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Chapter 417

Day 97 – Daytime, Dungeon

A few girls had new gear, so they were adjusting their combat styles while getting used to their weapons, cutting down monsters as they came. I had made fine adjustments for each person, but the feel of a weapon is delicate, something only the user can truly understand. Meanwhile, my weapon remains just a wooden stick. Still looks like a stick, still feels like a stick, without a thing that can be done about it… The visual gap between me and everyone else just keeps widening day by day?

Sister Girl and the others also now were able to respond precisely to orders and were holding their own on the front lines as proper combatants. The monk group seemed to have taken on a tank role, it appears that even in another world, being a man is rough. Honestly, men seem to have it hard in every world. I still remember how, after my favorite bookstore closed for renovation and reopened, a third of the store had become a ladies section, so I swore I’d never go back, but just when will this world achieve actual gender equality? I’m starving for books, but even if I do have interest in the store I’m not going to a place where I can’t even browse comfortably. If they can’t even understand the difference between distinction and discrimination, they have no business running a bookstore. It’s an insult to knowledge itself. If you’re going to summon a bookstore, summon something like Mar*zen. No need for that K*kokuya store to ever get isekai’d here, let it stay trapped in some faraway, women-only alternate dimension. If that dimension is full of beautiful ladies, I might apply for a part-time job, though. I wouldn’t buy anything, but I’d have a reason to be there. A dream, even. I wonder how much the hourly wage is?

Swords and spears rained down in a barrage akin to gunfire roaring through the air. Today, across the land, the forecast was rain of blood. Beautiful girls soaked in blood spray, dripping crimson, painted a horrifying but strangely captivating sight… though they were also bouncing around shouting things like, 『Gotchaaa!』 and 『Jackpot! More magic stones, more money!』 so maybe it’s all just in my head.

「Panzer formation! Charge!」

「「「「Jaa!」」」」

Clad in heavy armor and wielding large shields, the self-proclaimed battle maidens (age 16) (some 17 included) are eager to face enemies head-on. On the front lines, they became living shields and walls, standing tall amid a sea of blood as guardians of slaughter, reigning at the vanguard like queens of carnage.

「Trample them! Crush and obliterate every last one of these wretched pests!」

「「「「DESTROOOOY!!」」」」

Is their femininity still intact? Carnivorous girls may have an appeal, but meat-slicing girls and flesh-grinding girls… If there’s demand for that, it’s a different kind of problem. A very bloody, violent kind of femininity. Maybe not great for mixers, but perfect for battles? Bright and bubbly slaughter-type girls might be hard to fit even into the yandere archetype?

But that’s why they totally get splashed with bug guts? Also the reason why the Girls are weak against insect-type monsters. They win with zero damage, but the psychological trauma is enormous, they end up super depressed afterwards.

Just a little while ago, a swarm of dead-eyed 『Bitches』 had emerged, completely soaked in thick, cloudy-white goo, with sticky threads draped over them. All five had been totally drenched in bug juice, ending up as humanoid globs of goopy white liquid…

Naturally, I used Water Magic and foam to thoroughly clean them, drying their hair with Temperature Magic and Wind Magic. But the whole time, their faces were bright red and they were frozen in silence, so yeah, the emotional damage ran deep. I made sure not to use tentacles since they hate that, so I did it by hand, one at a time. Even then, they were trembling all over, so the trauma must’ve been intense.

On the upper floors, they advanced easily with fast movement, focusing on mobile warfare, avoiding damage entirely. In the middle levels, they shifted to ranged attacks and disengagement to stay safe. But near the lower depths, that wasn’t an option anymore, so they shifted to defensive formations, focusing on coordinated annihilation. And once getting hit becomes inevitable, resistances to status effects will be crucial. Battle dresses, huh…

「Scout team, deploy. Escort team follow them!」

「「「「Jaa!」」」」

All of the girls here have Cheat-level special skills, which means even in group battles, each person fills a different role. They flexibly rotate and support each other, because they all know each other. That kind of teamwork is only possible when the bonds are that strong. It’s no wonder Sister Girl and her group can’t keep up yet. Maybe that’s also why Royal Girl and Merimeri-san have become regulars at the inn’s bathhouse and sleepovers, they’re quickly becoming part of the group. If strength is rooted in closeness, then this group might be the strongest of them all.

