Chapter 776: December 14th: Finishing the Detour Meal

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A feud is an entryway connected to destiny. Much like the terrifying three-headed dragon that once stood at the summit of the eastern New Continent through such a connection.

Or perhaps my feud with this guy might lead to an unseen new species...... or unseen rare items.

But unfortunately, I have no intention of pulling a rival-leaning-final-boss move and waiting for a feud to mature. If a fight is picked, I'll buy it with a tip included. To begin with, I'm the one who picked this fight in the first place, so to apologize for the delayed shipping of my product, I really ought to add a little color when I ship out its defeat.

"Hehehe...... If I omit the excessive transmission, I can actually control it decently well, you know........."

The success rate is, at a generous estimate, 50...... no, 45%. Diverting Critical Speed into an offensive application can't completely zero out the possibility of being blown away by the recoil and dying on the spot, but for my current self, those aren't bad odds for a gamble.

Not to brag, but I pride myself on having hunted the most Crystal Scorpion-type monsters out of anyone in ShanFro.

They look vulnerable to blunt strikes at first glance, but I know that practically their entire body boasts excellent impact resistance, and on top of that, I know the secret behind that impact resistance is that they disperse the shock through their legs.

And above all, truthfully, rather than blunt strikes or slashes...... no, well, looking at it comprehensively, every type of attack requires a sheer number of hits anyway, so it doesn't make much of a difference.

Therefore, aim for the legs, one should definitely aim for the legs. Claw-type materials drop from the legs anyway, so if anything, one should aim for the legs over the tail. And once you snap two or three of them, you can just bash away to your heart's content.

The great thing about this monster is that even without the Destruction attribute, it will eventually crack if you just keep hitting it relentlessly. Well, with my specs it's still quite a task...... Sometimes I really miss the idiot-level firepower normal attacks of people like Rei-shi or Massive Dynamite.

Ugh, if only the player avatar "Sunraku" from Time Chaser 2 〜Amber Bullet〜 were here...... In that game, the protagonist is a handgun user, but the titular Amber Bullet is the only one whose power can be increased infinitely. So if you sacrifice everything like range and accuracy to specialize in raw power and fire it at point-blank range, you can usually win.

The prime example of that is Boxing Sniping (a mocking term for a strategy in sniper missions where you stealth your way right up next to the target and fire at point-blank range)......... Boxing Sniping is obviously a joke, but the concept of Boxing Shooting itself is actually useful sometimes, which is a bit of a problem.

"I'm severing this feud right here. I'll make sure to put your materials to good use."

Since it's a solo subjugation, the materials are oh-so-delicious. Now then, things have settled down on my end, but I wonder how it's going down below.

Things were shaking like crazy while I was fighting, but...... Ah, hello there, neighbors. Still mid-attack? Usually when you guys focus your firepower like that, it means things have gone horribly wrong, right?

While staying alert to the danger of being sniped from the left or right, I peer down below......

"Whoa...... First time seeing this."

What the hell did those guys do? I've never seen a situation where Dora and the Queen Fortress spawn while Gustav and the normal Fortress are still alive. What is this hellish tag-team match?

".........I really don't wanna go down there."

Even on the outer rim, getting caught in the crossfire would be brutal.

I can see some kind of magic effects, and I feel like I heard a faint sound that might have been a scream, so let's kill a little more time up here.

The scorpions are probably in interception mode anyway, so I should have a longer window for mining than usual.

"I guess this place really only drops Tsar-Beryl Emperor Treasure Crystals...... Hm."

Tsar-Beryl Emperor Treasure Crystals are useful, but whether it's processed into weapons or armor, its stat-switching effect becomes the default, which is kind of...... Hm?

"Hm? Posti Tsar-Beryl?"

Heh, oho...... A Tsar-Beryl with no accumulated magical energy...... I wonder if its properties are closer to Lapisteria? Nice, who knew a rare drop like this existed.

Whew! The war economy is the absolute best!!

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Q. What happens when the Queen and Dora fight for real?

A. Everyone dies except them and the scorpions up above.

"Manage to grab any materials?"

"About five guns got turned into scrap."

"Can we do one more run?"

"That ain't exactly something a player can do anything about."

"What do you think happens when you double the spell Treasure Capture?"

I see, so everyone except Deep Slaughter failed to pick up anything.

"No, those even bigger guys woke up in the first place because this one kept digging up the ground, didn't they!?"

"Well, you see, I just didn't knooow......... Nnngh, I'm sowwy? (Emphasizing childishness)"

"Guh."

"Ow!?"

If you're still backing down from that, it's seriously too late for you...... for your brain, I mean.

Regardless, we have no plans to do another run, and I have zero intention of diving back into a battlefield where explosions are constantly echoing. Also, right at this very moment, a fragment of carapace sent flying by the shockwaves just pulverized the tent, and the collateral damage cut Overwerke's HP in half, so we really need to evacuate before things get worse.

"That's enough, the detour is over! It's already morning, guys."

"I'm allowed to keep playing even at six in the morning. Isn't that......... amazing?"

"Overwerke-san...... It's fine, it's okay now...... Let's play with everything we've got, you can actually do that now......!"

Even when Yashirobird called out to him with a sorrowful voice, PT Overwerke just kept smiling innocently.........

Pulling myself together.

"The route to Catzeria from here is southwest...... no, more like west-southwest? Apparently, there's a canyon there."

"You just nonchalantly pulled out a map of the New Continent."

"Oh, you didn't know about this, Survival? Library's already made this map public."

"Seriously?"

I slipped Elk some hush money to get the exact location of Catzeria out of her. I'm short on time, so if I consider it trading a little bit of Vorpal Soul for efficiency, I'd say it was a pretty good purchase. Vorpal Soul isn't currency, but I really can't say anything about Overwerke right now.

It's near the volcano where the Dwarves live, or rather, practically right next door...... But how the heck did a volcano and a canyon end up adjacent to each other? With my non-specialized high-school-level brain, I can't even fathom the conditions required for those two to coexist.

For example...... maybe magma flowed at like Mach 2, gouged out the bedrock, and just kept flowing off somewhere? No, considering what's underneath us isn't actually a continent but a continent-sized monster in the first place, applying existing laws of physics is just stupid.

If someone told me, "Actually, a single monster created this landscape!", I'd just have to accept it because it's a game.

"Since we're at it, let's hold off on taking a break for breakfast or whatever until we actually reach our destination."

Onward to the Country of Cats! It's gotta be a more peaceful country than this battlefield!!

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Author's Afterword

Q. How the heck does a canyon form next to a volcano?

A. Long ago, that area was flat land, or rather a wasteland, but a certain black, soft-bodied (hard) one-eyed creature gouged it out with a right straight.