Treasure Hunting
宝さがし
I am currently on the 31st Floor, it was somewhat a continuation to the forest in the previous floors only there were now ruined building, a Forest Ruins. The random monsters here mostly had some earth and water affinities, but mostly riddled with darkness affinity and somewhat creeped me out.
The most prominent monster were the DARK BATS, they had the size of a normal bats bat their echolocation had higher frequencies and power to it that could almost push anything in its path.
Then there were also the CONFUSION IMPS, pesky little demons miniature in size that stick their tiny spears which stun and hit you with the confuse ailment. I did not get hit myself, but these pesky demons hit anything that moves. The bats that were pricked instantly went into frenzy and attacked its own.
I did not have any resistance against confusion so the moment I sense their presence, I quickly decide to run or dispose of them. The other Status Ailment inducing IMPS were a problem, but since I have some resistance, I can easily dispose of them. The greatest problem fighting them is that you will not know what Status Ailment they induce, so you need to finish them off immediately.
*****
On the dry plains and the forest, I did not get any chances to find MIMICS. Well while I was in the dry plains I focused entirely of getting out of there as fast as I could and did not bother to look for any. And in the dense forest, due to the thick forest did not see much of them.
However in this new area which looks liked a civilization that had lost to the power of nature. There were destroyed infrastructures everywhere and for some reason STILL MIMICS, RUNNING MIMICS and COWARD MIMICS were appearing inside the infrastructures.
Aside from what is inside them, one might wonder what is the difference between the RUNNING MIMIC and the COWARD MIMIC? Well for one, the RUNNING MIMIC is pretty much just running everywhere whether away or towards you, the COWARD MIMIC however has an advanced detection skill and run away from me sometime hiding and cornering itself. The STILL MIMICS well, they really look like just normal treasure chest and do not move until you open them.
Due to their appearance I decided to do a little treasure hunt. As I found out MIMICs normally respawns after 3 hours. And so, went on a treasure hunt.
Although the threats of the ailment inducing IMPs have not disappeared I decided to continue my hunt for MIMICs. Especially the COWARD MIMICS, they are probably higher tiers since they give me good treasures. After fighting 130 MIMICs these are my spoils.
.Monocle of Appraisal {
•Rocks [Item Rank: F; Quantity x15; Market Value: 1~10 Pera; a rock]
•Flints [Item Rank: F; Quantity x3; Market Value: 1~10 Pera; a tool for starting a fire]
•Broken Armors [Item Rank: E; Quantity x18; Market Value: 10~100 Pera; a broken piece of armor]
•Broken Shields [Item Rank: E; Quantity x12; Market Value: 10~100 Pera; a broken shield]
•Broken Swords [Item Rank: E; Quantity x22; Market Value: 10~100 Pera, a broken sword]
•Ragged Clothing [Item Rank: E; Quantity x25; Market Value: 10~100 Pera, a raged clothing]
•Squire's Blade [Item Rank: E; Quantity x5; Market Value: 10~100 Pera, preferred short sword for a squire]
•Darkness Mantle [Item Rank: D; Quantity x10; Market Value: 10~100 Pera, made from DARKNESS BATS wings, adds a small resistance to darkness status ailment]
•Tiny Coin Purse [Item Rank: D; Quantity x10; Market Value: 10~100 Pera; a magical purse that can hold up to 50 coins]
•Diamond [Item Rank: C; Quantity x1; Market Value: 201~500 Pera; a precious stone]
•Ruby Gem [Item Rank: C; Quantity x1; Market Value: 201~500 Pera; a precious stone]
•Sapphire Gem [Item Rank: C; Quantity x1; Market Value: 201~500 Pera; a precious stone]
•Monocle of Appraisal [Item Rank: A; Quantity x1; Market Value: 901~1500 Pera; a special monocle embedded with the power of ‘Item Appraisal’, will be able to appraise any items and their Market Value rank A and below, an item coveted by merchants, uses mana per appraisal]
}
Those were the spoils from my treasure hunting. Aside from the precious gems that would fetch a good amount of money, the greatest spoil I had taken was the Monocle of Appraisal. This item has an Item Appraisal which I immediately used to appraise my other spoils and had it appraised itself. According to its description it was an item coveted by Merchants. I also learned that the currency of this world is called PERA as indicated in the Market Value column. Since I am not a businessman by trade, the market value which is estimated will probably be advantageous for me when I try to haggle.
