Chapter 24: Taking Down This Flashing Princess!

Part 1

"Look at all this loot, Kazuma!"

Megumin said excitedly, as we dug through the weapons and items that were left behind by the defeated monsters.

The Rookie Killers didn't leave items behind, but apparently they could be skinned for their pelt, which sold for quite a lot.

"...I can't do it."

I said, unable to handle the grotesque task of skinning an animal. I couldn't even do that for any of the previous monsters I killed, including the first Rookie Killer I faced.

"Hm? If you don't wanna do it, I will."

Megumin didn't even hesitate, taking out a knife and hacking away.

This girl… She was way too wild.

"Let's see… Divided between the four of us, that's… Wow!"

Aqua's eyes practically bulged out as we calculated the amount.

50,000 Yen for each of us… That was half of what Beldia's greatsword sold for.

Maybe I should have skinned that first Rookie Killer after all… And all those monsters…

No, I took one glance at the skinned Rookie Killer and I couldn't handle it. Maybe I'll make Megumin skin monsters for me from now on.

Aside from that...

Your 'Dexterity' and 'Intuition' increased by 2! You have gained enough EXP to level up!

It was time to experiment with changing my class for the first time.

I looked through the list of available classes and saw 'Pervert', 'NEET' and 'Merchant' among them, along with 'Warrior'.

Why were those other classes even there?!

I could always switch back to the adventurer class, so I went ahead and switched to 'Warrior' for now.

"...I don't notice anything different."

"Well, you haven't done anything yet."

I thought that I'd feel manlier or more warrior-like.

"Uwaa…! Look at all the EXP I gained!"

Megumin had an excited blush on her face as she stared at her phone. Since she exploded the entire forest, I bet she was able to level up once or twice.

"Fufu… I also got a lot of EXP, too."

Aqua said, while also checking out her phone. Darkness looked at her phone and sighed.

"...I didn't even get enough to level up."

Even though those monsters were easy pickings.

"Let's go to the next floor, then. I'll restore your mana, Megumin, but don't even think about casting explosion again in the third floor…"

"I'm not as trigger happy as you make me out to be."

"It's because I know your personality that I'm taking this chance to warn you."

I made her promise not to fire explosion, before using [Drain Touch] on the wall as we left the forest. She was able to walk on her own again.

"I want to try some stuff out… Darkness, you tried to use a skill called [Side Slash, right?"

"W-What do you mean, 'tried'? I properly did it!"

"Whatever. Can you tell me how you learned it?"

"Well… I learned it from a Bond Rank from Kazuma, actually…"

"Of course you wouldn't learn such a skill on your own."

"What does that mean?!"

If she was able to learn it from my bond rank, that meant that I was probably able to learn such a skill, now that I had the warrior class, right?

"Let's find some monsters. I want to try some stuff on them."

Aqua casted a bunch of buffs on me, just to ensure that I didn't get harmed while experimenting.

When we saw some Skeletons, I took out Chunchunmaru and dashed forward, cutting one of the skeletons down.

"[Side Slash]!"

For further emphasis, I made sure to yell out the name of the weapon.

However, nothing happened.

"Um, Kazuma, it actually says that you need a two-handed weapon to use this skill…"

"Tell me that beforehand!"

Megumin and Aqua laughed at me, before Aqua quickly got rid of the other skeletons with her holy magic.

"Let me borrow your greatsword, Darkness."

"..."

"...? What's the matter? Are you really so selfish? Why are you hesitating?"

"If Kazuma can use my greatsword better than I can… That will just make me upset."

"That's your fault, isn't it?! Why do you even insist on using a weapon you can't use?! A shield and shortsword will suit you better!"

"Fine! I'll let you use it, so stop yelling at me!"

Even Darkness got her feelings hurt sometimes.

I found a group of zombies this time. However, I noticed that there were dark strings around them, and there was a dark being that was like an animate shadow floating in their midst.

"...What is that scary looking thing?"

Undead Controller

It is the vengeful spirit of a necromancer that has become an undead himself. This being can control undead and empower them.

[Lore Reading] told me about the monster…

It would have been quite a scary monster to fight, if we didn't have an Arch-Priest with us.

"Aqua, bless Darkness's weapon."

"You got it!"

Darkness's sword started glowing a bright light.

"Oh… Kazuma, you look like a proper Crusader right now."

Megumin said, which caused Darkness to pout.

