arc5 · 087-ch87

Episode 87: Swift-Night Tiger-Leopard

Defeating the area boss of District 5 might reward a treasure orb that grants skills. Driven by this heart-pounding item, Suzuka stepped foot into the deepest reaches of District 5 in the first floor of Hachioji Dungeon.

"District 5, I'm getting used to it. Hachioji's a tree sea just like Tokyo."

Beyond the forest zone of District 4 lay a dense tree sea with thick overgrown vegetation. Looking at the map, aside from some shape differences, it was no different from Tokyo Dungeon. Already a familiar sight.

There were monsters some distance away, but Suzuka ignored them as usual. He could raise his level now that he'd defeated the ape monkey, but he wouldn't do that.

The reason was simple—he didn't want to raise his level yet. Suzuka's level was 72. The District 5 area boss's level was 120. Even with his level increase, Suzuka was still greatly inferior.

Thanks to the ape monkey fight, his skill levels had kept rising. Because of the significant level difference, there was a chance his skill levels would grow this time too. Betting on that possibility, Suzuka pressed on ignoring the other monsters.

Since District 5's monsters maxed at level 100, once Suzuka's level approached 100 he'd hunt some. District 5 monsters seemed likely to drop capable items, and selling them would bring in a considerable amount.

With that thought, Suzuka briskly advanced along the bumpy road where tree roots writhed and massive stones lay scattered everywhere. During that time, Suzuka was never attacked by monsters.

Thanks to his Presence Concealment skill, and also because once his Body Arts skill level surpassed 7, he'd become able to notice monsters earlier than his Presence Detection could. His evasive movements glided across the ground, and even in the badly situated tree sea, he could operate without making any sound, let alone revealing his presence.

From skill level 7, it's the realm of masters. His senses sharpened, naturally understanding what he could do and increasing his available options. It's like touching a fragment of the world's principles. You could even call it a sensation approaching omnipotence.

His level still fell far short of District 5 monsters, but his high skill levels far surpassed them. Thanks to that, he could move while avoiding monsters.

"Thinking where the ape monkey was, this general area seems right."

Moving while avoiding monsters, Suzuka reached the innermost part of District 5 on the first floor. Area bosses are basically in the depths of the area, so searching around here should find it.

Searching for tens of minutes. He arrived at a space that opened up around him, seemingly saying "something is here."

"Nothing here. Maybe it's a type that appears when you step in?"

He'd never seen such a monster, but there was nothing in this space that practically screamed for something to be there. Maybe it was wandering around.

"Can't be that some other explorer already defeated it, right? I experienced it in District 3 that they revive after a day, but..."

Another reason it might not be there is the possibility that another explorer had already slain it. But this possibility was unlikely.

Tokyo Dungeon, being a deep dungeon, was one thing, but this was Hachioji, a low-layer dungeon. It's a dungeon where low-level explorers who will grow from here on like Hachioji Explorer High School students, and explorers who couldn't surpass the evolution wall at level 100 operate.

For such explorers to enter Districts 4 and 5, known for their high difficulty, and even defeat the District 5 area boss would be nearly impossible. A District 5 area boss would be level 120. It's not a monster that can be defeated without existence evolution.

In Suzuka's case, he could only challenge it because he had the cheat-level skill "Holy God's Creed." Without "Holy God's Creed," even Suzuka wouldn't challenge an area boss at his current level. There's also zoo with Kirin and others, but even if they're strong, they're probably still exploring District 4.

So the question is: is the area boss wandering and away from home, or is it that this just looks like the right place but has nothing to do with the area boss?

"Well, let's wait here a bit, and if it doesn't come, I'll move on."

Thinking that, he walked toward the center of the plaza. Suddenly, an intense chill and alarm echoed in his mind.

"———h!!?"

His body moved faster than thought. Whether because his high-level Body Arts and Body Control skills, or from the countless times he'd been killed by the ape monkey, Suzuka twisted his body and leaped away from the spot as if jumping.

Immediately after, darkness like a slice of the night sky passed through.

"...What's this? You were there from the start? You failed your ambush and you're pissed off, huh?"

Where Suzuka had been just moments ago stood a beast wrapped in darkness. Its deep black fur had a luster like it was wet, with a beautiful coat. If you made a coat from that fur, it's easy to imagine the wealthy of the world flocking for it.

