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Chapter 100, Meet the Party: Feather Tank

Upon arriving at the Guild, the group of five immediately lined up at the reception to get their party registered. The other Explorers, seeing Tsutomu arrive with a group of people who seemed to be his companions, started paying some attention to them. Among the people who turned to look was Garm, wearing his indigo uniform and standing guard in front of the Black Gate, who waved lightly to Tsutomu’s team as he noticed them.

“Sir Garm! Wish us luck!” Daryl shouted to Garm to greet him, gathering more eyes on the group.

“I wish you would mind your volume…” Diniel grumbled as she covered her long ears, as if to show just how uncomfortable she was.

Likewise, Tsutomu cringed at Daryl’s unnecessarily loud voice, while Hannah seemed to feel nothing but excitement… because Garm had waved in her direction.

Quite a lot of Explorers in the vicinity were looking at the team now, thanks to Tsutomu’s recent rise to fame, and further helped by Daryl’s loudness. The latter, seemingly conscious of the attention, turned his face down in embarrassment. Some among the ladies, whether it be the Explorers or receptionists, were so excited that they held their noses and turned their faces up, as if they were going to bleed from their noses.

Onlookers seemed to take well to the presences of Daryl, who was famous for being trained by Garm, and Diniel, a former member of Golden Tune. Toward Hannah and Amira, on the other hand, most had nothing but surprise on their faces, due to the former being infamous as the Feather Tank, and the latter for having no regard for her allies’ lives to the point of killing them along with her enemies.

“Tch…” Amira clicked her tongue, prompting Tsutomu to turn around, which in turn prompted her to cover her mouth in panic.

Tsutomu, seeing that reaction, proceeded to tap Daryl on his shoulder.

“No need to be that uptight, Amira. It was Daryl here who did that, after all.”

“S-sorry!” Daryl hurried to apologize, his black tail tucked in between his legs, seemingly startled by Amira’s look that came off as a piercing glare.

Amira, seeing how others had reacted to her, took her hands away from her mouth and averted her gaze to the side.

“…If I get kicked out of your Clan, that ancient Dragon’s gonna kick me outta her house.”

“That’s… news to me. But it’s not like I’ll drive you out if you mess up once or twice, so don’t worry. If you don’t listen to us at all, on the other hand…”

“…Yeah, I get it.”

Thanks to Tsutomu’s reassurance, Amira managed to loosen up a little, but she still was conscious of how she acted. Tsutomu, after making sure that she was all right, proceeded to one of the open reception counters.

“Hey there. Finally got your Clan going, eh, Tsutomu?” The buzz-cut receptionist said to Tsutomu as he passed the latter a few paper slips.

“Yeah” Tsutomu answered and handed out the slips to the others, then he bit on his slip, a pint of his saliva stuck to it. Then he proceeded to hand the slip over to the receptionist.

For the Guild to efficiently search through the vast number of their registrants’ Status Cards, the Guild’s receptionists required Explorers to submit a sample of their bodily fluids as identification. Up until recently, giving anything other than blood had been frowned upon as a sign of weakness and fear of pain, and Tsutomu had been ridiculed by other Explorers for doing so.

By now, however, that no longer happened, so the four others did the same as Tsutomu, chewing on their paper slips before submitting them to the receptionist. The Guild Staff proceeded to search up their Status Cards, which were then handed to each of the owners when the party application was completed. Tsutomu immediately returned his Card, which had not changed all that much since the last time he had checked it.

One’s level as registered on their Status Card would not increase unless they killed a monster in God’s Dungeon. As such, even after contributing to the defeat of the Devourer Dragon — an enemy that had gotten stronger than the hundredth layer’s Corroded Elder Dragon — none of the Explorers had seen their levels go up. This also meant that Tsutomu’s level was still in the low fifties.

After everyone returned their Status Cards and their saliva-stained paper slips were burned in a nearby lantern, they walked away from the reception counter and headed to the Magic Circles.

“Teleport to the forty-eighth layer,” Tsutomu commanded, and immediately, the whole team disappeared, and reappeared on the Beach of the specified layer.

Once he landed, Tsutomu looked around, and basked in the nostalgic sunlight and the view of the emerald green sea. There were no monsters in sight.

Daryl and Hannah looked plenty eager to go, Diniel looked as sleepy as ever, and Amira seemed somewhat on edge.

