CH 72

“――Soo, I guess it’s time.”

A few new curses and a lot of practice later, I finally decided to depart from the Fairy Square. I’d done all I could here. Now, I’ll be putting it all to practice.

“Alright! Let’s go, Rem!”

“GAGAA!”

Spiritedly shouted Rem, whom I’d revamped with a whole lot of Knight Mantis parts.

Reborn from the soil of the fairy square, my blood, and anything I could scavenge from the mantis, a whole new Rem stood by my side.

First of, off with the previous spiky Armor Bear armor, a brand new elegant and streamlined green armor now covered her black skeleton.

But wait, there’s more. Attached to her right wrist came a Knight Mantis’ sickle. Tucked into the elbow when idle, Rem’s new blade could spring out for battle and be wielded just like a sword! Pretty much like a mecha.

The sickle resized itself to be adapted for Rem’s body, which is as tall (or short) as me. This way, Rem would be capable of reproducing the mantis’ slashing ability.

This time’s Rem, seemed to look more confident. The entire mantis’ body went into Rem’s reconstruction, including the monster’s core. I felt that the mantis was slightly weaker than the armored bear, but strangely enough, its core is way larger.

While Rem was not as strong as Mei-chan, she was still much better than my poor excuse for spearwielding.

Most importantly though, with Rem around, I won’t feel too lonely.

Otherwise, I might just go crazy after a while. If I was ever actually left for dead on an island, I’m pretty sure I’d end up making a volleyball into my friend…

Disaster scenarios aside, having Rem explore the dungeon with me, I felt better, but still uneasy.

Rem acted as my vanguard, while I took the rear. This part of the dungeon was stone, so it was lit from above. No need for me to use the knife as a torch, but I still kept it on my waist, should the need arise to draw it at anytime.

“Please, just let there be skeletons or something, nothing stronger.”

I’d only ever practiced with unmoving wooden dummies. I was still a combat noob, I’d rather test those sweet new moves on small fries than get roflstomped by the likes of a Knight Mantis.

The more I walked, the more my confidence left me.

It felt like a lot of time had already passed.

My G-Shock said it’d only been an hour or so. During that time, I’ve gone through 2 similar large rooms, to finally get to a wide corridor, dotted with stone pillars here and there, and even a forest dome… No monsters in sight.

“Hey, maybe Souma-kun killed them all off.”

Following the compass was leading me the same way Souma-kun took coming to us. He got to the insect cave from the Cerberus boss’ room.

The dungeon has multiple routes for each level, and there might just be ways further down without transfer circles. The compass wasn’t currently leading me the one in the insect caves from before. I was following it through another path.

If I worry about how much time it’ll take, all I’m gonna get is a headache, since all the routes must be connected one way or another.

“GA!”

Right then, Rem stopped.

“… What is it?”

Nothing in sight. Looks like Rem could sense them from a distance.

“GAGA.”

“Follow you? Okay.”

We were going there anyway, so whatever. We were at a large curving corridor. The wide passageway had thick columns at fixed intervals similar to temples.

Rem went first, and hid behind a column. I followed her. We heard signs of enemies nearby.

“This sounds like, Gomas.”

Their shouts still sound like gibberish to me, but they seem excited.

Is it a fight or a hunt? I moved closer...

“... They’re hunting down Ants.”

From the shadow of the column, I could see 10 Gomas encircling 3 Pawn Ants. The floor got a new paint job, with blood and corpses.

Three Gomas were down and one of the Pawn Ants had been skewered.

Neither camp noticed me peeping on their hot blooded battle.

“So even the smallfry duke it out sometimes.”

It still seems surreal, but it wasn’t illogical.

In games, monsters and the demon lord’s armies were united to stick it to the hero sideways, and the human side could take a few pages out of their book. Not that that much work is put to breathe life into them anyway. They were, after all, mostly fodder for the hero to grow.

But this here was real life, and those monsters there were now living creatures. Gomas had their settlements, and Pawn Ants made their nests too. Neither would be too chummy seeing a different species around.

A bit of a solace in this shit hole, to think everything is not out to get you alone.

“This, is a chance.”

When 2 dogs are fighting over a bone, a third one will carry it away.

