“Caaw!!”

  “Hiss!!”

  “Hey! Stop fighting you two! I’ve got enough on my plate already!”

  A few hours before they agreed upon a time to raid the boss monster blocking the party’s way, Somnu decided to go on one last hunting expedition just in case.

  Right now, he was sitting in an empty cave he had gone through. The occasional Lurker bats flew around, only to be hunted and slain soon after. They seemed to be called Bleached Bats, likely because they had white fur and red eyes. They only had the fear of bats, and Somnu easily assumed they were the pre-evolved form of the Blinding Bats.

  The current problem was, his companions had been close to attacking each other over who should eat the last bat corpse.

  Even though the snake had been normally shy, it seemed when it came to food, the instincts of a predator would quickly kick in. Even with Fala many times its size, the black snake was hissing at the crow, ready to wrap its serpentine body around the bird and squeeze as tight as possible.

  For an instant, Somnu had a similar image pop into his mind, something he had likely seen on the internet somewhere, but either way, he couldn’t let that happen.

  “Okay, you can split the corpse, alright?” Somnu tried to negotiate, standing above the dead Nightmare Creature and between the two animal companions. Seriously, what are you making me say here…? Split a corpse?! What is this, candy?!

  “Caaw! Caaw!”

  “HIss!! Hiss!”

  CRUNCH!

  “?!”

  Just as Fala and the snake seemed to disagree with their master’s suggestion, they all grew silent after hearing the last companion stretch its fabric and munch on the corpse.

  “Okay, that’s dealt with. You can both go look for other Lurkers to hunt and eat, I need to focus here.” Somnu sat down and watched his animal companions simply distance themselves from him.

  He didn’t have time to waste on them now, so he turned to more pressing matters.

  [Straw Strike.]

  He summoned his straws, not to attack anything, but to use them as makeshift letters and symbols, like cutting letters from magazines, serial boxes, and the like, and using them to form sentences. He had done that before as a kid, for some reason, it was making him feel a little nostalgic of those times.

  Nevertheless, he created a wide circle of straws around a stone in the middle.

  This is the fighting arena, and the Dreadbeast slime in the middle… He reminded himself. Based on the agreed roles…

  During their last party meeting, and based on what Somnu had learned from sneaking a look into everyone’s System except for Almon, Somnu had tried to steer the plan into a more favorable direction using his knowledge of gaming raids and party battles. Not that he needed to, the others had clearly been aware of those tactics already.

  The roles of each party member seemed to go as follows:

  Mathros, the green-scaled lizard [Explorer], would move around, attacking and helping wherever possible, all the while keeping an eye on the fight. While he would be most affected by the slime’s aging ability, he was still taking the role of party captain. In terms of a party setting, he would be a wind mage, although he didn’t look the part.

  Somnu added four Ms within the circle in compass form, letting out a small chuckle at the irony of it.

  Lulu, the white and pink-furred bunny girl, was a [Runner] according to her System. She was agile and quick on her feet, but her kicks would be blunt and brutal. On top of that, she seemed to have [Seismic Stomp], a skill that could cause earthquakes under an enemy, and some sort of perfume bottle as a Dream Catcher that could help dry the moisture out of a slime creature. Somnu wasn’t too hopeful about the latter, considering they weren’t going up against a small slime.

  For the time being, he added an L for Lulu on the left side of the circle. And although she didn’t look it either, she could be considered the fighter assassin of the party.

  The other bunny however, Benji, turned out to be a [Lopinor Guard] according to his System. He had skills like [Taunt], [Shield Wall] and [Iron Will], all perfect for a tank, every party’s most reliable member. He even had [Safeguard], which creates a temporary protective aura around the tank’s allies.

  Seeing his skills, and the dream to protect, Somnu had newfound respect for Benji, even if he drew his Dream Catcher, a sword and shield set, at him once. For now, the planner put a B on the bottom side of the circle.

  The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

  With both Lulu and Benji still having the active fear of claustrophobia, we have to be careful of any potential effects from it too… Somnu remembered, then clenched a fist. Thankfully, I don’t have that fear and should be immune to that one, but I’ll still be affected by the others…

  Moving on, Almon was a mystery and all details were only based on his own statements alone. He apparently had no real combative skills, and could only mask his presence, while offering buffs and support to the other members. According to him, he was a [Follower], someone who can pledge himself to someone else temporarily and aid them however possible as a scout or support.

