The Mad Rat's Lab

[What!? Why don't we have training today!? What do you mean!?]

As soon as I tell him the news, Ricard sends me a message asking for explanations.

Is it just me, or does it seem like he really liked those horrible and absolutely painful training sessions? I already knew he was crazy, I just didn't know he was a masochist too.

Just compare his reaction with Clara's and Laura's. When Marta told us, my little sister gladly accepted and started to pester Marta to spend the day with her anyway. And Laura, when I told her through a similar message to the one I sent to Ricard, she just sent an 'Okay' like a normal person would.

"Sigh… why is it always me who has to deal with Ricard…?"

Clara always runs away, saying, 'You go and tell your friends' whenever the situation arises. Smart, but painful. Painful for me, I mean. But… I'll forgive her because she's my cute little sister.

[Who knows? I didn't ask my sister why she freed us from training today. She just said that something popped up and that we were somewhat ready, so it didn't matter if we missed one day.]

[Don't lie! We aren't ready! We haven't won a single training session yet! We're just starting to make progress, but if we take an unnecessary break now, we'll have to start again from scratch… I ask you to beg your sister to reconsider.]

Whoaah, look at that! Almost no time has passed since I sent the reply, and he has already sent such a long message!

So fast…! It's a shame he's only fast whenever he feels like it.

[Go ask her yourself. I'll happily accept a whole day free from obligations.]

There's no way Ricard will understand even if I told him, so I don't do it, but the main reason we've continued to die in all our dungeon invasions and haven't completed a single training yet is because Marta has been tuning them up as we've gotten better.

How can you make it even more difficult than an unavoidable instant-death chorus trap, you ask…? You might be curious, but believe me: you don't want to know. You'll have nightmares worse than those produced by the Abyss' aberrations, and four people suffering from them are enough. There's no need to spread them to other people.

I unconsciously shiver and start reading the first message, one of the many ones that Ricard has sent while I was thinking to myself.

[But how can I directly question Anthemia on her decisions!? It's just that her training is very good and I don't want to miss a single session…]

His message goes on and on, and while I read the first one, more messages keep coming, piling up at a very scary rate. So I decide to do what any normal person would do in this situation: stop reading, silence his messages for two to three hours, and ignore him to focus on something else.

I'll read them all at another time... Maybe.

"Alright…" I start rubbing my hands together, "What should I do now?"

My eyes unconsciously wander from my computer to the virtual device to play DMA. Usually, after so much forced training, one would refuse to touch the game for a while and take a break. But… But it just so happens that I've spent the past two weeks training all the time, and almost didn't have any free time to do whatever I pleased. Furthermore, I just created the new dungeon area but haven't had time to watch the invaders' replays yet…

Except for that orc player, of course. There's always time to watch him suffer. And he only comes once per week and at a set schedule, so it's easy to find time for him.

"So… watching replays and ongoing invasions, or playing DMA…?"

The dilemma. The eternal question. Waste time gaining immediate pleasure and regret it later, or go get 'materials' for more monsters, feel good for working hard, and enjoy the replays even more in the future? What a hard-to-answer question.

As I think, I watch the sun rising from the window. There are no clouds today.

It hurts having to wake up early during the summer break… But hey, it's better to wake up early and discover you have free time, unlike the previous two weeks, than trying to sleep into late morning only to have an angry monster throw you out of bed – and I mean it literally – because you're late, and having to spend the rest of the day suffering in hellish training.

…and no. Going out and enjoying the sunny day isn't an option. Who in their sane mind would go to the beach on a day like this, after being forced to stay indoors for so long?

It takes me a while to decide, but once I do, my decision stands firm.

"I'll find a dungeon I like and invade it."

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It's been so long… So, so, soooooooo long since I could last choose a dungeon I fancied and invaded it without any pressure… No time constraints, no pressure to finish it, nobody to blame me for my errors…

Just me, Cyam, and my Good Followers, doing whatever we please. "Aah… I miss those times so much…!"

Oh, by the way. You might have imagined it already, but Marta has dungeons from all factions, so we haven't been training against angels and celestials all the time.

She says it's for investigation and training purposes. She needs to test and experiment to know how to fight against them later… which makes sense, if you ask me. After all, any pro player should know how the game works if they want to stay relevant.

Even so, Marta only has one 'good' dungeon: 'Heaven's Gate'. All the others are just for testing purposes and are thus very basic. If you search for them, they aren't even related to the nickname 'Anthemia', so when the players look for her, they only find her main dungeon.

