Flora entered the sewage again.
The first trashy awaited her right after the entrance.
"It's B-rated, level 3, and RGS 3, Milady."
"It's our first B-rated opponent in this dungeon, isn't it. Do they have a special feature like the A or S-rated opponents?"
"Yes, they are notorious for their anti crowd control skills. They don't have the boss-resistance, but most of them have a way to get out of tight situations, like the push-back AoE of Icemaster Esau."
Flora raised her eyebrows.
The trashy transformed into a sheep-shaped pile of trash. Flora couldn't decide if it was ugly or cute; either way, she would kill it.
The garbanimal just stood there and looked at them sheepishly until the ten-second spell-duration ran out.
It morphed back and swished its mob at the group. Blobs of green goo sailed through the air.
It hit Octo-Aidan and the toaster, but they still had full health.
"Disgusting! Kill it."
The team rained Laserbeams, Traps, and Lightning Bolts on it.
The trashy only approached after it spread its slime two more times.
"Can you tell me the effect of the goo? I see neither debuffs nor damage."
"It's a pure poison secondary effect attack, Milady. Robots are immune to it, and you resisted."
"Fascinating, I want to learn such attacks as well. It would be awesome if every hit would shock or freeze the opponent. Please write it on the list, Prio B."
When it came into melee range, Flora applied the dual handed approach again. With the left hand and multitool, she cast Smite, and she just stuck the plasma sword in her right hand into the trash pile. A plasma sword was only a fancy bunsen burner. Why slice and chop if your opponent didn't evade?
They needed over ten seconds to defeat the trashy. When Flora remarked on it, Aidan said it had over 1000 hit points.
"Regular level one players need 10 seconds to dispatch a D-rated mob with 100 hit points, Milady. We are progressing fast."
On the crossing, Flora didn't bother with the other tunnels and walked towards the instance entry entrance.
"We can always explore the rest if we didn't find anything interesting there."
Aito beeped doubtfully, but when she gave no further clue, Flora ignored it.
After they killed a few more single trashies, they started to appear in groups of two.
Flora activated the beartrap, but the monster just left behind the captured leg, in this case, a garbage bag and hobbled towards them.
Although Flora cast Bless and Condemn to stay on the safe side, they proved no challenge for the team.
After they killed their way to the tunnel of the dungeon entrance, they saw a very different scene than in the real village.
An oversized vibrating trashcan not only filled the tunnel but distorted it outward. Cracks streaked the walls, revealing the outside.
Name: Trashisto the Bin
Type: Evolved corrupted Trash-Bin
Level: 3
Rating: S
RGS: 3
The tunnel creaked under the pressure. Now and then, orange goo flowed from the garage door-sized bin, sizzling on the floor. Flora's helmet filtered the air, but the acrid smell defeated the system.
"At least it can't evade," Flora mumbled and activated the air tank. "Hmm, this goo behaves differently than the slime we have encountered before."
The spell reported not only toxicity but also acid values back.
Flora inspected the exterior of the trash-bin, and no acid burns were visible.
"I wouldn't recommend using water attacks on it. Poison drops out because of the same reason. The acid might counter fire. It's a metal bin; the faraday effect might protect it from lightning. Hmm... Let's go with Faith again.
Additionally, I fear for my mech-suit and, of course, the turrets. The octopussies are safe because I used a Kynar derivate as a coating. Actually, I used it for the mech-suit as well, but the fusion box might have messed it up. We were going for heat and flame resistance at that time."
Flora analyzed the composition of the mech-suit. The results pleased her. While it lost some of its acid resistance, she wouldn't be immediately naked.
"I carry some more Kynarosium with me, but I don't want to waste it nor the time for transforming it. What happens when we die?"
"We have to wait 15 minutes in the loser's corner and can try again."
Flora nodded and looked at the toaster.
Traps activated when someone stepped on them. While the trap-throwing-toaster could throw them at the trash-bin, Flora wasn't convinced of its utility against this opponent. She switched it out for a repair-turret and fetched the other towers from the inventory.
The Trashy-Boss had two nozzles, so Flora put up her barricade bed-roll for the robots to hide behind.
She checked all the buffs, Tinker was still active, but she refreshed Thaumaturgy and cast a shield.
"Everyone ready?"
"Beep."
"Yes, Milady."
"Go!"
Flora sprinted, while the octopussies carried the barrier between them.
The team stayed at laser range, but Flora entered the melee distance.
Jets of orange goo shot from the nozzles and hit Flora. The impact pushed her back a few steps and smeared goo all over her torso and helmet.
"Disgusting! Burned toast, my shield is already gone." Flora said alarmed. She only had 320 HP and the Fortification of Faith usually gave her over 100 HP more.
"The skill had great power. I estimate it produced 170 damage. Of course, before the reduction of your shield, defenses and mech-suit applied."
"Holy toaster. We are in trouble." Though her panic level rose, she still executed the smite left, plasma sword right combo.
The next attack from the nozzles generated a thinner beam. Even without the shield, Flora and her mech-suit lost only 30 HP each. The healing and repair turrets sprang to action to mend the damage.
Flora's breathing steadied as she realized not all attacks drenched her in goo or hit as hard.
"Work on predicting the pushy skill, sweetie."
The next rounds repeated the last one. Flora smote, the nozzles beamed, the octopussies and turrets shot.
The goo-sprayers attached to the sides of the bin above the handles. Flora placed herself directly under one. Because of the cylindrical shape of the container, the line of sight to the opposite nozzle broke.
