Chapter

chapter05 · 142-ep142

Episode 135: The Kind of Poisonous Mushroom That Grows on Corpses

【Hey hey hey hey, are you going to FIGHT it, Ojou-sama!?】

【The ENTIRE dungeon wall is attacking! How does that even WORK, never mind how we're supposed to win!?】

【I thought she should retreat, but if every wall's an enemy, cutting her way out might go on forever. She has to defeat it somehow!?】

【Can she even defeat it? Is a monster causing this!?】

【Desu-Worm should keep her from dying immediately, but what do you DO when the whole floor's your enemy!?】

The threat attacking Karin on deep-layer floor 4 of Arakawa Dungeon was the writhing dungeon walls. Viewers filled the comments with confusion over this unprecedented situation, unable even to imagine how to deal with it.

But Karin had already pinpointed the 'enemy.'

"The one controlling the walls—is over THERE, desu wa!"

SHING! DOGOOOOOOON!

She sliced and punched apart the approaching walls and rushed toward the faint presence her detection skill had found.

ZGOGOGOGOGOOOOOOOOOON!!

The walls writhed more fiercely, as if to stop her advance. They didn't simply close in to crush her. They transformed into a bed of spikes, sprouted tentacles to snare her feet, and even opened sudden mouths in the floor like pit traps.

But—

"Too slow!"

Karin evaded every attack perfectly. Her detection skills picked up each change in the wall at once, and she cut a path through the flowing stone with Desu-Worm, unfazed by the moving walls or ground.

【What the heeeeeell!?】

【The walls aren't just closing in! They're doing everything!?】

【SASUKE: Nightmare Mode!?】

【Ojou-sama said a monster's controlling it. Seriously!?】

【This isn't just a stage gimmick!?】

【But she knows exactly where she's going. There really IS a cause!?】

【And Ojou-sama's just running through this insane stage like it's nothing!?】

After advancing and blasting walls away for a while, Karin reached her target surprisingly easily.

"Too late to run now—desu wa!"

SHING!

She broke through the writhing passage into an especially spacious chamber and slashed toward the ceiling, cutting both the dungeon wall and the presence within.

"GIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIH!?"

A monster's dying cry shook the walls. As though responding—and perhaps as a backlash from being forced to flow—the surrounding walls collapsed all at once.

【Whoa, what!?】

【It's falling apart!?】

【Wait, did she—】

The comments stirred at a scene resembling a dungeon collapse, but—

"There we go, desu wa."

Karin naturally evaded or punched away the falling walls, keeping them from even brushing her dress. When she escaped the crumbling passage, the floating camera revealed the true floor 4 of Arakawa Dungeon: an immense hall as large as or larger than the innermost deep-layer chamber of Okutama Dungeon.

Standing atop a mound of broken dungeon wall, Karin raised something she'd taken the opportunity to capture.

"It seems this dragon merged with the dungeon walls and controlled them. I am glad I could dispose of it quickly, desu wa!"

She showed the camera a medium-sized dragon with scales the color of dungeon walls, the cause of the disturbance, dead from a single cut of Desu-Worm.

The comments were briefly stunned by the ridiculous footage and breakneck developments, then began to fly as viewers understood her explanation.

【Eh!? She killed something!?】

【The walls collapsed because she cut THIS thing!?】

【A monster really WAS causing all that!?】

【WHAAAAAT!? What kind of monster is that!?】

【They can have abilities like THAT!?】

【The ability itself is nuts, but that SCALE is worse!?】

【This has to be abyssal-boss class... Though I don't even know the standard for those anymore...】

【The final deep-layer boss in an abyssal dungeon DOES seem to be abyssal-class...】

【Ojou-sama killed it quickly, but isn't this even worse than that fortress hermit crab!?】

【'Surprise, the entire ordinary-looking floor is its boss room. Seal the exits and crush your enemies.' That's a ridiculous blind-run killer...】

【It looked easy after the first shock, but nobody could counter it without prior information or a way to destroy dungeon walls...】

【And it seems to have waited until Ojou-sama reached the middle of the floor...】

【Unbelievably malicious】

【I forgot how dangerous deep-layer bosses are because Ojou-sama keeps beating them normally...】

【What a spiteful monster...】

【Thank goodness she killed it】

【Wait, did she just identify AND kill the cause of the Arakawa Dungeon tragedy!?】

【That's already an extraordinary feat!?】

But just as excitement began building—

"Ah, no, everyone. Forgive me. I seem to have given you the wrong impression."

