Onyx's Pov:

"She did WHAT!?" - Onyx

"Yes, sir. Thanks to Regina's current onslaught, our monster resources have plummeted. As of the moment, we have none of the sacrificial troops left. We have even experienced losses amongst our veteran troops." - Thyst

Oh, come on! This Demon King army reached the Cluster Territory just two days ago! Our only luck is that this former ally of master Garami hasn't challenged any other Territories besides Damavand-Lake...

"Hey, why is she so fixated on Damavand-Lake? Aren't there more efficient strategies that she could use?" - Onyx

"Sir, that is because of the puzzles." - Thyst

"...I am sorry, what?" - Onyx

"The puzzles are too difficult for this battle maniac to clear. Only Damavand-Lake and Damavand-Volcano are puzzle-less, so I deduce that Regina chose the Lake as the Volcano has many monsters resistant, or immune, to Magma and heat." - Thyst

...there has to be a limit on how much of a meathead someone can be...

"We are, however, taking many losses. The rest of the Demon King's army is attacking all other sectors as we speak, but strong invaders like Regina keep us from concentrating all our forces on any one group." - Thyst

"And the strong points of a Dungeon in warfare is its ability to restrict the number of invaders..." - Onyx

I let out another sigh, despite not having the lungs to make one. Master Garami even wanted me to design new floors based on the new sub-attribute she added to Damavand yesterday..., and I have already reassured her that there are no problems with Damavand...

"There are no other choices then. Have Kaimana lure that woman close to the Damavand-Core Territory." - Onyx

"Then, what are your plans, sir?" - Thyst

"I'm taking things into my own hands." - Onyx

"...do you have hands?" - Thyst

"They may lack some flesh and skin, but they are still proper hands!!" I replied, happy that I did not possess tear ducts.

---

A while later, after having changed my deployment area from the final floor of the Dungeon to the 1st floor on the surface, I stood on one of the large ruined buildings that made up Garami's personalized Dungeon-type. I think she was calling it a "skyscraper"...

I was looking over the Territory of Damavand-Lake. It used to be a lake-type Dungeon with beautiful bridges made of white rocks, but now it is a gloomy lake that uses sunken constructs similar to what I am standing on as means for people to cross the lake. It is the second personalized Dungeon-type of master Garami...seeing them both now in the real, I have to admit that her personality must be a real piece of work to birth such gloomy Dungeons. And two of them even...

While mumbling over my master's doubtful sanity, I could see the two arriving. Kaimana Damavand, the Slime King with its huge, dark-blue gelatinous body. It created tentacles to grab onto the buildings and dragged its huge body with more speed than one would expect from a creature of that size. And behind him came the royal pain we had to work with these last few days. Regina, the high-ranking combatant of the Demon King's army.

She has a peculiar appearance. She is a demon with a complete humanoid body except for the two sharp horns on her head and the ruby-like object on her forehead, but large areas of her body look like they are made of burning coal. Flames seem to be endlessly being produced from these coal-like parts of her body, and if the reports are right, it seems that she does not even need to consume MP for it.

Master Garami never mentioned these traits of hers, so she must have evolved since she separated from Garami. No matter the case, I will not tolerate her continued insolence anymore!

Her allies are eleven Knight-class owning demons, and even the weakest of them are at least of the strength of a standard C-rank monster. As in those who simply gained EXP by living for a long time and never participated in battles or developed their skills. These Knight-class demons are also attacking the other Territories and are immediately replaced when one of them dies inside the Dungeon.

Luckily, they seem to have no monster allies, so we can restrict them to 12 at a time. Traps, strategies, and teamwork are the only things that have saved many of our elite troops.

The knights are bad enough, but the real problem is after all this woman. She owns several Extra Skills, including one that produces a dragon of fire to attack with, and something that acts as a wall of ice. The latter seems weird for her to have achieved, but the report tells me that she feels intense pain while using it, so it's not likely that she would want to use it too often.

While I was thinking of all this, I did not neglect my preparations to enter a battle against Regina. Several large magic formulas were being produced around me due to [Parallel Minds], but since I am creating magic to the limit of my ability, this specific skill has increased drastically due to the time where I acted as the Dungeon's administrator. I have enough time to refresh my info regarding the situation in my head.

At the lake area, around 4 km from where I was right now, Regina started to throw punches that created large shockwaves that were made of fire. Kaimana had to do some acrobatic movements with his slime body, but he escaped any big harm.

And while he was at it, Kaimana sent spears made of water towards Regina, but the woman produces intense fires from her whole body to evaporate the spears at the cost of taking a small amount of damage from her attack.

Then, right after the flames died out, several Ice attribute attacks came flying from the buildings. They were created by the monsters who had trained themselves in the attribute despite being in this desert and our secret weapon in this fight. But as if spitting on their hard work, Regina neutralized their attacks not with flames, but just punches and kicks in mid-flight. 

