CH 138

[Troublesome Characteristics]

Ayako picked up Ethel who fell.

Well, this, uhh… that’s right.

I actually made the mistake on purpose so as to forcibly build up trust between the two of them… yes, it was on purpose.

“Sorry.”

“I don’t hear any sincerity.”

“I deeply apologize.”

“That’s more like it.”

As such, after receiving Ethel’s forgiveness by prostrating myself before her and getting a single hit to the head with her cross, we carried on with our plan.

We are currently in a seemingly unused room, where we got in by kicking through the window, located slightly above the center of the spire.

The room is surprisingly large. It’s spacious enough that I can swing my nodachi and Ayako her trident at the same as long as we’re careful.

The usual spires are ‘thin and narrow’, but maybe because the nave below is too huge, it makes this spire looks too thin, instead.

Originally, I was planning to rappel down straight from here, but considering the accident with Ethel, we came to a decision to prioritize safety and make our way out from inside the cathedral.

The idea was proposed by Ethel, the victim of the accident. As such, I was in no position to reject the idea, and it’s convenient for me, anyway.

After all, if we go through the inside of the cathedral, that means it’d take us more time to reach the great library.

And the more time we take, the more monster we may encounter on our way, which also means the more experience points that I can acquire.

I’d like to suggest for us to have 3 days and 2 nights stay here, but the girls told me to shut up.

Even an honest guy like me know when to stay silent for the bigger picture.

“Speaking of, Tōru. How do you know the layout of the catheral so…… Hey, what’s this sweet smell?”

“……?”

“Huh? Sweet smell?”

Ayako and I begins to sniff the surroundings when Ethel points it out.

Ayako immediately sniffs out the anomaly and gestures that she has no idea, whereas I furrow my brows even as I’m continuing to sniff the smell.

“Hm?”

I wonder why.

This scent smells familiar… too familiar, in fact… it smells similar to the monster-luring perfume I put in my bag.

“Ah.”

“……?”

“What’s wrong, Tōru?”

I reach out into the bag on my shoulder without turning my head and check the item that I should have put in the outermost position where it can be easily taken out.

My hand touches a crushed glass container, the liquid dripping from it wets my fingertips.

This is undoubtedly the source of the smell. It’s not that the smell resembles the smell of the monster-luring perfume, rather it is the smell of the monster-luring perfume.

Judging from the smell from the liquid on my fingertips and the fact that Ethel picked it up despite it being in my bag, it should be the one with 10 times the concentration, and most of its contents should have spilled out.

“…Ahh, yup.”

Fufu.

I can hear the sound of something cutting through the wind from outside the window~!!

“Get down! Enemy’s comin’!”

“What did you do this time!”

“!!”

Ethel and Ayako also pick up the sound from the outside, and then they take cover at the end of the room.

Shortly after, mushroom-shaped monsters blasted into the room while spinning like a drill, destroying one side of the wall along with the wreckage of the window where we got in from.

They broke through the door of the room on the opposite due to the momentum before making a splendid drift turn and turning to face us.

“‘Haneru Mushroom’!”

“!?”

“Hey!? Stop Ayako! Don’t defend!”

My warning comes too late.

Sensing the danger, Ayako immediately casts a six-layered defensive barrier on her body. In respond to her action, the mushroom-shaped monsters, ‘Haneru Mushroom’, launched themselves toward her at maximum speed.

“!?”

At the next moment, Ayako gets blown back and slams against the wall, before rebounding from the impact. I manage to save her from falling over the destroyed part of the wall with a thread in the nick of time.

She’s actually a puppet, so she doesn’t bleed.

Therefore, the only thing that shows the extent of damage she’s received is the crack running across her face.

“You okay?”

“!? ??!?”

“I know, shocking, huh?”

Ayako’s eyes are widened in shock. Well, it’s not strange considering that the monsters not only broke through her barrier, but also sent her flying.

After sending her flying the Haneru Mushrooms fly out of the spire due to the momentum, make a drift turn midair, and aim in our direction.

“No way!? How could mushrooms have such a high attack power!?”

“They didn’t use their own attack power.”

The monsters sealed in the forbidden book section mostly have troublesome characteristics (gimmicks).

The characteristics of Haneru Mushrooms are absolute initiative and adding three times the value of target’s defense point to their own attack point, which are quite troublesome.

In-game, there’s a system named ‘Guard’ with which you can reduce the amount of damage you receive by pressing a button at the right timing during the opponent’s attack motion. The numerical value that comes from the combination of this damage reduction, the character’s defense power, and its multiplier is known as ‘defense point’.

