Fourth Event, day 3.

Karnel's PoV:

"*Sniff*, I want to get out of here already..." - Karnel

Day three, and we are still stuck in these murky sewers. I should have just retired already...

*Sniff*, Snipper, why did you want to challenge this...whatever it is?

I looked at the Mythforest Crab as he bounced around inside the safety area while Chaser the Forest Wolf slept, unfazed by the jumping crab...or the noise of many, MANY small feet right outside.

Yes...the inhabitants of this sewer...rats. If they were normal rats, I could just ask Chaser to run like the wind and get us out of here. We already know the route to the exit. My [Earth Sonar] skill informed me that there are no enemies on that front0...but why, why did these rats have to be here! They should stay in the nightmare where they belong!

"Hey, can't we simply say we were over our heads and retire-" - Karnel

"*Snip*, *snippety*, *snip*!!" - Snipper

"*Grrrrr*" - Chaser

*Sniff*, why are my familiars the ones in charge? It's unreasonable.

Especially you, Chaser. You are using 10% of my total MP, thanks to my [Summon Ally] skill. I only brought Snipper with me to this Pocket Dimension as it may be too dangerous to bring everyone.

And Snipper, you do know that those rats are invincible? Even if you practice shadow-boxing before we head out, it will not do any good. At most, you would only push them a little before they start jumping at you...again...

"That's it! [Summon Ally]: Tryd!" - Karnel

From a dark-green magic circle appeared Tryd the Boulder Boar...ugh...my head feels funny whenever my MP gets restricted like this...

"Now! My beast, Tryd! Mow those pests down!" - Karnel

Tryd simply nodded and walked with his huge, rock-like body toward the edge of the safe area. The devilish rats are making a ruckus, clacking their teeth, scratching the floor, and screeching with those horrible mouths...

Not fazed by any of it (how does he do it?), Tryd curled into a sphere and started to roll his body on the spot like a tumbling boulder. The rats stopped their nasty sounds as they looked at him, but our Tryd isn't waiting for anyone! He charged into the sewers while spinning like a "blue hedgehog", is what Ciara told me when I talked with her through the Dungeon Terminal when she called me to "vent" for some reason.

The rats couldn't react as they were mowed down. They do not take damage due to the event rules, but they were still sent flying into the walls. Not wasting this chance, I picked up Snipper as I jumped on Chaser and had him follow straight behind Tryd. While giving Tryd directions, we hurriedly aimed for the exit and arrived there with time to spare. And now I wish we didn't come here!

Before us, blocking our path to the exit, was a gigantic rat with seven eyes, thirteen tails, and-*BONK!!*-..., and he was run over by Tryd.

You should watch where you are rolling...but this time, I will compliment you instead! Great work, Tryd!

Snipper jumped onto the gigantic rat who was holding his stomach where Tryd hit him and spewed lots of venom-green blood from his mouth, and crushed one of the rat's many eyes..., hey, you are not thinking...

*STAB!*

Ugh...he did. Snipper forced a [Forest Thorn] into the skull of the boss rat through the broken eye. So cruel...

But it put the boss rat out of his misery, which means, more importantly, that the exit is free! Sweet freedom!

I hurried the others into the portal and we appeared in a Wakoku village. Except that the sky is green.

"Hey, Karnel~. Over here~!" shouted a voice as we walked into the plaza.

"Oh, miss Mira. Glad to see you okay...are the others here too? And where exactly are we?" I responded to miss Mira who was coming to greet us.

"Only me for now. This place is a waiting area for those who want to enter the next event. Meaning we are the first two to win the 4th round~." - Mira

"That does not amuse me," I replied as I started to explain the terrors of those horrifying rats to my best extent. Those creatures are too horrifying to even describe, so miss Mira had a look of confusion on her face as she-

"Too bad you didn't have any sleeping-type skills. If the rats were asleep, you could sneak past them." - Mira

...offered me a solution...that I could use...through the [Sleep Petals] skill...I am such an idiot! 

---

Fourth Event, day 3.

Ciara's PoV:

In the waiting area that was fashioned as a Greek temple, something that could be taken straight from Atlantis, a large roar emerged, breaking my concentration as I was trying to paint a picture of this beautiful environment.

"AGAIN!! ONCE AGAIN, THAT DEVILISH SNAKE-!!" shouted Grangron the Ground Ogre...why did I have to end up in the same event with him again? He may have a good body, but if there are no brains to match...

Just get it in your head that this is an Event outside your expertise. I'm rather surprised they even added such a battle-heavy event at all.

"You ended up as fish food again?" I asked Grangron, already knowing the answer.

"Nobody was eaten, but we were thoroughly defeated and thrown out! Gha-hahahaha!" - Grangron

*Siiiiigh*...maybe I am not into meatheads? No, I can say for certain that I despise them. He is a good guy at heart though...

