Chapter 127 (Part 1)

I head for the third ant nest.
There is quite a great number of Antmen this time around.
A group that did not dispatch Antman p.a.w.ns at the main cave?
There are just so many p.a.w.ns!
I did ask for a good number of them, but their behavioral pattern has changed.
They"re heading straight for me.
I don"t think that"s a smart move, though.
I"ll get them all with the two wall spells I"ve set up side by side.

Too bad their behavior changes back to normal as their numbers go down.
And here I was thinking this was going to be too easy.
Antman King.
This one isn"t confused like the other one.
I try my hand at fighting it, and it"s rather strong.
It has a good balance of attack and defense.
Its body is similar to a rook"s, but its speed is far superior.
Though it"s not nearly as difficult as a Deva King.
Not longer than a minute has pa.s.sed since its HP had decreased by half, and the fight is
over.
Let"s go for the next one.
Next one, please?
In the end, all that remains is an Antman Queen.
Tigris, Mumyo and I attack it by picking at its legs, just as before.
This won"t do.
We"re getting an easier time fighting these guys, aren"t we?
Though I"ve been hoping that these fights would get a little difficult…

《【Synergy】 Level Up!》
《Summon Monster 『Tigris』 Level Up!》
《Please add 1 point to a desired stat.》

It seems that these Antmen yield quite a bit of experience points.
Or is it that he just levels up quickly?
I"m always wondering how much experience points monsters generally yield…

His STR has increased automatically upon leveling up.
I"ll choose VIT as his second stat increase.

Tigris　Tiger Lv2→Lv3 (↑1)
DEX　 9
AGI　17
INT　10
STR　19 (↑1)
VIT　19 (↑1)
SPI　10
Skills
Bite　Threaten　Sense Danger　Night Vision　Conceal

Hmm.
Very damage oriented, isn"t it?

I loot the Antmen"s corpses for beeswax and nectar, and secure some queen"s nectar from
the nest.
It"s almost 11 A.M. now.
All right then.
How about having lunch after we annihilate the next group?

Well, this group?
Things are a bit different with this one now.

Antman Jester　Lv.1
Monster　Enemy Target　Pa.s.sive
On the Ground　Fire Resistance

Its skin is red, too.
There"s also quite a lot of them.
It"s like they"re wearing red armor, they"re so cool!
Their red armor reminds me of the Takeda generals of the Sengoku period, Obu Toramasa
and Yamagata Masakage.
And the Tokugawa general, Ii Naomasa.

Oh, and Sanada Yukimura!
The red armor certainly represents a brave warrior!
Or rather, it was Takeda"s red armor which gave such fame to red armor.
Oops.
No time for dawdling.
「Thunder Shower!」
Half of these Antmen did not stop their charge.
But that seems to be enough anyway.
The narrowness of the holes turned out to work in our advantage.
Because some of these Antmen are getting stuck there and are unable to move.
I don"t want to put away my staff in favor of the tonfas.
How strong are these guys?
They"re clearly getting more aggressive.
And they have such ugly-looking claws!
They have big jaws too, and bite from them looks like it would be pretty dangerous.
But the strategy to defeat these is no different from before.
Since they seem like the types that would bite a lot, I"m using that to my advantage.
Crushing their heads by attacking from both sides at the same time.
Holding their heads under my armpit and twisting them.
Smashing them with my tonfas.
It"s not as easy as it sounds, and I"m glad I weakened most of them with my spell.
I"m done killing them all without much of a problem.
Mumyo took some hits, but he"s regenerating quickly.
So, any good loot?
Same as usual.
Beeswax and honey.
Though they look different than the others, they seem to be no different than the average
Antman.
Are they some sort of mutated variant?
No.
The only thing that seems to be changing are the groups of monsters.

Antman Mad Queen　Lv.3
Monster　Enemy Target　Pa.s.sive

On the Ground　Fire Resistance

There"s no king.
No knights, rooks, or bishops, either.
Not even a single p.a.w.n.
Only the Antman Jesters fight alongside it.
But that"s not the only weird thing about it.
There are also eggs.
「Thunder Shower!」
Ninetails and Heather launch their widespread attacks, too.
Lightning bolts pour down like heavy rain.
Blades of wind dance through the air.
And lumps of light crash into everything.
Even so, the Antmen don"t seem to have lost their ability to fight.
Truly, these guys are becoming stronger individually.
But what scares me most about them is how they act as if being controlled.
Several Antmen are rushing towards me.

