Well, this is going well. I say, sarcastically.
Though, to be fair, it isn’t going terribly either. This Dungeon has twenty-one floors, and we’ve made it up to the seventeenth floor at this point.
We’ve progressed at a relatively steady pace, but it’s been far from smooth sailing. And that’s almost entirely due to our flawed formation.
Trey has continued trying to show off and stand out, he has absolutely no sense of teamwork, none whatsoever.
Either that, or he just straight-up doesn’t care about putting in any effort to cooperate with the rest of us.
Yeah, now that I think about it, that’s probably the case.
And it’s been especially hard on the Lancer. With Trey not even trying to coordinate with him, the poor guy hasn’t been able to fight freely, and he’s been getting increasingly, visibly frustrated with each subsequent floor.
He’s also sustained several injuries, nothing major that the Healer couldn’t handle, but the fact was that the Lancer was being exposed to unnecessary, avoidable risk.
It’s kinda worked out for me though, the lack of coordination in the front line has meant that some of the Monsters keep getting past them and target me and the back line, which means I get to fight too.
As a result, I’ve been steadily racking up points to increase my stats, particularly my MP. With Devour, it doesn’t really matter if I use it on a living or dead target, so long as, with the latter, the corpse is still fresh.
So long as I consume a corpse using Devour within about an hour after they’re killed, the amount of points I gain is more or less the same as if I consumed them while they were still alive.
So, despite Trey’s shitty, selfish leadership skills making this raid more difficult than it has to be, I’m feeling pretty satisfied with how this is turning out.
I’ve been able to use my Gluttony Skills pretty thoroughly, and thus gained a deeper understanding of how they work and how to use them.
So, yeah, all in all, I’d say this is going pretty well for me. Although, it is getting tough to keep acting like I’m full of energy.
I’m starting to feel a bit worn out, but since I told them that Devour replenishes my stamina, I’ve had to act like I’m operating on a full tank the whole time.
Maybe I should’ve thought of a different explanation, or even just refused to explain...
Anyway, after taking a short break, since the others were getting pretty worn out too, we continued making our way through the Dungeon, wiping out the Monsters on each floor before heading up to the next floor and repeating the process.
Before much longer, by the time about two hours had passed since we’d first entered the Dungeon, we reached the end of the twentieth floor, the penultimate level of this Dungeon.
"Next up is the Boss Room, right? We should probably take one last break before we face the Dungeon Boss," Suggested the Lancer prudently.
"Yeah, that would be the sensible thing to do," I nodded in agreement, before glancing at Trey.
If there’s one thing he isn’t, it’s sensible.
"It’s just one Monster, so-...but, a good leader listens to his underlings, so fine, let’s take a break."
Oh, that’s rich, coming from him.
No one’s saying anything, but only because we know there’s a good chance that he’ll change his mind if we call him out.
The fact that he agreed to it at all is something of a miracle. It must be a combination of his own built-up fatigue, plus he likely remembered that he’s being assessed on his leadership skills in this raid.
I doubt Lector’s stupid enough to fall for such an obvious, half-assed attempt, though. And even if it was, it isn’t going to undo the endless stream of shitty decisions he’s been making and forcing us to follow this whole time.
"I wonder what kind of Monster the Dungeon Boss will be? Particularly how much stronger it is than the rest of the Monsters we fought," Mused the Healer warily.
"Well, if this Dungeon follows the standard patterns, which it has so far, it’ll likely be a Supersonic Bat, which is Mid Level, one rank above the regular Sonic Bats," I replied, as I took a few gulps of water.
"Yeah, but we should be prepared for the possibility that it might be something stronger, a Hypersonic Bat. While it is uncommon for a Dungeon Boss to be two ranks higher than the other Monsters, it’s not unheard of," Pointed out the Lancer.
Yeah, that’s true, it’s certainly a possib-...
"I doubt that’s going to be the case. In those cases where the element of unpredictability comes into play, you’ll see signs of it earlier on, like there being an unusually high or low number of Monsters and stuff.
But the number of Sonic Bats has been steadily increasing every few floors, and we haven’t come across any more than twenty Sonic Bats on each floor, so it’s clearly been in line with the standard patterns," Responded Trey.
He’s not entirely wrong, but he’s not completely right either. While rare, there have been cases of Dungeons with unexpectedly powerful Dungeon Bosses despite there being no signs of deviance from the standard patterns.
But it’ll be a waste of breath to point that out to him, he isn’t going to listen to any of us, so why even bother?
Anyway, after about ten minutes, Trey decided to wrap up the break and make our final push to take down the Dungeon Boss.
We continued through the twentieth floor, before coming across a tunnel leading up to the final floor of the Dungeon.
As we reached the end of the tunnel, a large, cavern-like chamber came into sight, dozens of rows of Mana Crystals all across the ceiling.
"Hm? I don’t see anything. Where’s the Dungeon Boss?" Frowned Trey, stopping by the end of the tunnel and peering into the space ahead, before glancing inquiringly at the Detector.
"I-I’m sorry, but my Mana is running really low and I can’t focus at my best with how worn out I am, so my current sensory range is only about a ten meter radius. I don’t sense anything besides all of us within that range, but-...," She began.
"Tch, talk about useless," Scoffed Trey, before making his way into the space, right as I spotted a blur of motion from the ceiling.
"Watch out!" Exclaimed Lector urgently, but it was too late.
A figure rapidly swooped down from amidst the Mana Crystals on the ceiling, zipping down towards Trey with blinding speed, before unleashing a devastating sonic screech, a deafening, high-pitched ringing erupting out.
Trey turned his gaze up in alarm, before a sharp gasp rang out as the attack engulfed him, his arms slumping to his sides as he collapsed onto his knees, trails of blood trickling out of his ears as he fell over and hit the ground with a thud...