"YAHOOOO!" - Garami

I surfed down the water canal with great speed, dodging the living cactuses, the Demonia Cacutias, as they emerged either from the shores or from the bottom of the canal. Several shadows in the water tried to catch up with me, but my surfing techniques made them bite the dust, or the foam to be precise.

And this is the first time in my life that I've gone surfing! I gotta get myself one of these boards for daily use.

After escaping from the water canal and entering the "main lake" of Damavand-Lake's 17th floor, I steered the floatboard (a surfboard-sized Magitech that utilizes minimized technology based on the floatship Magitech) to the shore where Alf and Mira were waiting for me.

"How was the ride?" asked Alf while handing me a towel.

"It's awesome! And it keeps on getting worse?" - Garami

"A lot worse than this, at least, considering we have the floor on "easy-mode" to let you experience it without breaking your neck." - Alf

After its rebuild, Damavand-Lake had turned into a huge water thrill ride. Each floor was made of canals or other means that required you to use a ride of some sort and hand your fate to the waves. Several aquatic-living monsters will make life sour for the travelers, and several tricks such as moving panels...*cough*, moving canals to mess with the invaders even more.

"This was easy-mode? Think you've created a Territory safer than even Damavand-Core, Alf." - Garami

"No, most of the design was from Zaria before I woke up. I simply added the plans and the placement of the monsters to complete the work." - Alf

That explains it. Most of the Dungeon feels like it wasn't designed with anything in mind. Alf then arrived and added this "anything" to the place, resulting in a Lake of Sorrow-type Dungeon that was anything but sorry. He even added light sources from the Light sub-attribute and plants from the Wood sub-attribute. There's even a "moon" in the "night sky" that makes the roof of this Territory. A function possible thanks to the Moon sub-attribute. It makes the whole place look more like a water theme park than a Dungeon. And as for the monsters...

A fun selection for a fun Dungeon. The Funk Skeleton is a big winner in that department, being a Skeleton equipped with an afro, funky clothes that a disco DJ with bad fashion sense would wear, and can't move around without breakdancing. I forced one of the spawnable guys to move normally for a few steps with an order, but the guy collapsed from the stress of walking normally! Poor, funky guy.

"Hey, why did you include these guys?" - Garami

"The Funk Skeletons? I couldn't see any better option for a distraction on the lower floors than these jokers. Plus, despite their appearance, they are quite the powerhouses among the undead." - Alf

Whatever fits your style. 

The Moon Cat-line was made of felines of various sizes with black- and silver-colored fur. They are quick on their feet, not afraid of the water, plus they get a power-up while basking in the moonlight. A good fit for this Territory.

The Tidal Flan and the Tidal Slime are slimes that are not as impressive-looking as Kaimana, but they make it up with various tricks from the Water-, Moon-, and even the Ocean attributes. One of their nastiest moves is to accelerate the current in the lake thanks to their ability to control even the tide. Scary little guys.

And finally, there are the Demonia Darktooths and Darkeaters. They're piranhas with demon traits and from the Darkness attribute. They do keep clear of the Knockers still living in the lake. The undead fish? Even the Darkeaters won't go for them.

Alf even created a fishing gig where the invaders have to collect points by fishing the right catch. The undead fishes give lousy points while the demon fishes are the jackpots. Problem is that the latter group is damn smart, even as spawned monsters. This means that Damavand-Lake will have a lot of time to stage a defense should it be attacked.

"Caught any...guess not." - Garami

I tried to strike a conversation with Mira, who wanted to test her luck with the fish, but her empty bucket and her dead eyes answered my question before I could ask it.

"...we're moving." - Mira

"Huh? No need to be sullen just cause you didn't get any fish. They're all bad catches anyway," I told her as I grabbed the fishing rod she forced on me-

*THUG!*

"Yikes!? This is a big one!" - Garami

"...! *Hmph*!" - Mira

"Huh? Mira, I need some help...Mira? Mira!? Hey, Alf! Save me!" - Garami

"Right on it-!?" - Alf

"WHOOOAAAA!!?" - Alf & Garami

---

Skill List:

Title List:

---

"...that was the worst..." - Garami

I left the scolding of the prankish Slime King to Alf's capable hands and followed Mira who wanted to leave for Damavand-Nest already due to her bad luck with the fishing rod. She's bad at anything even resembling gambling now...

"Garami, wasn't this place a cave before?" - Mira

Having gotten over her depressed mood, Mira asked me about the huge plantation that was spread across the 5-kilometer-wide floor. All the cave walls were taken down, and a false sky with a bright sun acts as the roof, similar to Alf's moonlight floors. How much CP and FP did they spend on this...?

"We're using several of the floors here in Damavand-Nest to produce crops and other food items for the rest of the Dungeons. Some floors on Damavand-Mine and Damavand-Matata are used in the same fashion, but the bulk comes from this Territory." - Garami

"Ah, those places. Yeah, they feel like good places to play farmers in. Not like there is nothing special there-" - Mira

"And what place do you recognize as "nothing special", hmm~? Lady Mira~?"

A flirty voice made Mira stop in her tracks. So did I, as I hadn't notice them sneak behind us until now. This could only mean one thing...

"Nice to see you too, Anasia." - Garami

"Mistress~! Anasia is so happy that you decided to grace our Territory so soon~!" - Anasia

This is Anasia, the Nightmare Arachne that acts as the Dungeon Boss for Damavand-Nest. As her species name suggests, her lower body is that of a spider and the upper half is that of a woman in her prime. Her human half has faint-purple skin, dark-blue hair, and eight, blood-red spider eyes. The spider-half has a jet-black body and sharp-looking legs.

