The Protagonist System

117 Speed-Running A Dungeon

I was right. Just standing there while everyone else worked so hard, made me feel terrible. Even when I pulled out my magical guitar and sang an encouraging song to buff them up, it barely lasted five minutes before it faded away and I was tired. I had to wait an hour before I felt up to playing again and the temporary boost didn't really do much.

As the day wore on, I also found out something important. The XP sharing a party did when formed at the guild was very different from the sharing I did when forming a party with my system. It was shared by ranking, which meant Selene was getting the lion's share, Megumin got a much smaller share Darkness next, then Wiz, then Cremea, then Fio, and then way way way at the bottom was me.

Since I was technically support, despite not being able to do anything else besides hand out food and medical supplies like potions, it meant I was contributing in some capacity and it gained me the minimum amount.

It was going to take forever for me to gain any levels this way.

When we paused for lunch in a safe area, I brought this up. My party discussed it furiously and Selene just looked resigned and said that was how it worked. Unless I could fight on par with the others, I wouldn't get much XP at all.

“Then let me get the final hit before you kill something.” I suggested.

Selene shook her head. “That doesn't matter. I still did all the work. Getting the final blow doesn't matter.”

“Do you know that for sure?” Wiz asked her.

“I've been an adventurer for years and I've never encountered anyone gaining more experience with only one hit at the end of the fight.” Selene said.

I sat there and thought about that. “Is it because you were all about the same level or because you always concentrated on killing the enemy and never tried to dole out who gets the final shot in each battle?”

Selene gave me an odd look. “What do you mean?”

“Obviously, you've had a party before and can work well with others when taking down bigger creatures.” I said and motioned to Darkness, because she had used her as a shield a few times to deal out enough damage to take down some of the creatures in the dungeon. “But, did you ever rotate who gets the last shot or did you always have the same person finish them off because that was what you were used to?”

Selene looked surprised at my question and then ducked her head for several minutes. None of us said anything and let the woman think about it. We also didn't try to talk about anything else, because we didn't want to distract her.

“You're right, Kazuma. It was always me. I was always at the forefront and we would whittle down larger enemies until they were weak enough and I would take the opportunity to deal the final blow. Since there was always a lot of XP to spread around, it never occurred to me that I could be getting a bit more than the others for ending things and not because I was the better fighter and contributed more.”

“We're not used to confining and subduing enemies, either.” Wiz said, who was also an experienced party member in the past. “Why would we stop attacking to let someone else finish off what we were fighting? It goes against everything we've learned.”

Selene nodded in agreement. “It's not something we ever had to do before. You fight until it's dead and that's that. We usually work out a split of the loot afterwards.”

“Which we mentally applied to XP as well to give everyone a more even share because of their contributions to the fighting.” Wiz said, realizing the truth. “I wonder if that's how it works because we believed it worked that way or if it's set up that way and our magic makes it so?”

Selene looked thoughtful for several seconds. “It will be much harder to pull back in the last moments of a fight to capture the creatures instead of killing them.” She said and gave me a look. “Will your armor last long if you stay much closer to the fighting?”

“The armor will.” I said, confidently.

Wiz reached over and cupped the side of my face. “What about you inside the armor?”

“I am very squishy.” I said with a sigh. “One good hit, maybe two. I will have to drink health and mana potions like crazy to keep up with you, too.”

“Then that's what we'll do.” Selene said and finished off her meal. “We'll lure out the next set of creatures and we'll try to beat them down into unconsciousness instead of death. We can try removing their limbs or something and then bashing their heads to knock them out. Once they are...”

“...I can try killing one with minimal risk of death.” I finished for her and she nodded. “All right, let's do this.”

*

Sylvia, the Demon General in charge of the Monster Division for the Demon King, was in one of her favorite places and enjoying herself. It was one of the monster breeding pits in the world's most dangerous dungeon and she was overseeing a new addition to the army.

By her looks alone, you couldn't tell that she was a chimera, a creature that could absorb traits and skills from the things her body consumed and merged with. Her 6 foot tall figure had gigantic breasts that were barely contained in her skimpy red dress and her long black hair had red bangs that highlighted her face.

She hadn't started out as a woman and had only gained those traits over the years of her absorbing more feminine targets than male ones. Of course, this meant she had the equipment of both as well. That's right folks, she was a true hermaphrodite and identified more as a female than a male, since embracing her feminine side attracted many more targets than any other form did.

A disturbance was felt not far away and she immediately sent a few scouts to check it out. They didn't return. Curious, she decided to go herself to check it out. It wasn't like she would encounter anyone that she couldn't handle, considering she was a Demon General and had a legion of monsters under her command.

It didn't take her long to find the source of the commotion. It was an adventurer party and they were kind of exploring the upper levels of the dungeon. She watched them for a short while as they pretty much stumbled around and didn't do more than aggravate the dungeon's creatures. They beat them up instead of killing them, which intrigued her, then she saw that suit of orange-yellowish armor.

Sylvia's eyes almost sparkled at the magic it contained. It was so beautiful and so eye-catching that she immediately wanted it. Despite all her reservations about not revealing herself or letting anyone know about one of her secret hideouts, she abandoned her hiding spot and strode over the the figure stabbing a wicked mythril sword into the head of the gremlin, one of the weaker creatures in the dungeon.

The shouts of warnings from the rest of his party made the armored man turn and face her. A magical barrier formed around him and Sylvia almost laughed at how weak it was. A slap of her hand shattered it and she formed her own barrier around him and her.

“Fuuuuck me.” The man said with a sigh, as if he knew who she was.