The owner of such a beautiful coat had a slender form. It was a four-legged beast, looking like a leopard or wolf. It didn't have the thick muscular body of a tiger or lion, but rather a toned physique for cat-like agile movement. Together with its color, it evoked a black panther.

But the size was strange. Despite having four legs, its head position was higher than Suzuka's. From the ground, it must be nearly two meters tall. If you measured from head to tail, its length would be several times that.

Moreover, its appearance wasn't just an ordinary black panther. Its pointed ears were like a wolf's, and the fur around its limbs and neck was long, forming a magnificent mane. Its claws were sharp, and even with its mouth closed, its fangs were exposed.

In the tree sea of District 5, even during the day, sunlight was blocked by trees, making it somewhat dim. Despite being sufficiently bright, the monster before him was hard to recognize—if you looked away for even a moment, it would dissolve into darkness. It was there, yet seemed not to be there. His viewpoint blurred as if his depth perception was distorted, making it difficult to properly recognize.

Swift-Night Tiger-Leopard: Level 120

"Next after the monkey is a tiger? A leopard? Well, either works."

What stood before him was undeniably a carnivorous beast. Not an opponent to challenge barehanded, but thanks to the drawback of "Holy God's Creed," he couldn't equip weapons, so it couldn't be helped.

To make his bare hands more solid, he coated his hands with a solid film of poison created by poison magic. It had a softness that moved with his hand's motion, yet when touched, it became inexplicably hard like steel.

Such poison doesn't exist on Earth. It's an original poison Suzuka created with poison magic. The purpose of this poison is to make Suzuka's fists more solid. While harder than steel, since it's also poison, touching it contaminates with poison. It was a use of poison magic that Suzuka, whose main attacks were body arts, had arrived at—both magic and weapon.

"Oh? It disappeared... What does this mean?"

By the time Suzuka's battle stance was ready, the Swift-Night Tiger-Leopard had vanished. He hadn't taken his eyes off it. It should have been there until moments ago, but before he knew it, it had disappeared.

If it were moving at a speed Suzuka couldn't perceive, that wasn't it. His ability to dodge that sudden attack earlier was the best proof. Did it use teleportation then? Since it wasn't attacking immediately, that didn't seem likely either. If it could teleport, wouldn't it constantly attack from behind or blind spots? Suzuka would do that, and he didn't understand the reason for hiding once.

"So that means, simply an ability to vanish? If it could turn invisible, there'd be no point in appearing, so maybe something like reducing presence or presence concealment, that kind of ability?"

If it could turn invisible, it would be better to never show its form at all. If its form wasn't known, attack reach couldn't be read, making it extremely troublesome. But the Swift-Night Tiger-Leopard appeared. That was probably because its first attack was dodged by Suzuka, and its existence was recognized.

This phenomenon also rang a bell for Suzuka. When using Presence Concealment, monsters that can't perceive him won't recognize his existence even if he passes right before them. But if he gets too close or attacks, Presence Concealment is released, and he's recognized by the opponent. Thus, the Swift-Night Tiger-Leopard appeared before Suzuka, then used Presence Concealment to vanish again.

By using Presence Concealment, surprise attacks succeed most of the time. The reason Suzuka was able to dodge the Swift-Night Tiger-Leopard's first attack was a blessing from the experience of fighting the ape monkey, his superior, and from his high-level various skills.

"Presence Concealment is hard to use a second time once seen through... Is it the level difference or a specialized monster? Interesting."

If Suzuka were to try using Presence Concealment again during battle with a monster, he could only reactivate it by moving at a speed the opponent couldn't perceive and getting into their blind spot. But the Swift-Night Tiger-Leopard vanished right before his eyes. Whether because the level difference from the Swift-Night Tiger-Leopard was nearly 50, or because the skill level of Presence Concealment was high, it seemed the Swift-Night Tiger-Leopard could vanish at whatever timing it liked.

Silence. Only the rustling of trees could be heard, and it was unclear whether the Swift-Night Tiger-Leopard was right nearby or had gone somewhere else.

"Whoa!!"

Before he knew it, the Swift-Night Tiger-Leopard was right before his eyes. It was swinging an arm down, and sharp claws extended from that hand.

Surprised at the Swift-Night Tiger-Leopard appearing as if by teleportation, Suzuka's body fluidly assumed a counterattack posture.

