Chapter 73 - Trial and Error (1/2)

Translator: Barnnn

Editor: Silavin

After the battle with the Queen Spider, the party returned to the Guild, at which Stephanie tried to talk to everyone else. But then the Attacker left immediately, saying he had something else to do. Tsutomu, after making eye contact with Stephanie, followed the Attacker out of the Guild.

The two Tanks said they were free, so Stephanie had them gather up at the Guild’s Dining Hall and began an evaluative meeting about the battle they had just walked out of.

“The opening phase will be the same as before — I’ll use <<Air Blades>> to intercept its surprise attack, then one of you will use <<Combat Cry>>. And also…”

“Looks like we still have much to work on… don’t we?” Rigas said, his tone somber.

“……” Dorssia stayed silent, casting her eyes down.

For a moment, Stephanie was at a loss for words, but then managed to raise her voice to cheer them up,

“Please don’t blame yourselves — today was the first Queen Spider encounter for both of you, and we still have three days left… Tomorrow we’ll train, and then challenge the Boss again in the two remaining days.”

“More training…?”

“To get you to avoid taking hits in your vital areas, yes.”

So long as they didn’t take critical hits, the two Tanks could withstand the enemy’s attacks well enough with the buffing effect of <

>. Stephanie thought they were getting hit too much in their heads and faces, however, so she figured that they should work to fix that one point first.

“For starters, get used to dealing with those long legs. Shields are useless against the Spider’s silk attacks, but should do their job against its leg strikes just fine.”

“Understood.”

Taking Stephanie’s advice to avoid attacks to heart, the two Tanks had hardly used their shields during battle. Having noticed this behavior, Stephanie pointed it out and presented to them various other ideas.

“First off, Rigas… the Queen Spider’s defenses are relatively squishy, so I reckon you could do some damage as well. If I remember correctly, the Dark Knight Job has a skill called… <nchant Blood>>, was it? Augment your sword with it, and each attack you land will also heal your wounds, so please use it and try getting some hits in.”

“Yes! I understand!”

“And Dorssia, your movements were quite stiff. You might want to try relaxing your shoulders some more.”

“I’m sorry. To be honest, I was… pretty… turned on.”

[…Please don’t talk about THAT again. Please.]

Stephanie pretended to not mind Dorssia’s slightly stammering explanation, especially the last part. After a few more topics of discussion, it was late into the evening, so the three decided to split up for the day.

[As for me… what should I work on?]

Instead of going back to the Clan House with the two Tanks, Stephanie stayed in the Dining Hall; she looked down at the documents on her table and let out a sigh.

Thinking back, when Stephanie had been in the secondary parties, she was under the direction of the informants and the parties’ respective Leaders, and in the Clan’s main party, she would be under Rook’s direct command. She was not at all used to being a party’s Leader and deciding on its strategies, so the experience so far had left her quite mentally fatigued.

And up until now, she had been able to make do by improving her skills and directing the Tanks to do their jobs, just enough to get the team through the Swamps.

For the Swamps’ Layer Boss, however, that approach clearly was no longer viable. Something had to be done better, but Stephanie had never been sure whether or not she had been doing things right. Not much of her advice to the two Tanks had been concrete, and she did not know what about herself she needed to improve, either.

[I’ll ask Mister Tsutomu tomorrow. He’s sure to know what to do.]

Stephanie, concluding her planning, rubbed the corners of her eyes tiredly before returning to the Clan House.

The next morning, Stephanie woke up in her room at the Clan Dormitory, washed her face, and used the hair curler magic tool to set her hair. After about fifteen minutes, her hairstyle was back into its quirky spiral curls.

Stephanie then put on her spare yellow dress, checked her entire body, and then left the Dormitory, all the while fiddling with her spiral curls with her fingertips.

“<<Heal>>, <

>.”

While walking down the corridor, Stephanie activated her two skills and kept them levitating over her shoulders as she headed for the Dining Hall. She was now able to do this training while going on her daily routines, and her shooting speed and control had gotten much better, too. Although she had not mastered the placement and quickshot-type skills yet, her overall control was better than that of Eunice’s, the Healer of Golden Tune.

At the buffet-style Dining Hall, Stephanie took a variety of fruits and sweets, and then sat down while spinning around a <<Heal>> sphere under her chair. Although her control was not yet perfect, she could now maintain it to some extent even if she were to look away.

Fully awake now that she has had some sour fruits, Stephanie looked up at the ceiling, thinking about various things to herself. From an outside perspective, the scene would look like an elegant lady being overly dramatic, but she was in fact planning her Dungeon explorations.

After breakfast, Stephanie headed to the Guild while thinking about various things on the way. As usual, she went to the training grounds, at which Tsutomu had already arrived and was doing his preparatory exercises.

They greeted each other, and immediately proceeded with the timing training. While Tsutomu kept on stretching, Stephanie would shoot him a support skill, aiming for it to land within the frame of ten seconds before the prior skill’s buffing effect expired.

Before this training program, Stephanie used to keep the time by using her hands and feet to keep a rhythm, but now she did it with her mind and by instinct. Being able to do that was necessary, since in her training party, in addition to support and healing skills, she also needed to issue orders and even fight by herself. There was obviously not enough leeway for her to stand around and count.

“<

>.”

Counting the seconds in her mind, Stephanie shot out <

> ten seconds before the effect expired. As soon as it connected, Tsutomu spoke up,

“One second early.”

“Understood.”

Getting an exact evaluation from Tsutomu, Stephanie nodded and proceeded to time her next <<Haste>>. After about an hour of such straightforward, motionless training, they took a short break before moving on to skill control training.