Chapter 105 21.3 First Dungeon?

"I shall take the lead then!"

Readying my pistols, I watched as Maruki charged shield first into the waiting crowd. He didn't even wait for us to walk in behind him. He just... ran in.

"W-Wait a damn second!"

Guidance screamed behind me, practically nudged herself past me with her keyboard already glowing as she stuck herself just a ways away from our wayward tank. From where Shizu and I stood gawking at the sight of it, Maruki was taking in all the aggro as he shouted and screamed.

"Come and get it! My duty demands that you all hit me!"

To my surprise, his shield began glowing as he started taking hits. He wasn't doing any fancy moves, but he kept hitting his shield with his sword every once in a while, a faint shockwave washing over everybody present the deeper he went into the room.

"[Medica]! [Adloqium]!"

Meanwhile, Guidance was practically shouting out one [Move] after another, her face contorted with both annoyance and panic as she clearly struggled to keep up with our berserker of a tank. Frankly, I didn't even know why Shizu and I were still standing by the room's entrance like idiots at this point. Maybe we were just stunned by how much attention Maruki was pulling for himself?

"Uhmm... Shouldn't we start helping them?"

I blinked at Shizu's words. Well, because she had a point.

"I suppose we should," I awkwardly replied. "Though, we're kind of not built for getting rid of a mob of enemies, aren't we?"

"All the more challenge, I feel," Shizu smirked beside me, cracking her knuckles as she chuckled. "Then again, a part of me feels like I do have a [Move] that can get rid of them with one attack. I just can't seem to remember it..."

Can't remember?

Looking up at her name, unsurprisingly, her level was at a pitiful 22, a far cry from her usual 80 as she bounced excitedly on her feet. I guess the level sync was just gonna be a regular occurrence no matter how convenient it would be for everyone to be at their real strength. Oh well, I suppose-

"What the hell are you two idiots still doing back there?!"

I almost flinched as Guidance's aggravated tone echoed against the room's walls. The sounds of fighting hadn't let up yet, and Maruki was still holding on to his position like a champ.

"Get in here- [Cure]!- Kill these things before I run out of [MP]!" Guidance yelled out, her keyboard clacking nonstop. "Well?!"

...O-Oh! Right... "S-Sorry about that!"

Sharing an awkward smile with Shizu, the two of us readied our respective weapons before walking into the fray. The enemies were all attacking Maruki, so the two of us had complete rein on just raining down hell on these mobs.

"Let's go!"

With a shout, Shizu dashed forward, her fists aimed squarely at the closest fishman's skull she could find. The subtitles could hardly keep up as she went in like the excitable murder blender that she was.

[*THUD! THUD! THUD! THUD! THUD! THUD!*]

"That's the spirit, Princess!" Maruki bellowed out, the strange shockwaves coming off his shield still coming as she defended himself. "Cast them down into the abyss!"

I couldn't help but chuckle at the sight before me. With Shizu providing some much-needed DPS, the crowd was starting to thin even without my help. Then again, Guidance was still casting one [Move] after the other as the stress of keeping Maruki alive was adding more and more lines on her face.

"Well," I shrugged as I raised my pistols at the ready. "I guess it's time for me to-"

"SHUT UP AND START SHOOTING!"

Okay. That time, I actually flinched. "Sorry!"

Well, that was my bad. Better start killing some fish.

[*BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!*]

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[+145 EXP]

[+145 EXP]

[+145 EXP]

[+145 EXP]

[+145 EXP]

[+145 EXP]

[LEVEL UP!]

Well, now that was convenient.

[Moriya: Level 24]

[EXP TO NEXT LEVEL: 20/2400]

[HP: 265/265]

[MP: 215/215]

[2 STAT POINTS AVAILABLE FOR ALLOCATION]

[QUIRK AVAILABLE]

[MOVES AVAILABLE]

And would you look at that? I have a few new stuff to get.

"That... was... AWESOME!"

I was taken out of my own excitement as Shizu yelled out her happiness. Her fists were bloody and blue with fish guts, and yet she still acted like she had just gone down a slide for the first time.

"So that's how it feels like to take on a group at once," Shizu happily chuckled. "I actually felt some challenge there for a while."

"Haha! That is simply because you were hitting them so hard that you managed to take their attention off me!" Maruki proudly laughed aloud, his wounds already healing as his body glowed with Guidance's [Medica]. "This only means that I have more to improve on!"

I couldn't help but chuckle at his words. He was a model tank, eating any and every attack that might stray to the three of us as we did our jobs. I dealt with the periphery and the archers, while Shizu greedily jumped into the fray without so much as a care in the world. All the while, Guidance was frantically healing the two.

"You two... idiots..."

Even now, Guidance was on her knees, panting her heart out as her [Manifest] laid unused on her side. I really didn't envy her job. Keeping people alive was stressful, especially if they weren't cooperating on top of that.

"Do you have any idea... how much I was working..." Guidance growled at the two, her ire almost making them stiffen as they slowly turned to her. "Maruki here wasn't popping any mitigation... While Princess wasn't even trying to dodge the AoEs..."

"Lady Guidance?! Whatever do you mean?! I did splendidly for-"

"Provoking enemies without proper damage mitigation is far from splendid!" Guidance yelled out. "Fine! I'll concede that you did a good job making sure everything's attacking you, but you didn't even bother trying to reduce their damage or even attack! You just let them hit you for free!"

...

....Oh... Oh dear...

"You just walked in without even waiting for us! For me! The one that's going to keep you alive!"

Shizu grimaced as she slowly inched away from Maruki. The one being ranted on, meanwhile, simply listened with... rapt attention?

"We'll have words here and now!" Guidance frothed at the mouth, her anger getting the better of her. "All of you, front and center!"

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