Overrunning The Second Basement

“I’m ready—!”

Yoru has now completely settled into her role as the vanguard.

The beast-child dashed out on all fours and slammed head-first into a skeletal dog with all her momentum. A loud thud echoed, and perhaps due to the weight difference, Yoru was easily bounced back. She tumbled across the ground but stood up immediately with a nonchalant face.

Conversely, the skeletal dog was in a terrible state. Its right front leg had shattered along with the shoulder bone, and large cracks had spread across its body. Its neck bone was also twisted from the impact, leaving the skull facing in an unintended direction.

“Koo!”

Without missing a beat, Kuu glided in and delivered a kick with all his might. White bone fragments scattered, and the monster, its neck snapped, collapsed powerlessly to the ground.

However, a dungeon is not a place where you can afford to let your guard down. Another skeletal dog lunged out from behind the fallen one. It struck at Kuu just as he was losing his balance from the recoil of his kick.

A sharp sound of slicing air echoed through the cave. Simultaneously, the skeletal dog lost its balance and was slammed clumsily into the ground. A black whip was coiled around its front leg.

“Now, Mia!”

“Leave it to me, Pau-sama!”

With a snap of her fingers, a mass of crimson crossed the air. It struck the monster, which was restrained by the whip and unable to flee, without mercy. Sparks danced, and the skeletal dog, enveloped in flames in an instant, crumbled away while gnashing its jawbones together.

“Whoa, isn’t that burning a bit much?”

“Undead being weak to fire is a classic staple.”

In exchange, Dark-attribute specialties like Allure become completely ineffective. Still, I can only say “as expected” for Paula, who instantly saw through the situation and switched to whip attacks. Her mental fortitude is clearly on a different level than mine, as I was still flinching at the skeletal dog’s appearance.

“Are you hurt, Yoru?”

“Dandy—!”

I tried stroking her head and back, but she showed no sign of pain. If anything, she seemed happy, her ears twitching back and forth.

The level of monsters in this Palace of the Dragon Jade is the floor number plus about ten, just like in the game, so the skeletal dogs are roughly between level 11 and 13. This is almost the same as Yoru and the others, who reached level 10 after defeating the Boss Slime. However, with various enhancement potions and the Slime Body equipment, their status values are nearly double. It was only natural that the battle ended smoothly with almost no damage.

“Want to eat the bones? Yoru, Kuu?”

When I asked while standing over the skeletal dog’s remains, the two shook their heads uninterestedly. It seems the specialty Eat doesn’t apply to just any monster.

“There’s no meat on ’em, after all.”

“Is it actually a matter of preference?”

Well, even if they could equip a bone body, it probably wouldn’t be very good. The skeletal dogs themselves felt like they had average speed, average attack, and questionable defense. Their only specialty is Bite, so with our current combat prowess, they should be a breeze.

When I collected the dog bones, a Dark-attribute Black Magic Stone was mixed in. These are quite welcome, as they aren’t easy to find relative to their demand. The bones are surprisingly useful, too.

“Alright, let’s keep going at this pace. …I’d like to say that, but first, take these.”

“What are they, Sir?”

Paula tilted her head curiously as she held two small, squishy lumps on her palm. They were pieces of Slime Skin cut into the size of a pinky tip with Cut, but their purpose wasn’t that hard to guess.

“They’re earplugs. The skeletal dogs reminded me that there’s another troublesome type of monster on this floor.”

“Huh, you put these in your ears? Ooh, it feels kinda slimy.”

“Hehe, they’re more ticklish than I thought.”

I tried putting them on Yoru and Kuu as well, but perhaps because they were ticklish like Paula, they just shook their heads and sent them flying immediately. After the same thing happened three times, I gave up and left them as they were.

Unlike the first floor, the second floor had a winding terrain. As we proceeded along a gently curving passage, I heard that creaking footstep again. Holding the lantern high, two skeletal dogs emerged from the darkness. Accompanied by high-pitched shrieks and the sound of wings flapping in the air.

Flying above the skeletal dogs were bats, slightly larger than a palm. Their name: Tinnitus Bats.

With their jet-black appearance and high speed, they are monsters that are difficult to find when they blend into the darkness. However, because they are so small, their attack and defense are very low. Normally they’d be mere trash mobs with fast escape feet, but as their name suggests, they are possessors of a troublesome specialty.

Matching the skeletal dogs’ pace, the three Tinnitus Bats opened their mouths in unison. Before we could stop them, a tremendous wave of sound was released. Even with earplugs, it was loud enough to make my head feel like it was vibrating.

But it wasn’t unbearable.

Paula’s black whip immediately sliced through the air and struck one down. Mia’s Fire Ball also exploded, causing another scorched bat to fall to the ground.

Compared to the two who were most active, Yoru and Kuu—who had refused the earplugs—were in a bad way. Both were cutely covering their ears and huddling down on the spot. Without mercy, the skeletal dogs, which lack ears, closed the distance.

