Where were we? Oh yeah, the giant level 4.5 threat level monster exploding...
Chapter 75
The Thunder Ball went off inside the Viscum, the foul, sickly sweet sap inside its 'flower' acting much like water would when an explosion happened. The thin membrane of the flower ruptured violently, spraying toxic, acidic, incredibly foul smelling stuff all over the room.
Bell, who was closest, had started to run away, but stopped in his tracks as Maki fired one of her 'tunnel freeze' specials at him, creating a temporary wall of ice between him and the near literal shit-storm from the violated monster.
Ryuu had a similar idea to Maki, heaving a wall of wind magic across the room to the second nearest group of people who had just dealt with the bloodsaurus. No fools here, everyone pulled up their hoods and ducked behind what ever cover they could. Mikoto pulled Amani back into the ice clogged tunnel they'd just entered from. Ouka and Chigusa were perfectly fine behind their shields, and the rest of us were far enough away to only get hit by the smell.
Oh, except the Golem. His new backpack had caught a bit of spatter, and would probably smell terrible until we got back to the surface.
"It's not dead." Shinkage said.
Everyone, except maybe Ryuu, and certainly not Delly (who hardly even twitched when the explosion happened), had a clear look of puzzlement on their face.
"How exactly do you kill a giant flower?" I asked.
Besides the flower, there was nothing else in the room. And it was acting like it was stunned, its formerly lashing vines kinda just... twitching.
"The roots." Ryuu said, checking herself over for any acid spatter.
"Allow me." Shinkage said, taking a deep breath again, then covering the roots growing out of the floor with ice. Not very thick ice, but it had stopped the floor around the ruptured flower from hissing with acid.
"I got this one." Welf said, "Cover just in case!" He added as he took a huge run up, a long sliding spin, and slammed his big cleaver blade into the mostly frozen roots. Likely being the physically strongest of all the level twos in the room, his boosted stats demolished the roots like a hammer to a window. He even managed to finish his slide without slamming into the wall on all the ice!
And with the sound of a bag of flour being dumped on the floor, and a bright sounding 'clink' the monster was gone, leaving nothing but ash and its magic stone.
There was a moment of 'looking around to make 1000 percent sure', then Bell said, "Supporters clean up!"
While helping Haruhime clean up kills and apply any first aid that was needed, I picked up a few bits of conversation.
"Miss Maki? How long will that ice last?" Bell asked, motioning to the still clogged tunnel.
"Until I get bored? Or sleep. Maybe not even then? It's a sustained effect." Maki replied.
"Ma-chan and Mo-chan have this weird competition to see who can hold their magic the longest." Kaede laughed.
A moment or two later, while I checked over Mikoto.
"Amani-chan. Thank you." Mikoto said, not even flinching as I rubbed a little acid salve over a bit of spatter.
"Getting thrown into a wall is like getting thrown into a tree. It sucks." Our Mini-zon was getting her back looked at by Haruhime, and also not flinching as my wife rubbed a potion pill or two over her.
Next were Ouka and Chigusa.
"You should have ducked a little lower." Chigusa pouted at her (wouldn't know it unless they told you) lover.
"I know... I was kind of killing something though..." Ouka's hair had gotten a little sprinkle of acid, leaving it uneven. But at least he didn't have bald spots.
Welf and Bell were next.
"Going to need new boots..." Welf sighed, "And my blade did not like that acid. It's adamant! How the heck..." He sighed again.
"If it makes you feel any better Mr. Welf, the armour you made me is still perfectly fine." Bell sniffled a little, "Too much ice today..."
"I agree!" Amani said from someplace.
And surprising me, since I thought she'd fallen asleep. Delly.
"wat I miss?"
"We won." I said quietly, my tails moving her off my back so I could look into her eyes, feel her forehead, and generally fuss over her to make sure she wouldn't die of poison. "Just finishing the cleanup. Hey... You okay?"
"had funny dream. nose itches. throat is sore. everything smells bad."
"Sorry, had to get your airways cleaned out."
"i wanna kill the water monster." She said with a silly smile, "had dream... we have stuff we need... bait and switch... switch the bait?"
Bell noticed me talking with our fallen fairy, "Miss Delly?" But she was back into dreamland.