Today she's dressed in a velvet evening gown that shows a generous amount of skin, but the toolbelt stuffed with sewing-related items is crushing her vampish image. 

"Yeah, no pro......, Mira, did you and Anasia have some sorta agreement?" - Garami

"-!? I mean, what makes you say that?" - Mira

"As Lady Mira said, mistress. Why should we go behind your back?" - Anasia

"Tell that to the stuff hidden behind your own back," I said as I pointed at the huge bag that looked like it was gonna explode because it was overfilled with what appeared to be kinky cosplay outfits.

A quick interrogation later, I forced them to settle with Revi if they wanted a dress-up girl. I may have [Dressup] as a skill, but being dressed up for others' amusement is where I put my foot down.

"Instead of such stupid ideas, tell me how the Nest is faring," I said as I ended this discussion despite the two ladies' protests. 

Anasia gave me a quick rundown accompanied with a dissatisfied tone about the Nest's plan of operation. Most of the floors are cave types where spiders lurk in the shadows. And starting from floor 5 and onward, multiple Wood attribute decorations/facilities are spread out over the floors, granting the local arachnids lots of hiding places to lurk in. Some floors again are completely turned into huge plantations for cultivating vegetables and fruits.

"And these floors are equipped with a special gate where you have to present a number of a type of item for it to open~. And since there are so many of the chosen items on those floors, we could prepare the gates so they would need quite a large amount before they would be unlocked~." - Anasia

"...meaning, if the invaders wanna advance, they gotta work as farmers for us?" - Garami

"Correct~." - Anasia

Sneaky. As expected from a spider. Hope that the spawned monsters will take a page from Anasia's book.

They went all-in for these spiders! And the Wood attribute. I'm sorta happy they included so many Darkness arachnids.

Treesea- and Darkworld Scorpions are Wood- and Darkness variants of the Grotto Scorpion and they are used as the "muscles" of the Nest. Speaking of the Grotto Scorpions, they, along with the named Scorpion Topaz, were transferred to Damavand-Mine where they can use their abilities to their full potential.

The C-rank monsters consist of the Lilirune Arachne, an Arachne-like creature that has a huge flower on the spider's back where the woman's body emerges from, the Reha Medriga which is a humanoid creature with eight spider eyes and spider fangs, plus eight spider limbs growing from their backs. 

Then there's the Territory's apparent favorite, the Sequoia Spider. It's one of the few rare species that needed the Facility stat to be summonable. In this case, Facility [C]. Appearance-wise, it looks like a huge spider, cow-sized even, and covered in black fur with green zigzag stripes. But it's damn bulky! And it's excellent in keeping the plants healthy, even if there are only spawnable variants of it here.

"Therefore, Mistress, everyone wishes for these spiders to be summoned regularly, so please!" - Anasia

"It's better to train some Woodwork Spiders first so when it evolves into a Sequoia Spider it'll have a better skill list. Can I entrust you with that job?" - Garami

"By all means~!" - Anasia

Great. Since these guys have such rave reviews, I wanna add them as real troops to the Dungeon instead of just having them as spawns. The Kur Kigals are in the same boat, but how am I supposed to update their stats and skills? We need the Heretic Essence item to obtain new Kur Kigals...

"Hey, where is Revi?" asked Mira all of a sudden. She's got a point though. Where is she?

"Ah, she must be trying to put her studies to practice~," said Anasia with a gentle smile. She then presented us with a box she said she had taken from Revi's room...hey! Stealing, and from a girl's room nonetheless, is a big-ass crime! Not that we are exactly samaritans anyway...

The box contained tons of notes that described almost everyone from Nightmare Voyagers. The sole exceptions are Ciara, Karnel, and Zaria, probably because they are relatively new to the group. The notes were explaining everyone's abilities, habits, strong points, and weak points, plus various comparisons between us and Revi herself.

"The little girl must be training her spells of Death again." - Anasia

"...excuse me, what?" - Mira

"It's been like that all week. She was constantly mumbling something about "not enough" or something among those lines. Not that I know what she is talking about." - Anasia

...thinking about it, Revi did experience not only the power of the Banshee Queen down in the Demonic Sea, but she also witnessed the unreasonableness of Filyn. Maybe her confidence got knocked down a few pegs? I can relate to that feeling. After all-

"Hey...what's that!?" - Mira

My thoughts were cut short as a large, black tornado emerged somewhere on the less-populated area of the floor. The plants that the wind touched started to wither as if the wind had blown out their soul. It didn't last for long, just 5 seconds or so. But the damage in that area was tremendous. 

"That was Revi?" - Garami

"Yes~. It seems she has reached the level where her strongest spell can break through the graveyard-field she creates...the clean-up is gonna be a damn pain..." - Anasia

Hey, don't break your character all of a sudden. I'll let you use that living plague as a dress-up doll, so cheer up.

Still, should I be happy for Revi's growth, or should I be like Mira and Anasia and feel worried for the future?

As I came to pick up Revi and saw her lying flat on the ground as she was mumbling "...it was...awesome..." in an MP-induced euphoric rush, I decided on the latter. This girl's gonna turn into something bad when she grows up...more.

---

Skill List:

Title List:

---

Kigal-Note/Traits: "X" Dragon