But we weren’t alone. The two slimes following Paula stood in front of the attacking skeletal dogs to protect Yoru and the others.

The Blue Slimes barely won out. Though the levels weren’t much different, the benefit of the was clearly significant. The dogs’ movements slowed as cracks appeared in their bones. Without missing a beat, a Strike v Bite flew in. The remaining bat was finished by Paula’s whip, and the second battle ended quickly.

“Are you okay? Yoru, Kuu.”

“Ashamed—”

“Koo koo.”

It seems they were embarrassed that they couldn’t do anything because of the tinnitus. They clung to me as I leaned down, apologizing fervently.

“It can’t be helped. Look, if you put these on, you’ll be fine.”

When I tried putting the earplugs on again, they just shook their heads and sent them flying. Hey now.

From the Tinnitus Bats, I collected a small amount of meat, feathers, and Wind-attribute Green Magic Stones. When I asked the monster-kids if they wanted to eat, they swallowed them happily, but the equipment in the status column didn’t increase. It seems they just ate them normally.

“Can’t be helped. We’ll have to kill them before they get us.”

So, for skeletal dogs alone, we’d proceed as before. If Tinnitus Bats were with them, Kuu would use Strike right at the start. By the way, the feathers he fired last time had grown back in before I knew it. Using specialties repeatedly consumes a lot of mana, but we’ll supplement that with Mana-Vitality Potions.

Also, I was happy to find that when you restore vitality, depleted HP gradually returns as well. Perhaps the cells in the body are activated, speeding up the healing of internal injuries.

Feathers flew like darts, taking down the skewered bats one after another. The skeletal dogs were taken down smoothly by Yoru’s charges, the slimes’ blocking, and Mia’s burning. In about thirty to forty minutes, we reached the stairs room at the very end.

“Stinky! It’s super stinky! What is this?!”

“Hardship—”

“Koo!”

The ceiling was even higher here, making it feel more like a large cave than a room. Stalactites hung densely from above, and the ground was jagged and difficult to move on. Our opponents: five Tinnitus Bats and one giant bat hanging in front of the iron-barred stairs.

The Boss Bat was about a meter long. To be honest, it was a size that didn’t feel very scary. It’s no wonder we underestimated it.

In this stairs room, there was a problem even more threatening than the boss. It was the massive amounts of greyish-brown stone protrusions heaped on the ground.

It stank. Yes, it was incredibly stinky.

The true identity of the “stones” were grey rocks protruding from the ground, heavily coated in bat guano. It had smelled slightly even on the way here, but the source of the odor had finally become clear. The stairs room of the second floor was a giant dung heap, quite unlike the beautiful wall fountain of the first floor.

“Want to use this?”

I tried making nose plugs using the same principle as the earplugs, but the women showed disapproval. Was it because it looked a bit ugly? I tried putting them in the monster-kids’ noses, but they were blown out with a pfft. They didn’t seem to like them.

“My nose feels like it’s gonna break, let’s just kill it quickly. Hmm, but this is tricky.”

“Oh, really?”

“Yes, it certainly is.”

I’m a little happy that Paula and I agree. I decided to list the problems for Mia, who didn’t understand the situation.

“First, the ground is incredibly hard to walk on.”

“Yeah, now that you mention it, it is.”

Because of the piles of dung-covered rocks jutting out everywhere, it’s difficult for us to head straight for the bat. But since the enemy is flying, that doesn’t matter to them.

“And, do you think you can hit the flying bats with a Fire Bullet?”

“Mmm, that’s gonna be tough!”

In a narrow passage, it might have worked. But here, there are massive amounts of stalactites hanging from the ceiling. If they use those as shields, the hit rate will drop significantly.

“They just have to fly around and keep using Scream. Then the Boss Bat will finish off the prey that can’t move.”

We could endure up to three with earplugs, but six at once would be tough. The sound wave attack doesn’t work on the Blue Slimes, but they have no way of attacking bats flying in the air. Because of their high speed, even if we aim with Fire Bullet from outside the room, there’s a high probability they’d dodge.

There’s the option of taking down the minion bats with and to reduce the numbers. However, when I asked Paula, she said the range of those two specialties is surprisingly short and the conditions are difficult.

“In that case, we need someone who isn’t affected by the terrain and can do wide-range ranged attacks… Yeah, I think it’s Kuu’s turn, what do you think?”

“Yes, I think so too. However…”

“The problem is their tinnitus attack.”

As I said that, I tried to put earplugs on the bird-child. He grabbed them with his fingers and tossed them away. Hey now.

“Oh, I thought of something good!”

Mia clapped her hands, made a circle with her index finger and thumb, and blew into it. Instantly, the magic activated, and a large bubble was produced.

“Oh, you can use it like that!”

“Splendid, Mia.”

“Nishishi, it worked! Alright, let’s go, Kuu-chi!”

“Koo!”

The challenge against the second boss begins.