The Swift-Night Tiger-Leopard's claws and Suzuka's fist. A fierce collision sound and fresh blood scattered. The source of the fresh blood was Suzuka's fist. His hardened fist was slashed, but it recovered instantly thanks to "Holy God's Creed" and the Self-Regeneration skill.

Meanwhile, the Swift-Night Tiger-Leopard had its hand deflected by Suzuka's attack. From that state, it didn't launch a second strike, immediately dissolving into darkness and vanishing like mist. Not simply attacking like a beast, but concealing its presence to come for the kill. From its manner, it showed intelligence that calmly and surely stopped the opponent's breath, pressing its specialty onto them.

"Hey hey hey. You're kidding, right? Bleeding? This still isn't hard enough? This sucks."

Contrary to his words, Suzuka's face was dyed with joy.

His fists, trained to the point where he could even trade blows head-on with the ape monkey, had been slashed by a single blow from the Swift-Night Tiger-Leopard. It wasn't cut deeply enough to sever, but he was still wounded.

This was a serious situation.

After all, Suzuka had firmly created his poison hands with the image of being able to deflect swords, claws, or anything head-on with his fists. Despite that, receiving the attack of sharp claws, he ended up bleeding.

In other words, the poison Suzuka created was still far from perfect.

Shock at being wounded despite such training, and joy that there was still room to aim for higher ground, were mixed. If he could deflect the Swift-Night Tiger-Leopard's attacks head-on, Suzuka's poison hands should be able to advance one more stage.

And Suzuka's calm part rejoiced at drawing the Swift-Night Tiger-Leopard area boss. If it were an area boss similar to the ape monkey, at his current raised level, he should be able to defeat it by driving his high-level skills.

But the Swift-Night Tiger-Leopard was an area boss of a different stripe from the ape monkey. Like an assassin, it calmly concealed its presence and committed entirely to hit-and-away tactics. At Suzuka's current level, it was a monster so superior in presence concealment that perceiving its presence was difficult.

In other words, if he didn't raise his Presence Detection skill, he wouldn't even be able to fight properly.

"It's like the dungeon's telling me to grow, huh!? Hey!! What do you think, Tama-chan!!"

As Suzuka shouted, the Swift-Night Tiger-Leopard slashed at him from the side this time. Suzuka could perceive the Swift-Night Tiger-Leopard only after it entered its attack motion. In that brief time, Suzuka immediately swung his fist at the Swift-Night Tiger-Leopard, matching its claws. Instead of holding a weapon, this was reaction speed possible only because of Body Arts, which excels at quick movements.

Like a repeat of earlier, Suzuka's fist was slashed, and the Swift-Night Tiger-Leopard's claws were deflected. What was different was that matching the Swift-Night Tiger-Leopard vanishing like mist, Suzuka also activated Presence Concealment and vanished.

If there were spectators, it would have looked like both vanished. But as if to say Suzuka's Presence Concealment was meaningless, the Swift-Night Tiger-Leopard accurately swung its claws down at Suzuka.

Perhaps because he allocated too much consciousness to Presence Concealment, his response to the Swift-Night Tiger-Leopard's attack was delayed, and he somehow avoided the attack by rolling on the ground.

"Shit!! You got me dirty!! How're you gonna pay for this!!"

When Suzuka stood up, the Swift-Night Tiger-Leopard was nowhere to be seen. However, Suzuka shouted into empty space.

Currently, Suzuka was wearing the Cunning Demon Ape Monkey's armor. The full armor set he'd finally obtained was now slightly dirty from rolling on the ground earlier. Suzuka was indignant at this.

The full armor set has a self-repair function, so if the damage is minor, it repairs it when stored. But if it exceeds a certain threshold, it won't repair and becomes just worn-out clothes. If it's just dirt, there should be no problem, but anger welled up in Suzuka as if something he'd just bought was damaged.

Especially, since Suzuka had also used Presence Concealment, the Swift-Night Tiger-Leopard attacking as if sneering at him pissed him off.

"I'll never forgive this. I'll use Presence Concealment to make you lose sight of me. Don't think vanishing is your exclusive right, you piece of shit."

Thus, a battle with no spectator value began—vanishing, then collision sounds and blood scattering, vanishing again, then collision sounds and blood scattering in a different place.