Karin let go of the dragon and raised Mongolian Desu-Worm once more.

"The REAL conquest of floor 4 begins here."

ZGOGOGOGOGOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOON!!!

【Eh】

【Huh!?】

【What!?】

A colossal roar filled the huge chamber. Beneath Karin's feet, the mound of wall rubble began rippling and flowing toward the back of the hall. Then, in its gloom, TWO shadows as large as <Gigant Fortress> rose simultaneously at frightening speed.

""GYAOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH!!""

Their roars evoked primal terror even through the viewers' speakers. Enormous dragons built from dungeon walls—golem dragons, for lack of a better term—glared at Karin in rage over their slain comrade.

【Eh】

【WHAAAT!?】

【What ARE those!?】

【Wait, wait! They're controlling dungeon walls too!?】

【Too early for the boss to respawn... And there are TWO of them!?】

【What is this!?】

【Wait, don't tell me they're... NOT bosses?】

【Huh!?】

【No way!?】

【Ordinary monsters—no, with these abilities, are they enhanced variants from the deep layers!?】

【Seriously!?】

【I wondered how the same boss could appear as fifteen years ago in a random-boss dungeon. Is that why!?】

【What the hell IS this dungeon!?】

【Wait, these variants control entire floors. Don't tell me they've eaten EVERY other monster here!?】

【Maybe even respawned bosses...】

The impossible sight threw the viewers into chaos. Their guess that the creatures were enhanced variants was correct.

Unknown to Karin and her viewers, before Yoko Inukai's people acquired their hidden dungeon, they'd secretly experimented in this sparsely visited, difficult Arakawa Dungeon. They'd hoped to produce valuable enhanced variants from its random bosses. These creatures were highly intelligent irregular monsters that had observed and learned from their experiments and grown on their own.

Earth dragons could originally only control nearby dungeon walls. But these dragons used their intelligence to learn to enhance themselves, expanded their abilities to an absurd scale, and even developed the idea of increasing their numbers. Irregularities among irregularities.

Inukai's group had abandoned its experiments here partly because acquiring a hidden dungeon became feasible and survey teams began visiting frequently. But these extraordinarily troublesome enhanced variants, born by chance for reasons even Inukai's people couldn't fully understand, had played a large part too.

【W-well, she already killed one. She can do it!】

【She just needs to run wild the same way!】

【Do it, Ojou-sama! (But put your life first!)】

"Hah!"

With two of them appearing at once, the viewers still believed Karin could defeat monsters she'd already overcome. Karin swung her greatsword, hoping to carve a way through to the enhanced earth dragons hiding inside the golem dragons. Her flying slash cut open a massive body, offering an opening for her to enter.

But—GOGYUUUUUUUUUUUUU!

【Eh】

【Hah】

【What!?】

Unlike the walls that had pursued her, these moved like a liquid at tremendous speed, closing the cuts the moment they were made.

""GUOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH!!""

They attacked Karin again, ignoring their wounds like regenerative monsters that would heal forever until their cores were destroyed.

"Hah!"

Karin evaded their huge bodies and tried slashing several more times, but to no avail. Perhaps their earlier tactic of trapping her inside the wall had been a handicap all along, and rapid outer-shell manipulation was the true strength of their ability. Or perhaps these two, having controlled their giant golem dragons for over fifteen years, were simply seasoned specimens. Either way, the outer shells moved far faster than the earlier walls and repaired themselves before Karin could enter.

【WHAAAT!?】

【A shell of already insanely hard dungeon wall that heals THAT fast is cheating!?】

【It's like a mist whose fog is made of dungeon walls!?】

【Then how do we defeat these things?】

【Are they experts at using their ability or something!?】

【This is bullshit!?】

As her viewers cried out, Karin darted around with Storm Style reducing air resistance, frowning in thought.

"Hmm. If they repair themselves that quickly, forcing an entry from the outside might be rather difficult."

