Chapter 78 78 The ‘basic’ level

[Lucy's POV: ]

-Ooooooooong!

The giant gate-like crystal glowed with a red light and a swirling hole opened up inside of it.

It was the path to the special pocket space of the artificial dungeon and since Levi was somehow keeping himself up and conscious with his skills, El just walked back, picked up the magic slate and placed it in his hand, and, pushed him inside the gate.

"Will he be alright?"

Eva and Nes were here, and both were worried about the poor examiner that seemed to be unwell for some reason.

"He.. should be fine. At least, nothing would happen to him."

That was the best answer I can give to them. And though Eva understood the helplessness behind those words, Nes was still uncertain of why the mister was acting like that.

"Well, let's go in too."

"Yes.."

They had changed into their special clothes and, Nes was wearing that same thin white clothing that she wore when we first met her.

They were certainly clothes, but in fact, their true identity was a <C> rank artifact that was even better than what the three of us were wearing right now.

'And though somewhat revealing, they were pretty clothes.'

This was just a compliment. A pure compliment. Nothing else, so, I nodded at two pretty ladies, and we walked in the gate.

[Welcome to the artificial dungeon simulator.]

[The randomly chosen field for this test is the grass plains of the north. Please prepare for the battle.]

[Preparation time: 5:00]

[Opponents: <G> rank monsters, (Level-1) Water slimes*4]

It was funny she thought of creating a virtual reality simulator inside a virtual reality game, but these artificial dungeon simulators were one of the best training machines that I loved in this entire Worldline.

'We are thinking of getting a custom-made version of the best quality available, but, it isn't something that can exist at least on this planet so, so we would have to wait until we finish the work here, and move away.'

Which is a long way ahead of us so, leaving it at that..

"Vienna. Skip the preparation time."

[That would require the consent of all the participants present.]

We were standing on a vast grassland with four slimes jumping at some distance away from us.

And, they actually looked like the slimes that we all are familiar with, simple blobs of water.

'Which obviously were no fun for my dear sister.'

"Everyone~. Say you don't mind ~."

She should while smiling at the there of us and.. she had prepared a long sunbath chair for Levi and herself in the short time we were outside.

'That poor soul..'

The reason everything happening today was so shocking for him that he almost had multiple cardiac arrests, was because of the absurdity of everything from his completely normal perspective.

And I would say he was mentally pretty strong to actually be able to handle all of the things happening here.

'Just think about it. Some unknown young-looking people came to the association for the test that he must have conducted countless times in his five years of time here.

Then he witnesses someone write without using their pens, with the telekinesis that is considered a simple but complicated skill to master.

Then he sees her write a few bundles of pages in mere minutes, something totally absurd.

Then she teases him, calls him by his full name that even the association manager does not know about, and plays around with his mind.'

Now, people, El is hot and sexy, and totally fucking attractive. Her charm itself is so seductive that if she wants, she can completely dominate any mind that's even slightly attracted to her.

She can even completely brainwash one weaker than her or someone with a weaker mentality even without much great effort if she so much as wishes it.

This simple innate characteristic of hers is what makes her so dangerous, and at the same time, cute.

'I can do some little tricks like her, but, I don't actually need them or my attractiveness.'

It is a very simple task to completely dominate a human mind.

You don't need some pretty face, money, power, or even a human body.

As long as you know about the target, their likings, their psychological wounds, and traumas, even a dog can completely make someone their slave.

'But that's not something I would need this time, hopefully. I also have a pretty face like her.'

That was more than enough..

El is a little crazy, so, how much crazier one would have to be to handle a sweet abomination like her, hmm?

"Don't mind? What do you mean El?"

"I don't."

"Me neither."

Nes didn't know what El was talking about but, she unknowingly agreed anyway so the system accepted everyone's consent and erased the timer.

-Blop. Blop. Blop.

The four slimes started jumping toward us, however, El pointed her finger at them, gathered a grain of Mana, and shot it toward them.

And when this thin needle-like ray of her Mana reached the four jumping slimes that actually looked cute, it exploded and popped them like the water balloons they were.

-Booooom.

[Opponents defeated.]

[Initiating (Level-2) of the simulation.]

The explosion caused by her Mana wasn't that bad so only the four slimes were defeated. A super easy clear.

'Any normal adult can deal with them anyway.'

We have played with Vienna more than enough to know practically everything about her. So, we knew the first ten levels were all going to be related to different kinds and types of slimes that Eva and Nes can take care of.

And, since El wasn't going to do anything much anymore, aside from teasing and playing with Levi's mind, the following ten levels were mostly up to me too.

'Also, though I think the association leaders already have a pretty deep interest in us, our goal is a direct relationship with the association. A one-sidedly advantageous one no less.'

That was the bare minimum I would take from them for now, and when we were done here, they would have to say goodbye to their most valuable treasure as well.

But right now, it was slime time.

"Nes darling~. Do you wanna kill the slimes that will appear from now on?"

"Hmmm? Do we have to defeat the slimes now? Is that the last part of the test Mister was talking about?"

"Yes~. But you don't have to do it if you don't want to. Just giving buffs would do too~."

"Then.. I will do that."

Nes could kill anything she wanted for sure, she was trained to be ready for any kind of danger she faces. But, if possible, she refrained from taking any life herself. N0v3l-Bin was the first platform to present this chapter.

