The shocking fact that Monimoni is nearly thirty has left me too delighted to hide my agitation, so here is an update.

I picked up a Sunlight Stone, so now I only have five points left. At this point, it is funny.
(Vacant smile.)

Chapter 423: Task Force Outsider

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WIMP: "Right now, I am... yes, the strongest...!!"

Sunraku: "Hey, hey! You’re paying way too much attention to my afterimages!"

Saina: "Insufficient dynamic visual acuity confirmed. The end of the training period will be postponed."

WIMP: "H-hey, scary, scary, scary!!"

The fact that WIMP was already falling apart within five seconds of meeting us showed that this one’s potential—non-combat potential—was not to be underestimated.

With me wrapped in black lightning and Saina blasting her boosters, the two of us circled WIMP in a two-layered orbit until WIMP was lightly reduced to tears. I gave Sammy-chan-san a brief nod and stated the plan plainly.

Sunraku: "We hunt spiders and centipedes."

WIMP: "Then I’ll sleep, so do your best..."

Sunraku: "Sorry, but your leveling continues in parallel. Don’t settle for a halfway level like eighty-seven. Let’s hit the big ninety."

WIMP: "Noooo!!!"

Saina: "However, Contractor Master, considering the ecology of Fortress Gargantula, there is a substantial possibility that a training method using Armlet Gargantula will fail."

Sunraku: "It’s what you call an extracurricular lesson."

According to its flavor text, the Fortress Gargantula controlled its young through pheromones or something similar. There had been something like that in the deep sea too, but that was irrelevant right now.

In other words, once Fortress Gargantula got serious, every Armlet Gargantula became less a soldier and more a disposable unit, charging headlong at its enemies.

Sunraku: "Listen. Fighting only spiders or only centipedes is basically impossible. When one wakes up, the other activates too. But that also means they are the ones who attract the most attention from each other."

The basics of MvM were provoking mutual destruction and intervening from the side.

MvMvP was impossible unless the player’s stats were monstrous. A player did not have many ways to compete against a railway cannon and a fortress.

Sunraku: "Listen. Armlets under Fortress Gargantula’s control become slow to react to attacks from anything other than the target their mother is focused on. In other words, you can hit them all you want."

WIMP: "I-I see? Hmph! That sounds awfully easy!"

Saina looked at WIMP, who had predictably started getting cocky, with the eyes one used to look at something pitiful.

I motioned for Saina to keep quiet.

Saina: "...Understood:"

WIMP had no idea.

The place WIMP was about to enter was a battlefield where counterattacks would not come, but stray shots from wide-area attacks would.

Sunraku: "Sammy-chan-san, if things get bad, grab WIMP in your mouth and evacuate, please."

And thus, my affection for Sammy-chan-san rose even further...

Sunraku: "Oh, and you’re definitely on duty too."

WIMP: "Whaaat!?"

And with that, briefing time began.

Sunraku: "All right. These are the various things I had made, just in case, using Tsaberil Imperial Treasure Crystal."

I had matched Imron with Bilac without asking, and Bilac had smacked me while yelling that I should not increase the workload.

Bilac: "Don’t add to my workload!"

I had told Bilac that the materials were what mattered and the performance did not, but apparently that did not help.

Emul and I, who had NPC classifications, received accessories.

Saina was also an NPC, but had no accessory slot. Instead, Saina had an expansion-function unit, so I gave her something called an “Add-On Dual-Drive Booster.”

As for WIMP, whose classification as an NPC or monster mob was unclear, and Sammy-chan-san, who was simply an enemy mob...

WIMP: "What is this?"

Sunraku: "Cold hard cash made from Tsaberil Imperial Treasure Crystal."

WIMP: "Hide it!!"

After testing various things, it seemed that because WIMP could join a party, this unique monster—maybe—was treated as an NPC by the system.

So I handed over accessories I had prepared just in case.

Tsaberil—or rather, minerals connected to the Crystal Scorpion line in general—shared the ability to store magical power.

Still, as expected of the Crystal Emperor, every item made using Tsaberil Imperial Treasure Crystal had one or two strange quirks.

But appearance was what mattered, and this time there probably would not be an opportunity to use those quirks.

Sunraku: "Here’s the operation. This time, we interfere with Fortress Gargantula and let Treynor Centipede win. I’ll board the Fortress directly. Emul will ride Saina; the two of them will provide support. WIMP, you destroy as many Armlets as you can."

Sammy-chan-san would be the reserve force for emergencies.

Sammy-chan-san would stay hidden using that stealth ability, and if anything went wrong, retrieve WIMP and retreat here.

Sunraku: "Operation begin!!"

In SLF, the weather changed at almost the same pace as Japanese time.

It was not exactly the same weather, of course, but the fact that the game even made it rain showed once again what monstrous realism it had.

It was currently six-thirty in the real world.

Sigmonia Frontline Valley was dyed the red of twilight, and we were about to throw a spark into this quiet place.

Sunraku: "Saina!!"

Saina: "Understood. Beginning show-of-force action."

Even with the boosters, Saina apparently could not fly very high without a Tactical Machine Beast. Still, Saina leaped roughly ten meters into the air, aimed the two handguns equipped in both hands at the ground...

And fired.

