The Abysmal Territory

[48]

Teiko’s party was able to rest peacefully for six hours. Saki wakes everyone up. They are in perfect condition so they decided to continue to explore the cave.

“So we will be dealing with strength type monsters, what will be our plan?” Akeiko asked.

“With your line up, it will be easier compared to the first level even though it's the other way around for other teams,” Saki said.

“If Saki said something like that, then we’ll for sure get through this swiftly. However, since there are still the presence of monsters from level one, I want you guys to focus on attacking those monsters. It will be good if we’ll not be afflicted with poison since it significantly lowers one movement speed,” Teiko said.

“Understood, we already learn the attack patterns of those monsters so it will be easy for us. Thank you, Teiko, for always being in the front line,” Silica said.

“It’s fine Silica, that’s my job in this party. It’s the best position for our party members,” Teiko replied.

“So your first victim will be the Abomination Rats, huh?” Saki said.

“There are twenty of them and they are really big. Like the size of a normal dog,” Silica said.

“I think fire attacks will be effective to all of them,” Akeiko said.

《Fire Wave》

“They’re fast, they all easily dodge my attack even though it’s a wide area attack,” Akeiko said.

“How about my arrows?” Silica said then shoot one arrow at the target.

The abomination rats dodge the arrow then swarm the arrow and completely disintegrate it with their sharp fangs.

“They’re crazy!” Akeiko said.

“Hey, Teiko-nii, this is so boring, can I sleep on your sleeves since I didn’t manage to take a rest earlier?” Saki said.

“You call this boring? Anyway, just do what you want,” Teiko said.

“What do we do? It’s great that they are being careful about us but they are very fast,” Akeiko said.

“Well, it’s fine. Use your Solid Fire Ground and we’ll take a detour. We’ll not attack them unless they approches us,” Teiko said.

“Are we not going to gather their corpses as we defeat them? You gathered the corpse of the king scorpion earlier, how about this one?” Silica said.

“I only gathered the scorpion's corpse because it will be our dinner for later. I think their meat would taste like lobster's meat so I did that?” Teiko replied.

“How about the meat of these monsters?” Silica said.

“You really wanted to eat the meat of rats?” Teiko asked.

“Oh, I thought it would taste like other meats,” Silica replied.

“Silica, they are considered as one of the dirtiest animals, are you sure about what you’re saying?” Akeiko said.

“What?! I didn’t know about that, there’s no rat in our place so I didn't know about that. Go, Akeiko, do that thing and leave this place,” Silica exclaimed.

“Okay, then let it be,” Akeiko said.

《Solid Fire Ground》

The abomination rats cleared the area avoiding the spikes and the fire that came from Akeiko’s skill.

“So we go this way?” Silica asked while pointing to an obvious path.

“Yup, let’s go!” Teiko said.

They continue to explore the second level.

“Is avoiding the abomination rat a good thing, we need to get experience on fighting different monsters so we can become stronger before we try the Hero’s trial, right?” Akeiko asked.

“Actually, I wanted to fight them. But since Saki is sleeping, we can’t do crazy stuff, it’ll be fine if there’s only a few of them. But since there are twenty, we can’t approach them easily, we have to understand our opponents first before we fight them,” Teiko said.

“I see your point, so if it’ll be only one, we’ll fight it, right?” Silica asked.

“Yup! Go to your position, we’ll try to learn about its attack pattern as I engage it. It’s a single minotaur so we’ll somehow beat it,” Teiko said.

The minotaur saw them and charged with its hammer. Teiko engages the minotaur and dodge its first attack.

“It’s large and fast. The damage that his hammer did is very powerful. This fight we’ll change the terrain, I hope that it will not signal his companion,” Teiko said.

Silica shot the minotaur but like the scorpion, it didn’t penetrate the minotaur's skin.

《FireStorm》

Fire balls approach the minotaur from Akeiko. The minotaur slammed every single fireball with its hammer.

“Teiko, it’s no good. Even with my advanced magic, he’s just ending it with his hammer,” Akeiko shouted.

"No need to say it, I can see it with my two eyes and he’s standing in front of me. So what is the best approach? His speed is the same as mine so we’re in a stalemate," Teiko said.

Both Minotaur and Teiko continue to fight each other. Their movement is very fast but not a single attack hits one another.

This is not good, it will just be a battle of stamina. Akeiko and Silica are trying to cover me but it's not working for them. That's why he’s not too focused on fighting me. I just hope that this minotaur doesn't realize that taking Akeiko and Silica first will be an advantage for him. Teiko thought.

The minotaur jumps back and looks at Akeiko’s direction.

“Crap! Akeiko, go away farther from us. He’s going to engage you!” Teiko shouted.

I need to stop him. But how? Teiko thought.

The minotaur rushes towards Akeiko but Akeiko is already on the run. Teiko was able to catch up to it and faced him off.

“I see, the reason you’re not dodging Silica’s arrow is because you can’t dodge some of it and you just let us think it won’t have any use for us. But that’s where you’re wrong, Akeiko created a fire for Silica’s arrow,” Teiko said.

“Alright!” Akeiko and Silica said.

The minotaur looked at Akeiko and Silica and tried to go where they were. But he couldn’t do it since Teiko is holding him off.

With great precision and accuracy, Silica fired as many fire arrows as possible.

The minotaur tried to fend off some of it but didn’t dodge the majority of it.

GROOOOWL!

“Now, we’re talking!” Teiko said.

Everytime the arrow hits the minotaur, it penetrates its body. Some of the fire died down due to the struggle of the minotaur but the other continued burning the minotaur.

“Now is your chance, Akeiko. Use other fire skills as Silica shoots fire arrows at him,” Teiko commanded.

The battle became one sided and the minotaur took its last breath.

“We did it!” Akeiko said.

“Yup, how did you figure something like that, Teiko? You’re so cool!” Silica said.

“Ohh, I just realized how he is so careful not to let a fire attack hit him. That’s how I discovered that fire would be his weakness. Silica’s arrow is much faster than fire magic so I realized that setting it ablaze would help us defeat him,” Teiko said.

“Ohh, maybe that’s one of the reason that Saki said that the second level will be a lot easier than the first one,” Akeiko said,

“That might be it,” Teiko said.