"HEEEELP!!" - Bck Bone

  Bones ran around like a headless chicken as he dodged fireballs, acid spit, balls of curses, and arrows made outta bck tar released by the amalgam of dead monsters/prisoners.

  "At this rate, he should change occupation from a necromancer to a clown." - Garami

  "It looks ridiculous, but it works." - Jailer A

  "Keep at it, bonehead!" - Jailer B

  While running, Bones produced skeleton fishes and sent them to attack the tar monster in between when the monster's attacks paused. The fishes, armed with explosive items that Bones provided them with, charged at the tar monster as suicide bombers...fishes.

  It took a while before Bones started this strategy, and even then, it's been an hour since he started this boss battle. The tar monster's HP is slowly being reduced to nothing while Bones did some funny dance moves to dodge the new attack patterns of the tar monster...

  Or so I've been told by the jailors who've been here since the beginning. I left after the first five minutes. I only returned now since we were done with Bloom's quests for the day. The criminal girl in question has already returned to my Pyer Room.

  And it is about to be...done.

  A fanfare was heard as the final fish exploded as it hit the slime-like beast's body and the whole thing came apart. Its HP reached 0. Seeing this, Bones raised his arms in victory, before fainting on the spot.

  "Hey, you alive?" I asked him after coming down from the audience seats.

  "I'm an undead...and exhausted..." - Bck Bone

  So true. Pying for so long is challenging even when pying from behind the screen, and the VR environment doesn't help.

  "But you got something for it. ...You did, didn't you?" - Garami

  "...skill...[Ghost's Tar]...tier 3 skill...and it's not an Extra!!" - Bck Bone

  Ouch. That's too harsh. Maybe you need to beat that tar creature faster, or win through some special method?

  "I used up all my necromancy stock in that battle...plus the expenses for the special undead-reted MP recovery items...not to mention all those bombs I saved for an emergency..." - Bck Bone

  "Good luck." - Garami

  "BOSS!! PLEASE HELP! HELP MY WALLET!!" - Bck Bone

  "Turn self-efficient already." - Garami

  "Never!!" - Bck Bone

  This little...

  "And you guys left in the middle of the fight! That's too cruel! At least cheer me on until the end!" - Bck Bone

  "It allowed Bloom to escape the bad rep of being a criminal, so I say it was a fair trade." - Garami

  "Why you...? Little Bloom's no longer a criminal!?" - Bck Bone

  "In one word: yup." - Garami

  "How did that happen!?" - Bck Bone

  "Well..." - Garami

  ---

  Half an hour earlier:

  "Mister Bones has it rough." - Bloom

  "It's a trial of his own doing. There's no need to show him pity for that." - Garami

  It was right after we left the Dungeon that we heard a muted explosion from somewhere. It was so sudden that we wouldn't have heard it if we hadn't taken a moment of silence for Bones.

  I didn't die!! - Bones

  But your wallet did. Now shut up and let me continue. - Garami

  After hearing the explosion, we decided to see what was going on before telling the guards. One reason was that whatever had created the noise could have disappeared if we took our time dragging along the jailors, and another was that we should first confirm it was something of importance.

  And important it was. It was a jailbreak! And the people(?) breaking out were a bunch of small humanoids with wings of fire. They were fire fairies!

  "Boss! Someone saw us!" - Fairy Jailbreaker A

  "Tch! Get 'em! They're just some weak demons!" - Fairy Jailbreaker B

  And while hurling insults at us, the fairies flew towards us like a swarm of locusts. The one who stopped them was...Bloom

  "Death Wall!" - Bloom

  A bck wall, one of the generic spells of the [Death Magic] skill, emerged in front of us, and the fairies were stupid enough to fly right into it. Either that or they couldn't stop in time. Whatever the case, the fairies got a load of death energy (or whatever you call it) into their faces, which made them drop on the floor like...flies.

  "Boss! That girl knows how to cast magic!" - Fairy Jailbreaker C

  "Grr...she must be the leader! Everyone, focus your attacks on the servant-looking girl!" - Fairy Jailbreaker B

  Servant-looking? You!? - Bones

  They must have been panicking. Now, where was I... - Garami

  The fairies started to chant out loud something about fires and harming their enemy (me), definite proof of them pnning to attack me with magic. Without certain skills or having the knack for speechless chanting, magic is impossible to use. Which meant the fairies in front of us were amateurs compared to Bloom who had that ability knocked into her since before I met her.

  There was no need for me to be hit by their spells, so I initiated [Trap Expertise], using my [Demon Spider's Thread] as materials, and created a fireproof carpet of demonic webbing in front of me that tanked all the fire spells for me.

  After the fairies stopped releasing their magic projectiles, I threw the carpet (actually many trap nets yered on top of each other) high into the air through [Thread Control]. The fairies' attention followed the carpet, which meant they couldn't react in time before I had crossed the distance between us and sshed some of them down with my scythe.

  "B-boss! This demon's too fast!" - Fairy Jailbreaker (Corpse Candidate) D

  "S-stop her! Burn her!" - Fairy Jailbreaker (Corpse Candidate) B

  The fairies enveloped themselves in fmes before coming at me like burning torpedoes. Since they were so eye-catching, it hurt a little when I gazed upon them with [Slowing Evil Eye] to lower their speed, before I created spider-like arms with human hands to catch the burning Fae. Since the arms weren't real, they didn't burn that easily, nor did I feel that much pain, so I could keep on holding the bzing loudmouths for quite a while.

