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Chapter 220 Part 3

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Translation: Charlotte
Editor: Weasalopes

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Cancer Guard – Al Tarf　Lv.6
Heroic Spirit　Enemy Target　Active
Battle Position: Ground, Underwater　Water Resistance

Cancer Guard – Praesepe　Lv.5
Heroic Spirit　Enemy Target　Active
Battle Position: Ground, Underwater　Fire Resistance

Greater Karkinos　Lv.1
Monster　Enemy Target　Active
Battle Position: Underwater, Ground　Water Attribute

I had a decent idea of how the enemies would change.
So far, it was always an increase of one guardian Heroic Spirit.
The new Heroic Spirit would be one level below the others too.
And the number of accompanying monsters would go up by one too.
Yep, the formula definitely made sense…
With both the number of monsters and their levels to mess with, adjusting the difficulty of the Twelve Zodiac Shrines would be quite easy.
But no matter how many of them there were, if I could drop them into a pit, they would become very easy to take out.
It was very effective for buying time, and Denier’s web could pretty much entirely immobilise them given enough time.
I was actually very grateful for the increase in difficulty. It meant more EXP for my Summon Monsters.

《Summon Monster『Gokame』Level Up! 》
《Please add 1 point to a desired stat.》

Yep, as expected, those Experience Points were very delicious.
I’ll have them all, thank you very much.

The stat that went up with the level-up was DEX.
I put another point into AGI.

Gokame　Giant Tortoise Lv6→Lv7（↑1）
DEX　4（↑1）
AGI　9（↑1）
INT　18
STR　15
VIT　25
SPI　21

Skills:
Bite　Defend　Magic Resistance [Slight]　MP Regeneration [Slight]　Earth Attribute　Water Attribute

Gokame was so close to his Class Change.
I could keep shooting for Gokame’s next level-up, but I decided to switch out Gokame.
I wanted to make sure all of my Summon Monsters got an even amount of training.
I recalled Gokame and summoned Taylor.
It would be very nice to get a level-up for Taylor too before the end of the day.

Leo guard – Regulus　Lv.7
Heroic Spirit　Enemy Target　Active
Battle Position: Ground　Fire Resistance

Leo guard – Denebola　Lv.6
Heroic Spirit　Enemy Target　Active
Battle Position: Ground　Wind Resistance

Man-eating Lion　Lv.7
Monster　Enemy Target　Active
Battle Position: Ground

Alright, let’s just cut to the chase… Fall!
Fall into the pit already!
I used【Pitfall】as soon as possible.

But it looked like the lions were capable of climbing out.
Well, it was just a matter of kicking them back down to the bottom though.
I switched up my weapon too.
I switched to my Capture Rod of Torture.
If I had to give a reason… It was because the weapon could reach all the way to the bottom of the pit.
Of course, I was dealing with several angry Heroic Spirits and monsters, but I was still optimistic.
They would all just get tangled in Denier’s web anyway.
And even then, they were still trying to climb up the side of the pit.
Wow, they were really making it convenient for me.
I managed to nicely start piling up damage on the Leo Guards and the Man-eating Lions.

It looked like it wasn’t going to be a troublesome fight.
I took care of all the enemies and quickly hurried ahead.

Virgo Guard – Spica　Lv.6
Heroic Spirit　Enemy Target　Active
Battle Position: Ground　Dark Resistance

Virgo Guard – Zavijava　Lv.5
Heroic Spirit　Enemy Target　Active
Battle Position: Ground　Light Resistance

Banshee　Lv.8
Servitor Spirit　Enemy Target　Active
Battle Position: Ground　Magical Resistance

There were three Banshees, but all of them were at Level 8.
It didn’t look like they were Class Changed.
I was honestly a lot more interested in the Banshees over the two Virgo Guards carrying rapiers.

There was definitely a lot of anxiety when I was facing the Banshees.
Speaking of the Banshees.
It didn’t look like dropping them into a pitfall did much damage.
But there was no problem. After getting them all into the pitfall, slowly piling up damage on all of them was an easy way to clean them all up in no time.
In fact, I had a feeling the fight could have gone faster without the pitfall strategy.
The way Jericho liquefied and then captured one of the Virgo Guards in his own hardened body was quite a splendid sight.
I suppose pitfalls had their own strengths and weaknesses too.

Libra Guard – Zuben　Lv.7
Heroic Spirit　Enemy Target　Active
Battle Position: Ground　Light Resistance

Libra Guard – Brachium　Lv.6
Heroic Spirit　Enemy Target　Active
Battle Position: Ground　Dark Resistance

Dioscuri Warrior　Lv.1
Heroic Spirit　Enemy Target　Active
Battle Position: Ground　Earth Attribute

Yep.
With the kind of enemies I was up against, it definitely looked like using a pitfall would be the best course of action.
The Libra Guards had claws and sharp gauntlets as weapons.
Three of the accompanying Dioscuri Warriors all had ranged weapons to compensate.
One had a spear, the other a bow, and the last one a two-handed sword.

