Dungeon Tour Guide ch. 61

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“Alice, Nora, Alex, Jonathan,” the [Fire Mage] said, pointing to the [Druid of Dreams], [Alchemist], [Zen Archer], and himself in turn. “Our party name Inquisition.”

That was certainly one of the names of all time. I refrained from commenting on the party name.

“Nice to meet you all,” I said. “I assume that you’re interested in having a guide take you?”

“If you would be so kind,” Alice said, her words breathy and light.

A glance at her revealed that her eyes were closed, her hands dangling limply at her sides. If it wasn’t for the fact that she was standing upright and walking around, I would’ve assumed she was asleep. Given her class, it was very possible that she actually was.

“One second,” Nora the [Alchemist] said, rummaging through an oversized crossbody bag. “Snakes and constructs with magical effects, right?”

“That’s correct,” I said.

“Right, I think I have antivenoms and such,” she said, retrieving a fistful of vials full of colorful fluid from the bag. “Yeah, I’m ready.”

Alex was silent, and his eyes were closed. Unlike Alice, there was still an quiet, intense focus to him that banished any impression of sleepiness. It was a meditation tactic, I was pretty sure, and the mana entering his body confirmed that.

When his [Meditation] was complete, he opened his eyes, and they glowed ever so slightly.

The [Zen Archer] unslung the bow from his back. “Ready.”

“Then let’s go,” I said, leading the way.

This was going to be a bit of an odd tour. In previous tours, the parties had either been lacking only a healer or strong enough to not need a guide. Inquisition, however, had two members who could heal, assuming that the [Druid of Dreams] had taken healing spells and the [Alchemist] had health potions of some kind.

We would see how it worked in practice. I didn’t want to make any preemptive statements, especially when I’d been trying to change my role to more of someone that worked with the party rather than a guide that explained their weaknesses and walked them through the entire dungeon before they even started.

The first room was a little different from what it’d been before. It was harder now, but that was fine. If I had a group of low levels come in, I would just have to help them through it or nerf it temporarily—difficulty wasn’t actually that big of a concern anymore, especially with my improved dungeon senses and abilities.

Modified and [Mephit]s were the name of the game now. Not that many, mind. The intensive atmosphere that the monster-packed training rooms had caused before the Kingsguard had come wasn’t something I wanted to replicate unless we were in dire need of it.

With the increased levels, I could spawn [Displacer Snake]s and [Rock Snake]s without burning any uses of [Combine], which meant that this room was a lot more interesting than it had been before.

“Welcome to the first room,” I said. “Your goal is the door at the end of the room. You’ll find snakes and constructs of all kind. Be mindful of what you’re fighting and where they are.”

That probably doesn’t give too much away, right?

With that, I released the monsters.

The four members of Inquisition were clearly used to this. They had better coordination than the Duelists had even after the latter group had trained the shit out of their teamwork, and the results were almost immediately clear.

Their levels weren’t that high for this dungeon. Well, a few weeks ago, they might’ve been, but things had changed rather rapidly recently and so level 5 wasn’t amazing anymore, but they were determined enough to make that a non-issue.

“Snakes high and low, fliers in the wings above,” the [Zen Archer] called, each word deliberate and measured. “I have the fliers.”

“I’ll AoE the snakes,” Jonathan said, readying a standard [Fireball] in one hand and a [Burning Hand] in the other. “Calling high.”

“Low,” Alice breathed. “Shatter.”

“I’m on low, cold,” Nora said, fiddling with one of her vials. “On go?”

The [Mephit]s started their diving attack, splitting into four packs of four so that each group would have a separate target.

On the ground, two dozen [Rock Snake]s started slithering their way forward, and the [Displacer Snake]s behind them prepared their spells.

“Go!” Nora shouted, throwing her vial at the nearest collection of snakes.

The glass shattered, the liquid inside turning to bright blue steam as it made contact with the air. It made a lot of steam for the amount of liquid, and it spread fast. Within moments, nearly half the [Rock Snake]s were covered by the [Lesser Freezing Fluid].

At the same time, Alex took aim and fired, his [Meditation] paying off as he fired arrow after arrow after arrow with devastating effect. Each arrow claimed a [Mephit]’s life, some of them claiming two with a single hit, and he was firing almost faster than the eye could track.

Within a single second, he’d hit four. Another second and he’d taken down another group.

Before the [Mephit]s could fall and explode, Jonathan released his spells. The [Fireball] smashed into the dying winged imps, incinerating them and triggering their innate explosions before they could do any harm to anyone else.

Hot wind brushed against my face as the [Fire Mage] finished the rest of them off, activating his [Burning Hand] which, despite its stupid name, was an alarmingly effective spell for eliminating low-level monsters that amounted to a wide-area flamethrower.

Alice’s spellcast was rather interesting to watch, given her trance-like state. She murmured the verbal components, and the somatic components felt stilted as if she was a poorly-controlled marionette.

Still, the unique spellcasting method worked just fine, and her [Winter’s Wrath] might’ve even been more powerful for it.

