Translation: Charlotte
Editor: Weasalopes
Aquarius Guard – Sadalsuud Lv.6
Heroic Spirit Enemy Target Active
Battle Position: Ground Water Resistance
Aquarius Guard – Sadarmerik Lv.5
Heroic Spirit Enemy Target Active
Battle Position: Ground Earth Resistance
Kameosa Lv.5
Yokai Enemy Target Active
Battle Position: Ground Water Attribute
I had to fight two Kameosa…
But I was actually quite grateful for that.
It was very nice, getting to drop all of them into the pitfall on my first try.
But as expected, the Kameosa were the real problem.
I realized a little too late that having the Kameosa fall to the bottom of the pit actually made fighting them more difficult.
That was because the pot, which was the actual body of the enemy I had to deal with, just got itself a little hideout at the bottom of the pitfall.
But the Kameosa could still attack by spewing out water from the bottom of the pit.
I should have put more thought into the strategy…
But there was no time to regret my actions.
Using Jericho and Taylor as shields, I slowly beat the Aquarius Guard into the pitfall.
Once I managed to do that, the Aquarius Guard actually went down first.
Oh no…
I forgot to take a good look at the Aquarius Guard again…
It was after the pitfall went back to normal that the fight got a lot easier.
Without the Aquarius Guard to protect the Kameosa, taking them down was very easy.
But the fight did end up lasting for a significantly longer time than it had to… That hurt.
The torrent of water spewing out of the Kameosa was resisted by 【Resist Aqua】, but there was still some damage taken.
Well, lesson learnt.
~o~
Pisces Guard – Alrescha Lv.7
Heroic Spirit Enemy Target Active
Battle Position: Ground Water Resistance
Pisces Guard – Fumalsamakah Lv.7
Heroic Spirit Enemy Target Active
Battle Position: Ground Water Resistance
Flying Fin Lv.6
Monster Enemy Target Active
Battle Position: Underwater, Air Water Attribute
~o~
The Pisces Guards were easier to understand.
All the monsters were flying through the air.
It was obvious that opening up a pitfall wouldn’t be very helpful.
As usual, I responded by going on the defense and intercepting any of their attacks.
Using 【Thorn Fence】, I managed to trap three of the Flying Fish.
But I had to keep going.
The Pisces Guards went around the wall of thorny ivies and ran at me.
I left one of them to Jericho and Taylor and took the other one on by myself.
I took on the higher-levelled Pisces Guard.
It was a good opportunity to get some more practice fighting flail-wielding enemies.
I wanted to get used to it, to some extent.
~o~
From the battle, I definitely did get a good grasp of how to close the distance without getting hit by the flail.
It looked like a very interesting weapon.
It was completely different to the spears and swords I was so used to.
But it was also definitely not a weapon suited to my light armor.
It was a very heavy weapon, and would definitely do a lot of damage on a successful hit. That part of it made it quite similar to an axe or a mace.
But unlike an axe or mace, it was often difficult to predict the flail’s movements, and it tended to fly further and faster than I expected.
I definitely could not get careless.
But after I got the timing to close the distance safely, the rest was easy.
It would take an almost impossible feat of strength to swing a flail while rolling on the ground.
Even the Pisces Guard knew that, and gave up trying to swing the flail, switching instead to a smaller knife.
Like I would let you use that!
I locked its arm joints, and after choking it for a while, dealt the finishing blow with a Vajra Sword to the face.
It was a tough fight, but thank you very much.
It was quite fun!
~o~
Another difference between the first round and the second round was the lack of info screens the second time around.
Each of the 12 Zodiac Shrines just came with a challenge.
It didn’t look like any of my titles changed either.
It would take quite some time to fight all of them once again…
No, wait.
I almost forgot. There was still one more Heroic Spirit I had to fight.
~o~O~o~
Ophiuchus Guard – Rasalhague Lv.7
Heroic Spirit Enemy Target Active
Battle Position: Ground Light Attribute Water Resistance Poison Resistance
Ophiuchus Guard – Cebalrai Lv.6
Heroic Spirit Enemy Target Active
Battle Position: Ground Dark Attribute Wind Resistance Poison Resistance
Cursed Viper Lv.3
Monster Enemy Target Active
Battle Position: Ground Dark Attribute Poison
~o~
Yep, I already knew how to deal with them from the beginning of the fight.
I made use of a lot of pitfalls.
Well, when it came to the snakes, they could climb up the walls of the pit without any problems…
But I knew that the Ophiuchus Guards’ whips were probably not long enough to reach the top of the pitfall.
I could still somehow deal with one of the Ophiuchus Guards last time, but two of them was probably too much…
I didn’t want to overdo it.
~o~
「Volcanic Blast!」
I used an area-of-effect attack spell.
The three snakes approached me fearlessly through the spell.
I let Jericho and Taylor take care of one each.
I wanted to take the other one on myself, but Bunraku whacked it in the forehead with his sasumata before I could do anything.
Moments later, the Cursed Viper was pinned to the ground, with Bunraku’s sasumata piercing its neck.
What a nice assist!
Denier approached the Cursed Viper Bunraku was holding down.
Was Denier planning on biting and injecting some sort of venom?
Well, I could leave it to them.
~o~
The problem was definitely going to be the two whip-wielding Ophiuchus Guards.
How were they reacting to the situation?
They struck the snakes with their whips.