The result of the subtraction of this ‘defense point’ from ‘attack point’—which is the numerical value obtained by adding up the opponent’s attack power, multiplier, and all sorts of random numbers—is the final damage received by your character, but the Haneru Mushrooms has the characteristic of adding three times the value of attack target’s ‘defense point’ to their ‘attack point’.

Which means, the higher your ‘defense point’, the higher the damage you’ll receive from Haneru Mushrooms.

And they have the characteristic of absolute initiative on top of it. Players who aren’t aware of their characteristics and guard against their attacks will mostly suffer bitter fights.

They use defense buffs, which gives the opposite effect of increasing the damage they receive, recover, use more defense buffs, receive increasingly more damage, recover, so on so forth—ending up with a vicious cycle.

Why don’t you just kill them with a large attack before you get killed, you ask? It is possible, but these guys have stupidly high evasion, so it’s highly dependent on luck.

Most players using that method lose because they run out of resources before their attack lands. It’s not a very effective method.

Besides, as long as you know their characteristics, there’s an easy way defeat them, which is what I’ll be using this time.

“Tōru! They’re coming! Let’s get out of here!!”

“No worries, I’ve got this. Just look after my clothes for a bit, will ya?”

“Huh? Huuuh!?”

“…!?”

As Ethel and Ayako are focused on the Haneru Mushrooms who seems going to attack again, I move in front of them. Buck naked.

Giving a backward glance at the two who are looking in shock at me, I read the trajectory of the Haneru Mushrooms, lower my hips, and open my arms wide, taking sumo wrestler stance.

“Aight, come at me!!”

As if to answer my taunt, the Haneru Mushrooms spin like a drill and speed through the air, crashing into me.

Are they moist, perhaps? Their bodies feel kinda slimy. Even as the thought crossed my mind, I continue to receive their attack silently.

Bachabichaguchaguchabechabechabecha!! Terrible and unpleasant noises ring out in the room.

When the momentary storm-like cacophony stops, all that remains is battered Haneru Mushrooms rolling all over the ground and the naked me standing in their middle.

“???”

“Ehh… What’s going on…?”

While Haneru Mushrooms adds 3 times the ‘defense point’ of the attack target to their ‘attack point’, that characteristic of theirs will be invalidated if their attack target has no armor on and is not guarding.

If they do attack in that kind of situation, Haneru Mushrooms will receive a huge backlash, and they will drop dead then and there.

Haneru Mushrooms are a kind of monsters that take advantage of reducing damage battle system and turn it into a blade that stabs the player.

But putting it in the other way around, they are monsters that you can easily defeat in an instant as long as you have no defense.

Further, their self-destruct nature makes them a perfect opponent for quick and easy experience points. I’d be happy to have them swarm me even as I was sleeping naked every night. Most unfortunate however, only a few numbers of them were sealed in the forbidden book, so I could only shelve that idea.

Incidentally, in the original game you can get the forbidden book that sealed the Haneru Mushrooms when you defeat them for the first time, in which contained hints on how to defeat them.

“Okay, we’re done here. Let’s get a move on. With all the noises the Haneru Mushrooms made, the other monsters should be making their way over here.”

“Alright… Hey, can you, maybe, share the weaknesses or ways to defeat other monsters too?”

“Don’t be absurd. The more monsters you defeat, the less experience points I’m gonna get. I never promised anything about giving away the know-hows to defeat monsters, and I ain’t planning to do so in the future, either.”

“Yep, that’s just the kind of guy you are. I was an idiot for asking.”

The sweet scent peculiar to the monster-attracting perfume floating in the room has become so faint that it’s almost unnoticeable thanks to the Haneru Mushrooms’ breaking the wall at the window side.

Also, the Haneru Mushrooms seem to have left quite a big impression on Ethel as she looks as if she has forgotten about the smell. That being the case, I should divert her attention with another task so that she completely forgets about it.

With that in mind, I decide to urge the party to leave while putting my clothes back on.

Sheesh, I really should thank the Haneru Mushrooms. Looks like no one would think the perfume was the cause even if other monsters come our way thanks to their rampage.

“……?”

“Don’t worry, Ayako-san. I just spilled some water, so please don’t poke my bag.”

“???”

“It’s nothing for you to be concerned yourself with. I’m telling you it’s fine. D-don’t touch it!!”

“!?”

Ayako, who perfectly remembers the matter about the smell, poke my bag with the tip of her trident.

I manage to fool her somehow, but man am I glad that Joseph didn’t give her the ability to talk because he didn’t want to let other men hear Ayako’s voice—though it sounds messed up as can be.