Chapter 7 – The Sea is Wide
“Truly, we arrive in no time at all!”
“I can’t even imagine getting around without Donta anymore~. Thanks, Donta~!”
“Woof woof woof woof~~ (Pet me more~~)”
“His face looks so happy while he is being petted~!”
“Lia-chan, you were amazing too, keeping up on your broom the whole way~!”
“Ehehe… Thank you very much.”
Head east out of Loray, follow the coastline, and you hit a stubby little hill that just sort of pops up out of nowhere. Loop around behind it and there’s a cave, and deep inside that cave sits today’s destination: the Sea Cave Dungeon. That limp, all-the-air-going-out-of-it name is the genuine official one, by the way. Riding Donta, we made it in under ten minutes; on foot it’d be a pretty serious hike~. Honestly, the place is tucked away so well that if Peru-chan hadn’t been guiding us, we never would have found it in the first place…
So why is something that cute the official name? Well, apparently whoever discovers an unclaimed dungeon that doesn’t have a name yet gets dungeon naming rights. The discoverer went with something this soft and fluffy, and so it stuck. And the discoverers were, of all people, Nap Lover-san and Eris-san. Step on the entry portal, pull up the dungeon information, and there it is in writing: [Discovering Guild: Kasho no Yume] [Discovered by: Nap Lover, Eris Margaret]. No arguing with that… Though depending on how you read it, it does kind of look like one single person named Eris Margaret who really, really loves her naps…
That’s everything the information had to say. The Fire Attribute nullification overlaps with the penalty already on Lia-chan’s broom, so for us it might actually be a plus~. Looks like I can put off making her a Fire Attribute broom for a while. The recommended level is a little high, but Peru-chan says it’s only a recommendation, so it’s fine.
[Application from party leader accepted… Beginning transport countdown.]
“There, now we can enter the dungeon!”
“Yaa~y. Still, how did you even find a place like this…”
“On a day when the sunlight was brutal, they wandered off looking for somewhere cool and ended up here, apparently!”
“Wow~… The power of coincidence is amazing.”
“Is it not~! Let us give thanks to the power of coincidence!”
Though that same power of coincidence did ambush us just a little while ago.
[Countdown, 5… 4…]
Aa~h, it’s starting, it’s starting~. Something about this part always gets me all fluttery~…
[1… 0. Transport.]
[Entering the Sea Cave Dungeon.]
[Penalty: Fire Attribute attacks nullified has activated.]
Uwah, the magic circle on the floor is sucking me in…!! So this is how warping through a dungeon portal looks. There’s a weird floaty lurch, like an elevator dropping to the floor below, and then, bam, one instant later I’m standing inside the dungeon. Uwah. Uwaaaaah…………!
“So pretty~…!”
“It feels just like strolling along the bottom of the sea! It is terribly beautiful, is it not!”
“Woof woooof~~!? (D-Drowning? Not drowning? Not suffocating?)”
“Wa, ’p…! H-Huh? I can… breathe?”
The bottom of the sea, and it’s soooooooo pretty! We’re underwater and I’m not suffocating, I can talk just fine… I can even breathe! The light pouring down from the surface is straight-up magical! Incredible! Fantas——!! An undersea stroll~~!! This is really, truly the inside of a dungeon? It’s beautiful. It’s too beautiful…
“Ah, here they come!”
Hm? Coming? What do you mean, comi——ah! Right, it’s a dungeon! Of course there are monsters! Obviously!
“Shaaaaaa———!!!”
“Stand there doing nothing and the monsters will target you from every direction! Hyper Slash!!”
[Perseus activated {Hyper Slash}, dealt 4873 damage to Charging Mr. Moray!, and defeated it. Gained 7840 EXP.]
That was fast, that was WAY fast. But seriously, what is with that name. ‘Charging Mr. Moray!’? What!? Don’t tell me you get naming rights for monsters too!?
“Come, Luna!”
[Aurelia activated familiar {Summon Black Cat} and summoned {Black Cat Luna}.]
“Nyaa~”
“Luna, fire won’t work here. Please attack with Ice Bolt or Thunder Bolt.”
“Nnyaa~”
Nnngh!? Right, she CAN summon a black cat, I completely forgot!! And what a super cute kitty, oh no~, those huge round golden eyes… I want to stand here staring forever… Wait, this kid doesn’t count as a party member? Maybe she’s treated as part of Lia-chan’s skill.
“————Grrrraaaa”
“Grrraaaaaargh!!!! (Big fishy!)”
“Donta, that’s a shark! Don’t let it bite you!”
