Live Dungeon! Chapter 4, Healer

A familiar sensation of plummeting washed over them as the three landed, their hands still clasped. This descent would become a recurring event. Tsutomu, upon impact, found his face planted firmly on the ground.

The surroundings consisted of a guildhall and an expanse of lime-green grass stretching as far as the eye could see. Despite the monster sightings scattered across the landscape, it was a surprisingly pleasant place to materialize.

“Alright, Amy-san. Please scout for enemies.”

“Roger that~” Amy zipped away like a gust of wind, quickly disappearing from Tsutomu's sight. In her absence, Tsutomu retrieved a white staff from his satchel. The gleam of his equipment clearly marked him as a white mage. He then commenced solitary mental practice.

(Translator's Note: Mental practice involves visualizing actions to improve actual execution.)

Just as Garm readied himself to advance, Amy returned, her breath coming in short gasps.

“No adventurers nearby~ No large monsters either~ Let’s go!”

“Acknowledged. Well then, let’s start with those goblins over there.”

“Understood!”

Amy, who had just reported her findings, and Garm, who had just completed his readiness checks, were still unarmed and in their guild uniforms. While their presence likely minimized the minuscule chance of encountering trouble, their primary purpose was to dissuade other adventuring parties.

All guild staff, excluding the clerks, are eligible for an examination upon clearing the 40th level of the dungeon. Successful candidates must then excel in a rigorous written test and a practical skills assessment. Following this, an interview with the guild chief determines if they are deemed non-threatening enough to become official guild staff members.

Parties that might consider ambushing individuals escorted by two uniformed guild members were virtually nonexistent. While a rare few underestimated them due to their lack of weaponry, they invariably retreated swiftly once Tsutomu produced their armaments from his magic bag.

“Very well, those three creatures are our targets. I shall cast Protect.”

As Tsutomu held his white staff aloft, the white gems embedded within it illuminated, enveloping everyone in a faint ochre hue. This supportive enchantment enhanced the durability of those affected, the effectiveness scaling with the caster’s MND. “Thanks~,” Amy chirped as she darted forward, Tsutomu and Garm following close behind.

Upon spotting Amy, one of the goblins lunged, only to be met with a swift kick to the jaw. Garm intercepted another goblin charging towards him with a powerful punch. Tsutomu kept his staff planted on the ground, his attention fixed on the final goblin.

“Heal.”

Though Amy remained unharmed, Tsutomu cast a healing spell on her as a precautionary measure and for practice. With a flick of his staff, a green, fist-sized projectile emanated, striking Amy in the back as she continued her charge.

He persisted in targeting the still-moving Amy, treating the exercise like a form of target practice. As soon as Amy signaled her readiness, Garm decisively crushed the remaining goblin’s neck with his boot.

Upon their demise, the goblins dissolved into green particles, vanishing without a trace of blood, leaving behind only a scattering of small, translucent magic gemstones. Amy collected a few fragments of the goblin scraps.

“Tsutomu, your aim has certainly improved! Remember when you first started, you actually healed a goblin?”

“There have been fewer errors lately, too. Please acknowledge that progress.”

“And the look on Garm’s face back then was priceless, like a dog eager to pounce!”

As Amy erupted in laughter, she tossed the collected gemstones to Tsutomu, who nervously pocketed them. Garm, recalling his own expression, stepped aside.

Garm had guided Tsutomu during his initial foray into the dungeon. When Tsutomu mistakenly healed a weakened goblin instead of Amy, the creature was restored to full health. This was an unexpected outcome, as healing enemies was impossible in the game.

Following that incident, Garm advised Tsutomu to reserve healing for regrouping moments. Consequently, Tsutomu concluded that this reality was vastly different from the game.

And so, beginning the following day, Tsutomu adhered strictly to this advice. He observed from the rear as Amy and Garm engaged the goblins. Healing was administered only after the engagements concluded, earning him Garm’s praise.

After a mundane half-day of this repetitive routine, Tsutomu returned to the guild. A check of his status revealed a five-level increase in his skill proficiency. He also noticed the addition of new skills at the bottom of his status card: the support skill, Protect, and the offensive skill, Air Blade.

The next day, Tsutomu was instructed to cast Protect prior to the commencement of battle. Garm and Amy handled the goblins, while Heal was reserved for post-combat application. When Tsutomu inquired about using Air Blade, Garm reprimanded him sternly, akin to a parent scolding a child.

“Tsutomu, your role is to provide protection before combat and healing after combat. Nothing else.”

