Chapter 87: Rare Items are Heavier than Life

However, aiming only for the neck and landing criticals is not that easy. Having decapitated two clones, the remaining ones are the Twin Sword Clone, the Bow Clone attacking from afar, and the Main Body.

"Ra—————————!!"

While dodging the attacks of the Twin Sword Clone, who slashes at me as if dancing while singing, I calm my mind, which is rushing due to the tight time limit. Even if they are clones, the reason I can slaughter Area Bosses in one hit is largely due to the heavily stacked buffs, even more so than the critical hits to weak points.

If the effect duration runs out, I have to wait for the cooldown, and if I exceed five minutes, my stats will drop drastically. I have to settle this quickly, but the more I rush, the more unstable this tightrope walk becomes.

"...There!"

"Ra, a, giiiii—————!?"

Leaving the death cry of the singing skull, separated from its neck and spine, behind, I dash toward the Bow Clone and the Main Body.

Naturally, I dodge the arrows and magic fired at me by jumping with Moon Jumper, and matching the timing of Emul's Magic Edge flying toward the Main Body, I slip into the bosom of the Bow Clone.

"Uuuuuaaaah, feels slimy!"

"Wait! That's dangerous, desu waaa!?"

Utilizing the characteristic that "all physical attacks pass through unless imbued with Holy Enchantment," I charge in with a motion like brushing shoulders with the Bow Clone to take its back. While involuntarily screaming at the creepy sensation stroking my right shoulder as I pass through the clone's body, I slash off its head with the General Dullahan's Decapitation Sword.

Two uses remaining. Remaining enemy... just the Main Body alone.

"Now then, if you gracefully admit defeat, I'll assist your seppuku (kaishaku). Like this, swood."

The answer is magic, not words. As I throw Emul upwards, I take the full brunt of the miasma sprayed directly from the front. I hear some kind of scream from above, but it's probably just the evil spirits remaining in this valley or something like that.

"The reason for your defeat is... well, same as me back then. You were unlucky!"

Feeling like a mechanical warrior who died enough times to be sick of it but finally found the strategy, I unleash a sure-kill overhead strike. My stance is unwavering, my swinging arm has no hesitation, simply smashing straight down!

"If I had to say, it's an Homage Tensei (Sky Clear)!"

What was cut off wasn't the head of the Humming Lich, which had gone from a chorus to a solo, but its arm. I didn't miss; I don't think I can defeat the Main Body with a single slash. After all, the firepower of a light warrior buffed to cheat only lacks a decisive blow. Since I have to slam in a definite kill... a sure-kill firepower, the finisher is not me.

"You endured well, Decapitation Sword! Hold out for two more hits!"

Pulling my elbow back to the limit from the downward swing posture, I shift into a thrusting stance to shoot the blade straight out.

I saved it until now for this. I activate the skill Growing Pierce, screwing the General Dullahan's Decapitation Sword into the base of the Humming Lich's lower jaw and neck as if thrusting upward from directly below. Growing Pierce, properly evolved from the multi-hit thrusting skill Drill Piercer, has the effect of applying a bonus correction to power the more hits it lands.

Total hits: five. The sharp tip of the Decapitation Sword, carrying all of them in the thrust, pierces through the Humming Lich's bones.

Crack. A fissure runs through the blade, and the Decapitation Sword screams. But indeed, the blade remained without shattering.

"As expected, it's tougher than the clones; I can't finish it off............ but this is the end, bad-taste skull."

Switch. I retreat a few steps from the Humming Lich, which hangs the sword from its neck like an ugly tie, and in my place, a small shadow readying a sledgehammer leaps out.

"Sorry 'bout this... but to win, I'm gonna hit ya! Material Focus............ Fortress Breaker!!"

".........Ngyaaaaaaah hebyu!!"

Simultaneously catching Emul, whom I had thrown upward with considerable force to escape the miasma, Bilac's uppercut swing from directly below smashes the pommel of the General Dullahan's Decapitation Sword. I heard the two who faced Kirin in the Wethermon battle defeated the robot-transformed Kirin like this.

"Human-Powered Pile Bunker... No, in this case, Rabbit-Powered Pile Bunker?"

"Sunraku-san, that was too sudden and cruel, desu waaa!"

"Here, carrot."

"Waa... No! I won't be fooled that easi—"

"And if you act now, I'll throw in two more as a bonus."

"Waaai!"

"So easy."

Even though she isn't a combat class, the Decapitation Sword shot out by a level 98 full swing pierces the Humming Lich's skull, running cracks through its entire body, the tip peeking out from the back of its head.

"Ka, a............!!"

Even its death cry couldn't escape the skull sewn shut by the blow piercing the neck and penetrating the cranium. Like the Decapitation Sword, the Humming Lich, with cracks running through its entire body, finally bursts into polygons.

"............Phew, that was a splendid brute-force blast."