Originally, the way of thinking behind all martial arts was to fight battles as if they were wars.
This is true for karate as well.
How do you survive against many foes?
All you need is a quick draw of the sword.
Though one can"t expect to end it in a single blow at first.
There can be no martial arts if battles were to be finished in a single strike.
So, when using tonfas, what is the best way to fight against many?
How do you handle them?
The basics are the same as for fighting bare-handed.
Aim for the Antman that is closest to you.
Crush their heads with the tonfas and fling them away.
Then repeat for the next Antman.
The inside of the nest is very s.p.a.cious, and some Antmen here and there are numb and can"t
move.
It"s chaos.
That"s why things are going our way.
Tigris and Mumyo are already on the move.

They swiftly slaughter jesters left and right.
「Gravel Blast!」
The idea is to force the Antmen to split their forces with an AoE spell.
Their battle formation, centered around the Mad Queen, does not change.
So after all, they all took the full brunt of my attack.
And now, all of them come to attack me.
Is this round two?
And unlike round one, the Mad Queen herself is joining the fray.
It"s so aggressive!
「Water Shield!」
I decide to hold them back by flooding the Antmen with a water wall.
I"m checking the Mad Queen"s current state while smashing any Antmen who manages to
come through the wall.
Not many did come through, though.
「Gravity Bullet!」
I hit the Mad Queen directly from point-blank range.
I"m glad I was blown off to the rear.
After dealing with each of the surrounding Antmen, I restrain the Mad Queen"s movements
with a spell.
But it looks like I"ve been taking some damage without my noticing.
That"s because it has been all melee up until now.
But it"s not as much damage as I"d thought I"d take.
Maybe it"s thanks to the new armor.
In the end, the only monster that can move is the Mad Queen.
Mumyo and Tigris deliver the finishing blow to the jesters, which had been paralyzed.
The Mad Queen poised itself to attack the wall with its back.
But, you know?
I also have spells.
I face it in close combat after casting Delay, Lower ATK, and Lower DEF on it.
The Mad Queen doesn"t have any special skills.
All it has are the claws on its legs.
It also seems that its huge belly prevents it from delivering a proper bite attack.
I deliver a blow of my own focused at its chest, right at the place where its legs sprout from.

After attacking each of its four legs, the battle reaches its conclusion.
It was certainly strong.
But still, it"s not up to par with the Deva King.

《Summon Monster 『Ninetails』 Level Up!》
《Please add 1 point to a desired stat.》

Ninetails" SPI has increased automatically upon leveling up.
I"ll choose DEX as his second stat increase.

Ninetails　Red Fox Lv4→Lv5 (↑1)
DEX　10 (↑1)
AGI　20
INT　20
STR　 9
VIT　 9
SPI　20 (↑1)
Skills
Bite　Evade　Dash　Predict Danger　MP Regeneration [Slight]　Light Attribute

I think Ninetails fought really hard this time.
My MP is down to thirty percent.
Just at the right time, huh?

After looting the monsters" corpses and securing some queen"s nectar, I decide it"s a good
time for lunch.
So I create an Instant Portal.
I recall Ninetails, and summon Bunraku.

Let"s have him prepare the usual meal.
My MP is down to almost fifty percent.
Now"s as good a time as any to get one of those MP recovery effects, right?

I"m running out of sirloins.
And I have almost no vegetables or seasonings left.
Since I don"t have any regular salt, we"ll have to go with the Strange Salt (Holy).

Well then.
How will it turn out?
I lay down on the ground and use Tigris as a pillow so as to take a short break.
But his tail…
It"s brushing gently against my face.
And Heather is chasing after Tigris" tail.
Good grief, this isn"t a break at all!
But it"s a fun scene to see.
Mumyo plans to pa.s.sively recover his own HP without doing much else.
I"d like Heather to follow his example and try to recover her own MP…

The food is ready.
So, spit-roasted sirloin and bread, is it?

【Food】 Spit-roasted Fighting Bull Sirloin+　Satiety +25%　Grade B-　Rarity 5　Weight 0+
Gives the effect MP Recovery [Slight] for 15 minutes.
A simple dish made with a Fighting Bull Sirloin and onion, seasoned with salt and pepper.