The downside for the Monocle of Appraisal is that it somehow uses MANA while appraising something and might trigger my MIS if overused. However, it is not so life threatening so long as I only use it when I need to appraise things.
I had actually run back and forth from the 31st to the 34th floor so that I can fight MIMICS, this way I didn’t have to wait for the 3-hour re-spawn period on one floor, I got lucky and fought another unique MIMIC in the 34th floor on the third day of my treasure hunt, a COWARDLY VOID PARALYSIS MIMIC, this must have been the one that held the Monocle of Appraisal. As its name suggest, it did not have any elemental affinity, however it spewed paralysis when you approached it. Thanks to my paralysis resistance, I was able to fend if off and defeat it.
There were probably more treasures waiting to be taken, however since this is not my goal and I decided to move on but made a mental note to fight off MIMICS if I ever see one.
*****
Now on to the mid-boss, the entrance to the 35th level is a cellar in one of the decrepit building. There awaited me a monster that I definitely have not encountered before: wrapped with a sinister black aura, wearing a black tattered robe, two red wisp gleaming on its eye sockets, a skeletal body without lower half -A LICH stands in my way.
As soon as the LICH emerged from the shadows the doors on both ends closed, meaning I am currently unable to flee from this battle.
“This is a Mid-Boss battle right!?” I questioned myself out loud.
As if using my comments as signal, the LICH then waves its left hand, and heard an eerie sound coming from it, which must be chant. A Magic Circle then appears in its left hand and a Magic I have yet to encounter, a Darkness Affinity Magic. It was a black dark ball when it lands a hit expands and absorbs everything within the radius. The LICH repeats this and creates almost no openings for me to do a counterattack.
“Is this really a Mid-Boss battle!?” I had to repeat the query to myself.
*****
‘Undead monsters cannot be defeated by normal means; after all you cannot kill what is already dead. Therefore the only way to defeat an undead monster is using Holy Magic to vanquish them in the land of the living.’
‘LICHs are one of the strongest UNDEAD monsters. They have a strong desire for the living and have the power to suck the LIFE FORCE of any living organism within a 3-Meter Radius the closer you are to the LICH the faster the sucking power will be. Dealing with them can be a pain if you do not have any HOLY Magic that can keep it at bay.’
What am I doing, yup as you might have guessed, I am currently reading a book written by Lunamaia-sensei, at one of the decrepit buildings in this Mid-Boss Level. Although a little smaller than the 31st and 34th floor, the 35th floor is still a Forest Ruins and still had those infrastructures and forest to hide me. It has a small Pyramid Altar and the LICH is currently guarding the door that would lead to the next floor. Thankfully, he did not bother to run after me like most mid-bosses I have encountered. Then again since I am trapped here in this level he should not have to.
For now, I have only two choices: One is to defeat the LICH and press forward or get killed by it, or maybe wait here for a hundred years and die… wait that makes it three.
Well since it is concerning my life, option 2 and 3 are out of the question. That leaves me to option number 1, which is to defeat it. That is the reason why I am borrowing the knowledge of Lunamaia-sensei on how to defeat it.
Now the question is how to defeat it. Before hiding here, I did try to fight it on my own just like how I defeated the SHAMANIC ORC CHAMPION. However, the idea was shattered almost instantly. From what I had read from Lunamaia-sense’s Notes, LICHes seem to absorb LIFE FORCE and the moment I got close to its range, I felt some of my LIFE FORCE being drained from me. I was also almost hit by the magic it hurled towards me, my clothing was fine, but it sucked both MANA and LIFE FORCE, I am guessing it is a Magic that does no harm to non-living organisms.
My only solution will be to learn Holy Magic, but casting a Holy Magic was going to need a decent amount of MANA and with my MIS it was clearly a no-no. After thinking of my battle arsenal, that was when it hit me, I already have a way to defeat him. Yes, Magic Conversion and MATOIKENJUTSU. With a lot of Unholy Magic around me, I can convert them to Holy Magic and wrap them onto my weapon… but not for close quarter, instead on arrows. Right, I will be using a new skill the Purifying Arrow + Cliff Snipping Tactics.