"Mugugu... I'll take the compliment, but first I gotta fix this thing!"

Glancing at Bilac, who started repairing the crack-covered sword she picked up from the ground with a clatter, I pick up the drop items that fell to the ground just like the Decapitation Sword.

"Fragment of Grudge Bone, huh... Reading the description, it seems like a magic or hex item, so I probably won't use it."

Selling it for money is probably the best use. No, might as well shove it into Inventoria.

Perhaps because the culprit scattering miasma in this canyon was defeated, looking up at the canyon where the miasma felt slightly cleared, a thought suddenly struck me.

"...No, no, surely not right now, yeah."

However, humans are creatures who want to open things when told not to. There's the story of Pandora's Box, but I bet the gods knew Pandora would open the box. Otherwise, they wouldn't do something like putting a key card at the bottom of the deck in a card game. In other words, Pandora might have been a myth-class comedian... Ah, no good, my thoughts are running wild in a weird direction; must correct course.

"...I feel like Sunraku-san is thinking of something bad, desu wa."

"No, no, Not At All."

For now, update the landmark at Eighthold. Persuading Bilac by saying I'll deposit it later, I take the tattered sword from the pouting black rabbit, toss it into my inventory, and return to camouflage mode... A half-naked human wearing only a muffler and a fur coat—one exceedingly perverted individual sacrificing various dignities to hide two rabbits.

Or rather, the difference in height between Bilac and the avatar Sunraku is so large it only amounts to a tiny cape... No, the fact that it's perverted doesn't change. Hahaha, it makes me want to cry.

"Now then..."

Arriving at "Eighthold," the eighth town as the name suggests, I returned to Rabituza once to dissolve the party. Bilac wanted to repair the Decapitation Sword anyway, so she happily hopped off to the smithy hugging the sword. Emul was pouting, but I managed to convince her with carrots and persuasion. I'm not her brother or anything, and she's an NPC, but Emul's easy-going nature is a bit worrying.

But what I'm about to do requires me to be alone as a major premise, so I can't do it with Emul and the others. Glancing sideways, I can see black miasma hiding the inside of the canyon like a curtain at the exit of the Canyon of Ancient Souls we just passed through.

Surely someone is fighting that bad-taste skull. Do your best, unknown compatriot (player); without a Cleric job, you're 80% checkmated.

"Alright... let's climb."

My main target isn't inside the canyon. The sheer cliff towering above my gaze... well, not quite sheer, a steep slope climbable by walking if I try hard enough. Beyond that lies the hidden area of the Canyon of Ancient Souls teeming with level 100+ scorpions, "Crystal Nest Cliff." That is the place I am heading to now.

My chances of winning solo against level 100+ monsters are... Zero! Then why go? Because there is an unconfirmed field there. In a game, anyone would do it, right? It's clearly impossible to conquer with my current character, but I'll just go see what kind of place it is—a picnic written as reconnaissance and read as suicide.

What, how much for snacks? Hahaha, I'm charging in expecting to be mobbed, so obviously I'm going in butt-naked.

Removing even the Gazing Bird Mask, I climbed the cliff for about four minutes, heaving and ho-ing. The material composing the slope started mixing crystals into the 100% rock, and by the time the steep slope became flat, the ratio of rock to crystal had completely reversed.

"Ooh... what a hard-to-walk field. The footing is the worst (best)."

Irregular sizes, irregular angles, irregular lengths... The sight of crystals spreading to cover the entire cliff face is similar in state to the Prismatic Forest Grotto, but even more fantastical than that.

According to rumors, the Crystal Scorpions in question mimic by burying themselves in this field when inactive, and become active the moment you enter their detection range.

However, my current Luck is triple digits. With Luck comparable to a clumsy level-capped player, I won't draw them that easi—

Zuzazaza (Three simultaneously active)

..................Phew.

"Well, calm down. I'm sightseeing, yes yes no problem............ Dammit, at least let me sprint through the map and see the sceneryyyy!!"

Sprinting across the crystal ground with the worst footing, almost hopping, I proceed deeper and deeper. As I run full speed from three reapers the size of large trucks approaching with heavy sounds from behind, I suddenly see a light ahead.

It looks like an aurora. The sunlight reflects chaotically within the shining crystals, becoming a sparkling, beautiful tsunami and............ Yep, those are all Crystal Scorpions.

"No way, summoning ten per one scorpion!? Do they stack!? Baboroa!?"

"Mob lynch" is too lukewarm a phrase. Swallowed by a mass where overkill overflowed—over thirty level 100+ monsters ganging up on a single level 70-something player—I was pulverized without lasting even a second and scattered into polygons.

Don't think I'll give up with just this...!

Author's Afterword

Raguel Bridge, Melia, Gogol. This work might actually be based on the core motifs of that work.
It's nice when clearly unbeatable strong enemies are just walking around normally, isn't it...