"What's our best escape route…?"

I scan the battlefield, searching for a path that will guarantee our escape, or at least one that will raise our chances. Luckily, even though I used the flashy Chain Lightning to try and save Mr. B before the demons showed up, most of the skeletons haven't noticed us yet and are congregating around my sister's horrifying minion.

It isn't for no reason that players say skeletons have 'empty skulls'. Although they're not on the same level as the Stitched and the Zombies, they're not that far off when it comes to stupidity.

But the demons… the demons are something else all along.

I can see them hiding, pretending they aren't dangerous. They'll wait until we make a mistake when fighting the skeleton horde to strike.

"Yeah, I can see you..." I glare at a particularly dangerous demon, shaking my fist towards it. "I can see you, waiting to build up your Sloth skill so you can kill us with a single strike…"

"Brother, who are you talking to?"

Ah, shit. I forgot I wasn't alone.

"...nothing. Forget about it, Lemon."

Yeah, there's nothing to see here. Except that hidden and dangerous Sleepyhead, that is.

But still, I can't see an easy escape route. The demons are too well-positioned. Regardless of which route we use, we'll be under heavy arrow fire from the skeletons, and who knows what the demons will do.

Clara starts shaking my shoulder. "We must run away, they're getting upon us! We can't let Mr. B's sacrifice be wasted!"

She's right.

"Does Mr. B have any flashy skills? Preferably an area of effect one."

I know, I know. I should know if Mr. B has such a skill or not because we're on the same team, and the planning for our matches was done by the two of us. It's just that… I don't want to have anything to do with those guys… You understand me, right? Right!?

"Yes! Did you forget? Mr. B has the Abyss-exclusive skill, Call the Forbidden."

Ah, yes… that skill. Now I remember why I forgot about Mr. B's skills. I slammed my head on the nearest wall until I did.

Call the Forbidden is a self-destruct kind of skill, which means the unit dies after using it. But unlike the classic Self-destruct skill, Call the Forbidden causes no explosion and deals no damage. Instead, it summons a dimension rift that spews forth the worst nightmares you can imagine. Like a tide, they swarm the surrounding area and engulf anyone present, regardless of ally or enemy. Their MP and SOU starts to fall like crazy until, a few seconds later, the rift closes and everything is sucked in, including your sanity.

It sounds crazy, right? That's because it does. It's an extremely powerful skill, although it takes some time for the rift to pop up and usually requires some setup. Still, having a large chunk of your MP and SOU sucked is a bit too much.

But that isn't all there is to this skill.

Abyss-exclusive skills, especially the more powerful ones, tend to have a stronger effect than most other skills, but they're kind of a double-edged sword because they bring with them a significant drawback.

When you compare the risk of Abyss' skills to other skills that tend to fail, like those typically used by goblins, which tend to hit you as many times as the opponents, the Abyss' skills are more reliable. But compared to them, they have way more terrible consequences.

And I do mean way more terrible. Way, way, waaaaay more.

How terrible, you ask? Well…

When an Abyss skill goes amiss, it usually means you die. Which is appropriate for the theme, don't you agree? Hahaha!

To make it clear, that it makes me laugh doesn't mean I like them.

So, what's so bad about Call the Forbidden? When the skill fails, instead of summoning a dimensional rift that sucks MP and SOU, it summons one of the elder gods – remember that they're units on par with strength with dragons – at maximum level and a dangerous set of skills. That thing is so powerful that even pro players find it hard to deal with it.

'How is that bad?', 'If you summon a free elder god, doesn't that mean you hit the jackpot?'

No.

The elder god isn't under your control. Instead of helping, it will attack any of the allies of the unit who summoned it, making your life extremely awful as well as reducing your chance of winning to almost zero.

I wasn't joking when I said you'll die if it fails… But we must take this risk.

"Alright, Lemon. Order Mr. B to use it."

"Yes!"

She wasn't too happy when I told her to sacrifice Mr. B, but now that she's making him commit suicide, it's fine…? You know what, I won't think about it too deeply. Abyss-related stuff isn't good for my sanity.

After receiving Clara's order, Mr. B starts channeling the skill. A few seconds later, the dimensional rift opens and… and the usual scene ensues. The effects of the skill are so flashy that the few skeletons scattered around the village that weren't aware of Mr. B's presence start to run towards the center of the village.

Thank god no elder god is showing up.

"Nice! Now we just need to run away…!" Something grabs my leg at this moment, forcing me to look down. There, I see the skeleton I just killed a while ago. "He's back up already!? Die and don't come back, you fucker!"

I'm forced to play a bit more of 'Whac-A-Skelly'.

Agh, this is what happens with the undead, that they don't like staying dead. From the zombies that can survive any physical blows, to specters that resist elemental damage types, to phantoms that are immune to everything, as well as other monsters that come back after dying, they are so hard to kill!

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

And that's without taking into account all the faction-exclusive healing skills!

I didn't know until our first match that the basic Skeleton's innate skill, which makes them immune to poison damage from the start, because it has no organs that can be affected by poison, can be upgraded to reassemble itself after death. Sure, its stats are lowered, and the chance isn't 100%, but still…

That's why we can't easily get rid of them, regardless of whether they stay close to each other or not. My kit isn't as effective as it should have been!

Now that I think about it, Ricard might have explained it before, but I completely ignored him… As usual.

"Reassembling skeletons are such a nuisance!" I grumble, slamming my staff on another skeleton that's trying to wake up. "Stay dead, you damn bonehead!"

"Brother, how are we escaping? Mr. B's skill will end soon."

Oh, yeah. That.

"Hmm…" I stop smacking the surrounding skeletons and look towards the edge of the village. The skeletons on this side are being controlled by the demons and are setting up an encirclement. If we waste any more time, we won't be able to escape. "Ah, I know! I've got an idea."

