Chapter 206 – Part 1

Translation: DarkHeartedAlchemist
Editor: Weasalopes

All right, so… according to the Wide Area Map I should already be on the S2W3 map.
As for the topography, there are no steep mountains or other natural obstacles here, and I can go back and forth between the maps no problem.
But even so, I have a bad feeling about this. Why, you ask?
Because of my feet. They are wet.
This map is a goddamn wetland!
For all I know, the whole terrain might be one enormous trap.

I checked my Summoned Monsters.
Looks like Volff can move just fine, even on such an uncertain terrain.
What about Zangetsu?
It’s useless. Just looking at him struggle not to get too deep into the swampy ground makes my heart hurt.
Even after I got off his back, his situation didn’t improve all that much.

Okay, it’s no use going forward if it’ll be like that.
It is impossible for this whole area to be nothing but a swamp, so let’s backtrack a little bit to the north and look for a safer, mare stable way to move around.
But the moment I turned my back towards the wetlands…

「GRrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!!」

Volff growled, staring intently at the swamplands before us.
What is it boy? Is someone or something there?

Such a terrain was an ideal place for hiding and ambushing travelers who were not careful enough to survey their entire surroundings all the time.
And even if they did, discerning one thing from the other here was potentially problematic to say the least.
But now, not only Volff, but also Helix and Obsidian seemed to have detected the presence of an invisible enemy.

I started to slowly move backwards.
After reaching a spot where the ground was solid again, I got on Zangetsu’s back again.
I started riding while simultaneously being aware of not only the wetlands, but also the space behind me and to the sides.
What is it?
What kind of an enemy is here and where is he hiding?!

Lizardman Lv.2
Monster Target Subjugation Active
Battle Position: Ground Water Breathing Water Attribute Fire Resistance Wind Resistance Earth Resistance

So it was something like that!
Jesus Christ it’s huge!
How many of them are there?!
About four.
And they are all armed!

Apparently their weapons are not consistent, but the armor looks more or less the same, albeit slightly modified for each of them.
2 hammers, a mace and a short spear.
How should I proceed with this?
One of the options was escaping from the battle altogether.
These guys are probably used to traversing the swampy terrain, so trying to fight them on their own turf would be all kinds of disadvantageous to us.

We have to retreat, even if it’s going to be little by little.
The four lizardmen spread in a half circle around us, but Zangetsu’s feet are finally firmly on the solid ground.

Are you going to attack us or not?
Come on, make up your minds already!

They are attacking us after all.
But now we can intercept them.
As long as we remain on dry land we have nothing to fear!

「Practiced Spirit!」

I selected a spell and executed it immediately.
At the same time, my monsters began to move towards the Lizardmen to engage them.
We have a pretty mobile team.
Three monsters who can fly, Zangetsu and Volff.
I on the other hand, am not as versatile as them, but thankfully I can fully make up for it with skills and spells.

I have a Capture Rod of Torture in my hand.
With it, I can take full advantage of my horseback position.
It will also allow me to keep a reasonable amount of distance between me and the enemies.
Those 4 Lizardmen may be smaller than Gozu and Mezu, but my gut feeling was telling me that they are just as dangerous.
We don’t have a pure tank in the team right now, so we need to be as cautious as possible.

This might actually be one of my toughest battles to date.
The enemies are tough, and to top it off, spells don’t seem to be working on them all that much.
Helix’s Blade of Wind didn’t even graze them.
All things considered, we should be fine as long as we just stick to physical attacks.

Next, I used a series of enchantments on my monsters:
Enchanted Melt on Volff.
Enchanted Degrade on Helix.
Enchanted Ice on Obsidian.

Their DPS have increased compared to a minute ago, but it was still not enough.
!!!
And those guys can also heal themselves with spells and special abilities?!
In that case I’ll have to use Attribute Seal as well!

Thankfully, the enchantments I have casted were not wasted.
From the looks of it, ice was the most effective element against those lizards.
I used Enchanted Ice on my own weapon and noticed that not only my damage against them increased, but their defenses also decreased along with their movement speed.
Oh, what’s wrong?
Little lizards don’t like the cold that much!?
Then eat this!

「Freezing Blast!」

I launched an ice projectile at one of the enemies, and heather followed after me with a lightning attack.
That way, when its skin was encased in ice, Heather’s thunder was able to break through it, doing even more damage.
The spear-bearing Lizardman fell to the ground after suffering a blow from Volff.
The other one died from a barrage of attacks performed by Helix and Obsidian.

As their numbers decreased, the characteristics of those Lizardmen became more and more apparent.
Basically, they are all avant-garde warriors.
They also possess the means to recover their lost HP seemingly in an instant.
Just that is going to make teamfights considerably harder.

They were pretty scary when there were a lot of them, but now that there was only one of them left, it wasn’t like that anymore.
Don’t get me wrong, it was still hard to dispatch.
But when it was alone against a group of myself and my monsters, there could be only one result.

《【Sealing Magic】Level Up！》
《Summoned Monster『Heather』Level Up！》
《Please add 1 Bonus Point to increase the value of the statistic of your choosing.》

Oh, Heather actually managed to Level Up. Nice.
She must have kept on attacking the Lizardmen from the distance with her lightning magic.
I was completely absorbed in the fervor of battle, so such a small detail might have completely slipped my mind.

Her SPI stat rose due to the Level up procedure, so I think I’ll increase her STR, just for the hell of it.

Heather Silky Lv2 → Lv3 (↑ 1)
DEX 9
AGI 23
INT 23
STR 6 (↑ 1)
VIT 6
SPI 25 (↑ 1)

Skills:
Flying Levitation Resist Magic 「Medium」 MP Recovery Increase 「Medium」 Wind Attribute Earth Attribute Lightning Attribute

Yeah.
As far as the fairies go, I think she will be reaching her upper Status limit relatively soon.
When that happens, I wonder if she’s going to go through some kinda change, or will she just stay the same?
I guess there’s no use worrying about that now, when everything’s still fine with her.
However… did she grow a little taller?
Nah, must be my imagination. Would be nice if she grew more human-like with each level up though.
For now, I’ll just have to be satisfied with her increased ability to recover her own MP bar.
It’s nice to have someone who’s self-sufficient, if only slightly, in my party.

For now, let’s check the gear.
Unlike in Centaur’s case, none of the weapons seems to be cursed, so that’s a relief.
On the other hand, none of them were particularly good, not to mention better than the ones I already happen to possess, so I guess I’ll just sell them the first chance I get.

Okay, let’s see if any of those Lizardmen dropped anything noteworthy.
4 Magic Stones?
That’s better than nothing at all, but this is still a disappointing result.

Now then, what should my next move be?
Maybe I should use that chance to get better at fighting with the Lizardmen, seeing as they are probably the most common enemy that is going to appear in this region of the map?
Some hunting with Call Monster then?
Sounds like a nice plan.

As for the other thing I can do now…
Going through the wetlands themselves seems impossible, even without all those Lizardmen around to shit in our oatmeal.
We have no choice: we need to choose a route that will guarantee us a safer passage.
But, do I really have to do that right now, in this very instant?
That’s right.
Maybe I should just use Call Monster to farm some more Lizardmen?
Fortunately, that last battle was quite educational about how we should handle enemies such as them from now on.
Yup.
Right now, we should be able to do it without much difficulty.