She probably COULD force a way in, but it would be a little un-Elegant. Mafuyu had also told her not to show too many of her cards before reaching the bottom, provided she kept her safety first. She wanted another approach. Mongolian Desu-Worm couldn't slash over a wide enough distance to reach the center of such enormous bodies in a single cut, and her still-developing fa jin was the same.

"From what I can detect, the walls inside don't move so quickly. And their actual bodies are deep inside. It would be easier to begin the fight from within, as I did earlier... Ah, I know!"

【Hm? Ojou-sama's rummaging in her item box!?】

【Maybe new equipment!?】

【What's she going to bring out this time!?】

Karin smiled slightly at their eager comments. "In a sense, it IS new equipment."

"Here you are, dear monsters~. Delicious hamburger steak~."

She raised a plate of hot monster-meat hamburger steak over her head toward the two growling dragons.

【Hah?】

【Ojou-sama, what are you doing!?】

Comments poured in at her sudden odd behavior (for the nth time). Karin looked pleased with herself.

"It would be more efficient to attack those constantly regenerating giants from the inside, as I did before! So I thought I would bait them with this delicious hamburger steak and have them eat me along with it!"

Though their outer layers were built from dungeon wall, the dragons inside were flesh and blood. And since they had probably become enhanced variants by eating their own kind, they ought to enjoy monster meat. Sharie wasn't there, so its magical effects had vanished, but the hamburger steak would still taste wonderful inside a dungeon. Surely they'd find it irresistible.

【That's the strategy of a parasite or an alien!?】

【So Ojou-sama WAS an anisakis...?】

【This anisakis looks like it'll rip straight through your belly, not just put a hole in your stomach】

【A lethally poisonous creature advertising itself as tasty is pure evil lol】

【She's the kind of poisonous mushroom that grows on the corpse of whatever eats it!】

【Now that you mention it, Karin ojou-sama's dress IS the right color】

【Poison/Fighting-type Ojou-sama!?】

【Like Toxicroak?】

【I-if it works, it could be a good plan!?】

But—

""GUOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH!""

They ignored her completely. Not sparing the hamburger steak a glance, the golem dragons continued attacking the girl who'd slaughtered their comrade.

"Wh-why not!? It is so delicious!"

【Because you're a poisonous mushroom】

【They (probably) just watched you cut your way out of their friend's stomach...】

【Even the second person who ever ate pufferfish wouldn't touch THIS】

【Even monsters know to be picky!】

【Ojou-sama, this isn't the time for stupid strategies!?】

【How do we actually beat them!?】

【Now that the parasite attack failed, maybe smash them with that huge hammer and Kazenari!?】

【What if they regenerate from that too...?】

【She'll have to try it to—】

【She could cut through the dungeon floor and escape... But these things would probably follow her WITH the walls!】

"To think they would reject the hamburger steak Sharie-sama and I made... Monsters have no appreciation for quality! But what shall I do now...?"

Karin put away the food while evading attacks, sounding rather less concerned about the same thing as her viewers. Then—

"Oh! That's right. Crushing them from the inside is easy! How careless of me!"

A presence in the detection skill she'd maintained the whole time sparked an idea. She drew a weapon from her item box without hesitation: an Elegatling gun, raised alongside Mongolian Desu-Worm.

"Mana loaded. Target fully acquired. Bullet speed over firepower. Now—fire, desu waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!"

DAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGA!!

Several mana bullets shot from the Gatling gun. Ordinarily, its projectiles couldn't break dungeon walls. And she'd fired fewer than usual. This shouldn't have been an effective attack.

But—SHING!

The instant before the bullets struck, Mongolian Desu-Worm cut a narrow opening in the golem dragon's sturdy body. The bullets entered, and—DOGOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOON!!!!

"GUOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH!?"

A tremendous explosion erupted inside the golem dragon. A substantial section of its huge body was gouged out, collapsed, and fell away.

【Huh!?】

【What was THAT!?】

【She blew it up with an Elegatling gun!?】

【But the explosion came from INSIDE!?】

【A new feature!?】

"No. That explosion came from blast stones!" Karin explained to the stunned viewers.

