Me against the green slime.
The enemy is motionless in front of the tower where the save point is, squirming and wriggling. I guess it is a mid-boss guarding the save point.

His fear is not the poisonous fluid in his body. To be frank, the poison is manageable with an antidote.
The biggest problem is that physical attacks are useless.

Yotto.

I threw a playing card to try it out. With the clown's skill, it is as sharp as a knife, but...

Bum-bum-bum.

It only enters my body when it hits the green slime. It shows no sign of taking damage.
It's the same if you cut it with a sword or club it. It would be the same if I hit him with my fist.

If I had dived the dungeon by myself, I probably would have made it here on the first day.
And I would have been stuck here. The skill of a sheikh is no help. I would have to go back to the guild and make a bomb, but now I would have to work hard to gather the materials for the bomb. What a waste of time.

In other words, now that we have Prine, the mage, we have nothing to fear from them. Diego is right.
But...

I'm going to give it a try.

With a clank, he clasps his hands together. Then he holds his hands in front of his belly and breathes.

'Soooooooo haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!

This is Koku Koku Breathing Technique. This is a skill that martial artists must learn at lvl. 11. I used a little subterfuge (or was it?) to learn it. I learned it when I was a warrior.

The chi gathers in the tanden. This time, I'm going to use the collected chi.

The previous trick. When I learned the breathing technique, I learned it from my senior martial artist, Lynn.

Phew!

Approach the green slime without caution. I easily avoid the poisonous liquid spewed out with a "poof" and I touch his body. My palms go numb with a tingling sensation. It is the poison that seeped from the inside of the basket. I concentrate. I release the chi collected in my tanden!

'Ha--!

--Oh, my God!

The chi gathered by the breathing technique was released from my palm at once, scattering the green slime. The green slime pieces turned into a mist. It seems to have worked.

Phew!

Zanshin. And then, from behind me,

'You did it, Ra-kooooo! That was amazing. What was that?

First her huge tits landed on my back, then her thin arms wrapped around my body.
I tried to pet Prine, who hugged me from behind,

'Sorry, can you give me the poison remover first?'
'Oh, I see! Yes!

Prine pours the liquid antivenom on my hand. The numbness and pain are gone. My partner squeezes my hand.
I answer.

'It's a [martial art] I learned when I became a higher level martial artist. That's called a 'gong qi zhang' move.
'That's what Ra-kun learned from Mr. Lin!
'Yes, yes.'

It is said that the basic martial arts technique, Kung Chi Palm, is also useful for teaching breathing techniques. However, I wouldn't do it to Prine because she would die if I did it to her.

It seems that the job level has been raised and the learning of martial arts that use chi has begun. From now on, when slime-like creatures like that appear, can I try it for the time being?
'Of course! I'll follow you, Mr. Ra!
Thanks.

He wipes his hands with a handkerchief and pats Prine's head this time.
The lover smiled happily.





Climb the tower.

There are several green slimes blocking the staircase, and they try out their Gong Qi Palm.
Eventually, I got good enough to kill them before they get poisoned. Now I don't have to use the poison remover every time.

If I had been traveling alone, I would have run out of bombs along the way. And by the time I came back to the guild, the green slime would be back. It's a complete dead end. Dungeons are nasty.

If I had chosen a martial artist from the beginning, it would have taken me a long time to get to this level without any mapping or detection, probably.

I was thankful for my partner, as Prine magically defeated me about one out of every three times. I mean, she could defeat it with two shots of "Firelight. Well, it's a much bigger firelight than the normal ones.

And so to the top floor.

The save point was in front of a big stone tablet.

I prayed, saved, and updated the teleportation point.

There are stairs at the back. It is a stairway to go down. Normally, one would only go down one floor of the tower.

I thought it got darker and darker on the way down, but it turns out to be a cave.

'............ I don't understand...'...
I wonder if the space is distorted. Or maybe we are teleported on the way.

We both tilted our heads as we descended the last step.

Incidentally, there were no treasure chests in the eighth layer. We checked with our "treasure hunting" skills. There were so many buildings, but not a single treasure chest. It's really disgusting.



So, here we are at the ninth layer.

The ceiling is low. The air is humid. Droplets of water fell from above.

In the narrow passageway, a large number of green slimes were wriggling about.

'...... Ra-kun, what shall we do?
'Hmm. I thought you said [martial arts] used HP.''
'Yeah. Lynn said that, right?'
I don't want to waste potions. Ugh. Let's say you're here to gain experience, Prine, and do it.
Yes!

Mage raises hand. He points his owl staff forward and begins chanting.

'--Demon particles, turn my foes to dust and reap what you sow! Photon ray!

--Gooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

A dozen or so green slimes that had been wriggling in the narrow passage disappeared in an instant, vanishing into mist.

'That's what I'm talking about, Prine!
'Yay! Thanks, Ra-kun!

High-five! We continue to hold hands and dance our way through the empty corridor. It's a straight path. There is nowhere to hide. We continue onward, occasionally recovering our HP and MP with the Dance effect.