Chapter 74

The team fought the Queen Spider five times the next day; the last attempt was a particularly good run, but unfortunately, they still could not claim victory. After Stephanie had started paying attention to the main thread and cutting it, the two Tanks died much less often and the Attacker became much more mobile.

On the last run, the Attacker had finally gotten his dual blades through the Queen Spider’s soft abdomen, causing the gel-like fluids inside to gush out. The Attacker had tried to keep up the momentum, but then countless little Spiders rained down from the webs above, as if to save its Queen. The Attacker had been crushed by the avalanche of Spiders and finished off by the Queen Spider, then the two Tanks had been killed as well, unable to deal with all the little Spiders. In the end, Stephanie had been the only one left alive.

“Damn it!” The Attacker man shouted in frustration the team was back to the Guild. The two Tanks, spooked by the man’s behavior, slowly stepped away.

“…We were so close, too. But enough moping — we either get it tomorrow, or we don’t. I’m confident that we can win, so long as we survive those little Spiders. Now, let us discuss.”

Stephanie looked just as disappointed as the others, but once back at the Guild, she instantly switched gears and called the two Tanks to brainstorm plans for the next day. The two Tanks and the Attacker sat down at one of the Guild’s round tables.

“…What?”

Stephanie was a little surprised when the Attacker sat down without saying a word, but she sat down herself and said sarcastically,

“…Oh, nothing. I thought you were about to leave, is all.”

The Attacker clicked his tongue and proceeded to say,

“Nah, I’m staying. That guy’s told me to behave myself, so yeah…”

“Mister Tsutomu did!?”

“What? No, not him. Sova.”

“Oh… All right, then. Let us get started.”

Stephanie had considered having him apologize first, but in the end did not want him to become uncooperative again, so she proceeded on with the party’s meeting immediately. First, she instructed the two Tanks to use <<combat cry="">> when the small Spiders appeared, and also split up so that the enemies would not flock to one place. The plan also included Stephanie and the Attacker splitting up, working to wipe out the little Spiders in two groups at once.</combat>

She then suggested to the Attacker various ways to deal with the little Spiders and cut the main thread, most of which he was receptive to, to her surprise.

[Not that he’s mentioned him, this man does resemble Sova in some aspects…] Stephanie thought as she looked at the Attacker.

Sova, back when he had started out, also had the same attitude as this Attacker. How the former had recently started accepting the Tanks, and how the latter’s behavior was getting now, were also similar.

The Attacker, though still impolite, had clearly had a change of attitude. Stephanie was curious as to exactly what Sova had done to him, but refrained from asking; after the evaluative meeting, she returned to the Clan House together with her party members.

In the Clan House’s Dining Hall, Stephanie sat down to eat while spinning her skill shots around under her chair; at one point, someone called her from behind,

“…Hey, what’re you up to?”

“Oh, hello, Sova. I was thinking I’d look for you after finishing my meal here.”

Sova looked at Stephanie, suspicious about how she had energy spheres spinning under her chair, then pulled an unfriendly face and took a seat opposite of her.

These two were on fairly friendly terms, having entered Ealdred Crow at around the same time period. Bittman was as well, in fact, but the greater age difference had made it so that he was not as close of a friend.

“How’s that guy been doing?”

“That guy, who?”

“You know, the Dualblader. Is he doing his job properly now?”

“Oh, that was considerate of you, Sova. You have my thanks.”

Stephanie’s indifferent reply prompted Sova to turn away in exasperation.

“It’s because our guest’s asked me to. That Dualblader’s been looking down on the Tanks, and he thought I could do something about that, and stuff.”

“Our guest… you mean Mister Tsutomu!?”

“Y-yeah.”

Though surprised by Stephanie’s suddenly leaning forward, Sova nodded, then narrowed his eyes in disinterest upon seeing the former looking quite happy while sitting back down.

Back when the three-role composition had been introduced, Sova had been antipathic toward Tanks, what with them taking so long to defeat even one monster, and especially the Heavy Knights and such moving so slowly, making exploration harder than it should be for the rest.

He used to wonder why he had to care about such useless people, and had only shown respect to Tanks more skilled and experienced than him, such as Bittman and Garm.

Sova, being one of the best Attackers one could find anywhere, had a fair share of influence within the Clan. Eventually, however, his attitude toward Tanks had softened after going through the Canyons with a team that had adopted the three-role composition and seeing how useful it could be. As he had discovered, having a Tank made it easier for him to kill monsters and greatly reduced his workload as an Attacker.

“Your efforts have been very helpful. Thank you, Sova.”

“Tch, it just pissed me off, seeing that guy act like I used to. Just know that I wasn’t doing it for anyone, not our guest, not you.”

“That man does resemble you a little bit, Sova. ‘I’m a Dualblader, you know!’ and stuff,” Stephanie mimicked the man’s voice, complete with putting her hands on her hips.

“Hey, bug off.”

Sova rested his elbows on the table and turned away.

In a way, Stephanie’s claim was correct; Sova’s was a Swordfighter, a relatively high-performance Job even for Attackers, and he was quite proud to be one, especially since it was the same Job as the Scarlet Devil Squad’s Clan Leader, whom he deeply respected.

The Clan Leader of Scarlet Devil Squad was a master of various weapon types and had a brilliant fighting style. From how his weapons turned red from his enemies’ blood and his unique skill, which granted extreme heating properties to his blades, he had gained the nickname of Crimson Spellblader.

But as of now, the Scarlet Devil Squad had yet to adopt the three-role composition. Sova had been quite dissatisfied by the fact that, while the person he respected skillfully fought without anyone’s help, he’d had to start relying on Tanks. Fortunately, he had managed to keep it from getting in the way of his work.

“So you’ll be done with training tomorrow, right? The main party’s replacement Healer’s been getting a lot of praise from Rook these past three weeks. The assessment’s still coming up, so you might get demoted next month, you know,” Sova replied to Stephanie with a sarcastic utterance, having suddenly felt like dampening her mood.

“Please, don’t worry. I won’t lose.”

“Oh yeah?”

Sova, knowing that the mention of demotion used to cause Stephanie to visibly lose confidence, would invoke the word whenever he was at a conversational disadvantage. Now, however, Stephanie was convinced that she would not lose her spot, since she had seen that the other Healer was still only as good as she had been three weeks ago, having gone to check out the Monitor several times.

“Well, we’ll be going down to the infamous layer sixty-five soon. Better be prepared for it,” Sova said and gave Stephanie a semi-threatening look, seeing how the latter had changed so much over the past three weeks, before leaving the Dining Hall as if running away.

Stephanie tilted her head, confused as to what was up with him.

――▽▽――

“Now then, let us be on our way.”

Today was the last day of training. Stephanie, after one last meeting with her party members in front of layer twenty-nine’s Black Gate, proceeded onward to layer thirty.

They arrived at the now-familiar dimly-lit cave. Stephanie intercepted the Queen Spider’s surprise attack from above with <, then immediately cast <

In the end, the Queen Spider stumbled, rolled over, curled its legs, and stopped moving altogether. As the monster’s body began emitting light particles, the cave was filled with four echoing voices of cheer.