"Um… I'm a real Crusader, Megumin…"

"Oh, right. I forgot."

"You forgot?! Kazuma give me my sword back!"

I ran towards the undead before Darkness could take her sword back.

I couldn't use such a weapon when I had low-strength scores but…

This time, I easily swung the greatsword, cleaving through all the undead at once. The holy blessing on the blade also allowed me to cut through the Undead Controller. It let out a shriek before it faded away.

You learned the [Side Slash] skill!

[Side Slash] Skill Rank: 1, Active Skill (5 mp cost)

A horizontal slash that can get up to three enemies at once. Applies weapon damage by half to each enemy beyond the first that is hit. Requires a two-handed weapon.

I stared at Darkness and said,

"Oi, this skill allows you to hit multiple enemies, but you can't even hit one with it?"

This time, tears gathered around her eyes.

"Stop teasing meeee!"

She let out a pitiful cry.

Part 2

We advanced deeper into the third floor, while I also tried to unlock other skills.

"Hahhh…!"

I raised Chunchunmaru and swung down as hard as I could at the Skeleton Knight in front of me. Even though the Skeleton Knight had a helmet, I bashed through it with the powerful attack.

You learned [Power Slash]!

[Power Slash] Skill Rank: 1, Active Skill (5 mp)

Attack your enemy with an empowered slash from any direction. Deals 1 slashing damage.

Megumin and Aqua clapped as I successfully learned the skill, while Darkness could only look on with a conflicted expression.

"I am proud that Kazuma is making progress, but…"

Seeing me land attack after attack was doing numbers on her self-esteem.

"We each have a role to play. Megumin and I are the DPS, Darkness is the tank and Aqua is the healer. You don't have to worry about not hitting attacks."

Darkness gave me a hopeful look.

"R-Really…?"

That wasn't really the case, but I said it just to improve her mood.

Although, I couldn't deny that I wouldn't have explored this far into the third floor if Darkness wasn't around. She soaked up so much of the enemy's attention for us. All Megumin and I had to do was attack when the timing was right.

Speaking of Megumin, while the others all beat the dungeon boss, they each received a random loot box.

Aqua got another 'loser' popsicle stick, while Darkness got an armor repair kit that she could use on the Adamantine armor she recently acquired.

Meanwhile, Megumin…

"This is way too fun!"

She said, as she blew up an ogre's head into a bloody pulp.

She got an item enchantment for her staff that applies what I can only describe as a mini-explosion everytime she hits something with her staff.

The explosion wasn't big enough to cause a cave in, or anything, but it was enough to keep Megumin entertained. It was also a deadly enchantment that allowed her to one-shot most of the enemies she whacked over the skull with it. I had to be careful that the monster parts didn't land on me, though.

"...How come Megumin gets such a cool item? I keep getting those stupid loser sticks!"

Aqua said, bemoaning her low luck.

"I-I'm pretty satisfied with my reward."

Darkness said, as she walked around in shiny adamantine armor. I could repair it for her, but the item did a better job in repairing the high-level equipment.

"Wait a minute… Why didn't you open the box for me like you did with Rin, Kazuma?!"

I gave her a blank stare.

"...In case you forgot, I was opening the boxes for Darkness and Megumin, but you got impatient and opened yours! I hope your goldfish brain remembers that next time you get another loot box!"

"Just remind me next time!"

She's so demanding.

Aqua managed to calm down a little. Then, we pressed on.

"Hmm… There's a lot of diverging paths here."

I said, looking at all of the possible routes ahead.

Mitsurugi drew a map for us, but this particular area of the dungeon had a special property: transforming paths.

The dungeon would regularly change where the paths lead to, in order to catch app-users off guard. This was one of the trials the dungeon gave to app-users, to prepare them from the trickery of the Demon King army.

"Which path should we choose…? Let's do this one!"

"Hold it."

I held Aqua in place before she could go through a path with no plan.

We had a useful informant that we could exploit… I mean, ask for advice from.

We headed back to the Tranquility Girl.

"Ah… Friends… Wel… come… back…"

"Still keeping that act up?"

"...Sorry, force of habit. Watcha want?"

She went back to her natural, crude self.

"I need you to guide us through the diverging paths. You know about the dungeon, right?"

"Yeah, I do. I can draw up a map for you…"

"You know how to draw maps, huh? What a useful monster."

