New difficulty & New skills!!

Heading down to the sixth floor, I realized that I had no clue how deep this dungeon went. It was a rather new dungeon, so it shouldn't be that many more floors. At least, that's what I had heard from the other adventurers.

"I heard that every 5 levels, the difficulty increases drastically," Lydia spoke up. "That tough skeleton we fought was likely the mid-boss. Every ten levels have a boss, ever 5 levels have a mid-boss."

"Is that so… I thought bosses would be in something in like a boss room."

"The tenth level boss is… but the mid-boss is usually just an abnormally strong monster of the same version as the other monsters on that level which wanders the floor."

Point being, things were only going to get harder from here on out. We peaked around carefully, looking for the mobs. I was relieved to see that there were more zombies, but every level down so far, they had grown stronger. These zombies, in particular, looked really beefy. In comparison, the ones on the surface were practically emaciated. At the time, I thought that was just how zombies looked. Only now did I realize they got thicker and stronger looking the farther down we got. Had these been the quality of the zombies attacking the town, they would have destroyed it for sure.

"Should we try to defeat one, master?"

"I suppose we should." I nodded.

I put the Divine Aura back on her sword and then started by casting Harm Undead to quietly catch its notice. The monster let out a roar that shook the room and then began heading for us. He was much faster than even the skeleton before. I had to admit, he was very scary. I cast the spell again, and then again. Finally, Lydia charged out to meet the monster. She was really fearless. Her body flashed with a blue glow, and the sword did two cuts as she slid instantly to the other side of the monster. She had managed to pull off a skill!

"Ahn, I did something!" She said in surprise.

"Good Job, Lydia!" I declared. "Now, let's finish him off!'

I cast five more Harm Undeads before she managed to attack him a dozen times with her enhanced sword. He was fast, but still not nearly fast enough to keep up with Lydia's footwork, which was beyond anything I had ever seen in my old world. He finally fell, breaking apart to dust. As far as drops, he didn't leave any. Drops seemed to be very rare. So far, I had only picked up two. The bone powder from the skeleton earlier, and a zombie's toe. I had no clue what either could be used for.

We didn't have time to rest after the zombie fell, as there was a thumping sound that came around the corner. The both of us looked to see a large, armored man coming our way with glowing eyes. My hackles immediately raised. Up until now, I had only seen skeletons and zombies. Sure, their sizes and shapes changed a bit, but they were fairly consistent. Then again, I had skipped levels 2-4. It was possible that zombies rotated out every level, and I had only lucked out by running into the same combination on level 1 and 5. I'd need to ask Lydia about it once we finished this threat.

"Harm Undead!" I declared, sending the spell hitting the monster.

It didn't roar in pain. In fact, it didn't act at all. For some reason, I had the distinct feeling that if I cast heal on it, nothing would happen.

"Lydia…" I looked back at her worriedly.

"I believe this is called a Living Armor, Master." Lydia said, "This is not technically an undead."

"Seriously?" I wouldn't be able to fight this thing in the slightest if it wasn't undead.

Would I have to pull out my Hero job after all? Maybe I could unlock Swordsman if I really tried.

"I will defeat this enemy for Master!" Lydia declared, leaping out boldly.

I could only watch as she attacked the monster. Its sword was many times larger than hers, and it was clear a single swipe could seriously injure her. It was also the fastest enemy to date, and I could see that even Lydia was pressed to dodge it. The fight went on and on. Each cut on the armor left a dent or some other visible damage, but Lydia was also looking tired.

"Refresh!" I cast the spell on her, and her movements picked up again.

That's right, I was her support. Even though the Divine Aura wasn't helping her out, I could support her in other ways. Suddenly, Lydia glowed again, and she did the same cross attack she had done before. The monster roared finally and its sword glowed for a second. It used a skill too! Th-that's cheating! Suddenly, his movement speed was fast. Lydia slammed her sword threw its helmet, piercing its eyes, but at the same time, its massive sword landed on her. Blood splattered across the armor's body, and Lydia flew back, slamming into a wall and crumbling like a doll.

......

"No!" I cried out as I looked over at Lydia.

She wasn't moving. Worse still, the monster was still flailing around. It appeared to be blinded, but it did know the direction that it had thrown Lydia. Walking towards her, it lifted its sword. If it swung it down, it would definitely kill her. If Lydia died, my chances of getting out of this dungeon shrank considerably. Gritting my teeth, I set my job to Hero.

Using the Switch Position skill, my body switched with Lydia's. In an instant, she was safely about ten feet away, and I was at the feet of a hulking giant lifting its sword. I pulled out the second sword from my backpack. Although it wasn't useful to Lydia, I had kept it just in case. At the very least, selling it would bring me some extra money and help level my Merchant job.

Now, it was the only weapon I had. I slammed the sword into its gut with all of my strength and then jumped between its legs. The monster roared, the sword slamming down and causing the ground to shake a bit. I turned around, ready to attack the monster again. However, a moment later, its body fell apart with loud clanking sounds. The pile of metal began to melt away. In a short period of time, Lydia's weapon was the only thing left. It had been embedded in its face the whole time. Perhaps it had been causing continuous damage.

{Hero had increased to level 3.}

{You have unlocked the Hero skill: Party Status Up.}

{Hero has increased to level 4.}

{You have unlocked the Hero skill: Give Life.}

With the immediate threat resolved, I ran over to Lydia. I instantly cast Weak Heal on her, but the effect barely touched her. Weak Heal was too weak to deal with the level of damage she had received. It was clear that was the case. Although there was nothing like HP in the world, I felt like she had some kind of status misalignment and unless I fixed it, she would certainly die. That's when my eyes fell on Give Life.

It appeared that in this world, job balance wasn't a thing. When you got skills, you got skills specifically designed around doing the job you were given. As a White Mage, I concentrated on healing and defeating undead. Those were my skills. As for Hero, what is a hero? One might think it'd be overpowered super spells that could blow away your enemies, but when one really thought about what a hero was… a hero was someone who gave of themselves for the greater good.

I could swap my location with a party member to take a hit for them. I could return home in a hurry to protect the city. Now… I could give my own life in order to save hers. If I had thought that Give Life would mean all of it, I might have hesitated, but I knew that without this girl, I wouldn't be able to get out of this dungeon. I immediately cast the spell.

I felt myself growing weaker as I cast it. It went much different than my other spells. Most of them had a single-use. I'd heal, it'd heal a bit, and then I'd need to heal again. Give life was a continuous spell. I had to continue to feed it mana, and my life force, and I felt it slowly draining away from me. I was so focused on healing her, I hadn't even noticed when the wound looked almost closed and her eyes fluttered open.

It took Lydia grabbing my hands and physically stopping me for my eyes to snap out of it. At that point, I started slipping into unconsciousness.

'M-master…" I could see her crying over me as my eyes closed shut.