chapter 8

At the end of the break, Tsutomu felt fairly anxious and angry at the guild at the same time . Coming from the back cafeteria, Lucky Boy passed by the large monitors as usual .

 

It was now five minutes before the meeting . As he saw Garm wearing his armor and sitting on the bench on schedule, he spoke to him as he grinned wide .

 

“Good morning, Garm-san . How are the preparations?”

 

“Umu, good morning . The preparations are doing well . ”

 

“I see . Well then, would being tank this time be okay too?”

 

In the swamp, the tank got damaged a lot, and so Tsutomu wondered if Garm disliked tanking . However, Tsutomu couldn’t exactly weather hits from multiple monsters at once, so there was no choice but to rely on a tank, unfortunately .

 

“Hm? Is it just the same thing as before? I can do that, no problem . ”

 

“Really? Thanks for the help!”

 

“Uh, Tsutomu . There’s something I’d like to discuss with you before Amy gets here . ”

 

“Yes?”

 

Tsutomu sat down beside Garm and tried to hear out his problem .

 

“I want Amy to tank for us once, is that okay?”

 

“…Amy, as a tank? You can have tanks with a low VIT stat, I guess, but the beach would be too dangerous if she were to tank… I guess you want to let her learn about tanking, though, right?”

 

“Yes, exactly . ”

 

Tsutomu thought about Garm’s proposal . He made up his mind as he looked at the beach through the monitor .

 

“Yeah, I wanted to test out some new skills, too, so we can do that . As for where… the swamp should be fine . It’s fairly straightforward for Amy to grasp the ropes in there . ”

 \n“Yes, thank you . She seems to have underestimated my role, so I want her to do it herself this time . ”

 

“O-oh . Really?”

 

Tsutomu heard Garm laughing while his black tail swayed to and fro childishly .

 

After that, Garm returned a high-quality medium magic stone over to Tsutomu . As Tsutomu politely declined the stone, they heard a cheerful high voice behind them .

 

 Amy, running from the guild entrance, stopped abruptly in front of Tsutomu as the swords on her belt swayed in their sheaths .

 

“Sorry to keep you waiting! Ah, Tsutomu! Thanks for giving me the magic stone! I went to eat with my friends at Uozumi restaurant! It was delicious, as expected!”

 

“I see . That’s great . By the way, did Garm tell you?”

 

“Tell what?”

 

“About tanking . ”

 

“Ah…”

 

While Garm hid his expression from behind, Amy twisted her neck while narrowing her eyes . Her eyes flew wide open once she realized what she’d done .

 

“Since Amy has no skill to draw enemy aggro, she draws attention purely by attacking . This is a different type of tank from Garm, but I think that understanding of the tank will deepen . ”

 

“Ah, is that so? Is it possible?”

 

“However, the healer is more likely to be targeted if one doesn’t have skills for drawing aggression . As such, in the swamp, Amy’s VIT should be paramount, as well as Garm’s ATK, if Garm is to turn into an attacker, we should be fine . ”

 

“Understood . ”

 

Amy looked as if she had a question mark on her head, while Garm seemed satisfied .

 

“Let’s do this just like before . ”\n 

“Alright, got it!”

 

“You say you do, but do you really…?”

 

“Huh!? I doooooo!”

 

 

As the sun and the sky were blotted out by dark grey clouds, the three landed on muddy ground . Around them were overgrown plants with drooping branches .

 

As always, the three, who had just landed on the 20th floor, began as usual . Amy scouted ahead . Tsutomu prepared potions and placed them into containers . Garm did some preparatory movements .

 

You normally won’t be attacked as soon as you exit the black gate . Normally you’d have to move 50 meters or so before that happened . In the case of the swamp, it was bad luck that the landing point was muddy, but as a side effect, you couldn’t tell when you’d get attacked .

 

So immediately after getting out of the guild’s magic circle and the dungeon’s black gate, they slowly prepared . Amy came back as soon as Tsutomu handed the potion to Garm .

 

“The north is a regular swamp area with some bottomless parts . The east and west are the same as here . The south is a swamp area with big aquatic plants . The area is light, and I think there are probably no bottomless swamps there . ”

 

“Okay, let’s go north . Mud slimes, froggers, and bloody bees will make for good practice . ”

 

As Tsutomu changed from leather shoes to thigh boots and handed potions to Amy, she walked behind Garm with her tongue out .

 

“Ah . Amy, you’re tanking this time, so please stay in front . ”

 

“Alriiiiiight . ”

 

With Amy in front, the three headed north . As they progressed, the brownish soil increased in darkness, and the muddiness of the area became thicker . At that point, Amy and Garm left their shoes behind and went barefoot .

