My second life as a dungeon

As the party I had been watching left through the portal I reviewed what they had gone through as I changed a few things to hopefully make the floor more appealing for adventurers. If it was too annoying then no one would think it was worth the effort no matter how easy it was and getting lost in a humid jungle for hours is certainly not what most people consider ‘fun’. But that wouldn’t matter if the floor was too difficult for adventurers in the target level range.

The first thing I did was decrease everything’s level by one and get rid of a now lvl 12 Thorn Wolf in each pack as the party had barely managed to defeat any of the packs even after learning how to properly fight them. This released enough DP for me to add another lvl 14 ooze to the pods of slime, hopefully making them harder since the adventurers had easily dealt with them even when they were caught by surprise.

I then added two more squads of goblins while also adding another vein of each ore, costing 12k DP, and telling the goblins to protect each of the veins. I did this because even after wandering around for hours the party only stumbled across one of the veins and because it would indicate where the veins were for any adventurers that came to gather it. It’ll also make it so that each of the goblin squads have a vein to protect, something I didn’t realise they would do but I am happy they did it. 

I was also happy with the slime pods hiding in trees as in a straight up fight they wouldn’t have a chance. I didn’t want people to be completely lost while on the floor so I added some dirt roads between each of the veins of ore. While I was changing the floor I also gave the goblins some primitive tree houses to live in with bridges going between them around each of the nodes. I didn’t change anything else though as I was happy with how it was.

With that done I returned to the fifth floor to train for my next expedition but I had reached a wall with my magic and didn’t know how to progress with it but instead of bashing my head against it constantly I wanted to have a change of pace. With this in mind I cleared one of the parks of its trees while spawning in a kobold warrior who was going to be teaching me close quarters combat.

Even though I was a ranger and was usually fighting from a distance I might not always be able to keep far away from my enemies so I wanted to shore up all my weaknesses. Sure I used to do martial arts in my past life but that was mostly just as a form of exercise, I never even did any competitions let alone use it in a proper fight. I wasn’t just doing this on a whim though. The battle last week made me realise that unless we got an addition to our party, something incredibly unlikely, one of us would need to at least be able to tank for the other. 

I decided that person would be me as even if I ‘died’ as long as the dungeon core was still whole I would just respawn and Val isn't able to fight up close and concentrate on her spells at the same time. Every time I looked at her bandaged arm I was reminded of my failure and worried that the next time something like that happened we wouldn’t be lucky enough to both get out of it in one piece.

If I had been stronger or faster I might have been able to stop the wolf from reaching Val so I promised myself the next time something like that happens I would be able to protect her. Even though I hadn’t been given the knowledge of how to fight properly my monsters had so I planned on using that to teach myself through them. Once everything was prepared I walked over to the newly created Kobold.

‘Master, please teach me how to fight.’ I asked while bowing, it may not really be necessary since I am the one that created them so they would do anything I told them to but a part of me wouldn’t let myself be mean to them. The kobold in front of me was slightly shorter than me at about 147 cm tall, was quite muscular underneath their small, dark black scales that reflected the light well and light leather armour. They had a shortsword at their side but it wouldn’t be used today.

‘Of course I will,’ The kobold said immediately, being quite straightforward and getting to the point immediately. Their voice was quite high-pitched and scratchy but not in an annoying way, in fact they were kind of cute in a weird way. ‘That is why you made me after all. Let’s start with a simple spar so that I can get a feel of where you need to improve.’

With that I straightened my back while saying ‘Thanks’ and getting into a stance, deciding to be as straightforward as my new master. As soon as I was ready the kobold said ‘start’ and let me get the first punch in. They easily dodged the punch by sidestepping with their arms behind their back, not retaliating. I tried two more times but each time I threw a punch the kobold would just sidestep again.

When I threw my fourth punch the kobold sidestepped it again but this time they threw their own punch. It was too fast for me to dodge and easily hit me right in my diaphragm, winding me. ‘Your strikes are too slow and telegraphed. Stop thinking about the punch and just punch me.’ At that I tried to punch the kobold again but I was still too slow and was easily dodged but it was faster this time.

The next three punches were all dodged but got closer each time until the fifth one finally connected. ‘Well done, you learn fast. But that is just because going from bad to alright is easy so don’t get cocky. Now, let's start this spar properly.’ At that the kobold threw their own punch at me but, once again, I was too slow to dodge. From that point on every time I threw a punch the kobold would return their own one.

Over the next hour we went back and forth like this and I was starting to actually be able to dodge some of their attacks while also landing my own. Unfortunately I wasn’t used to doing this so even though my new body had more stamina than my previous one I was still exhausted and felt like I was going to pass out at any moment so we stopped to take a break.

