Ch.183July’s Dungeon, and Terror (6)

Frill’s exclusive skill, Soft Defense, was a technique with a rather fascinating mechanism.

It was a skill that allowed one to receive damage in interest-free installments. Assuming 600 damage was inflicted, the skill would divide it into portions of 20 to be received over multiple turns.

Thanks to this, Frill boasted excellent performance in boss battles. She could somewhat shrug off the boss’s powerful attacks.

Since that mage’s technique seemed quite powerful, I had Frill use Soft Defense.

“Arghhhh!!! It hurts!!”

The damage to Frill’s Pink Teddy was directly linked to Frill herself.

“Bear with it, Frill. Once we meet up with Umi, she’ll heal you right away.”

I helped Frill get back on her feet.

“Really… treating people so roughly… I hate this.”

Frill spat out the words.

“Sasits would have treated me more kindly.”

Frill said.

“Sorry about that.”

I immediately peered through the mansion’s window.

“There was a loud noise over there!!”

“Intruders!! Catch them and beat them!!”

As expected, those dirty cheaters who were teaming up came rushing toward us.

However, I had anticipated this and positioned other party members to flank them.

“Now!! Get them!!”

Taiga immediately swung his club and attacked the enemies from behind.

“From behind… oh shit!!!”

SPLAT-!

One guy’s head was completely shattered as Taiga’s club smashed into it.

“And another one… urghhhh!!”

Tina launched a powerful flying kick. Her kick went straight through the monster’s stomach.

“Run away! They’re strong!!”

The creatures immediately tried to flee.

But it was too late.

“Come forth!!! Uwang 799!!”

Sasits immediately summoned Uwang 799.

“Smash!!”

Uwang swung his massive fist like a siege hammer.

SPLAT-!!!

With that, the other monsters were pulverized in one go.

“Umi!! Come quickly and heal!! Frill is in danger!”

I immediately waved my hand toward Umi.

“Shota!!”

Umi immediately threw herself into my arms. This clingy one… I patted Umi’s head.

No, that’s not it!

“Umi! Cast heal on Frill!”

I said to Umi.

“Oh. Okaaay.”

Umi immediately cast heal on Frill.

Whoooosh-!!

“Ahhh… I think I’ll live…”

Frill’s expression immediately relaxed.

This Umi… she just instinctively jumps into my arms whenever she sees me, which is troublesome. Though it is cute.

Anyway, we occupied the mansion.

“Phew. No one’s hurt.”

Sasits said, looking around.

“Yeah. Let’s occupy this place.”

It was a perfect position for the barrier to be placed.

The barrier had shrunk with the mansion at our backs. We just needed to hold out at this boundary, then move when the barrier shrinks again.

“There will probably be stragglers coming here later. We just need to take them out.”

I said.

“Shota… you’re strangely ruthless toward non-human beings.”

Sasits said.

“Yeah… agreed. You’re only kind to Earth humans.”

Frill said.

“Why would I feel sympathy for monsters? Just think of them as XP-giving monsters.”

I replied.

I brushed it off as a joke, but… an inexplicable dark anger welled up inside me.

Monsters… they all need to die. I was filled with such hatred. It was an emotion I’d never felt before.

Images flashed before my eyes: a burning village, corpses everywhere, and monsters brutally killing people.

“Ugh… Umi, Taiga, Tina… come here!”

I immediately tried to detox through my girlfriends.

Six breasts immediately appeared before my eyes. 2 times 3 equals 6!!! I realized the profound principle of multiplication tables.

I immediately buried my face in the wave of breasts before me. But I couldn’t let my hands rest either. I high-fived each girlfriend’s butt in turn.

Indeed… breasts and butts were what healed a man.

“Phew. That’s better.”

The hatred immediately subsided.

“So we’re hurrying to eliminate those who are trying to escape the barrier. Eh, I don’t like it. I want to be more aggressive.”

Taiga was showing her delinquent instincts.

“Yeah, me too.”

Tina also complained.

“No. We need to defend our position.”

I immediately pointed to a corner of the mansion.

Flash-!!

A small portal appeared, detecting that the mansion had changed owners. It would become ours in 15 minutes. We’d have to leave at the next barrier timing anyway, but we needed to secure the portal as a safety measure.

In other words, some members needed to stay at the mansion. We also needed defensive forces.

“Taiga. Can you summon Fenrir?”

I asked Taiga.

“Oh. Of course.”

Taiga immediately summoned Fenrir.

“Grrrr…!”

Fenrir looked at our group with extremely wary eyes.

“Sasits, Frill, and Umi, please stay here.”

I instructed.

“Huh? But I want to go with Shota.”