Even though she initially acted so helpless.

I gave her a piece of paper and a pen and watched her draw a map for me.

"...How can we be sure that she's doing this properly?"

Megumin said, eyeing the Tranquility Girl.

"Darkness, send a text to Chris. Tell her that if we don't come back, there's a certain Tranquility Girl who might know where we ended up…"

"A-Ah… I think I made a mistake with this map? Hehe… Do you think I can have another piece of paper?!"

The Tranquility Girl hurriedly ripped up the first map she drew.

We carefully watched over her as she drew up the second map.

With the map the Tranquility Girl drew, we went back to the diverging paths and followed her directions.

"Hmm… I'm not sensing any traps, so it seems like she told the truth."

I said, holding the map in front of me while we carefully proceeded.

"Kazuma is good at threatening people, after all."

Aqua said, as if that was a good thing.

We made a series of turns through the diverging paths. On the way through the maze, we encountered more enemies.

"What the heck are these?! Why are the torches moving!"

Aqua yelled, as he ducked behind Darkness.

The torches that normally lit the way for us flew from the walls and started shooting us with small fireballs.

"Hot! Hot! Hot!"

Aqua and I used our water magic to douse the flames.

"Hold on, Megumin, don't start hitting them."

I said, as Megumin prepared to whack them with her staff.

With the explosive enchantment on her staff, the torches might regain their flames if she hits them.

Instead, dashed forward and tried to cut them down as fast as possible.

I wasn't intending to, but that action unlocked a skill.

[Flash Attack] Skill Rank: 1, Active Skill (5 mp cost)

Quickly dash forward along with your attack. Dash effectiveness depends on your 'Speed' (68).

I was learning all sorts of attack skills after unlocking the warrior class.

We gathered up the torches and checked how much we could sell them for. Rather than normal torches, these were animated torches that each sold for 3,000 Yen.

"We're making so much money. Hehe…"

"Not to mention all the EXP!"

Aqua and Megumin were very happy about our dungeon crawling progress. With the Tranquility Girl's help, we were making good progress in the dungeon. It wouldn't even surprise me if we found the boss area on the same day.

Part 3

"It says here that we should be out of the diverging paths soon."

I said, while checking the map.

Then, my [Enemy Detection] gave me a strong warning.

This was the strongest one I've felt so far.

"...I'm not imagining it! I smell a man!"

"Now that you mention it… I think I smell a man as well…"

It was a pair of female orcs.

I looked behind me, but there was nowhere to run with all the turns and curves along the diverging paths.

Those female orcs would catch up for sure.

So, in order to deal with them quickly…

"[Flash Attack]!"

I panicked a little bit and attacked them as soon as they came into view.

"Kazuma?! I know you're scared, but you should calm down!"

Megumin said, as I dashed forward at great speeds to stab one of the female orcs on the arm.

"Shut up! If these were male orcs, you wouldn't be so calm right now!"

"Yeah, I'd be excited…"

Darkness said, drooling at the thought.

"Oww! You almost took my whole arm off! …I like this man! He's strong… We'll surely give birth to lots of strong babies!"

"Get away from me, you female perverts! [Power Slash]!"

How these attack skills work is that you start the motion, then the skill will take over and automatically control your body.

This is very helpful to those who were inexperienced when it came to using a weapon. But it also meant that the attacks were somewhat predictable.

An intelligent enemy could counter the attack.

"Huff! That was a good attack, darling!"

The female orc raised her buckler and blocked the [Power Slash].

They both had shortswords and bucklers, and they seemed pretty skilled.

They probably used those skills to subjugate men and violate them…

That said, I was able to calm down and return to our formation once my attack was blocked.

The female orcs called out to the girls behind me.

"Oi, you females can leave… We don't care about you."

"We're not just gonna let you violate Kazuma."

Megumin said, raising her staff.

"He's gonna break after the first hour! No way we'll let you touch his fragile body!"

Aqua was also defending me, but there were a bunch of unnecessary insults added in.

"Um… Yeah. We'll stop you."

Meanwhile, Darkness was completely unmotivated, seeing how the orcs didn't even spare a glance at her body.

"Kazuma, huh…? Kazuma-kun, you seem to be very popular with females… I bet at least one or two of them have feelings for you…"

All the girls ended up blushing and glanced away.

"...What is this orc saying? Oi, Pork Chops, you shouldn't talk about matters you know nothing about."

