The Loner Who Conquers the Other World

Day 51 – Morning, Dungeon

The girls are scared. They stare at me with eyes wide open in horror! Why do I get those frightened looks while fighting monsters?!

「「「The tentacles are scary! He actually was the Impaler! It’s scary in a completely different way! They just keep wriggling and slithering!」」」

The tentacles seem rather unpopular? Well, they actually got the promotion to Evil Hands? Were they emotionally scarred by yesterday’s events? Armored Pres-san seems to have gotten really traumatized though? She is shaking, cowering behind the girls?

On the 18th floor, we were ambushed by 『Ground Hunger Lv 18』, but the combat performance of the tentacles seems to be incredibly unpopular? I mean, what should I have done when a giant six-armed gorilla-like something jumped out of the ground and tried to hug me? I don’t want that, okay? It’s not cute at all?

Actually, Armored Pres-san, Slime-san, and I, all noticed it beforehand, but since it is supposed to be a training for the girls, decided to keep silent, and yet it had to choose to hug me? This boulder-like fake gorilla? It just so happened, that on one of the floors earlier, I saw a hedgehog monster, so using the Weaponization property of 『Evil Hands』I became kind of like a hedgehog, so Ground Hunger that tried to give me a hug instantly died from numerous stabbing wounds. That must’ve hurt.

And so, the tentacles are now being bullied. Poor them.

「How can you call them scary, those tentacles are good and hardworking tentacles, you know? The clothes from yesterday were all made-to-order by tentacles? They even took measurements for you? Every inch of your bodies? Each and every part? Kind of?」

「「「And that’s the cause of the trauma! And the reason for the lack of sleep! They are a threat to maidens!」」」

Despite the complaints, in the morning they were using multicolor to its fullest, flaunting before each other, turning it into some kind of fashion show? The tentacles sewed that, you know? You shouldn’t bully them like that? And you shouldn’t bully me too? I was also sewing that? Don’t you feel bad about bullying us like this? I’m serious enough to cry?

Now that the girls learned to properly detect presences, they are discovering precise positions of monsters and farming them through swift attacks.

Enemies hiding underground slipped past them, but aside from that, these are unbeatable schoolgirls. Does this count as girls’ power?

There are no hidden rooms, so we simply farm, go down to the next floor, and farm again.

No actual battle-like battles as well, the girls one-sidedly attack monsters, obliterating them on the spot.

They are strong when they get into their rhythm, if they don’t, they get overwhelmed instead. They are too extreme in both attack and defense, that is their strength, but it also makes it harder for them to adapt. They are strong when things go as expected, as planned, but crumble when things take a weird or unforeseen turn. A polar opposite to the boys who go with the flow, without putting much thought into it.

They don’t have that loose leeway to the plan, no moderation. And since there is nothing in between attack and defense modes, if they fail to switch in time, they get overrun. Completely unlike the geeks with their noncommittal, even lazy approach to fights, or the idiots, who freely change their method of attack and tactics, adjusting to the enemy. That’s why they are strong when things go well, but weak when they don’t. They are unbeatable if they get to push things their own way, but since they can’t adapt to their opponents, crumble if they don’t get to have their way. A very polarized strength.

They need to learn Armored Pres-san’s fighting style of turning aside the opponent’s strength and cutting them through it. If they can’t push through, they should deflect and cut through. No matter if she defends or attacks it all leads to slashing the enemy, that’s why she is strong. She is fighting strategically even though she has no troops to command but herself.

So learning her techniques alone is not enough, they have to learn her way of fighting itself. Or rather, learning her techniques might be too much to ask? In the morning we played for a bit, during which I summoned Evil Hands and tried 8 swords style, but she managed to fend off all of them with just one sword? Not just block, but parry every single one and cut them in turn? What the hell is that?

「「「Going good! Let’s move to the next one.」」」

They are in high spirits. The library committee already reached the 49th floor of this dungeon, so enemy numbers are not that high. This shouldn’t pose a problem to them.

