Ch.203Bright and Wholesome Tentacle Dungeon Exploration Journal (2)

And so they found a new place.

If Icarus had been here, they would have likely seen him proudly confirming a message that appeared, something like this:

—————————————-

<Event>

<Research Facility Wing Confirmed!>

<Details>

<At last, the personnel dispatched to the dungeon have found the location of the research facility in the asteroid base!>

<If you search a little more there, you might obtain the event reward!>

—————————————-

Of course, even if Icarus were here, only Jessica, not these women, would have been able to see the message.

“Well, this is a familiar sight.”

“A nostalgic place, nya.”

To them, it was just a “very familiar” background.

That is, “giant test tubes protruding conspicuously among machines and flesh, wires and blood vessels all jumbled together so chaotically that it was impossible to tell what was what.”

“Something like tentacles sticking out everywhere, and lumps of flesh connected in all directions by neural cells or mucus like sticky substances or spider webs.”

“Something like pipes, but giving a strong impression of pulsating blood vessels when touched.”

“Mechanical devices that twitch when disturbed.”

And so on.

No matter how they looked at it, it felt similar to Griyanar’s laboratory, just on a larger scale.

Despite seeing scenery that would have caused others, especially Berial, to panic and insist everything be burned to the ground…

The three of them, quite accustomed to such sights, showed little reaction and decided to continue their search of the surroundings.

Of course, before that…

-Crack! Crunch!

-Gurgle, splooosh!

-Clang!

“My goodness.”

“It seems they’re trying to welcome us.”

“Nyaha, they look stronger than the previous ones, nya.”

Barely a few minutes after they entered, muscular naked monsters burst through the opaque test tube glass.

Tentacle monsters emerged from the lumps of flesh on the floor and ceiling with a “splooosh!” sound, accompanied by large amounts of liquid.

And finally, as if it had absorbed part of the research facility’s equipment…

A massive monster, roughly the size of a large bus, armed with sharp spiny tentacles, hard carapace, and hideous teeth, came forward, smashing several relatively intact test tubes.

If Icarus had seen this, he would have spontaneously exclaimed “Wow! Boss battle!” But first, they needed to resolve this situation.

———-

Of course, Smeraggi’s “high evaluation” was merely an evaluation as a “punching bag.”

Excited by the appearance of creatures that wouldn’t burst with a single hit, Smeraggi and…

“Hmm, it seems some worthy opponents have finally appeared.”

“You think so?”

Oxianor, who had also been feeling bored, transformed her bio-suit into bio-“armor” and entered the battle.

As a result, in less than 10 minutes, the muscular monsters known as <Combat Bio-Weapons, Type-Orc> lay on the floor with their muscles ruptured.

Similarly, the tentacle monsters called <Combat Bio-Weapons, Type-Ten>, which had been dripping unknown mucus from their tips…

Had their tentacles ripped out while alive and were now just corpses on the floor.

And as for the massive monster…

“Hmm, Griyanar?”

“What?”

“Don’t you want to take this one? Unlike the trap monster from earlier, you don’t seem particularly interested in this one…”

Impaled by two giant tentacles that Oxianor had created by transforming her arms while dressed like an armored female knight.

It was now like a porcupine, with spikes protruding from inside, dripping blood profusely.

Actually, not just blood, but also blackened, seemingly rotting flesh gushing out together.

“At first I was interested, but looking closer, it’s the same kind of monster as those lying around, isn’t it?”

“Hmm, is that all?”

“It just grew enormously after devouring an entire piece of equipment. It’s something we can just eliminate.”

“Then let’s make sure to remove it completely so it won’t interfere.”

Having been deemed useless by Griyanar.

Self-destructing viruses were injected from Oxianor’s spikes that had impaled its body, causing it to slowly die from the inside.

———-

While Oxianor and Griyanar were seriously deliberating, saying “Let’s take this as a sample and a gift for Icarus later”…

Our feline Smeraggi was sliding around in the smelly mucus.

And incidentally finishing off monsters that hadn’t yet died, showing truly “cat-like” behavior…

“Hmm?”

Despite having dismembered all visible monsters into pieces, she continued to sense something alive somewhere.

Confused by this situation, she tilted her head for a moment.

“Hmmmm? Ah, found it, nya!”

With the help of her cat ears… or rather, the ultra-high-performance bio-sonar detectors on her head, Smeraggi finally discovered the source of life she had been sensing.

The problem was that it wasn’t coming from the corpses scattered around…

“What are you saying, Smeraggi?”

“That big monster! I can sense something alive inside it, nya!”

“Hmm?”

Since the massive monster had been injected with Oxianor’s self-destructing virus and was rotting away, including both its biological parts and the equipment it had swallowed.

Oxianor urgently stopped the virus injection.

She recalled the remaining viruses back into her body and, together with Smeraggi, began to dismantle the monster’s body.

Inside, they discovered a life-support device that had endured for a long time through ancient imperial technology, resisting the onslaught of modified biological tissue cells that had consumed the entire facility.

“Oh?”

“Well, this is marvelous.”

“How fascinating, nya. I wonder how this survived, nya.”

Naturally, our curiosity champion Grigri wouldn’t just pass by something so interesting.

“Let’s take it out right away.”

“Mm.”

The details are omitted, but after a rather spectacular hacking operation…

With a hiss, the hibernation was released, and the woman in a lab coat woke up…

“Hii, hieeeek! H-how did the monster open this?!!”

“Oh dear.”

“Ah, I forgot to change back to normal.”

Seeing Oxianor right in front of her, still wearing tentacles and spiky armor, she immediately fainted, ruining their fateful first meeting.

Of course, that didn’t last long.

After regaining consciousness, overwhelmed by Oxianor’s incredibly kind attitude (now back in her suit form), Griyanar’s super-intelligence, and Smeraggi’s strange gaze, she began to ramble on her own.

“Um, so, I’m ‘Rain,’ a researcher who worked at this lab… I heard the warning about a special biohazard outbreak and came in here…”

“Yes, yes, I understand.”

“To summarize, you were the only survivor when the incident happened here, right, nya?”

“Y-yes, that’s right.”

Of course, our superhumans weren’t giving this free mental health counseling because they felt sorry for Rain.

“Anyway, that empire is now gone… The world is now divided among four alien powers, each occupying their own territory.”

“I see… So the empire finally fell.”

They quickly helped her understand the current reality, hoping to gain her goodwill.

“Then perhaps you know where the ‘laboratory’ is located here?”

“The laboratory, you mean?”

Amid all the transformations that had occurred, they wanted to avoid wasting time searching for the laboratory.

And fortunately, though perhaps unsurprisingly…

“Of course I know. It’s right nearby, so you can get there quickly.”

“Oh.”

Since the laboratory was where Rain had been working until just a few dozen minutes ago (from her perspective), they began to move forward excitedly, feeling more like they were going on a picnic rather than an exploration.