The Mad Rat’s Lab

After our encounter with the mysterious humanoid red blob that ran away, we went through a few rooms that contained quite a lot of water. Some had puddles blocking the path and some were filled to the brim, with the water reaching up to knee-high. We had to cross an underground river, too. Now, the irregular rock terrain slowly gives way to metal and wood surfaces, intermixed with polished stone and tiles.

We carefully walk to a door that appears in front of us. It’s open, so we take a peek inside while staying hidden. Battle sounds are coming from the other side of the door, but the sounds are muffled and distorted. The battle must be taking place somewhere else, far away.

“Shht, I hear something.”

I roll my eyes at Muribelle’s obvious remark. “I know, I hear it too.”

“I said, shhht!”

“Why? Are you scared that your brother will find us and– oumf, mmmf…!”

She glares at me, stuffing her hand in my mouth so I can’t talk. Ok, fine… do whatever you want. I don’t have anything to say anyway…

With her hand on my face, and my HP steadily decreasing, I observe the room filled with machines and cables. From time to time, lightning courses from one side of the room to the other, flowing through them, splitting and rejoining at the multiple intersections. The room is disorganized while maintaining a weird sense of cohesion. It reminds me of a mad scientist laboratory.

After a minute of observing and listening to the battle noises, I still haven’t seen any movement. Are there no monsters inside?

“Let’s go inside. I don’t think there’s any danger.”

“...”

Muribelle turns to me, but when she realizes she still has her hand stuffed inside my mouth, her eyes tremble slightly, alternating between her fist and steadily diminishing HP bar. She quickly turns her head away, retrieving her hand.

“...Sorry. I was distracted by the scenery and forgot about it…” Her voice gets lower and lower until I can't hear it anymore. But then, she suddenly shakes her head and glares at me. “Why didn’t you say anything!?”

“If I were in danger, I would have moved away.” I grin. “Also, your squishy body is refreshing, and you taste like cherry.” The taste sense is dulled in the game, to start with; but slimes don’t taste at all. It’s like eating a jelly with water flavor. But I’m sure she doesn’t know. “You know… I wouldn’t mind having another taste…” I add, raising my eyebrows suggestively.

“Y-you… Jerk!”

She punches me another time before running away, escaping into the laboratory.

“O-ouch!” I fall on my but, surprised by the strength behind that punch. “You  didn’t have to… wait, is that a cat?” Before I can stand up, a black cat passes in front of me, passing through the same door as Muribelle and into the laboratory. “An actual cat? What’s a cat doing here?”

From the screaming mushrooms that gave me the creeps to Muribelle’s slime brother, passing through the giant turtles with mushrooms on their backs and the two-headed green and red goblin-imp abominations, every single monster we’ve encountered so far was, let’s say, peculiar. The sight of the black cat catches my attention, compared to any monster I could have seen because it’s unexpected.

But I thought all Flesh Monstrosities’ monsters had to use parts of two units, and that they had to be identifiable at first sight. That cat looked like one you could find in real life, so it shouldn’t be possible, unless…

Cat Transformation, from a Werecat. That’s the only logical explanation.

Turning into a cat will hide the traits of any other unit, or units in plural if there is more than one. This means an enemy just slipped behind Muribelle, and we might be in danger.

“No, I don’t know what I’m worrying about. I’m sure everything will be ok.”

Where have you seen a dungeon monster that doesn’t attack the invaders? Other than critters, the only times I have seen one is when the players deactivate the combat for that monster so that it never attacks.

Given the nature of this dungeon, I wouldn’t be surprised if the owner created a useless monster just so that it turns into a cat and remains that way all the time. This way, it’ll cleanse their eyes from all the horrifying and disgusting stuff that fills the rest of the dungeon. I would do it too. If I take into account that this is the first time I’ve seen a monster ignore us in this dungeon, I’m sure that must be it. Everything will be alright.

