Read Novel Full Chapter 89
Chapter 89
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TL: ALT
Chapter 89 – Countermeasure
As I walked through the damp and cold limestone caverns,
“Sneak Peek, Fathom, Reappraisal.”
I check Clovis’ current status.
Status──────────────────
Clovis Erdland
Elf
Level 5079
HP 50790/50790
MP 914902/914902
Attack Power 99811
Defense 187742
Magic Power 1409381
Mental Strength 585123
Agility 567269
Luck 12032
・Unique Skills
Human Objectification
・Acquired Skills
Pride 5, Spirit Magic 5, Ritual Magic 5, Summon Beasts 5, Ancient Chant 5, Fast Chant 5, Chantless 1, Create Magic Tools 3, Subordinate Magic 3, Item Box 5, Appraisal, Disguise
・Equipment
Staff of the World Tree (Staff carved from the trunk of the World Tree. Attack +11200, Magic Power +34100, Mental Strength +34100, Luck +14300)
Elven Cloak (Defense +21110, Agility +23400)
Hawk Boots (Defense +10600, Agility +10600)
Ring of Slaughter (favored by ancient slayers. Attack and Magic +42900, Defense and Mental -21000, Luck -42900)
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Skill──────────────────
Human Objectification
(Abbreviation)
Humans currently being materialized:
Shiina Akari Lv. 1352
Fuzuki Yumeno Lv. 1024
Nose Naoya Lv. 1144
Ishigami Shunsuke Lv. 1223
Kanbayashi Karen Lv. 1538
Han Ji-won Lv. 1100
Louise Northstein Lv. 1297
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There has been no change in the list of objectified.
It seems that Clovis has not sacrificed any of the explorers yet.
Maybe Haruka-san is stalling for time.
But I think there is no time.
I didn’t just ride in a UFO to get here.
I’m using the SP I got from the boss in the Kururi Castle Dungeon to improve my skills.
I’ve increased my Covert from 3 to 5.
I’ve increased my Presence Detection from 1 to 4.
Combined with Stealth, I was able to get past most of the aquatic and semi-aquatic monsters that roamed the Okutama Lake Dungeon.
For some reason, only the Ropers (monsters with wriggling, anemone-like tentacles) reacted to me, but they could not move from where they appeared.
I was ready to take a few hits, so I ran through it.
By the way, I did not use Escape.
As Serika said, it is difficult to escape from a monster in a small dungeon (normally).
Unlike Escape, the monsters will chase you wherever you go.
However, unlike Escape, there is no escape timer or area restriction for normal escape.
If the monsters are completely scattered, it is faster to run (normally) than to use Escape.
That’s why I originally thought of Escape as a failure skill.
Since Gennai (Karakuri Doctor) joined the team, I increased Summon Secret Monster from 2 to 3.
Now, I can summon three of them at once: Hobijinkai, Hotei, and Gennai.
However, I haven’t summoned Hobijinkai or Hotei because I’m prioritizing Stealth on the road.
It’s hard to say if they can play an active role in the battle against Clovis.
The level of monsters I can summon is currently 2941.
It is a heavy burden to deal with a level 5079 Clovis.
I can summon a monster if I need manpower, but I want to avoid hitting Clovis directly.
I don’t think there’s any chance of winning a summoning battle against Clovis’ Thunder Gryphon (or any other summonable magical beast).
Even without the level difference, the sumo wrestler-driven Hobijinkai can only show its true potential when its opponent is in humanoid form. If they were flying in the sky, it would be even worse.
The direct combat ability of the treasure hunter, Hotei, is not so good, and Gennai is waiting outside the dungeon as the pilot of the Karakuri UFO.
If anyone has a chance against him, it is Kudave, but Clovis may take some countermeasures.
In the battle at the Tengumine Shrine grounds, my slow chanting speed was a problem that allowed Clovis to escape.
In light of this, and to counter the skills Clovis possesses, Fast Chant has been increased from 3 to 5.
I also acquired Chantless 1, which became available with Fast Chant 5.
Clovis also has Fast Chant 5 and Chantless 1.
