"Woooooow. That's some nasty eating." - Garami

The flying bugs had arrived a little later on the second floor after the ground troops had arrived, and if I'm gonna be honest, I wished they had learned a little table manners from the ground forces. Cleaning up "Glutton Kitchen" after this will be a more backbreaking experience than everything else we've experienced here in this desert combined!

"Master, I am starting to feel the need to go to the little fairy's room soon if you keep on showing that..." - Bloom

"Can you even throw stuff up? But I agree. This is trash TV," I said while switching the screens to see how much the other Ruby Coffer monsters had progressed.

"...I cannot see anything!" - Noire

"Well, duh. That's the whole idea. Let me zoom out a little..." - Garami

There! We're out of the "Dark Zone" and can see a bunch of...black reptiles with really sharp scales. Wow, that's nasty. Runitos has invested in another attribute AND monster type! He should have saved some of that sweet DP for some traps, but that's his choice, I guess.

"What are those?" - Noire

"Hmm, not sure. They're a type of 'Reptile' species, but their attribute evades me." - Garami

"Well, whatever they are, they're afraid of the dark. So I guess they're smarter than certain demons I could name." - Noire

"Ha, ha, ha. Veeeery funny. Jokes aside, this is getting us nowhere." - Garami

The "Dark Zone" is a trap facility aimed to confuse the invaders by shutting off their sense of sight. Smell, sound, and other sources of information are unfortunately not affected by the trap zone while it's stuck on Level I, which might be the reason why they're not going in. Not to spoil the surprise or anything, but Flint's in there. Along with a huuuuuge bunch of Darkness attribute Demons.

As one might expect from its name, the "Dark Zone" trap can only be placed on floors with the Darkness attribute. I think stuff like Shadow and such have their variants of the Zone, but whatever. The point is that I've also invested in some new monster types and attributes, just not as much as what Runitos has, and introduced my fellow Demons into my Damavand Dungeon along with this sweet "assassination area" of a floor. As for the former 3rd floor, I moved its contents to the new 4th floor. The 5th floor is also using the Darkness attribute, but that's not important right now. I hope it won't be, cause that's our last line of defense.

"Hey, Flint? Mind explaining the extreme lack of dead bodies? I didn't give you command over the floor with the statistically highest kill rate just so you could slack off in the shadows!!" - Garami

[Cool your klin, boss! The monsters aren't going to get even an inch closer to the Dark Zones as long as those killer clowns are making a ruckus inside!] - Flint

"Killer clowns?" - Noire

"Oh, right. Forgot about those guys. Ehm..., just try to buy the raid team as much time as you can." - Garami

[Roger that! I'm going into radio silence!] - Flint

Flint cut off the call from his side, leaving me hanging. Someone's been reading too many spy comics.

"Ooookay, that happened. Let's leave the defense to Flint." - Garami

"Until he appears in the room, screaming in pain and agony like I did?" - Noire

"That sounds like the gist of it, yes." - Bloom

"Exactly. Then we can start panicking." - Garami

Now that I have shoved that problem to the future Garami, let's see how the raid team's faring.

"Hey, about those clowns..." - Noire

"Hmm, it's easier to show you rather than explain." - Garami

I super-sized the screen showing the raid team so that everyone could get a good look. ...And now I just realized I'm missing some popcorn in this bleak room! Damn, what a wasted home movie chance! Ignoring the tragic lack of snacks, I see the raid teams have cleared the third floor pretty much already. Only the C-team's lagging. And it's not even because of flamethrowers!

To keep the story short, the whole third floor is Fire-themed. The stone corridors's walls are either scorched sooty black or cracked open into pathways of burning infernos. You can see the heat even from the screen, not to mention that the occasional flamethrowers, the result of a trap facility I guess, aren't helping in regulating the temperature, exactly.

"Wow! This must be those cursed bugs' home." - Noire

"You got that right. Look, something is attacking the C-team." - Garami

The C-team is currently in a battle with mini-versions of the bugs we had been invaded by earlier. The identity of these bugs ain't monsters Runitos left behind to defend the Dungeon..., I think. Some of them might be, but that's not the point. What I'm trying to say is that these critters are the result of the floor itself rather than some monster placed there, or facility for that matter.