「「「Kyaaa! Help me!」」」

They are completely trashed. Unable to decisively crush enemies they tried to go onto the defensive, but the formation was instantly broken and scattered, so they are now locked in a chaotic melee. Even Armored Pres-san is lost for words, expressing her disbelief through a gesture. Maybe you should stop looking and start helping them? Going to extremes in both offense and defense, they can’t deal with the confusion of melee, so as soon as the formation breaks they lose a lot of their strength. While the president’s leadership further enhances their strengths, when the fight turns into a melee, losing her command throws them into further disarray.

Now then,『Infinite Evil Hands』might be infinite as the name suggests, but there is a very finite limit to how many I can control at the same time. However, our enemies are 『Vanish Eagle Lv 35』, birdies. Calling them eagles makes them sound kind of cool, but those are vultures. And as they keep flying and moving around while constantly disappearing, the girls unable to chase them down for a decisive blow end up getting counterattacked instead. But if there is no need to chase them, then there would be no need to control them as well, so I will be able to create an infinite number of hands. Turning them into thin but sturdy threads I spread the hands through the whole top part of the level in just a second, and the birds took care of themselves, crashing into the threads and cutting themselves, smashing into nets and tearing to pieces, and getting bisected as they flew through the place. Since they can’t hit the brakes in mid-air, they have no other choice but to be cut apart. If they could disappear for as long as they wanted they could’ve survived, but this edition can vanish only for a few seconds. Absurdly weak to traps. Why did they even try to chase after flying birds? Are they going to become idiots too? The idiots actually did that for real, you know?

「Thank you. You saved us, I can’t deal with flying swarms. Their speed alone makes it a nightmare, but they can also disappear on top of that! Those beaks hurt!」

「Those bald bastards! They were going for the eyes! For round and cute eyes of the maidens! How dare they! How dare they threaten such a beauty! Even though they are just bald bastards!」

Those words could probably make the weapon store’s old man cry if he were to hear that. Since he is bald and all. He has a beard though?

「You have to learn how to fight while using magic and exploits, otherwise, you will get overwhelmed? Not every enemy can be fought with a sword and shield, you know? If you can fend off everything like Armored Pres-san that’s fine, but unless everyone gets to that level, you will be in deep trouble when your formation gets broken? Didn’t you struggle with those self-destructing bats as well? You have to learn to adapt to your opponent, or it might become a problem later on?」

The problem is that magic specialist Great Sage-san was swinging a hammer around, but took no damage at all, managing to intercept every incoming flier. Eh? Could it be that the Great Sage is actually a close combat profession?

「I know, but I end up concentrating on one thing too much. When I fight with the sword I can’t handle the magic, and when I fight with magic I can’t use the sword. And the person that should be in the back row is bulldozing through the enemies on the frontlines?」

「Eeeh~? You have to be able to handle that much~. You won’t get stronger if you keep relying on large-scale offensive spells, you know~?」

A sound argument. The geeks are a good example, their ability to combine various skills and magic makes them very strong in combat, but their fencing and athletic abilities are not improving at all. Well, they were geeks in the previous word, so they are quite horrible in that aspect.

Armored Pres-san and Slime-san aside, since Vice President B-san also didn’t get even a scratch, does it mean that it’s better to raise individual skills? However, as impressive as that is, isn’t that pretty pointless for a rearguard?

「Speaking of exploits, what was that just now? I didn’t sense any spells being activated, but the birds dropped to the ground in pieces?」

「These were tentacles. Or rather, 『Evil Hands』. I turned them into threads and spread them around. A wire cutter of sorts? I mean, they are flying into it, cutting themselves on their own? So don’t bully the tentacles, okay?」

「「「So that was a trap! A tentacle trap! The place was filled with countless tentacles sealing all possible ways of escape!」」」

Why are they so distrustful and hostile towards the tentacles? Why are their gazes so distant and their faces so red? Why is Armored Pres-san trembling, hiding behind the girls? These are just your friendly Evil Hands? Didn’t you meet last night? With a crazy number of them?

Evil Hands are incredible when properly controlled, but even『Apex Thinking』-san has a hard time handling them. Since I myself am moving around at high speed, even using 『Teleportation』, I can hardly control them. Or rather, I don’t have proper control even over『Teleportation』itself. Mixing teleportation with an unmanageably high speed makes it impossible not only to control but even to predict. Even I don’t understand what is going on.

