Dungeons and Dalliances Ch. 110-119

4.04 - Juggernaut

Skill progression wrapped up, with Natalie not having enough points to funnel into another advancement. Following that, Natalie set out for the armory with Jordan to test out her new abilities. First and foremost, she needed to find a new weapon. [Bigger Is Better] was clearly urging her toward a style that utilized oversized weapons, and Natalie was happy to follow down that path. Her shield and hammer had been reliable, but nothing inspiring, either.

"So what are you thinking?" Jordan asked. "Warhammer? Great axe? Two-handed sword?"

"With the strength bonuses, I'm honestly thinking warhammer." Her thoughts flicked to Otto, wearing his heavy platemail. "It'll be good against armor. Plus we have that hammer drop from earlier, so I'll be able to equip myself right away."

"Figured," Jordan said.

The two of them looked around the armory. As expected of an institution like Tenet, all weapons were accounted for, every shape, size, and type a person could imagine. Even she couldn't name some of them, and Natalie was a person who'd grown up learning the ins and outs of combat.

Finding the appropriate section where ridiculously sized weapons were stored, she perused her options. Giant polearms, swords, axes, and every other sort lined the racks in rows, or hung on display.

Some were ridiculously oversized. Bigger by a significant margin to the unwieldy warhammer they'd found down in the dungeon. Natalie saw how Jordan's attention fell to those, and she turned to Natalie and quirked an eyebrow.

"Well," she said. "Let's start big?" She gestured to the largest warhammer of the set—one that was easily twice her height and had a hammer head the size of half her body.

"There's a point where it becomes physically unreasonable," Natalie said, amused. She approached the weapon nonetheless. "This thing would not work well in hallways."

She gripped the weapon's haft, then grunted as she dislodged it from its resting place. Even with her recently boosted stats, easily doubling her strength when combining [Juggernaut] and her passive level boosts, the weapon was a nightmare. With a block of metal the size of her chest for its head, that was completely understandable. Jordan whistled, impressed that Natalie could hold the thing at all.

"Yeah," Natalie said, muscles straining to hold the thing. "This's probably meant for some of the upperclassmen."

"You don't say," Jordan replied dryly. She eyed the bulky thing with an appreciative look. "Probably where you're headed, though, long term. Imagine swinging that thing around. Pretty sure you'd pulverize even bosses."

With some difficulty, she placed the weapon back. She picked a more level-appropriate warhammer. Still as tall as she was, and with an impressive block of metal for its head too, the weapon would be devastating in its own right. This one had a pointed end, intended to further help dig into metal.

No longer handling something ridiculously oversized, the giant warhammer felt much more comfortable in her hands. She gave it a few test swings, then rested it on her shoulder.

"Yeah," Natalie said. "I could work with this."

Just the day before, that certainly wouldn't have been true. But her strength boost with [Juggernaut], and explicit bonus with [Bigger Is Better], made the weapon more than maneuverable—if admittedly less so than her previous shield-and-hammer set up. But when accounting for her level up, new weapon, and offense-oriented skills, her offensive capabilities had probably tripled at a minimum, and without her defenses taking too massive of a hit either. A solid smack with this thing would crack a good portion of her opponent's HP, if not outright break it. The problem, of course, would be actually getting a good smack in; maneuverability would be difficult. Even glancing blows would be devastating, though.

But against other heavily armored opponents, that wouldn't be as much of an issue. Natalie might have become a tank killer. She suspected her fight against Otto would go a vastly different route, this time.

Or, maybe. Natalie begrudgingly would admit he was one of the top freshmen tanks of Tenet, which meant he was one of the top talents in the world. Natalie had a competitive streak, but she recognized from a practical standpoint that losing to him said nothing about her personal skill—besides that she wasn't one of the best in the world herself. And only as it stood. Plus, he probably had a level on her during their fight. Regardless, there was no shame in losing to world-class talent. Or so she told herself; rationality and emotions didn't always play nice with each other.

"Let's give it a test run," Jordan said. "Your biggest problem will be with slippery targets, so I'm the ideal person to practice with. We'll see if you need something lighter."

