Chapter 44: Zombie Area Capture

Chapter 44: Zombie Area Capture

“Kyaa! W-what is this!?”

With a scream from Futaba-san, I am relinquished from sleep.

“Mnah— W-what happened Futaba-san”

Still half asleep, I make the attempt to get up while rubbing my eyes.

“It’s terrible Kotarou-kun! There’s a monster in this fairy square! Also, first name please!”

“Eehh! Monster!? Where!“

That’s one hell of an emergency alright. Fairy squares are our only safe location. And if it came to be that some monsters could invade this space, we’d have to start setting up watch.

“Look, it’s over there! That black Skeleton!”

“Uaah, you’re right! What is that, a new type of Skeleton!?”

It had the figure of a child, with bones giving off a dark, metallic sheen, a jet-black Skeleton. At one corner of the square, it was single-mindedly swinging around a spear like a Knight focused on training.

“Ah, sorry Mei-chan, that’s one of mine, it’s a Mud Doll”

“Eh, it is?”

My head wasn’t working right just after waking up. Obviously, that over there is the Vile Mud Doll I made last night.

For now, I’ll go ahead and explain.

“Huh, so that’s how it is“

“Yeah, I was thinking it could work as a bit of support for you”

“Thankyou, Kotarou-kun”

The perfect smile she shoots back rivals any bishoujo. Man, dungeon-diets sure are impressive.

“So, what’d you name her?”

“Eh, name?”

“You didn’t?”

“Nope?”

Name, a name huh. Should be useful to have one I guess. If Mei-chan wants to give it orders, calling it by name would make it easier.

“Got it, let’s go with Rem”

It’s a mud doll, Golem, so Rem. Looks like a Skeleton though.[1]

Basic naming done and over with, I will now start calling this nice and loyal mud doll Rem. When I mentally commanded come back, she stopped her training as if hearing me by telepathy, and began heading this way with a rattle of her bones.

Standing in front of us, her back, or rather, spine was straight, standing at attention, holding the spear in a perfect vertical. If I gave her some armor, she’d look just like one of those antique knight displays.

“She has great manners”

“Yup, she sure isn’t like those soul-less Skeletons and Zombies you find all over”

Speaking of which, it’s not like I told her to stand at attention, so this pattern of action must mean that she’s got at least some form of ego. There’s also the possibility that she comes preprogrammed with a certain level of independent activity.

“From now on, your name will be Rem”

“Nice to meet you, Rem-chan”

“Gaga”

Replying with a click of her jaws, Rem nodded no show understanding by rigidly lowering her skull.

And like that, we got ourselves a new and improved Rem as a new team member(?), and began once more our venture into the dungeon.

“— Yup, she fights pretty well”

We’re still in the same old Zombie area, and the genre of monsters appearing show no signs of change. Stone passages and the occasional tunnel. And there were some graveyard forests in varying sizes as well.

The first thing I confirmed was Rem’s solo fighting ability. Whether it’s Skeleton or Zombie, if it’s a 1v1, she can win without much trouble.

“Sink into hell!”

Blackhair Bind leapt out from inside the bog like great serpents that just discovered prey. Moving nimbly, they snatched up the Zombies running ahead.

“BuaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAaa!!”

I wondered if their pain receptors are still working? Forcefully slammed into the poison bog on the walls, the Zombies raised harsh screams.

The maximum number of braided blackhair tentacles I could release was four. With that many, I could catch multiple Zombies at once.

“Tch! still not enough, but—!”

Zombies would keep moving if they weren’t well melted, but the ones slammed into the walls were pretty much all cooked. I could release them from the tentacles, and they wouldn’t be coming after me anymore. They’d been highly damaged, and couldn’t attack so I no longer needed to bind them, is what I mean.

I released the 4 bodies, and captured another 4. With that, it’s 8 Zombies out of the way.

But I started off with 10. No, there was actually 12.

Two of those had their feet stuck in the acid mud and we’re melting down. But the other two were stepping over their dead compatriots, and using the sacrifice of those last four, had avoided Blackhair Bind. They had really closed in on me.

“Gagaaa!!”

Right there, came in Rem, full verve. Her technique much sharper than I’d ever seen, Rem pierced through one of the Zombie’s chests. But these past few Zombies we’re all the large type. Those can’t be so simply killed.

Its chest pierced through, the Zombie just kept coming, lodging the blade further into itself, closing in on Rem. That being the case, she couldn’t take it out and attack anymore.

“You can do it! Push it away!”

Rem obeyed and, letting go of her spear, she grabbed the encroaching Zombie around its waist. In terms of pure power, the Zombie would win, but maybe because it was weakened from that stab, the undead actually staggered. Even the small Rem, using every ounce of power in her body, was able to somehow, some way, push the Zombie into the bog running along the wall.

The Zombie shrieked piercingly, and also—

“AaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!”

The last Zombie, was already here.

Twelve in all. Eight defeated by tentacles. Two died stuck. One held off by Rem. One more, the last remaining one, I lacked a single way of stopping it.

My spear is with Rem, the club, I lost a moment ago, I didn’t have one good weapon. My sub, the knife, that I was holding was so short, it wouldn’t serve as a smidgen of defense against this raging Zombie. Also, I really doubted if I could score a miraculous critical hit on its vitals with my shaky-as-fuck hands.

Dead, I’m sooo fucking dead—

“Don’t touch my Kotarou-kuunnNAAAAAAa!!”

Man that’s a scary roar, is what I thought when the Zombie’s head burst.

An instant later, my slightly long bangs danced from the tremendous air pressure.

Ignoring the crumbling Zombie that was releasing decayed blood and brain entrails, I turned my head.

And there I saw Mei-chan’s left hand swung to the back for just an instant. A pose like she’d just thrown something behind her without even looking. Incidentally, her right hand was using her axe as a shield against a Zombie. And before I noticed, her left hand had made it back to the axe-handle, whence forth she continued making mince-meat of the remaining Zombies.

Looking at the state of the Zombie’s head and considering Mei-chan’s hand movements, I guessed that she threw a stone behind her, achieving an splendid head shot at that.

“Mei-chan, you’re... just epic...”

I couldn’t imagine calling her something so over-familiar as Mei-chan anymore. With that much god-level skill, I’d much rather go with Mei-chan-san.[2]

Thanks to her, the Zombies on our tail end were all gone. I also finished off the half dead ones with my tentacles.

“Haa... Haah... M-man, that was close...”

So we had that episode of danger in the Zombie area as well. Which just goes to show, you can’t let down your guard anywhere in this dungeon.

Since something like this happened, Mei-chan started badgering me to carry Hirano-kun’s sword on me as a last means of defense... So for now, probably until we get something good again, I’ll be borrowing the sword.

So we switched up our gear, took care of the occasional Skeletons, Zombies, and Goars, and finally arrived at a clearing completely different from the other ones around here.

Hmmm, doesn’t look like a boss room... but please, please just stay like that!

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[1] Rem will hereby be pronouned female... if I’m not forced to make it male due to raws... In retrospect from this chapter, I feel a bit sorry. Also, in jap, L and R are kinda interchangeable.

[2] -san = mad respect bruh