A blessing for us that she wanted to humiliate the monsters, as they were not killed by a long-range attack. Because now they have cleared their goal of letting Kaimana safely hide from this fiery pest.

"Insolent welp, taste my power! Hell Requiem!!" - Onyx

I do not know if she can hear me from this distance, but not announcing my attack would be like smearing mud on the honorable name of my master!

Large crosses made of ghostly energy emerged from the magic formulas around me. The spell "Hell Requiem" is a high-tier skill of the Undead attribute, one that produces a field that is equal to hell wherever these crosses are planted into the ground. And I have produced ten of them during the time waiting. 

Now, feel free to fall into hell!!

Regina looked in my direction, observing the crosses of hell incarnated with a look that lacked composure. She landed on a building and produced the blasted dragon of fire to counteract my spells.

The dragon collided with the first two crosses and canceled them out. However, my spell can be manipulated to a certain degree, so I made the remaining crosses fly beside the burning beast and toward Regina. Seeing this, the blasted woman...smiled? 

Crap! The dragon was not meant for defense! Ignoring the crosses that slipped through it, the dragon of fire continued towards me. Any magic will be dispelled if its caster dies, so Regina wished to end this in a cross-counter! 

"Castling!" - Onyx

But I am not someone who will die just from that! Through one of the spells listed in [Necromancy], I switched places with a Skeleton Rat I had positioned on one of the other buildings and escaped from the fire dragon's wrath. As it collided at my previous location, it melted the whole roof of the building...and this is a Dungeon object. Destroying them should be close to impossible. Well, I should have expected something like that from an Extra Skill.

My attention was directed on Regina, who was desperately trying to fend off the remaining crosses with her fire-covered limbs. She punched one down towards the ground, another one was kicked into a different cross which canceled them both out, flames burned the fourth cross, and bottles of explosives or something destroyed two more. 

For the last two crosses, Regina was out of luck. Then, with a howl of pain, she produced the rumored wall of ice...

Something is wrong here. That skill...no, her soul clearly showed draconic wave patterns. And not in the same style as the fire dragon Extra Skill, but truly draconic. As if she is possessed by one...

Regina breathed heavily behind the transparent wall of ice. Despite that, she had a gleeful smile on her face. What a warmonger. Sorry, but I am not into those kinds of dances. 

Right as she released the wall to go on the offensive, a blue spear struck Regina from beneath the floor she was standing on. The spear was Kaimana's tentacle. As expected of someone with the Assassin class. They know when to make use of a chance when they see one. 

Regina was lifted into the air as more tentacle spears pierced her body. The [Acid Body] skill that Kaimana has should let him finish her off...geh!? What is that?! 

Regina started to scream in intense pain as large amounts of mana converged into a sphere in her body. A forgotten memory awoke from the depths of my mind as I witnessed this scene. One extremely horrifying memory.

To all troops! Get away from the enemy's corpses! They are suicide-bombers! 

It is a bomb. One surgically placed inside someone to drain their mana, transmute it into the Fire attribute, and then kill the victim with the explosion. I don't remember which one, but one of my previous incarnations had a bad time with these magitechs.

"Kaimana! Turn that girl towards me!" I told Kaimana through my Dungeon Terminal.

Kaimana looked visually disturbed by my command but still complied. At the same time, Regina came into my line of sight, I had prepared the "Ghost Bullet" spell. It is a simple one that is automatically learned from leveling up [Ghost Magic], but I increased its power by using the [Overcharge Magic] skill to force more MP into the spell.

The bullet made of spectral energy hit Regina straight to her chest, which depleted the last of her HP which had stubbornly refused to reach 0 despite the bomb in her draining her lifeforce and Kaimana's acid tentacles. And more importantly, it had forced the spherical object lodged in Regina's body out.

I drew a sharp breath with my non-existing lungs when I noticed that the sphere, the bomb, was ready to detonate any second! Fortunately, there was someone with a quick enough mind to resolve this situation.

Kaimana caught the bomb with one of his tentacles and proceeded to change said tentacle's shape into one similar to a "rifle" or whatever those things were called and stuffed the bomb inside it. The Slime King then proceeded to eject the bomb high up to the sky, right before-

*KABOOOOOOOM!!*

...right before it exploded...that was too close for comfort...

The bomb created a gigantic ball of fire that could easily swallow the building that I was standing on.

It was then I noticed that several new explosions could be heard all across the various Territories. None of them sounded like they were as great as this one, so the strength of the explosion may be based on the strength of the person the bomb was implanted into. Still...they got us. 

"Kaimana, please send Regina's corpse to my office when you have the time...and start preparing for the next wave of invaders." - Onyx

After giving my orders, I started on my return to my office. At this rate, I will be forced to reveal my secret weapon, won't I?

...oh? Regina's death was just what we needed to allow Damavand to reach level 18. It is not enough, but that is at least some compensation for all the problems she has given us. And I know how she can repay us even more. Kukukuku...

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Kigal-Note/Monsters/Slime: Slime King