chapter04 · 106-ep106
Episode 103: Kyuru-Kyuru Kuu~
"Wah hah hah hah hah! Since I came barging in and challenged you, I shall put in some extra effort on the way to the deep layers in return for you guiding us with your detection skills, Karin, ja!"
DAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGA!
"GYAGYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"
Even in the lower layers, Karin and the Dungeon Queen's rampage showed no sign of stopping.
Naturally, she couldn't instantly annihilate everything with the wind magic she wore alone, but Sharie's absurd magical skills crushed the monsters along the way one-sidedly without letting them do a thing.
With Karin's route guidance, fully grasping the entire dungeon through her detection skills, they reached the lower layers' boss room without stopping even once, whereupon—
"DORYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA! DESU WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"
"Ohh!? No need to add homing to each and every spell and they still land easily!"
DOGOGOGOGOGOOOOOOOON!
"GYIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!?"
Karin grabbed General Orc, the nearly twenty-meter boss that had appeared in the boss room. With her outrageous monstrous strength she swung it around 'Elegantly,' hurling it high into the air like a hammer throw. Then, the Dungeon Queen concentrated fire on the boss, rendered immobile in midair. Dodging the fragments of the boss, which was blown to bits without being allowed to do anything, the two monsters pressed on toward the next floor.
【Ehhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!?】
【Don't do an utterly absurd dungeon conquest with a straight face, desu wa!? (at this point)】
【I'm not surprised by these two's specs anymore, but the way they use their strength is so barbaric it makes me make weird noises, desu wa!】
【Karin ojou-sama... isn't she throwing it way more effortlessly than when she swung the large chimera around...?】
【Oi, stop it, don't say scary stuff like ojou-sama clearly getting stronger over this short a period!】
【The Setsuna-sama boost is showing visible results...】
【Ojou-sama, you haven't been going on another abyss stroll where we can't see you, have you...?】
【Look up the records of everyone who's entered an abyss-holding dungeon and I bet some insane data would come out】
【The imagery is so shocking there's not even room to interject a question like "was that war cry Elegant just now?" desu wa!】
【Hee, so this is veteran explorer coordination, desu no!】
【↑ Before it's too late for your common sense, go rewatch Mitsuki-sama's more sensible streams right now, desu wa. She teaches coordination, not just solo play】
【What even is this... what?】
【Hey... is this stream actually an anime...?】
【Waah... the animation looks just like live action, desu wa...】
【It's rare to see god-tier animation where not just the backgrounds but the characters look live action too, desu wa ne!】
【An anime with live-action backgrounds and live-action characters is just reality, y'know】
【Well, this IS reality】
【It's a lie, ponpoko-pon】
【I live in Tokyo, and I'm trembling at the fact that these two monsters are scampering around having the time of their lives beneath my feet】
Perhaps the viewers, exceeding ten million concurrents and still growing, were dumbfounded, for even the flow of comments slowed.
While all that went on, the nonstop two blew through the lower layers in no time.
They reached their destination, the deep layers, unharmed and at an abnormal speed.
"Alright! We have arrived! We got in quite a lot of coordination on the way, but from here I should like to take things slowly, confirming anew what each of us can do, desu wa!"
"Ja! We shall come to know each other better and become good friends, ja!"
【Faaaast!】
【Um... it hasn't even been thirty minutes since the conquest began...】
【No way, right!?】
【The information was so ultra-concentrated I honestly thought more time had passed, desu wa...】
【And that's without even slicing up the dungeon for shortcuts...】
【It was basically a nimble fighter jet screaming ahead while clearing obstacles with homing missiles... (with ojou-sama radar)】
【A party of student explorers at thirty minutes... they'd have just barely made it to floor 2 of the upper layers with their best efforts, I reckon (shaky voice)】
【So glad Karin ojou-sama and Sharie-sama are having fun, desu wa! (white eyes)】
"GRUAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"
And just then, a deep-layer monster appeared right on cue.
ZUSHIN! ZUSHIN!
Approaching from down a corridor far wider and higher-ceilinged than the lower layers was a monster a good ten meters tall.
It was a giant bear-type monster that could only be described as a mass of muscle over its entire body.