"I think..." I started, looking at Bell.
He looked at everyone else, who were also looking not just a bit battle worn, but run down. Out of breath, shoulders slumping a little... "We'll head back up to the safe zone." He said.
There was no back talk, and no one looked disappointed. But no one looked happy either.
"Well, now that we're on our way back... Delly's adorable mumbling gave me an idea. And since it's on the way, how about one last monster?" I asked.
"Sister?" Ryuu asked.
"Gonna need a few things. Then we can fight back the way we came. Oh... And if Fukawa and Okakai could start on their way back up. Fukawa and Okakai missed someone's birthday, and I've been told to kick them in the shin."
Bell looked at me with a bit of shock, but nodded. I'd set a goal, and put on a time limit. If the Brothers showed up before we were done with the idea I had, then the rookies wouldn't get as much from the kill. And if the theory was right, there was in fact something to kill.
"So what we have..."
Since I was trying to keep my hands off their efforts as much as possible, I played a little bit of a game with them. I gave them the information as we all knew it. We had a weird 'hazard' that had sharp 'water snakes' that tangled up people. These snakes had no magic stone and no actual mouth. And since everything in the dungeon eventually needed to eat...
"You suspect it is part of a larger monster?" Ryuu said finally.
"I do. So now how to get to it?" I asked.
Bell interrupted the moment of thoughtfulness, "Miss Maki? Let's start fighting our way back. Once we're in formation, drop the ice blocking the tunnel. Equipment check!"
With the slow methodical pressure of a glacier, we (though I was still keeping my 'hands off' combat and playing support) carefully fought our way closer to the tunnel that had nearly gotten Amani killed. In one of the smaller rooms, within earshot of the tunnel we were aiming for, Amani herself thought up the next part of the plan.
Well, she might have cheated a little. Her stomach rumbled that 'always hungry because I'm young' rumble, and she perked up with, "We need to bait it with some food! And I'm hungry again..."
Our somewhat grim mood was broken up a little by a laugh, but Welf nodded, "Yeah, but we can't just feed it. If there really is something else behind those monsters."
"And what do we have that would attract it?" Chigusa asked, "You're not thinking..."
"No." Bell said firmly. "We need..." He looked around, "When you want a monster, they're not around..."
"We have bandages." Mikoto said, looking at her slightly blood soaked forearm. "My bleeding has stopped." She started to unwrap the bandage.
Others did the same, while I rummaged around in the Golem's pack for a bit of dried meat. A bit of fire would get it smelling like meat again. I also gave a bit to Amani, so she would stop looking at me like a sad puppy.
"Miss Kodori, could you get another Thunder Ball out as well?" Bell asked.
"Do you think it will work?" I asked.
"What is required to set it off?" He asked.
"Exposure to air." I said, "Makes them a little harder to make, but it also means I can use them too."
"Is water enough?" Maki asked.
"But you can't breath in water. Everyone knows that!" Amani said.
"You can." I corrected, "But need different lungs. Hmm, suppose I'll put that in the animal classes..." I scratched my cheek, "It might work. Maybe."
"How did it work for the flower, Ko-san?"
"The cork is much more susceptible to acid than the glass." I said.
"Will strong acid upset the mixture enough?" Ryuu asked.
I shook my head, "I don't think so, but again, maybe."
"You said something about air getting really small if you squish it." Kaede said, "Why not toss in a smoke bottle?"
We had our 'bait'. It wasn't elegant, like... at all. But with our remaining Thunder Ball bottles (five) and some smoke vials (two black, two white), we put together a little package. The vials were put into a spare cloth sack, wrapped up in a mix of bloody bandages, some of our dried (slightly cooked) meat, and a little string to keep it all from unravelling early, we finally got back to the 'hazard' tunnel.
"Is Delly-chan okay?" Momiji asked.
"snrr." Replied Delly from behind the cloth around her nose and mouth.
"Best we can do." I said, "She'll have a better chance if she stays out of trouble, even so we are keeping her under Ha-chan's spell for the stat boost to her endurance."
"And yourself, Kodori-sama?"
"I'll sleep really well later." I nodded after a little 'mental check' of my mana reserves, "Are we all ready?"
