59. A man approaching his sister




 Terdungeon, 6th basement floor.

Inferno!

 The flaming magic Celeste released scorched the two slimes.
 They were exactly the same size and the same pink slime, about the size of a balance ball.

 One of the burned slimes flew out of the range of the flames and the other one was burned intact and disappeared without a trace.

''Kuku.''

 Celeste groaned.
 Because the slime you let go split into two again at a distance.
 The exact same size and the same pink slime, the same as before.
 What's more, the surviving slime was damaged by magic, but as soon as the split was complete, the damage was cleaned up and disappeared.

 Sister Slime, a rare monster on the sixth floor of the Telluride Dungeon basement.

''I see, so this is what happens.''
'You have to take them down at the same time, and this one, if it's just one of them, no matter how many you take down, it'll come back immediately, and when it comes back, it resets all the damage.'

 We failed to defeat it, but Celeste, who had researched it beforehand, explained it to me.
 I, Emily, and the newest addition to the group, Eve, listened in.

"How many times can you beat it?
'The world record for continuously knocking one side down is 666 times. I heard he stopped there.
'I don't know how you did it that many times when monsters are all about the drops.

 I'm rather a bit impressed.

'Can we take them down at the same time?'
Yeah, but the two HPs are different every time.
I'll just be a minute.

 He shot two slimes each with two pistols.
 They fired conventional bullets, which landed at about the same time.

 One of them was easily shot through and flew away in a paraplegic fashion, while the other was only slightly gouged.
 And then the two bodies regenerate again, their wounds fully recover.

It's tricky.
What can you do, Mr. Lyota?
Hmmm: ......

 Emily, Celeste, and Eve.
 My friends and their fighting strength, and while I was figuring it out, I thought of a way to do it.

     Stars.

 I went at the pink sister slime.
 The slime slammed into me at the same time.
 It hit me and bounced back in the direction it came from.

 In the open air of the cave, one of them knocked down a tree and the other hit a rock, shattering it.

 I, on the other hand, felt as much pain as if I'd been clenched by a plastic bat.
 More slime flew at me, hitting me hard.
 I keep going, straining my abdominal muscles and walking straight ahead.
 I walk like a heavy tank, ignoring the S of HP and S of Strength, ignoring the damage I'm taking, which is only 1.

 The slimes would come at me one after another, hitting me and then rebounding from me.
 Eventually, I drove the slime into the wall.

Celeste and Emily on the left! Eve is right!

 As I shout, Celeste's flame projectile (bicorn horn) lands on the slime to my left first.
 Immediately afterwards, Emily and Eve jump out from right behind me to the left and right.

 Emily swings her hammer down, spinning it above her head in a circle, and Eve slams her chops into the ground with a waggle of worms and a waggle of her tail.

 The two slimes that I had identified through my senses, and I assigned my friends' attacks to them.
 The pink Sister Slime burst away at the same time.

 I was able to properly defeat the rare monsters that were troublesome to split and damage reset.

'We did it, Yoda-san!
It's a shame they didn't have any carrots.
'To begin with, Sister Slime's drop isn't a carrot.

 There wasn't a drop that took down a rare monster, I don't know if it was going to be Emily or Eve who took it down, but it wasn't there anyway.

'But Yoda was cool. The way he drove the slime into the wall in a heap was really cool.
Wow, I think so. It's so cool to see you not flinching...
It was like assaulting a woman.
Huh?

 Celeste was about to say, but her voice flipped over at Eve's words.

'Huh, what do you mean by assaulting a woman?'
"We'll close in on the sisters, drive them up against the wall and keep them pinned down.
Well, now that you mention it, it's pretty close.
Because it doesn't look like him! It's not like I'm assaulting a woman or anything!

 I couldn't help but shout. Eve's parable was too disturbing.
 We need to change the subject of something.

'Well, come to think of it, wasn't Eve's chop earlier oddly slow?
It was a slow swing.
It's not too late.
What?
"When it's not an attack,

 Eve waved her right hand up and down, fingertip aligned, for a traffic control doll at a construction site.

'This is how it normally works,'
You're a little late. Oh, that's what you get for chopping me.
One hundred percent of the time, it's like this.
It's getting really late.
He's shaking it 200 times a second.
That one that looks really fast and slow!
'Don't worry, this one won't go low.'
I wish you could do something about the name, but thank you: ......

 I'd be interested to see what would happen to me now if I was hit with a high seismic chop of 200 times per second.

 Suddenly, I saw Celeste staring at Eve.
 She seemed to be fidgeting or trying to say things.

'Come to think of it, we haven't been formally introduced yet. This is Eve, the fellow we're going to be fighting with.
'I heard that before I went into the cave. That's fine, though: ......

 But what?
 What's bothering you, Celeste?

Were you offended by my decision?
'It's not! It's Lyota's decision on who to put in the family. Not so: ......

 Still squirming, Celeste, what's really going on?
 Eventually, she asked Eve, as if to summon up her courage.

'Oh, um, ...... what do you think of ...... Mr. Lyota?'
"I love low levels.
Yeah, it's a big--

 Celeste was shocked for some reason.
 She was so shocked that she could almost see the lightning in the background.

'He's a carrot god,'
What?
'I won't give you a low-level carrot, even if all the money in the world were loaded here and now, I wouldn't give you a single carrot whisker.
I don't need that kind of commitment.

 You're still the same, Eve.
 I chuckled and turned to Celeste.

"Well, you see, she's a carrot...
I lost: ......
For what?

 The tweaks were so tweaked that my voice flipped over.
 I don't know what defeated me, but Celeste was in an ORZ pose in the dungeon.

 Eve, sniffling and enthusiastic, Celeste, devastated.
 Beside her, Emily spoke to her as usual.

'But it was a bit of a waste, if Yoda-san had done the tome, we would have gotten a rare monster drop.
No, I don't need the sixth floor.
Why?

 Emily looks at me blankly and I pull out a note from my pocket.
 The note smells a little bit like flowers and has pretty handwriting on it.
 This is the rare monster drop list that Elsa gave me for the portion of the harvest festival that is still missing.

"The ones that sell well are the ones on the seventh floor.
I see. ...... Do you want to go?

 When Emily asked me about it, I looked at the three of them.
 The first real battle with the four of us was even more of a battle because of Eve's inclusion and my increased abilities.
 To put it simply, we're stronger as a party.

 Then...
 Everyone looks at me, including Celeste, who has just come back from her orz, and they all stare back at me.

"Come on, let's go to the seventh floor.

 The three of them nodded clearly.