Chapter 73
"Guh, 'Taunt'!"
The koala-like monster 〈Aral〉 slipped past Shiera's shield and tried to reach Rana in the back line, but Shiera's 'Taunt' made it change direction.
"Estelle! While Shiera keeps them occupied, pick off any stragglers one by one! Don't let any of them get through to the back line!"
"Yes!"
We were on Floor 9 now.
Up to four monsters could appear at once.
As soon as their numbers increased, the difficulty rose sharply, and cracks began to form in our teamwork.
I took up a fixed position in front of Rana to protect our healer, leaving the fighting to Shiera as our tank, Estelle as our attacker, and Rana as our buffer and healer.
Shiera was doing well, but Estelle and Rana lacked the fundamentals of party combat against multiple enemies.
We'd managed to brute-force our way through when there were only two or three monsters, but with four, more of them were starting to slip past our front line, like just now.
I was giving Estelle instructions, teaching her how the attacker and tank should work together while also explaining how the party should move as a whole.
Shiera came from a distinguished family known as the 〈Royal Shield〉, and she was doing her job as a tank perfectly.
Just now, she'd taken on three monsters and left the remaining one for Estelle to handle. But Estelle hadn't picked up on that and went after a monster heading for Shiera instead, causing the mishap.
From what I could see, Shiera was an excellent tank.
Rana still had nothing to do at this point.
It hardly made a difference whether she used her buffs or not, and she still hadn't healed anyone even once.
Still, she seemed to like having me protect her, so at least she was in a good mood...
Hanna was focused on gathering, so she was wandering around nearby. She had the 〈Guest Bracelet〉 equipped, so the monsters weren't targeting her, either.
'Guest' could also be used as a stealth-type effect like this.
Meanwhile, Estelle defeated all the monsters and returned with Shiera.
"Shiera-sama, I apologize."
"It's fine. Nothing serious happened, and everyone makes mistakes at first. Once you get used to Zephyrus's instructions, you won't make that kind of mistake again. Keep at it."
"Yes. I will continue to improve."
"...I don't think I have anything to add."
Estelle seemed to understand what had caused that mishap and had reflected on it, so I didn't say anything more. Instead, I asked everyone what they wanted to do next.
"Up ahead is Floor 10, which means there's a boss. What should we do? Challenge it now, or practice a little longer?"
"...Zephyrus-dono, what do you think? To be honest, I'm not very confident..."
Estelle admitted, looking worried. Well, she'd just made a mistake, after all.
"I think we can go."
"Why?"
"Even if our teamwork isn't perfect, we should be fine, right?"
When Shiera said she was in favor of challenging it, Rana asked why, looking puzzled. But Shiera's answer made her nod as if she'd suddenly understood completely.
Rana was the one who felt the least challenged by the enemies right now, after all.
At Shiera's remark, which could be taken to mean that we could easily beat them by brute force, Rana seemed to assume things would go just like they had so far.
Well, I couldn't exactly disagree.
Their gear was incredibly good—almost on par with my 〈Sky Series〉.
Noble girls who received support from their families had excellent gear, too. I was jealous.
That said, there was a reason for this.
In the game, the earliest you could normally get a 〈Princess Job〉 was in the second half of your first year. By then, their gear wouldn't have been all that exceptional. But with 〈Dan-Katsu〉 becoming real, they got their 〈Princess Jobs〉 in April—a time when that should have been impossible—and ended up with ridiculously overpowered gear.
Well, the same was true of my 〈Sky Series〉.
So Shiera clearly understood how easily she could brute-force things with her gear.
Even a boss around the Beginner Lower (Shocker) level would be an easy win, even if we handled it carelessly.
I completely agreed, so I was planning to give them the go-ahead from the start.
That's why I'd asked whether they wanted to practice a little more, not whether they wanted to turn back.
Everyone's eyes turned to Estelle.
"You won't gain confidence unless you get results. Give it a try first."
"Estelle, I think it's fine, too. Let's go."
"Y-yes. If that's what Shiera-sama and Rana-sama think, then I have no objections."
And so, next up was their first boss fight.