「You know, Nudist Girl is impressive, but Fish Girl is totally insane? Those sword moves are just overwhelming? That was straight-up Armored Pres-san. For real.」

「She worked so hard. All this time, she, has been, trying her best. Swinging her, sword again and again, fixing, her form over and over, repeating until she remembered… Making her body, remember it.」

(Nod Nod, Jiggle-jiggle)

She’s still nowhere near Armored Pres level, but the swordsmanship on the first strike and the downward cuts possesses the beauty resembling Armored Pres-san’s elegant form. Of course, her control over force, her timing, breathing, judgment, and understanding of the blade itself are all still far behind. But she’s begun to master the form. Even if it’s imitation, that form itself is the embodiment of ultimate swordsmanship, the ideal perfected, an ultimate technique that surpasses style through logic and efficiency.

「Rhyth Gymnastics Girl, is not losing either.
She kills with certainty.
When it comes to skirmishing, she got the top kill count.」

(Nod-nod, Jiggle-jiggle)

Fluid and elusive, she is dancing through mobs of monsters, disrupting their lines, and passing through like a smoke. She’s clearly started to pick up on Dancing Girl-san’s techniques. Even if only mimicking her, it’s enough to avoid all attacks from monsters on the middle floors. Moreover with the acrobatics of rhythmic gymnastics blended in, her movements are getting even more unpredictable and bizarre. She overcame her lack of raw power and defense with pure speed and technique. 『She’s like the Febreze of the Dungeon!』

「I told you I’m not! Why does this always come back to Febreze?! LIke, calling it a fairy dance in a world with actual fairies and stuff is awkward, but it’s still better than Febreze! Stop it! It makes me sound like I smell or something!」

She heard that? I guess being called Febreze brings back memories of her former glory, when she was known across the rhythmic gymnastics world… as Febreze.

「I said that’s not true!! Why am I being Febrezed around the world?! Don’t just smooth it over and as if it a nice story!」

Was I saying that aloud? She seems mad? Well, it’s a difficult age. A sensitive time, caught in the tension between the 16-Year-Old faith and the cult of the eternal 17-Year-Old. A difficult time full of issues. The war with the 23-Year-Old Church is probably not far off too. There will be blood.

「Alright then, let’s just get to the lower levels already? It’s only the 80th floor boss right now, so we are gonna be simply watching, but if you are going to take a while, we might get involved? I want to get done with this today? It’s pretty boring, you know?」

「Okay, We’re heading in.」

The 70th floor took a long time, but since it was a giant caterpillar, we figured it couldn’t be helped and didn’t intervene. It definitely wasn’t because we didn’t want to. That was the unanimous decision of all instructors. So I did nothing wrong. It also took a while because I had to wash and dry off the Bitches afterward. If this Dungeon goes past 90 floors, we might get home only at night.

「Spread out! Don’t clump up! Keep moving! Shield units, support!」

「「「Jaa!, eh, kyaaaah!」」」

Yeah, this is going to take time. It’s not just a bad match, it’s that the thing is huge. Hard to stop with shields, too fast for ranged kiting, and it reflects magic, so tricks won’t work either. 『Hell Tiger Lv80』. A powerful carnivore with strong, agile muscles, crouched quietly, without a hint of presence, ready to pounce. Its golden fur gleaming, highlighted by bold black stripes. But damn it’s huge.

Leaping forward with its massive frame, it swings thick forelegs ferociously, tearing through the air with wicked claws, and twisting and turning mid-motion, dodging counterattacks with an unnatural agility. Its low growls reverberate from the ground up, filling the entire floor. Arrows and spells are useless, and trying to stop and aim only gets you pounced. Apart from the strength its level would suggest, it also has a certain physical prowess, peculiar to carnivores, honed to perfection for the sake of hunting the prey, creating an insurmountable gap in movements. It intimidates while calmly watching, perfectly poised and composed.