[Donta activated {Double Palm}, dealt 6339 total damage to Super Tough Mr. Shark.]
See, you definitely get naming rights for monsters! And man, Super Tough Mr. Shark really is tough! Isn’t he the first monster outside the takes-only-1-damage crowd to survive Donta’s Double Palm!? It flinched, but it still hasn’t given up on getting those teeth in…
“Ice fangs driven to fury, gather unto me and become a frozen mass, then shatter and burst! Blizzard Cracker!!”
[Aurelia activated {Complete Chant・Blizzard Cracker}.]
Aurelia-chan, what was THAT! Maximum-edgelord chanting and completely, unfairly cool! Hold on, Big Sis wasn’t watching properly just now~! Do it again later, okay~!? There were so many magic circles and it looked SO cool!! More importantly, what kind of magic is Blizzard Crac——
————PAAAAAAAN!!!!!!
[Weak! Super Tough Mr. Shark took 12994 damage and died. Gained 8770 EXP.]
[Weak! Wandering Mr. Octopus took 12789 damage and died. Gained 7910 EXP.]
[Weak! Charging Mr. Moray! took 12669 damage and died. Gained 8880 EXP.]
[You have reached Level 33! Congratulations!]
[Perseus has reached Level 33. Let’s celebrate!]
[Donta has reached Level 23.]
[Aurelia has reached Level 2.]
[Aurelia has reached Level 3————]
…………
……
[Aurelia has reached Level 7.]
Eardrums? Gone. So much… loud. A~h, there’s the sound coming back… Because along with that absolutely ludicrous bang, the ice mass shattered into razor-sharp fragments and went flying every which way. The power on it? Insaaaane… A whole crowd of the monsters around us got caught in the blast and died in droves. Actually, hold on. These guys are supposed to be water monsters, and they’re weak to ice…?
“W-We did it!”
“Lia-chan, good girl! So cute! Mm, so strong!”
“Ehhehe…”
Anyway, Lia-chan is cute and she did great, so she’s getting pets. Petting… Sorry it’s over the top of the witch hat. Taking equipment off inside a dungeon is dangerous…
“I see! The detailed damage analysis makes it clear: Blizzard Cracker carries the Pierce Attribute alongside the Water Attribute. The Pierce half must have struck a weakness~!”
“Pierce… Attribute?”
“Attacks have attributes by type as well! Cut with a sword and it is the Slash Attribute; thrust with a spear, the Pierce Attribute; strike with a blunt weapon, the Bludgeon Attribute. Slash, Bludgeon, Pierce: three types! The monsters here were weak to Pierce. Everyone who visits this place has been a Slash or Bludgeon user, so no one ever knew until now!”
“I see. So Donta’s Double Palm and such would be Bludgeon? Ah, maybe my Curse Spear counts as Pierce.”
“Indeed, it may well strike a weakness!”
Uwa~, the categories go that deep, huh. Not a Water weakness, a Pierce weakness! Lia-chan’s Blizzard Cracker is a compound Water-and-Pierce spell, and my Curse Spear has ‘Spear’ right there in the name, so maybe Pierce comes baked in.
“Grrraaah!! (There’s one at your feet too!)”
[Donta activated {Double Palm}, Weak! dealt 12629 total damage to Drill Turban Shell, and defeated it. Gained 7220 EXP.]
Donta’s little slappy forelegs are so strong~… So there are monsters weak to Bludgeon too. Guess those are Donta’s department~.
“At this rate, we may well find the portal to the second floor!”
We’re running into monsters at a pretty brisk clip; can we actually make progress at this rate? So far we’ve come through without a scratch, but if they really do come from every direction, there’s always the chance of a sneak att——ogoh!?
“Pigi!”
[Shitty Weak Shell Slime activated {Jet Body Slam}, you took 189 damage.]
“Guh…”
Shitty. Weak. Shell Slime…! It’s another slime, it’s ANOTHER slime!! And I took the hit from the one with ‘shitty weak’ printed right there in its name. My first damage of the dungeon, courtesy of a shitty small-fry!! Ngh, gaaaaaaaaaaah!!
“Unforgivable…! Pierce, Curse Spear!!”
[Activated {Curse Spear}, dealt 2101 damage to Shitty Weak Shell Slime. Inflicted {Cursed} status.]
“Grrr, grrraaaaaargh!!!!!”
[Donta activated {Double Palm}, Weak! dealt 12629 damage to Shitty Weak Shell Slime, and defeated it. Gained 7220 EXP.]
