TNG Vol. 23 Chapter 4 Part 3

As they descended the stairs, the now-familiar slot machine came into view.

“Alright, time to test our luck.”

They took turns pulling the slots. The first round saddled everyone with minor debuffs that didn’t hinder any actions. The second round wasn’t so kind.

Shin, Milt, Tiera, and Yuzuha respectively drew: all stats halved; magic skills sealed; martial skills sealed; and HP/MP halved.

A sensation like having weights strapped across his body made Shin knit his brows.

“This is rough. My body just got a lot heavier all at once.”

Equipment could offset a little, but halving was too severe.

The boss in the final area also had a random level.

Even with his current heavy nerf, it wasn’t impossible to win but fighting the way they had up to now was out of the question.

“It’s tough for me and Tiera, too. With either magic or martial skills completely sealed, we can’t use composite skills, and our tactical options shrink.”

Milt folded her arms, grimacing. Yuzuha bristled, clearly disliking the weakened state.

“I feel awful too, like something’s draining out of me.”

“If this isn’t something arranged, we might have a problem.”

Their overall combat power had dropped sharply. Before hearing what Full Vegas had said about Yuzuha, they might have chalked it up to bad luck. Knowing what they knew now, backing off wasn’t so easy.

“For now, let’s head to the next floor.”

They couldn’t linger in the slot area. To check what kind of zone came next, they started down the stairs.

“Here’s hoping it’s like the first floor.”

Murmuring that, Shin kept walking.

Upon entering the third floor, the first thing they saw was a straight stretch of stone wall running ahead.

“A labyrinth type, maybe?”

“Most likely. We’ve hit something similar before.”

Shin nodded at Milt’s observation.

A labyrinth type, as the name implied, meant threading a convoluted maze until you found the stairs, then you were done.

It was a trap-heavy stage. Contents ranged from prankish tricks—water jets that soaked you, tubs dropping on your head—to orthodox hazards like pitfall traps and arrows shooting from the walls. Among the dungeons Full Vegas generated, this was said to have the highest appearance rate.

“If an Ashmand had spawned here, it would’ve been a pain.”

“Yeah. But there are other troublesome types around, so don’t let your guard down.”

“Of course. But Shin, don’t charge ahead like usual, okay? Even with gear bonuses, your stats are lower than mine right now.”

“I know. Depending on the enemy, there’ll be ones I can’t trade blows with head-on.”

He didn’t need the reminder but this was more than a little weakening, and there were plenty of unknowns about how far he could fight.

The slot’s stat-halving debuff was outside the penalty check for lacking stats to equip Ancient-grade gear, so no negative modifier were triggered there. Thanks to that, Shin’s equipment bonuses were higher than Milt’s.

Even so, no matter how good the gear, halved stats were too great a liability. In their current state, Milt’s combat strength exceeded Shin’s.

Shin knew perfectly well that bulldozing foes head-on, as they had against the Gigiratis and Verge Spider, would be difficult now.

“I’ll take point. Shin, please cover from the rear.”

“That’s our best option. Got it.”

Stats affected trap detection as well. In his current state, there would be traps Shin couldn’t spot, so they left it to Schnee.

Schnee’s main job—Kunoichi—was effectively a scout class that could also fight. With its job bonus to trap detection, she shone brightest on stages like this.

By contrast, Shin’s main job—Samurai—had no trap-sense bonuses. The only reason he’d ever outperformed Schnee at detection was brute force via his limit-broken, sky-high stats.

“Given how narrow it is, getting a clear line of fire will be tough.”

Walking the corridor, Tiera spoke while eyeing the ceiling and the walls to either side.

Unlike in the grassland, their movement range was limited; threading arrows past the vanguard—Shin and the others—would be harder.

“Friends overlap with foes more in places like this. We should set a callout in advance, what do you think?”

“If my stats weren’t halved, I’d say I’ll dodge on my end. For now, just give a quick ‘Firing!’ and that’s enough. Schnee, Milt?”

“No problem.”

“That works for me too.”

Calling shots worked when you had a power gap over the enemy, but their debuffs had eaten into that margin.

Schnee could probably sense and slip past incoming arrows with ease. Shin could at least sense them, but with his current stats, whether he could dodge was doubtful.

Still, a single shout would give them the time they needed.

“I get that traps are common here from what you said, but what about monsters? If it’s like what we saw on the upper floors, it feels like we can’t advance without killing all of them.”

“That worry is exactly it. Ashmand is the kind that shows up in a stage like this.”

Whether it had appeared in the grassland from sheer luck or Full Vegas’s interference—

Even if it was Full Vegas, that wouldn’t happen again. Shin had a hunch this floor would truly test their luck.

