Chương 83: Party Dynamics

My tail swishes with peak smugness behind me, pale fur catching the soft silver glow of the hovering dahlia. Thirty-two tier two mana cores have been obtained at the meager cost of food worth roughly two large copper. Excellent. According to Avelyn, these particular cores contain significantly less mana than something like the boar I killed a few days ago, placing each one at around two large copper instead of a full silver. Still a respectable haul.

Especially considering the fact that I did not personally harvest a single one of them. The adventuring party begins preparing to move again around me. Marek rises first, the heavy Bearkin rolling one armored shoulder as metal plates grind softly against each other. Rin stretches nearby atop his rock perch, twin sabers resting across his lap while pale frostfire curls lazily between his fingers.

Zeke checks the condition of his staff while muttering something deeply distrustful about caves, and above us Sylrae drops lightly from her stalactite alcove with a sharp beat of white wings that scatters loose dust through the glowing air. Avelyn quietly finishes off the remaining fruit beside me. As they prepare, I decide to test something. I reach into my spatial storage and pull out one of the stone crawler mana cores, the pale blue crystal glowing faintly in my palm.

Then I press it lightly against my Phylact Echo Ring. The reaction is immediate. The mana core dims by degrees as pale blue light begins flowing into the ring in thin shimmering strands, the accessory greedily drinking in the energy. My ears perk upward. Interesting. So I can charge it. I simply need to bypass the "having mana" problem entirely and feed it externally instead. Honestly, that feels like exactly the kind of loophole I should have tested sooner.

I make a mental note to eventually investigate whether mana-powered artifacts can also be fueled this way. That seems deeply exploitable. The charging process completes after a few seconds. The crystal loses the last traces of its glow before collapsing into a tiny pile of bluish dust that scatters across the stone floor like crushed glass. I inspect the ring afterward and instinctively gauge the result. … Approximately 0. 01% charge. At best. I stare at it. Then slowly blink once.

Which means I would need to consume roughly ten thousand stone crawler mana cores to survive death a single time. Completely reasonable. Still. That is admittedly a lot of dead cave-jackals. I do some quick mental math. One copper appears roughly equivalent to two USD, give or take depending on local economy nonsense. Assuming my working conversion is actually correct. Each crawler core is worth two large copper according to Avelyn.

Which means fully charging the ring would cost somewhere around four hundred thousand dollars. … Honestly? That is surprisingly affordable for a one-time anti-death insurance policy. Note to self: continuously feed mana cores into the funny immortality ring. I drain another nine while I am at it, reducing them to glittering dust one after another until the ring finally reaches a whopping 0. 1% charge. Truly. My financial decisions are flawless.

Satisfied, I hop down from my perch and stretch lightly, tail flicking behind me as my joints loosen. Marek glances toward me.

"Ready?" I nod once.

"I am unfamiliar with your team's combat coordination," I reply smoothly.

"Allow me to observe the first few encounters so I may better familiarize myself with your tactics." He nods back immediately before turning toward the others.

"Alright. Everyone ready?" A series of confirmations follows. Rin rolls one shoulder and rises fluidly to his feet. Zeke spins his staff once before resting it across his shoulder. Avelyn gives a small nod while Sylrae lifts herself a few feet into the air with a soft downward beat of her wings. Then we move. Marek takes point at the front of the formation, massive shield resting near his side while Avelyn remains safely in the center flanked by Rin and Zeke.

Sylrae hovers overhead, carefully maintaining a low enough altitude that her wings avoid scraping against the uneven stone ceiling. I position myself toward the rear near Avelyn. If things deteriorate unexpectedly, protecting the healer first is the obvious priority. Standard stuff. Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. At the same time, one of my vines silently stretches forward through the air, carrying the hovering dahlia ahead of the group.

The glowing flower positions itself diagonally behind and above Marek's shoulder, high enough to illuminate the tunnel ahead without forcing glare into his eyes. Efficient. Also dramatically atmospheric. An important consideration. We continue deeper into the cavern system, boots crunching softly across loose stone while the silver-white glow of my dahlia drifts ahead of the formation like a tethered star. As we move, Sylrae explains more about the dungeon itself.

Apparently, the Stone Crawler Caves are absolutely massive. Shocking. A sprawling underground labyrinth infested almost entirely with stone crawlers, every twisting tunnel eventually looping back toward the same handful of central locations no matter how much the cave system tries to pretend otherwise. One such location sits roughly halfway through the dungeon: a massive cavern containing an underground lake large enough to qualify as mildly unreasonable.

According to Sylrae, that chamber normally houses a mini-boss, being some kind of aquatic serpent. Unfortunately, the dungeon has been soaking in excess mana for who knows how long now, which means the creature has likely mutated into something significantly more problematic. Wonderful. The boss room itself lies at the absolute bottom of the cave network within a gigantic crystalline geode. Again, however, whatever originally occupied that chamber may no longer resemble the thing waiting there now. Mutation.

Apparently the universe's favorite excuse for escalating problems. There is also a roaming boss capable of appearing anywhere in the dungeon at any time. The party is very clearly hoping we do not encounter it. Which is adorable. Everyone knows how this works. There is no force in existence stronger than narrative tropes. If a dangerous roaming boss exists, then naturally the protagonist is contractually obligated to run directly into it at the worst possible moment.

Frankly, I would be more surprised if we didn't encounter it. As we move through the tunnels, Sylrae suddenly speaks from above.

"Ahead," she says quietly.

"Five to ten. No visible traps or ambushes." The group subtly tightens formation. Rin's tail stills slightly. Zeke readies his staff. Marek's grip shifts along the handle of his shield. Then we continue forward. A few moments later, my gravity sense brushes against movement far ahead through layers of solid stone. I immediately locate them. Seven distinct signatures buried within the walls roughly two hundred and fifty meters ahead of us, clustered tightly around a narrow section of tunnel. Waiting.

