The creatures stood about three or four feet tall and looked like cutesy white-furred beavers with drawn-on angry eyebrows. The only menacing thing was the fiery aura that surrounded the creatures. Which wasn't saying much for the trickster-spawned monsters.
Sub-abyssal puff beaver
Level: 89
Type: Monster
Work under: trickster demoness spawn…
Special: none.
Weakness: water and electricity (and all of their attributes.)
Resistances: fire and ice.
[Your party has entered combat!]
Alice beat Clyde to the first charge, laying on an onslaught that made the young man wince.
"We don't have time for this!" she snapped as she plunged Hellbreaker through the throat of a monster.
Clyde aimed a hand with five targets in mind.
[Clyde activated Tier 2 skill: Neptune's Water Edge.]
Not only did he receive a critical but also a technical—a rare but welcome set of bonus damage.
[Tear activated—]
The beavers screamed.
"Run! She's too strong! The succubus is attacking."
The monsters had no hope. The woman unleashed a giant gale of energy, red lightning, and death, killing the rest of the enemies. That also included everyone else's foes.
[Tear used Tier 1 skill: Maiden's Unforgiving Knife.]
[Battle completed. Victory! Reward: 52,000 EXP. 10,000 dollars. 1 Full Health Potion.]
A full health potion, not bad, not bad at all, Clyde thought. This was the first time one had ever dropped. Tear was definitely getting something epic for his appreciation. He chuckled to himself. Fighting for one's life, mixed in with the thrill always passed off as a good motivator to make him in the mood for buying someone a "thank you" gift. Not many people do this on Earth—comfy and mundane lives didn't permit this. Satovia wasn't Earth.
"We've better hurry along before more of them spawn," Tessa said. "I don't know about you, but I just want to get out of this place and take a bath."
Clyde took the group to the elevator without missing a beat. The echoing screams of the students and guests seemed to grow louder. This festival was done. No one would want to stay after this.
Dark, Harumi, and Chizuru held the glowing tablets up to the elevator. They winked out of existence, along with the barrier. The inky blackness that guarded the stairs remained.
"In we go," Tear said.
Clyde pressed the button to the fourth floor. The second button lit up instead.
"Is it really going to make us go through every floor?" Dark said. "The great lord of the dark is not liking this."
The minute they stepped outside the elevator, Clyde took notice of a young woman with blonde hair and blue streaks sitting in a corner of the hall seemingly hiding from something. He really looked, noticing the blue and green wings and talons.
"Great, a harpy, I'll—"
"Don't," Dark said, "she's with us. That's Myriad."
Hearing the commotion, Myriad turn to them, shifting to a human form—lack of wings and talons—and running into Dark's arms, crying.
"What in the void happened to you, Myriad?" Dark asked the sniffling girl. "Nothing ever stoked your uncaring attitude."
"I want to get out of here, Dark," she cried. "This place is terrifying."
One of the paintings laughed. A long purple tongue oozed out of it, wiggling.
"Ah, she runs, she runs, but it's just another chicken to me and I'm hungry. Come 'mere, chicky chicky. Get in my stomach!" The painting with a man on it fell to the floor, shaping into something. Instead of giving it the time to take form, Clyde hurled magic at it.
[Clyde activated Holy spirit wave.]
The contact with the spiritual and holy magic caused the monster to explode into a purple mist without so much as the breath to scream.
"That's confirmation that no one is safe in this place," Clyde said. "Fuck, I hope Melody and the others are doing fine."
"Yuki said she was going to focus on locating and rescuing the guests," Tear said.
Clyde nodded.
"Good. Let's find out how to get this elevator to mov—"
It opened, as if inviting them inside. When the party piled in, number three lit.
"So killing the painting was the key," Alice said.
"No loot for it," Tessa said softly.
"I know right?" Clyde told her, chuckling.
When the elevator reached the third floor, a prompt flashed into Clyde's mind.
[This is the last floor before you meet the Overseer.]
[Yuki has rescued several students and guests in the name of Team Stone.]
