Chapter 517: Lord of the Cavern

Author's Preface
Hello, I'm Katarina, who pulled swimsuit Yuel with just the first ticket.

"Player name unknown, witnessed traveling with a woman accompanied by a massive number of snakes... huh."

At the very least, it's not that Goldunine. If that thing was bringing along a massive number of snakes, there's no way it would end with just a 'sighting'.
In that case, like Wimp, it's a different clone. Not a specialized type like Sammy-chan-san, but the type that uses numbers as their combat strength...?

"Hmm... What do you think, Emul?"

"What do I think? Well, I don't really like snakes desu wa... The history of the Vorpal Bunnies is also a history of fighting snakes desu wa."

Truth be told, Emul—who had been mimicking a muffler this whole time—had already undone her mimicry and was sitting in her designated spot on my head. I tried asking her just in case, but naturally, no useful answer came back. After all, the one that had been invading Rabituza for so long was Goldunine's shed skin, so I guess she wouldn't know much about the other Goldunines scattered across the continent.

"Well, it's a long shot, but I might as well try asking her too... Emul, to the usual spot."

"Yes sir!"

I received the concert ticket from Saina, but obviously, it's meaningless unless I actually go to the venue. And the closest save point to the coordinates where this venue is located is... the cave at the bottom center of the Sigmonia Frontline Valley that I set up.
I was also getting curious about that cowardly-nine I'd left completely unattended lately, so I immediately teleported over, and what I saw was............

"hmmm, this part should be a little more rounded..."

"...What are you doing?"

"hehyaah?!"

Somehow... using poison that's originally supposed to corrupt people and erode life to melt and shape rocks, or to put it another way, there was one idiot putting all her effort into 'sculpting'.

Scattered around the idiot—who was acting like a full-fledged artisan with a scrap of cloth or something wrapped around her head—were several completed works...

"h-how is it! i named it... 'danger'!!"

"Right, is it a demon or something? Animal-head motifs aren't that rare, after all. I see? A Shoebill demon? It even has horns and wings, how authentic, hahaha..."

"Hahaha..."

Equipping the Star Cloak, grabbing both ends with my hands, and spreading them out like wings...

"Who the hell is a 'Danger', you punk!!"

"the real thiiiing!!?"

Calling me a demon, you've got a lot of nerve!

"Question (Hey, you): Inquiring about the details of this statue."

"............'Kyouchou'."

Cooperation...? Ah, a Bad Omen!!

"Comprehension (I see): Recognized as a declaration of hostility."

"w-wait, don't point that at me!"

Is this girl an idiot... Why out of everything would she gleefully line up the ultimate physical evidence... Right next to the mechanical zombie statue, Saina—who was skillfully popping a vein in her head—thrust her weapon at Wimp. Putting that aside, the craftsmanship is actually pretty good. Let's just turn a blind eye to the fact that the head is completely a bird and the eyes look totally unhinged.

"This overly majestic snake is..."

"Sammy-chan."

"It's a magnificent piece of work. It’s overflowing with a majestic aura protecting a wimp."

"right〜?"

I was mocking her, though...
Sammy-chan-san raised her head as if to say, 'How about that?' It's embellished by about twenty percent, or rather, the facial structure looks completely like a dragon instead of a snake... But even that is hardly enough to express Sammy-chan-san's greatness.

"However..."

Compared to the last time I came here, the placement of the furniture is completely different, and how do I put it... hasn't it been customized to fit the color of a coward living a shut-in lifestyle?

"ah, right! i ran out of food! i want spice!!"

"Well, I did buy some, but..."

I wonder what this is. I'm completely on the dependent side of things in real life, but I feel like I've somehow understood the feelings of a guardian... Is this okay? Is it really okay to leave this wimpy-nine—no, this wimpy NEET—like this?
No, her level itself is actually rising quite steadily. I'll just ignore the fact that Sammy-chan-san's level has gotten absurdly high for now, but Wimp herself has also reached the 90s.

"I wonder why there isn't a mental fortitude parameter..."

Actually, what she really needs is a courage parameter, isn't it? Even if you're a snake, you have legs now, so take a step forward...

"Well, whatever. I have a question for you."

"what is it?"

"Do you know of a 'Goldunine' accompanied by an absurdly massive number of snake attendants?"

"i've seen plenty of those up until now."

However, Wimp opened her mouth while melting and carving the unfinished sculpture with hands seeping with poison.

"eight of them."

"Huh?"

"if it's one who brings along eight snakes and is likely still alive, then I know her."

.........Oh?

