IWUAaDNW: Exploration 2.3, 2.4

“I might have an idea,” Bob said suddenly. “Your minions have never fought before, have they? You’ve been controlling them this whole time.”

He could even tell that, huh? I made my spider nod.

“...Right. So how about this. People who come in here fight your minions—without killing them,” he added when Kamella’s stare hardened, “and you do the same to us. You get the mana that feeds you from our fights, your minions learn how to fight better so you don’t always have to control them, we get your loot without starving ourselves or you, and some of us even get to learn how to handle themselves in a dungeon without putting their necks in actual danger.”

The latter was said with a pointed look at Gwen. Her eyes widened, and I could see gears start rolling in her head.

I mulled over that idea for a moment. I could only see one downside from it, and it was on their end; in order to get mana from them, I had to injure them somehow. I wasn’t against sparring, but sparring to injury wasn’t a spar. Unless they had magic healing potions or something?

“We could even give it a shot right now,” he continued, grinning at the girl took a wide-eyed step back. “One-on-one, Gwen against one of your bugs. Are you okay with that?”

“Uh, sir?”

I felt like playing along. I wasn’t going to try injuring her, though.

[...]

“Gwen, what are you facing?” he asked.

“Lesser Wasp, Wasp starter variant,” Gwen recited, her eyes set on my minion. “Threat level F. Aggressive insect, very persistent, easily baited to attack. Fragile, but agile. Has F to E-class pain venom. Countermeasures is to block and counterattack, or use area of effect skills.”

Bob nodded in approval. “Good. One thing they don’t note in that book is that they’re social, like to stick together, so if you’re facing one, you’ve probably got more on the way. Not a problem today, but something to keep in mind.”

“Yes, sir.”

The lesson was done, and as she’s said, I could feel my wasp was eager to attack. I obliged it, darting forward with open mandibles. Wasps could fly backward, so I could have angled its body so my stinger had been in front, but they were much faster flying head-first, not to mention far more agile. Gwen raised her shield high, expecting a head-on strike, and this time I obliged her, although I saw a big hole in her defense strategy.

She blocked and counter-attacked. This strike was much faster than the previous one. I almost couldn’t see it, and—was it just me, or was her mace glowing this time?—but since I’d been expecting it, I dodged it easily enough. I flipped upside-down and pushed down to avoid the returning mace strike. This put me to the ground, with her leg in stinger range.

I struck, pushing without actually stinging.

“Ah!” she exclaimed in alarm, jumping back.

Bob chuckled. “Solid leg hit, get down on one knee. You can’t use your leg anymore.”

“Fuck,” she muttered, obeying. My wasp had returned to a safe distance, letting her recover, and although my wasp did feel some annoyance at not pushing the attack, it was also elated at what its body had done. My minions really didn’t mind that I was controlling them.

With Gwen on one knee, she was a sitting duck, and I decided to show her why her blocking technique was flawed. I moved again, using the same attack. She raised her shield, and the moment she lost sight of my wasp I darted sideway and moved to strike her around the shield on her mace side. To her credit, she reacted correctly, immediately swinging her mace at my bug, but I’d expected that, pulled up just above her strike, and at that point she was wide open.

My bug rammed her in the face. It was only because she was already on one knee that she wasn’t toppled over. My stinger fell on her stomach, the hard point pushing hard at her leather vest without penetrating.

“And match,” Bob said. “Dungeon wins.”

[...]

I opened my info box and got my second surprise of the day.

13/25.

I had far more mana than I was supposed to.

—IWUAaDNW: Exploration 2.3



The problem was that, just like Lisa, it seemed to get details wrong at the most terrible times.

For instance, this thing.

[QUOTE]
Mana Information – Generation °˖✧◝(⁰▿⁰)◜✧˖°

Mana is a product of life. Absorb life force and vitality to generate more mana! Reliable mana sources will be added to your daily production.

Injuring and killing adventurers is a good way to make mana! Fight hard!
[/QUOTE]


Except for the little detail that I could apparently get mana from just fighting, which this stupid thing had led me astray about.

It hadn’t taken me too long to figure it out. I’d had 19 mana earlier, used 10 for my pixie’s room. One morning had passed, and I currently had a measly 0.5 mana regeneration—which was fine, since I could grab birds from outside—but instead of the 9.5 I was supposed to have, I currently had 13.

I hadn’t injured Gwen. We’d sparred, but neither of us had come even close from hurting each other. All we’d really done was push each other around a bit—mostly me to her.

Which, apparently, was enough. I reasoned that the exertion from the sparring had been enough to count as “vitality”. Or something. Bob had apparently known about this, obviously since he seemed to know everything that could be known about dungeons, and had given me the final hint I’d needed:

“Passive abilities won’t work either; only skills used on a target will work.”

I felt like I was the fourth ring in a game of telephone for the hearing-impaired.

IWUAaDNW: Exploration 2.4