Natalie nodded. All classes and fighting styles came with upsides and downsides, and where this weapon would excel against a heavily armored tank, or any other class not skilled at getting out of the way, someone like Jordan or Sofia would fare much better.

That said, if Natalie even caught a glancing blow on a rogue or lightweight fighter, she might win the fight outright. All it would take was a smart piece of misdirection, or somehow handling the fight to force an undodgable attack. Not easy, but not impossible.

And misdirection? Tricking an opponent for one devastating, fight-winning strike? Well, [Illusion] sounded quite useful there. There might be more coherence behind her class than she'd first thought.

She and Jordan headed for a practice room. They had a short amount of time to get a few spars in and for Natalie to familiarize herself to her new weapon before real combat classes began.

For the next while, she and Jordan sparred. As Natalie expected, the encounter was a clear demonstration of her biggest weakness—an inability to land clean strikes on a slippery target. That said, Natalie quickly picked up how to handle the warhammer, using her momentum to always be in motion and advancing on Jordan. Jordan's strength wasn't in a one-on-one either; she did best attacking from flanks, with her opponent focused on someone else.

She tested her illusions, trying exactly what she'd figured would be effective earlier—tricking her opponent into dodging one way, then landing a devastating blow. But Jordan knew to watch for her illusions, and so fared better than a dungeon monster or even another sparring opponent would.

The fight didn't end with a clear winner or loser, since that wasn't what the spars had been intended to be—they were just testing out Natalie's new style.

That said, for these upcoming fights in today's combat classes, she intended to be a lot more competitive. Her empowered stats were immediately noticeable, and she felt the improved power, speed, and constitution surging underneath her skin.

"And that's before [Juggernaut] boosts your gear," Jordan said. "You'll be even more of a monster in the dungeon. Especially as we get stronger items."

Natalie nodded in agreement. "It's a shame we can't use gear in spars." For some other competitions and situations they could, but not everyday spars. The reasoning as far as Natalie understood it was to test their 'base strength', but certain abilities, like this recent strength boosting one of hers, did get overlooked in that case. But there were no perfect solutions, so Natalie understood.

With early morning self-training wrapping up, she and Jordan headed to class. Natalie found herself more excited than she had been in some time. She wanted to test herself in earnest against whoever their opponents were today.

4.05 - Rankings

Natalie's first fight of the day ended up being a two on two. She received Ernest, an axe-based and somewhat competent all-around fighter, against two opponents from a different class: a fighter and a mage. Only the more diligent students had earned their level up this weekend, and it didn't seem like their opponents were in that group—so Natalie was at a huge advantage.

The spar turned out to be as satisfying as she had hoped it would be.

This new aggressive style of hers played far more to her strengths. [Juggernaut] was aptly named: though it didn't provide her defensive boosts, she was a moving whirlwind as she carried her momentum forward, swinging a giant hunk of metal with terrifying speed, her recently boosted strength meaning she could overpower nearly anyone. Her opponent made the mistake of trying to eat the impact with his shield only once. Warhammer met reinforced wood, and his defenses crumpled immediately—he went tumbling across the arena, shield dented, and while not out of the fight entirely, it left his supporting mage wide and open.

Which meant, of course, that the fight didn't last long after that.

Turning and seeing Sofia's raised eyebrows, and Jordan's smile, was even more liberating than the win itself.

She would need to learn how to work the aggressiveness into a proper tanking style, though. Thrilling as barreling forward and being an unstoppable tornado of heavy metal would be, their team already had offense in spades; she would have to focus on keeping attention through being an unstoppable nuisance, rather than trying to disable her opponent with her newfound strength. Though, the two were somewhat intertwined. She would certainly be seeing a higher kill-participation in the following dungeon run than she had with shield-and-hammer.

Hopefully, future levels would come with a taunt ability, or something similar. She intended to work on her [Illusions] to somehow help, too. If nothing else, she could leverage the ability to peel for her teammates—to provide distractions should she somehow lose her target's focus.

The rest of the class went just as well. By the end, the fifteen classmates she'd spent two weeks with were all looking at her in an appreciative new light. That also held for Natalie and some of them—she hadn't been the only one to level and receive powerful new abilities.

