Beyond M-Eclipse: Easy Mode LIVE

———Wiina———

“What is a sissy-looking guy like you doing here?” Oh. I didn’t actually expect to run into this kind of scenario. Who the hell is this… rough-looking fellow?

“...Jass, you know who he’s talking to?” Nicks asked, clearly also puzzled by the sudden confrontational tone.

“How should I know? Do you know this guy?” Obviously we don’t know everyone around here, I doubt even the people in a tiny housing district know all their neighbors.

“No? Why is he even talking to us?” Guess he really doesn’t have a clue either. “Is that a camera hanging on his chest?”

“Where the fuck are the monsters? The hell are you two doing here?” He said with the same rude tone as earlier. “This place is such a scam! Let’s go deeper! You two get the hell out of my way!”

…Is he talking to himself? Wait a minute…

“...Did someone from the psych ward escape?” Nicks jokingly asked as the guy ran past us and down to the lower floor.

“We don’t even have those.” I pointed out. It’s just bundled into the local hospital itself. “Anyway, from the looks of it, that guy is a streamer, of the annoying variety.”

“...Like those troublemakers on the news?” Right on the money.

“Yeah, those. I’d imagine that the public at large would be fine if we give him a right hook or two.” Though obviously, we can’t just judge the guy from that exchange alone. Might just be having a bad day.

“So what do we do from here? That guy seems like a pain in the ass.” Nicks said, clearly not wanting to get into any trouble even if he ends up being in the right. Sounds like he does want to go further in… Wait.

“Isn’t the third floor a floor full of traps?” If he charged in recklessly, it might already be too late. Not all of them are traps that send you many floors down, but the chance is still there. “We still have obligations to bring back any fallen adventurers.”

“Dude, don’t say it like that!” He said, clearly a bit shaken up by my callous tone. Obviously it’s a bit dickish to not raise more concern, but I don’t want to make it sound too urgent, it’s not like we’re the one forcing him in. “Let’s go see if he’s still on the third floor!”

“If you insist…” I think he just wants to make sure nothing grisly happens. From my testing, most of the trapdoors only send you one or two floors down, which is manageable. Karra got the short end of the stick on her first go around. We know how to spot them easily and even a massive fall like Karra’s wouldn’t be fatal for my classmates’ level.

“Ah! Gah! Ragh!” The dude is making a weird noise as he’s trying to not slip and fall. Doesn’t he just look so dignified, what an absolute clown show.

“See? He’s fine, let him have his fun.” I said with an obvious hint of mockery.

“Hah! Easy peasy!” He said despite the obvious distress in his voice, and then he turned around and spotted us. “The fuck are you two doing here! Get lost already! This is my dungeon now!”

“...Maybe he’s from the psych ward that’s really far away?” Nicks reiterates the joke as that man went to the fourth floor. “So the next floor has those green gremlins. He’ll be fine, right?”

“How the hell should I know? There are a lot of them, so being alone is a bad idea for the fourth floor.” I explained, not seeing how he won’t get in trouble. “At least he should figure that out and retreat, hopefully.”

“Hmm… Then I guess we will go back?” He said, not sounding all too sure about what to do.

“It depends. If your conscience is weighing you down, then we can go down and check.” I have a lot of time to spare, so who cares. “I’ll go check it for you if you want. He sounds like a guy that would throw out slurs.”

“Nah. I’ll come along, not gonna let you deal with this by yourself.” He quickly picked himself back up. Guess that’s settled.

**Leap**

Both of us made quick leaps across the entire obstacle and landed on the other side. If the ceiling wasn’t so high this wouldn’t be very feasible for some people.

“AAAHHH!!!” …I don’t think we’re supposed to hear a scream from up here.

“Jass!” Nicks obviously is concerned about this and both of us went down the stairs as fast as we could.

When we finally reached the fourth floor, the guy was lying on the ground with his wrists broken and bleeding out.

**Dash** *Slash* *Slice*

Both of us brandished our weapons and went to town, cutting down every last one before it could kill the unfortunate and rude man.

“...Alright. Let’s check his condition.” I walked over and try to check if he’s at least still alive, and if he is then I should-

*Evade*

“Hey! What’s your problem?” He tried to kick me with his leg despite needing my help more than anything else at the moment. “Nicks. It looks like he’s still alive and well to do that. Let’s go home.”

“Shouldn’t we at least dump him on the surface?” He said while sheathing his katana. “You don’t have to heal him if you don’t want to- Is he whispering to the camera?”

“I don’t think he hears us right now, even.” What a distasteful little prick. “Does he not know to not fuck with the healer?”

“I guess he’s not too familiar with this whole deal.” Nicks said, not having much to add. “Speaking of that, are you or Seni gonna tell us how to heal at some point?”

“And how am I supposed to do that? Describing a spell is hard enough, let alone a type of spell.” You mostly learn via feel, which for me is closer to learning how to breathe. Of course, I still can’t use some… reality-altering spells. I don’t really want to learn how to use it, as a form of self-restraint.