Blast stones were immensely destructive ores that formed within dungeon walls and sometimes surfaced—just as Black Tiger's Ouko Onikubo had disguised in the past. Arakawa Dungeon had them too. Karin had detected that her enemies were controlling walls WITH blast stones inside them.

In other words—

"Cut an opening in the wall they're controlling down to a blast stone, then feed in some fire or a mana bullet to ignite it—and BOOM! From the inside!"

To demonstrate—DAGAGAGAGA! SHINGSHINGSHING! DOGOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOON!!

""GWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!?""

The bullets and slashes ignited one explosion after another within the golem dragons, carving away enormous chunks of their bodies.

Blast stones could break dungeon walls even when detonated normally and apparently grew larger in denser mana. Arakawa Dungeon was one of Japan's largest; this was the innermost deep-layer floor before the abyss. Blast stones from here, detonated INSIDE walls that gave the blasts almost no room to escape, damaged the creatures far more efficiently than powerful attacks from outside.

With no other monsters left on the floor, the scent wouldn't attract new threats, either. The explosions were almost risk-free. The violently flying fragments were dangerous, but Karin wouldn't get hit by those.

【Are you serious!?】

【Oh right, blast stones come from inside dungeon walls!?】

【Blast stones, which usually only cause trouble, are coming in handy!?】

【Karin ojou-sama's own attacks probably hit harder, but blowing things up from the inside multiplies the damage!?】

【This ojou-sama is unreal!?】

【Wait! If explosions inside these monsters hurt them that badly, what the hell ARE Karin ojou-sama's hands? She crushed a blast-stone explosion in her fist before!?】

""GUOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH!?""

The golem dragons screamed as explosions rippled through their bodies. But they weren't helpless. The quickly moving walls began regenerating the fallen sections at speed. They hunkered down as though they need only endure until the blast stones within their bodies were exhausted.

"There, desu wa!"

FWIP!

Karin hurled several spheres with tremendous force. The regenerating walls swallowed them as they closed—and the next instant—

DOBOBOBOBOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOON!!!

""GUOOOOOOOOOOOOOH!?""

Before the gaping holes fully repaired, a second enormous force burst from inside. An impact more violent than the blast stones tore away still larger sections of the golem dragons.

【Wait!? What was THAT!?】

【It's blowing away huge sections of wall!?】

【Oh! Ojou-sama, are those—!?】

"Indeed! The shockwave bombs I showed you before!"

In her hand were several more magic items made from Insect Warrior Impacts, deep-layer monsters that absorbed and released kinetic force. Each impossible weapon could store dozens of Karin's blows and discharge them all at once. Since the day she demonstrated one to Sharie, Karin had decided they were more useful than she thought, mass-produced them, and properly charged every one with blows. Their power limits had increased since that earlier demonstration.

Now she hurled them into the repairing dungeon walls one after another.

DOGOGOGOGOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOON!!

""GYAOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH!?""

The golem dragons screamed without a trace of composure as Karin threw her precisely aimed, high-speed poisoned treats.

Repair their defensive walls, and they'd take terrible bombs inside. Fail to repair, and Karin's attacks would inevitably wear them down. They could have survived if they could selectively exclude the shockwave bombs. But each was no larger than Karin's palm, grains of sand beside their enormous bodies. Even these seasoned specimens couldn't pick out and expel such tiny foreign objects. New dungeon walls gathered from below couldn't keep up with the blasts.

The irregular monsters, rulers of floor 4 for many years, desperately tried to repair their bodies and find another way out. But it was already far too late.

"Phew. Finally within range."

Karin raised her sword toward the golem dragons' chests, now gouged almost to their cores. They hung high above the ground, well beyond the reach of any ordinary jump. Then—

"This is—the end, desu wa!"

FWIP! FWIP!

She sent two sharp slashes toward the ultra-enhanced earth dragons hiding deep in the walls.

DAGASHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!

The two seemingly invincible giants of dungeon wall collapsed side by side, their strength gone. All that remained was silent rubble, like gravestones.

――――――――――――――――――――――――――

Karin ojou-sama: "I managed to defeat them with minimal effort, desu wa!"

Incidentally, even the earth dragons apparently couldn't control the outer dungeon walls that border ordinary ground, desu wa ne.