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ShangriLa Frontier Chapter 260: Moonlight Shining in the Moonless Underground Part 2
Unfortunately, this wave of tension is not something even individual player skills can help you with. Sometime life really is that way: you are a good human being and you get nothing but losses coming your way, and sometimes you might be the ultimate scumbag who is constantly having good fortune on his side.
A famous professional gamer once said that even when you are playing games, there is no way for you to actually know when the best possible time for action has come. You just have to play, and that time will come to you eventually. And I totally agree with that statement. And right about now, I just happened to be riding on such a wave.
「I admit, it is unexpected for a giant opponent like that to be engaging in roleplay, but even so, there are some common things that might help me bring it down…… Heyah!」
Right about now I was more or less aware of the dangers this monster would pose. Its poison could be used either as an area of effect ability or be concentrated in one point in form of a weapon. As for physical attacks, even though it was a humanoid type of enemy, its attacks could be really irregular and hazy to predict. The way in which she was able to twist her body reminded me of “Crap” to some extent. Human being would never be able to bend themselves in such shapes, at least not without sustaining serious injuries. This makes this monster so unpredictable.
As for me, someone who was already accustomed to “Crap’s” bulshittery when it comes to physics and human body, I would hardly even be surprised if that monster was able to twist its upper body by one hundred and eighty degrees and attack someone who was trying to slash at it from behind.
But in order not to find that out I activate the three crystal pillars that I have prepared in advance, and use them as spears to attack Goldunine’s body. However, even though the crystal pillars were growing quite rapidly, none of them managed to actually hit the monster’s body. But it was all according to plan.
「GI, YAH……!!!」
「That was not the actual attack, but something that was supposed to draw you attention! The real attack comes now! And it’s going to hurt!」
Now that she is unable to move, it is high time for the Whale Rabbit Moon to start playing more active role in this fight. Now, how should I go about it…… collecting and negating the effects of Goldunine’s “poison”.
「I mean…… we keep on saying “curse”, but…… what is it, exactly?」
First of all, the “curse” is not a solid object, but a status effect. In short, it is an abstract concept of both numbers and words…… How the hell are you supposed to collect words and numbers?
「No matter how hard I try to slash your body, the only item that keeps on dropping is this thing called “Ingredient Crystal:: Goldunine Leptica Number Four”……」
Or, could it be that was the item that I wanted in the first place? No, I think it might be something different…… Or rather, number four? Wasn’t it number three before? Did it possibly evolved or what?
「Oi, Snake Woman…… Give me some poison, why don’t you……?」
「GAAAAAAHHH!!!」
「Oh, see? That’s the spirit. It wasn’t that hard, was it……?」
I thought that the crystal pillars might give me some breathing room, but the snake woman let out a might roar that caused a huge shockwave that broke all of the pillars on the spot.
「Kill! Kill! MUST KILLL!!!」
「Should I take it as a yes when it comes to the numbers……? Hm?」
Wasn’t Goldunine’s curse the one that inflicted the “poison” status? And poison means that the curse must exist in this world as a solid object so that it can interact with other things. Going by that logic, one can conclude that……
「Seriously……?」
Does that mean that in order for me to extract the poison, I would have to literally intercept her poison sword with my own blade? Oh brother, this is a little bit much, even for a good old me here…… No, I guess that there is nothing I can do about it.
「But if I am to do this, I must make some preparations…… Will this suffice?」
Although I have some sort of experience in setting traps and hunting down monsters, setting down a trap in those circumstances might be a little bit hard.
At minimum, I need my Scorpion Gauntlets and Whale Rabbit Moon, not to mention that I play solo, so I also need to properly manage all of the aggro that befalls me.
「When it comes to time limit, I will only get one shot at this. So everything needs to be perfect…… Whoa, talk about a way to raise the tension through the roof!」
Alright, let’s do this! I will need to adjust my strategy chart a little bit for this! First order of things will be to work on increasing that gauge of the Whale Rabbit Moon!
「Bring it on, Snake Woman! I shall dance with you until all the caffeine in my bloodstream burns out!」
「SHAAAAAAH!!!」
The blade of poison is swung down. I manage to avoid it by stepping to the side, and then I start Formula Drift, stepping forward and accelerating instead of backing down.
Driftin through the rough rocks of the tunnel, I try to flank the monster. But damn, even if it only for the looks, for a monster it sure looks sexy…… But the looks are its only merit. Its skin looks soft and supple, but it actually is really hard, like a strengthened rubber. If I was not putting all of my strength into my attacks, there would be no way of me actually being able to harm it in any sort of way.
Tsk, the self-proclaimed Goldunine sure is tough, but the bigger problem is the location itself.
And the fact that Sanraku mostly has skills based on agility, speed and mobility, certainly does not help here. Never before have I cursed the fact that I do not possess any brute force skills, they would surely be a blessing here.
Not to mention that this mortar hole is a place where your possible escape routes are severely limited. And the biggest downside of this location is that I cannot see the light of the moon in here, which means that I cannot activate the special effect connected with it.
In other words, this means that right now I am in situation where I cannot possibly perform at my peak condition. Sure, I have some mobility option available to me thanks to the spells sealed within the gemstones in the Star Mantle, but the terrain here and the unfamiliar spell effects were making it all too risky to rely on them.
The snake woman tried to grab me. It was also coated in poison, so getting touched by that was bad news to me. So I stroke the palm of her hand with my sword, imitating the maneuver that Ryuuguin Fugaku liked to use so much.
I could feel the blow connecting, but the snake woman did not even flinch. In fact, she looked as though that attack did not manage to cause any harm to her. No, apparently it was because her skin was no way harder than before.
「Whoa, that’s dangerous!?」
No, the fact that this thing is starting to move even faster…… Don’t tell me it’s molting again!?
「KARORORORORORO……」
「You don’t like getting sunburned? I’m sorry, but I’m afraid that you’ll have to deal with it……」
The pale skin is now jet-black again and even harder than before. Also, the poison sword that was previously in monster’s one hand was now also in its other hand.
It was obvious that right now it was stronger, faster and far more dangerous than before. Knowing that, the self-proclaimed Goldunine glared at me with her snake eyes,tracing her tongue over her lips.