“Considering the high degree of freedom offered by Type Rodem,” said Frederica, “it might be a good idea for her to use it for normal fights too.”
Sol looked thoughtful. “With mana consumption no longer a concern...”
Previous Numbers armaments, which were more mechanical in appearance and had fixed forms and sizes, were proving quite hard to use in the dungeon. It wasn’t so bad in the large rooms with floor bosses, but the normal passages patrolled by common monsters could get quite narrow at times. Therefore, the group had taken to fighting in their normal gear most of the time and summoning their armaments only when encountering large enemies.
In contrast, Type Rodem could freely change its size by spreading extra body volume over the ground, walls, and ceiling, effectively becoming a moving barrier. Additionally, because it had been designed to be permanently summoned to serve as a replacement vessel for Blue Water, using it didn’t change the amount of inner mana that Rosalind was expending by much—not that it was a problem with Sol on hand to top her back up as needed. In terms of safety, she was also better off being protected by both her HP barrier and Type Rodem. Like Frederica said, it wasn’t a bad idea for her to keep Type Rodem deployed the entire time in the dungeon, though it would be far too conspicuous outside.
However, Rosalind cheerfully declared, “Lord Sol, I’ll do my best as a mage too!” while undoing her transformation.
As Type Rodem changed back into a black panther, Rosalind landed lightly, clad only in her wet, silvery-white foundation suit. The next moment, she was dried off and covered up by a showy magic-themed outfit that appeared from extradimensional storage with flashy effects. The whole sequence ended with her also holding in her hands a staff that matched the design of Julia’s wand. It was clear that Gawain had put a lot of effort into not only the outfit, but also how it appeared.
Being a seven-year-old girl, Rosalind had fallen in love with what was practically a magical girl transformation since the first time she did it. Remaining merged with Type Rodem made her feel invincible and very safe, but she really did not want to give up the transformation, especially when the other girls got to do it. The whole process had a way of resonating with both boys and girls, so much so that Reen, Julia, Frederica, and even Eliza had put serious thought into choosing their activation phrases.
“I’d like that too,” said Sol.
“Thank you!”
Sol didn’t dislike the strategy of forging the way for oversized equipment and brute force. On the other hand, with all the effort that Gawain had put into designing the girls’ normal gear, he wanted to be able to see those too. The Numbers armaments were hands down cooler than anything he had seen, but he much preferred the outfits with their array of cuteness, stylishness, and sexiness. Not that he would say it out loud.
Rosalind happily psyched herself up at his validation. It meant a lot to children to receive confirmation that they were not wearing out the goodwill of the adults in their lives. It gave them reassurance and greatly affected their ability to remain composed and perform at their best. For some unknown reason, however, many forgot this fact when they grew up and became adults themselves.
“All right, let’s head down to the next floor.”
It was still before noon, so returning was out of the question for the moment. Sol started walking toward the staircase with the usual formation of Luna holding his hand, Aina’noa floating at his shoulder, and Little Alshunna on his head.
But then, surprisingly, Rosalind caught up to him with a small run and asked, “Um, can we try doing everything from the start this time?”
She was referring to clearing the path, which Luna had been doing on each floor so far. It had been two centuries since the fall of Crystania, and naturally, no one had set foot inside Abyss since then. In that time, the monsters within had reached their population limits. There were so many of them that they could sometimes be found even in the passages.
This wasn’t a problem exclusive to Abyss. In fact, it was a given for dungeons that had never been entered before. Therefore, when a new one was found, the Adventurer’s Guild would issue a mission to adventurers of Rank B and higher and have them work with the local country’s armed forces to exterminate the amassed monster populations on each floor. If that was too difficult to achieve, the dungeon was given the “taboo” designation.
Up till now, Luna had been using her dragon breath—there was no need to go so far as to summon an Astral—to clear the hordes the party encountered so that they wouldn’t scare Rosalind. But now, Rosalind wanted to try doing it herself. She must have worked hard to muster her courage. While the All Dragon remained on hand and Rosalind therefore knew for a fact she would be in no danger, it was a tall order for a seven-year-old child to bravely face opponents that were literally trying to tear her face off.
