63 - bonus stage

"No, we'll never make it! Dialgo, come on!

We're almost there. Please hang in there.　

"...... after all, you're always doing the same thing, bro."

"Shut up!　Shut up and move your hands!"

Soaked to the skin by the continuous rain, the men shouted angrily and brandished their weapons.

A violent spray of water flew through the air, and large red and black spotted frogs leapt off the ground and toppled over.

But they quickly rose to challenge the warriors, dripping sticky bodily fluids.

To keep them at bay, the men skillfully use their long-handled weapons to keep them at a distance.

However, the prolonged battle had already left them gasping for breath and their bodies feeling sluggish.

The men tried their best to hold their ground, their leather armor showing tears here and there.

Beside them, a heap of water rose just off the shore, a swirling puddle of water.

The red dirt mound was covered with red water all around, and it was getting lower and lower, slowly losing volume.

Eventually, the large red liquid, which had completely eroded the small mountain, began to move slowly in search of new prey.

A warrior with a one-handed axe cries out in distress at the fact that there is a mountain of water ahead of him that lines the river.

"d*mn it!　Don't go that way!

"Okay, just in time!"

The man with his shield raised slid into the riverbank, and the water's edge rose up to form a new mountain.

The red puddle, which had been heading toward the bridge pier, suddenly changes course and attaches itself to the small mountain.

The new puddles come closer one after another, adding to the pile and increasing its volume.

At the unforgiving sight of the slimes merging together and transforming into a gigantic figure, one of the men stares at the cloudy sky and exclaims, "What the hell is going on?

"d*mn it, it still won't stop, this rain!

Thor and the others watched Rorolf and his men struggling against a backwater as they sat under their tents by the fire of their cooking stove.

It is tempting to help them, but there is nothing we can do now that we have used up all the magic we have available.

The main reason for this situation was that there was too little communication between Rorolf and Thor.

The slime in the river was somewhat different from the slime in the forest that Thor knew.

First of all, forest slime is brown in color, but river slime is red.

The first time you see them, you may be a little surprised because they look like a pool of blood, but you will soon be able to tell them apart because they are heaving and moving.

The favorite food of river slime is soil mixed with red iron sand, which is rarely found on stony riverbanks.

Iron sand itself is often deposited on the bottom of the riverbeds of the Bleeding River, and is sometimes washed up on the riverbanks when the water level rises due to rain.

They are almost harmless monsters that only search for them.

Of course, they share the same body fluids that dissolve almost anything, so no adventurers like to kill them.

The number of skill points per monster has been increased to three, and the purchase of bodily fluids has been tripled to 15 copper coins for a single spiral shell.

The biggest difference between the forest and the river was the way they were generated and the number of them.

When it rains, river slime appears in large numbers as if it were gushing out of the ground, and disappears all at once when the rain stops.

This is due to the fact that the slime appears only in scattered riverbanks, unlike in the vast forests.

It also seems to be related to the fact that they appear only when it rains.

Furthermore, the river slime has the strange property of sticking to each other when they come into contact with each other.

Slime sharing a nucleus increases in volume, digestion speed, and prey range.

Perhaps they become a higher level of existence, like the hobgoblin chief.

This is also due to the fact that they are not washed away when they enter a river.

Thus, there was an unfortunate misunderstanding between Thor, who thought that they were just like forest slimes, and Rorolf and his friends, who thought that slimes could be killed as many as they wanted.

Now, instead of Thor and the others who have run out of , Rorolf and the others are dealing with the river slime in the same way they have been doing so far.

The method is simple: they use on the ground near the riverbank to create a mound of earth as a decoy to lure the slimes toward it.

In order to release the , it is necessary to accumulate fighting energy.

Fighting energy is increased by fighting monsters, but you cannot fight against river slimes.

This is where the red poison frog comes in.

Once the frogs are killed, they do not spring up for up to an hour.

The only way out is to keep on fighting with the frogs while holding back.

We had already been fighting in the rain for an hour.

A dozen or so large slimes, all in one big pile, shuddered and ate up the last pile of decoys.

Ninilas, the second son, lets out a sad moan, as the shieldmen do not have enough fighting spirit to fire a new .

He grips his two hatchets tightly against the ugly red mass of water heading for the small mountain in the river.

"Kuuuhhh!　Sorry, 14th generation. I'll make a proper offering!"

"Hey, wait!　I don't have any money to buy a new axe."

"Don't stop me, brother. Don't let me stop you, brother. We've got to take these guys down now or we'll have to do it all over again!

The axe of the man who rushes to the slime is covered in purple electricity, and crackles as it turns water droplets into steam.

Just as he swings his axe in the air, a figure steps in between the slime and the axe.

Standing in front of Ninilas was a man with an empty barrel under his arm.

"-Thank you for waiting.

Old man Thor!

I'll take care of this. Here, Sora.

Yes, sir. Leave it to me."

With the iron sword she was given, the girl stirred the red water with a grizzle.

It takes longer than usual because of the increased capacity, but soon the tension covering the slime's surface is gone and its shape collapses.

Thor, who had been waiting for the slime, held out an empty barrel to catch it.

"Okay, I can do this. Hey, you can take those frogs down now!

Thor instructs the weary men as he instantly restores the iron sword, which has become quite twisted, to its original form.

"Are you sure?　Your skills are limited to ten times, aren't they?

"Don't worry, I've come up with a good plan."

"I see. ............ or die!　You d*mn frog!"

As if to relieve their frustration, the men slammed their weapons down on the monsters with force.

The frogs have been wiped out, but the rain is still falling.

Roloff looks around the riverbed with a weak tone of voice.

"What are you going to do now?　You can't just kill nine more and be done with it."

"I've done a rough count, and the number of animals that spring up in an hour is about fifty. The maximum number of mergers is ten or so.

"Yeah, that's about right. ...... You don't think they're just going to let them stick together and then take them down?"

"That's right, no way. If that's the case, there should be enough time for ."

"But how do you get them to stick together?　I hope you're not waiting for the piers to be eaten away."

"You can do it the same way you just did."

"Huh?　Then you shouldn't have knocked over the frog!"

Thor's lips lifted slightly at the purple-eyed young man who looked at him as if he were looking at a maniac.

"Oh, I forgot to tell you. I forgot to mention that it can also be used in this way.

Thor touched Dialgo lightly on the shoulder, and Dialgo's dull eyes widened behind his bangs as he held his shield.

He was aware of the fact that his body was filled to the point of overflowing with fighting spirit.

"I have returned to a state of heightened fighting spirit (・・・・). Now you can use your martial arts whenever you want.

The shieldman nods his head and releases the given fighting spirit while the people around him look on in amazement at Thor's nonchalant words.

The three brothers let out a surprised cry as the riverbed was heated up by the .

"............ is amazing!"

"Was it really ....... That's impossible. It's too impossible, old man.

"I didn't know you could do that. Who the hell are you?

He's just a guy who's used to picking through the mud."

At this moment, the troublesome rain and the swarm of troublesome monsters turned into a bonus stage for earning skill points and material costs.

The men, perhaps distracted by the prospect, burst out laughing at Thor's words.

The laughter stopped abruptly.

Their eyes widen and their gazes are drawn to the back of Thor's head.

"Why are you springing up here ......?"

"What, that?"

"Shit, that's not good, man!"

Thor turns his head and sees a red mass of water floating in the center of a riverbed where rain is pouring down.