Gomas and Ants should have merely been slightly more reactive dummies, but stepping up to 10 gomas and 3 ants is just asking for trouble.

“Good, keep on killing each other.”

On the other hand, if I let them thin out each other’s numbers, I could just rush at the remnants and trample them. The gomas are numerous, but they’re individually weak and poorly equipped. Some of them were even waving around unlit torches.

That being said, although they were still small fries, the ants did possess huge claws and mandibles filled with a strength befitting insect type monsters.

The disparity in fighting force is obvious. But no matter who gets the short end of the stick, most of them will be dead, or dead tired if lucky.

So, I watch on… 15 minutes of fighting later, it was over.

“Gruooohhh, Graaaggghhh!!”

“Nbaaa, Nbaaaa!”

The Gomas won. The individual fighting power disparity couldn’t offset the difference of numbers, leading to a slaughter of the Ants

That being said, the Gomas still had a run for their money, with only 6 survivors. One was mortally wounded, 3 moderately injured, and only 2 were unhurt.

“Geba! Gooza, Juba!”

The survivors revel in their victory. Or at least, those that still could, the gravely injured one had drawn its last breath.

“Alright, Rem… let’s go finish the job.”

No one was watching their surroundings as they looted the corpses off their materials, still rejoicing.

Total noobs. I wonder how did they survive in here? Of course, we’re crashing their party. Free kill, I guess.

“Entwine its escape, with weaving hair――”

Concentrate. I’d already simulated how this’ll play out. But there were still 5 of them. If I fuck up, no matter how weak and stupid they are, they can totally pwn us with zerg tactics.

I gotta run them through quickly, quietly, and accurately.

“Twine into hairs, O rotten red, become thread which violates flesh and bone――”

I was chanting 2 curses simultaneously, but that was only feasible because they both stemed from the same origin.

In my right hand was the all too familiar blackhair tentacle holding the red knife and acting as the main weapon.

In my left hand, to use with my new offensive curse, I was clutching a stone.

“―― Blackhair Bind, Redhair Twine.”

As the two curses came out from the bloodseal, they came together to form one single braid―― no, they were already knitting themselves into a rope.

As for the way Blackhair Bind knit itself into a rope, I had already wanted to improve on that since a while ago. Although the way they were braided into before had enough performance for a passing mark, I thought that they’d be sturdier if they were braided into a more rope-like form.

Apart from any other small improvements, I had to first understand the structure and process of the braiding method, it was tedious so I had postponed any experiments. I just couldn’t make time for it with the others around.

That’s why, when I started soloing, I had more than enough time to experiment and improve the Blackhair Bind. Although I had no genuine rope to use as reference, I used shoelaces and other rope-like objects that I got from my spoils and used them. It was a very cumbersome and tedious process, it also took up more time than what I had originally thought it would.

Well because of that, I had been able to create a sturdy makeshift rope, and with the Red Knife this new and improved Blackhair Bind had turned into a flame-tipped tentacle.

The rope improvement also applied to the Redhair Twine.

The acidic properties of the Rotten Bog are also applied without the need to put down a bog, it was automatically applied from the moment it was cast out from the bloodseal since the venomous property of the bog originated from my Black Bloodline in the first place.

Because it is acidic, I can’t attach any weapons on it like with the Blackhair Bind. The hilt would melt, and it’d quickly deteriorate the weapon, so for now anyways, I can only let the blackhairs equip any weapons.

Well since the redhairs were basically weapons themselves, I can get by with just waving them around but… For me, I felt it was more reassuring if they had something attached to the tips.

So I used stones that wouldn’t melt inside the poison of the swamp. The image is somewhat like a YoYo. By the way, back in elementary school, there was a time when everyone all had the YoYo-fever, and we all constantly played with them all the time. I was pretty good at it too, if I do say so myself.

Of course I never dreamed I’d be using my super fancy YoYo moves like this. This dual-wielding style of using the Blackhair Bind and the Redhair Twine was somewhat like using two YoYos at the same time back in the good old days.

So, one had a blade attached to it, while the other, a stone, each of them were currently flying towards the back of the Goma. There were aimed at a healthy goma. I’m not gonna overextend so I’ll be focusing down on one of them.

