Entering a dungeon

After everyone bowed before the shrine’s torii, they went up the stairs and were met with a familiar place—at least to Himawari, Tamashi, and Kengo, who had visited this shrine in the past.

The shrine looked just like any other: a stone base supporting a wooden historic structure that featured a bell and an offering box. However, there was now a circle inscribed with bizarre symbols, shining with a pale blue light right before the offering box.

“To answer your previous question, Kengo,” Tamashi spoke, “this is how we get to the dungeon.”

Everyone but Tamashi and Awayuki—who was still resting on Mika’s shoulder—looked at the magic circle with their jaws dropped.

Tamashi stepped onto the circle first, gesturing for everyone to follow his example. When they did, they received a notification from the System:

Please wait for permission from the current leader of the dungeon raid.

“Huh? What is this?” Kengo questioned suspiciously.

“Since I was the first to step onto the dungeon entrance, I became the leader of the raid. Now, if anyone else wants to enter, they need my permission. You would know that if you'd studied...”

“Yeah, okay, just drop it already,” Kengo retorted.

As everyone stepped into the magic circle, Tamashi activated it, and they were teleported into the dungeon, disappearing on the spot.

***

The sky was bright and blue, decorated with faint white clouds and a gorgeous sun that was also white, for some reason. A person could spot a few trees here and there, but not nearly enough to block the view of the vast, hilly, green plain. The grass was dotted by various colorful flowers, livening it up and giving the world a touch more warmth.

Four humans and one small, fluffy bird materialized from blocky celeste particles within a glowing blue magic circle. Once their bodies were fully formed, the circle’s color changed to gray, becoming lifeless.

“Whoa...”

The humans’ voices were full of wonder and curiosity as they looked around in every direction with interest.

“Nice. Based on our surroundings, we won’t be dealing with any nekurei. Goblins are also unlikely, since they have few hunting and hiding spots here. Looks like we’ll be battling mostly slimes today.”

Tamashi smiled in relief, since slimes were definitely the weakest of the low-level enemies—at least in his opinion. Other than their high resistance to physical attacks and their own elements, they were pretty much nothing but oversized blobs of jelly.

“Awayuki, could you please look around?”

“Cheep!” (Certainly.)

Spreading his tiny wings and jumping off Mika’s shoulder, Awayuki flew high into the air, circling the group.

Cheep! I see approximately thirty-seven slimes—ten grass types, ten earth types, and seven water types—and a group of ten goblins, each with crude spears with the tips made of wood or stone. While the goblins are six to seven kilometers north of your current location, the slimes are randomly spread out across a thirteen-kilometer radius all around you, with the closest being only roughly a kilometer away.

Wow... didn’t expect such a detailed report. Thanks, Tamashi responded telepathically to Awayuki, a little taken aback.

Cheep! Why, of course. You should expect nothing less from the great angel of cold, Awayuki proclaimed proudly.

Even though Tamashi couldn’t currently see him, he just knew Awayuki’s chest was puffed out to its fullest capacity.

Heh, guess you’re right. Anyway, could you gradually guide us to the nearest slimes so we can take them out one by one? Also, don’t step in unless absolutely necessary. I want them to gain as much battle experience as possible, as soon as possible.

If Tamashi had wanted the dungeon cleared as soon as possible, he would have just instructed Awayuki to wipe out the monsters by himself, since he was certainly capable of it. But if he were to do that, not only would his family not learn anything, they also wouldn’t gain any XP, since they wouldn't have participated in the kill.

Cheep! Certainly! Now, follow me.

***

Standing at the very front of the battle formation, Kengo blocked an earth slime’s charge with a large wooden shield about two-thirds the size of his body. The shield had meticulously carved patterns resembling a decorative wall of some sort, with runic symbols that even Tamashi couldn’t translate, since the system didn’t offer a dictionary for them. He was serving as the tank of the party, since he had the highest physique stats by far.

Once the slime was immobilized by Kengo, Himawari fired an arrow from her automatic crossbow, hitting it in the center of its body. The crossbow looked rather ordinary, yet that simplicity was also part of its charm. It was an old-fashioned crossbow that hunters would use in the past, made of polished wood and metal.

Even though the arrow hardly did any damage to the monster, it slowed the slime further, allowing Mika to act.

She stood at the back by Himawari’s side, clutching a peculiar stick with both excitement and unease. The stick in Mika’s hands was not a simple stick, but in fact a cheap magic wand that she had bought on Tamashi’s recommendation. All it could do on its own was focus the user’s mana, and that alone was rarely useful. Therefore, Mika had bought two spells along with it: Debuff Level 1 and Buff Level 1.

