"Korinna! I need healing!"
Since Xeno had made a conscious effort to stop showing off within the party, Team 2’s battle performance had improved dramatically. The greatest reason was deceptively simple: Xeno had begun asking for healing when he needed it. They could now face the Corrupted Shell in the best possible condition.
Until then, Xeno had concealed his injuries out of pride, worsening his movents, while Korinna had subconsciously avoided him. The result was that Healer and Tank had failed to function as a cohesive unit. Now, with that distance between them closing, the two had finally begun to work properly.
"Ahh, thank you very much!"
"[, [!"
Proof enough: Korinna’s healing skills, set in advance, now triggered the mont Xeno called for aid, restoring him the very mont he needed them. To achieve this consistently, she had learned to predict his timing over the past week.
"Kyaaa!!" The monster’s shriek split the air.
But smooth coordination was only the bare minimum for clearing the ninetieth layer. Thanks to their improved partnership, Team 2 could now survive the middle phase of the fight with stability. Yet the final stage, with the Corrupted Shell’s rciless wide-area attacks, petrification, and crushing demands of aggro control, still forced them to their knees.
They had challenged the ninetieth layer more than fifty tis, sotis losing gear and being forced to retreat back to the eighty-ninth to loot more. Every mber’s level had passed eighty. Their technique against the Corrupted Shell had grown refined. And still, they could not score a win.
"…Shall we call it for today?" Korinna asked.
"Yeah," Amira grumbled.
"All right, let’s go get changed," Amy said, scratching her hair.
By now, they were used to being spit out of the Black Gate in flax-colored garb, unfazed, even bored by their defeats. Amira and Amy strode off to the changing rooms. Korinna trailed after them with weary steps.
It felt as though they had reached a dead end. Korinna’s improved rapport with Xeno had eased the battles, yes, but there was still no sense of imminent progress. anwhile, Ealdred Crow pressed further and further ahead, and even Silver Beast, also fighting on the ninetieth layer, weighed heavily on her mind.
And lately, after so many attempts, Korinna had begun to notice a peculiar change. She blinked several tis as if to confirm it, then pressed a hand lightly to her eyelids.
[Could it be… I can see the Corrupted Shell’s death, too?]
Korinna’s eyes possessed a peculiar ability: she could perceive a person’s mont of death. A black haze appeared around the dood, faint or thick depending on how near the end was. Recently, she had begun to glimpse that haze even around the Corrupted Shell.
Perhaps it was only her hope conjuring hallucinations. Yet if she trusted that sense, then the ssage was clear: for now, they still could not kill it. Judging by the haze’s faintness and the limits of her aggro managent as the Healer, their chances of winning remained slim.
[…I wish I were as good as Tsutomu or Stephanie, but…]
In the changing room, Korinna clutched the flaxen clothing and grumbled with frustration. The parties that had cleared the ninetieth layer owed much to their Healers. Tsutomu, needless to say. And Stephanie, who with terrifying persistence had reproduced his supporting style, had led Ealdred Crow through the layer as well.
If she could wield skills with that sa precision, manage aggro with that sa mastery, she might extend their battle against the Corrupted Shell long enough to pass the final phase. But to reproduce the two of them perfectly was impossible.
Tsutomu and Stephanie were, in a sense, leaders who carried their parties to victory. Korinna was not like them, at least not yet. She could tell as much from the death-haze her eyes revealed. She looked at her reflection in the mirror.
[…But the way those two fight won’t work for .]
There was much to learn from them, but far too much she could not replicate. Following the ‘correct’ forms would not suffice. To pass the ninetieth layer, she would need to craft a style of her own, as Silver Beast had.
The Healer could not remain the axis of their party; soone else must stand at the center. A certain red-haired girl’s face rose imdiately in her mind. If their formation were built to support her instead, perhaps this team could manage it. Garm and Amy, long-standing veterans and among the best of the best Explorers, had the flexibility for it.
Even Xeno, once written off as all talk, had proved his competency. There had to be a way to make full use of him. Korinna drew from her Magic Bag the docunts prepared by Pico, Xeno’s wife, and poured over them again.
[…There are so many ways to make him shine.]
After over fifty battles with the sa team, after a week spent learning to look at Xeno without resentnt, she could finally see him clearly. Reading through the notes now, she uncovered detail after detail she had once overlooked, her eyes darting across the page, forgetting even to blink.
[…I had missed so much.]
She had read these papers before, when they were first handed to her, yet they had yielded so little then. Now she saw how deeply her own bias had blinded her. She felt the sting of her own inadequacy as she kept turning the pages.
As Korinna pored over the docunts, eyes darting back and forth, she found herself consud by a flood of overlooked details, information that had slipped past her ti and again. She was so absorbed that she didn’t notice the voice calling to her from outside until it ca again, sharper this ti.
"Hey, Korinna? You done yet?"
