I’ve Been Reincarnated as a Tentacle Slime~ I Want to Live a Comfortable, Secure Life and Do Whatever I Want~ - Chapter 77

“There’s no way we can win… It’s hopeless… It’s all over…”

Cruz ran out of the boss room and collapsed onto his knees.

Being a slime, he has no knees, but think of it like he collapsed in despair.

“Father!? Didn’t you just go in a moment ago!? How did everyone take this much damage in such a short time—what happened!?”

Even Michael, who had felt the battle was going well, couldn’t hide his shock at Cruz’s team suddenly being half-destroyed.

“Jet! You were supposed to be supporting Father. Tell us everything you know about what happened!”

“It happened so suddenly that I didn’t really understand… I had put up an earthen wall with full power, but we were still attacked. I was shaken by how sudden it was… Even when I blocked with my shield, it was broken through quickly. If Dad hadn’t put up his shield and given the order to retreat right away, the younger ones’ cores might’ve been in danger. I think he said it was an omnidirectional attack.”

The members of Cruz’s squad were covered in wounds, and if they’d kept taking hits like that, some might’ve lost their cores or even died.

From that perspective, pulling back right away wasn’t wrong. They accomplished the goal of testing the plan’s effectiveness without any deaths—though in the most unfortunate way.

“To think they had such a trump card… Then why didn’t they use it from the start?”

Michael and the others used healing magic on Cruz’s squad and gathered their thoughts while tending to their wounds.

“If I recall, she said something like ‘It’s about time I got serious,’ right, Brother Michael?”

“So then, maybe taking a certain amount of damage is the activation condition—or perhaps we were being toyed with from the start. I’d rather not think it’s the latter…”

A weighty silence fell over the slimes——

“In any case, there’s no point in staying here. Let’s return to the first floor. We must also tend to Father-sama’s recovery.”

Raphael shifted into wolf form and began the retreat while supporting Cruz.

–

I returned to the first floor, supported by Rafa…

“Thank you, Rafa…”

“Please, there’s no need. I’m just so glad you made it back safely, Father-sama.”

It seems Rafa is saying it’s nothing serious, just to ease my mind.

“Still, the plan was a failure… and I’ve got no idea what to try next.”

“No, it wasn’t a failure. Not a single person was lost, and we were able to evaluate the effectiveness of the plan.”

“Exactly. Jet mentioned it too. Thanks to your quick retreat command, Father-sama, no one lost their life.”

Uri turned into her human form and hugged me to cheer me up.

It’s a straightforward thing. When a beautiful woman hugs you and encourages you, you can’t help but feel better.

“Haah… Moping won’t change anything. Gabe, I’m leaving the dungeon to you for now. Mika, Rafa, Uri, we’re heading back to the village.”

“Father, please leave the dungeon to me.”

Let’s go back to the village and get some rest. A short sleep will probably help clear my head. I returned to the village with the three and the others currently staying there.