“Tek here, various Abnormal Statuses appear in games all the time: such as Paralyzed, or Poisoned, or Stunned. They have almost become a trope in books or games, easily cured.”

 

“What’s that?”

 

“Don’t look, it’s the boss of the Basilisks--it will turn you to stone.”

 

“Could it be, that’s the Floor Master?”

 

“No, it seems that there’s no Floor Master in the Upper Stratum.”

 

There are very few Sign Monuments around this Area, so someone with normal eyesight could only see shadows of varying depths, instead of the surroundings.

 

The giant lizard, which could be mistaken for a small hill, is the master of Area -77, the Mother Basilisk. I would have imagined that it would look more like a Crocodile--but it looks like a Chameleon, with strange red eyes. Over 10 meters tall, and 80 - 90 meters long, if the hall wasn’t around 300m long, the Mother Basilisk probably wouldn’t be able to move.

 

Beside the boss-like Monster, there are around other Basilisks, which are 2m tall and 10m long. They are strong enough to be good fodder for the girls, but their Petrifying Skill means that they are too dangerous.

 

However, it turns out that the Basilisks were the Monsters that had been cooked when the Dwarves had a feast. All the girls loved the taste, and they are now looking like they wanted to hunt the Basilisks--I have to keep them back.

 

Tama was pulling on my sleeves, so I looked back and saw a Lesser Basilisk in a shadow crawling towards us. I quickly slash through its neck with Flexible Sword and place it into storage with Magic Hand.

 

There is the chance that it can still petrify with its head chopped off, like Medusa from legends, so I store it as well. There are also several Lesser Basilisks and one normal Basilisk along our route, so I killed them and stored them.

 

I then manually held one small one up and cut it into small pieces and stored it again, for Lulu to cook.

 

***

Our destination, Area -74, in which we’ve finally arrived, is composed of 10 large halls and 30 smaller rooms that are all connected. We managed to reduce the time required to arrive here because of the shortcut that connected the Roaches’ room to the Basilisk Area.

 

The first hall is the Frog Area, which is half-submerged in water. On the available ground, there are many megaliths with moss covering their stone surfaces, while there are algae and water-plants floating near the shores.

 

A lot of small insects are flying near the water plants--they seem like normal insects without any particular effects.

 

Swarms of bats crowd near the ceiling. These bats seem to be Monsters, but since their levels are in the single digits, I decided to leave them alone unless they attack us first.

 

It also seems that there’s a hidden room in the depths of this Area, so let’s make that into our Teleportation Point. After I finish the general check, I permit the girls to start their training..

 

“Tama, lure over a reasonable Monster.”

 

“Aye aye, sir!” She speaks with a grin, showing her small fangs, before erasing her presence and darting rapidly between the megaliths. She seems to be aiming for a Rock Frog that’s sleeping on one of the shores--she shelters in the shadow of the massive stone structure, firing at the Rock Frog with a Magic Gun.

 

The Monster soon discovers Tama and jumps towards her, a simple attack that she easily dodges. The ground vibrates when its fat, froggy body slams into the ground.

 

While running away, turning back occasionally turning around and running backwards, she shoots the Frog. She is very dexterous, running backwards at high speed, and accurately shooting with a Magic Gun in the shape of a rifle.

 

She leads the frog over to the group, who have already entered their battle formation.

 

“You frog! Drop that thick skin of yours and live in humility, so I declare!”

 

Pulled by Nana’s usual, rather strange, provocation, the Rock Frog changes its target from Tama to Nana.

 

It is only 4m tall, but it seems to easily weigh tons. Its outer skin is covered in what looks like blue rocks, it looks like it would cause a lot of pain to strike it with a sword. It’s level 44, and looks like it can spit out poison.

 

Nana blocks the charge of the thick, heavy, Monster. She is pushed a few meters backwards, leaving furrows in the soil--She seems to have used the new Magic Circuits that I designed into the soles of her shoes, which created protruding stone spikes.

 

“Flame charge!”

 

With the combination of Arisa’s Flame Armour Spell, and Pochi’s own Physical Reinforcement Magic, she flies towards the Rock Frog as though she was fired from a cannon--she also uses Flickering Movement and Heavy Blow.

 

The heavy body of the Rock Frog actually floats into the air because of the blow from the petite Pochi.

 

Arisa uses the Space Magic Spell ‘Dimensional Stake’, and many Pitch-Black Stakes, which seem to ripple, pierce straight through the thick rocky skin of the Monster--she used its weight to drive the spikes in even deeper.

 

Lulu is standing beside me and using Magic Artillery, which is a modified Magic Gun, aiming for the Monster’s eyes--however, they seem to be protected by a glass-like transparent shell, so it was only partially flash-blinded, even after being hit by the huge Magic shot.

 

She then shrugs and puts the Gun down--she wasn’t planning on fighting this time, she just damaged it so as to get the Experience. I had another job for her, one that would make everyone happy.

 

From the opposite side of the Monster, Liza has used Magic Edge and is stabbing at the Frog, aiming both for its eyes and side. Tama unleashes a flurry of attacks at the wound that has been opened by Pochi.

 

The Rock Frog flinched--it seems that this was the first time that it had received this kind of damage. It was about to spit out Poison, but Nana was prepared because of my warning before the fight began, and she fired Remote Stun into its jaw.

 

The Poison that it was about to spit out was stopped, pooling it its mouth.

 

Mia uses this, casting Balloon Magic in its mouth, causing it to suffer from the poison that it had created. Maybe because of suffering from the poison, or from its wounds, it begins randomly lashing out with its tongue--which Nana easily handles with her sword and great-shield.

 

In the end, Liza settled it with a Spiral Spear Attack, and the Rock Frog dropped to the ground, dead.

 

Pochi and Tama, who usually do a victory dance, rapidly run up to Lulu and I.

 

“Smells nice?”

“Is it done?”

 

They start circling Lulu who is cooking the Basilisk Meat. Since Arisa had complained before, I used Air Control to make the wind blow the smell the opposite direction of the fight.

 

“Almost.” Lulu smiled as she flipped some of the meat.

 

Right then, Liza came up, carrying a big red Magic Core, and a lump of Frog meat, which easily weight dozens of kilograms, “I have retrieved the hind legs, which haven’t been poisoned.”

 

I store the Frog legs, promising the girls that we will eat them tomorrow, after confirming it with Lulu. Well, I glanced at her, and she nodded back--non-verbal communication is good.

 

“Delish!”

“Grilled Meat is the strongest!”

“It’s softer than the when the Dwarves cooked it, but it’s truly delicious.”

 

Pochi and Tama are holding skewers of the Basilisk Meat, happily munching on them.

 

Liza is happily heating, her tail swaying.

 

The others are eating like normal, sitting on the sheet I laid on the stone ground, biting the meat on their skewers, not bothering to talk about their food.

 

***

After the short meal beak, the hunt resumes.

 

I make sure to keep an eye on the situation, but not interfering--allowing the girls to kill, to learn, to train. I was thinking about staying in the Mansion of Ivy that night, but we decided to stay in the villa, the one in the Labyrinth. Apparently, Arisa seems to think that it would cause the ‘Labyrinth-diving’ feeling to disappear.