"Please wait for other people to prepare properly." - Ciara

"Gwa-hahaha! Sorry about that, but my ogre-blood was screaming for action!" - Grangron

"Then ignore it. I'm almost done with the preparation for my plan. So stay calm for now and tell the other participants that we can attack again soon," I told him as I started to reminisce about the "Sea Tyrant"'s stats.

I am glad I could Identify the beast through [Clairvoyance (Fairy)] during the first day. Or else I couldn't have convinced the others to flee before the first battle became our last.

This event is straightforward. There is just this safe room where people can rest and a larger room that has a dome of seawater instead of a roof that acts as a battlefield where we battle this thing. I forced everyone back into the safe room the first day with the [Pushing Current] skill and warned them about this guy's status. And that I had a plan to defeat it.

"If you say that these books of yours are going to help, then be my guest." - Grangron

"Hey, not all people become stronger through muscle training. Some refined people like myself require different and more sophisticated methods to obtain new powers~." - Ciara

"Yeah, yeah." - Grangron

Tch, this is why I cannot stand meatheads.

---

Once the other participants are ready, we ventured into the hall of the beast. The Curisumi Serpent looked down on us from the sea outside the dome that makes up this room. It has the appearance of a typical sea serpent, but with a dark-blue gem on its forehead and it has six, fin-like limbs.

Its length should be around 20 meters, but since this room has a radius of several hundred meters, we should be able to run away even if it decided to fight us directly. The room is mostly clear of any obstacles, but some large constructions can be seen here and there. Most likely to grant people some cover while they are fighting.

"Okay everyone, spread!" - Grangron

Grangron took the job of leading the other participants. The warriors who have joined his previous attempts on defeating the sea serpent followed his orders as they were trained for it, and surprisingly, the people who had thought of him as a fool and refused to join him before didn't fall behind either. Maybe we have a natural-born leader in this atypical ogre?

I watched how the participants got into position and prepared their means of long-range attacks as the Curisumi Serpent started to fight back. While enveloping its body with a blue glow, the serpent sent large tentacles of ocean water through the dome and assaulted the participants.

Not bad. These "sea tentacles" have a high attack power, plus the serpent can control them however it pleases. And I could see that they do not consume as much MP as they would have if I tried to use a skill like that. His "Sea Tragedy" class must be responsible for that.

Not that I wish to sink several ships filled with people to obtain that class myself. My Clairvoyance skill tells me that only the worst disastrous monsters of the sea are granted this Monster class from the sea gods, and that is too much. No thank you!

The others started to destroy the tentacles while the offensive group released their attacks toward the serpent. A rain of projectiles flew toward the serpent, but it swam away from the line of fire. Tch, SPD that's over 1,000 is no joke.

While people were struggling below, I had taken to the sky while shrinking my body thanks to [Size Change (Fairy)]. I am not participating in the battle right away. Instead, I am waiting for the serpent to get close enough for me to release my secret weapon.

The serpent kept on dodging the attacks of the below group, but then it came close enough. I took out all the Paranormal Scrolls I had spent many hours of sweat and resources to prepare. By granting mana to the scrolls, the recorded effect is activated. All 46 of them at the same time. 

The serpent noticed me activating the scrolls, but was too dumbfounded to act. The same can be said to the group below as they watched fishes made of pink and light-purple lights emerge from the scrolls. Around 10 fishes for each scroll.

The light fishes swam toward the serpent, unfazed by the dome or the seawater, and started to spray light-like water on the serpent. It took the attack either on purpose to figure out the identity of the fishes, or because it was too stupefied by the fantastic nature of the fishes. Regardless, the serpent snapped out of its daze when it noticed the degree of damage the fishes inflicted on it.

Total damage: 0.

The serpent looked pissed off from the lack of danger from the fishes, or maybe it thinks I was making fun of it? Anyway, it started to charge a breath-like attack, which...damaged the serpent itself before it had the chance to complete the attack.

Huhuhu~. Sorry, snakey, but these fishes are far from harmless. They are the effects of my [Ancient Sea] skill! Semi-automatic charges that go after the enemy and hit them with a debuff-type attack that makes the target weak to the Ocean, Water, and even the Salt attribute.

Each stack worth of these "Weakness: Sea" ailments is equal to one level's worth of a Resistance skill, and half a level's worth if we think about Immunity-tier Resistance Skills. Meaning that if someone has Weakness: Sea (150), even Nullification-tier Resistance Skills of the mentioned attributes are worthless!

Oh, and the target becomes vulnerable to those attributes if the Weakness stack is above their Resistance Skills' levels. Plus it is not possible to resist this effect by only owning skills like [Ocean Resistance]. There may be skills that do prevent [Ancient Sea], but those must be rare. After all, this baby comes as a secret reward in a System-administrated Haunt. I have to give myself some praise for finding it, yes~.

