Sea Serpent (Chapters 31-32)
Kabru and his party make their way back to the surface while figuring out the identities of the adventurers who keep stealing their stuff. But right before they leave, Kabru makes an alliance with Shuro and his new party of adventurers who aim to find Falin Touden.
Sea Serpent contains the following tropes:
Adventurer's rations: salted meat, bread, nuts & dried fruit, wine
- Amazon Brigade: Shuro's party is made entirely of women who are implied to be his retainers.
- Asshole Victim: The corpse retrievers are brutally killed by Kabru and thrown into a remote body of water so that they can never be revived by any passing adventurer. Since they abuse their services with high fees and tried to kill Kabru's party to extort payment, nobody is going to miss them.
- Awesomeness by Analysis:
- Kabru shows his impeccable observation skills by identifying his party member's behaviors while under the fog's influence, how the illusion magic was set up, and who to take down first.
- Rin is able to identify Marcille's magic school background just by looking at her ghost-warding spell.
- Big Damn Heroes: Just before Kabru's party are killed by a Sea Serpent, Shuro's party shows up and quickly dispatches it.
- Book Ends: The episode begins and ends with the Touden Party preparing to go to the surface.
- Continuity Nod:
- Kabru and his party are brought back to life by Mr. Tansu after they were killed by fishmen.
- Kabru's party mention Doni and Fionil, the adventurer duo who were attacked by the Basilisk.
- Cthulhumanoid: Kabru's party walk into a fog of illusion that makes them resemble Cthulhu-esque Fish People.
- Entertainingly Wrong: Kabru's party is aware of the reputation of the Touden Party, and even manage to deduce who is currently in the party and who left (though they naturally do not know who the dwarf among them is). However, they are wrong about their goal, and their conclusions are also tainted with bias and rumors.
- "Eureka!" Moment: After Rin figures out that the elf who put on the ghost-warding hair was from a magic school, Kabru is able to identify the Touden Party as their mystery "thieves".
- Evil-Detecting Dog: Kuro is strangely hostile to the masked ninja in Shuro's new party.
- Fantastic Racism:
- Rin snipes at Kabru for having a thing for dwarves while saying that he has no integrity.
- Daya says that Namari's father embezzling money had ruined the dwarves' reputation with the Lord of the Island, and that they have faced various hardships as a result.
- Rin takes offense to Mikbell assuming that she knows who Shuro is just because they're both from the East.
- Fighting Your Friend: Kabru and his party are almost tricked into killing each other thanks to the illusion magic set up by the corpse retrievers.
- Forceful Kiss: Kabru ends up doing this to Rin to keep her from incinerating everyone while under the influence of the illusion fog.
- Good Is Not Soft:
- Mr. Tansu revives Kabru's party but demands payment for his revival services.
- Kabru and his party are more than willing to murder adventurers if he believes they are corrupt and a danger to other non-malicious adventurers.
- Internal Reveal: Kabru figures out that it was the Touden Party who keeps taking their food.
- Laser-Guided Karma: The corpse retrievers who made a pretty penny scamming adventurers and making crooked deals are killed off by Kabru and left for dead in the fourth floor.
- Lower-Deck Episode: This episode focuses on Kabru's party and later introduces Shuro's new party.
- The Needs of the Many: Kabru discusses with Rin on how dangerous the dungeon system is and how adventurers like them are needed in keeping the monsters in check. Without them, then it's only a matter of time before they escape the dungeon and begin to terrorize those who live on the surface.
- No Honor Among Thieves: The corpse retriever proposes to Kabru that he'll get a cut of the profit if he brings his dead comrades back to the surface. Though Kabru points out that they're just unconscious, the leader encourages him to kill them, saying they'll claim they were murdered by fishmen.
- Right for the Wrong Reasons: Kabru believes that Laios and Falin are trying to take down the Mad Mage so they can become the new rulers of the dungeon. The Touden Party does intend to confront the Mad Mage, but only to save Falin; Laios has no interest in becoming the dungeon's ruler.
- Sea Serpents: A giant winged serpent appears just as Kabru's party return to the surface.
- Seriously Scruffy: Shuro is shown to have grown a noticeable stubble since his last appearance while pushing himself and neglecting his own well-being to find Falin.
- Sins of Our Fathers: Namari's father was once a famous Weapons Dealer who worked alongside the Lord of the Island, but after he was exposed for embezzling money, all dwarves but especially Namari faced discrimination.
- Small Name, Big Ego: According to Mikbell, Chilchuck supposedly has a reputation of a greedy egotist who brags about representing the half-foot race.
- Unreliable Narrator: Kabru's party's ideas of the Touden Party are flawed, but special mention goes to Mikbell, who frames Chilchuck as a greedy, self-serving jerk, even though it's implied that Mikbell is taking advantage of Kuro, which is why he doesn't want to be part of a union.
- You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!: Mikbell says this when Kabru suggests that they return to the surface.