The female orc didn't seem offended by Megumin's insult. They both just laughed.

"Tell you what. We're all females here. Why don't you come with us to our village? We can capture your Kazuma-kun here and we'll let you have your way with him, too. I'm sure you're all interested in that, right?"

What the hell were these pigs saying?!

I cautiously looked behind me, to see if they would actually be interested.

"Hah… What a ridiculous proposal… As if I would let Kazuma be captured and degraded by the likes of you!"

Darkness said, rage in her voice as she pointed her greatsword at the female orcs.

Darkness…!

For once, she was saying something reasonable!

I waited a few moments.

"...Hm? Where's the punchline?"

"There's no punchline! I was being serious!"

The female orcs sighed when they were rejected.

"Sigh… Even though we offered to share him with you… Well, we can always capture you all to act as Kazuma-kun's concubines…"

"Come again?"

Darkness lowered her sword.

"Oi… Darkness-san? What did you mean by that?"

"Well… They said something interesting…"

The word 'concubine' caught her interest. The female orc continued,

"We learned our lesson after we… 'broke' our previous toy. It would be in our best interest to take care of our toy's well-being. Rather than being rough in bed, we should treasure our toys…"

"That's fine and all, but what was that about us being his concubines?"

Darkness refused to let that subject drop.

"Aside from physical well-being, we also figured it would be best to maintain the morale and mental health of our toys. That is why we also decided to capture beautiful human females to act as the toy's concubines… After all, we do realize that human males are normally repulsed by our appearances."

She got that right.

If I was still a virgin, I might have considered this for a bit. But now, I was having sex with Aqua every night. Why would I be interested in being given the VIP treatment by the orcs?

However, there was still a very desperate virgin in our group.

"...Kazuma, aren't you the type who'd want this kind of deal?"

"No way."

She actually tried to convince me.

Megumin glared at Darkness and said,

"Darkness… Don't let your depraved fantasies get in between your friendship with Kazuma. He's looking at you like you're trash now. And I can't say I blame him."

"Thank you very much for those scornful looks."

Why was she thanking me?

Still, it seemed that Darkness managed to calm down.

"It was a wonderful offer… But I'll have to refuse."

There was nothing wonderful about it.

"Che! Fine, then we'll just have to do this the hard way!"

"Get him!"

Darkness stepped in front of me and took on the attacks of the female orcs.

They used their shortswords to slash and cut her armor, but the new adamantine armor she had didn't even receive any scratches from their attacks.

Megumin and I took this opportunity to attack.

I wanted to try something after the predictable [Power Slash] got blocked.

Since the female orcs were distracted with Darkness, this was a good opportunity for me to experiment.

I held Chunchunmaru by the grip and lowered myself into a dynamic stance.

With a burst of speed, I dashed forward using [Flash Attack]

Using [Quick Draw, I unsheathed Chunchunmaru with a flick of my hand.

Then in the same moment, I used [Power Slash].

Silver steel made a lunar crescent of violent light as I cut the Female Orc across her chest, faster than it can react.

The orc's ally turned her head to watch her comrade fall, giving Megumin the opportunity to smash her head with the staff. Flame and smoke blasted out from the red crystal on Megumin's staff, making blood and skull fragments spray everywhere.

I sheathed Chunchunmaru again as our two foes fell. Megumin looked at me in admiration.

"Whoa! Kazuma, you were really cool there! What did you do?!"

"Well, I wasn't sure if it was gonna work, but I just combined a bunch of skills at once."

[Power Slash] was predictable on its own, but combined with [Quick Draw] and [Flash Attack] made it near impossible to block.

"As expected of Kazuma. You probably used your vast otaku knowledge to come up with some exploit, huh?"

Aqua wasn't incorrect, but for the sake of my pride, I wouldn't confirm it.

"Kazuma, please teach me how you did that!"

Darkness said, clutching my arm and looking at me with pleading eyes.

"...A girl as clumsy as you would just end up hurting us or yourself if you attempted any combos. Why don't you work on your 'Dexterity' scores instead?"

"You're ruthless!"

I thought she'd like that, but she started tearing up instead.

"Kazuma-san… It seems you invented another new skill no one else has unlocked before."

Appuri-chan said, getting my attention.

[Combo] Skill Rank: 1, Passive Skill

When using attack skills together, decrease the mana consumption of each skill by 1 point.

