482 – Sky Eel

Upon waking to the light of the morning sun, I find myself craving the dried fenrir meat from yesterday… Upon eating some, the spicy aftertaste that lingers on my tongue tastes entirely of curry.
I-is this seriously what [Hades Mandragora] tastes like…? It’s not as though I don’t find it delicious, but it doesn’t at all feel like high-class food to me.

Now that we’ve all rested, we’ll resume our exploration.
The objective is to raise our levels.
I’d like for Aro, the nightmare and magiatite to be able to evolve, but it might be better if I focus on my own levelling a bit more.

…Still, it’s at times like these that new monsters don’t turn up.
Perhaps we should head to the summit and challenge the [Clay Guardians] and [Shub-Niggurath]… No, they might still be a bit too much for us.

I know I won’t grow stronger if I avoid strong opponents.
As long as I don’t know when the Saint will attack, it’s dangerous to delay.
Even though I know that, the [Clay Guardian’s] [Direct Burst] is too dangerous.
Besides, even if I get past them, I don’t know if there could be something even worse waiting beyond.
I should put it off a little longer.

Thinking that we should try exploring in the opposite direction of the summit some more, we follow the river downstream and then walk along the coast… Something like a fenrir would be perfect right now, but it’s at times like these that they don’t show up.
We might have hunted a few too many so that they’re cautious now.
I wouldn’t even mind if we ran into that killer queen again…

As we walk, I notice that even though we’re nowhere near the summit, the fog seems to be getting thicker… Is there something in this direction too? I thought for sure that the summit of the mountain was the source of the fog, but that might not have been correct.
I’m a little confused, but let’s keep walking.

As we continue, a huge slender shadow appears overhead.
Something is flying in the air.
There’s not just one shadow, there’s three… No, five of them.
As I hold still, they draw closer, revealing their blue body surfaces.

They’re huge eels, each nearly ten metres long.
They have huge fins on their sides, almost like wings.
They don’t have just one pair of fins, but around five sets spaced along their long bodies.

【[Dragonfish]: B+ rank monster】
【A giant fish monster that learnt to swim in the sky.】
【Possessing a vicious nature, it suddenly appears with heavy rainfall or thick fog before laying waste to the land and quickly leaving.】
【It is often passed down in outlying villages that if you see a fish flying, the village will soon be destroyed.】
【Its [Bite] easily tears through ground, and it does not release whatever it sinks its teeth into until it is dead.】

…It sounds dangerous.
It’s no wonder this place is called the Easternmost Strange Land.
It’s not just the fenrirs, but other monsters that would normally be a calamity on their own are acting in groups all over the place.
It’s rank is even higher than a fenrir’s.
There’s a big difference between B and B+.

Hmm, we have some distance.
I could kill it with [Dimension Claw], but I’d like to try out my new [Gravidon] skill.
I aim my head towards the lead dragonfish and gather my mana.
Black light pools inside my mouth.

I glance down at Aro.
Once I shoot, it’ll probably die.
I should let Aro get a shot in first.

…But, the first one to move is treant-san.
A bright red beam shoots out of the treant’s mouth, streaking towards the dragonfish.
H-here it is, the new [Heat Ray].
It brings back memories of the giant centipede’s beam of death.

The dragonfish skillfully dances through the air.
Its movements really are splendid.
However, what makes [Heat Ray] so dangerous is its range.
The red beam cuts vertically and horizontally through the air with the movements of the treant’s head.
The dragonfish finally abandon their elegant movements to swim desperately.

At last, three of them are hit.
Smoke rises from their bodies.
Each of them arch their heads back to glare at the places they were hit.

Th-that should have done something…!

‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐
Species: Dragonfish
Condition: Enraged (minor)

Lv: 68/85
HP: 649/658
MP: 411/411
‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐

…Well, I suppose that makes sense.
The treant only just evolved, and is still level 1.
There was no way it could deal any real damage.
Other than HP, all of treant-san’s stats are only around 100.
It would be completely another matter if it had already defeated some monsters and gone up to about level forty, though.

All it did was piss them off.
Their eyes are fixed entirely on treant-san, who hit them with a flashy but weak technique.
Is the treant’s pointlessly big size drawing their attention even more…?

『M-master-dono… I am sorry…』

Light wraps the treant’s huge body, and it shrinks down, returning to the same masked chick-like form.
Th-this [Tree Spiritisation] might actually be rather convenient…

“[Gale]!”

Aro holds out a hand into the air.
A tornado shoots out, tearing through the dragonfish as they moan.
Watching that, I pull myself together.
I release the black [Gravidon] sphere from my mouth.
The sphere plunges towards the lead dragonfish, leaving a haze of distorted space in its wake.

“…Gi?”

The lead dragonfish tries to dodge, but then it appears to be sucked into the black sphere.
The sphere passes through the lead dragonfish and continues on.
For a moment, the dragonfish appears unharmed, but then it suddenly crumples inward before exploding in a shower of blood.

【1680 experience points have been acquired.】
【Due to the title skill [Walking Egg: Lv -], an additional 1680 experience points have been acquired.】
【The level of [Oneiros] has risen from 76 to 78.】

Th-that was brutal.
It doesn’t even fit into the category of being a one-punch attack.
That dragonfish should have been far stronger than the giant centipede and about as strong as the abyss mother, and yet…