Part Eighty-Nine

Kalia hung around for a short time before finally heading back to the infirmary. Apparently Brad and his friends were just about ready to be discharged, and she wanted to be there when it happened. That was apparently the whole reason she’d come here in the first place. She did make sure to give me a clean bill of health before eating though.

She’s surprisingly diligent about her healing duties, isn’t she? I would imagine that this was a role she was thrust into, but she’s taken to it quite well. There’s a story there, I’m sure of it.

“Well she’s gone. Kalia certainly knows how to blow in like a hurricane. Think she’ll ever-. Alicia? Are you all right?”

She was nervously chewing on her finger nail, something I’d never seen her do before. Nervous habits were all well and good, but this was far too blatant for me to ignore. Something was bugging her, and I wanted to know what it was.

“Hm!? Oh, sorry Michael. I was lost in thought.”

“Yeah, that was pretty obvious. Well? Out with it. We don’t have all day.”

Alicia just stared at me while biting her lip. Whatever she was mulling over must’ve been heavy for her to hesitate to tell me. Or was just something she didn’t want to say.

“…….Haaaah. Okay, so just hear me out here. I’ve been thinking that if we’re going to keep fighting, then we’ll need to find a way to get consistent healing. Relying on whatever dregs come our way won’t get us very far.”

“True, true. An injury like the one I got earlier would’ve taken months to heal if I even survived. I think even the Treant's Fruit I had wouldn’t have sufficed for that.”

“Exactly! And as the NPCs here have shown, the best healing comes from a mage with Healing Magic, right?”

“Alicia, I know you’re trying to be subtle about this, and gently lead me to your conclusion, but you’re just being too obvious about it.”

“Uh, no? I was just thinking that we might need a healer in the not-so-distant future. I’m not sure what you’re getting at.”

Even though she said that, a bead of sweat rolled down her cheek. Come on Alicia, you’re too good for this crap.

“Mn-hm. I suppose that’ll definitely be a priority in the future. Healing is an essential component of any RPG team. No matter how strong one is, or how durable, small hits eventually add up.”

“Right! So I was thinking that while finding someone who can use Healing Magic shouldn’t be too hard, raising them to the point where they can keep up with us would be. Um, we’d probably have to put off any efforts to fight for a time.”

“And you want to convince Kalia to work with us? I don’t know, that sounds like it could backfire magnificently.”

“There’s no way that’s possible! Come on Michael, think about it! We both get along well with her, and I’m pretty sure she’s trustworthy. And since it looks like Braddock’s group might disband, we could probably convince her if we tried.”

“And that’s exactly why I’m against it. Don’t you think Kalia might be a little upset at the deaths of all her companions? I’m not saying we can’t wait and see, but it should be after all the dust settles.”

Personally, I had mixed feelings about this. While Kalia’s skill and knowledge of magic would be a great asset, I couldn’t help but feel like she came with excessive baggage. Though who didn’t at this point?

“Well… alright then. I’m not happy, but fine. Is there anything else you wanna talk about?”

“There’s actually a couple things, but I’d like Cameron to be here for this as well.”

“Hm? Well now I’m worried. It’s never a good thing when you want to talk about something. I can only imagine that this is going to set off a chain of events that puts us in repeated dangers.”

“…..Rude. I resent that remark.”

“But it’s no less true, no?”

“I’d like to remind you that entering this Dungeon was your and Cameron’s idea, not mine. I was perfectly happy grinding away at D-Rank Dungeons until we had full equipment sets. But no, the two of you wanted to be adventurous.”

“Considering that your probably the person who’s benefited most from the Dungeon, I don’t think you’ve got room to talk. And if you really still feel that way, then you could just escape tomorrow.”

“…”

“Thought so. Face it Michael, you’re a battle junkie. You actually like being in this dangerous Dungeon.”

“No, I refuse to admit that! I’ve seen what an actual battle junkie looks like, and I’m nothing like that. Such depravedness shouldn’t exist.”

“Ah, what?”

“Also, Cameron, you can stop hesitating outside the door now. There’s nothing going on in here that you haven’t already seen.”

Cameron opened the door and sheepishly stepped into the room. He hadn’t been there for all that long, but his initial hesitation probably made it harder to come in. I wasn’t quite sure how I knew he was out there, and I’d only called out on a hunch, so I was almost as surprised as Alicia when he actually came in.

“Cameron! How, how long were you out there?”

“Not long. I, uh, I heard the two of you yelling, and thought it best not to intrude.”

“Oh, that’s all? You didn’t have to be that considerate of us. It was nothing more than our usual ridiculous banter.”

“Ridiculous? You wound me! Each and every exchange between us has great meaning and sentimental value to me! But yeah, it was nothing more than the usual.”

“What an abrupt change of heart.”