“I don’t even want to imagine having to kill all of those.”

“Yeah. Dungeons that spawn a bunch of them got nicknamed ‘assassin dungeons,’ since everything in there has concealment.”

“There’s something like that…?”

Listening to Tiera and Milt, Retoneka had gone a bit pale.

Having tasted concealment’s nastiness firsthand, Tiera shivered; she wanted no part of such a dungeon.

Player opinions had been poor, and Shin understood exactly how they felt.

“Stop. Trap.”

At yet another of Schnee’s warnings—he’d lost count by now—they halted.

This one looked like the sort you couldn’t simply skirt around. Leaving the disarm to Schnee, Shin’s group watched the corridor fore and aft.

While damage-dealing traps were the most common, a fair number immobilized you or teleported you to hinder progress.

“Nothing coming from behind.”

Milt answered Shin’s rear-guard report with a sober tone.

“That’s when it’s the biggest pain, if they come now.”

Some monsters targeted you while you were busy disarming.

One nasty trait of labyrinth-type areas was how often traps were either unavoidable or hard to disarm.

Get forced back by monsters, trigger a trap, get wiped out… accidents like that weren’t rare.

“All set. Let’s move.”

Prompted by Schnee, they advanced.

Before long, the straight corridor split into two.

“Which way?”

Asked by Milt, Shin studied both paths.

“No marker pointing to the right route… nothing.”

On rare occasions a correct-path marker—a carved rabbit sigil—would appear, but he saw none this time. It was only ever a lucky break; without it, you just picked and went.

“Guess we go with instinct. Schnee, you choose.”

“Me?”

Of everyone entering this dungeon, Schnee had the best luck. Her high luck stat aside, she’d barely drawn any action-impairing debuffs.

Shin decided that, at the very least, her choice would be better than his.

In terms of debuff content, Retoneka wasn’t in a bad spot either, but asking her to choose their path would be too much.

“Don’t worry about getting it ‘right.’ Whoever picks, the result’s unknown. But given the situation, the luckiest one should do it.”

“Understood. Please pray for good fortune.”

Schnee stood at the fork and weighed left and right. Shin saw no meaningful difference. Maybe it was the halved stats, but he couldn’t feel anything down either path.

After a minute’s thought, Schnee chose the right-hand corridor.

“Alright, then we go right.”

With Schnee in the lead, they proceeded. The traps remained plentiful, but with her detection they stayed ahead of them and their progress was steady.

“How are you holding up? Tell me if you start to feel worn out.”

“This is fine. If anything, I feel better than usual. Perhaps thanks to this.”

She lifted her left hand to her chest; the ring on her fourth finger—Shin’s handiwork—gave off a muted gleam.

He had slipped it to her in secret before breakfast that morning.

It was a prototype and only functioned inside this dungeon, but Schnee had been delighted, so much so she hugged him, and with his current stature, his face had ended up buried against her chest.

Her good form likely wasn’t just the ring’s equipment effect.

Watching them from behind was Milt.

At breakfast, she had been the first to notice Schnee’s ring.

Even then, she’d only asked via Mind Chat and hadn’t said anything aloud for everyone to hear. Still, Shin knew she had her thoughts about it.

“Staaare.”

Envious—she didn’t have to say it. Her eyes were fixed on Schnee’s ring.

“Jus’ a lil’ prototype.”

“That was the flattest line reading ever.”

Not wanting to tease, Shin turned his face off at an odd angle as if to flee the look that had shifted from the ring to him. Even he could hear how forced his voice was.

“It really is a prototype.”

“Then you can mass-produce them, right?”

“If I did, you’d insist on wearing it on the same finger.”

“I’d love to, sure, but I still don’t have Schnee’s permission.”

Milt glanced at Schnee.

Shin, too, checked her expression, and got a smile so bright it could’ve come with a sound effect. She was smiling, yes, but there was a hint of chill to it.

Apparently, Schnee and Milt had already finished their mutual “ranking.”

“Huh? What about my say in this?”

“Do you dislike me?”

At Milt’s calculatedly cute question, Shin grimaced.

“That’s a dirty question.”

Pressed to pick like/dislike, he couldn’t say “dislike.”

It wasn’t as if her personality was bad. Depending on how they’d met, Milt could easily have been “that kind of partner.”

But right now, Schnee came first. As mere gear, fine, but he couldn’t give a ring that carried special meaning.

“We’re done with this topic. Clearing the dungeon comes first.”

“I know. I just wanted to say it.”

…Didn’t sound like “just saying,” Shin thought, shrugging as he watched Milt drift away.

