After the Menagerie cleared the first room of the dungeon before Arwin even had a chance to swing his hammer a single time, it became abundantly clear to him that his guild had improved significantly since the last time he’d gone delving with them.
Gone were the days of cobbling together a fight with a group of individually capable adventurers. The inefficiency had been ground out of them until nothing but teamwork remained. Out of every monster in the first room of the dungeon — of which there had been four red-skinned little imps vaguely reminiscent of Lillia’s summons — not one had even gotten a chance to fight back.
Reya had frozen one in place. Olive had cut it clean in two before it could recover, while Rodrick dashed from monster to monster, drawing their attention. They’d then all been cut down in rapid succession, dispatched like animals rather than true foes.
As stunned as Arwin had been, the expression on Yonas’ face had been so good that he didn’t even mind. The guildsman looked like he’d swallowed a whole egg and couldn’t tell if he was surprised, scared, or just plain confused.
Of course, the first room was just a single room. The improvement was an immense achievement. Their coordination was impressive. It was clearly borne from constant practice and training, not to mention all the monsters that the members of the Menagerie must have killed while Arwin was crafting.Fôll0w current novÊls o/n n/o/(v)/3l/b((in).(c/o/m)
But when they reached the second room, it went much the same.
As did the third.
And the fourth.
Arwin’s delight and surprise only grew. He found himself reduced to a gawking spectator alongside Lillia and Yonas, left with no option but to simply marvel at the progress of his guild.
There was also no doubt that they’d all gotten better at fighting. It was apparent to see in the way they carried themselves. Olive had always been a good swordswoman, but she positioned with her missing arm constantly to either Rodrick or Reya. She wasn’t trying to take every fight on her own. Olive was positioning herself with the rest of the team — and it was freeing her blade. Even with the restrictions of how long it took her to swing an empowered attack, not having to cover one side had drastically improved her speed.
Rodrick had always been a good warrior, but now he’d become more than that. Instead of trying to fight the monsters directly, he focused on keeping their attention. He danced through the fight, absorbing blows but only returning them when an opportunity arose.
His distraction kept the pressure off the rest of the team, allowing the rest of them to rip apart their opponents’ ranks like a wildfire through a field of dry grass.
Anna kept largely to the back of the fight. Her attention was largely focused on keeping Rodrick patched up, but she occasionally stepped in to dispatch a crippled enemy left behind by Reya or Olive specifically for that purpose.
Reya had made it a point to remain near Anna. Wyrmhunger remained at her side, sheathed. Arwin suspected that wasn’t usually the case in dungeons by how the blade seemed to rattle faintly at her side. She was keeping from drawing the weapon and revealing its abilities while Yonas was present.
If anything, that meant the Menagerie was even more capable than they were letting on right now. Reya was only using half of her skillset.
Arwin and Lillia exchanged more than a few disbelieving looks. They’d long since stopped worrying about Yonas. All the man did was direct them into the right rooms before being shoved off to the corner so he wouldn’t get in the way of the fighting.
Any faint doubts Arwin may have had about their chances in an Adept-ranked dungeon evaporated. It had been a little strange when nobody had blinked at the rank of the dungeon they were going up against when Lillia had gathered them.
Arwin hadn’t questioned it much because he’d just assumed they were used to dealing with harder dungeons and had guessed that an Overloading Journeyman dungeon wouldn’t be that much weaker than an Adept ranked one.
He was starting to think the real reason they’d been so calm was because they’d all gotten so much stronger. Arwin wasn’t even sure what tier the others were anymore, but he made a mental note to find out when Yonas wasn’t there.
If anything, he was starting to feel bad for Lillia. She’d previously been calling the shots in their fights. Rodrick hadn’t exactly taken the role from her — he wasn’t barking out orders to control the fight — but the group had gotten into such a seamless flow that none of the monsters they’d met thus far were actually enough of a threat to draw on her talents.
Yonas swallowed and coughed into a fist, shaking his head. “I... must have misspoken. The trip only takes around twenty minutes for a competent party. There are six rooms in this path before the purple torch doors. We have not attempted properly challenging the boss yet, so I cannot speak to how difficult the fight will be.”
You haven’t really said much of anything other than telling us which doorways to take thus far, so I don’t think you knowing nothing about the boss really changes anything. All that matters is we get in there, get the heart, and get out as quickly as possible.
“Good to know.” Rodrick gave him a nod, then gestured around the room. There were several paths forward scattered along its walls. “Which one?”
Yonas indicated a tunnel near the center of the rightmost wall. “That one.”
“Great,” Rodrick said. “On we go, then. Lillia — it might be best if you take over after the next room.”
Lillia blinked. “Are you sure? You’ve been doing a good job thus far.”
“Against normal fights, yes. We’ve had a lot of practice with that. But I don’t think we want to take the risk when we’re up against something that poses as big a threat as the boss of an Adept-ranked dungeon.”
Lillia smiled and inclined her head. “I’ll do that, then. Thank you.”
“Anytime. Wouldn’t have anyone else actually telling us what to do. Other than Arwin — but his orders are usually some variant of charge! Simple, but effective.”
“Some strategy will go a long way in keeping me from overworking,” Anna said dryly, sending a pointed look in Rodrick’s direction. “And maybe help you from getting hit constantly.”
“Getting hit is my job!”
“Keeping attention is your job. You don’t have to be a magnet for every attack in existence.”
“Noted,” Rodrick said with a chuckle.
Yonas looked from Rodrick to Lillia, clearly trying to figure out why it was that the guild’s innkeeper was being consulted for strategy. His befuddlement only seemed to grow with every step. It was a bit childish, but Arwin was looking forward to seeing how the man handled watching them all fight together.
“Everyone ready?” Lillia asked, noticing that the Menagerie were all waiting for her orders. “Let’s clear the next room out, take a short ten minute break to strategize and recover some energy, and then get this dungeon wrapped.”
“We aren’t that pressed for time,” Yonas said, shifting his weight from foot to foot. “You can all take longer to rest. There’s no need to push so hard. The Ardent Guild isn’t going to catch onto us that quickly.”
Lillia tilted her head to the side. “Who said anything about the Ardent Guild? There’s something far more important than that I don’t want to be late for if I can help it.”
“What’s that?” Yonas asked, blinking in surprise.
Lillia grinned and tapped the hilt of the knife at her side. “Dinner.”