Was I seriously the only one who thought about combining different attack skills together?

Were the other app-users all normies with no video game knowledge? No, there were clearly some otaku among the cheat users I saw abusing their abilities in the nationals.

"It's because you're the biggest otaku loser there is, Kazuma-san."

Appuri-chan couldn't help but sneak that diss in.

Part 4

Once we escaped the diverging paths, the stone makeup of the dungeon transitioned into sand. First, there were only a few drops of sand on the floor, until eventually, the narrow corridor led to an open entrance and we felt blistering heat from the Coronatite generator in the faux-sky. When we stepped out of the opening, we saw a seemingly endless stretch of sand.

Smooth plains of sand rose up into breathtaking dunes. Rippling lines formed by the artificial wind swept through the sand, slow waves that trailed off into the horizon. A large serpent slithered underneath the sand, sending up sparkling grains in its twisting journey, its scales radiating the pervading Coronatite glow in a reflective lattice of oblique diamonds. The faux-sky was a soft, unchanging blue.

"It's hot in here…"

Darkness wiped her brow, suffering the most as she was wearing her armor.

"Just put your armor away in your inventory."

I said, while also hoping to see her sweaty clothes sticking to her skin.

"I refuse. Well…"

She wasn't refusing to avoid my gaze. Rather, she seemed conflicted about wanting to suffer through the heat or having me gawk at her form. It was a masochist's dilemma.

"Another open space, which means another chance to use explosion…"

Meanwhile, Megumin was only concerned about one thing.

"Relax…Mitsurugi told us about this area, right? The boss isn't something that you can just blast away with explosion and the whole thing will be resolved."

It was doubtful if we could even catch them.

Just as I was thinking that, we heard the sound of trampling feet in the distance. But the sound became closer in an instant, showing the incomprehensible speeds of the approaching creatures. A cloud of dust and floating sand particles followed their arrival, as well as a trail of golden streaks of light.

"Skeeee! Skeee!"

It was quite a surreal sight, seeing bipedal lizards about the size of a human running at great speeds. What's more, there was a lizard ahead of the pack that was running at a speed that the eyes couldn't even detect, only manifesting as a trail of golden light that blitzed past our vision.

These creatures were called Lizard Runners, and the floor boss was a mutant variant of a female Lizard Runner, which was called a Flashing Princess Runner.

Male Lizard Runners normally competed for the mating rights of the Princess Runner by trying to catch up to the princess in a race. However, with these mutant variants in the dungeon, the poor Male Lizard Runners had no chance of catching up to the Princess Runners that couldn't even be seen by the naked eye while she was sprinting.

Mitsurugi told me that app-users normally give up on this floor, choosing to hunt the other creatures in the desert instead to gain levels, or just straight up skipping the level and advancing to the next floor. That was because most app-users, unless they had a very specific ability that gave them equal, or greater speed to the Flashing Princess Runner, didn't have any hopes of catching up to it.

"What do we do? Should we set up a bunch of TNT to stop it?"

Aqua gave me a suggestion that was something out of an old cartoon.

"...I guess Kazuma's right. I can probably kill the males with explosion, but that golden thing is too fast."

Even Megumin wasn't confident that her explosion could finish the job.

"...Maybe my [Taunt] will work? But I don't know if we can even capture that thing… Let's stil try, though!"

I bet Darkness just wanted to be surrounded by a pack of males in heat. She didn't think she actually had any real chance of catching the princess, rather, she wasn't interested in the princess at all.

"It's not gonna go how you expect it to, Darkness. Besides, these things are herbivores who don't generally attack people. They'll probably just ignore you and continue chasing the princess."

"That has its own charms…"

Her perversion sure was flexible. Or maybe she was just desperate.

Something tells me that maybe I should take care of those depraved needs of hers before her degeneracy costs us our lives. She was pretty useful and dependable when she wasn't perving out, after all.

Actually, talking about the Lizard Runner's eating habits and relatively harmless nature got me thinking about something.

[Lore Reading] showed me that the males had the potential to evolve through EXP, rather than a special condition like the Kobold Hero. I doubt that this evolved version was individually powerful enough to take on the mutant variation of the Princess Runner, but if enough of them grouped up to catch up to the princess…

…That might give us the chance to corner the princess.

"I have an idea."

After the success of the last plan, the girls attentively listened to what I had to say.