“GII!?”

Bullseye. The red knife penetrated deeply into the center of its back, while the red hair wrapped around its neck. Both tentacles were attached to my hands so I got that positive feedback.

“GIAAAAAA!”

The embedded red knife released its flames using its ignition ability. As I roasted its flesh, I pushed the blade even further into its body.

At the same time, I tightened the red hairs wrapped around its neck. The bloody tentacles soon demonstrated its acidic properties, dissolving the thin neck of the goma. With a sickening sound, the flesh started dissolving.

“Gobura!”

“Zebuu, Dagouba!”

When their companion raised its scream, of course, the other gomas would be alerted to the abnormal situation. When they traced back the origin of the tentacles attacking their friend, I was of course at the other end.

Was this enough? No, I had already dealt a fatal blow to it, so the rest will do itself.

The Goma started to crazily wield its weapon and tried to cut the tentacles. I pulled on them quickly and they immediately returned to my hands. The ambushed goma fell down on the spot and started convulsing, it appears that it won’t be getting up anymore.

Well, considering that I had stabbed my knife into its back, melted down it’s neck, it had already lost all its fighting potential.

I didn’t have time to pay any attention to that half-dead thing. I still had another four gomas to deal with. They had caught sight of me and started raising their battle cries, they seemed to be ready to charge at anytime. Still, the flow of the battle was still on my side thanks to the ambush.

“Spread out, Rotten Bog.”

As soon as the red knife came back, I dropped down the Redhair Twine in my left hand and a Rotten Bogspread out with it as the source.

Actually, if I put my blood on a stone and threw it, it was possible to use the stone as the source. Even with the stone stuck to the redhairs. Of course, I had already tested these ideas with the Rotten Bog, so it was possible.

I exerted myself to spread the swamp to both ends of the corridor, blocking the way completely. I used it as a barricade.

“Next, is you!”

At the same time when the red hair returned to my left hand, I shot out the red knife tipped black hair. I aimed at the goma running at the forefront. I’ll start with the ones that are closer.

“Damun!”

“It parried!?”

I didn’t do any fancy movements, so it may have predicted the trajectory? The Goma had waved the knife in its hand, and deflected the red knife.

Dammit, what’s that Goma being all cheeky for?

It wasn’t the time to be cursing. Since it was blocked, there was a slight need to adjust my battle plan. At this rate, I’ll be surrounded by the others. Even if they’re just Gomas, if they had the guts, it might even be possible for them to run past the swamp with will power.

“Tsk.”

I attacked with the red knife again and again, restraining the knife wielding Goma. While it stopped in its tracks, the other 3 kept on closing in.

This was getting bad, the distance had been shortened. Shit, they’re getting closer. Calm down, don’t panic. It’s alright, I had more ways to do this.

Before I attacked again with the Redhair Twine, I launch a different curse.

“Wind ‘em up, Spiderweave Wind.”

This isn’t any new magic, it was just a derived curse from the Blackhair Bind that I created. The effect was pretty simple, by weaving the black rope tentacles into the shape of a spiderweb, it could become a big net that could fly towards an enemy and entangle them.

Since I had a thread-like skill, I’d be pretty stupid if I didn’t try to weave it into a net. It was a brilliant and obvious idea, but in truth, this it actually came to me when I first saw some cobwebs by the side of the path.

That’s why after I finished developing the rope weaving technique, I went forward to try and create a net. At first, I practiced so I could get it done in an instant, but because the structure was much more complicated, it was difficult to shoot the 3rd and 4th time. Right now, 2 webs are my limit. Also the speed of the launched web is dependent on how hard I can throw it, so it wasn’t exactly fast either.

However, since the origin of the skill is from Blackhair Bind, that meant it also comes with the advantage of being able to be launched out from any visible shadow that enters into my sight.

“NOBAA!?”

From the shadows of the columns, I released the Spiderweave Wind. Because it flew from a blindspot, the Goma was caught unprepared and was entangle in the black web.

I had targeted the Goma with the spear. The other two are equipped with a torch and a rusty sword respectively, and I figured that it would be easy for those two to escape, hence, I intentionally targeted the one with the spear since it’d be much harder for it to deal with the net with a polearm weapon.

