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Chapter 337

Chapter 337: Why are you even hiding if there are no snakes, no treasure chests, and no cute girls in the middle of changing.

Day 80 – Afternoon, Dungeon, 68F

Now, it’s time to deliberate, the initial plan was to smoke the insects as usual with pesticide grass. While time consuming it’s simple and easy. At the same time, I can’t say that I didn’t think that this is a good chance for practice. Perhaps cyanide should also be considered in my deliberations as well, but instead of starting scientific experiments on development of chemical warfare, I’m pretty sure it would be faster to just go and simply strangle them.

Slime-san is going to pass on eating here as well, after all 68F is full of bugs?

Well, chopping down flying locusts is the correct answer, but it’s 『Spear Locusts Lv 68』we are talking about, who come charging through the air in spear form. As usual, they are swarming in such numbers that I can’t even count them through Detection.

The last time I used 『Holding』to gather smoke from insecticide herbs and after sending it in, locking the locusts in the smoke cloud. But in order to practice I have to fight them properly. There are unexpectedly not that many opponents that I can use a sword on, conversely it can also be said that they simply get obliterated before we get a chance to get acquainted.

Activating 『Wisdom』 I focus to the very limit before self-destruction begins, the flow of time and movements of locusts slow down, becoming more serene, a slow motion induced by ultra high-speed thinking. But because on the combination of slow motion and 『Rajingan』I can clearly see faces of locusts and it’s gross and disgusting! Even though as a kid I liked them to the point of rooting for Monster Locust Man… Yeah, I don’t want to do anything with those guys.

I slash and carve my way forward, cutting down anything in my path. A chaotic battlefield with the storm of locusts surrounding me on all sides, but honestly, it’s perfect for training, or rather, if I mess up my 『Teleportation』, I’ll get stabbed.　So I have no choice but to keep my movements sharp, desperately weaving my blade dance together. I mean, I’m very good at, very fond of, and greatly enjoy stabbing, it wouldn’t be an exaggeration, or rather, it might even be an understatement, to say that it could be my favorite thing, but I don’t want to get stabbed. Both in BL and locust way, or rather, even the girls who had rotten to the level of absolute ghouls wouldn’t ask for such a scene. Or rather, I really want to believe that there is no doujinshi about BL action with locusts!

By relying heavily on centrifugal force, I can conserve both strength and stamina. Because of that, I barely need any skill assistance or support, and the strain on my body is almost nonexistent. But, It’s busy, frantic, and super exhausting, it’s so hectic that my head is spinning, but my head is also spinning from spinning non-stop, but I have no choice but keep going round and round.

But I’d really like『Whirlwind Blade』or『Fully Automatic Wind Blade (fan)』sort of a cheat skill that can be used automatically. All you have to do is activate the skill, and it takes care of the rest itself. Meanwhile, I have to go through some sort of a weird punishment game, where I do everything by hand, like in ancient times, with full manual, full responsibility, and full feedback, where one mistake would lead to getting stabbed by locusts, and there is no one to ask for a refund!

Actually, I have a throwing net in the Item Bag, but wouldn’t it be okay to use it? No, I get that this is a training, but these locusts are way too bloody annoying!

「*Panting* That was annoying. Constantly seeing those ugly pointy mugs up close with 『Rajingan』as they kept flying right at me was super annoying! Aaah, I had enough of bugs. The rest gets insecticides and incineration! *panting*」

Someone is patting me on the back. As expected, my head hurts after using 『Wisdom』so much. I’m pretty sure this is something like brain cells dying, but even if they can be restored with 『Regeneration』will my memories and such be alright?! How do I check my memories, erhm, this country is called… no idea? The frontier was something like Omo… something, and the local lord is Meripapa-san bearing the nickname of Middle-Aged Dude that never Won against his Wife. Yeah, everything seems in order.

But being pushed to that extent certainly sharpens your skills, I think those might’ve been were the most natural movements so far?

In other words, I can’t get into it unless I get cornered, well, I’ll get serious when it gets really bad? Kind of?

I’ve asked both the weaponsmith and the general store owner to look for gear that boosts only ViT, InT, and control-related stats. So, I should be able to raise my base abilities soon. But, since my skills keep leveling up and evolving, my physical stats are bound to fall behind sooner or later. Isn’t there some sort of a nice cheat for this? Like redirecting the damage to the geeks, and then maybe also burning and burying them to top it off? That’s the sort of a person that I want to be, you know?

However, the next is『Soldier Puppet Lv 69』, great for group combat practice and their equipment can be sold for a good profit. What’s most important, there is a good chance of equipment with single-effect skills appearing. Last time they were good spar opponents for war preparations, and this time they are also great practice partners and source of income. Truly wonderful dolls.

Moreover, by playing with the dolls I can also hope for Affection Rating increase though whimsical highschool boy route. Well, I’m just going to butcher them, but I’m still free to hope. But I’ll challenge them with an open mind, willing to compromise even on Affection Rating-san that would raise from a battle to the death with dolls.

I match my sword or rather my staff to catch the sword incoming from the right, while the spear thrust at me passes under my left arm. Spinning to the right, I cut them all down in a sweeping slash as I advance. I slip through the wall of swords with 『Teleportation』, bypass the forest of spears with 『Air Walk』, and continue my blade dance. Unlike the swarming locusts, the space above remains open, making the sky itself part of the battlefield. With nothing to stop my three-dimensional movements, I accelerate, drawing everything into the vortex of my dance, obliterating the puppets caught in the storm.