(Perspective change once again)
With only the sound of rushing water, the plan was put into effect. Maki ate a couple of mana pills, lined up her sword, and with another application of her 'tunnel block' gimmick sealed up the far end of the tunnel.
The Golem, without its pack, carrying the bait in one hand and carrying a spare katana in the other, stomped into the tunnel. Shinkage was by the oversized pack, eyes closed, fully in control of the Golem as it marched through. While it did so, Maki was lifted up by Ouka, so she could get the best angle possible for her next trick.
Showing a deliberate intelligence, the 'hazard' suddenly appeared as the Golem hopped over the widest of the water channels, in the near exact middle of the corridor. A shimmering something had looped around one of its legs in mid air, and with a heavy clank the Golem landed on its back with one leg in the water.
"Start." Bell said, "Miss Maki?"
Maki fired her spell sword, hissing a little in disappointment as her first shot missed, but smiling to herself as the second and third found their marks, freezing the farthest water channels solid.
The Golem, with its inhuman flexibility, untangled its leg from the serpent that was latched on to it, but with a little flick of one hand, tossed the bloody bundle of bandages at the seeking tendril. With alarming speed, speed that would spell the doom of any adventurer caught unaware, the bundle vanished upstream into the wall. The Golem then got up and started running back towards the party, the sword flicking out, watery serpent or not, as it jumped over every water channel on the way.
Maki sealed up a third and forth water duct, ate a couple more pills, then two more. All the while everyone else was standing at the ready, in case the dungeon decided to spawn.
Then they heard it. Something down the tunnel cracked.
"Faster!" Ryuu said.
"Almost!" Maki shouted back, "In," She fired, "Out." She fired, "In," She fired, "SEALING!" She shouted as the Golem did a baseball slide to get clear of the tunnel.
Kodori stepped forward beside Ouka, and with several swift hand motions the water channel nearest the mouth of the tunnel seemed to erupt towards the ceiling. It was then that Maki used her tunnel sealing gimmick again, Ouka and Kodori backing up quickly as the mouth of the tunnel was suddenly filled with crackling ice.
"Again!" Ryuu urged, the sound of cracking stone audible over the magical ice solidifying in place.
Maki's sword chose that exact moment to have a catastrophic failure, the nearly perfect cube of red gemstone on the pommel shattering explosively. Maki fell off Ouka's shoulders, bits of gemstone pinging off her mask while all the magical bits inside the hilt of her sword spilled to the floor.
The Golem, having just barely made it out of the tunnel in time, caught Maki, then they all turned to look at the sheet of ice that was holding the tunnel closed.
Another crack, then another, and another... The only sign anyone was alive in the room being the puffs of breath in the suddenly frigid air.
Then with a splintering, shattering crunch and crash of noise that nearly sent some of the party to the floor, something behind all that ice broke. The ice they were all looking at, for a brief moment, had a couple of little spurts of water come through, but even as the floor rumbled and the sound of breaking dungeon stone grated over their ears, those little jets of water faded, turned to a trickle, then ceased.
"Get the Golem's pack back on. Maki?" Bell ordered.
And the ice vanished, leaving behind nothing but little mana sparkles and the cold.
Devastation. The tunnel had been destroyed past the point of recognition. No longer was it a tunnel but a cavern. The wall opposite the flow of water had been carved away by ice and rock, but even now the dungeon was slowly starting to fix itself. Where the water had come from however, there was an uphill plane of broken rock and dribbling water. And while yes, some of that broken rock was dissolving as 'dungeon walls' usually did when broken away from the 'body' of the dungeon, some of it was clearly part of a frontier zone, natural normal rock.
But then there was another noise, a gurgling angry noise that was felt more than heard.
"Run! Before it recovers!" Bell called out.
"Run! Before our bones freeze!" Welf said, "Can't feel my toes already..."
None of them had any idea what was waiting up that slope. But in the dust and mist from the collapsed wall and unmade ice, they could clearly see dozens of those 'water serpents' lashing their way towards them as they started upwards.
"Alternating advance!" Bell called out.
Without so much as a missed step, the entire party split into two lines. The front line paused, attacked or blocked the striking tendrils, then had the back line take a step or two past them. Then the roles reversed, the front covering the back while they ran up the hill.