Yeah………… my magic alone didn’t finish it. I can’t one-shot a monster that has ‘shitty weak’ written on it. Wait. Does that make me… dead weight in this dungeon…? Peru-chan’s going to start calling me ‘Donta and Lia-chan’s tagalong.’ She’s going to say the main unit is the real shitty small-fry here. Bad, this is bad… No! I’m the designated anti-monster weapon for the super-hard ones that only ever take 1 damage! That’s the thought holding my mental state together…!
“They attack from underfoot as well, so do be careful!”
“Yes. I Have Been Attacked.”
“…Kyuun”
“A-Are you okay, Big Sis…?”
“I’m not okay, but I’m okay, I’m okay…”
Damn slime… If a certain scroll from a certain super-retro game were in my hands right now, you’d shoot straight to the top of the extermination shortlist. For the sake of my mental hygiene, the slime race cannot be allowed to exist. It has to be genocide…
“Still, that was a sharp body slam… Donta, that’s the kind of momentum you want on a body slam.”
“Woof!! (Got it, body slams are about momentum!)”
Still, even a hated enemy has things to teach you. That jet-propelled, dead-straight body slam had real edge to it. It is my earnest hope that Donta will study it well. Not just the slappy forelegs and the biting; I want him to work out an attack built on a beefed-up body slam.
“Woof!! Grrrrrr…!!! Grrrraaaaaaaa!!”
“Oh, he’s off.”
“That is the same monster as the shark we failed to finish off earlier!”
“I-Is he going to be okay? Luna, if Donta-san is in danger, please back him up with Thunder Bolt!”
“Nnyaa~”
Off he goes, off he goes~. Donta went straight in for a body slam of his own, and on the tough shark we couldn’t kill earlier, no less… Now then, let’s see how this goes~!
[Donta activated {Body Slam}, Critical! dealt 6522 damage to Super Tough Mr. Shark. Inflicted {Stun} status.]
[2 COMBO! Donta activated {Double Palm}, dealt 6226 total damage to Super Tough Mr. Shark.]
[3 COMBO! Donta activated {Bite}, dealt 7942 damage to Super Tough Mr. Shark, and defeated it. Gained 8770 EXP.]
Ooooh~~~. What’s a combo? Well, park the combo question for now; that flowing chain of attacks was beautiful. Stun them, then pile it all on at once. Maybe it said ‘COMBO’ because it was such a good combo?
“My, combo attacks are a special mechanic that activates for melee-type jobs! Perhaps Don-chan is growing into a proper martial artist~.”
“Heeh~. Donta, you’ve gotten pretty strong somewhere along the way, huh.”
“Woof~♡ (I beat it! Praise me, praise me)”
“There, there, there, there…”
There, there. Good boy. Let me lavish some praise on you, Donta………… hm?
“Ah! Kyaaa——!?”
[Shitty Weak Shell Slime activated {Jet Body Slam}.]
[Black Cat Luna activated {Thunder Bolt}.]
Ah, Lia-chan’s going to get hit! Thunder Bolt’s way too slow, it might not make it!
[Aurelia took 250 damage, Black Cat Luna died in her place.]
[Dealt 4590 damage to Shitty Weak Shell Slime, and defeated it. Gained 7600 EXP.]
[Aurelia has reached Level 8.]
That was way too close, Lia-chan’s precious life almost got taken…! Right, I forgot: her HP is paper armor. Black Cat Luna-chan threw herself in as the substitute, so Lia-chan’s safe, but Luna-chan melted into mud and faded away… Ugogogo…
“A-Are you okay!?”
“I-I’m sorry, I let my guard down! Batton!”
[Aurelia activated familiar {Summon Bat} and summoned the familiar Batton.]
“Batton really can only be used as a substitute, so he’s useless… Auuu…”
“Donta, protect Lia-chan…”
“Kyuun…”
“My, my. Perhaps we should be glad she survived via a substitute… Come to think of it, my PP recovers with the passage of time, but Aurelia-chan has WP, does she not? What are her recovery conditions?”
“Looks like it recovers over time. Seems like 1 point every 3 minutes!”
“Three minutes is rather long… Let us proceed carefully!”
“Y-Yes.”
So Lia-chan’s Witch Points come back at 1 every 3 minutes, which puts Summon Black Cat six minutes out. She can only keep one familiar out at a time, too, so every time one goes down we’ll have to cycle in the next. Sounds like a real management headache~…
For a while after that we hunted our way along, scouring the floor for the portal down and scattering every monster that lunged at us, and all the trial and error settled into a system. An ambush takes a huge bite out of my HP or Lia-chan’s, and I don’t have a finishing blow anyway, so I traded attacking for keeping watch on our surroundings. Lia-chan, it turns out, can complete her chant and then hold the spell primed on standby, needing only the activation word to fire Blizzard Cracker whenever she likes, so she’s our answer for the times a whole pack swarms us and Donta and Peru-chan can’t handle it alone.