“Now then, Han- I mean, Diniel. Enemy search, please,” Tsutomu immediately asked Diniel to start things off, his tone friendlier than before. It had been agreed upon beforehand that Clan members would address one another without formalities, so as to ensure smooth communication of instructions and information.

“Mm-hm.”

Diniel nodded and pulled out a cheap, generic long arrow from the Magic Bag on her shoulder.

“[[Eagle Eye]].”

With this scouting skill, Diniel could temporarily transfer her field of vision to the arrow she shot upon its activation, enabling her to search for enemies in wide areas. This meant that having an Archer in one’s team would make searching the area much easier and faster. The skill would obviously lose effectiveness in areas with obstacles, however, so the Adventurer Job still was the better choice for scouting purposes.

“North: A few Ten-tackles. West: Nothing. South: A lot of… Salty Lobsters, I think. East: Slimes and Arrow Fish.”

“Thank you. Let’s go east, then.”

The reason for Tsutomu’s choice was that, among the monsters of the Beach biome, Slimes were the least threatening. Moreover, since they spawned on almost all layers of the Dungeon, people were quite used to dealing with them.

On the way to where the monsters were, Tsutomu prepared an assortment of Potions and handed them out to everyone. Daryl, being the current main Tank, led the marching formation, while the rest followed him in two lines.

“Only Daryl and Diniel will take part in the first few battles. As for you two, look closely to get a feel of our strategic flow.”

“Roger!”

“…Cool.”

Hannah could not carry out her Tank role all that well yet, and Amira’s lack of strategy had been so bad that her Clan had disbanded. Moreover, both of them had not gotten to experience the regular flow of combat in a team with a three-role composition yet.

“Huh? I’ll be Tanking alone?”

“For now, yes. But these are just Slimes and Arrow Fish, so I reckon you’ll do just fine.”

“Show me your moves, fellow Tank!”

“O-okay? Ehehe… I’ll do my best!”

Daryl scratched his head in embarrassment as he walked, his heavy armor clanking all the while. The Heavy Knights Job came with a skill that reduced the weight of equipment one wore, so while Daryl’s gear was in fact incredibly heavy, he did not seem to be bothered by it at all.

Daryl’s current armor set was made of Blazestone, an ore recently discovered and actively mined in the Dungeon’s Volcano layers. The metal had heat-absorbing properties, and was popular for its effectiveness in maintaining one’s body temperature that would normally rise due to intense movement during combat.

Other things used in the making of his gear included Beach-biome materials favored by Shell Crabs when they reinforced their defenses, such as Euruk Ore and Stone Mussel shells. While inferior to treasure chest loot, it was high-level as far as gear crafted from Dungeon materials went.

As the team walked on, emerald green spheres started popping up from the sand ahead of them. They were monsters — Sea Slimes, using the color of the sea as camouflage. Magic Stones could be seen floating in the center of their bodies. Seeing the party of five walking closer, the Slimes started bouncing toward them.

Slime-type monsters had been confirmed to exist in almost every layer, and they came in different forms depending on the environment. The Swamp layers’ Mud Slimes were more viscous and slow-moving, while the Beach biome’s Slimes were fast and elastic like rubber.

Moreover, since the Sea Slimes moved by extending spring-like tentacles on their underside, they had excellent mobility among Slimes. They could quickly charge at and cling to their targets, so one needed to pay close attention to them.

Seeing the group of four Sea Slimes approaching, Daryl held up his tower shield and slammed it against his armor.

“[[Warrior Howl]]!”

Daryl generated aggro onto himself, pulling the attention of all the Sea Slimes. Although Slime-type monsters did not have ears, they detected enemies by using vibrations in the air and on surfaces, so sound-based skills such as [[Warrior Howl]] still worked on them.

“[[Protect]], [[Haste]].”

Tsutomu boosted Daryl’s defensive power and Dinie’s speed, and then Diniel nocked an arrow and fired the first shot. The arrow accurately pierced through the core of one Sea Slime, shattering it and causing the unsupported viscous liquid to splatter onto the ground. The monster’s remains then dispersed into light particles and disappeared.

“[[Shield Throw]].”

Daryl swung his tower shield to knock away the nearby rubber ball-like Sea Slimes, then threw it to get rid of the one clinging on to it. Thanks to the effect of [[Shield Throw]], the shield promptly flew back, so Daryl caught it and assumed a guarding stance again.

