Chapter 201 – Part 3

Translation: Charlotte
Editor: Weasalopes

I tried to use spells to fight them too, but they weren’t very effective. Mostly because they didn’t hit.

I tried swinging my Staff of Torture around while I was riding Zangetsu, but that didn’t work either, for the same reason.

There wasn’t any way around it. I was completely at a loss against them.

Well, it was a learning experience.

They were enemies I couldn’t underestimate.

I couldn’t judge by appearances.

In any case, what did I get from the Curly Rabbits?

They dropped this:

【Material】 Wild Rabbit Skin　Raw Material　Grade C+　Rarity 4　Weight 1

The skin of a Curly Rabbit. The skin has not been tanned.

It has a mediocre appearance, but it is actually a strong material.

It wasn’t a giant piece of skin.

I would need quite a lot of them to make some kind of armour.

For the time being, I decided to stop using 【Call Monster】 and just focus on exploration.

Well there was never really a need to use 【Call Monster】 anyway.

But even so, I was still attacked a few more times anyway.

In all cases, I was ambushed by more Curly Rabbits.

After several battles, I learnt something else.

At the end of the day, I had no choice but to wait for them to make the first move.

I could try and intercept them afterwards.

If not with a point attack, then with a slash.

And if that doesn’t work, I could use an area-of-effect spell too.

Although using area-of-effect spells for the chance to hit one of them was very inefficient.

But it was necessary to be able to get anywhere when fighting the Curly Rabbits.

They were really tough enemies, in their own way.

It was soon about to be 6 pm.

I checked my wide-area map to find that I was finally about to reach the centre of N2W2.

Something clearly strange was before me.

Perhaps it was an Area Portal.

But that wasn’t all.

It was difficult to take down the giant monster that was attacking from above me.

No, maybe I was making a mistake in how I was expressing it.

Me taking it down?

More accurately, it was more like it taking me down… Or up?

Argentavis　Lv3

Monster　Enemy Target　Active

Battle Position: Air

When I first saw the bird from a distance, I thought it was quite small.

At least compared to Master’s Roc Bird.

Yeah. I was right, in a sense…

But that comparison didn’t help at all in my case.

The length of its wingspan was about five times longer than Helix’s wingspan?

It looked like its torso alone exceeded the size of a human.

Watching it glide over was quite a terrifying sight.

Of course, Helix and Obsidian were doing their best to fight it.

Needles of water shot around in the sky above me.

Most of them didn’t hit their mark.

For its size, the Argentavis was actually quite fast.

Even if the attacks hit, the damage they did was small.

It wasn’t enough to send it falling to the ground.

Even 【Wind Cutter】 and 【Thermal Expansion】, spells which I thought would be quite accurate, had trouble hitting it.

It was the one mostly doing the attacking on Zangetsu and me.

I had no choice but to focus on interception.

Should it to me and then use an area-of-effect spell?

I tried using my Capture Rod of Torture to stab it when it got close, but it easily dodged most of my attacks.

It was a quite exhausting fight.

I took every opportunity they gave me to counterattack or intercept their attacks.

I put away my Capture Rod of Torture.

What did I pull out instead?

I pulled out my Black Rope.

The question was how they it would attack me next.

Would it come at me with its beak?

Maybe its claws?

It didn’t really matter.

Just in case, I decided to prepare a spell too.

I started keeping my selection on 【Levitation】.

Here it comes…

Was it coming for me?

It was definitely coming for me.

I could see it coming diagonally downwards behind me.

I spurred on Zangetsu, to get it as level to the ground as I could.

Would it follow after me?

It quickly caught up to me, and dug its claws into my upper body.

At the same time, I suddenly felt my body float into the air.

Even if it was part of my strategy, it still hurt!

But there was no time to complain about the pain.

My real target was its legs.

I selected the spell and started casting.

It didn’t take too long to cast the spell.

Ah, thinking about it, it may have been long too.

I wasn’t too sure… I hadn’t used the spell in a long time.

But the spell would be very important in what I was about to do.

I tied my Black Rope around both its legs.

After that, I pulled as hard as I could.

The bird’s legs were engulfed in flames.

In a moment, along with the sound of a bird’s shriek, my vision went upside-down.

I could see the ground above me.

The sky was below my feet.

Oh! I was quickly dropping to the ground, but…

The sun was about to set.

It was quite a beautiful sight.

「Levitation!」

The spell did its job perfectly.

After floating for some time, I landed safely on the ground.

Nice.

But that wasn’t all.

Where was the Argentavis?

The Black Rope tied around my shoulder was feeling a lot lighter.

The next moment, I suddenly felt a strong force along the rope. It looked like the Argentavis was planning on pulling me away with it.

Oh dear…

That hurts!

But that made it even more difficult for the Argentavis to escape.

It lost its balance in the air and fell to the ground.

Please.

Please, Zangetsu!

From here on out, I’m leaving everything to you!

Zangetsu ran over and trampled the Argentavis.

It looked like it was trying to get back up and fly away, but Zangetsu wasn’t going to let that happen.

As expected, even a bird that strong wouldn’t be able to carry Zangetsu.

Volff and my other Summon Monsters surrounded it too.

Anyway…

It was time for me to join my Summon Monsters again.

Although it was already a one-sided beatdown.

I pulled out my dagger.

Let’s chop it up.

Volff was making a mess of its wings.

Helix, Obsidian, and even Ninetails were plucking out its feathers one by one.

You guys are quite scary, you know.

Oops. Almost forgot.

I had to do some attacking too.

The Argentavis’s HP bar was rapidly falling, until it finally crashed at zero.

《Job Level Up!》 》

《【Acrobatics】 Level Up! 》

《【Balance】 Level Up! 》

It was a good harvest, but was it worth it?

I had no idea.

I took quite a lot of damage from that fight.

Finishing it off took a lot of time too.

I had a feeling that it was an even tougher fight than against the Stray Mammoth from earlier?

Well then.

I stuck my Survival Knife into the mess of a body that used to be the Argentavis.

But I got an unexpected item from it.

I got a Mana Crystal.

The upper form of a Magic Stone.

Um… Alright, thanks?

It really was a mystery, this bird!

The place before my eyes was starting to look more and more like an Area Portal.

It was a giant tree.

But it was different to the one in the neighbouring N1W2 map.

The one in front of me was bigger, and its branches were a lot more spread out.

There were no other trees around it.

It looked like there was a hole in the base too.

It was a very suspicious sight.

In any case, it definitely did not look like it would be a good idea to head in randomly.

I had to take a moment to steel myself before rushing in.

I decided to use 【Instant Portal】.

It would probably be best to switch out my Summon Monster team.

Well then.

What Summon Monsters should I put in my team?

I first started by sitting down and gnawing on some Portable Food.

After my stomach was a little fuller, I thought about it some more.

There could be a lot of different things waiting for me in the tree.

I had no information either, which was making things difficult.

But that was what made it exciting too. There was a lot to look forward to.