Hearing Kiki’s panicked cry, I was confused.

After all, they were successfully avoiding popping the blisters until now. There should be no way for her Plague’s progress to increase so suddenly.

"Wait...!"

Only then did I notice one minor detail.

It was the fact that, as Kiki fought with her fists, her proximity to the monsters was a lot higher than anyone else’s. This allowed the rats to damage her more frequently. Since the damage couldn’t overcome my flag’s regeneration, we had simply let it be.

But the scratches and bites from the Plague Rats, even if they barely did damage at all...

’The rat’s attacks can inflict us with Plague too?!’

Of course, this wasn’t such a surprising "property" for monsters like these. However, the ones in this beginner area shouldn’t be that vicious. The past Kiki would’ve grumbled about it otherwise.

This meant this change was definitely part of the "correction" that Kay talked about before.

Anyway, if we lost Kiki or anyone else here, then we would definitely lose our chances at clearing this place. It was imperative we maintained our current roster.

"Kiki, step back!"

Having no choice, I could only give this command.

But with Kiki moving to rest, Miyabi had to hold the line all by herself.

"DOOUUU!"

"Iai Slash!"

"Vacuum Slash...!"

As such, to keep the rats away from the middle, she had to pour out all her skills, not bothering to conserve her mana at all. Each swing, three or more rats fell. If she weren’t wary of their blisters popping, she would’ve gotten more for each slash.

The effort was showing, though. Her breathing had grown heavier between swings, the rhythm of her strikes just slightly less crisp than when we’d started. She wasn’t slowing down—not yet—but she was burning through reserves that weren’t meant to be emptied this early.

Miyabi somehow held the line, but Kiki’s condition would take time to recover.

"I’m up 75%, so hold for 75 seconds!" She shouted, wiping the grime off her face.

But that was over a minute.

Based on Miyabi’s cooldowns and her current mana, she could probably last up to 30 seconds at most. Far from enough.

I turned to our only healer, Eri, and asked. "GentleBreeze?"

However, she quickly shook her head.

"Sorry, but I don’t have a skill to cure ailments yet. Even my ace in the hole, Sanctuary, doesn’t affect accumulated charge of Plague, or Plague itself." She muttered with regret.

Miyabi wouldn’t last until Eri recovered.

I couldn’t move Ram or Gwen out of the way, since there were more monsters behind us than ahead. We were literally stuck, unable to go forward or retreat.

"...No choice...!"

Thus, I was left with only one option: to add more hands!

I hurriedly visited my class’s unique skills panel. There, I quickly moved to the Build Panel. This time, I didn’t hit randomize at all—instead, I focused on building one myself.

For the body, I grabbed parts from the first line, not focusing on appearance but more on function. For the optional gears, I chose the ones that could help us out of our current predicament. It took me 15 seconds of skimming and clicking before I confirmed my build.

I couldn’t even check her appearance before I hit summon.

"Come to my side, oh eternal follower!" My mouth moved automatically, as usual.

Then...

WHOOSH!

A flash of light pierced the cave wall, coming from far above. Phasing through materials. It landed just a meter away from me, kneeling. The air around the point of impact smelled faintly of ozone and warm metal, like a soldering iron held too close.

Slowly, she stood up and stretched her arms above her head, as if stiff from sitting all day long.

"Hnggg~! I’ve come, Master! Now, who needs a helping hand~?"

Before I could properly gander at my nearly 40k expense, I scanned her from head to toe and nodded.

She was just as cute as the other two.

Orange-brown hair reaching a little past her shoulders. Longer than Ram’s or Gwen’s, and with a slight wave to it that the other two didn’t have.

Golden eyes that radiated cheerful emotion. Pink lips curled into a wide smile, sharing her warmth with everyone around her without being asked.

Thanks to the optional parts I’d added, even though she had just been summoned, she didn’t look nearly as naked as Ram had during that first time.

It felt more like she was wearing an exoskeleton that hid most of her skin from direct view—structured, form-fitting, practical in the way that still somehow looked designed rather than functional.

But, of course, I didn’t wait for the girls to criticize me before equipping her with proper clothing.

It was a backup set of equipment meant for Ram, making her look like a soldier just like the other two.

But instead of a sword or a shield, she was now holding a staff—more like a wand, really, tapered at the end and inlaid with something that caught the cave’s dim light and threw it back warmer than it had any right to be.