Now that the skills are equal, the disadvantage of chanting time is gone.
Faster chanting is essential to catching the fast-moving Thunder Gryphon.
On the other hand, why didn’t I increase Fast Chant before? You might ask.
The reason is simple: the SP required was too high.
The SP required to acquire Fast Chant is 1600, so the SP required to increase the skill level goes from 6400 to 25600, then to 102400, then to 409600.
To increase the skill level from 3 to 5 required a whopping 512,000 SP.
Although this is a painful expense, there are advantages to having a high SP requirement.
That is, the ability value bonus is added when a skill is acquired and leveled.
Whenever a skill is acquired or leveled up, a bonus equal to the amount of SP spent on it is added to the skill’s ability stat.
In the case of Fast Chant, the bonus is half for Magic Power and half for Mental Strength.
In other words, by setting Fast Chant to level 5, my Magic Power and Mental Strength have each increased by 256,000.
Well, Clovis has the same skill, so the ability bonus is the same.
So it’s still an equal situation in terms of chanting speed and ability value bonus.
Also, since Advanced Lightning Magic could not penetrate the Thunder Gryphon, I increased Wind Magic to 5 and got Advanced Wind Magic.
Wind Magic is not as fast as Lightning Magic, but its bullet speed is faster.
By disrupting the flow of air, it would be possible to interfere with the Thunder Gryphon’s flight.
However, Wind Magic is a skill with a starting SP of 100.
Even if it is increased to 5, it will only consume 34100 SP.
Even when combined with the 25,600 SP of Advanced Wind Magic, the total SP is 59700.
In terms of ability value bonuses, it is only better than nothing.
…Well, “better than nothing (MP and Magic Power +29850)” is a luxury.
That’s a bonus of 2985 levels for an average explorer (all 10s).
In the first place, it would be strange to complain if the required SP was too much and to complain if it was too little.
To top it off, I increased the Strong Strike Magic from 2 to 5 at once to increase the magic firepower.
The Strong Strike Magic I used from the beginning,
Skill──────────────────
Strong Strike Magic 5
MP consumption increases by (S.Lv x 10)%, but the magic firepower increases by (S.Lv x 15)%, and a knockback is generated.
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The effect is as follows.
At skill level 5, the magic firepower can be up to 1.75 times more powerful.
Note that this skill is not always active but can be toggled on and off at will.
Therefore, even if I increase the skill level, it does not mean that the MP consumption will increase permanently.
Double Chant was also a candidate for increasing the level of magic firepower.
Skill──────────────────
Double Chant 1
By assigning multiple meanings to the syllables of a spell, two spells can be chanted simultaneously. The casting time is increased by (50-S.Lv x 10)%.
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But, Double Chant has the disadvantage of a longer chant time.
I thought Chantless could eliminate that chant time, but when I tried it in UFO, it was not possible.
If I had enough SP, I could have learned both, but I decided not to buff Double Chant because it would conflict with other skills.
I know that “if I had SP to spare (I currently have 1,850,000 SP)” would have been a joke to other explorers.
Other than that, I increased Self Regeneration to 5 and Ninjutsu to 4.
Another thing is that I increased Short Teleportation from 1 to 4 all at once.
Skill──────────────────
Short Teleportation 4
Transfers through space. The distance that can be transferred is within (S.Lv x 2) meters. Reuse takes (60-S.Lv x 10) seconds. Cannot pass through dungeon walls.
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Now, the transferable distance is 8 meters.
It can be increased to 10 meters by raising it to 5, but Short Teleportation is also a system that requires 1600 SP to acquire.
It costs 409600 SP to increase the distance from 4 to 5.
With the current SP, it is possible to get it, but it would be a problem to completely empty the SP in the current situation.
I decided to keep Short Teleportation at 4 because I wanted to get more out of Fast Chant.
If I really need it, I can increase it on the fly.
I was torn between the following two.
Skill──────────────────
Demonization 1
For (S.Lv x 15) seconds, maximum HP is halved, but other ability stats are tripled. Continuous use reduces your lifespan. It takes 12 hours for the effect to disappear.
