117 Speed-Running A Dungeon

117 Speed-Running A Dungeon

I was right. Just standing there while everyone else worked so hard, made me feel terrible. Even when I pulled out my magical guitar and sang an encouraging song to buff them up, it barely lasted five minutes before it faded away and I was tired. I had to wait an hour before I felt up to playing again and the temporary boost didn't really do much.

As the day wore on, I also found out something important. The XP sharing a party did when formed at the guild was very different from the sharing I did when forming a party with my system. It was shared by ranking, which meant Selene was getting the lion's share, Megumin got a much smaller share Darkness next, then Wiz, then Cremea, then Fio, and then way way way at the bottom was me.

Since I was technically support, despite not being able to do anything else besides hand out food and medical supplies like potions, it meant I was contributing in some capacity and it gained me the minimum amount.

It was going to take forever for me to gain any levels this way.

When we paused for lunch in a safe area, I brought this up. My party discussed it furiously and Selene just looked resigned and said that was how it worked. Unless I could fight on par with the others, I wouldn't get much XP at all.

“Then let me get the final hit before you kill something.” I suggested.

Selene shook her head. “That doesn't matter. I still did all the work. Getting the final blow doesn't matter.”

“Do you know that for sure?” Wiz asked her.

“I've been an adventurer for years and I've never encountered anyone gaining more experience with only one hit at the end of the fight.” Selene said.

I sat there and thought about that. “Is it because you were all about the same level or because you always concentrated on killing the enemy and never tried to dole out who gets the final shot in each battle?”

Selene gave me an odd look. “What do you mean?”

“Obviously, you've had a party before and can work well with others when taking down bigger creatures.” I said and motioned to Darkness, because she had used her as a shield a few times to deal out enough damage to take down some of the creatures in the dungeon. “But, did you ever rotate who gets the last shot or did you always have the same person finish them off because that was what you were used to?”

Selene looked surprised at my question and then ducked her head for several minutes. None of us said anything and let the woman think about it. We also didn't try to talk about anything else, because we didn't want to distract her.

“You're right, Kazuma. It was always me. I was always at the forefront and we would whittle down larger enemies until they were weak enough and I would take the opportunity to deal the final blow. Since there was always a lot of XP to spread around, it never occurred to me that I could be getting a bit more than the others for ending things and not because I was the better fighter and contributed more.”

“We're not used to confining and subduing enemies, either.” Wiz said, who was also an experienced party member in the past. “Why would we stop attacking to let someone else finish off what we were fighting? It goes against everything we've learned.”

Selene nodded in agreement. “It's not something we ever had to do before. You fight until it's dead and that's that. We usually work out a split of the loot afterwards.”

“Which we mentally applied to XP as well to give everyone a more even share because of their contributions to the fighting.” Wiz said, realizing the truth. “I wonder if that's how it works because we believed it worked that way or if it's set up that way and our magic makes it so?”

Selene looked thoughtful for several seconds. “It will be much harder to pull back in the last moments of a fight to capture the creatures instead of killing them.” She said and gave me a look. “Will your armor last long if you stay much closer to the fighting?”

“The armor will.” I said, confidently.

Wiz reached over and cupped the side of my face. “What about you inside the armor?”

“I am very squishy.” I said with a sigh. “One good hit, maybe two. I will have to drink health and mana potions like crazy to keep up with you, too.”

“Then that's what we'll do.” Selene said and finished off her meal. “We'll lure out the next set of creatures and we'll try to beat them down into unconsciousness instead of death. We can try removing their limbs or something and then bashing their heads to knock them out. Once they are...”

“...I can try killing one with minimal risk of death.” I finished for her and she nodded. “All right, let's do this.”

*

Sylvia, the Demon General in charge of the Monster Division for the Demon King, was in one of her favorite places and enjoying herself. It was one of the monster breeding pits in the world's most dangerous dungeon and she was overseeing a new addition to the army.

Primary Mission failed. Secondary mission incomplete. Hidden missions 3 of 8 completed.

Severe penalties will be applied and your choice of the next world has been set. Please wait while we initialize the transfer.

That's new. I thought.

A smaller blue box appeared that indicated Fate herself was talking. That's because things are not quite back to the way they were.

Is it fixed, though? I asked, wondering how much things were going to change.

Technically. The blue box showed.

That doesn't sound good. I thought and tried to not let my worry get to me.

It's been patched enough to still function and you should have access to the same options. Fate replied.

I heard a huge 'but' there. I thought back.

'You should have access' and 'you do have access' are two slightly different things. Fate answered. We won't know if there are any problems until you try things out.

I sighed mentally, since I didn't have lungs at the moment. Give me a few minutes to poke around and we'll see what we can find out.

Thank you. Fate said.

I pulled up the system interface and chose the Party option. As I suspected, Darkness and the others were all greyed out. I went through the lengthy process of dismissing them and paying the points, going into debt slightly as I ensured they successfully escaped from Sylvia. I didn't see any penalties being applied, however.

You'll discover them when you wake up in the next world. Fate said without me having to ask.

I noticed she avoided telling me, which meant she knew and it was going to be bad. I sighed and kept going over the options. One of the ones missing was buying fertility and I pointed it out, mostly because it affected Fate's job as well. I hadn't left any little rugrats running around on the last world and that severely hampered her and probably everyone else.

I didn't even get to say goodbye. I thought and would have cried if I had eyeballs or tears to shed.

The word 'sigh' appeared in the little blue box. I'm not really supposed to tell you anything. Fate said and then a smile icon appeared. Wiz uses her knowledge of the other generals to convert Vanir to the hero's side and they gathered other adventurers to the cause. It takes them years and they eventually defeated the Demon King.

I floated there as I thought about that. Thank you for telling me.

I know it bothers you when you leave a world before you're supposed to. This last time was a complete fuck-up because of Divine Intervention.

That reminded me of my promise to that angel to show up in the afterlife and marry her. Hey, about what happened...

You were plucked directly from the world and your soul didn't reach the upper realm like the last time. The system learned that lesson the hard way and avoided the entire problem.

Ah, that explains why I didn't meet Eris again after dying. I thought. I wonder how they reacted to losing a soul?

The word 'giggle' appeared in the little box. It was hilarious! Goddess Eris is in a lot of trouble for screwing up a hero's reincarnation so badly.

I mentally laughed and thought that was appropriate.

System fully calibrated. Thank you for your patience.

Good luck in the next world, you're going to need it.

Wait! Where are you sending... I couldn't finish the question as blackness engulfed me.