With the sheer size of 『The Seven-Branched Sword』, I wield it like a greatsword, slashing through enemies, sweeping them, and stabbing, as I unleash a dance of slaughter. However, the real 『The Seven-Branched Sword』, even with the handle attached, shouldn’t have been more than a meter long. Right now, though, it’s easily around 170-180 centimeters. Well, since the 『Staff of the World Tree』 itself is capable of freely extending, retracting, and transforming, it’s not exactly surprising that the 『The Seven-Branched Sword』 slotted in it can also change in size.

However, while the staff is easier to use, 『The Seven-Branched Sword』 is overwhelmingly superior in sheer destructive power. And since I feel no discomfort wielding it, it’s probably being supported by the martial skill 『Cane Arts』 Most likely, it had to adjust by being told by M-san 『a thrust makes it a spear, a sweep makes it a naginata, and when held, it becomes a sword』, so why not support swords too? M-san is totally unstoppable.

「Phew~.」

A mountain of wreckage. It kind of felt like the number of respawned 『Soldier Puppets』was sort of large, is there some sort of a variance depending on the monster type? Like puppets are given priority or something? They weren’t given any crazy tweaks though?

「Too many, large swings. You leave, yourself, wide open.」

「Sloppy / steps / too wide.」

(Jiggle-Jiggle)

Harsh evaluation.

「I kind of just swung around, counting on the destructive power of 『The Seven-Branched Sword』, it’s tough dealing with that number of enemies unless I just destroy them in one go. And once I try to incorporate air mobility, the footwork ends up getting too wide no matter what? I mean, just imagine making fine steps with『Air Walk』? Would it be weird? Visually-wise?」

And above all, it’s too much of a bother, or to say frankly, I got bored halfway through. As the result I ended up focusing more on power, with overly wide steps and swings, which led to losing fine control, disrupting rhythm, and starting the great spin festival. As expected, being overly confident is also a problem. I’m sure I’m just the type that does better during the real thing, or rather, I’m not doing anything until the real thing, or to be more accurate, the type to start thinking only when it really hits the fan… That kind of sound like a human failure!

We continue our descend while I’m getting scolded.

「This one is ViT only, and this one is mastery only? Oh, but this one gives 30% to InT. Well, I’ve been selling those since they kind of suck, but it’s still a nice found?」

At this rate I might finally part with 『Tough Boots – ViT 10% Up』that’ve been using as a stopgap. It’s a kind of a pity, since I even paid money to get those back then, but I don’t have any use for them either, and using mithril to upgrade temporary equipment is way too much of a waste. It’s just a guess, but upgrading Armored Pres-san and Dancing Girl’s equipment will probably consume a considerable quantity of mithril. The amount of mithril required tends to be directly proportional to the strength of equipment. I should refrain from wasting it. The other day I mithrilified a plate, but it was immediately turned full of holes with forks (tridents), so let’s be more prudent.

As expected, Slime-san’s favorite snack『Jotun Lv 70』didn’t respawn on 70th floor. So floor bosses are annihilated… even though they are so profitable? Even Bitch Leader’s formidable『Spear of Eternal Ice』was made by mithrilifying the drop from『Jotun』. If only around 40『Jotuns』respawned and each dropped a weapon, we would’ve been able to equip everyone with the weapons currently available only to party leaders, but looks like it won’t be that easy.

The book found in the reference room of the guild mentioned that drops from respawned bosses aren’t as good. Receptionist Pres-san was scolding me that only adventurers are allowed to read that book while I was reading it, so there is no mistake. Rather than getting expectations up for a respawn, it would be better to just go around exploring different dungeons. After all, new ones seem to be popping up quite often.

The 71st floor is 『Fire Snake Lv 71』. These probably won’t go into hibernation even if they’re cooled down, and I remember I also was cutting through them last time as part of training too. A swarm of flame serpents writhes across the ground, leaping through the air as they surge forward. I spin and cut through the densely packed mass of snakes, slicing apart anything that enters my sword’s reach as they press in without pause. The sheer number of them makes securing stable footing nearly impossible, but in the slowed-down world, they’re nothing more than an annoying writhing mass. If it’s with 『The Seven-Branched Sword』, even the slightest touch will cut through them.

Just in case I also peeked into the hidden room which had 『Flare King Snake Lv 71』, but it didn’t have any snakes, or any cute girls in the middle of changing clothes. Peeking there was a total was of peeking. 『Flare King Snake』dropped 『Mirror Greatshield』, but neither the snake, nor the chest, nor lovely girls changing clothes respawned. Well, there weren’t any girls the first time either, so waiting for their respawn is kind of futile, but if there were any, I would’ve already made a new home here, preparing for a long stay! I want to see that!

It looks like I passed the test since even Armored Pres-san and the others are nodding in approval. They probably gave high marks for the focus on evasion through precise footwork and body movement. But now, they’re getting restless. They’re at their limit, itching to break away and charge ahead! Come to think of it, I barely remember the monsters past this point. In other words, Their patience must’ve run out and they went on a rampage around here last time too. Yep, looks like I haven’t improved that much after all.