Kaede called out, one of her big rabbit ears pivoting towards the way they'd come from, "Sounds like another big spawn!"
"Ryuu, Shinkage, with me!" Bell called out, putting on the breaks, hacking away a couple of water serpents and turning around to deal with the new threats.
Doing so also left the entire rookie team and their supporters Kodori and Haruhime, to finish their mad rush up the hill to face what ever it was that was waiting there.
"Ha!" Welf shouted as he held his long two handed sword more like a staff, and let a water serpent cut itself on his defence instead of trying to swing with the heavier weapon. "Thought so!"
"What a time for Delly to be down..." Maki lamented, her not so magical spell blade still sharp enough to defend Haruhime and Kodori.
"Defiler!" Mikoto shouted, cresting the hill with the rest of them and helping Kaede cover Momiji, "This beast sits in a hot spring!"
The cavern was huge, with the far wall and ceiling covered in multi coloured crystals, the football field sized floor had many springs and crater-like pools. From someplace in the darkness, frigid water flowed down the ramp towards the dungeon.
And in the largest pool of mildly sulphur smelling water, was a... blob.
It had no discernible face, or body, or anything really. Looking like a horror show from Takemikazuchi's last attempt at jello, it looked almost like a jellyfish. Mostly transparent, with bits of stuff floating inside of it, it was hard to make out in the gloom of the frontier zone.
"Lighting the way." Kodori said, foxfire filling the cavern with light, "Looks like a gelatinous cube..." She mumbled as the blob's form became much clearer.
The light and noise seemed to send the blob into a frenzy however, and the numerous 'water serpents' suddenly doubled in number as the thing let out a gurgling vibration.
"AURGH!" Kaede managed to slash a serpent away, but then fell to her knees, dropped her sword and flattened her ears to her head. Her mask (rabbit shaped of course) couldn't really have ear protection built in like most of the others.
Without pause, Ouka stepped between her and the Blob, slamming his shield down and making ready with his spear. "Look! In the middle!" He said between quick motions with his spear.
There, in the middle of the Blob was indeed a magic stone. It was large too! Almost the size of someone's leg, sharply pointed on both ends and spinning gently despite the furious motions of the beast.
"There's our package too!" Maki said, moving furiously, "So many... AH!" She hacked down at a tentacle as it wrapped around her leg. She cut it away but not before it left a thin slash around her calf.
The 'bait' was still wrapped up inside, though bits of it were slowly dissolving. Too slowly though! It would be hours, days maybe, before what ever digestion method it used ate through the bandages to get to the bottles inside.
"Get her back up!" Asuka called out, picking up Kaede's katana and cutting at the tentacles, "My fists do nothing to this thing!" She had no trouble dodging, being an agile type fighter like Bell and Kodori, but the tentacles only bounced away when she used anything but the borrowed katana.
Momiji was by her friend's side, a bandage in her hand and swiftly wrapping it around the bunny girl's head to pin her ears down, "Best I can do... Kodori!" She called out, catching a potion bottle and stuffing a couple potion pills into her friend's ears under the bandage.
Welf, Chigusa and Amani were up closest to the Blob while the back line collected itself. Without a spear, the shield maiden was basically running interference while the other two hacked and stabbed at anything that got around her shield. It wasn't ideal, but with the amount of razor bladed tendrils shooting out from the main body, it was all they could do.
It wasn't enough. With a sudden yelp, Welf had a leg pulled out from under him. Only because he slammed his blade into the stone floor kept him from getting pulled in towards the Blob. Chigusa and Amani moved to intercept, to cover Welf, but before Chigusa could slam the spiked bottom of her shield down on the tentacle holding Welf's leg, her shield was pulled from her hands by a half dozen lashing appendages.
"Here!" Amani cut the one holding Welf down, tossed her spear to Chigusa, and yanked Welf's blade out of the stone. Even if the blade was as tall as she was, she still managed to swing it about well enough to give Welf enough time to stand again.
"Welf! Spare!" Kodori shouted, the katana the Golem was using a little while ago flipping through the air towards the Smith.
"Amazons always stealing my swords!" He grouched, catching the weapon and unsheathing, just in time to save Chigusa from getting overwhelmed.