Instead of staying idle as Flora hoped, it targeted Aitoshuri's octopussy.
Immediately, Flora moved back.
The two healing turrets produced around 30 health together, so Flora was in the clear, but the repair turret couldn't keep up. The acid sizzled on the surface of the mech-suit and corroded the material.
"Shield yourself, Milady!"
The jets crashed against Flora. This time she got a clearer picture of the attack. The outlets had shimmered orange before they splattered their load all over Flora. Her visor received a good part of it. The goo not only impaired her vision but the displays of her bars and status of her robots too.
Aito pinged her for Overcharge Built-In skill, and Flora complied.
The bars, the cooldowns, the team, the boss, the nozzles, the goo, what skill to use next, and pointing the plasma sword in the right direction vied for Flora's attention. Her eyes and strained mind flitted from one issue to the next. When the display was unreadable, it added to her stress and worry of the unknown.
The octopussies and the laser turrets activated Rapid Fire. Beams of light volleyed on the left nozzle.
The vibrations of the bin intensified.
"This might be the 75% skill, Milady."
Flora stared at her cooldowns; no shield was ready.
As the floor under her feet opened up and she sank in, she saw the lid of the trash bin flying off like a tunnel sized frisbee.
Her display showed her robots in dire shape. Most of their health-bars' points were gone.
Desperately, Flora wrecked her brain how she could help them, without exposing herself to the lid. Without a doubt, she knew it would boomerang back to the trashcan.
It worked! Flora moved underground to her robots.
Meanwhile, Aidan displayed his camera view on her HUD. Not only operated the robots on their limit, but the lid had wrecked the bed-roll-barrier as well.
When Flora rose from the ground, a beam of goo greeted her.
The spell healed her and her machinery thanks to the holy effect of the multitool.
Only when the next load hit her, she noticed just one nozzle had been shooting—the other dangled from the bin's handle, smoking.
All the lasers focused on the working outlet; only Aito shot straight at the bin.
"Follow Aito's lead," Flora commanded while running back.
She didn't know for sure why the AI didn't target the other weapon, but she assumed the trashcan would do what she would do weaponless: get creative. A creative enemy was the last thing Flora wanted.
The sprayer started to glow again, then a wall of goo raced to Flora.
Her bottom and legs hit the slime, but her visor stayed clean.
Flora continued the rhythm of smiting and plasma burning. She pushed the speed of her casting, and it showed results. For every two splashes of goo, she got in three Smites.
"Fortification of Faith!" appeared on her HUD. Promptly, she cast the spell.
This time, the special attack left some of her temporary hit points over.
The bin shook again.
"50% Milady."
"I totally can duck under the boomerang."
The lid fell, but instead of flying, it landed behind Flora. She whirled around, but before she could process what was happening, the cover scooped her up and threw her into the trashcan.
"Urgh! I've never been more thankful to wear a mech-suit..."
Orange goo surrounded Flora while junk flowed by her. Her headlight illuminated only a few centimeters, her plasma sword another bit.
Her hit points and even more the HP of mech-suit plummeted.
The waste soup hindered her movements as she half paddled and half waded through the goo.
"Disgusting!"
The spell created some free space in which Flora scampered before it could fill up again.
"Milady, Clean has a huge damaging effect. We are working on getting you out of there, hold on."
Flora glanced at her shrinking health bar. She knew her team would do its utmost to save her, but couldn't help to worry. The sensation of swimming in acid was interesting. Flora was torn between enjoying the feeling of a bubble bath and grossed out by the disgusting stink and sight. 'I can smell it even while using the air-tank. Stupid illogical game!'
Aidan displayed his camera again. On the trashbin appeared a meter in the shape of a little trash can and the tag "Composting Flowing Flowers." The robots fired on it.
"How dare you composting me!"
The nozzle targeted Aito, and the acid corroded the octopussy. Flora was furious about the latter more than over her trashy prison. In the real world, Kynar was used to hold all kinds of acids. The robot shouldn't take any damage at all.
"Stupid unscientific game! Clean! Bless and Condemn all your pixels and bytes!"
When Aito was in short before perishing, she hid behind the Repairing-Trap, and the nozzle switched to Aidan.
"25% Milady, three Cleans until its dead."
While the robots started Rapid Fire again, the trash can shook.
Light shone through the goo from above, and a suction force pulled Flora up.
"Now you want to get rid of me? Clean! Forget about it."
Flora grabbed the rim as the forces batted to eject her. Straining her muscles to hold on, while flattering like a flag in the storm, she extended her left hand into the can.
"Clean!" she screamed.
The bin burst, and Flora lay in a heap of gooey garbage on the floor.
"Clean! We've done it! Clean! I feel so dirty I can't remember spruceness. Clean!"
The whole tunnel started to shake.
"Milady, the tube is collapsing."
Flora crawled to the robots while Aito pocketed a pile of loot.
The shaft broke, and the team tumbled on a lawn.
Debris crashed on Aidan and a healing turret, adding new dents to the already battered machines.
If Aito's hit points hadn't recovered quite a bit, thanks to the repairing-trap, she wouldn't have survived the fall.
A yellow cloud exploded from the trap, repairing some of the hit points of the battered machines.
"No! My Trashisto!" An older man exclaimed while running towards them.
Name: Tim Bluthe
Class: Alchemist
Level: 3 (250)
Rating: B
RGS: 4