【Biiiiig!?】
【That's basically boss-monster sized!?】
【Something this size with more solid muscle than an enhanced minotaur... the pressure is insane even through the screen, desu wa...】
【Its claws are as thick as a zanbatou!?】
【Ah, I know this one! Isn't that a Troll Grizzly!?】
【I thought I'd gotten used to things from the last deep-layer stream, but the deep layers really are insane, desu wa...】
【This dungeon doesn't hold an abyss, so it's supposedly lower difficulty than Okutama, but compared to the lower layers it really is another world...】
At the appearance of such a patently vicious monster, the viewers stirred.
But naturally, a threat of that caliber did not faze the ojou-sama in the slightest.
"Oh, there you are! Then for starters, I shall take a trial look, desu wa!"
"GRUOOOOOOOOOH!"
DON!
Karin kicked off the ground hard enough to shake the dungeon and closed in on the Troll Grizzly, whose tree-trunk arms were raised overhead. She dodged both arms, swung about with tremendous force, with a flourish of her dress—and then—
"Sei!"
DOGOOOOOOOOOOOON!
"GAAAAAAAH!? "
She met the Troll Grizzly's descending arm with a fist powered by <Recoil-Free Cannon>, and bluntly batted the creature itself away with it. The boss-class frame slammed into the dungeon wall at high speed with a thunderous roar.
【Wait—】
【FAAAAAAH!?】
【Even with mana, winning a full-on fistfight against that size difference breaks my brain, desu wa!?】
【Has ojou-sama's physical ability genuinely gone up, or what!?】
【What exactly does "trial look" mean...】
The viewers buzzed at Karin punching a deep-layer monster head-on and winning.
But as expected of a deep-layer monster.
"Grrrrrrr..."
Having only taken the punch to its arm, it was not yet dead, and it let out a growl steeped in bloodlust. What's more, its shattered arm was automatically repairing itself, and it lunged at Karin again. But—
"I see. Thick muscle and fur, plus moderate regeneration—a typical close-combat type resilient to physical attacks, desu wa. It does not appear to have any special abilities besides regeneration. In that case—this ends it, desu no!"
"GRUGAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!?"
One flash.
Having instantly seen through the creature's simple nature with her honed detection skills and the feel of the blow she'd landed, Karin leapt at the Troll Grizzly's chest—the likely source of its regeneration—and buried her fist in it, pulverizing its body.
"Good! Trial look complete, and with it the kill! I did anticipate this somewhat, but compared to a high-difficulty dungeon that reaches the abyss, the monster-samas of Kasai Dungeon seem a little on the weak side, desu wa!"
【Somehow she just punched it to death (terror)】
【What was a "trial look" again (second time)】
【How do you subdue a deep-layer monster with physical resistance using midair one-two punches!?】
【A little weak (by ojou-sama standards)】
【W-well, true, compared to Okutama's special ability festival...】
【From our perspective they're BOTH monsters, desu wa...】
【"It seems strong against physical attacks" and then just ignoring magic-specialist Sharie-sama and punching it to death is way too musclebrained...】
【K-Karin ojou-sama merely did her utmost to gather information before leaving things to the younger (presumed) Sharie-sama...】
【Information gathering (subdual)】
The viewers pulled back slightly at Karin's somewhat unsatisfied tone.
But it was the deep layers, after all, and its threats did not end with a single Troll Grizzly.
"GRUOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH!!!"
As if enraged by its kin's death, several more Troll Grizzlies appeared from deep in the corridor.
【Oi oi oi oi!?】
【Scaaary!?】
【Nope, the deep layers really are no good, desu wa!】
【They're probably weaker than the Insect Warrior swarm, but the pressure is anything but normal, desu wa!】
【Even through a screen, I want to run straight home this instant, desu no!】
Whether it was Troll Grizzly behavior or, more likely, simply a trait of Kasai Dungeon's deep layers—plenty of them. A scene that would send ordinary explorers fleeing back to the lower layers at once spread out before them, and screams rose in the comments. But—
"Oh, that number is finally my domain, ja!"
The Dungeon Queen, who had been brimming with pent-up power, broke into a beaming smile.