"I'm... up..." Kaede got to her feet, shook away a cobweb or two, then took her katana back from Asuka. A second later, she was back to swinging, though her motions were a little less energetic.
"Moving up!" Ouka said, stomping forward with Mikoto beside him, and a moment later Kaede as well.
Well and truly regrouped, this left Maki, Asuka and Momiji defending Haruhime, Kodori and the Golem. Everyone else was starting to surround the Blob, furiously hacking, slashing, ducking and dodging. But injuries were starting to show, every near miss leaving a little blood behind, even through the tough leather armour.
"If only my sword hadn't broken..." Maki growled, the pressure easing off the back line as the forward group took more and more of the Blob's attention. "Asuka? Can you hit that?"
Asuka grunted as she smashed a stray tentacle out of the air with her heavy armoured shin, then got her bow ready, "Three arrows left..."
"Time it well." Kodori encouraged.
"TEST SHOT!" Asuka called out, her first shot aiming at the first clear path through the forward group. A bit high, the armour piercing point went through the Blob with almost no issue at all! It left a clear hole in the 'flesh' of the Blob as it zipped into the darkness behind it.
The Blob recoiled, wobbling violently in its hot spring basin and vibrating again. Kaede went down again, but only to her knees, still managing to keep a hand on her blade and that blade moving. Amani however was simply blown off her feet by the pulse of sound. She didn't make a sound as Welf caught her, dropped his spare katana and picked up his (yes, his! Grr) blade and fell back. Chigusa, now without shield but using her spear again, also didn't fair well against the sonic attack, her mask cracking as she fell to a knee clutching her head.
"Second shot!" Asuka couldn't delay, even if her ears were ringing, she let the second arrow go, aimed directly at the 'bait' inside the monster.
Only to have Chigusa's stolen shield deflect it as the tendrils that had taken it away lifted it up and interposed it between them. The arrow however left a deep and clear furrow in the poorly angled shield, the beast seeming to understand what it was for, but not how to use it properly.
Maki glanced to Asuka, "Switch places, lemme call the shot."
Asuka didn't really understand why, but didn't question her fellow ranged support. Moving three metres to the left to stand in front of Haruhime and Kodori, she drew her bow back until the bodkin point was almost past the shaft of the bow.
Maki then took off her mask, and in Asuka's voice called out, "Third shot!"
"Aw crap." Kodori said suddenly, the tails on everyone winking out as she extended her hands forward, a wave of dark something chasing behind the arrow.
With a heavy 'SHANK' sound, the armour piercing point of the arrow went through the bottom left corner of Chigusa's shield, and continued onward, passing through the flesh of the Blob, through the bag of 'bait' and explosive bottles, leaving a clear path for air to enter behind it.
"DUCK AND COVER!" Ouka managed to say as he dashed two steps to the side to cover the still recovering Amani and Welf.
(Kodori)
I did my best to slow down the shock wave that came from the explosion. There was a lot of stone, a couple of loose weapons, oh, and Chigusa's tower shield, blown away by the explosion. But, thankfully, my 'aura' managed to at least slow things down a little. Case and point, Chigusa's shield was buried in the ceiling above, instead of possibly taking poor Kaede's head off.
But, those closest to what was left of the monster looked like they'd rolled down a sharp gravel hill. Well, except Ouka, Welf and Amani. Ouka's shield looked like it had been used for a shotgun target, but otherwise it was fun.
"Head count!" I called out, moving towards those who had fallen on their face to 'duck and cover', "Ha'chan? Maki? Momiji? Asuka?"
I hardly needed to say their name to spur them to action. As one, they moved towards the Golem for potions and bandages, then split up to start looking at the rest of the party. While I moved to tend someone they weren't, I mumbled, "Grow."
And Delly grew a new fox tail. Her reply was a sleepy, "throat sore... ears ringing... pillow is moving too much..." She coughed wetly, and one of her hands reached around and booped my fox mask's nose. "no fun..."
So I stopped, looked for my bottle of cure all and my tails delivered her to my arms, "How's your stomach?"
"empty, and I am sad." She coughed again, "turn my head away?" I put a hand on the top of her head and turned it away from me. This prompted her to do a most unladylike "haaaaarrrrrrk, pu-tu!" onto the dungeon floor. "bleh."