Clyde's eyes widened, but he definitely approved. This will reveal to the school once and for all that his team were here to keep the assholes from overstaying their welcome. Civilians only wanted to live their lives, not get caught up in the crosshairs of supernatural dickwads.
"After this bullshit, we get to meet whatever fucking horror Amaterasu set up for a dungeon boss," Clyde said then started forward.
"Great," Dark said, voice unenthused.
The halls turned out to be empty, not even with doors to classrooms. Except a bathroom.
"Damn, why does it always have to be the bathroom," Clyde said. The entrance was so dark, it looked like sludge.
"Do we have to?" Dark said.
"You first, mister great lord of the dark," Clyde said.
"Yeah fucking right normie," Dark protested. "The great lord of the dark does not approve of suicide orders."
"Oh quit being such a baby," Alice said then aimed a hand at the entrance.
[Alice activated Tier 1 skill: Super Radiant Raid crushing beam]
The beam of gradient pink and white magic blasted the blackness into nothing, replacing it with a dimly lit normal bathroom.
"That upgrade worked nicely," Alice said with a chuckle.
"Damn," Clyde said. "You know what, I'll just file this in my folder of shit that makes no sense and move on."
"I'm with you there," Tessa agreed.
"So this is what a boy's bathroom is like in real life," Alice said, causing everyone to nearly fall backward.
"She's sometimes too innocent for her own good," Tear said, almost in an apologetic voice.
Chizuru and Harumi both sighed, waiting outside. Clyde found the answer to the elevator switch within thirty seconds by moving a lone book. It released a chime which everyone heard, and at the moment knew something happened.
"This isn't exactly what we were hoping for," Clyde heard Harumi say. When he exited the bathroom to see what she meant, his eyes widened. Of course monsters would spawn in front of the elevator.
There were at least a dozen or so green-skinned creatures with long pointed ears and nose, shark-like teeth, dressed in ragged brown clothing. They stood three feet tall and ready to kill. However, one of them looked completely different.
He was a humanoid standing about five feet ten or so dressed in modern human clothing—black shirt, black jeans, caring a hockey stick. He also had a black ballcap on his head, backward. Clyde definitely had to analyze them. He started with the short creatures.
Generic Goblin.
Level: 89
Type: Monster
Work under: trickster demoness spawn…
Special: none.
Weakness: fire and lightning. Big surprise, I'm sure.
Resistances: none.
Generic Hobgoblin- Hooba
Level: 92
Type: Monster
Work under: trickster demoness spawn…
Special: none.
Weakness: Fire.
Resistances: None.
Trickster-spawned hobgoblins were certain to be weaker than the real thing, Clyde believed. In many tales, movies, and games, they were always a pain in the ass to deal with. Then again, among the goblins were also magic users. The beings moping about in front of them weren't even real.
[Your party has entered combat!]
"The hobgoblin's mine," Chizuru said.
"Wait, that's my—" Clyde didn't get to finish the complaint as the party rushed to battle. Tear placed a hand on his shoulder. "Don't get hung up over these small fry. We've got something much worse to deal with on the fourth floor."
The goblins were by no means fair opponents. They fought dirty, from tackling to hopping on backs, screaming and even running away only to return with a buddy.
Clyde and his team still easily dealt with them. Chizuru killed the Hobgoblin within seconds. Harumi and Alice took the most kills this round.
[Battle completed. Victory! Reward: 125,000 EXP. 10,000 dollars.]
The elevator door opened, and it was at last time to deal with the Overseer. The elevator's fourth button was lit with red light instead of the typical tan. As the tension rose, Clyde turned to observed the faces of his team. They were ready.
When the door opened, Clyde and the others found themselves on the rooftop. The sky was an eerie void-purple and somehow worked for a fake school with a name called Hell-Cademia.
No one seemed to be around at first until he heard the voice of Melody's mother. Amaterasu.
"Well done," she said as she manifested a dozen yards ahead of them. Clyde wasn't sure which of her names were fake. Juliette or Amaterasu. Probably both.
She was a woman with crimson hair and glowing gray eyes that made anyone who looked into them very uncomfortable, wearing a white summer dress. Melody didn't bother to call her out on the names for some reason.
