The Mad Rat's Lab

"Why are you all looking at me like that?" Asks Ricard, offended by the contemptuous looks we're sending him. "If we do it like I said, we're guaranteed a win! That's the strength of sticking to the basics!"

After Ricard's monologue – planning everything about the first preliminary match – ends, Laura and I look at each other.

With my chin, I make a gesture to tell her it's her time to intervene. She shakes her head, but I nod, insisting. We repeat this shaking and nodding a few times until she understands I won't relent, and finally accepts her fate, sighing.

"You see, Ricard…" says Laura, using the tone adults use when talking to children, "...sticking to the basics won't do it for this tournament. We might win this match if we're lucky, but it'd defeat our purpose. It's an unnecessary risk."

Yeah, well said, Laura. I knew you could say it in a way that wouldn't upset Ricard. Not too much, at least.

"What!? The basics are called that because they're useful in almost any situation!"

…Okay, maybe I was wrong.

"But this isn't a 'normal' situation," counters Laura. "Did you forget Anthemia's warning, Ricard? That this isn't a normal match, and we should act accordingly? That we should expect the most extreme circumstances and that half-baked plans won't work?"

Ricard's face warps as he hears my sister's nickname.

Haha, if there's one good thing we got after staying under Marta's unyielding and brutal training for so long, is that we have a new secret weapon against Ricard. It's the 'older sister button', which we can 'press' to forcefully instill common sense in him.

Marta told us to always analyze the enemy and not make general plans. In these matches, both the invader team and the dungeon defense will be tailored specifically to counter us to the best of the other team's abilities… of course, with only the dungeon elements and monsters they registered at the start of the preliminary matches.

"But she didn't say we had to ignore the basics either…"

Now that the hard work of 'breaking Ricard's spirit' is done, it's my time to play the role of the kind team leader.

I pat Ricard's shoulder. "Don't worry. Remember that you aren't our best strategist. Just leave this part to Laura and me. You're too prone to impulses and bad decisions… But hey, you're the most knowledgeable! We'll rely on you for that. You'll be our walking encyclopedia!"

Ricard's face quickly clears up after my encouragement. No, it's more than that. His eyes start gleaming in a dangerous light as his twisted expression changes into a meaningful grin.

Shit… I might have just committed the worst mistake in my entire life. I must change my words before–

"Yes, leave it to me," Ricard proudly pats his chest. "I'll make sure to explain everything with as much detail as I can!" …It's too late now. "Like, for example…"

Somebody stop him! We have limited time to prepare. If he's in his 'berserker' state, we'll waste too much time and won't have enough for the planning!

Laura and I exchange another look and shake our heads at the same time. It seems none of us can stop Ricard now…

"Have you taken a look at this list?" Clara, completely ignoring our situation, interrupts Ricard's monologue while holding a paper list. "There are some very cute monsters on the other side, too, hehehe!"

Her words make me shudder. She's happy because there's another Abyss player on the enemy team. Which just happens to be the same reason why I'm in a bad mood.

"R-right," I force a smile, "There are Abyss monsters in that list. What else is there?"

"We also need to know what elements from our dungeon are revealed, to adjust our defense. We can't give the enemy team easy points–" Ricard uses this chance to resume his explanations, but Laura shakes her head, interrupting him.

"No, Ricard. We can't modify our defense in the preliminary rounds."

"Did you forget when my sister told us we wouldn't be able to change our defense after setting it up? We can only take out a few support mobs to help with our invasion." I say, purposely adding extra emphasis on the words 'my sister'.

"Eeh!?" Ricard opens his eyes in surprise. "Then why do we get a second list with the 50% elements revealed from our dungeon?"

"That's just so we have an idea of what the enemy might do and we don't take with us crucial monsters for the dungeon defense."

"Ah…"

My argument leaves Ricard with no options, and his eyes gradually lose their light. Yeah, you're right. All those plans he made at the start were completely useless. We just let him do whatever he pleased so that he left us alone for a while.

But don't worry, he's fine. No, he's more than fine, even if he looks deflated like that. After I lit his fuse by saying he's our encyclopedia, there's no going back. The bomb will explode; it's just a matter of when it does.

I just hope it explodes as late as possible. Or, even better, when I'm not anywhere near him.

"So… what are those cute monsters you're talking about? Do you know what they can do?" Laura asks Clara, sending another shiver down my spine.

Please, stop with that. At least, stop using the 'cute' word.

"Yes! They're this one, and this one! Oh, and this one too!"

Clara proceeds to explain everything about those cursed Abyss units. Meanwhile, I do my best to forget everything I hear about them. As soon as the words come in one ear, I let them fly out the other. I know I shouldn't be doing this, but… fears are called like that because you can't control them.

Tsk, why can't I have my precious Forgetting Wall when I most need it!?

Luckily, Clara's explanation doesn't last long, and everyone starts paying attention to the other revealed monsters, traps, and dungeon rooms.

Stolen story; please report.

"Those skeletons, I'm certain they're specialized support units," says Ricard, pointing at a certain monster in the list. "Those skills, their numbers, and the skeleton's price and stats… There's no other option."

Laura furrows her eyebrows. "You mean there'll be a boss-like monster, and they'll act like adds?"

"No. They'll work in tandem with another monster. They'll work in pairs, making them way stronger than they would be if they were on their own. Let's see…" Ricard scans the list searching for something. "...no. The other monsters aren't here. We'll have to find out once we're inside."

