And so, I decided to simply reveal that Thorn Cavern was supposed to have a secret passage and plow on ahead without anything to back up my assertion.
“Look over there. It seems like we can’t go any farther through this briar wall, right? But after you use a certain item here, just wait… Ludie, can you move that ivy up against the wall?”
When I asked Ludie to do this, she looked at me as if to say that’s obviously impossible, are you kidding? but still did as I asked.
Lo and behold, the moment she did, the brambles slithered away from her even more than the ivy had earlier.
Finally, the briars retreated to the wall entirely, leaving the way forward completely clear.
Seeing this, Yuika…
“…Haaaah.”
…let out a massive sigh. Meanwhile, Yukine broke into a strained smile, while Claris looked dumfounded.
Claris was the only one to grill me about why I knew about the secret passage, but all that accomplished was making Ludie reprimand her, saying that this was always how things went when I was around. Who exactly did she think I was?
And the thing was, Claris was absolutely right here.
We were in her home country, after all. Why the hell would someone from another country know all about this stuff?
“Okay, so what’s down there anyway?” Yuika asked, looking at the pathway that had appeared.
“In short, a bunch of useful items.”
While there were a variety of helpful items and equipment to obtain here, the majority were for elves in particular. There was also one item that anyone looking to strengthen themselves to the limit would definitely want to grab.
After I gave a simple explanation of the dungeon, we continued onwards.
“What the heck is that?” Yuika asked, looking at the creature. It was like a seed, attached to the briars on the wall. When it fell to the floor, it rapidly sprouted up in mere seconds, forming into a singular shape.
“A tree? Well, it doesn’t really look like one.”
Its appearance…was that of a beautiful woman.
“It’s an Épine treant, stay sharp.”
They were different from normal treants.
As for what was different, it was their appearance. They were so pretty that the dyed-in-the-wool perverts playing the game would have pounced on them even knowing full well they were monsters.
“!”
The treant swung its arm, similar to a tree root, at Yukine, who was at the absolute vanguard of our party. The monster tried to slam her into the ground with its attack. Yukine immediately noticed what we were dealing with.
“Be careful, this thing’s branches have thorns!”
The Épine treant’s most unique characteristic was their thorns. Normal treants didn’t have any, and as such, this variety was much more powerful.
Also, while ninety-nine percent of them were female shaped, there was one group of them that resembled a man instead. But regardless of appearance, they all had those damn thorns.
As I watched everyone move, it was clear to see that our footing was going to be pretty important.
Yuika seemed to be having particular difficulty. Given her inherent physical prowess, she seemed to be fighting like normal, but you couldn’t say she was moving with ease. While I could move with my stole to mitigate the drop in mobility, I couldn’t deny it made combat a lot more difficult.
At the moment, Claris and Ludie were the ones doing the most.
Claris boldly advanced forward, as if paying no mind to the perilous terrain whatsoever. The treant tried to use its branches and roots to wallop her, but she easily parried the attack with her shield.
“Claris!” Ludie shouted from behind. Reacting to her voice, Claris smoothly dodged to her right, and a spell struck the spot where she had been standing, scoring a direct hit on the treant.
The spell Ludie had used was called Wind Blade. Claris closed in on the treant, horribly cut up and recoiling backward, cleaving the thing in two with a shout.
“I’ve seen them practice that before, but it really is incredible in action,” Yuika said, looking impressed. I was amazed they could move like normal on such terrible footing.
Claris blushed a bit at Yuika’s words.
“Thank you. This is all thanks to Master Takioto, though.”
Or so she said, but…
“I don’t remember doing anything really,” I said.
Just then, Nanami appeared to sense something and readied her bow.
“Everyone, while it pains me to interrupt your pleasant chat, our next foe is approaching.”
Following Nanami’s gaze, I saw that another seed had dropped to the ground up ahead and had already begun to sprout.
The monster that appeared this time had the body of a young girl. However, it wasn’t any normal girl. It carried what looked like a large log on its back, and from the stump, branches extended out like octopus tentacles.
“…A dryad.”
While dryads looked quite cute and charming on the outside, they were a pretty powerful enemy in MX. The reason for that was their tentacles.
They could control the stump branches at will and to fight at range. They also used these same tentacles to defend, making them a pretty tough enemy to crack.