While she did that, I took off a gauntlet and touched her forehead with the back of my hand, "Might need to give you vacation time for a day or two."
"yay! Uhoh, do it again?"
She coughed again, then spit once more, and I put a little more of the cure all into her canteen, "Here, drink slow." I looked up, "Anyone else feeling sick?"
No one responded 'yes', but Asuka spoke up, "Just picking pebbles out of Chi-chan's arm."
"I think I have one in my butt." Amani said, patting her right buttock gingerly, "Oh... no, just rolled onto something sharp."
"Hold still." Maki said, "Really going to have to get you a mask, just missed your eye."
"Thank's Hime." Welf said, his arm and leg bandaged, "And you! You can't have my sword."
"Aww..."
"Kaede? How are your ears?" Momiji asked.
"WHAT?" A pause as Momiji looked panicked, "Oh sorry... ears still ringing." Kaede said.
I sighed, looked back down, "Delly?"
"getting feeling back everywhere." She replied, taking her canteen back and sipping at it without my help. "but I don't wanna move."
"Just don't vomit on my coat." I said, applying a well deserved headpat, then tying her to my back again with my tails. "Anyone else need something other than a bandage?"
"Kodori-dono." Mikoto called, "We should clean up and have a rest here." She was by the pool where the monster had been, "Once we clean this out a little... it is the perfect temperature."
My ears picked up a shifting in gravel from down the slope, "Is everyone okay!?" It was Bell.
I stepped towards the edge, doing a little hop over a thin ice water stream, "Just cleaning up!" I called down, looking them over, "No problems?"
Bell, Ryuu and Shinkage looked a little dirtier than when I last saw them, but the only sign of actual damage was a little cut on the shoulder of Shinkage's dress. Shinkage herself was holding one of our spare leather pouches and I could hear the magic stone inside it from all the way up the hill. "Lots of little things." Ryuu said, "But nothing we couldn't handle with a little teamwork."
"We've just finished damage control. About to start cleanup." I said, reaching out and helping each of them up the last couple of steps, "As you can see..." I motioned to the rest of the party, "We are all alive, and the monster is quite dead."
"Kodori-dono? Help me with this crystal... We may need to shift things around in the Golem's pack." Mikoto said, "And... Come and see."
"Hey... why is Chigusa's shield up there?" Bell asked as everyone gravitated towards Mikoto.
It was a graveyard.
Behind that big central hot spring (that Mikoto was still making little hints at wanting to use), were heaps of old adventuring gear. It was all in pretty rough shape. Badly rusted, acidic corrosion, cracked, outright broken... And not a single scrap of anything organic on it. No straps, no cloth, no string, no leather. It basically looked like The Blob couldn't really digest metal nearly as well as flesh, so when it expelled waste...
And considering how much water was behind the wall, it's no wonder why the pile was here. Unless you were a Palum with the swimming skill, you'd be in really rough shape after getting pulled through the wall. And even worse if that thing had taken you into its main body.
But on almost all the armour, were Familia emblems. The weapons, only the occasional Hephaestus or Goibniu stamp. But that was to be expected for the strength of the adventurers who came down this far.
"Sorry Delly. I'm not gonna be able to carry you back up." I said, looking at the gathered heap of stuff. "We have a duty to perform."
"That's okay. Lemme just... hey leggo... you too... hey! That is not where tails should go!" Delly wiggled free, took a moment to steady herself on her own two feet, and joined us in looking over the pile.
"I don't even know some of these emblems." Bell said quietly, "And we've never seen a frontier zone like this."
"It's like we're in a giant quartz geode." Maki said, "Though... only that half of the room seems to have crystals. Amethyst? Wow..." She had a ball of foxfire out, and was shedding bright light over the wall, "How far down is the magma level?"
"A little past where Bell wanted to get to." I said, "Huh... But then the dungeon shows up and just cuts right through part of it... Grows over the part it cut away... little jello monster gets in here, takes up residence, nibbles on anything it can trap, gets bigger..."
"And this stream here, it's cold. Not from the last safe zone?" Ouka ran his hand through the water that fed the mysteriously perfect water channels (you know, before we wrecked them) "Tastes different too."
"Fill a canteen and study it later then." Shinkage said, "The dungeon will seal us back in if we wait too long."
