Way back in Season 1 Episode 7, Boxxo promoted himself to “Rank 2” with the points he got form defeating the Crocodile-Lord. Here in Season 2 Episode 5, Boxxo discovers that Rank 3 has recently been added to the points shop, giving him a new goal to achieve. Unfortunately, the rank up requires three million points so unless Boxxo gets to solo another Stratum Lord, he has quite the grind ahead of him.
Now that Hulemy has repaired the Origin Stratum’s transfer circle, the villagers can now evacuate to Clearflow Lake Stratum for the time being. It randomly occurs to Boxxo that he never actually learned how many stratums there are in the dungeon so he finally asks Hulemy and Lammis the question. I don’t know about anyone else but to be fair, I was wondering about this as well. Apparently, there are eight known stratums in the dungeon, with the deepest one, the Everlasting Stratum, remaining unconquered. Most of the stratum names seem self-explanatory but then you get to the seventh one, the Dog Mountain Stratum. What exactly is over there? Is its main landmark a dog-shaped mountain or is it just a mountainous stratum with a lot of dogs? I’m awfully curious about this one.
Anyway, everyone agrees that they can’t abandon the Origin Stratum as doing so would hand the region over to the Netherlord’s army. Seeing as a mage controlled the fiends in Clearflow Lake, Hulemy deduces that there’s likely another underling doing the same in the Origin Stratum. Since Director Origin lacks the manpower for a manhunt, Kerioyl convinces her to pay him to lead the Menagerie of Fools and the Band of Gluttons to track down the mage.
Much of the episode then has the Hunters looking for the mage and venturing further down the Origin Stratum. At some point, the gang decide to split up to cover more ground. Lammi’s group comes across as a lake, leading Hevee to convince everyone to take a swimming break. This is of course a thinly veiled attempt from Hevee to get Lammis and Shui to take off their shoes so he can add them to his collection. Boxxo sees through the ruse and he sprays Hevee with some water to protect the girls’ shoes. Hevee’s ulterior motive is actually a little odd to me as last episode, he insisted that he wouldn’t dare commit a theft. That said, him being so obvious and seemingly accepting Boxxo’s retaliation in defeat is pretty funny.
Everyone then regroups and ventures into the deepest part of the stratum which, by process of elimination, is where the underling is located. Boxxo floods the place with a bunch of pachinko balls and as ridiculous as that is, it does throw the monsters off and give the Hunters a tactical advantage. There’s a fun but kind of heartwarming bit where Boxxo wants Lammis to throw him into the fray and Lammis refuses, instead settling on charging in together. Perhaps it’s not the most logical approach but I like how much Lammis stresses that she and Boxxo are a team and to their credit, they work together quite well in the ensuing fight scene.
There’s an odd moment where, after the mage is apprehended, Filmina and Kerioyl bicker like an old married couple and the younger members of the Menagerie reveal to Lammis that Filmina is actually half-vampire and older than the captain. I like how everyone expects Lammis to have the usual reaction of being taken aback at the idea that a human procreated with a fiend but Lammis isn’t the least bit bothered and her view of Filmina doesn’t change at all. If you think about it, Lammis is friends with a vending machine so of course she wouldn’t judge. It does feel random to establish Filmina as a half-fiend in this particular moment. I wonder if this is to open the door for something new for the show to explore.
Watch Reborn as a Vending Machine, I Now Wander the Dungeon on Crunchyroll
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