It was Amira. Though laced with the usual hint of impatience, her tone was uncharacteristically subdued. Korinna snapped to attention, eyes wide.
"S-sorry! I’m coming out now!" she called, scrambling to finish dressing.
"Hurry it up, will ya? I’m starving over here."
Judging by her lackluster voice, she wasn’t exaggerating. Still fumbling with her spare gear, Korinna erged from the changing room, where she found Amy stretching and yawning. Amira stood nearby, arms crossed, clearly eager to get back and eat.
Together, the three of them made their way toward the Guild.
"All right, then… I’ll take my leave! See you tomorrow!" Xeno, now dressed down in comfortable clothing, waved grandly before peeling off in the opposite direction.
"Mm-hmm," Garm replied flatly.
"Keep it down, man," Amira grumbled.
"See ya later!" Amy said, waving back.
"Good work today," Korinna offered with a small bow.
And so they parted ways, with the latter four returning to the Absolute Helix Clan House.
As they walked through the streets, Korinna glanced sideways and saw Garm and Amy exchanging teasing barbs, practically fencing with their words. Beside them, Amira paused to eye a food stall, her gaze fixed on the fresh cuts of beef being displayed. Korinna watched her profile quietly.
Lately, Amira had begun to resemble Camille in more ways than one… particularly when she fought in [, swinging her newly reforged greatsword with explosive force. Sotis, she even deflected the Corrupted Shell’s attacks outright. There was a commanding presence about her now, drawing more eyes to her than ever before. Without question, she had the makings of soone who could shine just as brightly as Tsutomu or Stephanie.
As Korinna watched her in silence, Amira must have felt her gaze. She turned abruptly, half-lidded eyes narrowing.
"Hey, don’t even think about buying sothing to snack on. There’s a feast waiting back at the Clan House."
"I—I wasn’t going to!"
"Oh yeah? Then what’s this, eh?" Amira said, pinching the soft skin on Korinna’s belly with a mischievous smirk.
"H-hey, cut it out!"
Korinna stumbled back, flustered, as Amira sauntered ahead with a mocking grin. Huffing, Korinna trailed after her.
They returned to the Clan House, where they bathed and ate dinner. Yet even in the midst of their evening routine, Korinna’s thoughts remained fixed on the party.
[…Will this work?]
The information had always been there; she simply had not seen it before. But now that she had, her mind had begun to piece together a new battle formation, which might actually succeed. Still, it ant turning everything they’d built for the ninetieth layer on its head. Would the others accept such a drastic change?
After dinner, she retreated to her room to polish her ideas, then rose early the next morning, handwritten docunts in hand.
"Whoa!"
"Um… Good morning," she greeted politely.
Tsutomu had just opened his door, nearly bumping into her. He blinked in surprise, the skill wisps he had been spinning around dissolving in a shimr of light. He was scheduled to run with Garm and Daryl this morning, as he did every other day, and Korinna had been waiting by his door, chewing on a sweet bun for breakfast.
She held out the papers.
"These are what I plan to hand out to the party this morning. I’m still not confident in the content… Would you be willing to take a look?"
"Ahh, I see." Tsutomu’s voice was thick with morning grogginess as he took the docunts and began to skim them.
Korinna stood silently, watching his expression shift — eyes narrowing, then widening slightly, then curling into a smirk. When he finished, he handed the papers back to her.
"…Well?" she asked, heart thudding.
"As I’ve said before, I don’t plan to interfere with Team 2’s strategy, so I’ll stay out of the specifics. But I’ll say this: if you’ve put this much thought into your party structure, then I think they’ll take it seriously. Just hand it over with confidence."
"I-I see…"
"Oh, and about that thing you said… did you REALLY see the Corrupted Shell’s mont of death?"
"I’m not completely sure yet… but I think I did."
"Well, that’s a pretty aweso discovery, you know. It’s not a unique skill, is it?"
"No, I checked my Status Card. Nothing’s changed."
Tsutomu rubbed his chin thoughtfully, then suddenly locked eyes with her, his expression gleaming with mischief.
"How about we swap your eyes with mine?"
"……"
"C’mon, maybe I can pull sothing off with my healing skills. I’ve always wanted to see a monster’s death coming!"
"I… I don’t think that’s… even possible…"
"You never know until you try. Co now, step into the operating room… It won’t hurt…"
He stretched out a hand toward her like a ghost beckoning from the beyond.
Any ordinary Explorer might have felt a genuine sense of danger, even if it was clearly a joke. But Korinna had fought Tsutomu countless tis in sparring matches and had defeated him every single ti. She simply took a half-step back, unafraid.
"…Anyway, I’m off for my run," he finally said with a chuckle.
"Oh… right."
Tsutomu looked mildly disappointed by her utter lack of alarm, but raised a hand in farewell and trotted off.
Korinna watched him go, then turned toward the living room with renewed resolve, docunts in hand, ready to present her vision to the rest of the team.
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