  Everyone agreed he would stay behind Benji and offer him support as the tank taunted the Nightmare Creature. Somnu added an A behind the B at the bottom of the circle.

  Lastly, Somnu was going to take on the role of a close fighter, as much as he would have preferred not to. The other party members seemed dead set on believing Somnu was the best fighter around, based solely on what he had done during his black out.

  Nevertheless, he added an S to the right of the circle.

  “...”

  Looking at the makeshift map, Somnu couldn’t help but feel nervous. Even if they had a decent party set up, they didn’t have many options that were known to defeat slime creatures.

  I have to use everything I can if we’re going to win this and get out of here…

  Somnu knew he had to think outside of the box again and come up with weird ideas. He just hoped he wouldn’t have to do that in the middle of the raid, that never ended well, even if he had won in the end.

  For now, all he could do was level up the rest of his kit as best he could before heading back.

  “!”

  Looking up, he saw his two animal companions fighting over a firefly corpse now.

  Poor fireflies… I’m surprised they haven’t gone extinct yet.

  Somnu had figured out that the light on the walls of the cavern were none other than the Lurkers, the Glowing Fireflies, and there were too many of them to ever become endangered.

  However, if anyone could do that, it would be his gluttonous companions.

  On the other hand, Somnu himself still hadn’t eaten a thing ever since getting relocated to the Nightmare Realm.

  I could kill for some corn right now…

  Even though he wasn’t hungry, he was still craving food.

  Perhaps he wasn’t too different from the ones he was reprimanding. The irony wasn’t lost on him.

  ***

  “Alright gang! Everyone got their fire torches?” Mathros asked, standing in front of a cave entrance. “Let’s do this and get out of this cavern already!”

  Soon after, the party was walking through the narrow cave, following the explorer’s lead. Behind him were the bunnies, then Almon, and Somnu stayed at the end with the pretense of defending anything that may follow them.

  In truth, he was keeping an eye on Almon, still wondering what the deal was with him.

  Walking through the cave in silence, Somnu couldn’t help but think of what he was leaving behind.

  In the end, he wasn’t able to fight those monstrous statues at the bottom of the lake, which meant he would still be affected by them the next time he encountered them, or at least that same petrifying fear.

  Nevertheless, he pressed on behind the party, trying to enjoy the silence away from any caawing or hissing.

  However, that was soon broken.

  “Lulu, be careful. If anything happens, just run and hide behind me, okay?” Benji said, doing his best not to look back into the pink bunnywoman’s eyes. “I’ll make sure to protect you.”

  “What are you saying, Benji? Ever since we were kids, I was the one saving your ass.” Lulu chuckled while repeatedly slapping her kinsman on the back. “Just stop pretending to be one of the Lopinor Guards.”

  “... You’re always like this.” Benji muttered under his breath while keeping his gaze on the party captain in front of him. Silently, he tightened his grip on the strap holding the bag over his shoulder.

  Somnu’s eyes hung over the tank for a moment, then turned his focus back on his own role.

  “We’re getting close. Everyone get ready.”

  At Mathros’ words, everyone dropped their bags and cloaks, keeping on only what they needed to fight and the make-shift torches to light the way.

  “Remember our strategy! We need to be quick, or Somnu and I will be two old geezers soon enough.” The lizardman reminded, then gave them a firm nod before getting out into a wide space.

  “!”

  When everyone followed, they were taken aback by how wide the space really was. Somnu could easily liken it to a wide parking lot, except it was empty and felt much bigger.

  Beside the pillars of what almost seemed like dark crystallized rocks surrounding the entire space and creating multiple floors in the distance above, there was basically nothing else beneath that distant ceiling.

  According to Mathros, his compass hinted at a cave on one of those floors that should lead to the outside.

  However…

  GLOOOP! GLOOOOP!

  SQUELLCCHH!

  “?!”

  The one blocking the path to that cave suddenly came falling down like a giant rain drop. It plopped itself in the middle of the now fighting arena, alerting everyone.

  For a moment, everyone stood in shock at the sight, especially those who hadn’t seen it yet.

  Instead of the usual slime creature form that anyone would have expected, this one had an unusual shape that constantly bubbled and changed form.

  The reason for that became very clear once the figures grew clearer…

  The surface of the almost translucent slime was writhing with trapped, distorted faces, fighting to break free from the creature’s gelatinous walls.

  Crow-shit! Are you kidding me?!

  “Weapons at the ready! Let the raid begin!”

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