The Guide is Actually a Body-Switching Esper [BL]
Chapter 172: The Same Ability

Chapter 172: The Same Ability

The dungeon they entered was made of underground caves, dark, humid, stuffy, and warm. The only natural source of light was glowing crystals growing in the walls here and there, but their glow was faint, hardly enough for humans to see well enough to move around, let alone fight monsters. Even A-rankers such as ’Oscar’ struggled to make out any shapes.

Of course, the darkness only lasted a brief moment. Soon enough, the caves were filled with bright light coming from the Mana lanterns held by the Guides and the team’s healer - that is, the people who wouldn’t do much when it came to fighting anyway.

With their surroundings now fully visible, the group proceeded forward, moving slowly down the large corridor full of holes, like a Swiss cheese. The much narrower passages were everywhere, from the walls, through the ceiling, to the ground underneath their feet. Thankfully though, they were all too easy to spot with the lights on, so there was no risk of anyone accidentally falling... at least not when they were just marching carefully.

But they didn’t come into the dungeon to march. And their actual purpose soon revealed itself, first with the distant murmur of fast, endless tapping, quickly growing louder and louder, until they were flooded from all sides by a multitude of insect monsters.

They were shaped somewhat like wasps, except without the wings... And their size, as they were taller than humans. Their skin was glistening, resembling more that of an earthworm than an insect, and they were secreting sticky mucus... Needless to say, they were not the most pleasing to the eye.

The team quickly prepared for combat, setting up the defenses and starting the first wave of attacks with the longer-range abilities. ’Oscar’ was a close-range fighter, so Lane stayed back for now, only slowly activating his - that is, Oscar’s - ability. The marbles he consumed earlier had already been absorbed into his system, so it was the best time for him to do so.

His muscles twitched and the bones cracked, as his body started transforming, covering in a layer of flexible, yet durable dungeon-found metal, his hands morphing into sharp claws. The claws were to deal with the wasps’ main ability, the silk thread, while the skin armor was to defend against the stinger - which, despite being categorized as a ’supporting’ ability, was in fact far more dangerous. Its stunning properties could significantly slow down even S-rankers, and were a certain death for anyone below a D-rank! And, while as an A-ranker, ’Oscar’ would survive, he could be out for a while with just one mistake.

Luckily, his ability was quite adaptable - it was a high-level body transformation, which allowed him to transform his body with foreign materials he absorbed - such as the marbles Lane consumed earlier. It allowed him to adjust to all sorts of situations, and made him one of the most versatile team members... The main drawback was the COSTS. Any materials he absorbed would disintegrate with use, so each time he had to consume new materials, which could get extremely expensive!

And it also felt... weird. Lane had tried two body modification-type abilities before, but both were low-ranking and not particularly useful, so he rarely resorted to them. In fact, he couldn’t even remember the last time he tried using them. As such, he wasn’t used to his body changing its constitution in such a manner... It was more painful than he had expected, and somewhat disgusting.

The feeling slowly subsided once the transformation was completed though, and Lane could once again look around. For the time being, there were too many monsters for close-range fighters to charge forward - they would only end up getting entangled in the silky threads - so they had no choice but to temporarily stay back, while supporting the defense by cutting down any wasps that slid through the cracks.

Well, as much as Lane loved to fight, he didn’t complain this time. At least it gave him the chance to watch Damien’s father! With his ice ability, Austin was great at both close and long-range combat, as well as defense, and was currently one of the leading members of the team...

And as Lane observed the man, he couldn’t help but me more and more stunned with each second. The similarity between Damien and Austin’s abilities was simply... uncanny. It was as if they were just two versions of the same ability, one just slightly less advanced than the other. If Austin were to get stronger and make it to the S-rank, they would be practically indistinguishable.

...Could be the reason why Damien refused to use his ability unless necessary? Why he preferred to just cut the monsters down with the sword, even though it was far less efficient, and only using his ice at the bare minimum? Lane had always thought it was weird, so unlike an Esper. Every other Esper Lane knew LOVED their abilities, and used them whenever could - which was way too rare of an occurrence, due to the government restricting the ability use way too much - while Damien... Damien was the opposite.

So it was because of his father? Because he disliked the man, so he didn’t want to use the ability they shared? Of course, it was just a hunch... But Lane was quite certain he was at least partially right.

He was so lost in his thoughts, that he had completely missed the moment when the monster wave was thinned up enough to move to the next stage of the fight. Only when someone literally slammed him in the back, did he finally snap back to the reality.

"Ey! Esper Morales! Didn’t you hear the order?!" the leader of the close-range group yelled at him.

"I’m sorry, sir! I was still completing my transformation, and spaced out a bit!" Lane quickly excused himself.

"Well, move on now then! Or I will give you low performance review!"

Lane didn’t have to be told twice. With his curiosity regarding Austin’s ability satisfied, he was in a mood to fight, and before his supervisor even finished his words, Lane was already far ahead, slashing through the sticky threads with his claws.