As expected, the spear-wielding Goma was rolling around the ground, frantically trying to extricate itself from the blackhair web entangling its body. Idiot, using your hands is even more useless.

The spear Goma had been temporarily neutralized. The torch goma and the rusty sword goma were steadily closing the distance. Also, the knife goma had started to run again, trying to catch up to the others.

“I’ll get you this time!”

I waited for the red knife to return, so as to succeed in the next strike, just like earlier, I shot out the twin tentacles of black and red.

The target was the sword goma who had reached the Rotten Bog. Right in front of the swamp, it seemed to ponder on what to do next, since the swamp clearly had a shifty feel to it. It was the perfect chance.

“GUGYAAAA!!”

Perfect, the red knife had hit its torso, the red hair had wrapped around its body and was corroding it with acid.

One, two, three, that seems to be enough.

After counting to three, I immediately release the sword goma. Thanks to the shallow stab and the fact that I didn’t strangle it, the sword goma still had enough strength to withstand the pain. If I continued my attack for another 3 seconds, it may have been able to receive a fatal wound, but for now it’s enough to just disable it. The finishing strike can wait for later.

“Next is ―― ”

During the time when I was dealing with the sword goma, the torch Goma had enough time to make a running jump to try and cross over the swamp.

“I’ve already anticipated that―― Blackhair Bind ”

From the center of the poisonous bog, black hair tentacles popped out, ensnaring the stupid goma.

“NGOOOO!?”

Its ankle was caught while it was in the air, it was pulled down straight into the poisonous bog. It was thrashing around on the surface of the bog, raising cries of misery and agony. However, no need to worry, once your whole body’s been immersed fully into my Rotten Bog, you won’t feel anymore pain, you won’t feel anything really.

“UGOOOOOOOOOO!”

With that scream that scraped at my ears, I noticed it.

“Damn, it jumped over!?”

The knife goma that came a bit late mercilessly used the one that was drowning in the bog as a stepping stone and crossed over the Rotten Bog effortlessly.

“GARU, DAGOVA!”

The distance that separated us was less than 3 meters. The knife goma who had landed lightly, pulled out another knife from its waist and changed into a dual-wielding style.

Meanwhile, the red knife and red hair were already coming back to my hands.

“Heh, a battle between 2 dual-wielders, huh...”

Right now, facing against this primitive creature that I had no way of communicating with, it kind of felt like we understood each other. The knife goma grinned and sneered while looking confident.

So, I also laughed.

“PUGYAA”

I pointed my finger and sneered at it. It was inevitable. I mean, it was so confident wielding its knives at me, thinking that it would kill me easily, unaware of the danger coming at it from behind.

“BUGYAAAAA!”

It screamed, and from the back of the knife goma, blood splattered. The goma fell forward with a stupid expression on its face that practically said, ‘Eh, seriously? Are you actually kidding me?’

“Good job, Rem!”

“GAA!”

What stabbed the knife goma was, of course, Rem, who was equipped with the Knight Mantis’ Sickle. She had been hidden by a column beside me.

Even if your role is vanguard, it doesn’t mean you have to reveal yourself to the enemy from the beginning. If an enemy approaches me by jumping over the Rotten Bog, that enemy will be focused on me so I just needed to flank it with Rem.

My first attack was a surprise attack and Rem’s was too. Like that, I was able to swiftly take out two. The problem was the remaining 3. So after the torch goma fell into the bog, it was game, set, and match.

“Phew, I’m glad it turned out alright…”

Break time.

As I expected, the battle went on almost according to how I planned it out and in the end I was able to annihilate the enemies. You could call it a success.

“But, there are many things to reflect on.”

Even though this time’s battle went well, my psyche during battle, wasn’t up to my expectations. Especially in that moment when the knife goma deflected my red knife.

Also, if I lacked even a little bit of my calm, I may have lost that battle. Or maybe, with the additional loss of Rem, it would have been a narrow victory.

“As expected, solo battles are tough…”

No, let’s think optimistically. It was inevitable since I was going solo, let’s just celebrate this brilliant victory and try to go through the next battle with confidence.

“Alrighty, now we collect the loot!”