Reborn in a Dating Sim: Life as a Mob is hard in an Equestria Girl’s Dating Game!

Reborn in a Dating Sim:

Life as a Mob is hard in an Equestria Girl’s Dating Game!

Chapter Twelve

“Thank you,” Diamond Tiara said, as she accepted the hand up, “I suppose that I am not in the state of mind to be doing this.”

Her magically protected clothes had kept the mandibles of the crystal ants from getting through them, but they had still managed to leave bruises due to their attempting to swarm her. Copper nodded, breathing out, and taking a moment to study where they were. Saving Diamond Tiara had been something more of a reflex than a purposeful thought. She hadn’t been truly watching where she was going, and she stepped into an area where the ants were active.

From there it was a matter of moving and acting instead of planning the actions. Luckily both Applebloom and Artemis had been there to help him. True to her word Artemis only had to observe their tactics once to be prepared for it. The moment she observed how they attacked she was able to counter, and that counter had helped ensure that the tide was truly turned. In essence, he had seen her move faster than should have been possible, and her actions had caused the crystal ants to shatter like glass.

His own attacks had done much the same, and to his surprise Applebloom had actually somehow managed to cause some of the ants to freeze in place, and where they were small trees were magically growing now. He couldn’t be a hundred percent sure, but it appeared that they were in fact apple trees. There was a part of him that was questioning how this could even happen, but at the same time he was happy to just leave it up to magic, and go on about his life.

“You’re welcome,” he said, after a few moments of catching his breath and thinking, “Want to get whatever it is off of your mind? I’ve always been told that if there’s something bothering you the only way to take its power is to get it out. At that point it’s not as strong as it had been.”

She looked at the floor, “Prince Apollo,” she said after a moment, “I’ve been raised, since our betrothal when I was four, to become a perfect bride for him. I’ve studied etiquette, diplomatic affairs, policies of our fair land, and even how to perform other wifely duties,” she said, her voice hitching slightly, “Now, now I face a very uncertain future. I want to believe that this is a passing fling. That he will come to his senses, and that he will understand how much I care for him.”

Copper listened and nodded, “Okay, sure I can get that, but what happens if it doesn’t happen?” he asked, causing her to glare at him, “Look, I’m not trying to piss you off purposefully. I’m asking an honest question. What happens if he doesn’t come to his senses, or if this isn’t just a fling? What if he’s truly fallen in love with someone else?”

She shook her head, “I will be disgraced, as will my family,” she replied, her voice sounding hurt and weary, “To have an engagement ended, especially one to royalty, looks horrible upon the maiden. It is considered to be their fault that things fell apart. For me, it would mean that I was not able to hold his attention, and more to the point that I likely was the one that was unfaithful. The public opinion of my family will drop, and it will take my father some careful negotiations to repair that opinion.”

He nodded, “I see, and where will that leave you?”

She shrugged, “I most likely will be married off to some low level noble. Someone that is of far less standing, and someone that would marry me simply so that he could claim to have bed a higher noble. I will be a trophy wife at best. Likely it will be a poorer family, not that it matters. Such is simply the end result.”

She looked at him, “How does this take the power of what’s going on? I still feel lost,” she asked, “I mean is it supposed to somehow make me feel better?”

He extended a hand, “It helps you because it gives you people that understand your problems,” he said, “It also gives you help from those same people. Look, right now I think that you could use some friends. I mean, honestly, I would think that you could, right?”

She studied him, “I have followers that often attend to me,” she said before she leaned against the wall, “But they’re not truly friends. They are lower nobles that want to climb socially by being associated with me. The moment my fall is complete I am sure that they will detach themselves from me. It would only make sense.”

“Well, then people that don’t care about climbing socially should be the kind of people you surround yourself with,” he said as he looked around, “That means that those people aren’t going to give two shits about what’s happening between you and the prince. Well not socially anyway. They’re going to care about your feelings, but not about the prince and his cronies.”

She laughed, “You’re a funny noble, aren’t you?” she asked, her voice having a small musical sound to it, “Someone that has climbed to the status that you are through your own work. You’re new money, but you’re quite observant.”

“My Captain is,” Artemis stated, “He is very observant, and what he says is true. In the end Prince Apollo appears to be foolish. His decisions seem to be swayed by the actions of a girl, and likely he has no self control.”