But of the class, Natalie's jump upward in unofficial rankings was the most noticeable. As much because her new skills were strong, it was that they actually fit her this time—and her weapon choice, too. She'd seen several upgrades to her personal strength at once, both direct and indirect.

The only damper to her good mood was that, unfortunately, Sofia had also gotten much stronger. Natalie was itching for the day she could lay that woman flat on her back and dominate her—she wanted it more than just about anything, so bad her skin got hot thinking about it—but it might be some time yet. The white-haired girl flowed between her opponents with newfound grace, and her offensive power had also taken a sharp leap upward. One of her immediately noticeable skills was a movement ability. She seemed to be able to step through attacks, now.

Infuriatingly, that would be doubly effective against Natalie, with her slow-but-powerful style. So long as Sofia saw the attack coming, she had a mitigating ability. There was still the option to feint and catch Sofia off guard, but Natalie begrudgingly admitted that would be a herculean task. Sofia had always had a natural talent for reading her opponents—it was a foundational skill to her style. Natalie would have to pay attention to the ability's limitation. Such a potent dodge skill had to have them. At first appraisal, Natalie suspected a long cooldown, and perhaps a charge-up time—she had to predict the attack, rather than simply react. Still, those weren't easy limitations to exploit for Natalie herself.

At the end of class, Instructor Robin gathered them for a short announcement. She was sharp and punctual as usual, not wasting breath.

"As a reminder, with the start of the third week, student rankings have been posted. I suggest you peruse them at your leisure, either now or sometime during your lunch break. It's important to know your competition, and where you stand. They're posted at most student bulletins." Cool eyes surveyed the collected students, and Instructor Robin nodded. "That will be all, class. Keep up the good work." With a sharp turn, she exited the sparring room, leaving them to also disperse.

Natalie found herself surprised by the announcement; she had known student rankings existed, but that they would be coming out today had slipped her mind. She shared a look with Jordan, then Sofia. They hardly needed to discuss it; as soon as Instructor Robin dismissed them, they beelined for the nearest bulletin board.

Then, at seeing the absolute crowd packed around it, conceded defeat—they took a detour and found a less populated one on the way to the cafeteria.

Natalie wasn't surprised to see Liz in the top twenty. Though not flashy, being a healer, her skill was obvious as day—as expected from a member of the literal royal family.

At space twenty-four, a tragedy lay in wait. Sofia. Sofia had made the first-page of rankings, and Natalie and Jordan had not. Natalie groaned, and Jordan patted her on the back. Sofia just stared at the listing, lips pursed.

"What? Expected to be first?" Natalie asked, more sourly than she intended. It was hard not to have her pride bruised with Sofia on top of her, obvious as the result was. She hated being topped by Sofia.

"I said no such thing," Sofia said.

"You aren't hard to read, princess."

"Hm."

They flipped through the pages, seeking out their names. Tenet was a big academy, so ending up on the second page—in the top fifty—wasn't a mark against Natalie in the slightest; it still put her in the top ten percent of her year. Honestly, that was better than she'd expected; she really didn't think she'd put up a good showing, considering everything that was going on with her class, and how it seem poised to be relatively weak early, but strong late. She would be shooting up the rankings as time passed. With her level-up, the current rankings were already inaccurate.

Jordan was also on the second page, though lower down, at space forty nine. Nobody in the group seemed especially happy with their placements, but they were all intensely competitive, hence how they'd ended up in Tenet in the first place.

Ana was a few spots above Natalie. That also made sense; she was no slouch.

"We're just getting started," Natalie declared. "I expect all of us to be in positions one to five by the end of the year. Anything less and we're not trying hard enough."

Sofia nodded, and Jordan seemed mildly amused at the statement, but didn't disagree.

The looked through the other rankings. Combat wasn't the only category Tenet graded their students in. Natalie obviously wasn't that invested in the academic list, but she did wince at how she was near the bottom—it took some flipping through of pages to find her name. Also unsurprisingly, Jordan and Ana were both near the top, and in fact, were in the top ten, the highest among them of any individual list. To be fair, it wasn't like Natalie was really trying in that regard. Who went to Tenet for the academics?