Umi said.

“No. What if Frill and Sasits get hurt? The healer needs to stay.”

I said.

“Okaaay.”

Umi looked dejected but followed my instructions.

“Taiga, Tina, and I will ride Fenrir around the area. Let’s reduce the number of enemies we see. If it gets dangerous, we’ll return to the mansion.”

I formulated a perfect plan.

“That’s it!! Let’s roadkill everyone we see!!”

Taiga was excited.

“Let’s go!!”

Tina immediately climbed onto Fenrir.

“Keh!!!”

Fenrir twisted its body as if refusing.

However, a psycho-robo is neither an animal nor a human. It had no human rights.

The three of us climbed onto Fenrir.

“Run!”

Taiga held a club in one hand and Fenrir’s reins in the other as she kicked her feet. Though she was a woman, she looked incredibly cool. Like a general from the Warring States period.

Clop-clop! Clop-clop!!

Fenrir immediately dashed through the forest.

———-

We quickly found the poor monsters who were roaming the forest, hurrying to respond to the barrier.

“Hahahahaha!! Stop right there!!”

Taiga drove Fenrir at full speed.

“Kyaaaah!!! Run away!!”

The monsters immediately started to flee. However, they couldn’t escape Fenrir’s superior mobility.

“Hyaaah!!”

Taiga swung her club while riding Fenrir.

SPLAT-!!

The club smashed through the back of a monster’s head.

“Hahaha! Die!!”

Caught up in the atmosphere, I swung my sword while riding the wolf.

SLASH-!!

The monsters on the side were scattered like minced meat.

“Tch!!! Filthy Earthlings!!”

One of them had wings. It tried to fly away.

“Leave it to me!!”

Tina shouted as she leaped from the wolf.

Whoosh-!!!

Tina kicked off the air and caught up to the monster. Was that physically possible? I wondered, but this was an otaku fantasy world. Anything that looked cool was possible.

“Hyah!!”

Tina delivered an elbow drop from mid-air.

CRACK-!!!

Her elbow broke the monster’s waist as it connected.

“Cha!!”

Tina immediately landed back on Fenrir.

With that, we cleared out one group of deer-like monsters.

“Next ones!!! Let’s go!!!”

I patted Taiga’s shoulder.

“That’s my boyfriend!! Let’s go all the way!!”

Taiga drove Fenrir at full speed. Taiga… she was indeed a former biker gang member. Something about riding vehicles raised her tension.

——-

And so, we drastically reduced the number of creatures in the surrounding area.

As a bonus, both Taiga and Tina’s levels increased. I got them both up to around level 55.

My level… as expected, didn’t increase at all. I had reached a point where I couldn’t gain experience outside of dream dungeons. I didn’t expect anything, so I just accepted it.

Anyway, we returned to the mansion just as the barrier was shrinking.

——–

Woooong-!!

The barrier shrank considerably.

“Arghhhh!!”

“It’s hot!!!”

The screams of unfortunate participants being burned by the barrier rang out.

The kill log showed the names of monsters who died due to the barrier.

“Now!!!! The barrier has shrunk!! Soon it will shrink again!! Even the cowards who avoid fighting won’t be able to hide anymore!!”

Rahitan’s shout came through a loudspeaker.

“Loudspeaker… Henesys…!!”

I muttered.

“What nonsense are you talking about now?”

Sasits said.

“In online games… you know those guys who buy megaphones and make a lot of noise.”

“Ah. I know what you mean.”

Sasits and I unexpectedly found common ground.

“They were troublemakers… but I was actually envious of them. They could act that way because they had the specs to do so.”

“Well… I guess that’s possible.”

“So… to compensate for that deficiency back then, I’m probably being a nuisance to Violet or Bluebeard now. It’s compensation psychology.”

I concluded about my behavior.

Yes. That’s why. The reason I’m being a nuisance to Violet… my mind finally became clear.

“No. Don’t rationalize it.”

Sasits looked at me with cold eyes.

“When this is over, I’m going to pester Violet again.”

I decided what to do after the second day ended.

“…I really feel sorry for Violet.”

Sasits muttered.

——-

After some time passed, Rahitan’s shout was heard again.

“Now!!!! The barrier shrinks again!!! It’s slightly to the west, but… it’s getting closer to the central hot spot!! Everyone, hang in there and survive!! Hahaha!!!”

With that, the barrier started to vibrate again.

The battlefield was shrinking considerably.

However, our party members also noticed something unusual.

The kill log was quiet. That’s right. No fights were happening.

‘Are they starting to team up now….’

This is just like the game, how annoying. I sighed at that thought.

It was time to devise a strategy.