Read Novel Full Chapter 195
Chapter 195
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Chapter 195 – Deep Layers
Four days have passed since then.
I finally increased the number of spots to eight and went around the designated hunting grounds, checking the condition of the corpses and firing Lightning Magic at them.
Everything is going well, so to speak.
The forest wolves are proving to be more effective than expected at clearing the corpses. Although I can’t summon them with Call to Assembly, the next day they gathered in large numbers, probably attracted by the smell, and devoured the corpses.
Although the numbers fluctuate, hunting gradually reduces the total number of monsters in the area, so the number of corpses has dropped to about half of what it was.
Maybe it is time to buy the cart I scouted earlier and start preparing to distribute the equipment.
Or maybe I should increase the number of special hunting grounds.
The easiest skill to obtain, Body Art, can be increased to level 7, but I would like to increase all other melee skills to level 6, except for Shield.
After all, all of my combat bonuses, except for Staff Art, Archery, and Shield Art, are currently Strength.
If I increase several skills at once, I’m sure I’ll be able to feel a noticeable increase in my strength.
(Then maybe I can beat that old lady…)
That’s my current goal.
I don’t want to lose. I want to surpass her.
I don’t know how big the gap is between us, but…
After all, she’s a great-grandmother, and as a human being, she could die at any moment, so I want to gain the strength to defeat her as soon as possible.
With that in mind, I glance at the less-than-ideal results and furrow my brow at the harsh reality.
Well, I just felled the trees and cut them into rounds, so I guess this result is to be expected.
No matter where I go, no one picks up my homemade shield, not even once.
Goblins are surprisingly luxurious; I wish they would at least grab it with both hands and, if nothing else, become goblin knights on their deathbed. What a disappointing outcome.
“Ugh, I don’t have enough shields…”
It’s a no-win dilemma.
Reusing items dropped by humans inevitably means that the ratio of goblin equipment to human equipment will vary.
As expected, the most common weapons are daggers and staffs, followed by swords and spears, axes, and scythes. Hammers are rare, and shields are extremely rare.
Staffs are a bit tricky, because sturdy branches lying around can be classified as staffs, but I’ve never seen anyone use a scythe as their main weapon.
I found that puzzling, but it seems that relic hunters have a high chance of possessing them, so there must be a decent number of them in the forest, either dropped by those hunters or left behind.
As for shields, despite having a dedicated buff slot, their equipment ratio is too low. However, when you look at them, the actual shields are quite large.
Since I can’t come up with a strategy like putting a miniature shield in my pocket and just farming buffs, maybe shields are just a nuisance, and only pure tankers carry them.
I forgot to ask Paisa-san for this information, so I’ll be sure to check it out when I visit the Dwarf Kingdom.
And then――
(No sign of the big eater taking the bait.)
I ponder what to do about the fact that my most important prediction seems to be wrong.
The deep area I haven’t ventured into yet.
The monsters that used to be there disappeared at the same time as the stampede.
The only thing I can think of is…
“Something that the monsters in that area perceive as a threat has appeared.”
If you think about it normally, that’s the only possibility.
In other words, it must be the existence of the “higher species” I heard about in Lipsum.
If they become stronger by eating magic stones, would they really overlook this situation where there are so many baits with magic stones attached?
It’s possible that they wouldn’t notice one place, but there are already eight such places.
If there was even one place that didn’t feel right, I could assume that the higher species are in the depths and act accordingly, but since the cause is still unknown, it’s hard to decide on a course of action.
(Is it too far because I’m still focusing on the middle layer? Or could it be… something has taken up residence on that high mountain?)
That’s the kind of story you’d expect in a game.
And if it’s the latter, then we’re talking about a higher-level species equivalent to a C-rank hunting ground, which makes me wonder if I can even handle it.
Well, either way, I’m faced with the mystery of why there are no monsters in the depths.
Hmm, I don’t know…
While I was thinking about it, I used my Investigation skill to see if there were any people nearby for the next Call to Assembly, and then…
“Oh, there it is.”
Looking ahead, I see a few people peering into a hole in the ground that is slightly brown in color.
They’re definitely relic hunters. In this situation, retreat is the only option.
I’m the one who came later, and I’m hunting in an unusual way, so I can’t very well say, “I’m using Call for Assembly, so if you don’t want to die, retreat.”
I realized that I had gotten too close to the shallow layer, so I went back north while gathering monsters.