The offer kind of surprised her, because most men were intimidated by her looks and then very intimidated when they saw what she had between her legs. She wasn't overly large down there; but, she wasn't small, either. Then again, she was confident and proud of her sexual exploits and she wouldn't mind giving him a go if he was up for it. He was handsome and had a nice muscular body under that armor, as well as being her exact height.

Kazuma saw her face and sighed again. “I'm sorry, that was an expression of loss, not an invitation. Not that I would refuse, because you know... last moments and all that.”

Sylvia gave him a very sexy smile as various magical blasts and weapons impacted the barrier she had put up. “Would you really strip out of that armor and let me fuck you if I let you live?”

Kazuma's eyes dropped down briefly and saw Sylvia's dress move and a bulge formed in a phallic shape. “We both know you're not going to let me go.”

Sylvia stepped close and pressed her breasts and her erection against his armor as she hugged him. “I said I'd let you live, not let you go.”

“I know.” Kazuma said and took a deep breath, then let it out. “How long will this take?”

“I want your armor and you are just a bonus.” Sylvia admitted and started the process of absorption. “It could have been a lot more fun than this, though.”

Kazuma gave her a crooked smile. “Do you absorb only things or do you get their memories, too?”

Sylvia's own smile reduced. “I can only absorb the physical and not the metaphysical.”

“Then you'll never know how much fun this could have been.” Kazuma said and kissed her.

Sylvia closed her eyes and felt the intensity of his passion, his tongue battled hers, and she let out a soft moan as the first armor pieces sank into her flesh. She would gain a lot of resistances from it and could also form it over herself, so she was very happy. She ground herself against his belly with the armor out of the way, and his hands sank into her back.

The rest seemed to disappear fairly quickly and Sylvia felt a small amount of power flow into her and she wondered why an adventurer delving into the dungeon would be so weak. It was almost like he was drained before and she wouldn't get much beyond the armor and his muscular frame. It was a shame, really. She thought she was going to have a great meal and all she had was a nice snack.

Where did that nice sword go, anyway? Sylvia asked herself and took several minutes to recover from the absorbing process.

It took her adaptive body that long to make sense of the weird armor and the enchantments it held, then her body changed. She formed the orange-yellowish pieces of armor in appropriate spots, adjusted for her more feminine frame, and her muscles were more defined. That was it.

“It really was disappointing.” Sylvia said and turned to the rest of his party, only to see there was no one there. She regretted not kidnapping the man first, killing the others and then absorbing him, because it gave the rest the opportunity to escape.

Sylvia couldn't sense them nearby, so she sighed and went back to the closest breeding pit to gather up her latest creations. Now that someone knew she was there, she needed to leave before the King's Knights and the army showed up to confront her.

*

You have died! Again!

As if you didn't know I would. I thought with as much disappointment as I could. Nothing was going my way at all after the system was suspended and with under a month to achieve what I should have had years to accomplish? Yeah, I wasn't going to last long.

Primary Mission failed. Secondary mission incomplete. Hidden missions 3 of 8 completed.
Severe penalties will be applied and your choice of the next world has been set. Please wait while we initialize the transfer.

That's new. I thought.

A smaller blue box appeared that indicated Fate herself was talking. That's because things are not quite back to the way they were.

Is it fixed, though? I asked, wondering how much things were going to change.

Technically. The blue box showed.

That doesn't sound good. I thought and tried to not let my worry get to me.

It's been patched enough to still function and you should have access to the same options. Fate replied.

I heard a huge 'but' there. I thought back.

'You should have access' and 'you do have access' are two slightly different things. Fate answered. We won't know if there are any problems until you try things out.

I sighed mentally, since I didn't have lungs at the moment. Give me a few minutes to poke around and we'll see what we can find out.

Thank you. Fate said.

I pulled up the system interface and chose the Party option. As I suspected, Darkness and the others were all greyed out. I went through the lengthy process of dismissing them and paying the points, going into debt slightly as I ensured they successfully escaped from Sylvia. I didn't see any penalties being applied, however.

You'll discover them when you wake up in the next world. Fate said without me having to ask.

I noticed she avoided telling me, which meant she knew and it was going to be bad. I sighed and kept going over the options. One of the ones missing was buying fertility and I pointed it out, mostly because it affected Fate's job as well. I hadn't left any little rugrats running around on the last world and that severely hampered her and probably everyone else.

I didn't even get to say goodbye. I thought and would have cried if I had eyeballs or tears to shed.

The word 'sigh' appeared in the little blue box. I'm not really supposed to tell you anything. Fate said and then a smile icon appeared. Wiz uses her knowledge of the other generals to convert Vanir to the hero's side and they gathered other adventurers to the cause. It takes them years and they eventually defeated the Demon King.

I floated there as I thought about that. Thank you for telling me.

I know it bothers you when you leave a world before you're supposed to. This last time was a complete fuck-up because of Divine Intervention.

That reminded me of my promise to that angel to show up in the afterlife and marry her. Hey, about what happened...

You were plucked directly from the world and your soul didn't reach the upper realm like the last time. The system learned that lesson the hard way and avoided the entire problem.

Ah, that explains why I didn't meet Eris again after dying. I thought. I wonder how they reacted to losing a soul?

The word 'giggle' appeared in the little box. It was hilarious! Goddess Eris is in a lot of trouble for screwing up a hero's reincarnation so badly.

I mentally laughed and thought that was appropriate.

System fully calibrated. Thank you for your patience.
Good luck in the next world, you're going to need it.

Wait! Where are you sending... I couldn't finish the question as blackness engulfed me.

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