She was undeniably attractive, and he couldn’t deny he was drawn to her. But he also knew he wasn’t so magnanimous that he could simply accept anyone who came to him.

“You’ve stopped hiding it as much.”

Schnee, too, knew Milt liked Shin, likely sooner than Shin had. It hadn’t been that obvious at first, but now Milt showed it plainly in word and action.

“Yeah. She isn’t a bad person. It’s just…”

No matter how charming Milt was, Shin had no intention of making a move while he had Schnee. He was also set on returning to his original world; he couldn’t just swap his ethics to match this one.

“…I don’t mind.”

“Schnee?”

He hadn’t expected that. Shin drew his gaze from Milt back to Schnee.

“No matter who’s beside you, it won’t change that I’m number one. Even if your eyes turn to someone else, they’ll come back to me in the end.”

Schnee’s expression brimmed with absolute confidence.

The radiance of it made Shin stare, spellbound.

“I—didn’t expect to hear that from you.”

Catching himself spacing out, he blinked. The content—seemingly granting Milt an “okay”—surprised him, but it was also true that Schnee had the allure to say it.

Just as she claimed, no matter how many attractive people he met, Shin knew he would choose Schnee in the end.

“Hey, hey—enough flirting. Let’s move. Tiera and the others can’t approach.”

At some point Milt had returned from where she’d gone to join Tiera’s side.

“Right, sorry. We’ve had it easy so far, and I let my guard down. From here on, I’m serious.”

“Can’t say I’m in a position to lecture you either.”

They hadn’t neglected their vigilance, but they had relaxed. Shin reset his focus and turned fully back to the task of conquering the dungeon.

𑁋 

Tiera, bored with the unchanging view, called out to Shin as they walked the corridor.

“Hey, Shin. How big are these labyrinth-type floors?”

“That depends on luck too. I’ve heard of cases where a straight corridor led directly to the goal.”

“Can you even call that a labyrinth?”

“Well, that’s just a hallway.”

Whether it was true or not, he couldn’t say, just one tidbit from the old strategy sites. Back in the game, the average clear time was listed at about an hour.

“The current dungeon is nothing like my knowledge suggests. The scale is on a different level.”

Full Vegas’ dungeons had no transfer points; once inside, you either cleared or wiped to get out. If a zone’s layout was too convoluted, runs would take so long that only a tiny slice of players could enjoy it; too unfriendly as content.

So compared to ordinary-zone dungeons, Full Vegas’ instances were set very small. Even so, traps, gimmicks, and certain monsters could still wipe a party, but that was tolerated as part of the ‘gambling dungeon’ concept.

It wasn’t supposed to sprawl so wide that clearing took days like it did for Shin’s party now. He figured this change came from the game becoming reality.

(Event dungeon scale wasn’t the real design, maybe they’d planned a much bigger update.)

If the game appearance had been a restricted version of its true settings, this size made more sense. Player satisfaction and revenue, game companies had to balance both.

“The first floor wasn’t too different, but the second floor is obviously off. By my sense, it was about five times the intended size.”

“That much!? Then this maze—”

“Could be similarly large. Of course, it could also be smaller.”

They wouldn’t know until they pushed on. At least the map recorded where they’d been, so they wouldn’t loop the same ground, that was something.

There did exist dungeons that disabled the map, which players hated, but the devs had known that would draw too many complaints; Full Vegas’ dungeon didn’t use that setting.

Some players liked making their own maps, saying it felt like a true adventure; others, who didn’t want that level of “reality,” disliked it.

In Shin’s experience, the dislikes outnumbered the likes. Enjoying deliberate hassle was a matter of taste.

“Stop.”

Schnee halted them again.

Another trap that would take time to disarm. As she got to work, Shin sensed monsters appearing behind them.

Three signatures closed in. From where? He couldn’t tell.

“They won’t let us take our time every single try, huh.”

Shin moved to the front with Milt and asked Tiera and the others to cover from the rear.

“Monotauros.”

From down the passage came beast-men with a bull’s head and lower body, and a human upper body. Unlike a Minotauros, each had a single horn sprouting from the brow. Their weapons were a battle axe, a rapier, and a mace with a square-column iron head on a staff.

They were, respectively, a Monotauros Fighter, Monotauros Fencer, and Monotauros Priest. All were in the low 500s, no problem for Shin even now.

“■■■■■■■■■■■■—!!”

Their roars battered the party’s ears, the threefold bellow reverberating down the corridor, painfully loud.

Retoneka clapped her hands over her ears; Tiera winced. The roar carried a brief hearing-impairment effect.