But this doesn't mean she can't make us suffer during her training sessions. "Sigh… let's stop remembering it."

Alright! So, what dungeon do I fancy today?

If I want to fill the Waste Disposal Unit with more monsters, I should go to a dungeon that contains monsters I can use.

Rats, the most common critter inhabiting sewer-like environments, as well as the slimes, are the first monsters that pop into mind. They're the two most fantasy-like monsters for such a place.

By the way, there exists a monster called the Giant Cockroach. It's a mercenary monster, so many factions can create them. But there's a caveat to using them: most of the dungeons that have them are always very unpopular, especially if there are rats in that dungeon too.

I'm sure you can guess why.

"That's why Giant Cockroaches are out of the question." For now, at least. Maybe in the future I can think of a way to use them that makes them less disgusting, but until then… they're out.

My Champion, the Mad Rat, already has rat features, so for now I'll avoid using them at all. I don't want anyone to mistake me with them.

I do fancy the slimes, though. They're the first monster I immediately wanted to add as soon as I created the Waste Disposal Unit, only that I didn't have any bodies at hand.

"Slimes it is, then."

Haha, I don't know why I'm doing all this. It was clear from the day I created the Waste Disposal Unit, WDU, abbreviated, that I'd go find some slimes as soon as possible. There's already a perfect place to put them!

"Slimes, wait for me. I'm going to get you all! Fufufu! Hahaha!"

"What, the, fuck…?"

As soon as the blinding light from the dungeon teleportation disappears, my mouth drops open at the spectacle in front of me.

At first glance, it looks like a natural cave, but I quickly realize it isn't. After all, a cave is formed by rocks, and those rocks, regardless of their kind, aren't a bright blue, green, or red. Furthermore, they don't have a glossy finish that reflects light as if they were wet... nor do they let light pass through them.

I've never seen translucent rocks before. What about you?

"Gelatin…?" I poke the closest wall with my finger. It easily goes in, and when I pull it out, it's covered in green slime. "No, more like semi-solid mucus…"

I wipe my finger on the nearest Good Follower's clothes and continue examining my surroundings, this time, looking for enemies or traps.

Starting from the dungeon portal at a dead end, the passage extends forward and splits into multiple paths. To the right, a bright red 'rock' greets my eyes. Slightly to the left, the color abruptly changes into green, and then to blue.

Red, green, blue. Red, green, blue. The pattern repeats everywhere, creating a world with only three colors.

There are no slimes in sight, or at least, none I can see. I say it like this because… Well, if the slimes are the same colors and have a similar consistency and transparency, it'll be impossible to see them before they get close. Only if they come from a zone with one of the other two colors will they be visible.

"Well, at least it perfectly fits the dungeon's name: 'RGB Cave'..." I thought the name was funny, so I decided to invade it, but I never expected it'd be so literal. "Hmmm…"

Having only three colors everywhere makes your eyes spin. Everything looks the same, and it's a bit dizzying. I wonder what will happen after being exposed to this for a long time. Will I grow used to it? Or will my head explode?

…I sure hope it's the former.

Since the slimes I capture will have the same colors when I try to use them, I guess all the monsters created from the slimes I capture today will be 'red', 'green', or 'blue'.

"It doesn't matter that much. It's just that there will be a lack of variety." I shrug my shoulders.

After taking another look around, I realize that the light passing through the 'rocks' reveals parts of the dungeon on the other side of the walls. The colors, though, are mixed and blended, which makes it very hard to see properly, because each of the three colors is negated by the color in front.

An idea suddenly comes to mind. "Wait a moment…"

I put my hand against the rock wall, this time a green patch, and slowly apply force, sinking it into the rock until my whole arm is inside it and my hand pops out into a side passage.

Sure enough, I didn't feel any wall or obstruction. It should be possible to cross the 'rocks' at will, should I wish to do it…

…Which I don't, because being covered in slime is extremely disgusting.

But this means the monsters should be able to cross them, too. And since I expect to have the same colors as the rocks, it'll be impossible to discover the slimes until they're right next to me or my support monsters.

"What a pain in the ass…" I mutter, taking my hand off the wall. The green slime holds onto it, as if not wanting to let go, applying some resistance. It isn't until my whole arm is out of the wall that I realize there's another 'slime' holding onto my arm and crawling towards my torso.

"Umh… how do I say this?" I say, scratching my cheek with my free hand. "'Theory confirmed'...?"

This is going to be way more annoying than I expected. But hey, at least I was allowed to choose!