Diniel, with Daryl providing her with cover, ran around to reposition, then stood still before letting loose another arrow. As long as she could remain physically still and mentally calm, her shooting was more or less perfect. And since all she needed to do was to shoot at monsters accurately while avoiding their attacks, the Sea Slimes being distracted by Daryl, were no different from targets in a training ground.

In the blink of an eye, all the Sea Slimes got their Magic Stone cores destroyed by Diniel’s arrows, their bodies dispersing into light particles and turning into Small Colorless Magic Stones.

Mysteriously, inside God’s Dungeon, a Slime’s Magic Stone core would reappear intact after the Slime itself was killed. In the outside world and other Dungeons, however, Slimes’ Magic Stones would remain damaged, and as a result, lose their selling value. On the other hand, their liquid bodies, which were useful for a variety of purposes, would remain intact, so they were also regularly hunted for materials instead.

“That was easy!”

Daryl went over to pick up the Small Colorless Magic Stones and proceeded to hand them to Tsutomu. The latter thought to himself, rather inappropriately, how the former looked like a dog that had just fetched a ball for him.

The three proceeded to hunt more monsters along the beach. Daryl, with the deepest layer progression of fifty-seven, had no problems with pulling the aggro of the Beach monsters, which enabled Diniel to kill them off with ease.

Each fight was short, and Daryl and Diniel’s levels were high, so they technically did not need the three-role strategies at all. Amira, knowing that, looked bored out of her mind as she watched the battles play out. Hannah, on the other hand, seemed quite impressed and entertained by Daryl’s performance.

At any rate, now that the general workflow had been showcased, Tsutomu decided to add Hannah to the action.

“All right, Hannah, you’ll be joining in from the next fight on.”

“R-roger that!”

Hannah flapped her blue wings as if to psyche herself up.

Before, Hannah had carried out her Tank role by wearing heavy iron and steel armor, and dual-wielding tower shields. It was not the case this time, however. What she had on now was a light, ethnic-looking cloth outfit, which she had found in a copper treasure chest back when she was a member of Ealdred Crow. It was meant for Boxers, and had STR and AGI-boosting properties.

She was not holding shields this time, either, instead wielding two pairs of brass knuckles, one on her hand and one on her feet. These brass knuckles of hers had holes in which additional claws could be attached, meaning the weapon could be customized depending on the situation. Her equipment loadout was, in fact, exactly the same as when she had been an Attacker.

“Daryl, try to stay put at first, and help Hannah out if you think things are getting dangerous.”

“I understand! Mi- I mean, Hannah! Give it your best shot!”

“You got it!” Hannah answered cheerfully, holding her fists out to Daryl.

She had already been told how to fight as an evasion-based Tank, but this was her first time actually trying it out. So nervous that her palms were always sweating, she wiped them again and again on her shirt as the team walked along the beach until their next encounter.

Eventually, they came across some Sea Slimes and Salty Lobsters — the latter of which actually looked closer to crayfish. Tsutomu cast [[Fly]] and [[Haste]] on Hannah, after which the latter immediately flew through the air toward the monsters.

“[[Combat Cry]]!”

Hannah unleashed a red aura around her, pulling all the monsters’ aggro onto herself. The monsters looked up at Hannah, their attention fully on her, but they had almost no means of attacking her. As such, they ended up ignoring her and started targeting the others instead.

As they were looking away, Hannah swooped down and attacked them. She threw a quick punch, shattering the shell of one of the Salty Lobsters, its bodily fluids splattering all over. She followed that up with a kick at one of the Slimes, shattering its Magic Stone core with her foot.

Another Lobster burrowed out from the sand and tried to attack, but Hannah promptly flew into the air, avoiding it. Now, the monster could not get a hit in, since it had no long-ranged attacks in its arsenal. Instead, it merely looked up at Hannah, who was preparing another sudden strike from above.

Then an arrow, courtesy of Diniel, flew at the distracted Salty Lobster, piercing its weak point in the side of its body. Another Sea Slime bounced up from the ground with its spring-tentacles, but its attack was easily dodged by Hannah. The Slime, stuck in the air with no means of evasion, was then shot down by Diniel.

Hannah proceeded to plunge her hand into the Slime, pulling out its Magic Stone. The battle ended without incident, with all the monsters killed and turned into Magic Stone.

“S-so that’s how I do it?”

“Yes, something like that. You’re off to a good start.”

“Aye aye, sir!”

In the following encounters, Hannah managed to effectively distract the monsters while killing a few of them as well, taking no hits all the while thanks to the Beach monsters having almost no means to attack airborne targets.

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