Come on, fall!
Fall into the pit, all of you!
The only thing that didn’t go down was the Dioscuri Warrior with the bow.
It was by itself, so cornering it and then taking it down by itself was an easy task.
The other Libra Guards and Dioscuri Warriors were already in a very tough situation.
When the duration of the pitfall spell expired, they were completely immobilised by Denier’s web.
Wow… I didn’t think Denier’s web attacks could be so effective!

Scorpio Guard – Antares　Lv.7
Heroic Spirit　Enemy Target　Active
Battle Position: Ground　Poison

Scorpio Guard – Acrab　Lv.6
Heroic Spirit　Enemy Target　Active
Battle Position: Ground　Poison

Killer Scorpion　Lv.1
Monster　Enemy Target　Active
Battle Position: Ground　Earth Resistance　Poison

Alright.
I quickly took care of them with another pitfall.
It didn’t look like the scorpions were Class Change monsters, but it still seemed like they were pretty good at climbing the side of the pit.
The damage they took when I kicked them back to the bottom of the pit was not as high as I expected.
But I suppose that was to be expected, it did have the Earth Resistance ability.
I really couldn’t get careless.

The scorpions could cut through Denier’s web quite easily too.
It looked like this group of enemies was going to be especially annoying.
I guess I really didn’t have any other option. I decided to use an area-of-effect attack spell.

「Acid Shower!」

I could deep-fry all of them in acid.
Well from the violent writhing of all the monsters in the hole, it looked like the spell was quite effective.
Even after the spell itself was over, there was also some continuous damage.
After all of that, finishing off all the Scorpio Guards and Killer Scorpions in the pit was very easy.
They were definitely a tough bunch to deal with.

Sagittarius Guard – Kaus　Lv.6
Heroic Spirit　Enemy Target　Active
Battle Position: Ground　Earth Resistance

Sagittarius Guard – Alnasl　Lv.5
Heroic Spirit　Enemy Target　Active
Battle Position: Ground　Wind Resistance

Centaur Soldier　Lv.7
Monster　Enemy Target　Active
Battle Position: Ground

Wow…
From the very beginning of the fight, I already knew that there was no way I was going to win in terms of mobility.
Again, dropping them to the bottom of a pitfall really looked like the best course of action.
But there were two Sagittarius Guards I had to deal with, both of them carrying bows.
I wanted to give priority to dealing with them first, but they wouldn’t get close enough for me to open up a pitfall under their feet.
Only the three Centaur Soldiers fell to the bottom of the pit.
I could leave finishing them off to my Summon Monsters.
I could run around on my own, doing my best to take down the Sagittarius Guards.
But no matter how hard I tried, I was definitely more of a distraction than anything else…

It was only after I used【Thorn Fence】to trap the two Sagittarius Guards together that I finally managed to take them down.
Oh no…
I just realised I was starting to keep fighting even in disadvantageous situations.
I was able to make do somehow and come out on top, but I definitely couldn’t count on me getting out of it unscathed every time.
But it was definitely a good idea to use all those wall spells against the Sagittarius Guards.
I decided to just think about it in a positive light.

Capricorn Guard – Algedi　Lv.6
Heroic Spirit　Enemy Target　Active
Battle Position: Ground　Wind Resistance

Capricorn Guard – Dabih　Lv.5
Heroic Spirit　Enemy Target　Active
Battle Position: Ground　Fire Resistance

Blitz　Lv.5
Monster　Enemy Target　Active
Battle Position: Ground　Lightning Attribute

Yep.
I won’t make the same mistake twice, alright!?
Before I faced the next group of enemies, I made sure to use【Resist Thunder】on all my Summon Monsters and myself.

Jericho and Taylor easily intercepted all the three Blitz as they charged at them.
I got close to the two Capricorn Guards and then dropped them into a pitfall.
As soon as the pitfall was set up, Jericho and Taylor started throwing the Blitz into the hole too.
But the power that the Blitz had was quite amazing!
They could easily jump out of the pitfall whenever they felt like it.
But taking them all down was still easy.
As long as I kept pushing them back into the pit, they would get exhausted and give up eventually.
Of course, for the first moments whenever they jumped out, they would be completely defenceless too.
A delicious target for both me and my Summon Monsters.
Seeing a blade of magma extending from the hilt of my Vajra Sword and pierce a Blitz in mid-air was definitely a very fascinating sight.
Although it would probably be quite a terrifying sight if our positions were reversed.
But the fact that they were defenceless was very real. Even Jericho, Bunraku and Taylor were able to intercept them in mid-air.
That was quite amazing, considering the superior agility of the Blitz.

Of course, I had to kick the Capricorn Guards down to the bottom of the pit a lot too.
But with how fast the Blitz were, the Blitz actually ended up becoming the more threatening enemy.
I wasn’t trying to downplay how strong the Capricorn Guards were.
In terms of difficulty, both the Blitz and the Capricorn Guards were similarly easy to deal with.

But after we took them all out, I did find that we took some damage.
Most of that damage was caused by the Blitz.
They really were quite ruthless monsters…

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