Chapter 52: Bird-Face VS the Spiders Part 1

PN: Sanraku

LV: 31

JOB: Mercenary (Dual Wielding)

Money: 200 Marni

HP: 30

MP: 10

STM: 60

STR: 17

DEX: 20

AGI: 70

TEC: 20

VIT: 1 (6)

LUC: 72

Skills

? Rush slash

? Spiral edge

? Knuckle Rush

? Slide move

? Repel counter

? Loop Slash Lv.5

? Edge climb

? Acceleration Lv.6

? Fast Jump

? Quick spin

Equipment:

Right Hand: Vorpal Knife

Left Hand: Vorpal Knife

Head: Mask of the Bird’s Eye (VIT + 2)

Torso: Curse of Luukan

Waist: Leather Belt (VIT + 4)

Legs: Curse of Luukan

Accessories: None

The levels of my skills were improving but I still had a rather poor selection of them, but that doesn’t matter for the moment. Recently I wasn’t able to put any points in my Luck stat for various reasons, so I was excited to see how it would turn out after my current upgrades. With the total skill points of 17 (twelve obtained at Rabbitz and five of them here) appropriately allocated, my preparations were more or less done.

「I wonder if we enter right now, will the boss recover its HP back to the fullest?」

Upon entering the Boss arena, the Clown Spiders greeted us with some intimidating motions while shaking their flashy-colored bodies, which made them look exactly like clowns at the circus. It seems that they did actually made a full recovery, as there was no signs of fatigue or wounds on them.

「…… Fumu, not that I didn’t expect that.」

After all my previous boss fights and looking around this arena I was sure of it…… The boss battles in this game were divided by phases. That Fighter trio must have realized it, and if not then welp, tough luck for them.

Unloading at the Spiders right from the get go would trigger them to back away up into their nests above the arena and continue to attack from there, from a distance. Which is exactly why I didn’t go all out on them from the get go.

「Fighting inside a tree is sure going to be difficult.」

I could see something protruding from the tree’s inner walls and climbing up in a spiral. A staircase of some sort. So this place here, the ground, it was nothing but an entrance. So that means the real battleground…… is located above.

「Emul, you stay at the end….. No, in the middle of the staircase, just in case. No need for you to attack the boss, just make sure you stay alive so that we don’t lose all of the items we managed to get our hands on!」

「U, understood!」

I decided that this time around, Emul won’t participate in the battle. It’s not that I thought that he wouldn’t be of help, it’s just…… I was always playing games solo, so let’s say it! I wanted to challenge the game without the assistance of additional NPCs!

When I arrived at the top of the staircase I stepped onto the platform at the upper parts of the tree, almost completely covered in spider webs. Noticing me, the spiders started to approach me, traversing the webs with such swiftness that it was a wonder just how was it able to support the weight of their bodies. But they were moving somewhat slower than they did on the ground.

「Maybe it would be possible to kite them into falling all the way towards the ground from over here?」

Since there was no other way for me to fight, I step onto the arena made out of thick spider webbing. Fortunately, there was no wind here or other elements that would threaten me to fall down, so that was reassuring at the very least.

I poked the threads with the side of my daggers to see if it really was as resilient as people make it out to be. It wasn’t breaking, so that’s good to know. Now, I only need to ne careful to not step onto the sticky parts of the webbings, which were the horizontal running threads, and I should be good…… Just then I could see the spiders approaching me at a rather fast pace.

「You’re not the only ones that are good with balancing!」

Not wearing boots proved to be advantageous here since I could feel the center of my gravity a little bit better…… But I still want to wear boots! Come on! Can’t you give me at least that!?

「It’s kinda tricky to step on it…… But I can get used to this!」

With this kind of foothold the risk of losing balance and falling onto the webbing was much more potent than the actual boss damage, so I needed to be wary of that at all times.

「Woah, it’s been a long time since I last balanced on a tightrope. I must be careful not to fall, or else I’m pretty much done for.」

We start the fight and soon enough I manage to figure out that the Spiders’ “face” is the ideal spot for landing a critical hit for massive damage. Also, there seems to be an additional critical effect where the spider loses its balance and falls onto its back.

「I wonder just how great of a fall damage this is going to be……?」

CRUSH! I hear a sound far below me that I definitely don’t want to be the source of, so I put even more attention into not falling off the arena’s edge like that spider right now.

I see, so there are also huge logs hung right under the ceiling on the threads that could get cut and sent flying down towards the ground? If something like that was to hit you directly it would be an insta kill for sure…… So how about something like this? I try to cut off the thread with my knife, seeing if I would be able to send a log just like that right on top of the spider that fell down…… Apparently I can.

There was a wet and loud noise, followed by a huge polygon explosion.

「Mu, this is actually hard.」

The thread was rather hard and elastic, requiring almost three critical hits to break and release its load. Needless to say, I didn’t manage to drop a second log onto the downed spider, who managed to get up and, although severely wounded, was on it way back to the arena, climbing its thread like a rope or something. So the spider threads were rather versatile in their use, I see.

They were mere monsters, so their expressions weren’t as descriptive like that of us humans, but the agitated movements of their legs and clicking noises of their jaws was telling me more than any expression would be able to. They were angry at me. They tried to rush at me faster than before, but I was already at the center of the web, where the threading was denser than at the peripheries.

Because they thought that they had an advantage here, it was making them stronger? At least that’s how it was supposed to go.

「Repel Counter!」

I take a proper stance and slash at the incoming Spider, making it lose its balance after my skill connected with its front leg.

Then, acting on the opportunity that the Spider was on its back, I slash at it two more times before eventually adding a skill or two into the mix to maximize the damage dealt.

Another spider falls to the ground. It seems that its “face” managed to suffer some major damage to cause this, and now there was also an additional fall damage.

「Ahh~…… I see how it is now……」

I don’t know why, but I get a feeling that my face was warped with a really nasty smile right about now.