▽ ▼ ▽ ▼ ▽
Three days later.
Looking at the mountains that had come closer, I repeated my apologies to Feeril, who probably resides in the heavens.
(I am sorry for being weak of will. I’m sorry for being weak to temptation. In the end, I couldn’t control myself. I’m really sorry.)
In the end, I went too far.
I was ready to be scolded.
But I’d like to believe that I couldn’t help it.
In the end, the main reason I ventured into the depths was because there weren’t enough monsters.
If I searched, I could find more in the middle levels, but the density was much lower, and for someone like me who is obsessed with efficiency, I couldn’t stand the slow pace.
It was so bad that I had to use Call to Assembly and only got six monsters, which made me want to say, “Come on, this isn’t right.”
If monsters don’t gather, the body count doesn’t go down, and as a result, I can’t get any weapons, so it’s a vicious cycle.
So I think it’s normal to want to check the monsters in the depths that I can see in the distance and call them if I can.
Out of desperation, I began to doubt myself.
Are there really no monsters in the deep?
The old lady who gave me the information said this:
“There’s almost no information about monsters other than goblins.”
I’m sure she said other important things, but let’s leave those aside for now.
Based on her wording, there could still be a lot of goblin-type monsters in the depths, or maybe the reports just stopped coming in, and there could be other types, like orcs or ogres.
So I cautiously scanned the area and conducted multiple investigations.
And there they were.
Goblins, and although their numbers were quite small, there were also Orcs, which I judged to be higher level than in Lulub, and even higher level monsters called Ogres.
At this point, the question becomes, “Can I stop now?”
I used Insight, and even though they seemed pretty strong, I could tell that I could easily defeat them.
There was no way I could stop now.
――And.
――Call to Assembly――
In the end, I went ahead and created a new hunting ground of my own in the depths.
In the end, the ogres didn’t come, but the orcs, which seemed like a higher species, would come if they were hit.
Since it’s not in the reference book, I don’t know what kind of monsters they are, but when I defeated them, the level of the Sacrifice skill, which I had only reached at level 1 by natural acquisition, increased rapidly, so I thought, “This is lucky.”
But I’m not stupid.
I’ve learned from my past mistakes, and I’m trying to take action based on the situation so that I don’t get knocked down right away.
I keep my magic power above 80% by drinking a lot of those natural recovery potions for emergencies.
Whenever I had free time, I used the Investigation skill with the keyword “higher level”.
And as a last resort, I made sure not to use Divine Communication the day before so I could use it immediately if anything happened.
It’s a poor plan, and only for emergencies, but in a pinch, whether or not I can use this skill could literally mean the difference between life and death.
Maintaining this state of maximum alert, I continued hunting for about two hours.
After a proper break, I started to move to issue the next Call to Assembly when my Vision detected something before the Investigation picked it up.
“…Is that it?”
I couldn’t make out its shape.
But the trail of dust rising above it was heading straight for me.
Was its target the corpses in the hunting ground, or was it me?
I didn’t know which, but…
First of all, there was no doubt that it was an enemy.
So I wasn’t going to let my guard down.
With that in mind, I flew higher into the sky so that I could escape at any moment.
The fact that it moved like that made it clear that it wasn’t a flying type.
If I kept my distance, the sky would be safe.
From there, I used Insight to estimate its combat strength.
Unaware that I was watching from above, the “target” entered the hunting ground, paused for a moment, and then immediately charged at its intended prey.
The distance was too great to see clearly.
Nevertheless, it threw the goblin… Hmm? Did it have a preference? The way it grabbed and tore apart only the Orcs suggests that it’s quite large.
Its entire body is black, which doesn’t fit with this land being called the home of the green demon race.
It wasn’t a goblin or an orc, and it had a different vibe than the ogre I’d seen before… It felt like a beast that walked upright.
This was definitely the boss of this place, and it might even be the culprit behind the stampede that happened 20 years ago.
And then…
I drank the magic potions I had with me one by one to hide the dryness in my throat caused by the tension.
It should have tasted terrible, but I couldn’t taste anything now.
It’s not much of a recovery in terms of quantity, but this is not an enemy to be taken lightly.
“I can do this… I think I can…”
That’s right.
It’s going to be close, but my Insight tells me so.
I can kill it now.
Then make it the bait.
As it devours the bait stone, I will devour your skills.
――With all my might, I will kill it.
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