I shrug off my remaining doubts and step into the laboratory, following after Muribelle. I find her examining the corpse of a monster, one that’s wearing a white lab coat.

“Elf plus… dwarf?” I say, taking into account the extremely short but muscular limbs.

“Looks like it.” She makes a smug smile and adds, pointing at the opposite side of the room from where we came from. “BigHat or Odomiru must have passed through here. Maybe both. I’m sure they’re the origin of the battle noises.”

“Yeah… good job, Miss Detective. It must be nice to have such a privileged mind.”

“Huh?”

She tilts her head, not understanding what I mean. I smile and taunt her in the most annoying tone I can. “If not BigHat or Odomiru, who else could be fighting the monsters inside this place? Did you forget we’re the only ones here, Miss Detective?”

We agreed to come the four of us, alone, to train for the next DMA event. Unless the monsters start to fight between themselves, it’s clear that any battle noises must come from one of us.

“S-shut up!”

I flinch back, ready for her usual angry fist coming my way.

“Come, let’s meet with them, quickly! I don’t want to fight unknown monsters when you’re the only one present.” Seeing my reaction, she grins and runs in the direction of the sound, waving at me. “Heee, what are you afraid of? Did you think I’d punch you?”

“...”

She’s so annoying!

I follow after her, recalling the reason why we’re here. When looking for a dungeon to train, BigHat proposed this one: The Mad Rat’s Lab. He stumbled upon that name by chance while browsing the forums.

Apparently, there was some kind of competition not long ago, with a prize at the stake. But after that matter was settled, the players started to argue about others being lucky, that they were better and should have won. One thing led to the other and they decided to start a new competition on their own: the one who clears the dungeon faster wins. A speedrun of sorts. So we decided to come and take a look for ourselves.

I’d say it’s quite unique so far. But I don’t understand some of the things the other players said about this dungeon. I haven’t seen anything too dangerous, tricky, or annoying until now. Maybe they expect all the dungeons to be easy?

“Move faster, Succo! They’re in the middle of combat!” Muribelle urges, waving her hand in my direction from the doorway. She jumps inside. “I’m going first.”

“Alright, alright…”

Again, a black blur catches my attention. This time, though, it was faster than before, and with the laboratory clutter, I almost missed it.

“Is the werecat chasing after us? How cute, hahaha.” As a fan of cats, and having the Werecat as the favorite unit from the whole game, I couldn’t be happier if that’s so. “Maybe the owner set it to always move after the closest player…? It makes sense if he did.” I shrug and chase after Muribelle.

The first thing that catches my attention when I come inside the new room is the fire and ice animations filling a part of the room. BigHat uses an ice aura, so I’m sure they’re the visual effects of the fight between him and the enemy.

The room, although still looks similar to the previous one, is larger and has a few glass cylinder tubs that go from the floor to the ceiling. They’re filled with liquids of various colors, and some of them contain monsters inside. Or should I say ‘bodies’? I believe this is what they’re officially called.

Following the fire and ice animations, I notice metal scraps and rests of metal rods strewn around the room. It’s a trace of destroyed traps.

Now that I’m closer, I can see that the enemy looks the same as the dead monster we found in the previous room. It wears the same lab coat, is holding the same pencil and notebook, and has the same body shape.

“BigHat, I’m here!” Muribelle runs in the direction of the fire and ice effects. “Succo is with me. Where’s Odomiru?”

“Oh, hey there. What took you so long? Did you get lost?” He makes a wry smile at her murderous glare. “Hahaha, I’m kidding, I’m kidding. Odomiru is resting over there, he’s low on HP.” He then turns to look in my direction, pointing to the room’s corner with his white hand. “He’s over there, go and heal him, Succo.”

“Okay.”

Making sure to stay away from him, I walk in the direction he pointed. It’s dangerous to stay close to him because of his ice auras.