Part 5

"...These things sure have multiplied since Chris and I planted them."

I said, looking at the Green Onion farm we set up for the Giant Toads."

Aqua was eager to show off her knowledge about the dungeon.

"That's because the plants use the dungeon's nutrients to grow!"

She only knew random trivia about the dungeon, never anything useful. Even though she supposedly helped create it.

"Well, there's enough Green Onions now that we can probably take the fences down. Darkness, if you will?"

"...Why does manual labor fall to me by default?"

"Put that slutty body of yours to use, you whore."

"Kuh! Yes, master!"

I spoke in a language she could understand and she went to work right away.

"It's kinda scary how you figured out how to get Darkness to do what you say."

Megumin said tonelessly as we watched Darkness uproot a fence effortlessly.

"I also figured out how to handle you."

"...I'm not that easy."

"Then, I guess I won't bring you to this awesome spot I found for explosions…"

"Do you need me to do something for you, Kazuma?"

She was even easier than Darkness.

Once Darkness finished her task, we collected a bundle of Green Onions for our use. Then, we watched the Giant Tadpoles bouncing over, attracted by the smell of the food.

"They're kinda cute when they're only the size of a cat!"

Aqua said, smiling as she let one flop into her arms, a matching blue tadpole that squirmed as she hugged it.

"Oh, there's a black one, too! I like the imperious look on its face."

Megumin corralled one in her arms as well, a rather snobby looking tadpole.

"T-This yellow tadpole looks like it has great potential… Quickly grow big, little one."

Darkness held one as well, although she didn't seem to have innocent intentions like the others.

Since it was a cute image, I took my phone out and took a picture of everyone holding their respective tadpoles.

After that, we took our Green Onions and let the tadpoles eat their food.

On the way to the desert area, we came across the Tranquility Girl once more.

"Ohh! Are those Green Onions?! And a lot of them, too… Can I have some?"

"No way."

I knew that Tranquility Girls could evolve into Tranquility Queens. This wily one was probably hoping we didn't know that.

"...Relax, I'm not trying to trick you. Don't you think that I can help you better if I am evolved? For example, if I manage to evolve into the very rare Tranquility Queen, I can spread my roots to other areas of the dungeon and gain more information for you… I can even communicate with other Tranquility Girls, who will assist you in your journey as well…"

"So you're trying to form a hivemind. I know where you're going with this."

Did she think I wasn't aware of such developments in fiction? Besides, I made the mistake of allowing a monster to evolve into an incredibly OP version before. I wouldn't make that mistake again.

Well… I did have an idea regarding that.

"Say, Tranquility Girl, if you form a bond with me, I might consider it."

After all, the bond rank descriptions will outright tell me if she was planning to stab me in the back, or was sincere about her loyalty to me.

Aqua sighed at my suggestion.

"Kazuma… Why do you think you can even form a bond with a monster?"

"Well, you did say that only those with potential to enter the dungeon can have individual bond ranks."

"Yeah, but this is a monster of all things!"

I was even able to bond with a succubus… Although I didn't want to let Aqua know about that.

"And even if you say you want to bond with it, how can you even start a bond with a plant monster? It's not like you can force a bond link."

Megumin said, bringing up a good point.

The blacksmith didn't want anything to do with me, and I couldn't form a bond with him. Bonds weren't something that could be forced on people.

"Well, I can just try and spend time with the Tranquility Girl. If nothing comes of it, then it's fine."

The Tranquility Girl eagerly nodded her head.

"Anything to prove my loyalty!"

She sure sounded convincing. Well, that might just be part of her plan.

"If we're going to try and bond with her, shouldn't we give her a name? It's kind of strange to call her 'Tranquility Girl' all the time."

Darkness also seemed pretty interested in bonding with it. Did she perhaps envision a future where the Tranquility Girl would evolve into a mature, dominatrix type of Tranquility Queen who uses her vines as whips and bindings?

She did have a point about giving the Tranquility Girl a name, though.

"How about 'Deadscream Bloody Mary'?

Aqua said, producing that name seemingly out of nowhere.

"...What kind of name is that?"

"Oh, come on! It sounds cool, right?"

"It does sound kind of cool."

Megumin said, nodding along.

The two with the worst aesthetics among us collectively agreed. Darkness and I didn't seem impressed at all.

"...We can call her Mary, maybe."

Darkness said, offering a compromise.

