I observe with dead eyes as the natural rocky terrain slowly transitions into a mix of polished rock and metal. We’ve finally reached the end of this treacherous area, filled with monsters, traps, and deadly ambushes. I don’t feel like celebrating, though.

“Aaah… I’m so happy…!” Berta drops to her knees and kisses the ground. “Never again…!” She sounds happy, but her face says she wants to cry.

“Don’t be like this, hihihi!” Matta laughs cheerfully. “Didn’t you find it interesting? Monsters that can teleport through walls, deadly mushroom groves, a naturally-formed monster train… so much stuff we never saw before… What more can you ask for?”

Instead of answering, I send him a killing glare and he shuts up.

Yeah, sure. You’re happy because you got out scot-free! I’d like to see what you would say if you had to experience the same stuff as me.

Or worse, the same as Berta.

And talking about her… She’s hugging the ground now. She looks so relieved to get out of there that she doesn’t mind what Matta is saying.

We had no other choice but to let him go because he threatened us with deleting the map if we forced him into some horrible experience. If he deleted it, we would have had no choice other than to roam the tunnels randomly, suffering all the time, so… We released him and followed his instructions to reach leave the area as quickly as possible.

What a shame. We only wanted to share our joy with him…

After all, I do want to see what comes next, I just don’t want to suffer anymore. Leaving then, due to having no map, would leave me with a bad aftertaste.

As for Berta, the reason she gave is she wants to see if there’s another cute monster like that cat-octopus in the dungeon. I didn’t notice it at first, but she lost the one she was fervently protecting at some point. Was it when the turtle almost ate her…? I’m not sure.

I slap my cheeks two times. “All right! Let’s see what comes next! I hope it isn’t as terrifying as the previous area…”

“Yes, let’s go! To adventure!” Says Matta. “The area looks like a laboratory. I’m sure it’ll be filled with interesting stuff.”

There’s a door blocking our way. It reminds me of one of those high-security doors in biological laboratories, used to keep something out… or in. Let’s hope is the former.

Matta takes the lead, opens the sealed door that blocks our way, and starts inspecting the interior. I take a peek from behind him.

The room isn’t big or small, but… what a mess…

There are machines I’ve never seen before randomly distributed through the room. There are tables filled with papers and mysterious objects, glowing capsules filled with liquids of various colors, as well as cables on the ground and hanging between the machines.

In the middle of all this mess, there’s a humanoid monster taking notes, standing next to one of the machines. It doesn’t seem it’s doing anything noteworthy except standing there.

“Why does it have such short arms and legs? Is it a child or an adult?” I ask Matta.

“I… I don’t know?”

“I want to see it too! Let me see the monster!” Berta, who until now was resting on the floor, quickly flies in our direction. She ends up sitting on top of my head. “Pfft! Ahahaha! It’s so funny! It’s an adult with a beard, but the arms and legs are so short! Ahahaha!”

Oi, you. Do you think I’m a vantage point or something? Go somewhere else!

I push her away and turn to Matta. “The monster is alone. Do you think it’ll be strong? I’m tired of tricky monsters…”

He thinks for a while before answering. “It doesn’t look like it’s a boss, but I don’t know.”

“Then, there’s only one way of knowing for sure. I’ll go first.”

I walk inside the room. As soon as I step inside, the monster turns around and makes a jump in my direction.

“Too bad. You won’t get me this way!” I fly away to avoid the shockwave created when it lands and immediately retaliate with my sword. “Haha! Let’s see how good you are!”

We start exchanging blows. The monster isn’t that strong, only slightly resilient. Why is everything in this dungeon so hard to kill?

Soon, Matta and Berta join the fight. They join me in melee and start casting spells from a distance, respectively.

“It turns out it wasn’t that strong,” says Matta with a smile on his face. “With the three of us, there’s no way we can– Run!”

Run? Why?

At the same time as Matta starts running away, an ice wave appears around the monster, quickly expanding in all directions.

Ah, I see now…

I react too late, and the ice immobilizes me. The monster takes this chance to launch several attacks and my HP bar takes a huge blow. But I don’t care that much, if my HP reaches a dangerous level, Berta will heal me.

Matta, who evaded the ice wave by a hair’s breadth, tries to take the monster’s attention off me by attacking repeatedly, but the monster ignores him completely.

Yeah, I understand. Why would anybody care about a sneaky, powerless goblin that will run away as soon as you turn around when you have an immobilized dragonborn in front of you?

The ice thaws a short while later. I reposition myself and the combat returns to the same state as it was before anything ice-related happened.

It’s at this time that I notice the monster is covered by a fire aura, which means we’re taking damage by staying close to it.

Then, it means this monster has at least double the stats Matta has, or he would be dead by now. It’s thanks to his Dauntless, Foolhardy, and Blood Sucker skill combination, which allows him to fight stronger enemies with a chance at survival… as long as he doesn’t get hit by any strong attack, that is.

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

Dauntless (Passive skill) When facing an enemy with at least 20% higher average stats than you, increase all damage you deal by 20%.

Daredevil (Passive skill) Your damage isn’t reduced against units with at least double your average stats.

Blood Sucker (Triggered skill) Your basic attacks steal 0,5% Max HP from your target. This skill can only trigger against units with at least double your average stats.

He’s like a mosquito, slowly draining the enemy’s HP as he does his best to stay alive. And, same as a mosquito, a single slap from a strong monster will kill him. That’s why, if the ice nova had hit him he would have died, but the fire aura isn’t enough to kill him.

“Ahahaha! Eat this!” Berta laughs like a crazy lady. “I’ll finish you!”

