In order to manage golems or the undead, who were immune to mental manipulation, tanks had to use certain specialized hate control skills. Of course, that was no problem for Bukubukuchagama.
“Then, how should we proceed?”
They had been teleported into a burial chamber of some sort, with only one door.
“Doesn’t look like there’re any secret doors.”
“Then I guess we have to go forward… or do we? Still, we need to know what the undead outside are like.”
There were four red dots 一 representing undead reactions 一 on the other side of the door. If these undead were of the same level as themselves, then there would be no need to trouble the backliners to cast offensive spells, but their level was unknown, and there might be other enemies besides the undead.
Nishiki Enrai and Warrior Takemikazuchi raised their weapons, while Bukubukuchagama the tank moved to the front, holding up two shields. The reason why Bukubukuchagama did not equip herself with weapons was because slimes like herself had poor strength, and they were not suited to dealing physical damage. In return, however, they had extremely high resistance to that same physical damage.
In order to DPS as a slime, one needed to specialize in assassin-type classes which killed in one hit.
It would seem she was going to test the waters, and see what the enemy was like. The proof of that was how they had not seen her preparing to use a powerful skill before moving to contact.
“Then, as discussed earlier, you’ll be our commander, Bukubukuchagama.”
“O-kay~ I gotcha~”
“It seems you’re always trying to sound like a cute kid when there’s no need to. Your voice as Kazecchi is pleasant enough, so there’s no need for that, right?”
“Yama-chan… I think I’m in love.”
“Ah, sorry. I’m not into that sort of thing.”
“I, I was dumped~! And instantly too! Uuu…”
Bukubukuchagama emitted a mournful cry of despair.
Of course, anyone could tell that it was merely acting.
Still, she was a seiyuu, for games where sound was important because expressions could not change. Therefore, it sounded quite realistic.
“In the past, I’m not sure if it was because I said the wrong thing, but one of my female kouhais actually confessed to me for real. So I hope you’ll give me a break here.”
“Ah, really?”
The was no trace of her prior dejection in the way Bukubukuchagama was asking Yamaiko.
“Mm. Come to think of it… nothing good came of it at all. That kouhai of mine loved to make trouble… and she kept arguing with my little sister. What a headache.”
“And so your kouhai’s words depress you when you recall them now?”
“Do you think so, Takemikazuchi-san?”
“Ahh, even if it was nothing much at that point in time, after several years, you’d want to get rid of them. ‘Ahhh, why did I do something like that.’ It’s like your own black history.”
Momonga merely thought “Hm”, since he had not had any memories like those at that time. These should have been mistakes of one’s youth. However, he was a proper adult now, and he was certain that he would never make such a mistake.
“Well, it would be good if it was like that. For all you know, that troublesome kouhai might have gotten married, and became a wife and mother.”
The men looked toward the pink slime.
“Let’s not talk about marriage, Yama-chan. You see, I am everyone’s idol Chagama-san, so all talk of lovers and weddings are forbidden.”
What was she worried about? What Bukubukuchagama said made him want to tease her.
Good thing Peroroncino-san isn’t here, Momonga thought.
If he was, he would definitely make a big deal out of it.
“Well, that’s enough girl-talk for now, no? We ought to move on. It would be bad if we were the last to arrive at our destination.”
“Oh-kay~ Then, we’ll go with the standard lineup. Nishiki-san, are there any traps?”
“Definitely not.”
“Then, shall we? Buff us all up, please. Extended buffs for me.”
“Take it away, Momonga-san.”
Momonga began buffing up the group, and Yamaiko followed suit from beside him. If the enemy had been here, who knew how much hate they would have gained?
“Ah, honestly, it’s quite surprising how many spells you know. Even with cash items you can only get up to 400. It would be nice to get levels in something which gives an ability similar to Dark Wisdom. A magic caster’s strength is measured by the number of spells he knows, after all.”
“Really? I feel firepower should be the main consideration, right? Personally, I’m quite envious of your attack power, Ulbert-san.”
“I’ve been thinking about it recently, but if damage is all you want, wouldn’t that be more easily done by the frontliners? Magic casters ought to know utility spells.”
“However, magic casters are limited by MP, so they’ve got higher DPS than frontliners as long as their MP holds out, no? Seems firepower really is more important — oh, I’m done buffing over here.”
“O-kay~ Then it’s my turn. First, open the door and let the undead in. We’ll be in combat once they come in through the door, okay?”
After receiving acknowledgement from the others, Bukubukuchagama waddled stickily over to the front and opened the door. She immediately fell back. Although it would be good to bottleneck the enemy at the door, the chance of things cocking up would be lessened if they have more space to fight.
Four undead surged in. There was no sign of other monsters.
Their skin was the color of rotted wood, covered in livor mortis, over which they were nominally wearing some rags. Their hands were twisted into strange shapes, like a ball covered in dagger-like spikes. Their jaws hung open, revealing long, tusk-like teeth that grew up and out.
Momonga saw the names of the enemy in his field of vision, and judging by the color of those names they were lower-level than him. Still, this was an unexplored dungeon, so it paid to be cautious. He could not rule out the fact that they might be variant monsters. Even if they looked the same on the outside, if their names included the name of the region, they would probably be somewhat higher in level than other monsters of their type. There were players who were either careless or arrogant, and fought unknown monsters without collecting information about them. In the end, not a single one of them got away without learning a painful lesson.
The others should have seen the names as well, so it was likely that all they could infer from the color of the names was the monsters’ relative level.
“「Discern Enemy」!”
This spell was not as useful as the lore skills of the sage-type classes, but Momonga had a certain degree of insight when it came to the undead.
Another window popped up, and among the information there was the monster’s level.
“Level 83!”
“Hmph! If that’s all, we won’t need to trouble the two of you!”
“Oraaaaaa!”
Nishiki Enrai and Warrior Takemikazuchi launched their attacks at the four undead. Given that they were merely level 83 monsters, there was no need to use their more powerful skills, which had limited uses per day. They could finish this battle easily with skills that refreshed after a short rest.
“It seems you didn’t take much damage, so what should we do, Kazecchi?”
“Hm — well, if that’s all, it’ll regen by itself, so let’s push on,” answered Bukubukuchagama, who had skilfully controlled the group’s hate and taken all the attacks aimed at the others upon herself. The reply was directed at Yamaiko.