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Chapter 182 – Part 2

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Translation: Charlotte
Editor: Weasalopes

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After some more walking, I ran into a surprise.

The cave that I thought was just a straight line actually had a branch.

And it wasn’t too obvious which path was the main path either. The cave split in a ‘T’ shape before me.

Hmm… Which path to take…?

Before I made any decision, I decided to get Volff to confirm both of them for me.

Standing in front of both paths, it felt like some strange breeze was flowing out of both of them.

Both of them had a monster-like smell too.

Should I go right?

Should I go left?

I decided to start by heading left.

Just in case, I used Magnetic Compass too.

The left branch had me going north-west.

That meant that the right branch was heading south-east.

Very good.

Let’s keep going.

So, were there any other monsters in the cave besides the Rudy Bats?

The answer to that question was right in front of me.

Wendigo　Lv.2

Monster　Enemy Target　Passive

Battle Position: Ground　Ice Attribute　Sleeping

Not again…

Oh, it was sleeping.

But looking at it closer…

It wasn’t a monster I could compare to the Rudy Bats from earlier.

The Wendigos definitely looked like far more formidable monsters.

But the fact that I had fought one of these monsters before was quite calming.

I knew that the cold air they could blow at me was quite dangerous.

But then again…

The situation now wasn’t like the situation when I first fought a Wendigo.

My footing was more even.

I could cast Resist Ice in advance.

With my Black Rope in hand, I approached the Wendigo from behind it.

I tried to make absolutely no noise.

Slowly…

Slowly……

Once I was close enough, I jumped up to reach the Wendigo’s neck. It almost looked like a giant boulder.

As soon as the Wendigo woke up, it already had my Black Rope tied around its neck.

I pulled.

Now all I had to do was make sure I didn’t let go of the rope.

「Khhh!」

It looked like it was trying to scream something, but no sound came out.

But soon I realised that it was trying to use its cold air attack.

I noticed the temperature of my surroundings suddenly drop.

The Wendigo dropped to the ground, writhing about as it tried its best to remove the rope wrapped around its neck.

But it couldn’t escape.

It was just scratching at the flames welling up around the rope.

The smell of burnt flesh attacked my nose.

The Wendigo’s HP bar was quickly falling.

But it wasn’t dead just yet.

Senki tackled the Wendigo to keep it from rampaging any further.

With Goki and Volff attacking its legs, the struggling Wendigo was brought down to its knees.

It wasn’t going to stand up again.

Or at least, my Summon Monsters were going to make sure that that wasn’t going to happen.

The result looked good.

It was almost too good.

I picked up its skin and bones as item drops and kept going.

All in all, it was a good fight.

I took some damage to the cold air attack, but it was trivial.

The damage was well worth the item drops and the experience.

I wonder if I would be able to run into another sleeping Wendigo…

I kept going, but my march wasn’t going to be that easy.

The Rudy Bats were especially troublesome.

Even Volff got hit by the poison status condition.

Volff himself was still in good spirits, so that it wasn’t a big deal, but I couldn’t let him take too much poison.

I would’ve loved for the footing in the cave to be a little more even…

While we kept walking, I noticed the cave was bending in another.

I realised we were heading straight west.

The air suddenly felt cold to my skin.

Looked like the effects of Resist Ice wore off… The spell was actually quite useful.

Should I put on more winter equipment…?

Or maybe I could just cast Resist Ice again?

I decided to just cast Resist Ice again.

My MP bar was still looking alright.

My worries were honestly somewhere else.

I had a feeling that there were even bigger swarms of Rudy Bats still waiting to ambush me somewhere in the cave…

The path I was on opened up into a large hall.

Contrary to my worries, there were no Rudy Bats waiting for me.

But there was another monster instead.

Sasquatch　Lv.2

Monster　Enemy Target　Active

Battle Position: Ground　Ice Attribute　Dark Attribute

Quite a troublesome monster was in the hall.

It was facing in my direction too.

What do I do…?

Of course, I just had to do my best to intercept its attack!

Unfortunately for the Sasquatch, it was heavily outnumbered.

I was glad that the cave had relatively good footing too.

Jean focused on surprise attacks.

Volff focused on keeping the Sasquatch in place.

Goki used his arrows to hit any areas the Sasquatch couldn’t guard.

Heather pelted it with bullets of rock.

Senki wrestled it and was in the process of pinning it down.

With the Sasquatch’s movements immobilised, I went in with my Black Rope to seal its movements further.

Of course, it wasn’t the kind of opponent to go down with that alonne.

I held the handle of my Tokkosho to its ear.

As I activated the blade, I saw the blade of lightning pierce through its head all the way out the other ear.

Wow…

《【Jump】Level Up! 》

《【Dual Wield】Level Up! 》

Yep.

As the Sasquatch laid on the ground, I stuck my Survival Knife into its dead body.

It looked like it dropped something.

【Material】Snow Beast Stone　Material Item　Grade B　Rarity 5　Weight 2+

Thought to be a large hardened gallstone inside a Sasquatch.

The stone contains a high amount of magical power.

Oh!

It looked like a pretty good item!

《【Appraise】Level Up! 》

【Appraise】levelled up too.

Any level-up was very welcome, but I felt like these past days have been especially good.

I guess it was a benefit of fighting strong monsters without any other players around.

The Sasquatch didn’t look like it had any friends nearby either, which let me fight it with a lot more confidence.

If I could catch it off guard, I could prepare for the fight by using strengthening spells too.

I hadn’t even thought about using Practiced Spirit.

There were a lot of different tricks I had up my sleeve to fight it.

That meant I had the freedom to maybe use some of my weaker Summon Monsters.

It would be an opportunity to train my Summon Monster more evenly.

But I wanted to test the waters some more before diving in.

I restored all the damage I took using potions and kept going.

Based on what Magnetic Compass was telling me, I was starting to head a bit southward.

But the cave tended to snake around too, so I was actually alternating between heading south and heading southwest.

As usual, the Rudy Bats were troublesome to deal with.

Well, fighting them was still a plus in terms of income and expenditure, but they were still annoying to deal with.

I got a lot of Strange Stones on the way, which I turned into Strange Powder using alchemy skills.

It was a convenient item, but I had to keep in mind the stat penalties.

I had to fight tougher monsters like these from time to time too, after all.

Wendigo　Lv.5

Monster　Enemy Target　Active

Battle Position: Ground　Ice Attribute

This time, the Wendigo wasn’t asleep.

In other words, it was going to be a serious fight.

It was at quite a high level too.

My first priority was to cast Resist Ice on all of my team.

After that, I just had to give my all to take it down.

「Practiced Spirit!」

In my right hand I held my Tokkosho. The blade was set to Lightning Magic.

I held a Tonfa of Torture in my left hand.

I went out into the front and approached the monster.

But as I was running at it, Volff and Jean quickly outran me.

It was a high-level opponent.

I didn’t mind having both Volff and Jean helping out.

I made sure not to forget selecting and casting a spell.

I had to do my best to support Senki. With Senki there I was sure we could easily take out a lone Wendigo.

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