It appeared that I had once again flabbergasted Alicia, as she powerlessly shook her head, before turning back to Cameron to get the conversation back on track.

“So what’s up Cam? I didn’t expect you to seek us out again until tomorrow.”

“Actually, the two of you left before Braddock could explain the plan for tomorrow.”

Dead silence. Ah crap, he’s right. I got too worked up, and stormed out of the room before we could move onto that subject. Welp, that’s a blunder on my part.

“Don’t worry about it lad. I thought that this might happen anyway. That’s why I stayed back to get this from Braddock.”

Cameron then pulled out a sheet of paper with a list of instructions on it. Alicia and I immediately began going over the paper as thoroughly as we could.

“As expected of Braddock. This is both simple and highly effective, all the while being easy to pull off.”

“Is it just me, or do you have an unexpectedly high opinion of Braddock?”

“Hm? Well, yeah. Despite recent developments, he’s helped to hold the regular mercenaries together, and if not for his leadership, I don’t think we would’ve had as easy a time in here. Heck, we probably wouldn’t have beaten the Orc General without him. That’s why I really don’t understand why these idiots are deciding to turn traitor.”

“Braddock thinks that it’s actually just one of them who’s managed to intimidate or coerce the others. This is actually backed up by the fact that it was one of the conspirators who tipped us off.”

“Seriously? I was wondering how Braddock found out about it, but it was as simple as that? Huh, guess not every group of scumbags is as scummy throughout.”

“So the whistle-blower is still a scumbag? They did do the right thing, so shouldn’t that absolve them of any guilt?”

“Nope, still a scumbag. I can’t help but feel that they’re only trying to save their own neck by warning Braddock. Think about it. What would happen if they just randomly grabbed Kalia and tried to escape?”

“Well, I’d think that a number of people, as well as the NPCs, would try to-. Oh, they’d get dogpiled, wouldn’t they?”

“Yep. Well enough about that. I’ve got a few things I’d like to talk with the two of you about. And I suppose most important is this countdown the System so helpfully provided us. Do the two of you want to escape the Dungeon, or do you want to keep going?”

“Is that even a question? Of course I’m staying Michael! I’m not going to just up and abandon you after all we’ve been through together. Plus, I’d have to be crazy to leave you in here by yourself. Who knows what you’d get up to by yourself.”

“You could’ve just left off that last statement. You completely ruined what would’ve otherwise been a rather touching remark. Haah, and? What about you Cameron?”

“I’d never leave the two of you alone.”

Huh? That’s a rather odd choice of words. He has been acting rather odd lately, but maybe he’s just been thinking through some heavy things. Well, it’s not like I ever expected for the two of them to stick around forever. I always thought that we may one day go our separate ways. If that comes to pass, then I’ll see him off with a smile.

***

After spending the next twenty minutes talking about various matters, we broke for the night. Thus, I was now alone in my room.

Eighteen hours left. Wow, it seems like it was months ago when we entered this goddamn Dungeon, but it hasn’t even been a week yet. I wonder how the world’s been coping since we came in here. A week is a long time to be isolated like this.

There’s a good chance that something has happened while we were in here, but worrying about it won’t change that. I’ll deal with it once the Dungeon is cleared. Right now I need to focus on this.

After everything I’d personally experienced, as well as things I’d heard from others, I’d come to a single inescapable conclusion involving Skills. And right now, I was attempting to test it out.

By focusing my mana into my eyes, I was attempting to recreate the process that allowed Alicia to learn Accuracy. Considering that the Skill’s primary function was to enhance eyesight, I thought it was something that would be useful to just about anyone. Especially when fighting monsters that could move faster than we could normally track with just our eyes.

The only issue is that I don’t know where exactly to focus my mana. Saturating the whole organ doesn’t seem to work. So should I target the optic nerve? The corneas? Pupils? I just don’t know, and I’m hesitant to experiment too much. There’s a serious chance I could damage my eyesight somehow.

Aura was so easy for me too. I didn’t even have to think about it, and I could coat my swords in Aura. Doing advanced techniques with it was a different matter, but generating Aura was exceptionally simple, so much so that I struggled with explaining it to other people.

It was, in a way, similar to cooking. Take two people with the same level of proficiency at cooking. One knows a certain recipe by heart, while the other has just learned it today. The first should be able to make the dish without needing to make specific measurements, adjusting it as they go. The latter would be constantly checking the recipe, slowing their progress and making them reliant on the instructions. I believed that the System’s Normal Skills functioned similarly to the first example, giving their holders a high level of familiarity with each technique, all the while without them realizing it.

Given that I already suspected that the System could tamper with memories, this wasn’t a stretch of the imagination to say the least. But further experimentation would be needed. And if I could somehow materialize the effects of Accuracy, then who knows what I might be able to do in the future. The sky’s the limit as they say.