

鈥淎ll right. Thank you.鈥?

鈥淪till, it鈥檚 hard to believe that there鈥檚 nothing between you and the Ealdred Crow girl, you know?鈥?

鈥淯h鈥?yes, there really is nothing between us. All I did was teach her how to be a Healer.鈥?

鈥淐ould鈥檝e convinced me otherwise 鈥?because, man, she鈥檚 been talking you up. Whenever I mentioned your name in a conversation, her eyes practically lit up.鈥?

Seeing Leon so surprised, Tsutomu tilted his head, not quite understanding why. Leon then brought up another topic, his eyes sparkling as he proceeded to ask Tsutomu,

鈥淥h, by the way! Do you think I can pull off the same fighting style as that Hannah girl?鈥?

鈥淪hould be difficult for you, actually 鈥?since you鈥檙e a Swordfighter, which doesn鈥檛 have any group aggro-pulling skills. Maybe it鈥檒l work out if you try very hard and put your own spin on it, though. Your unique skill would help, too.鈥?

鈥淗mm, I see鈥︹€?Leon held his chin and pondered things over, then said to Tsutomu, 鈥淭hanks, man!鈥?

As Tsutomu imagined what an evasion-based Tank Leon would look like, he felt a tug on his robe.

鈥溾€︹€︹€?

鈥淲hat is it?鈥?

Turning around, he saw Eunice, quite apparently having something on her mind. Eunice looked up at him, as if she was resolved to reply to his question,

鈥淪o, Tsutomu鈥?would you actually teach me if I ask you what I want to know?鈥?

鈥淚f you beg and roll around on the ground.鈥?

鈥溾€︹€︹€?

鈥淛ust kidding. Well, what鈥檇 you like to ask?鈥?

Feeling that she was being poked fun at, Eunice heaved a sigh and put on a serious face.

鈥淚鈥檇 like you to鈥?be our party鈥檚 Healer for a bit.鈥?

Silavin: I got fooled by the title D: