"And here we...go!" - Garami

  Two crustacean abominations came running towards Mira and Revi, but I trapped them in webs produced from the silk of [Demon Spider's Thread]. Man, I love not having my best skill sealed~.

  The abominations, looking like a centaur-combo of a giant shrimp and a shrimp-man, tried to wrestle themselves out of the webs, but my thread has been enhanced by my crafting skills, including [Mystic Conferment] and [Energy Conferment]. They both take a steep payment to use, meaning MP and SP for each skill, but they make up for it by boosting the quality and durability of other created items. The MP-part is not that bad, but I fear [Energy Conferment] won't get that much spotlight time compared to Mystic.

  And I miscalculated a bit. While the webs were strong enough to handle the shrimp centaurs' brute force musclework, the trees that I had anchored my webs to got rooted up. To be fair, these trees aren't those century-old ones that we usually see here in the Underwoods, but still!

  Mira came to the rescue and sliced the right legs (yes, plural. This is a shrimp after all) of the shrimp centaur to the right. At the same time, Revi enlarged her dragon doll to have it go and chomp on the head of the other centaur. Good thing these guys take after centaurs instead of Arachnes, or else the second head might go for a counter-attack. Luckily, this shrimp only has 1 head.

  Not wanting to be left behind, I summoned some Smoke Ghosts and had them assist Revi. Also, I supported Mira by creating new threads to bind the first centaur, but I didn't use silk this time. Instead, I tested out the new [Hologram Wire] skill, the one I obtained by evolving the [Glow Web] skill. Weird that an uncommon Monster Skill turned into a more common Active-type Skill, but maybe [Glow Web] just didn't have its own unique skill evolution.

  Whatever the case, my new wires are damn cool! It feels like I'm using laser beams as strings, and they're even supported by my old thread-related skills, such as [Thread Control], so this gives me lots of new options to work with. I really hope there's a Darkness version and a Poison version of this skill, because this new move of mine rocks!

  How is it awesome? Well, first, it gives me one more source of threads to control, so the risk of losing my best move due to Seal is now mitigated. The second reason lies in [Hologram Wire]'s own unique traits. The wires of solidified light are now binding the shrimp centaur, but Mira's light-covered sword just passes through the wires and cuts the shrimp directly.

  It seems the products created by the "Hologram" skill series can't be harmed by traditional means. Physical blows are as good as useless, and other Glow-category attacks (like Light and Lighting) only phase through them. But they are deadly weak to Gloom-type attacks like Darkness or Curse. Then there are the other Hologram skills like [Hologram Cover], which is damn helpful in keeping yourself concealed.

  But as wires, the Holograms work perfectly for me, as I can easily cut them with my Darkness moves if I need them gone on a moment's notice, or they work excellently to retain enemies while working with Mira and her Light- and Lightning-based attack skills.

  Of course, the wires are still in their baby-stage, as the skill's level has barely gone past level 5, but that's where my stats-reducing Magic Eyes comes in. I could even combo the wires with the magical restraints produced with the [Magic Eye of Binding] skill, but unfortunately, it seems having just 2 eyeballs ain't enough for my skill build anymore.

  My lack of extra peekers aside, the shrimp centaurs have been defeated. They were the last out of the dozen that had been in our way, but things ended up easier than I had expected.

  "Man, we really didn't need Iron or Noire at all." - Garami

  "Princess, we'll all feel bad if you forget to include Lily there." - Mira

  "Whoops, my bad." - Garami

  Last night, after we reported to Alf, who was staying back in the Damavand, with our Dungeon Terminals, when I mentioned that we were gonna work with that Flamel guy after we were done with the Underwoods, Flint suddenly spoke up and begged to be able to join us on that quest.

  So, I sent Iron, Noire, and Lily back to the surface to go and fetch our lizard smith. We could also send the materials we have already acquired to Jumbo and that Life Champion dude's party, so that's two birds in one stone.

  Besides, Lily and Noire have been through a lot with the recent hot spring raid, so they deserve a break. And Lily gets to meet with Jumbo again while he's still in town, and she gets to be introduced to the Damavand. It's too bad I don't get the chance to see her expression when she arrives, but duty calls. Regarding Iron, I'm sending him as a bodyguard for the tired duo.

  Meaning right now, the Underwoods team consists only of the trio of me, Mira, and Revi. Iron and Flint will join us when they return, but if things go right, we will be done with our business in the Underwoods and can go and earn some good rep with the Alchemists' Union.

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  "Things are...going...smooth?" said Revi as she tried to start the conversation, all on her own, this good girl!

  "Despite that we're spitting in the Adventurers' Union's party-build theories' faces, then yes." - Mira

  "Hmm? What's that all about?" - Garami

  "Right, Princess didn't take any theory lessons at the Union. Long story short, the Union's got some guidelines for when building your party. No strict rules or anything, but many adventurers tend to follow them as these theories have held for the two hundred years the Union's been active." - Mira

  "Uh-hu. Not interested." - Garami

  "Really?! And here I thought Princess was gunning for the Leader role." - Mira

  "There are roles?" - Revi

  "Yup. We have Leaders, Defenders, Attackers, Snipers, Casters, and Supporters. The general strategy is to build around 1 Leader and have at least 1 Defender on the team, at least 1 Attacker, Sniper, or Caster, then at least 1 Supporter to cover any weakspots. Leaders will have high Leadership skills and often double as healers as well." - Mira

  "But what about the Supporters?" - Revi

  "Supporters can also be healers, but they can also be enchanters or simply handymen who make sure the party has everything they need for the adventure. It is a common saying that the real cornerstone of a successful party isn't the Leader, but the Supporter." - Mira

  As I figured. Defenders must be people like Iron, Attackers are close-range warriors, and Snipers and Casters are long-range physical and magical attackers. Big deal. I was a video gamer in my old life. I know theories and strategies like that as if they were the back of my palm.

  "Being a Leader doesn't sound too challenging...if you aren't Princess." - Revi

  "Nice save, girlfriend~. But don't underestimate the difficulties of a Leader. You need several skills and items that allow you to manage the effects of the [Party] skill, not to even start about the difficulties of how to make it an advantage of joining the Party in the first place. All the costs for obtaining both skills and items related to LP will turn the Leader quite weak as a result, so not many want to play that role." - Mira

  "Princess can still do it!" - Revi

  "That's so true~." - Mira

  Yeah, she's not joking. [Leadership] for boosting your LP, [Charisma] for cost-reduction when adding people to your Leadership Skill groups, and skills like [Enhance Followers: STR] and its variants for the other stats to enhance your groupies. That last one is a skill that makes the underlings of the team leader gain a buff to their stats based on the leader's stats and the skill's level, so just by being the boss, you enhance your crewmates for no extra pay.

  Still, that last set of skills is locked behind the "true karma" Extra Skills, meaning [Demon Lord] and its Good Karma and Neutral Karma variants. I mean, those skills boost your stats already, so having the ability to share those high stat values with your underlings is kinda broken. I thought [Demon Lord] was pretty basic to be an Extra Skill, but it seems there was just a question on how you could build on it. And if you have enough AP for it, but I got privileges for being a Champion~.

  Any other less "talented" Leaders (heh~) must rely on other "buff your goons" skills. Like..., I don't know, I never paid much attention to that. The Enhance Followers series completely stole my attention back when I looked at Leadership Skills to buy with my AP.

  "...EH?!" - Garami

  "What is it?" - Mira

  "Enemies!?" - Revi

  "...Sorry, it's nothing. Forget it." - Garami

  Craaaaaap. I couldn't stop myself from shouting out loud... In my defense, getting to suddenly know that [Leadership] can evolve into different T2 skills based on your attribute, and that you can obtain all three versions after mastering [Leadership], would come as a shock to anyone. I honestly expected I would only get [Darkness Leader] and that's that.

  ...Enough self-reflecting. I've just purchased [Light Leader] and [Poison Leader]. That gives me +10 to my LP for each skill, and more to come when the three skills' levels go up. Plus, each skill gives a bonus to stats to any subordinates with a racial attribute that matches the skill's, so Mira got an unexpected power-up now. Yay.

  ...And not only that, but there seems to be skills like [Encouragement] that boost non-item-based healing effects for the followers, [Directions] that grant the subordinates extra EXP (seriously?!) though the ratio is 0.01% for each skill level (that explains a lot!), and the [Tactics] and [Strategem] skills I won from the title fever rush a few days ago seems to increase those kinds of skills' effects even more.

  Okay, lesson learned. Do not think you know all there is to skills and stuff. I'd better have Bloom start studying those Union guidelines after this. I've missed out so much. Oh, and I purchased [Encouragement] and [Directions] along with the Leader skills. Being the Leader seems to be my best role, especially with [Demon Lord] behind my back.

  "Princess, I think we can move on...unless there's more 'nothing' to worry about." - Mira

  "Oh, right. Let's move." - Garami

  We had finished packing away the shrimp centaur corpses in our item bags and my Storage skill, so we continued deeper into the Underwoods towards our target.

  "But why shrimps?" asked Mira all of a sudden.

  "There were...crustaceans the...first day we arrived...too." - Revi

  "By now, I just wanna throw the blame to the Chaos Church, but defaulting to them all the time makes me look stupid." - Garami

  "I doubt many would blame you for doing that, but sure." - Mira

  "Probably not." - Garami

  There were those micro-Nues in the hot spring Hidden Hideout, but those creatures can appear anywhere "mystical" in nature, even if the area isn't tailored for youkai-type monsters. They're still treated as "invaders" for the local ecosystem, hence why they weren't officially part of the hot spring's monster forces, according to Bloom. Those blasted monkeys must just have stayed there cause they like the hot springs, and that rat Extra Skill user must have struck a bargain with them.

  But that doesn't explain the crustaceans. And I'm not talking about just those humanoid-like ones we met on our first day in the Underwoods, or the centaurs who just attacked us. Several reports have been sent to the Union about weird crustacean-type monsters appearing here and there in the Underwoods. Nothing too dangerous, just a few E-ranks at the worst. Having 12 suddenly appear at the same time was a surprise. We'd better tell the Union about that when we return.

  Ignoring that mystery for now, we continued our track to the fabled "Nucklavee Pond". And let me tell you this: I'm praying with all my heart that the place hasn't been turned into a shrimp farm. And no, I'm not praying to that diabolical Darkness Goddess. I'm not suicidal.

  Cruel Commander]