"Her name is probably just 'Me' like the rest of us... but she called those snakes 'Orochi'."

Well, that's quite a mainstream name... But having all eight of them be separate entities is surprisingly troublesome. A 1v1 against an enemy that attacks eight times consecutively, and an 8v1, mean completely different things. To be specific, if this was a turn-based game, I'd just straight-up die.
Wait, all eight of them are named Orochi? Does she call them Orochi No. 1, No. 2, or something to tell them apart?

"i remember she was really good at handling snakes."

"I see."

If she isn't just relying on sheer numbers but executing precise movements alongside the main body, then it wouldn't be strange for her to have survived this long... huh.
It's not completely confirmed, but it's best I keep it in mind. And with this, it's becoming more and more impossible to let Wimp's information leak to the outside.
This is practically a fatal wound during the prep phase; since our snake has the glaring weakness of her main body's specs being pure garbage, the moment Sammy-chan-san's abilities are figured out, we're checkmated. Sammy-chan-san's stealth is undoubtedly high-performance, but since her physical body is still there, she has the flaw of being weak to wide-area suppression attacks.

In particular, that Goldunine can be called our natural enemy. The Nagas she commands are essentially walking AoE attacks—the sheer absurd scale of them is straight-up cheating. And is her main body weak? Hell no. She's got broken specs, basically a Sword Saint with poison-attribute buffs.

"...I can't shake the feeling that cooperation is a fundamental prerequisite for this."

Logically speaking, this isn't on a scale where you can beat it solo. You'd literally need all the Goldunines to────

"...Wait, is that what it's about?"

Don't tell me, the players have to somehow get the mutually hostile Goldunines to cooperate... No, no, hold on. I'm about to challenge Orchestra right now; my thoughts are wandering way too far off track.
Besides, no matter how much I brainstorm right now, our Goldunine is a wimpy NEET. If I don't train her enough so she doesn't die in one hit, there won't even be a discussion. No, at the very least, to toughen up her mental state a bit...

"A waterfall..."

"i don't know what you mean, which makes it even scarier!! what are you planning to do at a waterfall!?"

"Waterfall asceticism, or dropping you into a waterfall basin... Hmm, let's compromise and go with waterfall bungee jumping!!"

"Let's do our best..."

"do what!!?"

"The bungee jumping, obviously."

...

............

..................

In the end, as long as I hand over seasonings... or rather, just spices to the wimpy NEET (I felt a bit bad so I left some actual food too), she'll reluctantly go hunt spiders for leveling just to get her main meals, so I'll leave her to it. Quietly breaking through the Frontline Valley, me, Emul, and Saina pushed forward to the southwest of the continent, occasionally kicking into high gear.

"Explanation: As we travel westward across the continent, the distributed ecosystems display a tendency to increase in size."

"Heh."

"For example, that Quad Rhinotops over there is a species that has retained its characteristics from the era when creatures like the Jura Vulcanrex were widely distributed, enlarging only its physical frame..."

"By the way, they're running away from us at breakneck speed over there."

"When in a group of 'only males,' the Quad Rhinotops exhibits a docile temperament and avoids combat. Especially when faced with someone who emits a stench of danger from their entire body like the Contractor (Master), they react just like that."

"Don't say it like I'm giving off a foul stench."

"However, if there are 'females or offspring' present, the male individuals will display aggressive tendencies."

"Ah... So basically, they just act tough in front of women and kids."

"...If summarized concisely, yes."

Sorry 'bout that, biology isn't my major. I'm thinking of going into economics in the future... I wonder if my grades in economics would go up if I played Strategy Games? Economic revitalization learned through warfare, in other words, a war economy...!!

"As usual, Sunraku-san is carefree no matter where we are desu wa〜"

"I don't want to hear that from a rabbit loudly crunching on a carrot on top of someone's head."

How should I say this... we've encountered obviously carnivorous monsters a few times now, but what is this feeling... It's like they're looking at a grain of rice that fell on the ground and then just ignoring it, or rather, the look you give when you release a tiny fish caught on your hook.

"Summary: Not even enough to fill the belly."

"Why do I feel so humiliated...?"

Even as an ingredient, I have my pride.

Author's Afterword
Note: I never said the players could band together.

Translator's Notes

• [1] Kyouchou: In Japanese, "Kyouchou" can be read as 協調 (Cooperation), 凶兆 (Bad Omen), or 巨鳥 (Giant Bird). Wimp writes it in hiragana (きょうちょう), leading Sunraku to initially think she means "Cooperation" before realizing she is calling him a "Bad Omen" to match her naming the statue "Danger".