Coupled with the poor footing, we were likely in for a difficult fight.
However…
“I’ll go see what it’s like.”
…this didn’t seem to pose any problem for Claris. She approached the dryad and slashed it with her sword.
“Huh?!”
After doing so, she fell back to where we were, looking shaken.
“Crap.” The word slipped out of my mouth when I looked at the dryad. The clothes it had been wearing suddenly vanished, leaving it in only underwear. This was a phenomenon I was quite familiar with.
“Uh-oh. That’s the Undress skill!”
“The what?”
Yuika turned to me, unamused. Hey, c’mon, don’t give me that look! This wasn’t my fault!
“…‘Undress’? What the hell? Is that your signature move or something?”
“No, no, at least rope Anemone into this if that’s the joke you’re going for.”
Everyone sent me stares of incredulity. But it was already too late. The look in their eyes seemed to question why I even knew about this in the first place. With my hands tied, it was time to explain.
“Th-the Undress skill is a rare ability that only certain monsters possess. When their HP falls below a certain level, they strip their clothes and increase all their stats.”
Yes, all their stats. This was the sort of ability I would’ve come up with if I had to create the most powerful ability of all. Though, actually, even if I made the very generous assumption that taking off one’s clothes would raise one’s evasion rates, it still baffled me how it could also raise one’s defense.
“Uhhh, excuse me?! What the hell kind of pervert would use that?!”
Seriously. How could someone bring themselves to even use a skill like that? Hey, wait, stop looking at me like that; I’m not a perv (a blatant lie).
“So if we attack that thing…it’ll get stronger regardless of how it may look, is that it?”
I nodded at Yukine’s summary.
This skill’s effects would change depending on the user’s remaining HP. In the game, the dryads get half-naked at fifty percent HP and receive slightly buffed stats. Then at thirty percent HP, they shed all their clothing and receive a significant stat boost. Incidentally, if you train the heck out of the Undress skill, it will fully activate at fifty percent HP instead, making it easier to use. For that reason, the worst possible thing you could do was hit it with half-hearted attacks. When the enemies suddenly became totally nude in that one eroge, I had thought it was a bug at first.
So how was I supposed to explain this?
“Basically, that monster’s ability makes it stronger the more they strip. Um, so if the dryad takes a bit more damage, well, how can I put it? It’ll look much more liberated? It’ll be in its birthday suit? A real feast for the—I mean, it’ll be real hard on the eyes… See, it’s very hard to explain properly.”
“So you’re saying all its clothes will come off.”
Ludie came out and said what I had been dancing around.
“Yup, that’s absolutely right. Forgive me.”
This wasn’t my fault whatsoever, yet for some reason, I couldn’t help but apologize out of an intense sense of guilt. I included a groveling bow with it.
“We have to damage it to defeat it, though,” Yukine said as she pointed her naginata at our lingeried foe. She was asking about what we were supposed to do when fighting an enemy with the Undress skill.
There were several methods, but the easiest one was to defeat it before it could activate the skill. The Undress skill was powerful, but if the user’s HP never fell below a certain amount, it wouldn’t activate.
“The easiest solution is to simply deal enough damage to surpass the HP threshold for the skill to activate. Though, even if the skill does activate, it’s still possible to push through and defeat it.”
This was a negligible point, of course, but the main heroines could also acquire the Undress skill. However, in order to do so, you needed to get a special DLC patch that was released through a specific magazine, and the magazine had never been reprinted.
In short, it was difficult to obtain. This was actually a pretty common thing. Dear eroge developers: I can guess there are a variety of circumstances at play here, but please sell a complete set of all the bonus content patches. I wouldn’t even mind if it came several years down the line, just please, help us out here! Though on second thought, it wasn’t like I would be coming back to my original world anyway.
“Master is quite the pervert, it seems.”
“Where’d that come from? This isn’t my fault!”
“By the way, I did know this skill existed, but this is my first time seeing it.”
“Well, I sure wish you explained it, then!!”
What the hell was with that oh, me? I don’t know anything look she was making, then?
With all that settled…
“I-I’ll face it.”
Despite being rattled by the dryad’s nonsensical skill, Claris stepped out front. Given the flooring, relying on Claris or long-range attacks would be our best options.