「Mobility defense! Go for the legs!」

「「「Jaa!」」」

To even the odds, they first have to seal its movement. The plan is to chip away at it with repeated strikes and corner it once it’s wounded. But mobile warfare only works if everyone’s in sync, if someone isolates themselves even briefly, they’ll be targeted. Maintaining unpredictable movement while keeping coordinated distance with allies, and doing so at high speed is a lot harder than it sounds.

「The sword won’t go through! Its fur is like iron needles!」 「Everyone, stab or smash it!」 「「「Jaa!」」」

The strategy itself wasn’t bad, but trying to pierce the legs of a swift beast is kinda reckless. Slashes have surface area, by following through with the blade and stepping in, the attack naturally covers a wide range. But a thrust is just a point. Even when you drive it in, it’s only in a straight line, making it much harder to hit. Especially during fast-paced combat with both sides in high-speed motion, making it next to impossible. Still, it doesn’t seem like they were holding back, so this is probably part of the training.

If it were up to The Librarian, she’d use illusions to pull it into some sort of a debuff. Pres would snare it with her whip. The Bitch Leader would freeze its legs , and Shield Girl would bait its attacks and reflect them back to kill it with its own damage. But none of them used their trump cards. Well, powerful gear burns through MP fast and causes a lot of fatigue. Moreover, it’s sort of a brute force move that ignores coordination.

「GUAAAAAOOOOHHH!」

But it was cut. It had taken the bait, Fish Girl had deliberately isolated herself, and as the beast leapt at her, Nudist Girl’s slash made it sense danger and recoil. But in that moment of evasion, Fish Girl’s sword cut right through the iron-like skin protected by metallic fur, making the beast roar out in pain. It twisted its massive body midair, but waiting for it on the other side was Rhythm Gymnastics Girl, who delivered a blow with her club. At the moment of landing, she swept its legs with perfect timing, leaving it unable to counterattack and forcing it to retreat again.

「GAAAAAAGHHH!」

It lunged forward, roaring with fury, flailing its claws with purely brute strength, but the Volleyball Club duo bashed it with their tower shields and drove it back with spear thrusts. A wounded beast is terrifying but schoolgirls are even scarier! Whether it’s a dirty old man, a tiger, or a monster, a highschool girl will hunt it down and turn it into pocket change. They’re the apex predators among apex predators, high school girls who sit atop the food chain. A mere tiger trying to resist them is just begging to be skinned, stripped of its magic stone, and have its claws and fangs turned into accessories.

And the moment it flinched or faltered, the Bitches waltzed in, repeatedly stabbing it with spears. Their feints shamelessly targeted the eyes and throat to distract, while the real strikes aimed at the hard-to-guard joints of its hind legs, gouging out flesh. The tiger probably thought it was the predator, that it would kill and devour them. But the Bitches are the ones biting at it! A mere feline trying to act like a predator against the empress wolves, the natural enemy of beasts, who could even gnaw through dog kobolds. So it was bound to be bitten to death.

Refusing to be outdone in this biting frenzy, the racoon also swung her axe. The tiger dodged, only to be carved by Vice Pres A-san’s six-blade flurry. The Culture Club kept showering it with arrows and flashbangs from the backline, finally driving the beast to let out a frustrated roar, but it was already far too late.

Ooh, the shaking. The head of the tiger got shook with a hit from the giant hammer, accompanied by jiggle of two massive round objects, making the world tremble. The quaking seemed to resonate through the entire floor, like some sort of a vibration weapon. Vice Pres B-san’s bo… Hammer strike! Nonono, I was talking about the hammer! The hammer only! Seriously! Yeah, like, there was no way to completely suppress that shaking, so the only option was to control the range of motion? Yeah, bras have their limits? I was observing it closely, for the future reference, so I didn’t do anything wrong? Eh? I was striking a triumphant pose? …W-w-w-well, I-I was cheering? Yes, with my whole being? Nothing lewd about it? Totally blameless and innocent Highschool Boy, uninvolved in any wrongdoings?

A rare rain was happening outside. But trying to shelter from it in a dungeon, I was now met with a Flat Gaze rain… Quite a lot of it today, huh? And it’s unexpectedly strong.