"Humu. I like the name Mary. It has a tone of subservience to it, which would fit the Tranquility Girl if she is to be our servant."

It sounded like a generic name you'd give to a maid, like how a butler would be named 'Sebastian.'.

"...You guys can call her Mary. Megumin and I will stick with Deadscream Bloody Mary."

"Fufu… You have good taste, Aqua."

The two of them shared a high five.

"Mary… Friends… Give me… Name…?"

The newly named Mary went back to her innocent, lost act.

"Sorry, force of habit again. I don't mind if you guys call me Mary."

"Maybe we should give her a maid uniform to wear, too."

"...I'm not a doll."

Mary gave me quite the cold glare.

Part 6

We returned to the desert area without having to fight more monsters, as we cleared the ones blocking the route the Tranquility Girl showed us.

The Lizard Runners were still at it, chasing after the elusive Flashing Princess.

"Those guys don't give up, huh?"

Megumin said, observing the tenacity of the males.

"I understand their struggle."

I said, giving a salute to my fellow men.

Although I shared a secretive look with Aqua immediately after.

"So, how are we gonna get them to eat these?"

Darkness said, holding her bundle of Green Onions.

"You know how in marathons, people hold out drinks for the runners? We'll do that."

We all lined up in the path of the Lizard Runners, holding out Green Onions in front of us.

"...I feel silly doing this."

Aqua said, as she held her arm out.

"Just make sure the princess doesn't eat it."

"Then why did you make us hold our arms out like this?! We should just wait for the princess to pass first!"

I only made them do that because it was hilarious seeing them holding out those Green Onion stalks.

Soon, we heard the Lizard Runners coming through.

"Kreee!"

A blazing beam of light shot ahead of the pack of horny males.

…I almost felt bad for what would happen to the Princess once a male caught up to her. Actually, with how sexually frustrated these guys were, I doubt that they'd let the one who captured the princess have her to himself. They'd probably all want a piece after chasing her for so long.

This was a scenario that Darkness would kill to be in.

When the Princess passed by us in a blur, the girls held their onions up.

"Free Green Onions for the tired runners!"

"Green Onions! Get your Green Onions here!"

"Line up and get your Green Onions!"

Rather than a marathon, this seemed more like a marketplace.

The Lizard Runners snatched up the Green Onions as the girls held them out, quickly replenishing the stalks so that as many Lizard Runners as possible ate them.

Thankfully, since these Lizard Runners were at the peak of their chase, that meant that they just needed one final push to evolve.

We were prepared to keep coming back in case they didn't evolve yet, but we came at a convenient time.

"Skreeee!"

After a flash of light, the male Lizard Runners grew longer limbs and developed a more sleek, aerodynamic appearance. They lowered themselves and sped towards the Flashing Princess with almost triple the speed they were running at before.

"Skreee?!"

The Flashing Princess was surprised as the Lizard Runners were slowly catching up to her. Then, they managed to steer her into a dead end, caught between two large dunes. She had no choice but to turn around, however…

…A male Lizard Runner managed to tackle her down.

"Skreee~!"

The Male Lizard runner who tackled her down made a happy squeal as he pinned her down and mounted her.

…From then on, a brutal scene like something from a nature documentary channel commenced.

"W-Well… This is just the cycle of life and all… I guess…"

I said, as we all watched, shellshocked, at the indescribable scene unfurling before us.

"...T-That's a lot more brutal than I imagined."

Even Darkness couldn't find any enjoyment out of it, flinching and glancing away as we heard the Flashing Princess's awful screams.

Not only that, but my fears of the other Lizard Runners joining in came true.

"Kazuma… I'm gonna use explosion now to put her out of her misery."

"Yeah, go for it."

I wanted to find a way to kill it myself, but it would take a while to remove the princess from all those males.

And so, I let Megumin take the finishing blow.

"...Explosion!"

Sand was blasted away from every direction as a great ball of fire expanded from within the pack of Lizard Runners. They were incinerated in a matter of seconds.

"...Wait, what if those scales were some legendary loot?! Why did we let Megumin destroy it?!"

Aqua said, when she saw that there was nothing left of the Lizard Runners, including the Princess.

"Relax, would you? There's other packs out there. We'll come up with a more efficient way next time."

With that said…

Congratulations! You completed the quest of defeating the third floor boss!

You gained a Random Loot Box!