Dungeons and Dalliances

4.26 – Steamroll

The [Lumin Golem - Lv. 2] was a humanoid monster about seven feet tall made of glass crystal—keeping with the theme of the floor. Like the floor itself, too, Natalie didn’t recognize the creature. She admittedly didn’t pay much attention in class, but monster manuals were one of the few things she had scoured cover to cover. If she didn’t know the beast, the rest of the team likely didn’t either.

That wasn’t ideal, since pre-warning of what types of abilities, strengths, and weaknesses a monster had could be pivotal to victory. That said, she and her team were strong for level twos, and this was just a single simple dungeon encounter.

With the monster having spotted them at the same time they had it, Natalie didn’t waste time. She charged forward with a shout, her massive two-handed hammer gripped in both hands. Liz’s empowering buff suffused her, even stronger than usual—and not just because of Liz’s level-up and improved stats, but because [Juggernaut] amplified buffs. It was a sixty percent flat boost for furor, applied after everything else.

Power thrummed through her muscles, and her feet hit the ground hard enough to crack tile as she charged. Adrenaline helped carry her forward—this being her first real chance to show off.

Forgoing subtlety entirely, Natalie arrived at her opponent, the glass golem raising its palm forward and pointing at her as if to summon some spell or skill. But she interrupted it. She heaved her gigantic weapon forward with everything she had, pivoting with her waist to get as much momentum as possible.

A hefty block of stone impacted the monster’s glass shoulder with the full might of Natalie’s newfound strength. The blow was even more devastating than she’d hoped. Dungeon monsters could engage entire groups of delvers and pose a challenge, but faced with Natalie’s strength, that didn’t matter. On impact, the [Lumin Golem] went flying, Natalie’s hammer hitting with a crunch of splintering glass that was satisfying on a visceral level. The humanoid creature went tumbling sideways, then slammed hard into the wall.

It didn’t die in a single hit, nor was it even crippled, but Natalie knew she’d just burned through its health pool. It lay stunned against the wall, having nearly embedded into it. Meaning Natalie was primed for a follow-up attack. She carried what momentum was left and pivoted with flawless footwork, swinging her hammer in a wide arc, cycloning herself to her stunned opponent—and smashing another full-strength strike straight into the creature’s skull.

One shot hadn’t finished the job, but the second did. The glass skull crumpled, resisting for a fraction of a second, before Natalie’s hammer punctured. Crystal exploded, and Natalie’s hammer slammed into the wall. The decapitated monster slumped to the ground, not having gotten a single retaliatory strike off.

Natalie grunted as she withdrew her hammer—embedded an inch into the wall—then wound up a finishing strike. It was always best to be sure, especially when it hadn’t started evaporating yet. She caved in the crystal creature’s chest next.

Black smoke finally rose from the monster, its form dissipating. A core plinked to the ground. Natalie rested her hammer on her shoulder. She turned a self-satisfied smile to her teammates.

Who were, reasonably, watching with raised eyebrows.

“Huh,” Liz said.

“I appreciate the enthusiasm,” Sofia said dryly, “but that was reckless, Nat.”

“Yeah, but did you see how fast it died?”

At Natalie’s excitement, Sofia rolled her eyes. A smile tugged at her lips. She was exasperated, but also happy for Natalie. Natalie recognized she had been a little too eager to throw herself into the melee, but she had wanted to show off. Regardless, while her new style demanded a more aggressive style, maybe not to that extent.

“A creature made of crystal,” Ana said. “I can only assume it was weak to blunt damage, which is why it died so fast.”

“Or maybe I just hit that hard,” Natalie said. It was a joke; she recognized that three shots, even accounting for her new strength, was an insanely quick victory against an equal-level dungeon monster.

“Seeing how the floor’s theme is glass, I expect we’ll be seeing similar,” Sofia said. She raised an eyebrow at Natalie. “I guess the dungeon also wanted you to show off.”

Natalie laughed. Maybe it did.

“What do you think that spell was going to be?” Liz asked. “When it raised its hand?”

“We should find out, if there’s another,” Sofia said. “In case any stronger encounters come up that have similar abilities. We need to gather information for future enemies.”

