BXBX NOVEL Chapter 8, Amy Becomes the Tank
Chapter 8, Amy Becomes the Tank
It was now five minutes before the meeting. As he saw Garm wearing his armor and sitting on the bench on schedule, he spoke to him as he grinned wide.
“Good morning, Garm-san. How are the preparations?”
“Umu, good morning. The preparations are doing well.”
“I see. Well then, would being tank this time be okay too?”
In the swamp, the tank got damaged a lot, and so Tsutomu wondered if Garm disliked tanking. However, Tsutomu couldn’t exactly weather hits from multiple monsters at once, so there was no choice but to rely on a tank, unfortunately.
“Hm? Is it just the same thing as before? I can do that, no problem.”
“Really? Thanks for the help!”
“Uh, Tsutomu. There’s something I’d like to discuss with you before Amy gets here.”
“Yes?”
Tsutomu sat down beside Garm and tried to hear out his problem.
“I want Amy to tank for us once, is that okay?”
“…Amy, as a tank? You can have tanks with a low VIT stat, I guess, but the beach would be too dangerous if she were to tank… I guess you want to let her learn about tanking, though, right?”
“Yes, exactly.”
Tsutomu thought about Garm’s proposal. He made up his mind as he looked at the beach through the monitor.
“Yeah, I wanted to test out some new skills, too, so we can do that. As for where… the swamp should be fine. It’s fairly straightforward for Amy to grasp the ropes in there.”
“Yes, thank you. She seems to have underestimated my role, so I want her to do it herself this time.”
“O-oh. Really?”
Tsutomu heard Garm laughing while his black tail swayed to and fro childishly.
After that, Garm returned a high-quality medium magic stone over to Tsutomu. As Tsutomu politely declined the stone, they heard a cheerful high voice behind them.
Amy, running from the guild entrance, stopped abruptly in front of Tsutomu as the swords on her belt swayed in their sheaths.
“Sorry to keep you waiting! Ah, Tsutomu! Thanks for giving me the magic stone! I went to eat with my friends at Uozumi restaurant! It was delicious, as expected!”
“I see. That’s great. By the way, did Garm tell you?”
“Tell what?”
“About tanking.”
“Ah…”
While Garm hid his expression from behind, Amy twisted her neck while narrowing her eyes. Her eyes flew wide open once she realized what she’d done.
“Since Amy has no skill to draw enemy aggro, she draws attention purely by attacking. This is a different type of tank from Garm, but I think that understanding of the tank will deepen.”
“Ah, is that so? Is it possible?”
“However, the healer is more likely to be targeted if one doesn’t have skills for drawing aggression. As such, in the swamp, Amy’s VIT should be paramount, as well as Garm’s ATK, if Garm is to turn into an attacker, we should be fine.”
“Understood.”
Amy looked as if she had a question mark on her head, while Garm seemed satisfied.
“Let’s do this just like before.”
“Alright, got it!”
“You say you do, but do you really…?”
“Huh!? I doooooo!”
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As the sun and the sky were blotted out by dark grey clouds, the three landed on muddy ground. Around them were overgrown plants with drooping branches.
As always, the three, who had just landed on the 20th floor, began as usual. Amy scouted ahead. Tsutomu prepared potions and placed them into containers. Garm did some preparatory movements.
You normally won’t be attacked as soon as you exit the black gate. Normally you’d have to move 50 meters or so before that happened. In the case of the swamp, it was bad luck that the landing point was muddy, but as a side effect, you couldn’t tell when you’d get attacked.
So immediately after getting out of the guild’s magic circle and the dungeon’s black gate, they slowly prepared. Amy came back as soon as Tsutomu handed the potion to Garm.
“The north is a regular swamp area with some bottomless parts. The east and west are the same as here. The south is a swamp area with big aquatic plants. The area is light, and I think there are probably no bottomless swamps there.”
“Okay, let’s go north. Mud slimes, froggers, and bloody bees will make for good practice.”
As Tsutomu changed from leather shoes to thigh boots and handed potions to Amy, she walked behind Garm with her tongue out.
“Ah. Amy, you’re tanking this time, so please stay in front.”
“Alriiiiiight.”
With Amy in front, the three headed north. As they progressed, the brownish soil increased in darkness, and the muddiness of the area became thicker. At that point, Amy and Garm left their shoes behind and went barefoot.