"Damn those swarmers." - Garami

"Huh? What's that supposed to mean?" - Noire

"*Sigh*. Noire, you think it's only the Dungeon's attribute that is affecting that floor?" - Garami

"If you're telling me that oversized pizza oven's not the result of the Fire..., oh. Now I understand. Swarmers, as in bugs' favorite M.O." - Noire

"Correctomundo~. That floor is getting bonus monsters' spawned thanks to it being bug-based." - Garami

The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

More precisely, it's the Ruby Coffer Dungeon's "Insect monster line's" additional effect: spawning more monsters above the already-established limits. Any monster line that can be added to a Dungeon comes with an additional something to turn the tide, and for the bugs, that "something" is numbers.

Well, we're just lucky it seems to be limited to low-rank buggers, F-rank at most, but their stupid numbers don't make it any easier to progress! Argh, bugs are always the worst! At least we're getting a good view of what the demons I added to the C-team can do.

The giant centipedes (still not as big as those that are making a mess over at the restaurant) were crawling over the floor as if they owned the place, but those that tried to get too close to the C-team were stared down by a group of floating, dark orbs. The orbs are "Dark Gazers", a type of demon that's like a Magic Eye specialist. It was even one of my evolution options in the past, so I chose it for my need for magic-related dark demons.

The Dark Gazers were using their Magic Eyes on any of those centipedes that couldn't keep their creepy feet far enough away. One Magic Eye alone might not be enough to stop the bugs, but stacking multiple of them at the same time was enough to send the insect tokens(?) to their graves.

We also have the same bees as the one that speared Noire, only they're not so fiery hot, along with smaller dragonflies and beetles. And all three types of bugs are glaring so hard on the Gazers that you start to wonder which one is the one with the Magic Eyes here.

Too bad for them that we got some good anti-air defenses on this team to keep the Gazers safe. I'm talking about Stygian Clowns and their D-rank evolutions, the Stygian Jesters. Imagine a female killing clown dressed in a monochronic attire, complete with a matching full-face mask and jester hat and you got your demon. The Jesters are more "adult" than the Clowns, in more ways than none.

...Yes, they are a variant of the Stygian Executioner race, which I belonged to before. Or better said, the Clowns are variants similar to how the Executioners are a variant of the original "Stygian Trickster" race. There's even an all-male "Stygian" variant that's like a foil to the all-female Clowns, but I didn't bother investigating those.

Anyway, the Clowns and their evolved sisters are juggling with balls covered in dark curses, knives thirsting for blood, and a desire for kills exceeding even Mira's for swords! ...Or so I hoped, but they still have a lot to learn.

What they're not lacking is acrobatics of slaughter. The Stygians are jumping in the air, slicing the bugs' wings right off, forcing them into the warm embrace of the floor. The Jesters are even worse. They make use of Darkness skills to cripple the bugs for the last of their powers through Weakening-type status ailments. Sheesh, keep that sadism in check, little sis!

And for those of you following, yes, the Stygians are the "killer clowns" that are helping Flint on our 3rd floor. No wonder those black crystal lizards don't want to enter the Dark Zones.

The last members of the mini-bug army are the lower-ranked versions of the "fire ants" we saw invading the Damavand. I think my name might be spot on, cause even these lower-ranked ants can spit and shoot what's best to be called "burning venom". Though to be fair, it's probably just some goo that caught on fire when the ants started with the spitting. I didn't know ant-type monsters could get an attribute focus this early in their evolution path. I'm not going to start considering using bugs myself, but it's a good piece of trivia to have back in one's head.

The C-team's answer to the ants was their "tanks", the Gloom Boogeys. They're "Boogey-type demons", living toys animated by the power of negative emotions such as fear and loneliness, plus a slight dash of demonic powers. The Gloom version is like a large, humanoid plush toy that can withstand a beating. Their Kigal-Note index says they're toys that were reanimated from their desires for hugs, but due to the Gloom Boogeys spreading Fear ailments through touch, not many want to give them their time of the day. So miserable. Poor plushies...