While the serpent was confused over the damage it had inflicted on itself, I created magic formulas for the high-tier Ocean spell, Tsunami Trasher. Recognizing the spell, or at least the attribute, the serpent ignored me and rather focused on the people below. Maybe it thought I was a distraction? 

That thought cost it lots of HP, as my wave of destruction crashed into it with enough force to rip up large wounds all over its body, break countless scales, and leave it in a sorry mess. The attack reduced its HP down to 80% of its original value, the extra stack being completely depleted.

With a Weakness: Sea stack of over 400, I am not surprised...okay, I am. That wave of destruction shaved away more than 1,500 HP! Who can't stay calm after witnessing that!?

People down below started to snap out of their daze, and with a command from Grangron, they started to attack the serpent again. The beast tried to flee from the attacks, but an additional effect of [Ancient Sea] is to reduce the SPD of the target. One point for each stack of Weakness: Sea. 

Well, even with the speed decrease, it still has around 600 in the stat, not to mention that stacks of status ailments normally go down by 1 for every 10th second. And I have no clue how to extend those. Let's have the fishes from [Ancient Sea] chase the serpent. I also released all the magic books in my [Magic Library], no matter how few of them I had left from the constant battles lately. The pixies in that misty forest forced me to use almost every scroll I had on me...

After exhausting my stocks of magic books, I descended to Grangron who was ordering the attacks on the serpent.

"Things are going smoothly?" - Ciara

"Oh, Ciara! It goes as smooth as the remains of a Clean Slime!" - Grangron

"That's disgusting. But do you have any ideas of how to finish it off? I barely have any MP left." - Ciara

Using Tsunami Trasher left me with barely 100 MP. Using so much of it in one move hurt my Greater-Recovery skill's recovery rate, not to mention that everyone else is chugging the MP Potions like they were dwarves in a drinking party.

"I have no clue! We have to put our faith in that one attack may hit its weak spot!" - Grangron

Damn, so we're running a no-plan campaign. And there's quite the distance between us and the serpent. Even if there is someone with a strong attack, the distance will kill most of its momentum. Not to mention that big attacks are easy to dodge...

"...hey...is that guy glowing?" - Ciara

The serpent started to glow all of a sudden. No...is that an aura? Like Grangron's Anima Drive? It looks similar, but it doesn't converge into an animal shape like back then...

"!? Magic incoming!" shouted one of the participants. And they were right. A large, ocean-blue magic circle was generated in front of the serpent...hey...

"A-hahaha...no wonder..." - Ciara

I could only laugh as a Tsunami Trasher several times bigger than my own came down onto us, destroying any attempts the others did in the hope of defending ourselves from the natural disaster that covered the whole room...

---

"BWAH! I thought I was going to die!" - Ciara

While still dripping wet, I stood up in the middle of the plaza of the town close to where the first event was taking place. Around me were the other participants. Some looked confused while others were having a mental breakdown. Well, we were forced close to death from something worthy of the name "tsunami"...

"GWAHH!! I thought I was gonna die!!" - Grangron

Don't copy me...

"What was that last move? That freak of nature shouldn't have that great a magical talent..." I murmured out loud, thinking that the serpent had the Ocean Mage class. Normally, having one of the elemental Mage classes would mean the user is bad with constructing magic formulas, so they let the skill do it for them...

"Beats me...or, maybe it was Aether Drive?" - Grangron

"...is that some attribute-based enhancement-move?" I asked, remembering the pillar of darkness that Garami had produced in the first event.

"No..., or, it's not its main effect, I think? My master said it's a skill that improves the stats that are the most related to the attribute or something. Oh, and you need a deep connection with the attribute you want to! And that the effect is...boosted in areas with more of those attributes..." - Grangron

...yeah, that thing must have been [Aether Drive (Ocean)]. Had it not been for the anti-Identification skills that beast also had, I could have seen them...

"Those Aether Drives...do you think they are worse than some random Extra Skill?" - Ciara

"If you bold out the "random" part, then most likely..." - Grangron

It took us three seconds after that before we shook our hands with each other.

"Then on to the discovery of the ocean and ground!" - Ciara

"Well said, my friend! Gwa-hahaha!!" - Grangron

"You shall do nothing of the sort, Miss Ciara." - Jeeves

...oh, Jeeves, the Phantom butler. What is he doing here? And in the middle of the day even.

"Master Garami has asked for your assistance." - Jeeves

"She's fine then?" I asked, feeling somewhat relieved that she had managed to get in contact with someone.

"That depends. How much do you know about a character named Azi Dahaka?" - Jeeves

...I've read enough light novels to know that I'd rather be with the serpent again.

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Kigal-Note/Monsters/Rodents: Mutant Fearrat