Sunraku: "WIMP! Don’t force yourself to finish them! Build points steadily!!"

WIMP: "I’ll do that even if you don’t tell me!!"

That was good to hear.

Now then... unfortunately, I had not brought a conch shell. Let the gunfire serve as the signal that battle had begun.

Cracks raced across the ground.

Looking around, I could see Armlet Gargantulas popping their heads up from the earth all over the place. But no matter how many small ones moved, they could not create vibrations like this.

They could not create tremors that felt as though they were shattering the earth below.

The cracks in the ground reached their limit.

Then a super-heavy armored body burst upward, breaking the earth apart as it shook dirt from its shell.

I see.

Its form truly suited the name Gustaf, the railway cannon.

When it came to a body on the scale of a train, Arctus Regalex came to mind. But unlike that one, which had been thin vertically, this one had considerable width too.

Its armor scraped together with a grinding shriek.

As Treynor Centipede Gustaf raised its head from beneath the earth, I searched for the other location now making the ground tremble.

WIMP: "Aaaah! Nooo! They’re swarming all over me!!"

Shut up. Mute yourself, coward...

There!

Sunraku: "Operation begin! Saina, Emul! Do not get caught in this!!"

Emul: "Hai na!"

Saina: "Understood:"

Where a dragon rose, a tiger rose as well.

As soon as I confirmed that a giant spider had likewise broken through the earth, I joined the Armlet Gargantulas that had likely been placed under Fortress Gargantula’s pheromone control and ran toward the giant fortress.

WIMP: "It’s not looking this way? F-fufufu... This is my stage now—aaah!?"

The aftershock of the centipede’s movement seemed to have sent WIMP flying.

But Sammy-chan-san had not moved, so WIMP was probably fine.

Using the Armlet Gargantulas crawling up Fortress Gargantula’s pillar-like rear legs as footholds, I kicked off them and ran higher and higher.

I could use Superspeed Bradion, but that was more useful for disengaging and launching surprise attacks.

The human-sized Armlet Gargantulas possessed strength appropriate to their size.

At the very least, they were not weak enough to be knocked free merely because one human kicked them.

Before I knew it, I had reached the top.

Standing atop Fortress Gargantula’s abdomen, I gripped Areadbhair Rebuild and began by slashing at an Armlet trying to climb into one of the nearby “turrets,” then kicked it away.

The young spider, cut apart in a flash of flame, rolled away and crashed spectacularly into those following behind it.

Sunraku: "A cannon without ammunition is just decoration, right!?"

We could leave damage contribution to Gustaf.

We were, in a sense, a sabotage unit. We would work behind the scenes and reduce its ammunition stockpile to nothing.

Saina: "Warning: swelling detected in Treynor Centipede Gustaf’s muscle fibers. It is coming."

Sunraku: "Understood!!"

With a roar that split the twilight air, the giant centipede wrapped itself around the spider.

Their thick armored shells ground and screamed as they tested each other’s hardness.

As the centipede tightened around it, the spider braced its legs in resistance. From “turrets” beyond the reach of my attacks, young spiders were fired out one after another.

Sunraku: "[Magic Edge]!!"

Saina: "Beginning firing action. I will shoot them down."

But attacks fired from atop the spider’s abdomen likewise shot down some of the Armlets serving as bullets.

The reduced, hole-riddled barrage struck Gustaf and burst apart, scattering shockwaves.

Using me as a comparison was a little unfair, but these were self-destruct attacks capable of blowing away a player above level one hundred in one hit.

One or two might not have done meaningful damage, but when their number reached dozens, they could at least force it to flinch.

Gustaf recoiled, loosening its restraint.

Fortress Gargantula did not miss that moment.

Its pillar-like legs—stake-like when viewed as part of its full body—stomped onto Gustaf’s body, crushing and piercing the armored shell with overwhelming mass.

Sunraku: "Everyone, disengage!!"

Emul: "Doll person! Doll person!"

Saina: "This unit informs primordial organism: designation Emul that this unit’s proper designation is Saina. Executing disengagement maneuver."

Emul: "Whaaaahhh...!!"

Saina spun through the air to disengage, making things extremely unpleasant for Emul.

Watching them go, I also put force into my legs to retreat.

Sunraku: "Hey, Gustaf. If you’re aiming, this spot is recommended."

I might have been imagining it, but I waved Areadbhair at the giant centipede as though our eyes had met.

A “main cannon” so large that the Fortress’s back-mounted “turrets” looked small was aimed at the spider.

Immediately after I disengaged straight upward using Superspeed Bradion, an enormous poisonous shell fired from Gustaf’s main cannon scored a clean hit on the fortress spider’s side.

Sunraku: "Nice!!!"

All right.

Let’s close this out one move at a time.

We are taking down a fortress.

Conquista Dolls and Human Dragoras have separate equipment slots in place of accessory slots.

For Conquista Dolls, those are additional parts. They affect not only the base form, but also the form equipped with reinforced armor, so they are fairly important.

Naturally, crafting new parts requires the involvement of an Ancient Craftsman... although that is not the only possible method.

Human Dragoras can equip nutrient supplements.

At chosen or random timings, these grant the Human Dragora separate buffs.

They are items that can be made by the highest-tier job in the Farmer line, or by the hidden Pharmacist line.