Even the ants are keeping a good distance away from the Boogeys, spitting their burning fluids (how rude!) while staying clear of the Boogeys' large arms. Plush + fire seems like a bad combination, but the Gloom Boogeys are surprisingly strong in absorbing light sources through Darkness skills for HP recovery. If I wasn't a stealth girl myself, I might have taken some of these skills myself.

Still, stalemates are boredom itself, so the C-team sent in the last two types of demons after the ants. Eh, I mean, two plus one. And by that, I refer to the Dark Phantom and its evolved form, the Sinister Shade. These guys are "demonic shadows", related not only to the Shadow attribute but Darkness and every other Gloom-category attribute. These are just lumps of demonic energies that got attached to random shadows which then started to walk around. Hey, not all demons can have fascinating backstories. Oh, and despite having "phantom" in its name, the E-rank version isn't related to the ghost species named "Phantom". Just in case you wanted to know.

As you can guess, the Phantoms and Shades can travel from shadow to shadow, and they can even bring along passengers on the ride. Today's lucky winner is the Evil Djinn, a demon species with a focus on Negative Karma and has a relationship to the Deadly Sin of Sloth. They're not related to the Darkness attribute...yet, so stay tuned for when I unlock their pre-selected evolved state. That one is going to be a treat, hehe~.

But let's have the future worry about the future and rather focus on the present. The Shade Express brought along the Djinns behind the ants' ranks, gifting its passengers a whole slew of open rears to fire their demonic curses at. GG, ants.

Things are going great for the C-team, but they're wasting time. I constructed this team in case the Ruby Coffer had some serious boss monster (the Mimic from the first floor doesn't count as "serious"), as the demons have way higher firepower compared to the monsters from the common line. As long as we're not facing any demon slayers or something.

"Hehehe~. It never gets old seeing disgusting bugs getting their just desserts." - Noire

"Is this disgust for insects something recently obtained? As in, in the last few hours?" - Bloom

"...I will leave that to your imaginations." - Noire

"Suuuuure. Though tough luck for you. It seems the show's getting closed early." - Garami

Someone seems to be thinking the same thoughts as me. That the mini-bugs are eating too much of our precious time. Either that or she somehow caught on that Noire is enjoying the extermination, so Revi, the leader of the C-team, has walked forward and is preparing her...magic catalyst(?) for a spell... Oh my god...this is embarrassing...

"Hey, isn't Revi too old to play with dolls?" - Noire

"She is indeed the oldest member of the Voyagers when you consider her time as an undead dragon." - Bloom

"Hey! Age and smage aside, I was the one who made that puppet! You got anything against my gift, hmm~?" - Garami

"When did you start training as a Doll Maker?" - Noire

"I didn't. One of the tomes stored with Mira's pirate treasure was a book for sewing dolls...I think." - Garami

"You 'think'?" - Noire

"The book was in an old language that we couldn't translate. All we had to work on was the pictures." - Bloom

"That caused the doll's quality to be drop-dead bottom low, but Revi wanted one of the dolls from that book so much that I couldn't say no..." - Garami

Its appearance isn't that bad. It's a plush doll fashioned after a black dragon. I tried to make a chibi-version of my Zahhaks, but this one got a little weird. It turned out more Western-styled with small wings attached to its plump body. Revi liked it though, but I still want to try my hand at making one that's got at least a quality rating of B.

"So she is still a child at heart. ...But why is that dolly glowing?" - Noire

"Oh, that's because the doll's a magic catalyst." - Garami

"Excuse me, the doll is WHAT?" - Noire

I was about to answer, but Revi unknowingly cut me short. The chanting time finished just then, creating a large, deathly black magic circle to appear in front of Revi's doll, which she aimed at the group of bugs blocking the passage. The Gazers, Shades, and every other demon evacuated behind her back as a large laser beam of magic and Death was released from the plush dragon's mouth. A moment later, all that was left of the bug squad was ashes.

Now, allow me to say this as the representatives for all of us here in the "control room", seeing as the others have lost their jaw on the floor.

"Yup, she's OP." - Garami