CH 144

“The criteria for being classified as SS-ranked do not necessarily refer to the strength of the monster.”

Translated by Dawn

Edited by Dawn

“The criteria for being classified as SS-ranked do not necessarily refer to the strength of the monster.”

The day after exchanging greetings with the lord, I prepared in the morning and headed out to the sea.

The harbor, which would normally be crowded with fishermen at this time of day, was almost empty and silence reigned throughout the harbor.

Even so, it seemed that people were coming in and out of the harbor to maintain their boats, and boats were lined up on the docks, ready to go out fishing at a moment’s notice.

It had been some time since the Octopus attack, and with food procurement from sources other than the sea approaching its limits, it would be better to hurry to take down the Octopus.

“Well, then, let’s go and collect the ingredients for the takoyaki.”

Even though it might be an amazing monster to other people, my most fearsome opponent was only my master, Nagartinya. In this situation, where it was becoming more and more difficult to find a fearsome opponent stronger than Nagartinya, a mere eight-legged mollusk in the sea would be considered inadequate.

While casting flight magic and invisibility magic on myself, I proceeded toward the offshore area where I saw something like an Octopus response. The beautiful blue sea spread out all around, and I was made keenly aware once again of the beauty of the mysterious nature.

Nature sometimes attacked us with its fangs, but looking at it like this, I was struck with a poetic impression of how beautiful nature could be, and I arrived at the desired point.

“It’s down here.”

There was nothing particularly noteworthy about the place, and it was nothing but ground level. I did not know if it was a comfortable place for Octopus, but I wondered if there was any reason for it to stay there.

While I was thinking about such a thing, Octopus seemed to sense my presence and appeared from the bottom of the sea. The octopus had a huge body of no less than 30 meters, and it was freely manipulating its eight long, undulating legs, which were the characteristic features of octopuses.

“I came upon a small presence and found it to be a little human boy.”

“…It can speak? I heard it was a monster?”

“Hmm, when it comes to a monster like me, it’s no big deal to speak human language. And as for you humans who rate us, those in the SS rank category have the wisdom and ego to understand and manipulate human speech.”

“Hmm? But the Skull Dragon was also SS ranked, and he didn’t talk, though?”

“Boy, the Skull Dragon, have you met that guy?”

I was able to obtain useful information on the ranks of the monsters from Octopus, but a number of points emerged from that information that I could not understand.

First, there was the existence of the Skull Dragon, the first SS-ranked monster I encountered. Originally, the Skull Dragon was sealed in the dungeon of Orargrand, and I met him when a demon revived it.

In addition, among the monsters I fought after completing my training at Nagartinya’s place, there were a few monsters classified as SS rank, but they too did not speak the human language at all, but only howled or roared like idiots.

“That guy, the Skull Dragon. He was originally a vicious evil dragon with the same cunning and intelligence as myself. However, he was sealed up by you humans, and over the years he transformed into an undead creature. Therefore, it is no surprise that the Skull Dragon, which is beyond the concept of death, has lost its original ability to speak and manipulate human language.”

“Then what about the SS-ranked monsters in the dungeon that don’t speak human language?”

“Those are just imitative monsters created by the dungeon, not monsters born outside the dungeon. They are therefore little more than a bunch of wooden dolls that can do nothing but roar without a shred of intelligence. But even so, from the human point of view, they are still beings that can drop valuable materials.”

“I see. I’ve heard some good things. Thank you.”

“No need for that. Because you will be killed by me!”

I expressed my gratitude for the valuable information I had received, but it seemed that although it had intelligence, it did not have decency, and it suddenly swung one of its huge tentacles at me.

However, there was no way that such a large attack would hit me, and I avoided Octopus’s tentacles with ease and floated back to my original position. The Octopus saw this and revealed a startled emotion. …Though, I’m not exactly sure what expression it has since it is a monster.

“Hoho, for a human, you are quite nimble, huh?”

“You, on the other hand, are a monster who can only attack at such a level. It seems you are nothing more than a being that can speak human language.”

“Die!!”

Then, the serious swinging down by the tentacles of the octopus rains down like rain. The continuous attacks from its eight legs were extremely difficult to avoid completely, even for a bird-shaped monster with excellent mobility.

“Well, these attacks are slow-motion compared to that loli hag’s superb barrage.”

It was a good memory of when I was trained under Nagartinya and was hit by thousands of lethal attack magic as if she were throwing sand at me while claiming that it was an exercise to avoid the opponent’s attack. …How could that be? I seriously almost died every single time!

Compared to that, Octopus’s current series of attacks were nothing short of flawless, and from my experience with that barrage, it was as if it was asking me to please avoid them.

I realized that my usual habit was coming out here, and I hurriedly checked out my opponent’s ability. Yes, it was a habit of mine to forget to check my opponent’s abilities before fighting.

I had become so overwhelmingly strong that I had the conceit of a strongman that there was no one superior to me except for one person, and this led me to be careless and fight without checking out my opponent’s abilities.

(Not good, not good, I should fix this habit.)

There is an idiom that said, “Overconfidence can be very dangerous,” and there were always opponents who were incompatible with each other in battle. I may be strong, but I am by no means invincible…

After reaffirming my own carelessness, I finally used the analysis to find out what my opponent was capable of. The results were as follows.

[Name]: Octopus

[Age]: 883 years old

[Gender]: Unknown

[Race]: Aquatic, Kraken

[Occupation]: None (SS rank)

Physical strength: 137,000

Magic power: 181,000

Strength: SS

Endurance: SS+

Agility: SA+

Dexterity: SA-

Mental Strength: SA

Resistance: SS-

Luck: SSB-

[Skills]: Physical Enhancement and Reform LvMAX, Magical Knowledge Lv9, Water Magic LvMAX, Ice Magic LvMAX, Storm Magic LvMAX, Mist Magic LvMAX, Super Concentration Lv7, Intimidation Lv9, Magic Resistance Lv9, Physical Resistance Lv9, Poison Immunity LvMAX, Anti-illusion LvMAX, Status Limit Break Lv1, Ink Spitting LvMAX, Water Diving LvMAX, Regeneration Lv8

[Condition]: None

Hmm, hmm…Well, as I thought, he wasn’t that great of a guy. The only thing I could say about him is that he was a sea monster and specialized in water-based magic, but he had no special abilities.

If I had to say, I would say that the fact that it has the skill of regeneration was a little worrisome, but as expected, it would be able to regenerate itself from nothing, so there would be no problem if the existence itself were to be extinguished.

“Right. I thought of a good idea…”

When I saw what Octopus could do, I had an idea, and I decided to put it into action right away. This was for verification.