Chapter 180

Third Dungeon Battle: Battle 3

Huh. So snakes can move along walls? That was a blind spot.

Even though most of walls were covered with slime as well, the [Lotion Slope] was, unexpectedly, easily overcome. The cause might be because slime doesn’t really build up on walls so it wasn’t that effective.

“Oh, is that alright? You’ll wash away all of your precious Tentacle Slime juice.”

“I was hoping that we could use it to gain a bit more time, but it got overcome rather quickly… Well, I have another three rooms’ worth to use on the upper floors still.”

With that, I opened the flood gate and hit the reset button by washing everything away.

Looks like I can still use the flood attack. It feels like flushing the toilet though…

Ah, for the slimy slopes, the difficulty will get harder on the upper floors since I put the Gargoyles there to rain down magic on them from above. There’s even a place they have to cross over a thin bridge that doesn’t have any handrails…

… Huh? Aren’t snakes unexpectedly strong? They could just cross it like they would a tree branch.

Well, it’s fine. Snakes are snakes, there’s lots of ways to deal with them.

“Still though, Team Demon King’s second black armor hasn’t made a move yet?”

“Yeah, it’s still clearing out the snakes and Golems in the entrance room! So eerie.”

“How about their bone fish boss?”

“I’m chasin’ it with the shark, but it’s pretty quick. I’ll get it soon!”

Team Demon King’s dungeon is almost entirely filled with water now.

The traps that were planted in their passages were rendered ineffective from the water, making things go very well for Team Sovereign (us), but Haku-san said that, “6 wouldn’t let it end with that.”

… Conversely, you’re saying that there’s a good chance it’ll continue on as-is for Team Dragon King?

Ah, we reached Team Dragon King’s fifth floor already? That was fast. Isn’t there a boss? It’s like the mermen are are vacation or something.

“Goshujin-sama. Enemies have reached the second floor.”

Hearing Meat’s report, I looked at the monitor. Those snakes and bones that got washed away had all ascended the slope again. I’m going with the stance that [We can’t flood again immediately] even if we can do it whenever, so I let them up this time. Let’s constantly flush them out when they get to the higher floors. It’ll affect more stuff that way. Water flows downwards after all.

“Alright, how about we use some DP to harass them?”

“Oh? What kind of harassment do you have in mind?”

“You’ll know once you see it.”

And so I summoned a monster. [1]

*

# Team Demon King’s Point of View #

“Oh… so water won’t be used this time?”

Core 666 said in a somewhat disappointed tone.

Summoned by [Summon Skeleton], the Skeletons were continuing to march, but their progress was slow going.

Furthermore, their Black Steel Living Armor on Team Dragon King’s side had just sliced a tough-skinned huge slug that was around three meters long in half. Well, even if it’s skin was hard, it was just to the degree of being iron-like, so her master-manipulated Living Armor was able to kill it more than easily. They hadn’t spent that much DP on it for nothing.

Its movements had dulled somewhat due to the water—due to the seawater, but it was still a boss.

Well, let’s leave our Zack to taking care of their troops.

Master looks like he’s having fun operating the Living Armor, so it’s probably better that I don’t interrupt him.

—What is important is Team Sovereign’s dungeon.

The corners of Core 666’s mouth raised a little in anticipation of what might appear next.

After ascending and making it through the slope, there was a small room. There were no branches in the path. This dungeon was practically a single path, it didn’t really need to be explored at all. It was probably because it was specialized to direct the water. After all, the less places that the water could lose its vigor, the better.

There were Gargoyles in the small room. They attacked the Skeletons by hurling balls of fire and balls of water at them.

“Heeh, that’s quite a lot for them to handle. It might be too much for the Skeletons—however, I have the numbers advantage.”

Manipulating the Skeletons, Core 666 surrounded each Gargoyle with five Skeletons. They only had bone weapons on them, but they could manage if they were able to disrupt the Gargoyles’ mana by constantly hitting it. Even if no single attack was fatal, the Gargoyle would eventually fall from the accumulated damage.

However.

Bite Snakes attacked the Skeletons that were surrounding the Gargoyles.

“Oh? Have they gone senile?”

They shook off the pests hanging from them. Throwing the Bite Snakes off, they were beheaded. [2]

And when she looked, the skeletons were attacking the Bite Snakes even though she hadn’t ordered them to.

“… Heeh. I didn’t think about something amusing like that.”

When she looked at the map, they didn’t have the blue color that signified they were allies.

In this three-way Dungeon Battle, all enemies had red markers. In other words, these red Skeletons of hers were enemies to them.

And so, Team Dragon King’s snakes also had red markers… In other words, the Skeletons should look like [Team Demon King’s Skeletons] to Team Dragon King.

There was even the possibility that the Bite Snakes that had attacked a moment ago were Team Sovereign’s monsters. Or, perhaps, it was just that Team Dragon King mixed in with them, simply tricking them before attacking in revenge? … The possibility of that was greater.

It wasn’t as though they had to give her any hints to work with, after all.

—Core 666 had just realized that believing [My enemy’s enemy is my ally] was [Naive].

“Kukuku, so that’s how you want to do this!? Good, good! I’ll do it your way then! I’ll take care of these statues first and come after your snakes next—! I’ll slaughter you all!”

She should have done it like this from the start. Enemies are enemies, even if they are the enemy’s enemy. She didn’t have to do something so incompetent as cooperate with them.

“Aah, what a fun battle this is!”

Core 666 smiled from the bottom of her heart.

*

—Core 6 watched on in silence.

Since the start of this Dungeon Battle, he hadn’t interfered at all. Even when it came to how to make the dungeon, he left everything to Core 666 and her master.

Core 6 didn’t trust Core 666’s master at all.

Her master was originally a swordsman-type human that came from a human farm. Trusting livestock wasn’t something that should be done. If you did, it would be for trusting them to become some good DP.

On a certain day, a human that should’ve been [Crushed] became Core 666’s master, so it was decided that he would serve as Core 666’s [Servant]. Since then, that human hadn’t displeased Core 666 ever—it appeared that she had scolded him to train him occasionally though—and had survived to this day.

He decided to use this Dungeon Battle as a sort of test case for Core 666’s master.

If he was [Usable], then it would be fine.

If he was [Unusable], then he would have to think of something. He even considered disposing of this master under the guise of [Guidance].

And so, like this, Core 6 sat back and observed in silence.

Footnotes:

Might be more than one monster. Doesn’t specify. Will come back and adjust once it is clarified. Return

It doesn’t say whether the Skeletons or Bite Snakes were beheaded, so I don’t know which were. I’ll come back and adjust if/when it is clarified in the future.