「After we cull the number of dungeons a bit, it might be a good idea to increase the number of training days? Improving weak points and the variety of fighting styles? I guess? You too should suffer the drill! Sort of?」

Real combat is the best practice, but it does nothing to improve the diversity of fighting methods. In addition, it’s difficult to improve individual skills in a group. On the other hand, I, who has nothing but techniques for solo fighting, can’t work in a team. Especially considering that in my case, I might get others caught up if I screw up on control. Allies at Armored Pres-san or Slime-san’s level will be able to dodge on their own, but I can’t use any of the big techniques with classmates around.

However, were I to match the style of my classmates, having the outstandingly low stats, I’d end up dying. And since I can’t form a party due to the effect of Loner, I can’t learn Cooperation skills. So acting on my own is more efficient, and if something goes wrong, I won’t harm others. This group was likely intended as my escort for the sake of searching for hidden rooms, but in a boss fight, either group won’t function properly, and with a dungeon master that might be very bad.

If the dungeon master’s level matches the floor number, it should be alright. But Slime-san was level 100. Most likely a candidate for a dungeon emperor. Having that as an enemy is far worse than just bad. It almost called for Armored Pres-san to start fighting seriously. If we actually fought, I wouldn’t have the leeway to hold back as well. In that case, the danger of getting caught up in my skills will be added to the threat from the enemy. I haven’t seen the dungeon master that I killed earlier, but judging by the magic stone, it should’ve been around level 50. If it’s only that much, we probably should be able to handle it with this party. But a dungeon master of level 100 is too dangerous. Slime-san was simply too hungry to fight at full power. During that fight, it seemed to be in an energy conservation mode, so it should’ve barely used any magic power. If it fought seriously it would’ve been bad. Failing to defend, someone could’ve died there. Since Slime-san was too hungry, it was simply trying to eat them, so things didn’t get worse. But if it was an actual battle, it wouldn’t be a surprise for someone to die there. That’s how strong it was.

It’s jiggling around, doing silly dances, but it has enough power to fight Armored Pres-san. It could’ve been a terrifying enemy. Although it is jiggling and dancing now. And there might be others level 100.

「If the dungeon master of this place is level 100, we are retreating, okay? You have to go back even if it’s without us. I’m serious.」

The president and others are glaring at me, looking as if they are about to cry, but no means no. I know that this will make them worry, but the danger is too high.

Shield Girl is my polar opposite. While I might die in one hit, she can easily take a hundred of those. However, she also gets hit a hundred times before I take even one hit.

And I can potentially kill in one hit the enemy that Shield Girl will have to strike a hundred times to defeat. And while Shield Girl makes one attack, I will finish a hundred.

I’m fragile, nothing can be done about that, but my opponents are equally fragile. I can make my opponents fragile.

If I can use Kyojitsu with Magic Wrapping, I can make the opponent’s defense, vitality, and resistances all completely pointless. I can turn it into a contest of speed, the first to cut is the winner. Or at the very least, I can make it a contest of skill.

A lv100 dungeon master is that sort of an opponent.

But that is still fine. The Dungeon Emperor, when she was on the lowest floor of the Great Dungeon, was so strong that a lv100 dungeon master wouldn’t be worthy of even a glance from her. No one can beat that.

If back then, Dungeon Emperor ended up swallowed by that darkness, the world would’ve come to an end. No one can defeat that.

At the time, Dungeon Emperor’s level was 27. She probably didn’t fight even at 10% of her full power. No, there probably was less than 5%. Even so, no one can defeat that.

And if swallowed by the darkness she had her full lv100 power, it wouldn’t have ended with mere destruction of the world. She probably would’ve easily surpassed the gods.

And Dungeon Masters of Lv100 are potential candidates for her replacement. It has to be killed, but it’s too dangerous. Among everyone present, I’m the one who has the best chance of killing it. But I’m also the one with the highest likelihood of getting killed as well.

However, leaving the dungeon be is not an option.

That’s why we are going deeper.