I knew it!
It has an MP recovering effect!
But wait a moment.
It also has that Strange Salt (Holy) on it.
It"s turning into fertilizer inside my 《Item Box》.
It seems that something is going on.

I clean up after eating while entertaining the greedy Tigris with some honey.
It"s hard to know if the effect will kick in so shortly after eating.
Let"s just hope that it will soon enough.

Shortly after that, I leave the Instant Portal.
I"m taking Bunraku back in into the main cave.
My attention was drawn to several parties coming and going into the caves.
It"s very probable that we may not have such an easy time doing trains with this many people
around.
Looks like fighting on those nests will be no good, either.

Shall we leave here, then?
Let"s try heading to the N1W2 Map.

Well then,
I should change my party now.
I return Mumyo and Bunraku.
And I summon Senki and Obsidian.
The rate at which my MP recovers seems to have increased.
Even after these last summons, I"ve still got a little over half of my MP.
Seems like I"ll be counting on this from now on.
Should I try to challenge the Deva King?
Well, I hope.
Today"s goal is to make Tigris stronger.
Though he"s already leveled up, huh?

Let"s continue forward while watching out for b.u.t.terflies.
I try shooting at a monster that seemed to want to fight.
It"s a Stab Crawler that is up in a tree.

Stab Crawler　Lv.5
Monster　Enemy Target　Pa.s.sive
Up in a tree, On the ground

Huh?
There"s an "Up in a tree" battle position?
Well, hitting it on the back side with my Staff of Torture so it falls to the ground doesn"t seem
to be much of an issue.
Tigris" jaws take care of the rest.
And I get an item from the crawler"s corpse, too.

【Material】 Faint Insect Thread　Raw Material　Grade C　Rarity 2　Weight 1
Thread used by Stab Crawler to make cocc.o.o.ns.
It can be used to make clothing.

I see.
This could be useful for making clothes, right?
Isn"t it a bother to have to climb a tree just to get this?

Naturally, Stab b.u.t.terflies are the ones we really should be careful about here.
But I haven"t encountered a single one of those so far today.
Bah, there was one, but it was pa.s.sive.
Obsidian made quick work with a sneak attack.
Actually, looking at it from that perspective, there"s no easier foe than them.
Still, there are some monsters that want to fight us.
Like a Brown Bear, for instance.
And it seems to be a good match for Tigris, too.
Tigris had a reasonably difficult time fighting it.
The fight was definitely worth it just because of that.
Oh, that"s right!
Since I want to get to the Guardian Tree"s Area portal by evening, I should pick up my pace.
After all, we"re sure to find monsters along the way anyway.

Heather gets caught in something.
Looks like a spider"s web.
This happens when you flutter about aimlessly!
Please be careful from now on!
This spider"s web is huge!
I didn"t notice it at first because it was very well disguised.
It"s so huge, and yet I failed to realize it was there since it was well covered with dead leaves.
And yet, it"s set up near the ground.
This is bad, isn"t it?
This is too bad, right?
The thread used to make this spider"s web has caught Heather.
This won"t do!
This looks bad!

Before long, of course it would come out to play.

Giant Spider　Lv.2
Monster　Enemy Target　Pa.s.sive
On the ground, Up in a tree

It"s huge!
And it"s charging towards Heather, too!
Is she done for?
I try to distract it by hitting it with my Staff of Torture.
Heather is desperate, too.
She fires off her wind blades, but the spider continues to advance towards her even as it gets
damaged.
It"s even ignoring me as well.
Senki attacks the spider, but it uses its webbing to soften the impact from his blows.
The same goes for my Staff of Torture.
So, should I use a spell?
I guess I"ll have to.
Let"s burn it.
「Fire Shot!」
This turns out to be very effective.
Perhaps way too effective.
The spider"s web burns to a crisp almost instantly.
The spider lands on the ground.
At this point, it may have become clear for it that it cannot win.
The spider…
… flees.
It"s running away!
It quickly got lost behind some bushes
What?
Maybe if I use a spell…
No, I have to help Heather out of the webbing.

I can"t believe this.
This fuzzy feeling won"t do!
d.a.m.n! I let it escape!
The next one won"t be so lucky.