Captain you have developed MATOI KENJUTSU: SEIMATOI HAMA NO YA.
…When a LICH appears, who you gonna call?
With Grimoire-chan showing her approval of my purifying skill I then proceeded with my tactics.
*****
After developing the skill to defeat the LICH, I tested it with the Skeleton Warriors it had summoned to protect him to try the efficiency of the skill. With normal Arrows the Bones of the Skeleton will get dismantled, but after a few seconds it will form itself back. Now using the ‘HAMA no YA’ skill, (I had named after remembering an Anime about a girl who uses a bow of purifying light accompanied by a dog eared half-human half-dog youkai.)
After training for a while I decided to use it against the LICH and took aim from the base of the Pyramid Altar and released… but it failed. No, it was not a completely failure with my archery skill my arrow did reached the LICH. However, there was one problem that I needed to overcome first, as soon as the arrow flew far from me (about 3 Meters) my KI vanished and the Holy Magic contained in it dispersed.
The LICH although perceived that its weakness against long ranged attacks and sensing the Holy Magic bonded to it. It summoned countless undead monsters to protect him and hunt me. I could not purify this many undead, with my current weapons, using the Hama no Ya skill takes a lot of time, If I defeat the undead monsters with swords the LICH will just summon another batch and I will die of exhaustion.
So, the only strategy is to hunt it closer, thankfully 3 Meters was my limit and 3 Meters was also the limit of the LICH’s LIFE FORCE sucking ability. I needed to revise my strategy. I then took 150 normal arrows from my arrow basket and evenly place them inside 3 crudely created makeshift quivers, I saddled one quiver and will throw the two quivers near the altar (I will then have about 5 Minutes before they will disappear and be transported to Grim-chan, But, that will not happen if I get closer to them before the 5 Minutes lapse and restart the timer). I changed from to WOODEN TRIAL RED OAK SHORT BOW since I needed the mobility than range. I was ready for round two.
I charged towards the Pyramid Altar with my two METAL FORGED TRIAL NINJATOUs and dispersed the Undead Monsters that was blocking my path. Once I judge that I am within shooting distance I sheathed my blades and summon my short bow to shoot him with my ‘HAMA no YA’
The battle with the LICH lasted for 3 Hours, straight. I panicked a little when the 150 arrows where all gone. Unfortunately, the normal arrows could not completely contain the Holy Magic and turned to dust after damaging the LICH. Then I remembered that I had a practiced throwing hand, on the spot I had modified the HAMA no Ya to Holy attributed daggers, kunais shurikens. Thankfully, all these items where metal forged and did not meet the same fate as the wooden arrows, I was able to collect them after the battle.
.Monocle of Appraisal {
•Normal Arrows [Item Rank: F; Quantity x105; Phys STR +5%; Market Value: 1~9 Pera; a piece of arrow]
•Broken Armors [Quantity x18]
•Broken Shields [Quantity x9]
•Broken Swords [Quantity x18]
•Ragged Clothing [Quantity x36]
•Mana Ring [Item Rank: C; Quantity x1; Market Value: 201~899 Pera, A prized ring of a LICH which converts magical attacks into MANA]
•Ring of Barrier [Item Rank: C; Quantity x1; Market Value: 201~899 Pera, A prized ring of a LICH which converts 10% MANA to boost defense]
•Black Mana Robe [Item Rank: B; Quantity x1; Market Value: 501~999 Pera, A prized tattered robe of a LICH which Absorbs MANA from surroundings then converts excess MANA to LIFE FORCE]
}
The SKELETON WARRIORS where all wearing broken equipment, they were as of the moment useless to me, however the SKELETON ARCHERS kind of replenished my arrows. They were slightly crude compared to the ones I had created together with the LIZARDWOMEN which were Rank D. Well we can’t be too picky. The rags… as of the moment they simple have no use to me.
The items the LICH dropped were quite splendid, however with their perks only the Ring of Barrier was usable and had it equipped.
Judging from the monsters in the mid-boss battle are UNDEAD, then I will be expecting UNDEAD Monsters starting in the 36th to the 39th floors… and at the boss fight… a stronger LICH. I needed to prepare.