The basic rotation: Donta, who expends the least, does the killing. Two or three at once and Peru-chan joins in to wipe them out; a proper cluster and Lia-chan lets a Blizzard Cracker off the chain; and I keep watch for ambushes… Sad, isn’t it. I’m more useful watching than attacking… I want a staff that raises attribute attack power like Lia-chan has~… My basic attack is the Undead Attribute, but Curse Spear is dark magic, so maybe a staff that raises Dark Attribute attack power is the right call?
“————Shatter and burst! Blizzard Cracker!!”
————Woaa~h. I was deep in thought and the sudden bang scared the life out of me~.
[Weak! Macho Max Penguin took 19455 damage and died. Gained 10550 EXP.]
[Weak! Wandering Mr. Octopus took 19720 damage and died. Gained 7910 EXP.]
[Weak! Charging Mr. Moray! took 19739 damage and died. Gained 8880 EXP.]
[Weak! Super Tough Mr. Shark took 19955 damage and died. Gained 8770 EXP.]
[Weak! Wandering Mr. Octopus took 19721 damage and died. Gained 7910 EXP.]
[Weak! Charging Mr. Moray! took 19991 damage and died. Gained 8880 EXP.]
[You have reached Level 42. Congratulations!]
[Perseus has reached Level 42. Let’s celebrate!]
[Donta has reached Level 29.]
[Aurelia has reached Level 20.]
Lia-chan’s level climbed a ton while I wasn’t looking~! Her attack power’s grown a long way from where we started too; those hits are about to crack 20,000. Ahh, I was so disappointed at the start, when she was a skeleton who couldn’t use a lick of magic, but all that careful raising paid off. The quest movie’s narration said she had skill, and it wasn’t lying. Lia-chan turned out seriously capable. So glad I raised her right~!
“Calamity Wave!!”
[Perseus activated {Calamity Wave}.]
[Surrounding monsters were instantly killed. Total EXP gained: 86720.]
When did Peru-chan learn a new skill…? Ehh~, and it’s an instant-death skill!? …Ah, no, the instant death is just the last thing that fires. Paralysis, fear, and confusion all go first; if the target dies instantly, the rest is useless information, so the log just leaves it out.
Uu~n, no fair, no fair, Peru-chan gets ALL the good stuff! I want attack magic too!! Lia-chan’s spells have no aptitude match with my job, so I can’t borrow hers, and I just want, like~… a volume 2 of ‘Introduction to Dark Magic’ to plop out of the sky somewhere~… Hm? Did something just flash?
“…………What is that?”
“Ah, that is——!!!”
Hm? Before we’ve even found the portal down, there’s a squid-looking something over there giving off a glittery little sparkle effect. No way. A rare monster!?
“It is a rare monster!”
“It’s a rare monster!”
Rare monsters must be hunted; rare monsters drop rare items, just like Donta did! We are absolutely hunting that squid!!
Wait, it’s bigger than it looked from a distance…? We’re talking a squid the size of two volleyballs. A plump, cone-shaped, pure-white body; fins attached like a small apology; round black button eyes; ten slightly stubby legs! Yep. That’s a squid!
“You will not escape!! Hyper Slash!!”
“Pierce, Curse Spear!”
“S-Shatter and burst! Blizzard Cracker!!”
“Grrraaaaaaaaa!! (Sparkly prey!)”
[Perseus activated {Hyper Slash}, dealt 9227 damage to ☆2 Inksane.]
[Activated {Curse Spear}, Weak! dealt 2431 damage to ☆2 Inksane. Inflicted {Cursed} status.]
[Aurelia activated {Blizzard Cracker}, Weak! dealt 19470 damage to ☆2 Inksane.]
[Donta activated {Body Slam}, dealt 5522 damage to ☆2 Inksane. Inflicted {Stun} status.]
What is with this name… Wait, it took all of that and didn’t die!? How hard is this squid!? It’s way tougher than Super Tough Mr. Shark!? Hold on. Don’t tell me that’s the whole reason it’s named Inksane!?
[2 COMBO! Donta activated {Double Palm}, dealt 11555 total damage to ☆2 Inksane.]
[☆2 Inksane recovered from {Stun}.]
“Gauu!? (Strong!?)”
[☆2 Inksane activated {Ice Bolt}, Donta took 1668 damage.]