Mana shot out from the woman, grasping tendrils of icy frost and windy night, and it connected with the snakes that Nora had affected.

The [Lesser Freezing Fluid] hadn’t managed to totally freeze all of them, but over a dozen of them had had their speed reduced to almost nothing.

The [Druid of Dreams] finished them off. Her spell targeted the already-slowed [Rock Snake]s, and it forced the freezing cold into their veins and gripped it, ripping their bodies apart from within.

With that initial barrage, they’d cleared well over half the monsters in the first room, which was to be expected. They were level 5, after all, and this was still the first room.

Thankfully, they weren’t too wasteful. If I remembered the books right, they’d used up none of their higher-level spells or skills, which boded well for the rest of the dungeon.

Dealing with the [Displacer Snake]s didn’t take them that much longer.

“I have them,” Alex said, nocking more arrows. The rest of his party let him shoot, not bothering to add any interference.

The snakes teleported here and there, but there were only six of them and the [Zen Archer] wasn’t getting thrown off by their erratic movement.

One dead, two dead, three dead, four…

The fifth managed to get closer to Inquisition and it popped into existence right next to the [Fire Mage].

He yelped as it bit him, the surprise attack catching him off guard, but he wasn’t totally unprepared. A [Fiery Aura] lit up around him, wreathing his body in low-level flames. It wasn’t enough to kill the snake, but it got it off him long enough for Alex to finish it with another well-placed arrow.

One more shot and they were all done.

“That’s the first room cleared,” Jonathan declared. He was their de facto leader, it was looking like. “Nora, could I…”

She tossed him a vial, and he downed it. An instant later, the venom was utterly purged from his system even faster than my own [Antivenom] would be able to clear it.

I raised an eyebrow. That was honestly quite impressive. Most healing spells took a while. Even with the stupid levels of power I had, I’d only really reduced the casting time of any given healing spell from minutes or hours to just under a minute.

“I spent four hours making that one,” Nora said. “I’d be peeved if that was anything but my test batch.”

“Thanks,” Jonathan replied dryly. “Love you too. Guide, how was that?”

“Not many flaws as far as I could tell,” I said, giving them a perfunctory round of applause. “Commendable in all aspects.”

“Appreciate it,” the [Fire Mage] said. “Everyone ready for room two?”

The second room was largely unchanged apart from the monsters that populated it. The parkour room was more of a fun challenge after the first room than an actual threat at this point, though the [Devouring Ooze] in the water did make swimming a less viable tactic than before.

Air cannons were still an issue, but I’d seen enough out of this party for me to believe that they could manage it.

“This room’s pretty simple,” I said. “Just get to the other side, yeah?”

“Oh, I remember seeing a review about this,” the [Fire Mage] said. “Nora, you said you had something for this, right?”

“I do,” she said. “Pretty much a bigger version of what I had before.”

She fished around in her bag once more and withdrew another vial. This one was larger than the one she’d thrown at the snakes, and the liquid within was practically glowing with mana.

“Thank the goddess for alchemical recipes,” the [Alchemist] said, flipping the vial in her hands. “This would’ve taken me at least a week otherwise.”

She threw the vial into the water beneath, and with a snap of her fingers, it shattered.

Once again, the potion detonated into smoke, but this time it did so underwater. Water became ice as frozen mana infused the entire area, turning nearly six feet of water solid.

I felt my [Devouring Ooze]s die, their mostly-liquid bodies unable to accept the chill.

“We can walk across, I think,” Nora said. “That should’ve gotten all of the water.”

They lowered themselves down and started making their way across, and I sighed.

It wasn’t that this was a bad solution. Far from it. This was creative and probably not a huge waste of resources—the very thing I wanted to reward when people were clearing Centerpoint.

But would it kill them to do this one room the intended way?

Welp, whatever. I hopped down onto the solid ice and walked across the gap with them.

“Innovative solution,” I said. “I do believe you avoided most of the tough parts of the room.”

“That’s what I like to hear,” Alice murmured, her eyes still peacefully shut.

“Onto the next room, then,” I said, leading them up the staircase to the third room.

This one was going to actually test them.

The puzzle room had been changed some, but most of those modifications just meant that there was a tight space in which they were going to have to fight monsters while they figured out the answers.

Inquisition’s primary weakness—at least, as I saw it—was that they had nobody to tank hits, nobody to deal heavy melee damage, and the array of monsters I had here were going to capitalize on that hard.

The door slammed shut behind them, and the runes on the ground lit up. I stood in front of the massive greedy cup at the center of the room, and I gestured towards it.

“Within this cup,” I said, “is the exit to the next room. Also within it is water, snakes, and oozes. You have some time to figure out how to progress. Until then…”

The walls rumbled as earth constructs rose from the ground and [Mephit]s descended from the ceiling.

Amongst the chaos, a single [Mirror Beast] crawled atop a construct.

“Let’s see how you work under pressure, shall we?” I said. “Begin.”