Blood-like red particles scattered through the air as a single adventurer collapsed.
He probably couldn't even understand what had happened — his eyes were frozen wide open in shock.
"Mwahahahaha! You let your guard down, you fool!"
Millim's cheerful voice rang out as the remaining five adventurers tensed up and drew closer together.
But that was pointless.
"O wind that tears across the land, become a tornado and rend mine enemies apart!
Tornado Slash!!"
Grouping up had been a mistake.
As if mocking the wary adventurers, the Tornado Slash I unleashed carved through the bunch of them.
Tornado Slash was an area-of-effect version of Wind Blade. It consumed more Magicules, but it could simultaneously slash through multiple enemies within a defined range — a handy spell when dealing with groups.
Millim had pulled off a sneak attack against the scouts who'd been sent ahead to investigate traps, killing them swiftly and silently. And before my spell could even arrive, she'd already circled behind the enemy.
There was no way Millim would make a clumsy mistake like getting caught in my own attack — my spell hit only the clustered adventurers in a clean, direct strike.
Before we even detected the enemy party, we'd already been moving using the Invisibility spell.
The moment I launched my attack, Invisibility was dispelled, but by then the enemy was already down by one or two — and those were backline healers and mages, to boot.
"Oh crap, it's the Red Comet! Watch out!"
"Damn it — Magic took out Marger and Nargis with a spell! Jean's not breathing either!"
"Screw you! How dare you!!"
The frontliners, now able to perceive us, charged forward in a rage —
"Kuahahahaha! Too slow!"
"Ooohohoho! You shall not pass through here!"
— only to be met head-on by Veldora and
Using Appraisal, I checked the incoming warriors and saw bright-red HP bars hovering above their heads — all at less than half.
"Those guys are under half HP. You sure you want to try your luck against us?"
That's right — the red bars above their warriors' heads represented HP, or stamina.
This display was, of course, only visible through my own interface. I'd configured it to resemble a game system for easy readability.
And thanks to that familiar display, I could quickly assess the situation and issue the right instructions.
At this point, it was a guaranteed win.
The opening ambush took out the enemy's scout-type members, letting us close in without being detected.
That let us eliminate the squishy backline support with magic before they could react. The story would be different against a truly dangerous opponent who placed barriers on the entire party every time they moved.
But against a group that got wiped this easily, our victory was already a foregone conclusion.
Sure enough, Veldora and Ramiris were gleefully making a blood sacrifice of the three front-line warriors.
Easy win.
The ambush by Millim followed by my area magic to eliminate scouts and backliners first — it was our unbeatable strategy.
Well, we'd been hunting adventurers a bit too aggressively lately, so a few groups had started bringing countermeasures.
But nobody had fully adapted yet.
Even if they had, we'd just switch to a different plan.
This was roughly the 24th floor of the Underground Labyrinth — a prime hunting ground for us, where sufficiently strong adventurers came through at just the right frequency.
"We did it! These creatures were no match for us at all!"
"Ufufu~ That's right! We're invincible — the strongest there is!"
"Kuahahahaha! Nothing but small fry — hardly even worth the effort!"
My companions were getting full of themselves.
That's right — we were a party of four.
Eh, what were we doing, exactly?
Well, naturally, we were studying how adventurers fought and learning everything we could.
The ghosts I commanded were mages clad in eerie, blue-white Demon Aura who wielded magic.
Over time they'd learned multiple spells and were now able to wear that atmospheric blue-white ghostfire around themselves.
Veldora was a Boned Warrior, but his bones were — for some reason — gold in color.
I'd crafted them from a special alloy called Divine Radiant Steel.
Divine Radiant Steel was a special alloy refined by mixing
Veldora had insisted he wanted a golden skeleton, so I'd gone ahead and fabricated an entire skeletal frame to replace his old one.
As long as the core was intact, apparently anything was fine for the bones, so the conversion went off without a hitch. And just like that, a golden Boned Warrior was born.