They were mostly aiming at the Cursed Viper that Jericho was holding.
The HP bar of the Cursed Viper recovered back to full in just a moment.
What a nasty tactic!
But Jericho didn’t seem to care, and proceeded to quickly dispose of the snake anyway.
It looked like it managed to bite Jericho a few times too, but it didn’t bother Jericho at all.
It wasn’t like Jericho could suffer from poison anyway.
Just the concept of a Mud Golem suffering from a poison status condition was funny.
Once again, the two Ophiuchus Guards used their whips to hit the snakes.
Matching the timing of their whip strikes, I ran up to them to close the distance.
「Gravity Bullet!」
I managed to hit the spell point blank on one of the Ophiuchus Guards.
I used my Black Rope on the other one standing next to me.
I pulled and flames started appearing around the arm holding the whip, and around its neck.
I suppose I managed to immobilize one of them?
The other Ophiuchus Guard was blown away by my spell, and Gengetsu was keeping it down by shooting balls of light at it.
Even though it didn’t result in any status conditions, damage was still steadily accumulating.
But before it could get up to attack me, Denier joined in on the action.
Together with Gengetsu, Denier started concentrating web attacks at the Ophiuchus Guard.
I used some attack spells to contribute too.
It would probably take a while to get used to the whips, even more so than it would take to get used to the flails.
~o~
It was a tough battle in its own way.
Taking care of the Ophiuchus Guards took a long time too.
But those whips, huh…
If it wasn’t for the venomous Cursed Vipers, I would love to fight them more often.
According to Guren’s report, the Ophiuchus Guard was an exception, and I could challenge it whenever I wanted.
Of course, the GMs made it so only one of the most annoying Heroic Spirits was available to be properly grinded.
~o~
《Summon Monster 『Denier』 Level Up! 》
《Please add 1 point to a desired stat.》
~o~
Hmm.
I guess I could change my Summon Monster team and then go for another round?
The 12 Zodiac Shrines were unexpectedly good for training my Summon Monsters.
And fighting the flail and whip Heroic Spirits again wouldn’t be a bad idea either.
Anyway, the stat that went up with Denier’s level-up was VIT.
I put another point into STR.
~o~
Denier Big Spider Lv4→Lv5 (↑1)
DEX 21
AGI 20
INT 15
STR 9 (↑1)
VIT 9 (↑1)
SPI 8
Skills:
Bite Vibration Detection Conceal Spin Web Trap Poison
~o~
I raised the STR stat so it would match the VIT stat.
I suppose I could first try to get all 10 for the last three stats?
I probably wouldn’t make it in time for the Class Change though.
~o~
Well then.
For the time being, I recalled Denier.
I summoned Goki.
It would be nice to have Goki around in the front. Both his offensive and defensive capabilities were very good.
The time was 2:20 pm.
By the end of the day I could maybe do two more rounds?
It was definitely something worth checking out.
Protagonist Keith
Race Human Male Racial Lv23
Job Grand Summoner Lv9
Bonus Points Remaining: 19
Skill Sets:
Sword Lv9 Two-handed Spear Lv8 Club Lv8 Dagger Lv7 Rope Artes Lv7
Staff Lv17 Punch Lv15 Kick Lv15 Joint Lock Lv15
Throw Lv15 Evade Lv15 (↑1) Block Lv15 (↑1)
Summon Magic Lv23 Spacetime Magic Lv13 Seal Magic Lv6
Light Magic Lv13 Wind Magic Lv14 (↑1) Earth Magic Lv13 Water Magic Lv13
Fire Magic Lv13 Dark Magic Lv13 Ice Magic Lv11 Lightning Magic Lv11
Tree Magic Lv11 Dust Magic Lv11 Lava Magic Lv11 Steam Magic Lv11
Alchemy Lv10 Pharmacy Lv8 Glassmaking Lv6 Woodworking Lv9
Synergy Lv16 Appraisal Lv16 Identify Lv16 Discern Lv5 Cold Resistance Lv8
Grab Lv13 Horsemanship Lv13 Precise Manipulation Lv15 Ropework Lv7
Jump Lv7 Acrobatics Lv7 Heat Resistance Lv9 Climb Lv8 Balance Lv8
Dual Wield Lv14 Disassembly Lv12 Swim Lv6 Dive Lv6
Dash Lv5 Endurance Run Lv5
Physical Reinforcement Lv13 Mental Reinforcement Lv13 Speedcasting Lv14
Magic Effect Amplification Lv12 Magic Range Amplification Lv12
Summon Monsters:
Volff Grey Wolf Lv7→Lv8 (↑1)
DEX 13
AGI 31
INT 13
INT 19 (↑1)
VIT 24 (↑1)
SPI 13
Skills:
Bite Dash Roar Divine Sense Pursue Night Vision
Conceal
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
Couturier Giant Bee Lv5→Lv6 (↑1)
DEX 18 (↑1)
AGI 29
INT 12
STR 7 (↑1)
VIT 8
SPI 8
Skills:
Sting Bite Flight Evade Ambush Poison
Denier Big Spider Lv4→Lv5 (↑1)
DEX 21
AGI 20
INT 15
STR 9 (↑1)
VIT 9 (↑1)
SPI 8
Skills:
Bite Vibration Detection Conceal Spin Web Trap Poison
Thanks for the treat.
Thanks