For the dungeon rankings—which Tenet appraised through the quality of loot and amount of monster cores teams brought back up—Natalie and her teammates were all on the second page. Again, that put them in the upper echelons of Tenet's freshmen, and considering how they had literally been beaten and robbed during their most important dungeon run, that was quite good.

Elida and her team, unfortunately, were all on the first page for both combat-related rankings.

Even more annoyingly, Elida was the number one—for both. Even Johanna, the other major player, hadn't claimed the spot for personal combat strength; she was number two. Otto was twelfth, Natalie noted.

Natalie recognized most of the other names, though not all of them. Tenet's freshmen class had a lot of students.

Not ecstatic about their rankings, but also not devastated, the three of them finished looking through the pages, then headed off for lunch.

4.06 - Stylish

"Good news and bad news," Liz said cheerfully, sliding her food tray onto the table across from Natalie. The bubbly royal was spending more and more of her lunches with Natalie's group. Ana had also joined them. "Which do you want first?"

"Bad news?" Jordan suggested.

"It's a trick question, they're the same thing," Liz said. "The good news is that Elida's team has kitchen duty for literally the whole week. The bad news is they didn't get any real punishment. I can't say I'm completely surprised, but it's still kind of ..." she trailed off, trying to pick a word.

"Bullshit?" Natalie suggested. "Yeah. That's kind of lame." She still hadn't made up her mind on how she wanted to handle Elida and that entire event. A big part of her wanted to concoct some glorious revenge, but at the same time, Jordan's words sat in her mind—maybe instigating a rivalry with the prominent daughter of a major royal family wasn't the best idea. Sometimes taking it on the chin was really the best move. Even if it pissed her off.

For now, she held the grudge to the side. She'd decide later.

"But I do mean all week," Liz said. "Even the weekend. She messed up her own delving schedule because of it."

Natalie blinked. "Oh." That was better than she thought, then. "But not all day, right?"

"Yeah. So they can still go. But it messes up camping down in the dungeon; they need to be back each morning."

"It's something, I guess. And our gear?"

"We're getting most of it back. Not all. Some 'competition'," Liz quoted the words with her fingers, "is encouraged at Tenet. But combined with our haul yesterday, and getting a decent chunk of our previous delve back, we've made out like bandits. We're in a good position going into this week."

"Especially with our upgrades," Sofia said. "I mean, you saw Nat during practice today."

Natalie paused, then turned a confused look at the white-haired girl. Had Sofia just complimented her?

"We're all level two, I take it?" Liz asked, cutting off Natalie's bafflement. "We didn't actually bring it up. But me and Ana are. You three?"

"Then that makes all of us, yeah," Jordan said.

"What'd you get?" Liz asked Natalie. "If I can ask. I saw you fight, but what skills?"

Jordan turned a significant look Natalie's way, and Natalie wrinkled her nose. It was too perfect of a segue to not broach the subject. [Stylish] needed to be discussed with the team.

She'd start with the non-weird one. "One that makes large weapons handle easier," Natalie said. "Hence the change."

Liz made a noise of appreciation. "The dungeon must have known what you'd get, dropping that two-hander."

The extent to which the dungeon was sentient or even prescient was up for debate, but Natalie herself doubted it had known. Just a coincidental lucky drop. Hardly worth arguing about, though. "Yeah, maybe. Anyway, I'll probably take it down during our delve today."

"Tomorrow," Ana corrected. "We're not delving today."

"Sofia's competition," Jordan said, bumping an elbow into Natalie's side.

"Oh. Right," Natalie said. She'd forgotten. "Tomorrow then. Anyway, that was one skill I needed to mention. The other is, uh. Well."

Liz paused, then blushed, putting two and two together. "Related to your class?" she joked.

"Yeah," Natalie said. She looked around the cafeteria—no one was nearby—then lowered her voice. "So, uh, basically, if I'm attracted to what any of my teammates are wearing, they get a stat bonus. And the same in reverse, for me."

The table paused.

"Excuse me?" Sofia asked.

"That's, um, interesting," Liz said.

"What if we wear nothing?" Ana asked. "Does that count?"

Everyone looked at the dark-haired mage, eyes wide.