Volume 3 - CH 4

“KEKEKEKEH!”

A Grim Reaper swung its giant scythe.

It was a [Dragon Reaper], aiming for a critical hit.

After making sure to dodge it, I closed in quickly and swung my sword.

However, it neutralized it with its Skill, the [Spectral Permeation]

The Grim Reaper decided to distance itself from me and head towards Luce instead.

“Like I will let you…..[Shadow Stomp]!”

I stomped heavily on the Grim Reaper’s shadow.

As a Clown, Luce has problems with her HP and Defense.

I want to avoid having her in a situation where she would fight a Grim Reaper, who has high critical rate and Attack power, head on.

Also, with the Grim Reaper restrained like this, Luce should be able to make use of its blind spots as she pleases, staying at a range that’s most advantageous to her while dodging its attacks.

“KEKEKEKEEH!”

The Grim Reaper turned back to me and swung its large scythe towards me.

It seems it decided to take me down first as fast as possible now that it was caught.

I deflected the first swing of its large scythe with [Parry], then blocked the second with my shield.

“How impatient…..Grim Reaper. These swings are lacking weight behind them.”

The face drawn on its mask distorted from my taunt.

The Grim Reaper raised its large scythe for a decisive swing.

It seems it intends to crush me through my shield with [Dragon Reaper].

“HAAaah!”

Suddenly attacking from its blind spot, Luce did not miss the chance to take advantage of that fact.

She quickly delivered a barrage of hits into the Grim Reaper.

“GAAAah…..!”

With the Grim Reaper already weakened at this point, this was the end of that.

Its spectral body was torn apart, shrinking down in the process.

Its mask and gloves fell to the floor.

【You have gained 2609 experience points.】

【Your level has increased from 71 to 72.】

【You have gained 1 Skill points.】

It seems I also leveled up.

I let out a sigh of relief.

“It’s really a pain when it uses its [Spectral Permeation] in a fight…. Perhaps we should’ve brought a mage with us, even if they were lower level than us.”

Luce voiced her thoughts.

“However, Grim Reapers move fast and are hard to hit as well…. Trying to rely on magic has its own disadvantages. If you want to take it down with nothing but magic attacks, then it would use up a lot of MP as well.”

“I see….then we have no choice but to keep shaving down their HP like this….”

“Even so, you got used to hunting Grim Reapers as well already, right Luce? Since this was the third one already.”

“…..well, yes. I can more or less tell the optimal distance now where I can watch out for possible critical hits while still being able to attack at every opportunity, or something like that….”

….that’s right. That was the third Grim Reaper we fought.

The second dropped the same Soul Reaper Scythe as the first one.

Those costs a lot, so weapon drops are welcome too.

….although they are welcome, I would really appreciate getting what we want instead by now.

It’s not that easy going around this tower, searching for Grim Reapers all the while.

Quite a bit of time had already passed, so we were getting tired too.

“I would like the Skill Book to drop already if possible….”

The mask of the Grim Reaper broke up with a crack.

It turned into sand as we were looking at it.

Next to that, the unchanged appearance of another Soul Reaper Scythe could be seen.

“…..it seems we didn’t get it again.”

Well….I had a slight feeling this might be the case somehow.

Luce walked closer to the Soul Reaper Scythe with shaky steps…..then crumpled to the floor right there.

“Why…..why do we keep getting the one we don’t want～!”

“Calm down, Luce. Each of those unwanted items means 15 million gold, you know….?”

That being said…..if we try to sell three, normally quite rare, Soul Reaper Scythes at once, then I have a feeling their price would plummet.

There aren’t that many people that use scythes to begin with.

However, with Luce’s [Great Fortune], we should be getting that Skill Book drop already….

It seems the more you want something, the harder it’s to get for some reason.

Is this what you would call a greed sensor?

“Weell, even with [Great Fortune], getting three drops in a row is lucky for sure…..but still….”

If we don’t attract the attention of troublesome monsters….and we get lucky with finding Grim Reapers….then we should be able to hunt another three of them, probably.

After that we will probably reach our limit, both in terms of MP and with general fatigue, and will need to retreat from the Phantasmal Beast Tower for now.

However, if we return to the village nearby to take a break, then this Phantasmal Dungeon will most likely disappear by the next time we visit.

“Uugh….even though this was our chance to get the [Reaper Assassin] Skill Book.”

“….we still have a chance. Although we need to be economical with our MP as we fight.”

I said to the downcast Luce.

“We won’t fight anything other than Grim Reapers, like I said before we entered. However….we also need to think up some way to avoid those fights without using MP too….”

That being said, fights dragging on would be even more problematic after this.

It happened at that time.

Bamm, bamm. Heavy footsteps could be heard from far away.

“GEGEH, GEGOH”

A giant golden corpulent rana was incoming from a far away corridor.

The gold rana stopped, its cheeks bulging out.

“Uh……Weh…..Weeh…..GeGOH”

Suddenly I stopped entirely, trying to avoid making a sound, as my gaze was stolen by the gold rana.

That color and that body shape…..there is no mistake.

It’s a Grand Merchant Rana.

The monsters that appear here are random, but…. I didn’t think even this one could come up here in the Phantasmal Beast Tower.

“Luce, we are hunting that one! Try to get closer without spooking it, then wait for a chance…..!”

“Didn’t you just say the exact opposite of that…..!?”

Seeing how I was acting, Luce had a strained smile on her face.