Both worked the same way—only one was aimed at enemies, while the other was meant for allies. The debuff took away five points from the target’s chosen stat, while the buff added five points to a specific stat. Both effects lasted for only five minutes, but for the Ume family’s current situation, that was more than enough, since the spell could be recast after a short cooldown—as long as the caster had enough mana.

“Debuff!”

Tamashi’s shout was a signal for both Mika and Kengo—for Mika to fire her debuff spell, and for Kengo to move out of the way so he wouldn’t get hit instead of the slime.

Mika, having already finished with the simple chant she'd learned beforehand, fired immediately after hearing Tamashi’s signal. The wand’s tip glowed faintly for a moment before a small ball of bleak green energy shot out, flying toward the slime at about half the speed of Himawari’s arrow—that was why the slime’s movement had to be impeded first, since the debuff spell was rather slow.

Fortunately, the slime was too slow to dodge, so Mika’s debuff hit, robbing it of five physique points for the next five minutes—not that it was going to survive that long, anyway.

“Arrow, melee, repeat!”

Following Tamashi’s instructions, Himawari let loose another arrow, sinking it deep into the slime’s flesh—or whatever it had instead of that. Unlike before, the arrow dug much deeper into the slime’s body this time, spilling a grayish-brown substance from its wound.

Now, it was finally Tamashi’s time to shine.

Dashing forward with a crude-looking iron spear in hand, Tamashi thrust it through the slime’s body, piercing it completely—the spear emerging on the opposite side.

The creature retaliated by extending multiple tentacle-like appendages, trying to wrap them around Tamashi’s body.

Expecting this, Tamashi left his spear in the slime without a second thought and leaped back, narrowly avoiding the monster’s counterattack.

At that moment, another arrow struck the slime, though this time only grazed its side, dealing little damage.

Noticing that, Tamashi quickly recalled his spear into his inventory and issued new commands.

“Shield, reload!”

Kengo stepped forward again, blocking the slime’s movements with his shield, and therefore allowing Himawari to reload and Tamashi to resummon his spear.

While all that was happening, Tamashi sprinted to Mika’s side, breathing heavily.

“Can you use your buff again?”

“Yes,” Mika nodded stiffly.

“Buff my physique, please.”

Not wasting any time, Mika did just that. Before the chant was finished, Tamashi shouted another order to Kengo:

“Fall back, arrow, with me!”

The reason he called Kengo back was that once he received Mika’s buff, Kengo himself would lose it, since that spell could only enhance one person’s stats at a time. Kengo would therefore suddenly lose five points in his physique, which could cause an injury if he wasn’t ready for it.

Kengo immediately pushed the slime back several meters, then jumped away without hesitation. Taking advantage of the slime’s brief disorientation, Himawari fired another arrow but unfortunately missed.

Not paying that any mind, Tamashi—now empowered and gripping his spear again—rushed forward to join Kengo at the front line.

“Hold it down!”

Doing as Tamashi said, Kengo pressed the lower rim of his massive shield against the slime, pushing down with all his strength.

The slime was already oozing its bizarre bodily liquids from multiple wounds—most of them caused by Tamashi and Himawari—so it was heavily injured. Tamashi knew that, and it seemed the slime knew it too.

It struggled to free itself from Kengo’s shield, but by the time it finally managed to slip away, it was already too late. Before the slime could dissolve into the ground—that was one of the abilities earth slimes possessed—Tamashi swung his spear downward, nearly slicing the entire slime in half.

Now, the slime was on the verge of death, but like all monsters, it was stubborn. Its body slowly began to mend itself, the disgusting brown substance wriggling toward its other half.

But Tamashi would not let that happen.

“Finish it!” he instructed Kengo while pulling his spear out and stabbing the slime into one of its halves.

Following his elder brother’s lead, Kengo abandoned his shield and jumped behind the slime. Then, without any weapons whatsoever, he grabbed the slime’s body with both hands—and ripped it apart, separating the slime in two.

The monster’s remains instantly lost their structure, dissolving into a brown pool of sticky liquid—it didn’t escape anyone’s notice that it looked rather similar to something one might rather not see after an unpleasant time on the toilet.

Tamashi stared at Kengo in disbelief, momentarily speechless, before finally managing to ask: “Why didn’t you use your knife like you did all the other times?”

Kengo chuckled and almost scratched the back of his head—but thought better of it, seeing his hands were far from clean at the moment.

“I just wanted to give it a try. Aside from the mess, I’d say it was pretty badass, wouldn’t you agree?”

“You’re an idiot,” retorted Tamashi with a dejected sigh. “At least wipe your hands on the grass.”

With that, the earth slime was defeated, marking the Ume family’s sixteenth victory.