“Ah. He’s running away.” Nicks pointed out and I turned around to see the guy leave. Talk about an ungrateful prick. “His wrists are still broken, right?”

“Bloodied, even. He really shouldn’t be walking around right now.” He should at least get some bandages and a bit of rest, the wounds haven’t even closed yet.

“...Are we gonna get blamed for this?” Why would we? If he is actually streaming to everyone, the video is a clear proof that this is all self-inflicted.

“Nah. We’ll be fine.” I said to reassure him. “Did he drop anything? Doesn’t look like it. Now should we continue or not?”

———Lynda———

“I didn’t watch the stream, did that seriously happen?” I asked, feeling incredulous. I have heard that he is a rather infamous figure, but I thought there was a sense of self-preservation there at the very least. Or at least shameless enough to ask for help.

“Yeah. He can’t even bother to stop the stream while screaming for help once he reaches the surface.” Glery recounted. “While one of our schoolmates said that he knows how to heal within his earshot.”

“Who is that exactly?” Or does the camera not give a good look at the two.

“Jass and Nicks from that class.” Ah. Those two. Talk about throwing a good deal away. I still have some resentment over their talents, but if given a choice to have them as my companion, I wouldn’t say no. They’re pretty damn strong and the rumor has it that all of them can do a dungeon run up to the tenth floor.

“He got pretty lucky and he’s throwing that fortune away? Then again, he wouldn’t be here otherwise.” That streamer had caused some trouble in the nearby town with its own dungeon to the point of being shooed away by the local guild, so he probably came here to stir up more trouble for content. “The medical cost would probably be a good amount of whatever he earned here, not exceeding that… Isn’t Jass a healer? Did he seriously try to show aggression to someone like that?”

“Indeed he did. Even a minor healing spell would’ve cut down a lot on recovering time.” She pointed out. Probably cut down the cost a bit too. “...I wonder if he heard he was a healer that he might laugh at him.”

“Because healers are stereotypically weak physically? Wouldn’t that be a nice balancing act.” My tone shows a hint of jealousy. “He’s just as strong as the rest of his class, and the healing magic… How do you even learn that!?”

Healers are gonna be super valuable if someone were to go through more than ten floors of one of these dungeons… Oh, there’s one thing I’m curious about.

“Say, I don’t think this guy has ever gotten into mortal danger before, so why is he overwhelmed in this dungeon?” Or why doesn’t he just go harass people in the guild instead of anyone potentially in the dungeon?

“The dungeon in our town have rough early levels. It’s frontloaded with the second floor having a boss monster, third floor having potentially lethal traps, fourth floor full of monsters that would overwhelm an individual, and fifth floor which is a boss floor.” Glery explained. I see. Guess the other dungeons aren’t like that. I think I heard about it from somewhere before.

“Heard about that, but do you have other dungeons to compare?” I think I’d get a much better reading of the situation with a more direct comparison.

“Most of them have the floor one to four having a small amount of monsters each. Gimmicks are reserved for lower floors. That’s what I’ve heard.” Ah. I see. Guess ours is rather asymmetrical.

“...So what’s going on with that guy now?” I asked, since that’s the main thing we’re talking about.

“The stream got forcibly turned off probably due to the gore, so maybe…” She then trailed off and checked something. Now that I think about it, wouldn’t-

*Wee-woo* *Wee-woo*

“...That is an ambulance siren, right?” I asked after a small pause.

“Y-Yeah.” She said, clearly taken aback by the timing as I am.

You know. You’d think it’s because he antagonizes two people who are pretty damn tough, and not because he foolishly ran into a swarm of monsters that he could probably just run away from.

“Here’s the scoop posted just a minute ago.” She said while moving the laptop so I can see it too. Yeah. That’s him alright. Look at what clout chasing got you…

“Any news on those two guys?” I asked just because.

“Seems like they’re still in the dungeon. They didn’t chase after him after he tried to run back up to the surface.” She answered. I guess they don’t see the point in helping such a rude guy.

“Huh. Well hopefully they don’t get… How bad is this guy’s reps again?” There ought to be some rabid fans going after anyone that offends their favorite content creator, but this type of streamers usually don’t have anyone that willing.

“Pretty bad.” She said with a clear hint that she knows what I’m talking about. Well that’s good. No one should be unwittingly involved with the antics of these parasites. “I… Oh. Someone drew a fanart of you.”

“Really!?” I don’t even know that I have a fa- “Oh.”

Gnarly-looking art of a giant bird monster with a spear pierced through it.

“Can you please stop calling any art to do with that incident my fanart?” I can’t believe I fell for that again. “How did it become so viral anyway? All I did was kill a monster and left it out in the park!”

“Most people don’t do that…” She remarked.

“Well most people don’t let themselves get eaten by monsters either!” Seriously, did she expect me to lay down and die? Hell no! Giant tough monster is not gonna get to me!

“Most people don’t leave their kill in such a state, is what I meant.” The fact that she keeps using her rather meek tone to argue is weird, and also feels more condescending somehow.

And for that point. It was just the end result of that fight! It’s not that deep!