Chapter 186

Third Dungeon Battle: Battle 9

I knew it. I knew that Core 666’s Black Armor would be able to make it through.

But even so, when she got swept up by the water and went towards the orichalcum wires—

“Did I do it!?”

—I said it… I actually said that line… I need to be more careful next time.

“Kehma, almost, but not quite. It’s okay, come here, now.”

“Why’re you patting my head?”

“It just felt like Kehma was a bit depressed.”

“Ah, I was just hating myself for saying something that I believed that I would absolutely never say. Thanks for the thought, but Haku-san is watching, please stop.”

It felt like her super cold glare was asking, “Shall tomorrow’s dinner be served alive?” I’m like a fish on a chopping board, hahaha. [1]

“Ah, s-sorry, Haku Ane-sama. We’re in a Dungeon Battle, so we have to concentrate, right!”

“Fufufu, that’s a good Rokuko-chan. Could you pat me on the head later too?”

“Mou! Haku Ane-sama, please don’t make fun of me!”

No, she’s being serious. Not like I’d say that though.

Alright, back to the dungeon battle.

The remaining troops left to Team Demon King over in our dungeon is a single Black Armor and lots of Skeletons. Those Skeletons are probably from [Summon Skeleton].

But in Team Demon King’s dungeon—

“Oi, Ichika. From how it was going a while ago, shouldn’t you have already killed the boss?”

“U-uhh, yeah… but the door didn’t open! I’m back to lookin’ now.”

“There aren’t any enemy reactions left in the room. I’m helping, too.”

With that, Ichika and Meat’s responded to me in puzzlement. It looks like our exploration was stalled… No choice but to go back to looking huh?

“… There is also the possibility that there is a hidden passage on another floor.”

“It could be some sort of door that can’t be found without activating a trap. Don’t forget to look over the ceilings as well… pitfall traps too.”

Putting a passage inside a pitfall trap… maybe I should do that in our dungeon too? Haku-san’s didn’t say anything after telling us there is a correct route. No choice but to search ourselves, then.

“Fufu, this reminds me of the Dungeon Battle between Rokuko-chan and I.”

“Eh? Aah, come to think of it… that’s right, Haku Ane-sama.”

“Should we start searching again from the entrance just in case…? Send a few Golems and use them.”

“Yes, Goshujin-sama.”

Fortunately, there isn’t even a single enemy monster remaining. She can look for it freely.

Are they confident that we won’t be able to find it even after looking for it, or are they amassing forces on an unexplored floor further inside?

Is there another possibility? Overlooking something would be bad…

“Rokuko, what do you think?”

“Mm, it’s strange that the door didn’t open even though there’s no boss left in the boss room. Maybe we should check if it was really a boss room? It might’ve been a dummy one.”

A dummy, huh. There’s definitely the possibility of that. Haku-san brought it up a bit ago, but I also did it—that riddle door that didn’t have anything after it… there’s also the possibility that there’s nothing after this boss room.

“Ichika, investigate that boss room for a little while, then look for another.”

“Got it.”

As I finished issuing instructions on how to continue our attack—our exploration—I wondered how our defense was holding up.

When I checked, the Black Armor had just crossed the log bridge that had been jam packed with Gargoyles.

There was just a single Skeleton left. Its movements are rather good… maybe their master is operating it?

“Meat, please get back to defense when you finish exploring. Our defense is more urgent… Rokuko. Send Tentacle Slime-san out. Use it to settle Core 666 in the upper floors.”

“Will it be enough?—Wait, why’d you add [-san]!?”

“Well, because it’s Tentacle Slime-san.”

“… I don’t think that works as a reason though?”

It’s more or less this dungeon’s secret boss.

“Well then, use [The Big Ball] and flood them out. It’d be great if that’s enough to finish it, but…”

“Opening the flood gates and dropping [The Big Ball]~. Yay~, get squashed~!”

I knew they’d be fine stopping the iron ball with that scorching hot magic sword, so I combo’d it up with water.

The water flooded the space behind [The Big Ball] like it was blasting it toward Core 666.

I can’t help but get a bad feeling. Let’s gather everything in the room after this path…

Even if they stop the iron ball, they’ll be washed away by along with it by the water if they don’t stop it as well.

If they try to melt the iron ball, the water keep it cool.

Now, what’ll they do?

Reacting from the sound of it, Core 666 took the anti-water formation with the Skeleton. [2]

Core 666 held up her magic sword, pointing it out towards the iron ball. Facing off against the large mass barreling towards her, she thrust towards it.

“—[Crimson Road].”

And said that.

In the next instant, both the iron ball and water disappeared in a straight line away from her. The Living Armor’s hand that held the magic sword was glowing red from the heat… was that a skill? A skill like that actually exists?

Core 666, wasn’t that a bit too hot?

“Wha—!? … Uwaaah, whaaaat!?”

“Seriously? … Isn’t that a bit unreasonable?”

The seawater coming up after that flowed past Core 666’s Black Armor.

Its red hot hand turned back into black steel.

“[Crimson Road] is a piercing fire-type offensive skill. Although it has the disadvantage of only being able to be used once per day and dealing fire-type damage to the user, its power is considerable to compensate for that. Using it is daring.”

Hearing Haku-san’s explanation, it looks like it can’t be used again today.

So that means if I had them eat another blast of [The Big Ball] and seawater, we could win. However—

“Kehma, we don’t have anymore of [The Big Ball]!”

“… Seriously? Then collect one of the ones we used and…”

“They were melted, smashed, and somehow erased. There aren’t any more.”

Geh, if I’d just prepared more…!

Unfortunately, I can’t just buy one directly with DP. According to Haku-san, they’re in her catalog as a trap, but they aren’t in ours. Is it because we don’t use normal traps? I usually just use handmade traps… grah, being stingy’s come back to bite me!

“Could we give DP to Haku Ane-sama and have her purchase it?”

“That’s, as expected, not allowed. It’d be different if it were for preparations, but it’s no good on the day of. After all, in the end, this is to train our juniors.”

In that case, is there anything I could summon to replace the iron ball trap…? An Iron Golem? No, that’s no good. They aren’t good at rolling!

Aah, if Haku-san weren’t here I could just repair an iron ball with [Create Golem]!

“Well, we can think of this another way. With this, our opponent’s trump card is gone, so it’s like a fifty-fifty trade. We still have some troops and our trump card, so we still have an advantage!”

“Kehma, that might not have been their only trump card, so maybe it wasn’t an even trade after all?”

Rokuko gave a sound argument.

“… Yep, well, it’s alright. We’ll decide it in the next room.”

I spoke, still collecting everything in that one room.

Footnotes:

Alright, so in the quote here Haku is actually saying ‘Shall tomorrow’s dinner be changed to ikedzukuri?’, where ikedzukuri is a style of presentation to make it look like raw fish is still in its original fish-like shape. I removed this because it just felt like any attempts at adding it to the line itself would just cause the line to feel awkward to read.Return

Not too sure how that formation works with only a single Skeleton, honestly. Maybe she summoned more skeletons at some point? The raw doesn’t specify if there’s a single Skeleton here still.

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