"Knowing half the information isn't that useful sometimes, isn't it?" Laura points out.

"It's better than nothing. Just knowing about these skeletons is enough to infer what kind of monster will come with them, making our encounter against them easier. For example, in this particular case, I can guess what skills the other monster has. I'd bet all my prestige that–"

"Poison area of effect or on-touch skills, right?" Laura asks, wearing a smug grin. "I could guess that much, too. But anyway, look at these. I know these demons well, and if I'm right, this is how they'll use them to fight against us…"

I let Laura and Ricard talk, listening to them without interfering.

Meanwhile, a part of my attention drifts somewhere else. A mix of Abyss' aberrations, undead, and demons. Doesn't it sound familiar? Don't tell me the fourth faction will also be…!?

It's then that I read the name of a certain unit, a name I know very well.

"Maguiloyf…" Hah, I guess I was wrong. It isn't the Flesh Monstrosities. This is the nightmarish wolf I used for The Tunnels' Nightmare. This is a unit from "...The Dream Vestiges…"

Fiuuu…! Thank God! The last thing I wanted was to face a team identical to ours in our first match! Losing there would undermine everyone's morale, something we can't have in the first preliminary match.

For some reason, everyone shuts up at my words, as if they're waiting for me to say something important.

"Uh, ah, nothing. Nothing. I was just talking to myself… hahaha."

"Is something wrong with that faction?" Asks Laura.

"Not really. It's just that they have this Dreamshift thing… We'll have to keep an eye on that–"

"Oh, right! I was about to say it. The most crucial trick of the Dream Vestiges, which we'll have to keep an eye on during this match. This 'Dreamshift' Andreu mentioned is a special faction-specific feature that allows them to instantly transport the whole party into another part of the dungeon, without any warning. Not only the dungeon but also the monsters can be affected, which means we can suddenly find ourselves surrounded, or in the middle of a minefield."

Don't lie, Ricard! You completely forgot it until I said it! But well… it's okay since it saved me the effort to explain it.

"Before it happens, our vision will blur, and our surroundings will start blending as if they turned into smoke, and then… Bam! We'll be somewhere else. There's always a trigger for it, but since we'll have no idea what the trigger is, we'll have to go in blind…"

Aaagh! My head is hurting. Someone stop Ricard already!

"Hey, hey, look at this!" Clara rudely interrupts him. Thanks, your brother loves you! "We got lucky, and the room right before the dungeon core was one of the revealed ones. But what is this?"

Clara asks, pointing at a revealed part of the map. It's a large open area, without obstacles or walls, but with randomly scattered 'holes' of different sizes everywhere.

"Aren't those lakes?" Proposes Laura.

"They sure look like lakes," I agree. "But aren't there too many?"

"It doesn't matter! If there are no obstacles, you and Laura can clear any enemy before they get close. It's going to be very easy, hehehe!"

"No. You're wrong, Clara…" Ricard shakes his head. "Precisely, the fact that there's water makes things more dangerous, not easier. There'll surely be hidden enemies. But it's weird. I don't see any aquatic units in the list…"

We continue our discussion for a while, until, suddenly, Laura points out a very important detail.

"By the way. Shouldn't we also take a look at the revealed stuff on our side? We need to know what monsters we can safely pull to help with our invasion."

Right. I forgot about that part.

"Khm…! Yeah, I was about to say the same–" I try to feign I'm a good team leader, but Clara's shout takes the pressure away from me.

"Aaaaaah! Brother! They know about your 'Surprise'!!"

"Aaaah, oh no!" I shout, making my anxious voice sound as fake as possible. On purpose, of course. "What are we going to do now!? We're all going to die– Ouch!"

Laura smacks me on the head. "Stop fooling around. You said it, that it doesn't matter if they know, because just its mere presence will slow them down significantly. Didn't you use this tactic against Ricard and me in our matches?"

Ahaha, she got me. She didn't fall for my act.

"Haha, you're right, you're right." I nod, without showing any sign of my previous fake panic. "I'm sorry, Clara. I just wanted to play along with you."

She pouts and turns her head away. "Muu… you're a bad brother."

That, I am. Sorry, not sorry.

Oh, in case you didn't know, the 'Surprise' is the slime-mimic I created for our 2vs2 matches against Ricard and Laura. I'm sure you can remember, it's the one that acted as if it were a door, and in the next match, acted as a fake floor.

"You're right, Laura. It doesn't matter if they know about The Surprise. Maybe they won't fall for its tricks, now that they know about it, but they'll have to act as if every dungeon element were extremely dangerous, slowing them down. It doesn't matter where it is, or even if it is there at all…"

I suddenly stop, as a crazy idea crosses my mind.

You know what they say: 'The best defense is a good offense.' Well, sometimes, that isn't true. Sometimes, it's the other way around. Sometimes, the best offense is a good defense.

"Fufufu! Hahaha!" I start laughing, causing the others to look at me as if I had suddenly gone crazy. "This is it! This is how we're going to crush everything the other team throws at us! Hahaha!"

My teammates observe me, laughing, for a while, until Laura, clearly pissed off by my actions, asks. "...Are you going to let us in? We all need to know."

"Yes! Tell us! I want to know too!" Clara clings to my arm, making me shudder. Her Champion is still the same as always.