This is a Beta Test?! - A Literally Broken System

All things considered, the dungeon was going rather swimmingly. After that whole debacle with our first pull, the rest of our journey went kind of decent with the four of us slowly getting into a rhythm. Maruki went in and pulled everything in sight, Guidance then cast a few [HP] regeneration [Moves] that\'ll prevent Maruki from dying, while Shizu and I went in and cleaned up shop. It was kind of therapeutic, really.

With our enemies focusing their attention solely on our tank, there was no need for me to think about what I had to do. I could just stand there and keep pulling the trigger at these fish people, casually scoring headshots and racking up [EXP] like they were going out of style.

[LEVEL UP!]

And sure enough, another pull of mobs was more than enough to get me over the next level.

[Moriya: Level 25]

[EXP TO NEXT LEVEL: 690/4800]

[HP: 270/270]

[MP: 220/220]

[4 STAT POINTS AVAILABLE FOR ALLOCATION]

[QUIRK AVAILABLE]

[MOVES AVAILABLE]

Heh, neat. I should really unlock some stuff as soon as we get out of this place. For annoying reasons, my levels were currently stuck at 22; the work of the level sync, I\'m sure. Still, I\'d take the small mercies where I could take them. God knows when I\'ll end up in another dungeon after this.

"We should be coming up to the first boss right about now," Guidance pointed out with a breath, her hand outstretched towards what looked like the [Rig]\'s dining room. "I don\'t know what that is, but I can assure you all that it\'s not gonna be the usual trash."

"Oh? Is it gonna be the same as the [Wolf King] then?" Shizu curiously asked, her eyes twinkling with excitement. "That was a fun one, if kind of dangerous though."

"I shall endeavor to take its attention away from all of you then!" Maruki proudly declared. "Shall I say, \'pop some mitigation,\' as you put it, Lady Guidance?"

"Only when you think it\'s about to do a big attack," Guidance sagely pointed out. "I\'ll keep you alive with regen, but I\'ll try and do some DPS to make this thing go down faster."

I could only nod at our healer\'s assessment. She\'s been trying to do damage for the past few pulls now, I feel. With me being relatively unoccupied, I had more time to notice everybody\'s usual fighting style. And while Maruki and Shizu were having fun in the thick of the fighting, Guidance was constantly grimacing and grumbling to herself; heals and support [Moves] repeatedly coming out of her keyboard with little chance to dish out damage of her own.

Meanwhile, I was just chilling by shooting at stuff. In hindsight, if I knew that this was going to be the combat loop, I would\'ve come up with a [Manifest] that\'s a bit more fun to use.

"That\'s gonna be the gist of it then," I shrugged, twirling my pistols in both hands. "We just go in and kill this thing. How hard could it be?"

"Don\'t jinx us, Moriya," Guidance frowned. "We haven\'t died yet, but that can easily change when we go up against something with actual mechanics."

"Mechanics? You mean this thing has an army of mechanics with it?"

"No, Shizu," I shook my head in mirth. "It\'s just a term for its attacks. Maybe we have to spread out. Or maybe we have to stand in line."

"And all of that without knowing just what exactly is what," Guidance sighed. "We\'re going to play this by ear, and I don\'t even know if my \'rez\' will work."

"Rez?" the princess innocently asked.

I was about to open my mouth to answer before I promptly shut my mouth. I had a feeling what this \'rez\' was, but I\'d rather have Guidance do the honors.

"Well, it\'s my [Raise] move," the dev muttered out in hesitation. "It should theoretically revive you if you run out of health or pass out. But with all of us still healthy, I haven\'t had the chance to test it out."

"Ah! A [Move] that can bring us back from the brink of death?!"

"Yes, Maruki," our healer sighed. "But that isn\'t an excuse to just let yourself go down. This thing costs a lot of [MP] to use. And that\'s on top of its ridiculous cast time."

"Again, something that you should\'ve fixed while you\'re making it," I shrugged.

"And like I said, you should know that the world won\'t allow such a thing," Guidance rolled her eyes. "The Engine won\'t let broken [Manifests] through the system, let alone broken [Moves]."

I blinked at her words. Those were definitely not something she had said to me before. "You didn\'t say that last time."

"I did- You know what? Never mind..."

I shrugged at the tension forming between me and our healer. It wasn\'t my fault she was being obtuse. I would\'ve understood it if she told me earlier in the first place anyway.

"Hey, shouldn\'t we just go ahead and kill this thing?" Shizu suddenly chimed up, breaking the awkward silence between the four of us with her usual smile. "We\'re stalling again."

"Yeah," I chuckled. "I suppose you\'re right in that regard."

"Well, if Moriya here was being helpful in explaining things, then we would\'ve been fighting already."

I raised an eyebrow at Guidance\'s abrasive tone. She was being kind of a dick today, huh. "Calm down. I already learned my lesson, okay?"

Guidance quickly turned to look at me like I had just grown a second head. The fire in her eyes almost made me flinch before it suddenly burnt out as she let out a sigh. "U-Ughh... Yeah... Sorry about that... Let\'s just... Yeah..."

Turning her gaze back towards the boss, she was already doing her usual regen casts, a sign for Maruki to go in and go ham on the thing. Everyone else followed suit, with Shizu going in and myself going to my usual position of being behind the enemy. I guess-

"What the hell is wrong with me today..."

Hmm? Was that Guidance?

[*RRooABBLRRHGG*]

I shook my head. Whatever. If there was a problem, we\'ll just have to get to it after we make it out of here alive.

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