[It is because in Melody's world, one can have two names. Your social name and your blood-shedding name. It is attuned to the middle name of an earthling. Amaterasu Juliette.]
"You're probably wondering what's going on," Amaterasu continued. "Or maybe you're here to face the Overseer."
"So, it's you," Clyde said. "Why are you wasting our fucking time with this shit?"
"Boredom to be honest," she answered. "My dear ole daughter left her mother to be with her lonesome. I was fine with watching your events until the brown-haired idiot decided to ruin the festival. So while stopping the panic, I decided to cause even more. A fitting test to see if you're even worthy of my daughter."
"I don't think you actually care about her," Tear said. "Because if you did, you'd know how much work she put in to help set it up. Did you watch her play?"
"Sure did," Amaterasu said. "I hid with a pretty good illusion. I will admit, that girl has a voice like her mother." She smiled, revealing pearly white teeth on the smile of an evil woman.
"God this lady creeps me out," Dark said.
"Same," Tessa said lowly.
"This is overkill for some test," Clyde said. "I would've been happy to tell you about myself over dinner or something."
The trickster demoness laughed, blushing.
"Charm the daughter, go after the mother I see," she said.
"W—what," Clyde said, nearly falling backward. "Don't misunderstand."
"It is too late to take those words back," Amaterasu said. "Still, I'd rather test you my way." She winked. "Of course I won't hesitate to kill you."
"We're not letting him fight alone," Tear said.
Selkie stepped forward.
"You really messed up this time, She Who Dawns Time. You know trapping an entity in an illusion dimension like this is breaking the pact of the stone-viper games."
Amaterasu grinned.
"Fine. If you want out, I'll let you out."
She waved her hand and just like that, the green-haired entity was gone. "Oops." She laughed. "So let's see here. The Stone, my daughter's two friends, the crusader champion, the Leaf, the Wind, and…well another one of my daughter's friends…A Kitsune. How interesting."
Dark's mouth hung open.
"A fox waifu—I mean girl. Will you m—"
Myriad whacked the chuuni on the head.
"We don't have time for your jokes and banter. She's a real threat, idiot." The harpy folded her arms and harrumphed like a tsundere.
A trickle of sweat dripped from the back of everyone's heads, except Dark. Even Amaterasu sighed.
"You know, on second thought…Never mind, you've made it this far. Come. And I will try to kill you."
"And we'll kill you back," Alice said, voice filled with venom. "Where's Natalia?"
"No idea who that is," Amaterasu said with an expression of someone who had no cares in the world. "Oh! The child. She's over there."
They turned to see Natalia tied to a cross, as if awaiting a Roman-style execution. "I must say, she's a crafty one. Snuck past all traps. Almost disabled the entire illusion, but you see, no matter how talented you are, how much of a genius runs through that mind, I will always be one step ahead." She chuckled. "She took the pain and torture by magic like a masochist."
Eyes almost frantic, Alice bolted toward the friend, whom was like a sister to her.
"Alice, it's a trap—she's not real," Clyde yelled, but it was too late. Amaterasu's aimed hand unleashed the magic.
Clyde flashed stepped in front of it, spirit shield up. And he felt like a train rocked him as he fell backward. His team proved themselves to be ready. Harumi's strongest healing smothered the young man so fast, he almost told her to stop just so that he wouldn't feel like a patient being shocked back to life.
"Ah, so you're willing to die for your harem," Amaterasu said.
"You think an attack like that would kill him?" Tear said, purple aura raging around her. "I think we've waited long enough—I'll end this."
"No, Tear, it's fine," Clyde said, his voice tinged with the power. "There is no telling what kind of tricks she's got planned. We all watch each other's backs."
Abruptly Clyde felt the intensity of Alice's aura.
"No one plays with me like that," she snapped. "NO ONE!"
Clyde nodded.
"Let's fuck her up, Alice."
Amaterasu grinned.
"Do you lot really think you have what it takes to even touch me?"
Clyde drew the wind blade from his inventory, taking a one-handed stance from the light weapon. This was going to be perhaps his most difficult fight to date. He did not like the analysis.