BigHat doesn’t care about taking ice damage because he’s an ice elemental and has resistance to it. I don’t remember the exact name of his skills, nor that of the unit he uses as a champion, but thanks to his innate resistance, he can use both the normal ice aura and the one that deals damage to himself continuously, creating a death area five meters in every direction. He’s the perfect weapon against hordes of weak enemies… or against his own teammates, depending on the situation.

Hiding behind one of the glass cylinders, I find Odomiru. He must be staying here in hopes the enemy, and BigHat, stay away.

“Don’t worry, buddy!” I say, patting his back. “I’ve got you. I’ll heal you immediately!”

“...thanks.”

As taciturn as ever.

I start casting Heal. Meanwhile, I observe the ongoing battle. BigHat is fighting with his sword against the monster’s pencil. Yeah, I know. It’s weird that it uses a pencil as a weapon, but the game allows it, so…

They exchange blows one after the other, and their fire and ice auras fill the area around them. In general, auras aren’t strong against a single opponent, but that monster also has the resistance of a dwarf, so they’re even less effective. I’m not surprised the fight lasted for so long that Muribelle and I could waste our time and still make it on time.

When we play together, Odomiru takes the front while BigHat and Muribelle take turns dealing damage and I take the support role. But now that Odomiru had to hide, BigHat is struggling to avoid the enemy’s attacks and can’t focus on damage. Only his auras are working properly, but they aren’t enough.

It doesn’t help that he now has to focus on avoiding Muribelle’s attacks too. A role that usually falls upon Odomiru.

“Fuhahaha! Eat this! Fireball! Fireball, fireball, fireball! Hahahaha!” One after the other, with a short interval in between, several fire projectiles are launched from Muribelle’s hand, exploding upon contact.

“Are you trying to kill me!? Can’t you use single-target spells!? At least come and fight it in melee!”

“No, I don’t want to take damage from your ice auras. Firebaaaaaaaall! Fuhahaha!”

“So it’s fine for me to take your attacks head-on, then!?” Another fireball explodes near him, forcing him to jump away. “Stoooop it!”

Odomiru and I observe everything with a weird expression on our faces. She’s truly… unique.

Right then, the monster’s HP falls to one-third, and ice sprouts around it, flowing in all directions. Due to his previous forced jump, BigHat can’t avoid it on time and is immobilized, encased in ice. He didn’t take much damage from it, but being an ice elemental doesn’t prevent him from being encased in ice.

The monster takes this chance to jump at him, smashing with his notepad this time. There’s a loud impact noise, followed by BigHat’s shout.

“Muribelle, it’s your fault! Do something!”

“Okay! Fireball!”

Right after, she shoots another Fireball at the monster, which just happens to be right next to him. “Nooo, not like this, are you stup–”

*Boooom!*

The fire engulfs him and the monster, dealing a large amount of damage to both. BigHat might be resistant to ice, but the same can’t be said of fire. When the smoke clears out, I see that the monster, unperturbed by the explosion, continues to pummel BigHat.

“He might die at this rate… I’m coming, don’t die yet, BigHat!”

I start running in his direction to heal him before it’s too late. But before I can reach him, there’s a pink flash that fills my vision and my body suddenly stops. 

W-what is this? And why did it have to happen just now?

“Ugh… Succo! Save meee!”

I know, and I want to! But… I can’t. Why!?

 

“You’re asking me how to get stronger? That’s easy, you just need to start playing as the Divine Blood, hahaha! I’m sorry, I’m sorry, that was a joke. But you can’t blame me because they’re kinda broken.

The easier way to get stronger is to play to your strengths. An example that’s easy to understand comes from the elementals, some of which get resistances to a certain type of damage. If you use one of those champions, it’s easy to get skills that deal that type of damage too, using them on your enemies and yourself at the same time. You’ll take so little damage compared to the enemies that it’ll be easy to defeat them.

Recognize those things you can do but your enemies can’t, and you’ll know how to improve.”

- Excerpt of an interview with a high-ranking DMA player.