"I shall try my hand at this vanguard thing!" she declared, and behind Karin, who went dashing off toward the bear horde, she kneaded her inhuman mana.
"But you know, this won't do. Simply loosing countless spells is no different from the lower layers. That would be poor footage? for the video, or whatever it's called, and I wish to properly show Karin all sorts of things I can do... Ah, then let us try THAT for the first time in a while, ja!"
That instant—BAJIBAJIBAJIBAJIBAJII!
Along with a crackling roar like bursting electricity, vast mana and lightning condensed in Sharie's hand.
And before the viewers who'd noticed the disturbance could even type "Eh, what?", it discharged.
KYUUIN—DOGOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOON!!!
"—————"
Torrential roar and flash.
The instant Karin, sensing the mana surging behind her, leapt sideways, an ultra-high-speed pillar of light tore down the deep-layer corridor, annihilating everything in its path.
Its power and speed were beyond merely extraordinary.
Without even realizing they had died, the Troll Grizzlies, their bodies blown away, collapsed—every last one of them. And as an added note, the dungeon wall far down the path had been cleanly punched out in a perfect circle, smoking. The power was so excessive that there was no wasted destruction.
【Hah?】
【Hah?】
【Wait, what was that!? A beam!?】
【I thought I saw a flash and then the bears are all dead!?!?】
【Vanishing-life magic?????】
【Hold on, that seemed lightning-attribute, but seriously, what!?】
【No, lightning doesn't do THAT kind of destruction!】
【D-don't tell me it's a railgun or something?】
【There are limits even if magic skills are basically high-power!】
The viewers were stunned by the sudden event.
And Karin, having witnessed that extraordinary magic, was hugely excited.
"Ohhhh!? That was so cool, desu wa!? That crackly-zappy beam—I've seen a similar technique in Dungeon Alive too, desu no! How are you doing that, desu no!? It isn't an ordinary magic skill, is it!? Does it have a technique name!?"
"Fufufu. This is called a charged particle cannon. You grant electric charge to teeny~~~ tiny particles, apply a serious voltage, and send them flying terribly fast, ja. Well, thanks to mana-derived something-or-other where existing scientific laws don't apply, it works despite being nowhere near light speed, flies straight even through atmosphere, and barely has any recoil—a pseudo charged particle cannon, one might say. Even so, it achieves considerable power and speed!"
"???? Heee!"
【HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!?】
【Did this monster child (presumed) just say charged particle cannon!?】
【You can fire a charged particle cannon by applying magic skills, desu no!?】
【At least make it a railgun there!】
【I don't even know where to start anymore, desu wa (Nth time)】
【Karin ojou-sama wearing a completely blank expression while going "heee" — LMAO】
【Ah, that's the face she had when she turned into furniture during the Metropolitan Police collab!】
【Th-thank goodness... there was no ojou-sama who'd learn how a charged particle cannon works and then reproduce it...】
【Don't let your guard down, any of you... do you really think ojou-sama makes her Elegatling guns and Demonic Dragon Armor with solid theoretical understanding...?】
【There's a chance she understands it instinctively and perfectly copies it, you know...】
【Lmao at the Karin Party basically being friendly staff officers analyzing the final boss's hopeless military strength】
【No wait, even if it's pseudo, why is a bare-handed human being firing a charged particle cannon...?】
"This is seriously badass, desu wa! Then I cannot afford to lose either! Holding back on an occasion for confirming what each of us can do would not be Elegant, desu wa!"
And so, in complete contrast to the viewers, the wildly excited Karin pressed onward through the deep layers, breathing hard through her nose.
Then, right at that moment—
"GRUAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"
Another great horde of Troll Grizzlies appeared from down the corridor.
But these looked different from the horde before.
"Hm, that is somewhat troublesome, ja. Magic reflection."
The Dungeon Queen knit her brows... for the Troll Grizzlies were wearing something.
They were the beetle monsters with magic-reflecting ability that had appeared in Okutama Dungeon.
As if in symbiosis, the Troll Grizzlies had the beetles tucked into the fur all over their bodies, fortifying their defenses to perfection.