The durability was incomparable to his previous skeleton — it was absurdly overpowered.
Millim was feared under the name "Red Comet."
At abnormal speeds, the red afterimage she left behind looked like a shooting star streaking across the sky.
As an assassin, she'd cut off all presence, creep along ceilings, and pounce from above — a style that boasted an absurdly high kill rate.
Sacrificing everything except speed for the sake of a single fatal blow, her combat form had become something of a legend wrapped in a particular kind of dread.
Ramiris was also an all-out brawler.
As if to mock how weak her true body was, she swung her axe with brute force.
Her relentless fighting style, wielding the Grim Reaper's Great Axe like a walking suit of mad heavy armor, had earned her widespread notoriety.
Actually, she might be stronger than the real thing… No, never mind. That was beside the point.
That's how the four of us operated — as the "Will of the Labyrinth That Brings Death," a source of terror for anyone who entered.
We were stronger than most lackluster bosses, and more dangerous to boot.
A perfectly natural reaction from the adventurers.
As I mentioned earlier, our primary objective was studying how adventurers fought.
We were absolutely not just goofing around. That was an important point not to misunderstand.
We worked hard every day, devoting ourselves to research. That kind of steady effort would surely come in handy someday.
And occasionally, an adventurer would use an Extra Skill we'd never seen before, or deploy an original spell — and that was genuinely instructive.
My current self could appraise and analyze Extra Skills and the like at a glance.
That ability was being put to good use and reflected in our Avatars.
The Avatars were constructed from Magicules using a Core as the foundation. They were perfectly in sync with our true bodies and incredibly easy to control.
Skills acquired through an Avatar could also be used by the true body. And depending on the Avatar's growth, it might even be possible to use the true body's full power through it.
The connection was deeper than I'd expected.
That was how we spent our days — continuing our research and learning all sorts of things along the way.
…Let me say this once more: we were absolutely not just playing around. Please don't get the wrong idea.
Getting to this point hadn't been easy.
Early on, we'd even lost to adventurers on the upper floors.
We'd also been wiped out by our own traps more than once — a laughable situation.
In a fit of frustration, I'd crafted magical artifacts to prevent traps from triggering.
Ramiris was the one who fell into one, and Veldora got caught in the blast.
I'd been floating in the air, and Millim had been stuck to the ceiling. Neither of us could fall into a pit trap, so we'd let our guard down.
But Ramiris…
What were you even doing falling into a trap? — That was a perfectly valid complaint we all raised.
And so, through trial and hardship, we carried on.
The adventurer I'd just defeated in front of us dissolved into particles of light and vanished.
Another familiar sight.
There was one time we'd gotten cocky and challenged the boss on the 30th floor.
It was a Gozurl whose power had been sealed by magical artifacts.
The result was a crushing defeat.
Gozurl still stood as an insurmountable wall for our level.
We decided the only option was to defeat it, so we spent our time training on floors 25 through 29.
No — not training. Studying.
It wasn't play. Really. I'd appreciate it if you didn't get that part wrong!
"That was an easy win," I said.
All three of them nodded in agreement.
Alright, let's keep this momentum going! — Just as I thought that, I received an urgent message from a clone I'd left in the office.
What was going on?
The message informed me: "Hinata and Demon Lord Lumina seem to want to discuss the alliance."
It looked like this wasn't the time for study (or play).
Reluctantly, I switched the Core of my Avatar to autonomous mode, and the four of us returned to the office.
——————
When we got back, Hinata and Lumina were already waiting.
And there was a third person — a woman I'd seen before. That's right, the former Demon Lord
As I entered, Frey's eyes passed right over Veldora and then settled on Millim, who came in behind me.
A sweet smile spread across her face.
Why did that smile give me such a bad feeling?
"Oh my, Millim. So this is where you've been hiding?
Now then — about that job I left you, what happened with that?
The lookout I posted was rolled up in a bamboo mat and left tumbling around. You're going to explain what happened, aren't you?"