“Gyauuuuun!! (It huuuuurts~~!!)”
“Donta, fall back!”
That’s the first time anyone besides me has taken clear damage…! This squid is exactly what it says on the label… insane!! We’ve poured close to 50,000 damage into it and there’s still no sign of it going down!
“Calamity Wave!!”
[Perseus activated {Calamity Wave}, no effect on ☆2 Inksane.]
[No effect on Donta.]
“I caught you in it!”
“It’s fine, no effect! Donta, get some distance!!”
“Woof…!!”
Hard as a rock, resistances locked down tight, and on top of all that it uses magic!! The reason somebody named this squid Inksane is coming through loud and clear: this thing is insane!!
“Ice fangs driven to fury, gather unto me and become a frozen mass, then shatter and burst! Blizzard Cracker!!”
[☆2 Inksane activated {Ice Shield}.]
[Aurelia activated {Complete Chant・Blizzard Cracker}.]
[☆2 Inksane nullified the damage.]
It blocked Blizzard Cracker with an improvised ice shield! But that shield looks single-use; Lia-chan’s one hit shattered it! Good, now’s the chance!
“Pierce, Curse Spear!”
[Activated {Curse Spear}, Weak! dealt 2557 damage to ☆2 Inksane, and defeated it. Gained 44550 EXP.]
[Acquired unidentified item {?Hat}.]
Th-That was rough~… That was just plain HARD… If someone told me we’d fought this dungeon’s boss, I’d believe them on the spot. And another thing: it saw Lia-chan’s attack once and reliably blocked the second one. Isn’t this game’s monster AI a little too good? Or is the Inksane just specially insane?
“An unidentified spear dropped! Waaaaa~~!! I am certain this is a good one!”
“Mine was an unidentified hat. It’s an icon with a {?} mark, the kind you can’t take out. Once we get back to the Guild House, identify it for me again~.”
“My! Great expectations for that one as well! Of course I shall!”
So the drop’s a hat, and the EXP is… kind of pathetic for how strong that thing was…? We deserved more like 400,000, honestly. If this hat turns out to be junk, I might actually come to hate the Inksane.
“U-Um…”
“Mm? Ah, Lia-chan was strong! Good girl!!”
“Th-Thank you very… no, that’s not it! Aren’t you going to collect the corpse?”
“Ah——!! The slot’s full! Make it in time——!!”
[Discarded the existing corpse in {Morgue 3}, newly coffined {☆2 Inksane (Lv. 70)}.]
“Nice, Lia-chan!! Very good girl!! I’m hugging you and petting you!!”
“Awawawa, hawawawawa…”
“Kyuun… (I wanna be petted too~)”
“…………Lia-chan is such a good girl~~!!”
“K y u u u u u n”
Thanks to Lia-chan’s nice call, the ☆2 Inksane’s corpse is safely mine. Now, what would I get if I ran Animate Fetish on this…? Making it a servant could be good? But, I mean, it’s a squid… It had a reasonably cute look going, but it doesn’t seem like the type to react to petting, and could it even operate on land in the first place? For that matter, an undead squid… isn’t that just dried squid at that point? Mmm, iffy. Let’s make it a Cursed Object!
“My, you will not make it a servant?”
“No, well, you know… An undead squid feels like it’d start out as dried squid…”
“…………That is somewhat unpleasant, is it not!”
“I, find it unpleasant!”
“My, A-chan is imitating me!”
“Quite so! It is the sheer momentum of rare-monster-slaying joy!”
“I am delighted, it is my first time meeting a rare monster~!”
“Oh~! So they don’t show up that often. Lucky us!”
“A first rare experience, together with A-chan… fufu… fufu…!!”
“…Hm? Sorry, I couldn’t hear you!”
“It was nothing at all! Fufu♪”
Now then, in any case! We met a rare monster, so let’s chalk today up as lucky~! Now all that’s left is finding the portal to the second floor~… ooh? That big magic circle over there!? Could that be the portal to the second floor!?
“Isn’t that the portal over there?”
“Ah! Quite so, there is no mistaking it!”
“Oh~ thank goodness, then let’s head to the next floor~!”
Isn’t this a great flow~? Get the feel of the dungeon, settle everyone into their roles, and just as we hit our stride we find a rare monster, take it down, and then spot the portal to the next floor on top of it! Nice, nice~. Alright, floor two, here we come~!
[Activate the transport portal to the second floor?]
“Everyone is ready, yes? Then, here we go~!”
“Ye~s!”
“Yes!”
“Woof~”
[Beginning transport… 3… 2… 1… Transport.]