【Ugh, what a pain!】
【They're doing the same thing as Okutama's Insect Warrior Impact-san!】
【Is this the deep-layer monster trend???】
【Anyway, bludgeon them all to death, desu wa!】
Seeing that déjà vu-inducing sight, the viewers expected Karin's charge.
But—
"Oh, a perfect enemy has arrived! A splendid opportunity to unveil That, desu wa!"
Karin did not charge at the horde; instead she took something from her item box.
A glittering sphere reminiscent of beetle carapace. A palm-sized ball.
"Ei-ei-ei-ei-ei!"
And Karin pounded that sphere over and over.
The sphere, which somehow neither dented under Karin's fists nor leaked any shock into its surroundings, she raised overhead in a big windup—
"With what I stored in advance plus this much pummeling, it is certain, desu wa. Then—ei! Desu wa!"
Whup! She hurled it straight at the great Troll Grizzly horde.
That instant—DAPAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN!!!
"GYAGYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"
"GYIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIN!?"
In the dead center of the horde, the sphere detonated an outrageous shockwave.
It was as if dozens, hundreds of Karin's inhuman punches had been stored up and released at once in every direction—a shockwave that pierced through halfhearted defenses and soaked into the innards.
The beetles, whose only ability was magic reflection, went without saying; even the Grizzlies, which should have possessed high close-combat resistance, were pulverized wholesale, and even the surrounding dungeon walls were blown away.
"I did it! Success, desu wa!"
Karin raised a cheer at the result.
But the comment section erupted in turmoil.
【!?!?!?!】
【What was THAT, desu no!?】
【Ehhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!?】
【No, wrong, wrong! The power itself is wrong, but why did even those magic-reflecting bugs die along with them!?】
【Eh!? Was that not magic!?】
【What do you mean!?】
【Ojou-sama, what did you make this time, desu no!?】
【U-um... that shockwave? looks familiar to me, or rather I have a memory of Karin ojou-sama's 'Elegant move' of punching something while going 'ei-ei-ei-ei'...】
【Ah... (realization)】
"Hoh!? Magic equipment that stores the power of blows and releases it as a shockwave! I see—because it is close to a pure physical attack, despite being a long-range area attack, it ignores magic reflection and wipes out entire monster hordes! How splendid!"
"Is it not!? Ever since I fought that Insect Warrior? fellow, I had my eye on what a fine ability it was. The other day I hunted around a hundred of them and completed this equipment, desu no! It is more convenient than I imagined! It is essentially a reusable bomb you charge with impacts, so it is cost-effective too; eventually I would like to add a function where it automatically returns after being thrown, like my floating camera!"
Indeed.
The ball Karin had just thrown and retrieved was one of her <Divine Artisan>-made extraordinary pieces of equipment, built from the materials of the deep-layer monster Insect Warrior Impact, which absorbs, stores and releases the shock of close-combat attacks. A new weapon conceived from the sight of an Insect Warrior turned into nasty fireworks after storing too many shocks.
【Ahhhhhhh! Now that you mention it, you did say something like that when you fought it, Karin ojou-sama!】
【Equipment made from that bug-kun's materials, the one who absorbed all your physical attacks!】
【Seriously...? Though true, those magic-reflecting bugs did take shockwave damage in the last deep-layer conquest...】
【With that power and annihilation range, magic reflection not working on it is just unfair, desu wa!】
【Magic resistance means nothing to a shockwave. And no enemy with physical resistance could endure shocks equivalent to dozens of ojou-sama's fists... It's over. You're gonna die, kiddo (monster)】
【"I had my eye on it, thinking what a fine ability" ← that's stealing-abilities-final-boss dialogue】
【AFO, maybe?】
【Also, bug-kun got hunted like crazy without ever knowing and this is a huge LMAO plantation】
【'You made us suffer the terror of watching our comrades fall one after another, then shot us dead with magic bullets, and it hurt' — R.I.P.】
【↑ Rest in peace, please】
【The bugs got hunted enough to warrant a memorial tower, lmao】
【The bugs were sacrificed... sacrificed for the sake of forming a precious yuri berserker space where both parties acknowledge and celebrate each other's strength】
【Yuri berserker space, what a power word】
【Stop being so full of power, seriously】
"Now then, let us keep conquering the deep layers at this pace and deepen our understanding of each other, desu wa!"