My ears perk slightly. Interesting. I glance toward Marek.

"Seven," I say calmly.

"Inside the walls ahead." The group collectively looks toward me. Sylrae especially. There is a very faint pout forming on her face now, which is deeply unreasonable. I take absolutely zero responsibility for my catastrophically overpowered racial skills. Marek, however, wisely chooses not to question how I possess more detailed battlefield awareness than the literal scout. Professional decision-making. We continue forward carefully.

The tunnel narrows slightly ahead, jagged stone pressing inward while shadows dance across uneven cavern walls beneath the silver glow of the dahlia. Then— The walls explode. Stone erupts outward in a thunderous crash as seven crawlers burst free simultaneously, collapsing rock and dense clouds of dust filling the tunnel in an instant. The party reacts immediately.

"Bulwark."

"Blessing!" A pale blue dome slams into existence around the group just as a barrage of jagged stone projectiles tears through the air from the crawlers' opening volley. The impacts hammer against the barrier hard enough to send ripples racing across its surface like strikes against frozen water. At the same time, warm golden radiance blooms across Marek and Sylrae's bodies. Avelyn casts again almost immediately. Then again.

The same light wraps around the rest of the team—including me—settling across my skin in a faintly warm shimmer. Strength floods my limbs as Blessing increases my stats. Efficient. Fast casting too. Interesting. Above us, Sylrae opens fire. Her rifle cracks like thunder inside the enclosed cavern as gravity-aspected rounds slam into the nearest crawler with violent force, punching chunks of stone plating free in sprays of shattered rock. I watch carefully as the battle unfolds.

After casting the blessings, Avelyn begins launching Holy Javelins into the melee. They… do not accomplish much beyond slightly slowing the crawlers. Useful support. Limited lethality. Sylrae's rifle fares somewhat better. Gravity-aspected rounds hammer into crawler bodies hard enough to stagger them sideways or disrupt lunges outright, controlling the battlefield reasonably well, but once again, the actual damage output remains fairly limited. Then the crawlers fully close the distance.

Marek immediately takes centerline control, stepping forward to intercept the advancing monsters before they can collapse onto the backline. The man moves like a fortress granted temporary mobility privileges, efficiently blocking incoming crawlers before launching them backward with brutal shield bashes from his architecture-sized instrument of violence. Honestly, calling that thing a shield feels mildly dishonest. It is more wall than equipment. Zeke also isn't contributing much. Not because he lacks skill.

Quite the opposite, actually. His timing is fairly decent. Whenever pressure on Marek begins spiking too sharply, precise bursts of flame erupt through the battlefield to force crawlers away from dangerous positions or disrupt overlapping attacks before they can fully collapse inward. The problem is simply environmental. This is a cave. An enclosed cave. One generally filled with oxygen. And his teammates possess an apparently unreasonable attachment to continuing to breathe. Highly restrictive.

Rin, meanwhile, is doing the overwhelming majority of the actual damage. His twin sabers carve pale arcs of frostflame through the cavern air, each shallow cut spreading crystalline fractures across crawler armor before the next strike shatters entire sections apart in sprays of frozen stone and brittle flesh. Efficient. Very stylish too. Points awarded accordingly.

Avelyn continues watching the battle critically from the center of the formation, alternating between Holy Lances and carefully timed reapplications of Blessing just before pressure spikes occur. Very talented. More importantly, proactive. That alone places her significantly above the average RPG healer archetype in most games. I continue observing as the crawlers grow progressively more brittle beneath Rin's frostflame until eventually even the attacks from the others begin shattering them apart outright.

Past that point, the battle wraps up rather quickly. The final crawler explodes into fragments beneath a gravity-infused rifle shot from Sylrae, chunks of broken stone carapace skidding across the cavern floor. And with that— I have all the information I need. Their formation is slightly inefficient. Intentionally so, I think. It takes me only a few seconds to identify the logic behind it. Everyone is contributing to the kills. Experience-sharing mechanics, most likely.

Which means that while I could absolutely play the executioner archetype here—violently blenderizing my way through every crawler in the dungeon ahead of the group—it would not actually be the optimal approach. If we reach the boss underleveled, the fight becomes significantly harder than necessary. Therefore, everyone needs experience from every encounter. That is why they are dragging the fights out instead of ending them efficiently. Reasonable.

The issue is that this formation places an absurd amount of pressure onto Marek. He has to intercept almost everything at once while simultaneously preventing even a single crawler from slipping past him toward the backline. Rin helps alleviate this a bit, but not enough to be ideal. Which means my ideal role is obvious. Support frontline. Fight beside Marek, and reduce the pressure on him.

Use my vines to intercept attacks, disrupt movement, and create openings while removing limbs from anything that gets too close. That way, even against larger swarms, the backline remains protected without Marek being forced to personally body-check the entire cave ecosystem by himself. I nod slightly to myself. Yes. This is the plan. A quick Inspect afterward reveals that both Avelyn and Zeke gained a level from the encounter, placing Avelyn only a single level away from Evolution and Class Advancement.

Something she is very clearly excited about judging by the rapid swishing of her tail and the fact her ears are currently perked so high they may attempt orbital ascent. Adorable. I approach while the others begin excavating mana cores from the crawler corpses. Then I pull out my old spatial storage ring—the one with only a single cubic meter of space—and hand it toward Marek.

"I expect that back at the end." He looks genuinely surprised for a moment before accepting it with a grateful nod and immediately beginning to store the extracted mana cores inside. Efficient. Then we begin moving again. This time with me properly integrated into the formation at Marek's side. Now then. My tail swishes eagerly behind me. Let the hunt begin.