Here it comes. Her crazy attack.

The thing she does when the combat drags out and she wants to move to the next thing. Also, the reason why a lot of times our fights end up being a lot harder than they should; as she tends to get the monster’s aggro as a result. It’s the same as she did against the Demonic Swarmers, but she did it at the start of combat at that time.

From her hand, multiple purple projectiles are launched at the monster. They hit it at the same time and a chunk of its HP vanishes.

And another ice nova is released. And I’m frozen still once again.

Luckily for him, Matta started running as soon as she declared her attack, so he didn’t die this time either. He didn’t have to run as fast as before because he was warned ahead of time.

“Ahahaha! Carles, you’re so lame! You got hit by it both times! Don’t you know how to run away? Ahahaha!”

The nerve. It’s her fault, but she still laughs at me.

“Shut up!” I say. “It’s your fault, and you know it. What are you, a child? Laughing at someone else’s disgrace!?” She flinches when I call her a child, but I don’t allow her to make a comeback. “Now, come here and heal me. And fix your childish attitude once and for all.”

“You’re the childish one! Now I don’t wanna!” She crosses her arms and turns around.

Meanwhile, the monster keeps attacking me with his pencil. After the two ice novas and the repeated, unavoidable attacks, my HP is reaching a dangerous level. Will I die because of her childishness?

“Come on, Berta! I’m going to die!”

She takes a peek in my direction. She struggles between helping me or not until she finally starts healing me. “Urgh… fine. But only because I’m magnanimous!”

I’m sure she looked at my HP bar and decided to heal me only because I was going to die soon; and only because the Resurrection skill makes her lose 10% of her maximum MP every time she uses it.

After the ice disappears, there are no more surprises and the fight ends when the monster dies.

“A single mistake when the ice novas or too much damage from the fire aura and I’d be dead right now! So much fun! I live on the edge! Hihihi!” His belly starts shaking as he laughs.

“You’re right,” I nod. “It wasn’t as dangerous or tricky as previous battles. Finally, we won without trouble! If only a certain somebody didn’t complicate everything…”

I glare at Berta and she flinches.

“I didn’t do anything wrong.”

The nerve. Let’s provoke her a little. “Huh? Why did you think I was talking about you? I didn’t say your name…” I grin. “Did you think I was talking about you? Why might this be? Maybe you actually did something wrong, after all?”

“Shut up,” she mutters. “I didn’t do anything wrong. Hmph!”

Yeah, sure. Whatever you say. Let’s leave the kid sulking in the corner and talk about important topics.

I approach Matta, who just took out the map. “Where do we go next?”

There are four doors in this room, one on each wall. We came from that one, and I refuse to go back to that horrible place. But that still leaves three choices.

“The laboratory continues in that direction.” He points to the opposite door to the one we come from. “As for the other two, they lead to optional areas. I’d like to take a look at the right one, or we’ll completely miss it unless we go back. It looks like an open area, maybe it’s similar to the big cave? There’s no need to take the left path because we’ll find another entrance later.”

“Where does that area connect?” I say, pointing to the right door. “To the entrance? To the tunnels?” The idea of going back sends shivers down my spine.

“No, it connects to the big cave with the turtles.”

“I see…”

Then we can take a peek and come back here. It’ll be fast.

I start walking to the door on the right side when Matta stops me. “Wait!” He says. “Let me look at what awaits us in the other laboratory room. I’m curious.”

“Fine, go ahead.”

As long as there’s no instant death trap, it should be ok.

He opens the door and tells us what he sees. “There’s another monster like the one in this room, and a few more humanoid monsters running around. It’s hard to tell exactly how many because of the clutter. They don’t seem to react to the door opening…”

“The same monster? Now that we know how it works, it’ll be an easy fight.” I shrug my shoulders. “If you’ve finished we can now check the right door…”

“Wait, I’ll do it!” Berta flies to the door and reaches for the lever. “I’m opening it!” Then, without waiting for us to get ready, she pulls it and the door starts opening.

“Fuck!”

The light coming from the other side blinds me. Even if the laboratory is well-lit, there’s a high contrast with the sunlight, so I cover my eyes with one hand.

“Wow…” Exclaims Berta. “...bunnies!”

“I never expected to find something so normal inside this dungeon.” Comments Matta from my side as he furrows his brows. “But I have a bad feeling about this. It looks too normal.”

“Normal? Define normal. Because in this dungeon where everything’s weird, this area looks the least normal to me.” I retort.

“...you’re right…”

There’s a lush valley on the other side of the door. There’s a lot of sunlight and grass everywhere. And bunnies. Lots of bunnies.

“...huh? Where’s Berta?”

Matta points ahead, to a small dot in the distance. “She rushed ahead as soon as she saw the rabbits.”

He’s right, she’s there! She’s so small I almost can’t see her!

I walk into the valley. The soft grass meets my feet and gets squished underneath.

Now that I’m closer, I can see Berta properly. Right now, she’s holding a bunny-octopus in her right hand, which reminds me of the cat-octopus she’s holding in her left hand… Wait! Left hand!? Where did she get that cat-octopus from!? I could swear she didn’t have it a minute ago, and there are only bunnies in here!

I take another look at her just in time to watch the rabbit she’s patting transform into a tree-like monster.

What the hell!? What’s normal about that!?

image [https://i.imgur.com/ZGSK4Pl.png]

‘Don’t bring your friends to ‘The Mad Rat’s Lab' if they like to cuddle cute things. They might get a trauma.’

This was a message from a player who wanted to prevent other players from having bad experiences. As you might expect, the achieved result was the opposite of the intended one.