Day 86 – Daytime, 89F

Apparently, the steel fans weren’t combat gear but rather accessory-type equipment, and now that she’d had her fill of fun, Dancing Girl-san had switched back to her heavy shield and curved sword. Makes sense, next up is the floor boss of level 90, so heavy equipment is the right call.

In the end, Dancing Girl-san’s level has caught up to Armored Pres-san and the others. Then again, both Armored Pres-san and Slime-san have been stuck at level 48. There’s probably some kind of level cap imposed by their master. And since the master himself won’t level up, it’s inevitable that all three will hit the same level 48 eventually. That said, their raw stat numbers have already started pushing into four-digit territory, even at level 48. All three of them have over 1000 in SpE and DEX putting them into a class of their own. While their leveling speed is slow, they’ve gotten to about the same stat range as my classmates. So it means that no matter how much stronger classmates get, they still end up getting beaten senseless. Which means if I can’t even match them in stats, I’m definitely getting pounded into the ground forever?

「Judging the vibe of the dungeon, I don’t think it’ll be that strong, but still, it’s the floor boss of level 90, so be careful, okay? You two don’t have that much VIT or HP, you know? And Slime-san… don’t overeat, okay? Eating weird stuff can upset your stomach, though I guess you don’t actually have a stomach, so maybe it’s fine? But if you eat too many middle-aged men, it’ll lower your cuteness rating due to negative modifiers, so watch out for that? Oh, and if you see any darkness-type enemies, don’t touch them, all right? Those are mine.」

(…Nod-nod. …Nod Nod. …Boing-boing.)

They don’t seem thrilled about it, but darkness is an absolute no-no. If it isn’t purified, there’s a risk of it clinging to you, and if a Dungeon Emperor-class falls to darkness, there’s no way to stop it. The only option is to kill it, and that itself is nearly impossible. And I really don’t want to deal with that. At least with a Highschool Boy, even if he falls to darkness, it just triggers a relapse of eighth-grader syndrom, forcing him to shout stuff like『Awaken! O true power sealed within my left hand!』 or something, or just do something lewd. So pretty much nothing would change. So I’m not worried about that. Rather, I’m more worried about the current situation!

「You know, I’m sort of starting to wish for a floor boss that actually takes my Affection Rating into account at least a little?」

A creepy, squat humanoid shape, resembling a frog, emerged, its body slick and glistening, covered in raised, knobby, wart-ridden black-gray skin. Dozens of revolting, wart-ridden tentacles sprouted from its entire body, writhing in the air like seaweed. A grotesque and misshapen enemy, and for some reason, my allies are staring at me with Flat Gazes?

My diligent, hardworking, wholesome Highschool Boy tentacles, in their mushroom configuration, are valiantly trying to counter the creature’s slime-drenched, gross, wart-encrusted tentacle barrage, but I’m getting those stares? Both Armored Pres-san and Dancing Girl-san have backed way off and are just watching me from a distance?

For some reason, it felt like my Affection Rating was steadily getting ground down the longer I let the tentacle war drag on, so let’s wrap it up already. Or rather, don’t lump me together with that thing, okay? I kind of got dragged into this, feeling like it was a battle I can’t afford to lose, but those gross flailing appendages don’t even reach a hundred in number. To even think it can challege『Infinite Magic Hands』 with such limited volume and quantity is insulting!

「Hmph. Tentacles, Magic Hands, finish it off already! Or rather, it’s already over? Kind of?」

If I can control the Shoulder Guards with wired manipulation, then this should work too. After all, 『Magic Hands』-san are fully capable of gripping and wielding weapons.

「Remote-controlled, wire-guided Sword Rain. There are some spears and axes too, okay? Anyway, a Sword Rain, with a hundred weapons in total?」

Heavy and oversized, too impractical for my classmates to use, too luxurious to sell, insanely sharp and destructive but totally lacking in useful effects, these weapons from the great Dungeon’s 99th floor Minotaurs were sitting in my inventory for ages. Just waiting. Forever waiting, with me always thinking, someday I’ll find a use for them, and now, that day has come. They pour down in a torrential downpour of blades, a storm of raw cutting power, unleashed all at once.

Finally, Sword Rain seems to have reached the level of being usable. But the catch is, if I stay stationary, I can use the hundred weapons and six Shoulder Guards within a range of less than 100 meters. The effective range is closer to 50 to 60 meters. So if the enemy starts to run, it’s tough to land the finisher. So once again, it’s not exactly easy to use effectively? Well, I wanted to do this. I mean, we’re in another world?

「Look, I get why everyone’s giving that creepy, monstrous tentacle guy the Flat Gaze, but why am I getting the same treatment? The Flat Gaze itself isn’t the issue, but equating me with that abomination is nothing but baseless tentacle discrimination rooted in bias, you know? His were gross black-brown wart-encrusted things, but mine are adorable pink mushroom-tipped wrigglers! Lovely in color! Loyal pals I hang out with every night, we played together just yesterday, remember? *Wiggle-wiggle?*」

I made a solemn expression of indignation at this unfair treatment. Seems like in this world, when you properly express you dissatisfaction, people just ignore you anyway? This sadness, I’ll make sure it gets properly expressed tonight! Together with my pals! Tonight, it’s Mushroom Rain!

In the end, that grotesque frog-man turned out to be 『Variant Frogman Lv 90』 So it was a frog-man. Or maybe a diver? Hard to say. One thing’s for sure: it was a full-on aberration. I’d kind of been hoping for some kind of Cthulhu-mythos creature, but turns out he was just a totally unrelated eldritch reject. Since he wasn’t a cute crawling chaos girl, I guess no one’s gonna get mad if we kill him.

(Jiggle-Jiggle)

Apparently, Slime-san ate it. Slime-san has a taste for the bizarre, which is honestly a bit troubling, but with this, it now has status effects『Sensitivity Increase』 and 『Arousal』 My 『Poison Touch Gloves』can inflict a range of poison-based abnormal statuses, including『Sensitivity Increase』, 『Arousal』, and even 『Lust』, but honestly, even without using them, I get attacked or invited so often there’s just no real use for them. Fights with humans are always against old men anyway, so even if I die, I’m not using them! If only there were a poison status like 『Baldness』I might consider it, but apparently, baldness doesn’t count as an abnormal status. Well, I can use fire, so the end result is the same?

When I took the drops and magic stone from Slime-san, the prize was a long-awaited necklace: 『Aberrant Necklace – Mutation, Aberration, Mucus (All Resistances, All Status Ailment Infliction), +DEF』And it turned out to be a total dud. I’ll give it to the Geeks. It’s labeled『Mutation』 it oozes slime, they are bound to love it… Although, if they do use it, that’s probably gonna turn into a whole other problem!

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by lotustale.com