The break only lasted five minutes before we were back in lesson mode but this time we worked on my form as it was horrible and wouldn’t be as draining to work on. We did that for another hour until I could no longer stand so I thanked the kobold before returning home, taking a nice hot shower to get all of the sweat off of me and collapsing into bed for a nap.

That night I slept for the longest I ever had and was still tired and sore everywhere when I eventually woke up. Somehow I managed to use the miniscule amount of energy I had regained to get up and clean my teeth before going downstairs and having breakfast. Which was just a bowl of porridge sweetened with honey a local beekeeper had started selling. Once I finished it I said goodbye to Val and walked over to the area I was training in yesterday.

By the time I got there I had fully woken up and ready for some sparring. The Kobold greeted me while bowing slightly before standing straight again ‘Good morning Liz. Yesterday we focused on attacking but that is not all a battle is, it also involves blocking or dodging your opponent’s attacks.’ This made sense so I didn’t have any questions, I just waited for the kobold to finish their explanation.

‘Since you aren’t strong enough to block most attacks you are more suited to either dodging their attacks or guiding them away from you.’ The kobold continued, I didn’t realise it yesterday but it was weird being taught by someone smaller than me talking in an almost childlike voice but I was able to ignore that and just focus on what they were teaching me. ‘Today I want you to try and dodge my attacks by using [Minor Blink], something you didn’t do once yesterday.’

‘I was too focused on learning what you were teaching me to add anything that would complicate it further. And it is only my second day doing this properly, you can’t expect me to be an expert so quickly.’ I said, defending myself as I always do when I feel like someone is telling me off for something. ‘That said I do agree that I should use [Minor Blink] for more than just running away from my opponent.’

‘I wasn’t demeaning you; I was just explaining what you need to do to improve.’ My kobold teacher said, placating me before getting into their stance. ‘We will split today up into mini matches, if you manage to dodge three of my punches before I land ten then you win. After each match we will have a minute break to let your mana regenerate and talk about how you can improve. Now as soon as you are ready let’s start.’

With the explanation over I got into stance and said ‘ready.’ In the next second a punch was going through my abdomen as I wasn’t expecting it to be that fast as it was faster than yesterday. Over the next thirty seconds I received nine more punches, not being able to dodge a single one, before staggering to the floor. The kobold leaned down and helped me up before letting me get my breath back for a minute.

Over the next fifteen minutes we had five more matches, each time I got closer to using my [Minor Blink] but not succeeding until the seventh match where I finally got my teleport off in time to dodge the attack. Unfortunately I was only able to dodge once during that match but each match I got better at teleporting out of the way each time until fifteen minutes later I managed to dodge two punches in the same match.

Even through the exhaustion of having been repeatedly punched over the past half hour I felt excited at seeing myself improve. Now I just had to dodge three in the same match to win, something I managed to do after just four more matches. When I realised I had finally passed the lesson I jumped up excitedly as I heard claps behind me before a deep, sultry voice said ‘Well done’

Turning around I saw Val behind me and started to blush at having been caught celebrating so childishly. ‘uhh, how long have you been there?’ I said bashfully as I brought my hands down and pretended like the past five seconds had never happened.

‘A while now, I couldn’t find you in our home so I came looking for you, wondering what you were doing and eventually found you here.’ Val said while chuckling a little. ‘Even in the short time I was watching you I could tell that you were improving, good job.’ Val praised me while rubbing my head, something that felt even better than in my past life now that I had sensitive ears to scratch.

‘Mmhmm, she really is.’ The kobold agreed ‘I said so yesterday as a backhanded compliment but even taking into account that you have never used your ability like this before the rate you are improving is impressive.’ Being praised so much made me blush some more but it still felt really nice, especially when they referred to me with the correct pronouns.

‘Thanks, it’s a bit embarrassing to be praised so much, it could go to my head.’ I said, chuckling. ‘Is there a reason you were looking for me?’

‘No I just wanted to hang out a little.’ Val replied with a smile. ‘I assume that is ok?’

‘Of course it is.’ I said quickly, I was always happy to see Val and I didn’t want her to start thinking that I didn’t like her. ‘I think I deserve a break after passing the lesson so why don’t we go do something together while I have a break.’ As I said this I looked back at the kobold who nodded their head and gestured in a way that said they were fine with it.

‘That sounds good’ Val replied before leading me off to go around the encampment. We hung out for the next half an hour just chatting about stuff but it ended too soon and I was soon back to training. Over the next week my lessons got tougher and tougher until I was eventually having full spars with the kobold using a wooden shortsword since I wouldn’t always be fighting people who had no weapons.

By that time I had gotten proficient in both dodging with my ability and landing my own hits. I had even started to win more spars than I lost even when we were fighting with no handicaps. I was confident that the next time Val was in trouble I would be able to save her.