The creatures stood about three or four feet tall and looked like cutesy white-furred beavers with drawn-on angry eyebrows. The only menacing thing was the fiery aura that surrounded the creatures. Which wasn't saying much for the trickster-spawned monsters.
Sub-abyssal puff beaver
Level: 89
Type: Monster
Work under: trickster demoness spawn…
Special: none.
Weakness: water and electricity (and all of their attributes.)
Resistances: fire and ice.
[Your party has entered combat!]
Alice beat Clyde to the first charge, laying on an onslaught that made the young man wince.
"We don't have time for this!" she snapped as she plunged Hellbreaker through the throat of a monster.
Clyde aimed a hand with five targets in mind.
[Clyde activated Tier 2 skill: Neptune's Water Edge.]
Not only did he receive a critical but also a technical—a rare but welcome set of bonus damage.
[Tear activated—]
The beavers screamed.
"Run! She's too strong! The succubus is attacking."
The monsters had no hope. The woman unleashed a giant gale of energy, red lightning, and death, killing the rest of the enemies. That also included everyone else's foes.
[Tear used Tier 1 skill: Maiden's Unforgiving Knife.]
[Battle completed. Victory! Reward: 52,000 EXP. 10,000 dollars. 1 Full Health Potion.]
A full health potion, not bad, not bad at all, Clyde thought. This was the first time one had ever dropped. Tear was definitely getting something epic for his appreciation. He chuckled to himself. Fighting for one's life, mixed in with the thrill always passed off as a good motivator to make him in the mood for buying someone a "thank you" gift. Not many people do this on Earth—comfy and mundane lives didn't permit this. Satovia wasn't Earth.
"We've better hurry along before more of them spawn," Tessa said. "I don't know about you, but I just want to get out of this place and take a bath."
Clyde took the group to the elevator without missing a beat. The echoing screams of the students and guests seemed to grow louder. This festival was done. No one would want to stay after this.
Dark, Harumi, and Chizuru held the glowing tablets up to the elevator. They winked out of existence, along with the barrier. The inky blackness that guarded the stairs remained.
"In we go," Tear said.
Clyde pressed the button to the fourth floor. The second button lit up instead.
"Is it really going to make us go through every floor?" Dark said. "The great lord of the dark is not liking this."
The minute they stepped outside the elevator, Clyde took notice of a young woman with blonde hair and blue streaks sitting in a corner of the hall seemingly hiding from something. He really looked, noticing the blue and green wings and talons.
"Great, a harpy, I'll—"
"Don't," Dark said, "she's with us. That's Myriad."
Hearing the commotion, Myriad turn to them, shifting to a human form—lack of wings and talons—and running into Dark's arms, crying.
"What in the void happened to you, Myriad?" Dark asked the sniffling girl. "Nothing ever stoked your uncaring attitude."
"I want to get out of here, Dark," she cried. "This place is terrifying."
One of the paintings laughed. A long purple tongue oozed out of it, wiggling.
"Ah, she runs, she runs, but it's just another chicken to me and I'm hungry. Come 'mere, chicky chicky. Get in my stomach!" The painting with a man on it fell to the floor, shaping into something. Instead of giving it the time to take form, Clyde hurled magic at it.
[Clyde activated Holy spirit wave.]
The contact with the spiritual and holy magic caused the monster to explode into a purple mist without so much as the breath to scream.
"That's confirmation that no one is safe in this place," Clyde said. "Fuck, I hope Melody and the others are doing fine."
"Yuki said she was going to focus on locating and rescuing the guests," Tear said.
Clyde nodded.
"Good. Let's find out how to get this elevator to mov—"
It opened, as if inviting them inside. When the party piled in, number three lit.
"So killing the painting was the key," Alice said.
"No loot for it," Tessa said softly.
"I know right?" Clyde told her, chuckling.
When the elevator reached the third floor, a prompt flashed into Clyde's mind.
[This is the last floor before you meet the Overseer.]
[Yuki has rescued several students and guests in the name of Team Stone.]