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Skill──────────────────
Demon God Incarnation 1
For (S.Lv x 12) seconds, maximum HP is reduced to 20%, and other ability stats are increased by ten times. Continuous use burns the soul. It takes 72 hours for this effect to disappear.
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In this comparison of the two, I chose to use Demonization in this case.
You don’t need ten times the firepower against Clovis.
Demonization has a slightly longer duration, so if I wanted to stabilize the fight, this would be the better choice.
It is not decided not to use Demon God Incarnation, but there is still a possibility of using it to increase firepower in some places.
If I think about it in the future, I would prefer to use Demonization because it has a shorter cooldown for continuous use.
So, I have increased the skill level of Demonization to 3.
The duration is now 45 seconds.
I think it has become much easier to use.
I took some other detailed skills, but… I will explain them as I use them.
That’s it for the Clovis countermeasure.
The SP I used was a little over 1.2 million.
I saved about 650,000.
I really wanted to increase the Trump Card, but the cost was too high.
Under the circumstances, I had no choice but to postpone the Gain SP Up option until later.
I think there might be other skills that could be used in synergy, but the travel time in the UFO was too limited.
By the way, the Trump Card setting is still Gain SP Up.
I thought about replacing it with one of the offensive skills, but I can only change it once every 24 hours.
It would be better to make a flexible decision based on the situation.
Oh yeah, and items obtained under the special conditions of the Kururi Castle Dungeon conquest were also processed.
Item──────────────────
Book of Wisdom, Scroll of Rupture
It makes some secret skills available when used.
────────────────────
Use this.
There were some nice weapon-related skills, but if Clovis is my opponent, I have enough weapon skills.
I’ll postpone acquiring the skills.
Item──────────────────
Book of Principles
When used, the maximum skill level of any skill other than the unique skill is increased to 6.
────────────────────
It’s too hard to decide! I have to put it on hold.
Item──────────────────
Book of Secrets, Scroll of Emergency
Gains 100000 SP when used.
────────────────────
This is also on hold.
I mean, I probably won’t use it myself.
I can earn SP on my own, so it would be better to keep it as an item.
I could also think of secretly selling it to a trusted explorer.
I could give it to Serika, but the last time I gave it to her, she got angry and told me to prepare a more romantic gift.
Item──────────────────
Philosopher’s Stone Fragment
Use it to remove one disadvantage of a skill you have learned.
────────────────────
Of course, it’s on hold.
Like the Book of Principles, this is an item that requires careful consideration.
It’s not easy to use because I’m afraid that after using it, I’ll think of a better use for it.
…I think it’s safe to say that I’ve done enough for now.
I thought I might have overdone it a bit, but it is much better to have wasted preparation than to be underprepared.
According to Haitani-san, the Okutama Lake Dungeon is wide horizontally and narrow vertically.
This means that each floor is wide and the number of floors is small.
With four floors, it is one of the shallowest A-rank dungeons.
Instead, each floor is several times larger than other A-rank dungeons.
Compared to Kururi Castle Dungeon, each floor is said to be five to seven times larger.
But I have a Mini Map.
Unlike Kururi Castle Dungeon, also known as Karakuri Tower, the construction of each floor is simple.
I also have a map, though a simple one, from Haitani-san.
The Okutama Lake Dungeon has experienced floods in the past, and Serika went diving there.
The level of the monsters that appear in the dungeon starts at 475.
It’s considerably higher than the Kururi Castle Dungeon, but it doesn’t matter for me to go through it.
No, with my current status, I would have no problem fighting them head-on.
After about an hour and a half, I arrived at the portal to the fourth floor.
As before, I jumped into the portal.
However, contrary to my expectations, it was not the fourth floor of the Okutama Lake Dungeon that I emerged from.
A chipped, vermilion-painted Torii gate stood in front of me.
The inscription on a stone monument nearby read Danjio Jinja.
“At a time like this…! No, because it is a time like this!”
I ran up the stone steps of the dungeon shrine, skipping a few steps.