Leaving the viewers in total chaos at the string of rampages by living weapons, Karin and her partner set off ahead.
And then, it happened.
Kyuru-kyuru-kuu~
A somewhat deflating sound rang through the dungeon.
【?】
【What was that!?】
【A new kind of monster, desu no?】
【It sounded rather adorable for one, though...】
At the sound—adorable to the point of being out of place—the viewers all tilted their heads in unison.
The next moment—
"Ugufu!?"
Karin let out a strange noise, ears red, clutching her stomach.
Clearly the source of the mysterious sound.
【Ojou-sama!?】
【Ah, could this be ojou-sama's stomach growling, desu no!?】
【Ojou-sama, are you hungry, desu no!?】
【Stomach-growling ojou-sama, lmao】
【What an adorable stomach growl, desu wa~!】
【(Despite the cute sound, the volume is awfully loud... because her organs are reinforced?)】
【Ojou-sama!? It's still quite early in the day for your stomach to growl—did you skip meals, desu no!?】
【You mustn't, desu wa, Best friend-chan will scold you again!】
"N-no, that is not it, desu no!"
Perhaps judging she could not bluff past the perceptive viewers' accusation, Karin hastily began making excuses (aimed mainly at Mafuyu, who was surely watching the video).
"The thing is, on sponsored-stream days I get nervous, so I try not to eat much from the morning... It saves money as well."
【Did you just say "saves money"?】
【Best friend-chan's angry lecture is confirmed, desu wa】
【Well, I do get not wanting to eat much on days with nerve-wracking work】
【So she skipped meals for the job, then was so excited about exploring with Sharie-sama that she forgot to eat even after finishing?】
【Is she an elementary schooler?】
【"Saving money" at this point—have the superchats and ad fees still not been deposited, desu no?】
【Given how many days have passed since monetization, they should have gone through normally】
【Being showered with too many tips in too short a period is delaying the paperwork, maybe...】
【Even setting that aside, the deposits are guaranteed, so please eat properly, desu wa!】
【We know ojou-sama runs on nuclear-fusion-reactor energy efficiency, but you should still eat something, desu wa!】
"H-hmm, that is certainly true, but there is no bread or anything in my item box right now... For the time being, all I can do is fill my stomach with black tea and silence this inelegant stomach growl..."
"Nay, there is no need for that, Karin."
"Hoeh?"
When Karin turned around, Sharie wore a look of mild exasperation.
"Honestly. Possessing that strength and yet scrimping. But in a sense, the timing could not be better, ja! I had been thinking it unfair that only you expose your unique skills... A rare chance. It is not truly something I should be showing, but I intend to keep company with you for a long time, you see. Let us quiet your stomach's cry, and with it, I shall unveil my unique skill!"
【Eh】
【Unique!?】
【Eh, wait, from how that sounded, those otherworldly spells so far weren't unique-skill-related?】
【It was already ridiculous enough—what more is there!?】
As the viewers buzzed at the sudden declaration—DOGOON!
Sharie dispatched another approaching Troll Grizzly with a magic skill.
But strangely, its massive body showed no sign of being absorbed into the dungeon, no matter how long they waited...
"Behold! My unique skill, its name—<Munch-Munch Nom-Nom>, ja!"
Only the parts that would ordinarily remain as drop items—claws and fangs—had vanished, while everything else remained intact like an ordinary wild animal or livestock.
The queen who had once unified a continent alongside her many subordinates looked up at that massive body with a proud expression on her face.
――――――――――――――――――――――――
Many of you may have already guessed the Queen's unique ability, but a proper explanation will come next time, desu wa! Incidentally, the unique skill name <Munch-Munch Nom-Nom> is a fake, so to speak—the official name is something else, but she named it this herself on the grounds that "this one is cuter, is it not?"
Also, regarding the comment-section conversations amid those outrageous concurrent viewer counts that get pointed out now and then: presumably they're being posted by high-level explorers with inhuman dynamic vision and typing speed, desu wa! (Also, the comments are something like excerpts, so please assume the comments conversing with each other were actually posted with a fair time gap between them!)