Clyde's eyes widened, but he definitely approved. This will reveal to the school once and for all that his team were here to keep the assholes from overstaying their welcome. Civilians only wanted to live their lives, not get caught up in the crosshairs of supernatural dickwads.
"After this bullshit, we get to meet whatever fucking horror Amaterasu set up for a dungeon boss," Clyde said then started forward.
"Great," Dark said, voice unenthused.
The halls turned out to be empty, not even with doors to classrooms. Except a bathroom.
"Damn, why does it always have to be the bathroom," Clyde said. The entrance was so dark, it looked like sludge.
"Do we have to?" Dark said.
"You first, mister great lord of the dark," Clyde said.
"Yeah fucking right normie," Dark protested. "The great lord of the dark does not approve of suicide orders."
"Oh quit being such a baby," Alice said then aimed a hand at the entrance.
[Alice activated Tier 1 skill: Super Radiant Raid crushing beam]
The beam of gradient pink and white magic blasted the blackness into nothing, replacing it with a dimly lit normal bathroom.
"That upgrade worked nicely," Alice said with a chuckle.
"Damn," Clyde said. "You know what, I'll just file this in my folder of shit that makes no sense and move on."
"I'm with you there," Tessa agreed.
"So this is what a boy's bathroom is like in real life," Alice said, causing everyone to nearly fall backward.
"She's sometimes too innocent for her own good," Tear said, almost in an apologetic voice.
Chizuru and Harumi both sighed, waiting outside. Clyde found the answer to the elevator switch within thirty seconds by moving a lone book. It released a chime which everyone heard, and at the moment knew something happened.
"This isn't exactly what we were hoping for," Clyde heard Harumi say. When he exited the bathroom to see what she meant, his eyes widened. Of course monsters would spawn in front of the elevator.
There were at least a dozen or so green-skinned creatures with long pointed ears and nose, shark-like teeth, dressed in ragged brown clothing. They stood three feet tall and ready to kill. However, one of them looked completely different.
He was a humanoid standing about five feet ten or so dressed in modern human clothing—black shirt, black jeans, caring a hockey stick. He also had a black ballcap on his head, backward. Clyde definitely had to analyze them. He started with the short creatures.
Generic Goblin.
Level: 89
Type: Monster
Work under: trickster demoness spawn…
Special: none.
Weakness: fire and lightning. Big surprise, I'm sure.
Resistances: none.
Generic Hobgoblin- Hooba
Level: 92
Type: Monster
Work under: trickster demoness spawn…
Special: none.
Weakness: Fire.
Resistances: None.
Trickster-spawned hobgoblins were certain to be weaker than the real thing, Clyde believed. In many tales, movies, and games, they were always a pain in the ass to deal with. Then again, among the goblins were also magic users. The beings moping about in front of them weren't even real.
[Your party has entered combat!]
"The hobgoblin's mine," Chizuru said.
"Wait, that's my—" Clyde didn't get to finish the complaint as the party rushed to battle. Tear placed a hand on his shoulder. "Don't get hung up over these small fry. We've got something much worse to deal with on the fourth floor."
The goblins were by no means fair opponents. They fought dirty, from tackling to hopping on backs, screaming and even running away only to return with a buddy.
Clyde and his team still easily dealt with them. Chizuru killed the Hobgoblin within seconds. Harumi and Alice took the most kills this round.
[Battle completed. Victory! Reward: 125,000 EXP. 10,000 dollars.]
The elevator door opened, and it was at last time to deal with the Overseer. The elevator's fourth button was lit with red light instead of the typical tan. As the tension rose, Clyde turned to observed the faces of his team. They were ready.
When the door opened, Clyde and the others found themselves on the rooftop. The sky was an eerie void-purple and somehow worked for a fake school with a name called Hell-Cademia.
No one seemed to be around at first until he heard the voice of Melody's mother. Amaterasu.
"Well done," she said as she manifested a dozen yards ahead of them. Clyde wasn't sure which of her names were fake. Juliette or Amaterasu. Probably both.
She was a woman with crimson hair and glowing gray eyes that made anyone who looked into them very uncomfortable, wearing a white summer dress. Melody didn't bother to call her out on the names for some reason.