She would even stop anyone that she thinks was doing something wrong, which obviously included us.

And, since we were her friends too, one can just imagine what her reaction would be when she finds out what kind of people we actually were.

'That's why she won't know it. Not until she is entirely ours. Not until we know it was time to tell her, time to show her.'

But, that wasn't happening anytime soon either.

She was pure and she will remain pure. Until the moment she leaves that unfit body of hers.

"Alright~! Eva~. You can do the cleaning till the tenth level, then Lucy will take over. Nes and I will be supports~."

This bad sister of mine was actually laying there on that long chair while the still-stunned Levi was sitting there with a blank look, looking up ahead.

He knew everything that was going on, but, his thought process had been in utter chaos from everything he witnessed after entering this dungeon simulator room.

And I can tell a stroke was on the way.

'Not that she cared. She was still looking forward to opening him up.'

"Haaa.. Lu. Keep an eye on that girl."

Eva sighed and summoned Luel on the palm of her hand in its original form, and stepped forward.

"Don't worry, I'm doing that from the start. That miserable one will at least be alive on my watch."

Eva knew very well just what things this girl can do to a 'thing' she had taken an interest in. So, she was worried. Still, she was told to go clear out these ten levels, which was the first task at hand for her now.

[Initiating (Level-2)]

[Opponents: <G> rank monsters, (Level-10) Water slimes*8]

El was asking for the preparation time skip and with Eva's current level it was just a minor task to handle these simple slimes that weren't even anything like the gray ones that she had encountered, trained with, and battled in that dark forest.

'She was ready.'

These weren't even worth her sword but, she was still using her weapon that even the demons envied.

-Swiiiiiiiiish!

And, level two was worth nothing more than a simple swing of her sword.

[(Level-2) complete.]

[Initiating (Level-3)]

[Opponents: <G> rank monsters, (Level-20) Water slimes*8]

After killing thousands of slimes, she was also a slime expert.

She had even survived that dangerous slime hell with us, so, these cute blobs of water were practically nothing for her.

[(Level-3) complete.]

[Initiating (Level-4)]

[Opponents: <G> rank monsters, (Level-20) flame slimes*16]

"Nes, water attribute please."

"Yes!"

Nes has a grand arsenal of skills. Especially skills that can grant one a certain elemental effect for a short time.

She mainly used these skills with her main offensive skill that created a certain number of null elemental chains, which was a pretty decent set of skills for a young person like her.

[(Level-4) complete.]

[Initiating (Level-5)]

[Opponents: <G> rank monsters, (Level-30) acid slimes*16]

"Do you need fire elemental buff, Miss Eva?"

"No, it's alright. The previous one is still in effect so these acid ones would be pretty easy."

The previous ones until now had been a piece of cake for her but now, they would start to get more difficult.

Still, sixteen (Level-30) ones were nothing before someone that was over Level eighty.

-Swaaaaaaaaash!

She just fortified her sword with some Mana and pierced right through the cores of the acid slimes with a quick movement and brandished her sword to clear out their remaining mucus at the end.

-Shim.

[(Level-5) complete.]

[Initiating (Level-6)]

[Opponents: <G> rank monsters, (Level-40) earth slimes*20]

The duration of her buff hand ended and the opponents on these grass fields were not that easy anymore. And, they had the power of numbers so, they should have been impossible to clear for some new adventurer alone.

Even a party of ten would find it difficult to face these earth slimes with high defense and physical attack resistance.

But, Eva used the [Gale rush] skill of Luel, gathered the twenty slimes in one spot and trapped them, closed in, and simply used [Horizontal slash] to deal with all of them in one fell swoop.

[(Level-6) complete.]

[Initiating (Level-7)]

[Opponents: <G> rank monsters, (Level-50) electro slimes*24]

"Haaa... haaa..."

I can tell she was starting to get tired now, but she could still go on until she achieved what El had asked of her. And, she already had two good buffers to help her, so, she was fine anyway.

She cleared the seventh level with electro slimes with Nes's flame element buff, then she cleared the eighth level with thirty (Level-60) slimes from wind, plant, light, and dark attributes too. But, by that time, she was visibly tired.

"A-are you alright Miss Eva?"

"I'm fine, Nes. Let's continue. Haaa..."

Still, she challenged the ninth level with thirty-six (Level-70) slimes of water, fire, earth, and wind attribute, used her [Battle analysis], some of my skills, and their buffs to cross this level too.

But then.. there was level ten.

"Holy mother of chickens..."

The entire field before us was filled with larger slimes than she had faced before. The strong (Level-80) monsters that the adventurers would mostly avoid if they could, now covered the entire grasslands.

They were all difficult to deal with, and, there were not ten or twenty, but, forty of them this time.

And they were of different attributes too so a single kind of skill was not going to work before them.

'You're before a problem, Eva.'

We all knew it, and so did the one that had gone through her own battle experiences.

She knew this would be difficult for her. She was already tired anyway. But, this was the last hurdle she had to cross.

So..

'Do what makes you yourself.'

-Zaaaaaaaaa...!

She used the second strongest skill of her weapon, [Hex dive], and her own [Area domination].. and unleashed her swordsmanship that she had honed for the past few years, ultimately unleashing a spectacle that the spectators watching us right now, might never forget in their entire lives..