I really appreciate that Masayuki seems to be a decent guy and relatively appreciative of the fact that he did not earn any of his fame directly, because I feel like his character would be unbearable if he had even the slightest hint of arrogance to him. Either way, with the help of his special skill and dumb luck he manages to improve his reputation even more which in turn helps out the success of the dungeon greatly. Now that a second team is on its way to clearing the early floors of the dungeon rapidly and there is a hostel for people to relax at during their trip to the dungeon, it has become much more appealing and this in turn has resulted in more trust in the city as a whole.
The bottom floor of the labyrinth is dedicated to Rimuru’s research facilities where Gabiru, Vesta, Ramiris and Rimuru himself are all working on different projects. The vessel that Rimuru is creating for Diablo’s assistant – surely that’ll not summon another insane demon – looks different from the more fleshy things we saw in these tubes during the intro song, so I’m curious what that is all about. We don’t get to find out yet though, as Rimuru’s hyperfixation is interrupted by the fact that team Green Fury is about to clear floor 30 of the dungeon. Still far away from the deeper levels, this team is employing every trick they can think of by abusing the different mechanics that Rimuru has put in place. Can’t help but respect the hustle.
There is a pretty big problem with their rapid success, and it’s not the fact that they are using cheap tricks. The problem is that the lower floors – past floor 50 – are currently not very usable. The reason for this? Well one of the crusaders said “bet you can’t beat them” to Hinata and that went over about as well as you’d expect. At least when she got down all the way to Veldora, she ended up losing to the Storm Dragon. And to add to the trolling, Rimuru is not going to give her any payment. Unfortunately it is up to Mjollmire to bring her the bad news. Best of luck to the poor guy.
Now Rimuru has to go down and fix each boss floor. Adalmann’s faith in Rimuru is restored and he’s given a cool boss room to sit in and look menacing from.
In the meantime, both Gobta and Ranga have somehow survived Milim’s training. Besides serving as a fun bit of comedy relief it also shows just how much talent the duo has. We now see the fruits of Rimuru’s labor and they’re pretty damn crazy. He’s managed to create a set of magical items that allows you to create an avatar that is to your liking and then use the other half to possess it. Ramiris chooses the form of a golem, similar to the one that was just broken by Hinata, while Veldora chooses a simple skeleton. Finally, Milim chooses to be a pink slime, as she was told she could be whatever she wants to be, she didn’t go for something all powerful. I’m not going to lie, I thought she was going to imagine her lost baby dragon for a second, but I’m glad we didn’t get that sad, that quickly. Unfortunately nothing in life is easy, and the foursome of avatar fighters is totally not used to their new bodies yet, getting defeated by the first group of rookie adventurers that come across their path. Imagine finding out you just defeated three demon lords and the storm dragon all before second breakfast. Might be best not to tell them, to save some face.
It looks like the series continues to casually stroll along without rushing into anything, and next week we’ll see more of these avatar fighting shenanigans. As you’re well aware if you’ve read my thoughts on previous seasons, I am all for this slow pace. Some of my all time favorite scenes in One Piece are when they are just exploring the different rooms on their new ship, or having fun in town without any real stakes. There’s something really soothing about watching the downtime that characters have with each other and it also builds much more of a bond between the viewer and the characters as they feel much more rounded when they suddenly do end up getting into high stakes situations. It makes for more immersive worldbuilding and as much as I love stories with deep meaning and complex moral conundrums, I do like a bit of good escapism too. Thanks for reading and I’ll see you all here again next week!
Opal Kaharis 