“So you’re telling me not to kill them so fast?” Natalie asked.

Sofia rolled her eyes. “Not every encounter will go that smoothly. We are on the second floor.”

“But yes,” Jordan said teasingly, more willing to feed Natalie’s ego. “Don’t kill them so fast, Nat.”

“No promises.”

In high spirits, Natalie ventured down the hallway. She scooped up and pocketed the earned monster core before going.

Her brilliant first performance did prove itself to be an edge case. While Natalie had grown leaps and bounds from her level one self, she hadn’t become a literal juggernaut, capable of two-hitting every equivalent-level monster—which were designed for teams to handle.

Still, as the team explored down the hallway, taking encounter after encounter, one fact did make itself clear: Natalie had been on roughly equal footing with her team in their level one delves, maybe even on the low end, but now, she might be their star player. She was simply impossible to deal with. Throwing herself forward, empowered by her new skills and Liz’s buff, Natalie could bully level two monsters around, not only doing as much damage as each of her three damage dealers, but at the same time, being a durable frontline.

Even better, [Illusion] further disoriented her enemies, making her blows nearly undodgeable, and [Hunker Down] mitigated her biggest flaw—that the whirlwind two-handed style often left her exposed or put onto exploitable trajectories. Should she end up in that situation, she could activate her defensive skill and become invulnerable to whatever spell or attack had been flung her way.

In short, her level two upgrade was even stronger than she’d thought it would be. And that was before she upgraded everything. [Stylish] and [Bigger is Better], to name the two important boosts that would be coming.

Taking a break after their fifth fight, Natalie caught Liz studying her with a frown.

“What?” Natalie asked.

Liz chewed her lip, as if hesitant—which especially piqued Natalie’s interest.

“What?” she repeated.

“I just …” Liz said. “Huh. Don’t take this the wrong way, but your class is really strong.”

“Thanks?” Natalie asked. How could she take that badly? The glow of excitement that came with her upgrades was hard to fight away; the giddiness still hadn’t faded at how well she was performing.

“Which means I’m worried you’ll outpace us,” Liz finished. “You’re probably getting more experience than us, now.”

Natalie paused. “I … guess that’s possible.” It hadn’t been something she’d thought about. “Should I take it easy, then?”

“What? No way. It’s still better for the team if we steamroll our way through. I just meant …” Liz hesitated for a second time.

“You might outgrow us in the long run,” Jordan said for her. “Especially if your class keeps improving at a similar pace. We don’t have broken abilities like you.”

Natalie’s brow furrowed. “I mean, maybe. I could’ve just gotten a really good level two.” She wasn’t sure if she believed that, though.

“I guess.”

“But even if that were the case,” Natalie said. “So what? Just means I can help the team more. I doubt I’ll have to, but if need be, I’ll drag you along with me.”

“Or maybe her perverted skills will give equal bonuses to us, too,” Sofia said dryly. “There’s already one, [Stylish]. Why not more?”

“Or that,” Natalie said. She waved her hand dismissively. “The point is, we’ll handle that when we get to it, and no matter what, I’m sticking with you. We’re a team. That’s not changing.”

Natalie would have thought it didn’t even need to be stated, but Jordan had joked about it once, and now Liz had shown concern.

Personally, she didn’t even think it would happen. Outpacing her team? Maybe mildly in the best case, a single-level lead, but not more than that. For that to happen, she would need to contribute an overwhelmingly larger portion to the fights than her teammates. The dungeon distributed experience mostly equally. Contribution mattered, but mostly when there were level gaps, to stop a high level from dragging a low level through the ranks. Delvers of equal level tended to stay in the same rough ballpark.

Natalie would have to essentially do as much work as her whole team combined to outpace them at a meaningful rate. And while she’d seen some impressive upgrades, they weren’t that insane.

Still, maybe Natalie should focus on upgrading team skills. She’d been selfish in going straight for personal power, but she had no intention to leave her team behind. [Stylish] was probably her next goal, then. And whatever else came in the future.

Liz seemed reassured by Natalie’s promise. Her brief concern passed, and they continued deeper into the dungeon.