“Hey, good idea. In that case, Reen and Julia, back her up, would you?”
To Rosalind’s surprise, Sol agreed right away. She had expected him to reply with “But that’s dangerous” or “Wait till you’re a bit more experienced.”
The fact he didn’t surprised the other girls too. Of course, Sol didn’t make that call purely because he could tell how much Rosalind wanted it. He also welcomed the opportunity to fight like a party again for the first time in a long time.
Reen’s eyes lit up. “I’d love to!”
“It’s been a while,” said Julia, grinning aggressively.
These two apparently shared Sol’s sentiments. They were cute girls, but at the same time, they also were veteran adventurers. And truthfully, their determined expressions while in their adventurer headspace were the faces that Sol loved seeing most. Of course, one of them had recently shown him another face that he loved just as much, but that was neither here nor there.
Seeing Rosalind at a loss as to why the three of them had suddenly perked up, Sol said, “Hey, don’t worry about not being able to do what Luna has been doing, all right? I know that’s what you’ve gotten used to, but the proper way is to have Reen, our tank, gathering and holding the attention from the monsters while our melee attacker whittles them down as much as possible and creates openings for the magic attacker to land area-of-effect spells to finish them off. And those on support, like me and Julia, our healer, focus on maintaining barriers and everyone’s health. At least, that’s the way we do it.”
Sol had a habit of speaking really fast when talking about something he loved. Seeing it activated here brought a smile to Reen’s and Julia’s faces, as it told them that their days as adventurers, which they’d thought they would never go back to, remained precious to him.
Rosalind made a noise that sounded like “Tha!” and froze.
“‘Tha’?” Sol repeated, mystified.
“THAT’S SO COOL!” Rosalind shouted.
Reen’s group undoubtedly looked cool defeating Country Eater in their futuristic armaments. The way Luna would clear out an entire room of monsters by blowing a stream of searing fire was terrifying, even. However, those encounters were more like a powerful monster brushing aside small fish in its way and bore no resemblance to the tales of heroes sung by traveling minstrels. Instead, what Sol had just described so passionately was exactly what Rosalind had read about in books, heard from minstrels, and even watched in Blue Water’s memories. When she imagined herself as part of such an ensemble as a combat mage, it gave her a heady rush. She entered an excited state rather typical of children her age.
“Oh yes, when the ball gets rolling, it’s like no other experience. All right, Frederica and Eliza, feel free to participate too to the degree you’re comfortable. Rosalind, stay calm and ready your area-of-effect spells. There’s no need to rush; take all the time you need for casting. Rodem, you stay by Rosalind’s side and protect her.”
As it turned out, Sol was even more of a child than Rosalind was. Speaking even faster than earlier, he threw out concrete instructions regarding how they would tackle Floor 18.
Despite being stunned at seeing someone usually so calm and composed acting like a child, Rosalind managed a spirited “I-I’ll do my best!”
Rodem was a little taken aback too but said, “Understood.”
Sol loved that simple “cool!” coming from a childish place of wonder far more than any flattery. He, too, felt that the way his party worked together to defeat powerful foes was the coolest thing in the world.
Everyone briskly descended the stairs after him, as if drawn by his passion. Before reaching the open area that was at the bottom of all the staircases connecting the floors, Julia said, “All right, give me a second to cast everyone’s buffs” and launched into a practiced sequence of area-of-effect spells.
Considering the group’s stats, they didn’t actually need buffs or even debuffs on their enemies. Frankly, Frederica could walk through this floor alone, killing everything with a punch. That was how overleveled they were for the opponents they currently faced. However, they were emulating how they used to fight, and buffing up before jumping into combat where they would be outnumbered was procedure. Also, it felt great having their abilities temporarily raised. It came with flashy magical effects and really added to the “We’re gonna fight now!” mood.
In the first place, assuming there were enemies far stronger than themselves out there—a reasonable assumption to make—meant that effort put into learning how to defeat such enemies wouldn’t ever go to waste. Simply mowing down monsters with overwhelming firepower didn’t make for a real combat experience. That was another reason it was important to return to the basics and practice getting used to a normal way of fighting. Or normal for Sol’s party, at least.