This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.
The original was posted on /r/hfy by /u/MrIzuarel on 2024-10-28 17:28:09+00:00.
Chapter 96
For those who thought about capturing the giant spider with my new skill, sorry to disappoint you. While the idea wasn’t bad, the probability of success was so low that I wouldn’t try it even if I wanted to do so.
Instead, I traveled to the lowest possible areas, which were now the ones surrounding the big wall, and searched around for monsters. I had some criteria for this selection.
First, it had to be a herbivore. Herbivores were easier to integrate in my future plans than carnivores. It wasn’t impossible to use meat eaters, but it would seriously cut into the speed of the development of my plans.
Second, they weren’t allowed to have magical abilities. The last thing I wanted was to find myself magically glued to something else or set on fire because I didn’t anticipate this aspect of the monster.
Third, they could not have any dangerous skills that could threaten my plans. The possibility of the monsters destroying the equipment needed for my plan could seriously jeopardize further advancements.
Elementals, undead, and golems were excluded because their nature were incompatible with my plans. The same was the case for humanoid monsters like goblins and orcs.
Wolves and spiders were excluded because of rule number 1. Dragon kin was excluded because of number 2. Boars and insects were not compatible with number 3.
In the end, I had only three choices available to me. A deer monster, a mouse, and a goat. I tried to find something similar to a chicken, but since the closest I had found was a cockatrice, I let go of that idea.
I decided to capture 4 of each. I had created a dozen tier 5 cages to capture a dozen tier 1 monsters.
I only needed to look at them sideways and toss the cage to the ground, and they just jumped right in it by themselves. Or almost. Some negotiation with my fists was needed to persuade them in the end.
I had a small talk with most of my girls where I explained my plan and what to expect of it. And that talk went as well as a ride through a water slide filled with razors and broken glass that ended in a salt mine.
At least for me, it was the case. My girls had a great time demanding A, B, and C from me, and all I could do was quietly nod and say yes.
I gave some instructions for my plan to come to fruition and then left the dungeon with most of the girls to start the third hunter quest. I hoped for an easy quest as it had been a disaster until now, and my goal was the fourth secret, not the third.
And I was promptly disappointed by the quest given out.
○○○○○
The path of a master hunter.
The secrets of a true hunter are often hidden and difficult to discover.
Obtain and use 10 divine crystals.
Divine crystals used: 0/10
○○○○○
I had an incredulous look at the golden figure in front of me before it dissolved into nothingness. What the hell, lady? I thought we were friends!
I thought for the longest time and decided on a little experiment. I wanted to see if I could capture the giant spider. So we went on a mission.
Well, the only good result of that expedition was that we discovered that it was impossible to capture the spider. Almost one hundred cages had been thrown at it during the fight, and it all ended in a wipeout.
I wasn’t keen on trying that one out again and again, especially when I had lost the equivalent of multiple months’ worth of buffs.
But we also won irreplaceable information about the behavior of the spider during the fight.
One, it enjoyed trampling everything in the vicinity once it fell threatened. And two, it spewed vicious poison all over the battlefield when it fought. It didn’t just inject it into the body of its unfortunate victims. It went as far as to literally spew it around like a waterfall. The fight had been a horrible uphill battle.
I was a summoner class. As such, I had little to no magical abilities in fighting, and my greatest weakness was AOE attacks, like that spiders poison. Even with ten levels above that spider and a bonus to abnormal conditions, I was not its match. I would need to find something else first before I lost my motivation on this particular individual.
Looking around, there were two colored dots in the tier 5 category. Killing an opponent whose level was between 40 and 50 could be easier than that giant. I tried to identify if those two were former heroes or monsters, but I didn’t feel any pleasant sensation from them, so I speculated the worst possible case for both of them.
The closest one was a light blue dot. During my travels, I had come close to that particular domain and knew it was a forest area. The uncovered places on my map window confirmed that fact.
I tried to remember what kind of monster I had encountered at that place, but they were so insignificant that it didn’t leave a lasting impression on me.
The color of the dot also didn’t cause me to remember anything. The other dot, which was quite far away, had a dirty yellow color. That place was a total mystery to me. I had not been anywhere close to that area, and because I was closer to the blue dot, it would remain that way.
I was, in no uncertain terms, motivated to go anywhere since my defeat against that stupid spider had depressed me, but I found the way to improve my morale easily.
I decided to create a massive catastrophe inside a dungeon.
I had already tried this method before and barely won back then, but this time, I decided to go full in. I decided to basically create a dungeon raid inside a dungeon run.
I enlisted every one of my girls, dropped the difficulty of the dungeon to the bare minimum, and then started fishing inside the lake dungeon with my nets.
Last time, I had not done so in this dungeon as I was only after the book buff, but now I wanted to create chaos.
At first, there was no particular problem arising. We fought against some easy dungeon bosses.
Then came the first ship. The ghost ships were easy to destroy. There were only 3 rooms we had to clean out before it sank to the bottom of the lake. The upper deck, the cannon deck, and the captains room, where the boss was waiting for us, including his treasure chest.
After destroying quite a few of those ships, the fishing buff had reached an impressive number. It took a few hours, but I had reached the point where every toss of my net meant a few regular dungeon bosses, and then an almost guaranteed ship emerging.
But I was not satisfied. I wanted to make those ships merge and create a miniature raid here.
Raids, compared to regular runs, had stronger and more numerous bosses but also needed more members to finish them. I wanted to crush some really strong monsters. I wanted to break some bones. I wanted their asses on my plate so I could deliciously enjoy tearing them apart.