"Uh, isn’t that a bit wasteful? Once I die, I can just respawn and come back, right? But yeah, it’s not like I want to get hurt, though."

"White Mages are expected to use support skills before the battle and heal the party afterwards. There’s no problem if you stick to doing that."

"...I see."

Tsutomu basically had no real experience in dungeons. So, he then grew rather weary from being coddled by Garm. Garm called out to him in a foreboding manner, and so Tsutomu put on a fake smile and held back his urge to dive into the dungeon.

After that, he trained for five days, practicing aiming his skills, and focusing and spreading the area of effect. It wasn’t perfect, but combined with the effects of the white cane, he had begun to see some results.

Afterwards, he watched the top clans in the dungeon explore for about half a day. He then realized that Garm was not in the wrong, and issued an honest apology.

"Basically, if you get hurt, you can just drink potions after the battle."

"The cheapest potion is 10'000 G, you know? If you watch carefully, there’re a lot of parties that come back with low HP. Even if your level goes up you won’t be able to consume them. This is why people in the grasslands are stuck there for a long time."

"Uwah~ Tsutomu, you sure are tough on those insects."

Parties who haven’t gone past the tenth layer are considered to be insects by the rest of the community, though the nickname was kind of harsh, Tsutomu remained silent.

As they were chatting, five more goblins approached them. Tsutomu applied buffs, and then Amy and Garm went after them bare-handed.

Though Tsutomu wanted to stop getting carried and pull his own weight, he followed Garm’s instructions until he hit level 10.

Besides, from the start, it was decided that Tsutomu would carry on like this until level 10 – though he did continue to selfishly practice aiming his heals.

The current mainstream party configuration was four attackers and one healer. This was what most top guilds followed.

There were tactics in the game that allowed the attackers to kill enemies quickly under the cover of a tank, but it was much harder to pull off here. Thus, Tsutomu was excited to hear about this. However, when he got to actually watching this happen on one of the monitors in the guild, he felt disappointed.

The basic chain of action was to apply buffs first, then strike. Basically, the injured people would just drink potions to heal, while the healer hid. The only trouble the healer would have would be reviving dead party members at the end of the fight.

Surprisingly, healers were for the most part disposable. Magical skills depended on one’s MND to be effective, and that’s what healers used to revive and heal.

When the healer applied buffs, monsters recognized them as a threat and dropped their focus on other members of the party to target the healer with hostility.

As Tsutomu watched this on the monitor, while sitting on a bench, he quietly asked Garm to explain the situation.

Garm said that the leading clan wanted to go as far as possible, so they would leave recovery to potions, and leave healers to revive in case of unexpected attacks.

And as long as they were the highest, they’d be displayed on the monitor, so their popularity within the city and the guild would increase.

When popularity increases, profit would follow. The equipment that the party members are using would skyrocket in value, and it would be advertised in weapon and armor shops.

The problem was that the rest of the clans tended to blindly follow the top clan’s strategies.

And when the top clan wasn’t doing so well, it followed that other clans weren’t too. Their equipment would be mostly destroyed, and they’d have little to no HP left after a dungeon run.

Healers and pack mules were treated less fairly than everyone else, as they weren’t profitable or popular. Tsutomu saw many in the guild treated as such. It wasn’t a situation he was comfortable with.

[Healers are neglected even though they’re crucial to a party. I definitely won’t forgive this unfair treatment.]

Even if game tactics weren’t necessarily going to carry over to real life, and healers were considerably more squishy, it was still unjust to treat them in such a way.

Above all, Amy and Garm undermined Tsutomu’s opinion of the healer being good. Amy, in particular, had some words to say about the class.

–To begin with, it was time to change that stereotype. Tsutomu was now level 10, and at that level, it was okay for him to be the leader of the party.

After that, he tried to defeat dozens of goblins and requested they go back to the guild, even after just leveling up.

"Alright, let’s head back immediately! There’s stuff I want to do when we get back, but do we have time?"

"Tsutomu, you’re in surprisingly good spirits today. Are you thinking of something lewd?"

Garm glared at Amy, who was teasing Tsutomu and playing with her hand.

"Tsutomu wouldn’t lust over you, pervert."

“If you’re looking to die, perhaps you should be more direct. Do you want me to dispatch you the moment we leave this place?”

“I hardly think you possess that capability.”

“Why must you two always be this way?”

Amy tossed a spare magic stone in Garm’s direction. After attempting to mediate their burgeoning conflict, he began tidying up the scattered stones.