Shin and Milt didn’t flinch and advanced.

“Tiera, if you can, take the mace in the back!”

“Got it!”

Issuing orders, Shin closed the distance. Milt engaged the Fighter; Shin took the Fencer.

Recognizing Shin barreling in, the Fencer leveled the rapier’s tip, an airtight stance like that of a master swordsman. To Shin’s eyes, the blade shrank to a single point.

That point wavered for just an instant.

Shin set 『True Moon』 on its line. Less than a second later, blade met blade with a clash.

Sparks showered as the slender sword slid along 『True Moon』. Had he missed that tiny wobble, it would have punched straight into his head.

It was a superb thrust, belying that hulking physique, far greater skill than any game-era Fencer Shin knew.

Looking closer, the Fencer’s body glowed faintly green, the Priest in the rear was buffing them.

Even enhanced, Shin could still react. Knowing that was enough.

Feeling his attack deflected, the Fencer yanked back, and in that withdrawal, angled for Shin’s neck.

Shin switched 『True Moon』 to his left arm; his gauntlet knocked the rapier aside, throwing off the recovery by a hair.

That was all the opening he needed. 『True Moon』’s edge kindled with a blue effect.

—Combination skill of Sword/Water【Tri-Ace】.

『True Moon』 traced a path from the Monotauros’ right leg to right arm, across the torso to the left arm, down through the abdomen, and back to the right leg. The effect lingered along the cut lines, sketching a blue triangle over the Fencer.

Damage: about thirty percent. With a Monotauros’ vitality, it could still move.

But as the blue effect flared, the wounds flash-froze.

Shin swung 『True Moon』 at its neck to finish it, but before he could close in, a barrier deployed.

“The Priest’s barrier.”

Shin immediately cleaved the barrier with 『True Moon』.

Against a level-500s monster, that shield was paper to this blade. Even so, he had to halt his feet; the corridor was too narrow to bypass the barrier and reach the Fencer.

The frozen Fencer glimmered faintly due to the Priest’s healing. With their naturally high vitality, Monotauroi also gained more from heals; add a healer, and they became a slog to drop.

The wounds knit before their eyes, but their backline wasn’t idle enough to just watch.

“Firing!”

Tiera’s shout rang out as an arrow threaded the gap between the Fighter and Fencer. A fleeting glimpse revealed an arrow with increased striking power.

Sensing the aim at the last second, the Priest caught the arrow on its mace.

A shrill clang, and the shot was deflected. Even so, the Priest had to interrupt the Fencer’s heal.

As support, that was plenty.

The Fencer tried to shatter the ice by brute force, but its movements were still dulled; it couldn’t guard against Shin’s next slash.

Then Milt’s voice cut in.

“I’ll handle the Priest!”

With the Priest’s aid focused on the Fencer, the Fighter had been left wanting.

Milt slipped past the Fighter—now neatly halved—and charged the Priest.

The Priest blocked Milt’s 『Ordgand』 with its mace, but the power behind the blow drove it to a knee.

At that point, taking the Fencer’s head—now without cover—was easy.

Before Shin even needed to help, Milt traded a few blows, knocked the mace aside, and split the unguarded Priest’s torso cleanly in two.

With all the Monotauroi down, Shin still checked for a second wave, there was no guarantee only one group would attack.

“No reinforcements. Alright, battle over.”

“With this width, two on the front line is about the limit.”

Milt lowered her weapon; Shin answered:

“Agreed. Same constraints for the enemy, but throw in a caster type and that changes. Tiera and the others should be fine with Yuzuha and Kagerou guarding them, though.”

Have the tank hold the line while the caster deals damage: a common player tactic, but monsters could do the same, especially in labyrinths.

Three Monotauroi was actually on the low end; more numbers meant nastier coordination.

“Nice cover, Tiera.”

“Glad it worked. Practice is one thing, real fights are a different kind of nerves.”

Praised by Shin, Tiera exhaled in relief.

“The arrows feel heavier, too, and hitting that cleanly is plenty.”

“Hearing that helps. I feel a bit more confident.”

She didn’t hide her pleasure at the compliment. Once she grew more used to the shafts and could rapid-fire, their tactical options would widen.

“I’ve finished disarming the trap. Seems the fight went fine.”

Having cleared the trap ahead, Schnee rejoined the formation.

“For now, yeah. If it’d been something like a Gigiratis, that would’ve been another story.”

This time, neither levels nor numbers posed much trouble.

What came next was another question.

With Schnee at the fore, they pushed deeper into the labyrinth. Forks and skirmishes continued, and they doubled back from dead ends more than once.

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