"Ooh, what idea?"

"We'll charge forward and hope we can survive. Let's use our minions as sacrificial pawns if necessary."

As always, when it's convenient for me, simple is best.

"..."

Hey! Don't glare at me like that! I didn't have any time to think, okay!? Even if your Champion doesn't have eyes, this silence is killing me!

"A-anyway, let's go, Lemon. We're going to die otherwise, and you don't want to lose this match, do you?"

"...okay, let's do that. But I want to go that way!" Clara agrees, pointing in one direction. There's nothing special in that direction, though… "I want to kill that succubus on our way out. For some reason, I feel like it's making fun of me all the time, and it's very annoying!"

"A-alright…" I shouldn't have asked. I shake my head. "Everyone, chaaaaaarge!"

I lead the charge, being the first to step out of the cover provided by the ruined house. But, as soon as my Good Folower and Clara's minions start following me, I let them take the front. It's safest in the middle of the pack.

Immediately after, a rain of arrows falls over us. The skeletons aren't wasting this chance. Now that we're in the open, we're an easy target.

"Ignore them, just charge forward! Chain Lightning!"

My spell creates a zone free of enemies in front of us. We step over their paralyzed bodies and move on. We then approach another ruined house, the one that the succubus Clara mentioned and her partner are using as cover.

"Get her! Don't let her run away!" Shouts Clara.

Clara's minions stop running forward and instead surround the succubus. With their tentacles, mouths, and other horrifying appendages, they use everything they can to bring her down. Meanwhile, Clara latches her left hand (tentacle) onto the succubus and activates all her damage-over-time skills.

The succubus retaliates by casting Fireball. The fire spreads around her, damaging both the caster and Clara's minions. She's doing her best to resist, surrounded by unspeakable aberrations, but her HP is falling quickly.

With her other hand (tentacle), Clara hits the succubus repeatedly like a whip.

"Stop, trying, to, steal, him, from, me. We, had, an, agreement!"

…Is that some kind of personal grudge? We're wasting precious time, but there's no way I'm intervening in that. I'll let her do as she pleases and just give her a warning.

"Lemon, finish whatever you're doing quickly."

"Yes, I will!"

She answers with a happy tone and smiles at me. Or I guess she would, if her Champion could do it.

Well, I guess I'll keep the other demon busy for now.

"See? I told you it'd be easy thanks to Benjamin the Third." The blue-eyed player brags. "Thanks to him, we've cleared the first room with ease."

Contrary to his smug expression, the demon woman chatting with him is making a mix of a bewildered and amused face.

She isn't sure if she should retort. Should she point out that there were way fewer enemies in the hall than the first time? Should she explain that she did most of the work, provoking them with Hellfire, to make them reveal themselves? Or should she remind him that he stole the monster's idea from another person?

In the end, she decides to ignore his words and push the invasion forward.

"Baldy, less talking and more walking. At this rate, we're going to lose because they'll reach our dungeon core first."

"Oh, come on! Let me enjoy this a bit. They don't know where our dungeon core is or how to get to it anyway, so we can advance meticulously to ensure our victory."

"...did you forget that we don't know either?"

"That…" The man steps away from the defeated enemy he was standing on. "Okay, let's go."

When the man turns around, the woman raises her hands and exhales. "Haa… we're at the start and I already want to kill him more than the monsters blocking our way…"

"Did you say anything?"

"No, I didn't. I was talking to myself." Says the woman, shaking her head.

"Alright then."

The man shrugs and takes the lead forward. At the end of the room, behind the reception counter, there's a door leading to the rest of the building. He opens the door and looks inside.

"As expected, it's the security checkpoint."

The woman rolls her eyes. "Of course it is. We can't change our dungeon's layout."

"I know, I know… I was just making sure."

The man then glares towards the other end of the passage. There, a high-security door blocks the way forward.

"It's there again. But this time, we're ready for it. It won't work two times, Mad Rat!"

Before the undead player can step inside the room, the woman grabs his shoulder and pulls him back.

"Hey, Baldy. Did you forget what we talked about? Don't take unnecessary risks."

"I wasn't going to–"

"And don't forget they can change things too. There might be no monster mimicking a door today. What's more, I'm sure of it."

Carefully, keeping an eye on the game screen showing her stats and battle log to check for invisible enemies, the demon player starts moving forward. She stops in front of the door and takes out her whip. She then uses it to strike the door, and after checking that no HP bar appears on top of it, she grabs the door and starts pulling.

"I knew it'd be a normal door." She struggles to pull the door open. "Help me with this, will you?"

"Sure."

Between the two, they pull the door open. Unlike what the man feared, nothing happens during this time, and they can safely proceed. When they observe what awaits on the other side, they find the same laboratory as the first time they came, only that this time everything is distributed differently.

"Hey, Lily. Is it just me, or is the ground squishy?"

"Squishy?" The woman stomps on the ground, just in case. "It isn't? Aren't you being a bit too paranoid?"

"I'm not sure myself… For a moment, I felt like my feet was being sucked into the ground. But now, it's alright…?"

"It must have been your imagination."

"Ooh, the Mimics are such wonderful creatures!

They can be anything! They can turn into any piece of furniture, obstacle, or decorative element. As long as the size is similar, they can imitate anything! The gooey black substance that forms their real bodies is the true essence! The meaning of life itself! Ooh, just look at their malleable bodies. At their amazing adaptability! Their superior intelligence! They can be or do what you want better than any other monster!

What do you say? Let's investigate how far we can bring the Mimic's capabilities and enjoy this journey together. We'll push the Mimics as far as we can, and achieve the unimaginable!"

- Words from a random player. Nobody wanted to have anything to do with him, but they didn't completely ignore his expertise because it was useful for designing dungeons.

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