  I sucked out the captured fairies' MP with [Dark Drain] to the point of fainting before I grabbed the next group. Meanwhile, I dodged their slow attacks thanks to me lowering their speed, and through Bloom having enhanced my speed thanks to her [Haste Alteration Magic].

  The fairies, with all their possible ways to oppose us blocked somehow, could only fall prey to the cooperation of me, Bloom, and Na who I summoned to extinguish the fires released by the fairies...

  ---

  "And then the jailors arrived after hearing the sounds of the battle and captured the remaining fairies, gave us some rewards, which included Bloom a free pass to escape her life of crime, and then they shooed us away so they could repair the wall." - Garami

  I took a sip of the drink I ordered from the cafe-like shop while retelling my story to Bones. The skeleton looks envious of the fancy drink, but I'm not giving you. It would go right through you. Literally.

  As for Bloom, she's currently resting in my Pyer Room. The experience was a trial for her, even if not as much as Bones' tar battle earlier.

  "Grr...why am I the only guy who had to go broke with my fights?" - Bck Bone

  "You used your Medal right away." - Garami

  "Ugh...yeah, but still..." - Bck Bone

  "You should have waited until you were on C-level." - Garami

  "UGH!?" - Bck Bone

  "You were too overconfident in your abilities." - Garami

  "Please stop...my HP is already at 0..." - Bck Bone

  "And what are your pns now, mister broke Bones?" - Garami

  "Don't call me that! What if it sticks?!" - Bck Bone

  "Well, excuse me. And, about my question?" - Garami

  "...I think I'll have to settle with farming materials and cash in lower-difficulty areas for a while. Sorry..." - Bck Bone

  "No biggie. The Darknd Fort is pretty much as good as it can be by now. Any other material we harvest for it is bonus points at this stage." - Garami

  "It's been so hectic these days that it's easy to forget that we're doing all this to jack up that castle into the final-area Dungeon~." - Bck Bone

  "Stop it~. I'll consider the idea for real if you don't." - Garami

  I parted with Bones after that, the undead now in a better mood for some reason. The idea of being the game's st boss (or at least owning the st boss Dungeon) seems to have fired him up.

  ...honestly, I'm agreeing with his excitement. People do call me the "Demon Princess", so why not upgrade it to "Demon Overlord"?

  Yeah, that would be awesome! ...except, I'm feeling someone's gaze behind me.

  "Who's there?" - Garami

  "To think I would be noticed..." - ???

  The person came out of the shadows...hey! It's the vampire kunoichi from when we attacked the vampire mansion! She's dressed in the same ninja outfit from before, but it has some blue accessories attached to it now. Ice-reted accessories to fight off the heat? I'd like some of those.

  "Hello again, Miss Garami." - ???

  "Oh, hi.........Siel Fortum!" - Garami

  "You forgot my name." - Siel

  "No way~." - Garami

  "If you say so." - Siel

  Good. She didn't notice that I Identified her to check her name.

  "Anyway, why're you here?" - Garami

  "An errand for the cn head. The prison has its special garden where they grow fruits unique to this volcanic environment. They are the cn head's favorite snack." - Siel

  Hmm, that sounds like a nice piece of knowledge to have if I ever encounter that guy. There's just one thing bugging me.

  "Can't he order the fruits and have them delivered? Why come and pick them up?" - Garami

  "The truth is, a pack of bear-like creatures has started to destroy the pnting facilities." - Siel

  "Bears?" - Garami

  "Big bears. There is even a hidden commander-type somewhere, but nobody knows where it is or how to smoke it out. All we know is that it is enhancing the already-strong bears to unbearable levels." - Siel

  "Was that a bear pun?" - Garami

  "No, not at all." - Siel

  "Really?" - Garami

  "Really. By the way, Miss Garami? Are you occupied in the near future?" - Siel

  "If it's a date, then be prepared to end it in the adult district." - Garami

  "That would be problematic. Our cn always ends our partner's life along with the date in those areas." - Siel

  Scary!? The Fortum cn is terrifying! And I was only joking about the date!

  "And that is not what I wished to ask about. I wished to request your assistance in defeating the bears who are destroying this prison's produce." - Siel

  "You mean kicking the fruit thieves' asses? That's simple...but not without costs." - Garami

  "Fine. If it is only my body-" - Siel

  "Hold on! Stop that! What if someone overhears us!? I just want you to investigate a few things for me." - Garami

  "Is that all? How boring." - Siel

  This looks bad. Don't tell me this vampire's mind got poisoned by that horny nun (Maria, or whatever her name was) when they were in the vampire mansion's prison cells together?

  "Focus! I wanna know about what happens to csses that require the [Criminal] title after said title has been removed." - Garami

  It was thanks to "Crime Caster" that we managed to enter this area, so I wanna be aware of whether it will continue to be useful for us ter now that Bloom's title is gone. It's been the biggest problem on my mind tely, but I didn't wanna take away Bloom's chance to return to society.

  "I will need some time to look into that. I should have your answer ready by tomorrow." - Siel

  "Okay. Then, for my final question: are there any ways to keep using eye-reted skills, even if one is forced to wear a blindfold?" - Garami

  This is the most important problem I gotta solve these days. I wanna use that awesome-looking gear of mine!

  "Hmm? Can you not obtain the Seer css?" - Siel

  "Seer?" - Garami

  Seer...Seer..., now I see... What is that?