[It is because in Melody's world, one can have two names. Your social name and your blood-shedding name. It is attuned to the middle name of an earthling. Amaterasu Juliette.]
"You're probably wondering what's going on," Amaterasu continued. "Or maybe you're here to face the Overseer."
"So, it's you," Clyde said. "Why are you wasting our fucking time with this shit?"
"Boredom to be honest," she answered. "My dear ole daughter left her mother to be with her lonesome. I was fine with watching your events until the brown-haired idiot decided to ruin the festival. So while stopping the panic, I decided to cause even more. A fitting test to see if you're even worthy of my daughter."
"I don't think you actually care about her," Tear said. "Because if you did, you'd know how much work she put in to help set it up. Did you watch her play?"
"Sure did," Amaterasu said. "I hid with a pretty good illusion. I will admit, that girl has a voice like her mother." She smiled, revealing pearly white teeth on the smile of an evil woman.
"God this lady creeps me out," Dark said.
"Same," Tessa said lowly.
"This is overkill for some test," Clyde said. "I would've been happy to tell you about myself over dinner or something."
The trickster demoness laughed, blushing.
"Charm the daughter, go after the mother I see," she said.
"W—what," Clyde said, nearly falling backward. "Don't misunderstand."
"It is too late to take those words back," Amaterasu said. "Still, I'd rather test you my way." She winked. "Of course I won't hesitate to kill you."
"We're not letting him fight alone," Tear said.
Selkie stepped forward.
"You really messed up this time, She Who Dawns Time. You know trapping an entity in an illusion dimension like this is breaking the pact of the stone-viper games."
Amaterasu grinned.
"Fine. If you want out, I'll let you out."
She waved her hand and just like that, the green-haired entity was gone. "Oops." She laughed. "So let's see here. The Stone, my daughter's two friends, the crusader champion, the Leaf, the Wind, and…well another one of my daughter's friends…A Kitsune. How interesting."
Dark's mouth hung open.
"A fox waifu—I mean girl. Will you m—"
Myriad whacked the chuuni on the head.
"We don't have time for your jokes and banter. She's a real threat, idiot." The harpy folded her arms and harrumphed like a tsundere.
A trickle of sweat dripped from the back of everyone's heads, except Dark. Even Amaterasu sighed.
"You know, on second thought…Never mind, you've made it this far. Come. And I will try to kill you."
"And we'll kill you back," Alice said, voice filled with venom. "Where's Natalia?"
"No idea who that is," Amaterasu said with an expression of someone who had no cares in the world. "Oh! The child. She's over there."
They turned to see Natalia tied to a cross, as if awaiting a Roman-style execution. "I must say, she's a crafty one. Snuck past all traps. Almost disabled the entire illusion, but you see, no matter how talented you are, how much of a genius runs through that mind, I will always be one step ahead." She chuckled. "She took the pain and torture by magic like a masochist."
Eyes almost frantic, Alice bolted toward the friend, whom was like a sister to her.
"Alice, it's a trap—she's not real," Clyde yelled, but it was too late. Amaterasu's aimed hand unleashed the magic.
Clyde flashed stepped in front of it, spirit shield up. And he felt like a train rocked him as he fell backward. His team proved themselves to be ready. Harumi's strongest healing smothered the young man so fast, he almost told her to stop just so that he wouldn't feel like a patient being shocked back to life.
"Ah, so you're willing to die for your harem," Amaterasu said.
"You think an attack like that would kill him?" Tear said, purple aura raging around her. "I think we've waited long enough—I'll end this."
"No, Tear, it's fine," Clyde said, his voice tinged with the power. "There is no telling what kind of tricks she's got planned. We all watch each other's backs."
Abruptly Clyde felt the intensity of Alice's aura.
"No one plays with me like that," she snapped. "NO ONE!"
Clyde nodded.
"Let's fuck her up, Alice."
Amaterasu grinned.
"Do you lot really think you have what it takes to even touch me?"
Clyde drew the wind blade from his inventory, taking a one-handed stance from the light weapon. This was going to be perhaps his most difficult fight to date. He did not like the analysis.