Although Tsutomu had bought two more pairs of boots, Amy and Garm were more accustomed to walking barefoot and moved more easily that way. Thus, the boots were kept in the magic bag. Amy jumped slightly in the cool mud, and mud got stuck in her white clothes.
Tsutomu tried to tell Amy, but Garm had already cautioned her. A little further, a mud slime hid in the mud. A group of froggers laying under a tree was just in front of it.
“Now, Amy. Draw the monsters here… don’t mess up your footing.”
“Understood~”
As Tsutomu raises VIT and AGI using his newfound support skills, Amy rushes forward as if to play barefoot in the mud.
Amy pulled out the two swords that were in her scabbard and picked out the slime hidden in the swamp. The black-colored slime tried to absorb the sword stabbed into it from above, but the sword had already been pulled out. The mud slime chased Amy, who went under the froggers.
The froggers, who looked like large dogs, had dull greenish skin, and warts everywhere. The froggers, which sometimes spewed poison from their warts, noticed Amy and, using strong hind legs, flew towards her, leaving mud in their wake.
Amy kicked up the mud on the left to prevent a froggers’ assault. The frogger, which moved its black eyes, bounced and chased Amy.
Amy, who retreated somewhere a little less muddy than where the monster was, looked at Tsutomu behind her.
“Amy, you should counterattack and avoid attacks to draw aggression. Oh, don’t use your skills as much as possible.”
“Huh!? To this number of enemies!?”
“Using skills when tanking isn’t normally done in practice. I think this will be quite difficult, but you’ll do fine. Protect. Haste.”
Tsutomu shook a white cane, cast a small amount of protection and Haste, and went down. Amy confronts the six froggers as the corner of her mouth twitched.
Amy checked if the potion that was inserted into the holder wrapped around her waist was still there, narrowly avoiding the front leg of the swinging frogger.
“Wah~”
Amy, whose feet have become lighter as a result of Tsutomu’s Haste, became accustomed to it, avoiding the froggers’ assault, kicking their hind legs, and their extended tongues one after another.
After about 30 seconds, the effect of Haste wore off. As Amy began to feel that her legs were once again heavy, a blue mist flew from behind, and her legs became light again.
“Sorry, that was a bit late!”
Tsutomu shouted from behind apologetically and continued to shake the cane and cast buffs on Amy. Then two of the froggers approached, changing their direction.
“Amy! Attack the front frogger! Garm will handle the other one!”
At the direction of Tsutomu, Amy put her right sword into the frogger’s cheek. The frogger, which lost its position and shed blood, glared at Amy.
The other frogger flew towards the rear from behind, and Garm countered with a shield. Garm intercepted a frogger of the size of a large dog and pushed it towards Amy.
“Amy. Please strike once behind the three froggers. And from behind the froggers, four slimes were approaching. There’s a bee to the west too.”
“That’s why I was told that it was impossible!”
While desperately following Tsutomu’s commands, Amy kicked the ground and avoided the frogger that hit her body. But when she avoided the attack, she shook her two swords and scratched the enemy. While striving not to let her buffs expire, she looked around and surveyed the battle.
All of the froggers’ assaults, changing their directions, were being countered by Amy and prevented by Garm. As Garm attacked the enemies devilishly, Tsutomu buffed Amy with protection and Haste again, since she couldn’t draw aggro as effectively due to buffs expiring.
Whether Amy felt trapped because additional slimes were closing in, she cast a skill with her double swords in front of her.
“Twin Wave Slash!”
As Amy swung her double swords while screaming the skill name, the frogger on the receiving end split in half and was converted into a magic stone. And the mud slime approaching from the back was also cut vertically.
Swinging and slashing, using the swords. Through Twin Wave Slash, her only long-distance skill, Amy cut through enemies as if dancing. A frogger turned into a magic stone, leaving two, and the four slimes were shredded.
Meanwhile, two froggers jumped towards Amy at the same time. One that flew like a bullet was handled with her double swords, but she got hit by another one in the arm.
The frogger’s assault, which was hard to avoid even with Tsutomu’s help, was only able to bruise Amy due to her bonus VIT and protection. Amy pierced the frogger that had been attached to her arm with a double sword in the head, while slowly feeling pain.
“Amy. Garm has brought an enemy from the west.”
“Haaaaaa!?”
“I’m sorry, but please do your best until Garm is satisfied.”
Amy glared at Garm who ran from the west, as her bruise was cured with Heal. There were dozens of bloody bees that were each about the size of a human head. Some froggers also followed them from behind. Amy looked up to the heavens and prayed.