One final difference was that, unlike the randomized Ram and Gwen, this one had been named before she was even built.

"Sunny, please cleanse everyone of the plague’s buildup!" I commanded.

"Roger~! Righto~!"

With a cheerful spin, she waved her wand and whispered a short chant that I couldn’t quite catch. The next moment, golden light spread out of her, washing over the surroundings in a wide, slow pulse, like a lantern blooming open.

"O-Oh, my plague buildup is gone!" Kiki cheered, visibly shocked by what happened. "Now I can fight again!"

The new android, Sunny, was not a fighter but rather a support type.

A buff/debuffer, to be more specific. She could increase her party’s stats, remove ailments, and inflict weakening spells on enemies.

Of course, all those optional parts were fucking expensive, but given the situation, I’d had no choice.

Thankfully, her stats were quite great.

She got 50% of my STR, 100% of my AGI, and 300% of my VIT. She even got 500% of my INT, boosting her spell’s efficiency considerably.

As I had been aiming for a mostly targeted build, her final stats were basically heads and shoulders above Ram and Gwen. I supposed this was the difference between a random model and one specifically built for a purpose.

With Sunny’s addition, the frontline became stable. We need not fear the blisters anymore, after all.

Through cleansing, as long as the cooldowns were up, everyone would return to zero Plague charge. There was basically no way we would fall against these rats anymore.

’Though that’s 40k worth... I could’ve done random twice or thrice with that amount...’

With buffs from the flag, buffs from Sunny, and debuffs to the enemies, the fight wrapped up about ten minutes later.

All in all, we had defeated about 300 rats.

That alone showed just how many monsters had pincer attacked us in the tunnel.

"I’m tired..."

"Me too..."

Kiki and Miyabi plopped down as soon as we arrived at the next room.

It was mostly empty just like the first one, with a few paths leading off in different directions. Of course, only one of them led to the boss room, so we would need to follow the right path eventually.

But since the two frontline girls were tired, we could only stop for a moment and rest.

Although I say rest, the girls were mostly just sitting on the ground, chatting with the revived chat about random things.

Kiki had her knees pulled up to her chest, laughing at something someone in chat had typed, already looking more like she’s enjoying herself.

Miyabi, meanwhile, was leaning her back against the cave wall with her eyes half-closed, letting her mana tick back up in silence. The contrast between the two of them was almost funny.

The difference between a hardcore gamer and a casual...

Eri was just listening by the side, quietly giving comments when needed. Like a gentle elder sister that spoke only when it mattered.

I, on the other hand, spent the downtime idly poking through the android upgrade menus—not out of any particular urgency, just curiosity while I had a free moment.

There was a trade-in system I hadn’t noticed before, where old parts could offset the cost of new ones, though at a depreciated rate. I filed it away and closed the panel.

Ram and Gwen were good as they were for now, and dismissing them for upgrades mid-dungeon meant at least 30 minutes of resummoning cooldown.

We didn’t have that kind of time to dawdle.

"SCREECH!"

"Master, more enemies! Numbers around 500!"

"Gwen detects monsters coming from five paths. Two varieties."

"Master, Master, there’s Plague Rats and Withered Bats coming in~!"

My three androids reported immediately, almost simultaneously.

Of course, the girls didn’t miss the warning and quickly stood up, preparing for another fight.

However, this time...

"Let’s step up the battles."

Previously, I had just stood around, letting the girls handle all the fighting. This time, it was time to mix things up.

The formation changed.

Ram, Miyabi, Gwen, and Kiki lined up in a row, standing before the incoming monster wave.

Around the middle of it, a few steps behind, I stood sandwiched by Eri and Sunny.

The cave pressed close around us, the low ceiling funneling the echoing screeches into something louder and more directionless than they had any right to be.

I could feel the vibrations of the oncoming horde through the soles of my boots before I could properly see them—a faint, rhythmic tremor, like something massive breathing.

"Contact in 5!" Ram announced.

By then, even though the cave was dark, we could already see the red glowing eyes of the enemies coming in. There were quite the number of them, in fact—more than the last wave, or at least it felt that way with the bats adding their own chaotic flutter above the rats’ ground-level surge.

"Nice, nice... Come closer," I whispered as I drew my sword.

Then, exactly five seconds later...

A fierce battle began.