Diamond Tiara laughed, “Oh, I can vouch for that,” she said after stopping for a moment, “Prince Apollo is nothing like his mother or father. Well, perhaps like his father when he was younger, if the stories are to be believed,” she stated, “I haven’t heard everything, but apparently the king was rather restless and prone to foolish actions when he was a younger man.”

Again Copper wished that he had paid more attention to the lore of the game instead of just trying to finish it out and get a hundred percent. Instead he had more or less just powered through it, using the microtransaction in the form of Artemis to pretty much get through the harder levels. Still, he did remember some about the king. King Baked Bean if he remembered correctly. That was something that had struck him as funny. Maybe that’s why he remembered, but other than that he didn’t remember much about it.

“We need to move toward the second floor, and then to the third,” he said as he finished catching his breath, “Although for now I think that the way we do it needs to be a little bit better of a formation. I’ll take point, Artemis, would you mind taking the right flank, Applebloom if you’ll take the left flank that will leave Diamond in the rear.”

He heard her sigh, “I am capable of holding my own,” she said as she neared him, “I understand that I wasn’t in the right mind, but I believe that I could be of use.”

He nodded, “I know,” he said as he looked toward her, “Look, I’m asking you to take rear not just because of your emotional well-being, but also because the rear is sometimes the place where things can sneak up on a group. Having someone that is capable, and observant, helps in situations like that. Artemis is an accomplished fighter, and since a lot of enemies come from the front and the right side it means that she’ll help to field them out. Applebloom on the left side gives her time to go for potions to help use while we’re fighting, and that leaves you to support from the rear.”

She nodded again after a moment, “I see,” she said before she sighed, “It does make sense, but it doesn’t mean that I specifically like it. I could be of use on either side.”

He nodded, “I get that, and again I understand, but I want to make sure that we’re covered in the rear. You are observant. I know that you are, and that’s because of how you were talking to Prince Apollo. You were trying to talk to in a way that wouldn’t offend him, but would let him know your intentions. At no time were you making blanket statements. You were keeping your talk on point, and you were leading. That kind of observance is exactly what we need in the rear making sure that nothing can sneak up on us.”

With that she finally conceded, and he nodded, “Okay, since we’re not supposed to skip levels, we’re going to follow the normal path down,” he said, knowing that what he had just said would be the exact kind of thing to draw attention. He hoped that they wouldn’t think too much about it as they walked. The natural stone staircase to the next level was something that didn’t have monsters on it.

In the game he had believed that it was because the developers didn’t want to go through the trouble of animating the attack scenes taking place on the stairs, but since he’d been in this world for real he learned that monsters that were on various levels typically didn’t travel to other levels. The only ones that did were stronger monsters, and even then most of them weren’t designed to take stairs. Those that could typically stayed away from where the stronger monsters were. It was fairly obvious that they didn’t want to take the chance of being attacked and killed by something stronger the lower they went.

Basically, they had evolved to understand that the staircases were associated with danger, and so they stayed away from them. It was honestly about as good of a reason as he believed that he was going to get, and it was better than just accepting that it was magic. Besides, that had been written by one of the adventurers that he’d been reading about for this class. If that adventurer stated it was so, then it likely was so.

He saw the odd green light of the second level as they stepped into it. The first level had mostly been white light, glowing from the crystals that made up the level itself, but here the crystals were green, and they glowed a sickly color as they walked. It almost looked to be the same color green as old computer terminals were that used D.O.S. from back in the 80’s. He moved slowly, trying to make sure that he wasn’t going past anything. For a moment there was nothing, and then he heard the soft buzzing sound.

The sound was almost like windchimes were mixed with the buzzing of wasps and he held himself ready. He watched, and he saw one climbing out of the wall. Just like in the game it was made of a green crystal, its stinger was black, and its eyes were both fluctuating between green and black. Without missing a beat he lifted not the magi-gun, mostly because he was determined to use it on anything stronger, and instead he lifted the short sword he’d brought with him.

He stepped forward, using the blade in a quick fashion, and hit just behind the head of the wasp. It stung the air for a moment before the body fell behind the head. He reached down and stabbed the body. When he did it began to fade, and he reached out and took the core itself. It was something that would be divided up among them, but with the ants’ core they were going to be making a small mint off of the labyrinth. He looked at the others, “Okay, we’re dealing with crystal wasps. So, be careful, mind the walls, and keep your attacks short and precise. They pack a vicious sting, and we don’t want to have to leave too soon.”

