Day 23 – Morning, depths of the forest.
Calling this hard training would be an understatement at this point. I’m sorry for being so full of myself. But thanks to that I have full MP, so it can be said that it was a masterful saving. And becoming able to use Kyojitsu is quite a good result. The acceleration and speed that I could use only over a long distance before, I now can use at short distance as well, and on top of it, instead of slamming into something, I can change that charge into a slashing attack. To change instantaneous acceleration into attack power it becomes important how I’m going to retain that explosive acceleration, and how I’m going to translate it into an attacking movement of taking a step and slashing, how will I control my body to minimize the loss in momentum, putting all of that together and refining it. And as a result of that polishing, I got level 10 and 「Kyojitsu Lv 1」. All of what I’ve done wasn’t meaningless. I’ve got results. It’s just that the ending wasn’t great.[1. TL note: Kyojitsu 虚実 lit. Truth or Falsehood. As the wise man said, All warfare is based on deception. This can be called a practical application of that principle in martial arts. The idea of playing with falsehood and truth, with intent and its absence, to deceive the opponent, or better, to confuse him so that he is always making the wrong decisions, which for example can be used for creating exploitable gaps in the defense.]
However, if I come up with a technique, create it, and use it, will it turn into a martial art or a skill? In fact, I just got 「Kyojitsu Lv 1」, even the name is exactly how I imagined it. But nothing of this sort happened before? Is this just a coincidence? Or are there some kind of limitations?
No, considering what I’ve been doing until now, I’m even happy that none of that turned into a skill or a title. Like, Martial Art 『Human Missile』or『Human Cannon』or skill 『Avatar of Traffic Accident』. That’s too much, I’m glad that none of that happened. I should take care not to carelessly create techniques of my own in the future, they might really turn into skills. Inferno (Hell of Burning Baldness) is sealed. I’d hate getting a spell 『Hell of Burning Baldness』or something of that sort. It’s sealed, absolutely. But high speed crash incident, can be quite cool if I find a cool name for it? I’m going to crash into things anyway, so if I stick a cool name to it preemptively… Multi Wolf collision incident is a no… Something else… It’s not the time to be thinking about this though.
I finally, finally got level 10. The number of monsters I killed in the meantime has probably reached 4 digits. If everyone had to kill 1000 monsters to reach level 10, then monsters would’ve probably gone extinct? And certainly, the quality of monsters must have some connection to this as well, I probably managed to level up because I killed goblin kings. Or not. It’s probably both. But the road to level 10 was long. I finally level up, but I don’t have time to check my status. I managed to take only a short peek at it, because I don’t have time, or rather, this is not a place for that. Since It came out. I was so happy about leveling up but turns out, there was something else in the depths of the forest. Not a king, but Goblin Emperor. That explains why there were so many kings. It’s not like they were playing games, they just had an emperor. I’m all overjoyed about my level 10, and it’s level 50. It’s not just spoiling a moment, it’s completely and absolutely destroying it. And here I thought that I finally got through one level wall, and it has four more of them on me. Hyperinflation, the worth of level 10 plummeting. And I was so happy…… Read the mood.
And thus, I’m doing nothing but dodging for some time now.
Attacks appear so powerful that it feels like they will send me flying by just brushing me.
And this, I’m doing nothing but dodging.
I tried hitting and slashing it, but I don’t feel like it had any effect.
Even though it waves the club around, the attacks are too fast to leave me any real opening. The club is flying in front of my face. I can’t find an opportunity to escape or put a distance between us.
Hence, I’m doing nothing but dodging.
Hence, I’m doing nothing but evading.
No, I’m actually trying to attack while I’m dodging, but my attacks seem to have no effect.
And I’m also trying to freeze and burn it, but it doesn’t stop it. As for the head…… It is already bald.
Goblin Emperor
AGE ３２
Lv ５０
HP ２５６
MP ９７
ViT ３１７
PoW ３５３
SpE ９４
DeX ３８
MiN １９
InT １１
Luｋ ４１
Martial Arts:「Hammer MaX」「Hard Hit MaX」 「Ramming Attack MaX」「Iron Wall Lv 8」「Pulverize Lv 7」「Flurry Lv 7」
Skills:「High Sexual Vigor MaX」「Harden Lv 9」「Intimidating MaX」「Fear Lv 7」「Healing Lv 5」「Magic Resistance Lv 5」
Items:「Wooden Club」
Even though it is just a gob, it has almost the same speed as me? Isn’t that unfair? Isn’t that against the rules? And it even can heal…… No wonder my attacks seemed ineffective. I thought that I could at least gradually wear it down, but it is recovering the damage I deal!
The situation is deteriorating. I certainly will run out of mana first. Though Mana Wrapping is cost-efficient, I still use more mana than I recover. I’m also trying magic attacks from time to time, so MP keeps slowly decreasing.
If I could at least freeze its feet with ice magic or stun it with lightning magic, then I could’ve done something about this situation, but it doesn’t seem like any of this works. At all.
I would’ve been dead already if I didn’t buy『Cloak of Evasion – SpE + 20%, Evasion Up (Lesser)』from the suspicious merchant. Giving up on Pheromone Ring and affection points wasn’t a mistake. It wasn’t…
Whoooa, it brushed my hair, it brushed my hair! The smell of something burnt! What are you going to do if I go bald?! For a while, I keep dodging and evading while observing it, closely observing.
There are gaps in its defenses, I just can’t exploit them. I won’t be able to get a shot in without exchanging blows.
It’s about time for dinner. While dodging, I pull out dry mushrooms, and while dodging, I munch on them. I don’t even have a chance to pour soy sauce.
Waiting until the attack is over.
I can’t even deflect the club.
Much less block it head on.
So instead of blocking the attack, I hit the club that just went past me.
Dodging, I strike it.
Over, and over, and over, and over, and over, until it works.
It almost worked, but I can’t break the gob’s posture after all.
Not simply attack, but take half a step in and hit, breaking the posture, creating a momentarily opening.
Kyojitsu.
I can’t finish this in one hit. I can’t critically damage it in one hit. Eventually, it will heal.
Goblin Emperor
HP 182/256
MP 56/92
I also used up half of my MP. To defeat it I need a series of attacks, so I make my movements even more efficient, quicker, and repeatedly use Kyojitsu.
Speed over Power, step into the range while evading, slash, another step while evading, slash. I keep continuously slashing……
It’s all about luck now. I’m pretty sure the only thing saving me right now is my luck. Even if chances of my death were 1 in 1000, I should’ve been dead by now. I’m sorry LuK-san, you are doing your best. You are not even good luck anymore, you are Epic Luck. LuK Max (Limit Break) was doing its part. But in that case, why am I getting constantly scolded by everyone even though I did nothing wrong? The mystery deepens.
The goblin emperor finally stopped moving. Honestly, I wouldn’t be surprised if I died 100 times today.
How much time has passed? I completely lost a sense of time. Did it take long? Did it not? I almost forgot that I already ate dinner.
But not yet, there is still more. Kobolds are the next. Even if I have 1,000 near-death encounters, it wouldn’t be strange if I get killed 10,000 times over, but I still have to go. My arms are still with me, my legs are not broken, my eyes are intact, and I don’t have a hole in my guts. So it’s not over yet, not yet…
Comments