Terrifying.
I wasn't even the one involved, yet I felt overwhelmingly uncomfortable.
It was like stumbling upon a scene where your friend who was supposedly done with homework and playing freely had actually never started, and now their parents had found out.
What a nostalgic feeling.
"Eep! F-Frey!! N-No, you don't understand. There's a deep reason for this!"
The moment Millim locked eyes with Frey, she started panicking.
This… was over for you, Millim.
I'll say this bluntly — this had nothing to do with me or us, right?
"Haha, Millim, if you've got a job to do, you'd better get going.
Wouldn't want to keep you — hurry up and finish your work!"
"Mm, indeed. Sorry for keeping you tied up with our research for so long.
If you had work, all you had to do was say so.
Still, we caused you trouble. Allow us to apologize!"
"That's — that's right! Exactly! You should've said something — I wouldn't have kept you!"
Well done.
Veldora and Ramiris, reading the room perfectly, had my back.
This way, we could claim we had no knowledge of the situation and had absolutely nothing to do with it.
Millim looked at us with tears in her eyes, but sorry — I couldn't see any way to help you.
Just give up and accept your fate.
And so, Millim was captured by Frey.
"N-No — listen, listen to me, Frey!"
She was still screaming right up to the end, but Frey's iron smile shut her down instantly, and her resistance proved futile.
Poor Millim was grabbed by the scruff of the neck and hauled back to her own nation.
Whew. That was terrifying.
I thought I was about to get dragged into it, but it seemed I'd dodged the bullet. Just as I was thinking that —
"By the way, Lord Rimuru — where have you been, and what have you been doing all this time?"
I felt a cold sweat forming on my forehead that had no business being there.
No, no, it's fine. It's fine.
We absolutely were not just playing around. Research — yes! We were doing research.
"It appears we have become a disturbance. Let us retire to our chambers and pursue our studies in the arcane arts.
The arcane is profound, and it bestows wisdom upon me."
Saying something like that, Veldora turned on his heel, his beloved book already in hand.
Was he trying to run!?
I was about to stop him when —
"Th-then, I think I'll go with~"
Ramiris also betrayed me and scuttled off after Veldora, fleeing as fast as she could.
What kind of friends were these!
But right now, I didn't have time to dwell on my treacherous companions.
Insisting this was all research was starting to feel like a weak excuse.
Hinata and Lumina were both staring at me with suspicious eyes. A half-baked lie would only make things worse for me.
Watching Veldora and Ramiris make their escape, my brain cells went into overdrive searching for the optimal solution.
No good — nothing clever was coming to mind. Time for the last resort.
*(Raphael! Help me out of this — give me a good excuse!)*
That's right — I had the crystallization of wisdom itself, my Teacher, on my side.
There was nothing to fear.
*Analysis. No explanation is necessary.*
What?! No explanation needed!?
What did that even —
"Oh, there you are! Boss, I've been looking everywhere for you!"
A familiar presence — it was Fuse.
Now I understood. So that was it!
"Oh, Fuse. Looks like you've wrapped up that investigation I asked you about?
Let's talk inside."
A godsend.
Thanks to having Fuse investigating Yuki, I could slip out of this one.
Still — Raphael never ceased to amaze. Had it calculated that Fuse would arrive at this exact moment? Surely not. That would be pushing it.
But there was no denying I'd been saved. I was glad I hadn't blurted out some half-baked excuse.
I stepped into the office and gestured for Fuse to follow.
Absorbing the clone I'd left as a messenger, I settled into my chair.
It looked like I'd managed to weasel my way out of trouble after all.
"So that's how it was — a covert investigation. Truly impressive, Lord Rimuru!"
Shuna smiled with satisfaction and nodded.
The crisis had passed.
But I made a vow, keeping this lesson close to my heart: I would stop fooling around so much.
Guilt was the enemy — it made you careless and panicked.
Everything was best done in moderation.
I reflected silently, resolving to be more careful going forward.