Copper remembered from the game how the crystal wasps acted. Much like the ants they would swarm, but there was usually a scout or two sent out before that happened. As he recalled if the scout was destroyed earlier enough then it wouldn’t be able to alert the others. Since everything else seemed to follow the same logic as the dumpster fire of a game did then he assumed that this would be more of the same.

In essence all he would need to do is destroy the scout, and that would ensure that the swarm never came. They could collect the cores from the scouts, and it would make sure that none of them were stung. All in all that was about as good of a plan as he could come up with at the moment. Move forward, take care of the scouts, and then make it to the third level. As they moved he kept his eye out for the crystal wasps.

After another ten minutes of walking he saw another scout, and he quickly dispatched it. Like the last one he ensured that it was dead, collected the core, and place it with the others. There were currently a hundred and fifty cores in their collection. Most of which had been the crystal ants. The hundred and fifty between the four of them wouldn’t be bad, but he had a feeling before it was over it would be closer to being a hundred and eighty or two hundred.

He paid attention to the walls, to the ceiling, and he looked for any signs of the crystal wasps as they walked. He didn’t want any one of them getting stung and being put out of commission. Sure, being stung might not hurt Artemis, but he wasn’t sure, and he didn’t want to take the chance. They moved together, working in the formation that he’d suggested, and he found that it wasn’t long before they had finally reached the staircase. He had never been so happy to see that this world followed that stupid game’s logic.

“HELP!” a voice shouted from behind them. He closed his eyes, hating this moment, and he turned around, “I know that it’s not our job.”

Diamond Tiara shook her head, “No, we have a duty as fellow students to help other students,” she said, her voice prim and proper, “Let us go and deal with this.”

They moved quickly and what he saw was a collection of wasps surrounding about six students. He didn’t waste time. Moving forward he used the same tactic as he had before. Slicing through one of the wasps and letting it drop. He saw Artemis move and do the same. She quickly moved her hand, allowing it to break through the wasp before her. Applebloom threw a potion at the wall, and when she did a high pitch sound echoed for a moment.

He watched as the rest of the wasps fluctuated for a moment, and then they shattered. There among the students were two that were wounded. The out six, that they had seen, seemed to be fine. But with the wounded was the one girl that had snapped back at him, and of course spoke down to Applebloom. Beside her was a girl he didn’t know at all. He looked at both of them and then at the others, “How long ago where they stung?”

There was some silence, “Look, I need to know,” he said, his voice firm, “The longer the venom stays in their system the worse it is for them. If it’s been about a minute then the worst they’re going to suffer is a couple of days of nausea and headaches. If it’s been longer than that, it could result in death.”

Finally one of the boys answered, “They were stung when we turned the corner. There was a lone wasp, and we decided to leave it alone. It wouldn’t be worth the trouble of killing it,” he said, his voice sounding frightened, “I mean, what purpose does killing a single one do?”

He groaned, “It was a scout, you twit,” he replied, “It was the lookout, and when it spotted you it infomed the others. They work together like that. That’s how they attack, and how they’re so good at their jobs. Letting the single one go was a good way of inviting trouble,” he said before he looked at Applebloom, “Do you happen to have any antivenom for the crystal wasps? Something that would help purge it from their systems?”

She dug around for a moment and brought out a couple of pieces of blacken roots, “Black Root,” she said as she neared them, “It’s a natural healing agent, and it causes most magical venom to leave the body quickly. Although it’s not pleasant in the slightest.”

He nodded, “I don’t think that they’re in the situation to complain about how it works,” he said, “Go ahead and give it to them.”

He watched as she quickly tore the roots into pieces, took out a small bowl and a small stone that she began to use to grind the pieces. He watched as she finished grinding them into a paste, and then she took that paste and carefully smeared it on their tongues. Both girls made a face when she did, but it was the rude one that awoke first. Her eyes darted around, and she looked almost panicked. Copper waited for a moment until she leaned forward, “Oh sweet goddesses, I’m going to be…” she started before she puked up something terrible. A moment later she cried, “That was awful, I don’t know how it could get any worse!”

Almost as if the very universe itself decided to show her how it could be worse a massive fart left her. The sound was akin to a foghorn being sounded on a foggy morning near the sea, and the smell could only be described as the very stench of the damned in the forth circle of hell. The fact that the fart had sounded wet did not make anyone feel better. The girl’s eyes squeezed shut and she looked to be quite upset, “Please,” she whimpered, “Please don’t tell anyone.”

Somehow Copper believed that her surviving the labyrinth would spread quickly, and so would any insults that were going to be hurled at her.