 

Although Tsutomu had bought two more pairs of boots, Amy and Garm were more accustomed to walking barefoot and moved more easily that way . Thus, the boots were kept in the magic bag . Amy jumped slightly in the cool mud, and mud got stuck in her white clothes .

 

Tsutomu tried to tell Amy, but Garm had already cautioned her . A little further, a mud slime hid in the mud . A group of froggers laying under a tree was just in front of it .

 \n

“Now, Amy . Draw the monsters here… don’t mess up your footing . ”

 

“Understood~”

 

As Tsutomu raises VIT and AGI using his newfound support skills, Amy rushes forward as if to play barefoot in the mud .

 

Amy pulled out the two swords that were in her scabbard and picked out the slime hidden in the swamp . The black-colored slime tried to absorb the sword stabbed into it from above, but the sword had already been pulled out . The mud slime chased Amy, who went under the froggers .

 

The froggers, who looked like large dogs, had dull greenish skin, and warts everywhere . The froggers, which sometimes spewed poison from their warts, noticed Amy and, using strong hind legs, flew towards her, leaving mud in their wake .

 

Amy kicked up the mud on the left to prevent a froggers’ assault . The frogger, which moved its black eyes, bounced and chased Amy .

 

Amy, who retreated somewhere a little less muddy than where the monster was, looked at Tsutomu behind her .

 

“Amy, you should counterattack and avoid attacks to draw aggression . Oh, don’t use your skills as much as possible . ”

 

“Huh!? To this number of enemies!?”

 

“Using skills when tanking isn’t normally done in practice . I think this will be quite difficult, but you’ll do fine . Protect . Haste . ”

 

Tsutomu shook a white cane, cast a small amount of protection and Haste, and went down . Amy confronts the six froggers as the corner of her mouth twitched .

 

Amy checked if the potion that was inserted into the holder wrapped around her waist was still there, narrowly avoiding the front leg of the swinging frogger .

 

“Wah~”

 

Amy, whose feet have become lighter as a result of Tsutomu’s Haste, became accustomed to it, avoiding the froggers’ assault, kicking their hind legs, and their extended tongues one after another .

 

After about 30 seconds, the effect of Haste wore off . As Amy began to feel that her legs were once again heavy, a blue mist flew from behind, and her legs became light again .

 

“Sorry, that was a bit late!”

 

Tsutomu shouted from behind apologetically and continued to shake the cane and cast buffs on Amy . Then two of the froggers approached, changing their direction .

 

“Amy! Attack the front frogger! Garm will handle the other one!”

 

At the direction of Tsutomu, Amy put her right sword into the frogger’s cheek . The frogger, which lost its position and shed blood, glared at Amy .

 

The other frogger flew towards the rear from behind, and Garm countered with a shield . Garm intercepted a frogger of the size of a large dog and pushed it towards Amy .

 

“Amy . Please strike once behind the three froggers . And from behind the froggers, four slimes were approaching . There’s a bee to the west too . ”

 

“That’s why I was told that it was impossible!”

 

While desperately following Tsutomu’s commands, Amy kicked the ground and avoided the frogger that hit her body . But when she avoided the attack, she shook her two swords and scratched the enemy . While striving not to let her buffs expire, she looked around and surveyed the battle .

 

All of the froggers’ assaults, changing their directions, were being countered by Amy and prevented by Garm . As Garm attacked the enemies devilishly, Tsutomu buffed Amy with protection and Haste again, since she couldn’t draw aggro as effectively due to buffs expiring .

 

Whether Amy felt trapped because additional slimes were closing in, she cast a skill with her double swords in front of her .

 

“Twin Wave Slash!”

 

As Amy swung her double swords while screaming the skill name, the frogger on the receiving end split in half and was converted into a magic stone . And the mud slime approaching from the back was also cut vertically .

 

Swinging and slashing, using the swords . Through Twin Wave Slash, her only long-distance skill, Amy cut through enemies as if dancing . A frogger turned into a magic stone, leaving two, and the four slimes were shredded .

 

Meanwhile, two froggers jumped towards Amy at the same time . One that flew like a bullet was handled with her double swords, but she got hit by another one in the arm .

 

The frogger’s assault, which was hard to avoid even with Tsutomu’s help, was only able to bruise Amy due to her bonus VIT and protection . Amy pierced the frogger that had been attached to her arm with a double sword in the head, while slowly feeling pain .

 

“Amy . Garm has brought an enemy from the west . ”

 

“Haaaaaa!?”

 

“I’m sorry, but please do your best until Garm is satisfied . ”

 

Amy glared at Garm who ran from the west, as her bruise was cured with Heal . There were dozens of bloody bees that were each about the size of a human head . Some froggers also followed them from behind . Amy looked up to the heavens and prayed .