Mikoto was almost pouting, but didn't complain. "And if that wall is bare dungeon wall, it might spawn into this room... we will have to warn the guild about this." Bell said, looking like he had to decide between kicking a puppy or telling Mikoto 'no we may not use the hot spring'.
"Well, we didn't bring any recreational gear." Bell said, "And if the dungeon closes us in, the Brothers will punch through the wall to get to us. Which might put the rest of us at risk..."
Poor Mikoto sighed, then waited until I created a big mana cloth bag so we could store all the old and ruined equipment.
Now that was no longer under the restriction of 'not helping' the rookies, our path back up was much faster. That didn't mean I just stepped into every fight, but I took over 'scouting' and 'rear guard' with my summoned foxes. Meaning nothing attacked from the rear, and Bell didn't have to waste energy running ahead, then back to tell us what he saw.
"If you wanted to make money, why not just sit in the safe zone and send your foxes out? I mean... They're killing monsters, and even bringing magic stone back." Welf laughed, "You wouldn't need to throw another punch!"
"Where's the challenge?" I asked, "Besides, they can't handle certain things. They're kinda delicate if I'm not able to see them directly."
We walked in silence for a minute or two, when one of my forward foxes spotted a little monster camp, "I know that look. How many?" Ryuu asked.
"Dozen... Two hidden in the ceiling's shadows, one hiding in a false tunnel..."
Even with my help, by the time we all made it to the safe zone (that was still overrun by Freya Familia camp sites) we were all pretty tried. Yes, even me. Not counting a few mana pills and about four hours of 'nap', I'd been supplying Haruhime with enough power to use her second level spell to full effect. She alone could only sustain about five people for at most three hours. But I'd been doing nine for almost a full twelve or so (minus nap). I'd also used my 'slow aura' over a wide area and made it as strong as I could. So yes, even I wanted to sleep.
But, our total time in the dungeon, unless I was missing my guess, was about two days so far. It would take at least another day to get to the surface, and that was if we rushed. But we weren't going to rush, since we hadn't gotten a call from home.
We were just getting a meal off our little mini-stove, when I felt the steady 'thump' of heavy feet. There were a few concerned noises from the other side of the forest (where the Freya camp was) as well.
So, once everyone had filled their bowl with stew, I put the pot back on the little stove and started adding more ingredients. It wouldn't do to eat while the Oni just stood there. Especially since I knew what they DID eat while in the dungeon was... terrible.
"Here, keep stirring that." I said to Amani, who was already finished her bowl and looking hopeful for seconds, "No eating more until it's bubbling properly." I warned.
"aww..."
I walked to the edge of the camp, the others following my movement for a moment, then nodding in understanding. Maybe it was because of my 'ownership' of the two Oni that I could feel them sooner than the rest of them, and not just because they walked with that heavy pace.
"Boys." I greeted as they stepped into the gloom at the edge of the camp's lamp light.
"Kodori-sama. You have called, we have come." They replied in unison, Oni smiles wide. They both had 'Lilly backpacks' on, and not only were they full, they had stuff sticking out of the flaps, unable to contain all the loot discreetly.
I stepped forward, gave them both a welcoming pat on their left/right forearms in welcome. "Welcome to our camp. It's good to see you." But then I kicked them both in the shin.
They recoiled a little, just enough to show a bit of actual pain. And for them to frown at me.
"But you missed someone's birthday, and she said to kick you in the shin."
The frowns changed to puzzlement, they looked at each other, then back to me, "It's not next week?" Fukawa asked.
"You've got a dozen of them up there, so maybe there is one next week?" I shrugged.
They both sighed, then walked with me towards the stew pot and the rest of the party. "Having a harem is fraught with hidden challenges." Okakai said.
"We should have written it down." Fukawa replied.
Most of the party laughed, and those that didn't sighed and facepalmed. Shinkage chimed in with a flat voiced, "Ask Issei for advice."
NOTES!
Another one done. And now we get to spend a bit of time getting back up, sorting things out, and filling out the rest of the month before we get back to the Gate. :) See you next time.
Thank you for reading! And if you want to see any full colour art, join the discord!
aKAQg4bnYu for the discord!
And my actual book, Were Too? is on Inkitt.
