Smoke splits in three, and spreads as if surrounding us.
This smoke slowly starts expelling monsters. I look for the shortest presence, the one I felt most recently, and approach quickly.
“Bladeless Sword III!!”
‘Gah…!?’
The Lizardman Hunter returns to smoke shortly after coming out of it. It seems Lightning Speed also realizes one presence is gone, and gets fired up. Their commander, Haru, yells and draws hostility from a monster.
“Blockhead! I’m your opponent!!”
‘Gea? Geaaah!’
Something like a red mist comes out of Haru’s whole body, which engulfs the Champion Goblin. Then it runs towards her like she’s the only thing it sees.
Is that the Provoke skill all tanks want? Considering its rarity, few shield users can be definite tanks. Making their enemies lose control makes the others’ jobs easier.
I want to have Enki learn that too.
“…So, is the hive not active?”
I look at it, and see Aki confirming.
“Yes. Like you said, it’s completely still until someone attacks it.”
“Then we can watch them fight until they’re done. If a defensive unit came out, it would bother them.”
The Champion Goblin swings its sword in a daze, and it’s all blocked by Haru’s shield. Its back is wide open, so Kasumi, Hazuki, and Renka attack in waves and deal damage. Izumi and Irina are ready to use magic and protect anyone in the front row who gets hurt.
The surrounded Champion Goblin is pretty big, but no one’s afraid, and they fight like they’re used to it.
‘Gea…? Gegeh!’
“Formation B!”
“““““Got it!”””””
Maybe it’s because the monster has been attacked several times, or maybe enough time has passed, but it seems the effect of Provoke is wearing off, and the monster is being released from the red mist. But the girls are taking that into consideration, and this time Haru runs around covering the one being targeted, bouncing off attacks with her shield.
The Champion Goblin’s attacks are all blocked, and its attention is drawn to Haru even without a skill. It’s wide open to the three attackers, and the magic users in the back row.
It seems even when using all its skills, it can’t get past Haru, whose stats have doubled. It has no way of winning. As a result, it turns to smoke in less than five minutes, and the girls win without any danger.
“Good job. You have good coordination.”
“Thank you older brother.”
“Do you always fight like that?”
“Yes, there are large monsters in the dungeon we frequent, and thus we fight in much the same manner.”
So there are regular monsters that are several meters tall? The world is big.
“It had more skills than what we usually face, and its stats are supposedly high, so I was surprised that it wasn’t a tough fight, let alone that it was easy. Base stats really are important…”
“And we still have SP. We have to carefully decide what to take and what to leave.”
“Big brother, can you offer advice?”
“Sure, but you should be the ones to decide.”
I promised I’d help them train, but I had no intention to butt in. SP is about personal preference, suited to each’s fighting style.
“…Ah. I forgot Renka, but you’re not pouring all your SP into one stat, right?”
“It’s okay, the others stopped me too. Aki said she would help me!”
“““Phew…”””
Haru, Kasumi, and Izumi breathe sighs of relief.
I don’t know how much SP Renka gets with each level, but since she gained more than a hundred and ten levels, it should be between five hundred and a thousand. If she poured all that into Physical Strength… It’d be trouble.
“Good job Miss Renka, you reconsidered.”
“Hehehe, really?”
“Going all in? I could never.”
“Balance is important. I should have explained it more all this time.”
“I’ve been indecisive too. I mean, you get to beat things in one great hit no matter how strong they are, right?”
“If you can hit them. What about agile monsters?”
“Can’t Haru hold them back?”
“I appreciate the trust, but there are limits.”
Going all in on one stat…
It might look like I have a good balance thanks to gacha, but in reality, I’m optimized for Luck. I put one point into Physical Strength in my first level up, but all my SP has been going into Luck since then.
Luck has no direct influence on combat, like Intelligence or Magic Energy, so it’s hard to feel a change. With the other four, the change is evident. Especially until one thousand.
Conversely, once you’re over a thousand, the technique needed to use them skyrockets, so it’s easy to feel like you’re not getting much stronger. Maybe it’s just because I can’t use my full power yet, but I feel like the difference between 1010 and 2010 Physical Strength isn’t much compared to between 10 and 1010.
The numbers go up, but it’s like an invisible value is completely different. I think it’s a good idea to balance if you pour everything into one stat and it goes over a thousand, but… It’s less intuition and more just what it feels to me, it’s hard to explain.
“Well then, we are going to fight the bees now, but I don’t want to be covered in honey after days of that. Enki and Seren, and Iris, can I count on you?”
‘Gogo!’
‘~~.♪’
‘Pururun.’
Enki can get rid of the smell if it gets a new body, and the others are liquid. They can freely choose to absorb the smell or get rid of it. We cover their bodies in honey, and then take some distance.
Iris infiltrates the Big Killer Hive, and starts destroying it from the inside. Bees appear, and Seren casts Ocean Magic while Enki protects it. Like yesterday, there are fewer, so one wave eliminates the first batch.
‘~~.♪’
Iris continues destroying the inside, and a lot of bees appear with the second swarm. As before, they’re swallowed by the wave, and turn to smoke. The hive isn’t affected by the waves, but it collapses after being broken from the inside, and turns to smoke.
‘~~.♪’
‘Purun!’
The bees didn’t show any level or skills, but seem to have dropped a lot of honey. We won’t run out for a while.
“That was great, Seren!”
“Wah!!”
“It’s not just a critter that floats…”
“It can’t really show its power when there are people and obstacles around.”
‘~~.♪’
In a forest, trees would get in the way, and enemies are too spread out on a mountain, so Seren can’t use the full exterminating power of its wide area Ocean Magic. That’s why it hasn’t done anything on the fifth floor, and the girls we just met are surprised.
Plop.
With all the rare monsters down, the smoke gathers in one place, and a treasure chest appears from it.
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