arc3 · 038-ch38

Episode 38: Battle Against Multiple Enemies

There's a saying about a frog stared down by a snake. I always thought snakes and frogs were on bad terms. In the natural world, snakes are natural enemies to frogs after all.

But that law doesn't seem to apply inside the dungeon.

"Ahhahahaha!! You're annoying, annoying!! You guys are way too irritating when you're together!!"

Suzuka shouted while handling the attacks of the Madness Serpent Mimic and Beginning Frog. He kept saying "annoying" with his mouth, but his face was smiling with enjoyment.

He dodged the Madness Serpent Mimic's biting attack. If he tried to block it head-on, the Beginning Frog would attack Suzuka while he stopped moving.

But even if he dodged and tried to attack the Madness Serpent Mimic, the Beginning Frog would strike with its palm, preventing a smooth follow-up attack.

The Beginning Frog had a cute appearance like a tree frog. But its size wasn't cute. The Beginning Frog, which was around the same size as Suzuka's eye level, exceeded 1.5 meters in body height. While its movements were slower compared to the Madness Serpent Mimic, it was a monster that delivered heavy blows.

With such a Beginning Frog interfering, if he tried to concentrate on it, the Madness Serpent Mimic would thrash around and persistently launch biting attacks.

The Madness Serpent Mimic was monotonous but had many attacks, and the Beginning Frog would attack with timing that seemed to support the serpent. While either alone wouldn't be hard to defeat, as a tag team they were a troublesome combination.

"This isn't ending. How about this!!"

Suzuka intercepted the Madness Serpent Mimic's bite with a scooping upward trajectory. Thanks to his high stats combined with the Body Reinforcement skill, Suzuka's attack had more power than the Madness Serpent Mimic, which was higher level.

As a result, the Madness Serpent Mimic had its head struck upward and was knocked backward as if recoiling high into the sky. As if to protect the Madness Serpent Mimic's exposed defenseless body, the Beginning Frog charged in from the side with a palm strike, not allowing a follow-up attack.

But Suzuka hadn't been thinking of a follow-up attack on the Madness Serpent Mimic in the first place. The Madness Serpent Mimic had no intelligence to support the Beginning Frog. It was just a bot that would get up and try to bite Suzuka. Its attacks were monotonous and its trajectory was easy to read.

In that case, it was better to take down the lower-level Beginning Frog first, which was interfering more accurately than the Madness Serpent Mimic.

Suzuka turned his gaze toward the Beginning Frog and locked on as his target.

The Beginning Frog thrust out with a palm strike, but its protruding, plump belly got in the way, making its reach short. Since Suzuka's reach was longer, he poured mana into his magic iron pipe and took a full swing at the protruding belly.

BASHIIIIIII

The Beginning Frog blew away spinning like a corkscrew in an entertaining fashion. Unfortunately, he couldn't turn it to smoke in one hit, but it was in critical condition where it had blown away to.

Judging the threat was gone, Suzuka turned his attention to the Madness Serpent Mimic. There, the serpent's head that had been struck up was about to be smashed down toward Suzuka as if being played in reverse.

Attacks from above are hard to be conscious of, and if he hadn't noticed, it might have been dangerous. But if he noticed, dealing with it was easy.

Whether the Seeing Through skill was activated or not, the trajectory of being smashed down was clear as if he could hold it in his hand. He kept the dodging distance to a minimum. To attack at the same time as being smashed down, he charged mana into his magic iron pipe.

DOOOOON

With enough momentum to lightly shake the ground, the Madness Serpent Mimic's head was smashed down right next to Suzuka.

Understanding it had been dodged, the Madness Serpent Mimic captured Suzuka, who was right beside it, with bloodshot eyes. It tried to open its mouth to bite immediately, but there, the Madness Serpent Mimic's consciousness cut off.

Suzuka had read that even after smashing its head on the ground, it would start moving immediately, so when the serpent hit its head on the ground, he was already in attack motion. Thanks to Seeing Through, he swung down his mana-charged magic iron pipe at the serpent's head that had just passed right beside him.

Suzuka's attack had enough power that if he struck a body, he would shatter bones. If he swung it down on a head, it would naturally lead to a fatal wound.

The full-power strike seemed to be enough power to turn the Madness Serpent Mimic to smoke.

"Well now, only you left."

The Beginning Frog that had blown away had gotten up, but it was in terrible shape. Its belly, struck by the magic iron pipe, was dented, and it was tottering. Even so, it took a charging stance. He felt the spirit to fight until the very end.

But that didn't mean Suzuka's hand would loosen. He started running faster than the Beginning Frog could begin moving. The Beginning Frog also tried to charge in response, but as it tried to stand up, it was struck by Suzuka's magic iron pipe and easily turned to smoke.

Suzuka had turned two monsters to smoke, but he didn't drop his guard immediately. Using the Presence Detection skill, he paid attention to his surroundings to see if any monster was lurking that couldn't be found just by looking, like the Madness Serpent Mimic.

"...Whew. That scared me."

Confirming there was nothing around, he let out a breath of relief without thinking.

He had been using Presence Detection and looking around his surroundings too, but he had still overlooked the Madness Serpent Mimic. Being attacked by a surprise attack was probably the first time since fighting the One-Horned Rabbit.

It was good that it was an opponent Suzuka could somehow handle, but if it had been an opponent beyond his ability, it would have been quite a harsh situation. Especially since the Madness Serpent Mimic was fast too, so escaping would have been difficult, and it could have been a life-or-death situation.

On top of that, the Madness Serpent Mimic is a top-ranking monster in District 3, where levels are 30 to 40. That's why it was also an enemy Suzuka initially intended to skip.

Added to that, the Beginning Frog barged in. He had been about to end immediately upon setting foot in District 3.

"I can clearly see why District 3 has so many fatal accidents."

While being convinced, Suzuka felt a sense of discomfort.

That was the confrontation with the Madness Serpent Mimic. The Madness Serpent Mimic's level was 33, an enemy fully 10 levels above Suzuka.

But he had won by force in power, and he could handle the speed too. He was flustered by being suddenly attacked and the sight of it attacking like crazy, but that was all. In that case, even the area bosses of the lower-level District 2 were stronger enemies.

"There's a discomfort between level and strength. In other words, monsters probably have a concept of stats too."

Even at the same level, Suzuka and Explorer High students are completely different in strength. That's because Suzuka overwhelmingly surpasses them in both stats and skills.

Could the same thing be said for monsters too? In other words, because monsters also have stats, doesn't it mean that level doesn't equal strength?

If that's the case, then from Suzuka's stats perspective, neither the Madness Serpent Mimic nor the Beginning Frog were enemies that made him feel crisis. Speaking in game terms, they felt like enemies that weren't the appropriate rank.

Of course if enemies you can safely defeat are called appropriate, then they're appropriate, but Suzuka wasn't seeking that kind of thing. You can't enjoy just hunting small fry.

If that's the case, then Suzuka's appropriate rank is area bosses. They say you can't challenge area bosses many times, and they also say that if your level goes up, they won't appear in the first place.

That being the case, it might be interesting to see how many he can defeat.

"It's decided. District 3 is an Area Boss Rush Event."

Even Suzuka wouldn't challenge the area boss immediately. There are still monsters in District 3 he hasn't fought. He'll fight them once, and after raising his level to at least 30, he can challenge the area boss.

With his policy for District 3 decided, he immediately began wandering in search of his next prey.