It’s been a few days since my missed revenge attempt.

During this time, I went around hunting different species of monsters and plundered all the stat abilities I could find out there, then got them up to a suitable level where they’d actually help in the future.

Still, my status doesn’t have any magic-related skills, such an unfortunate issue.

Creatures with magic skills must be able to use magic in some form. You won’t find them in a little cave like this one but in larger areas.

Not only are they classified as intelligent creatures, but they’re also guaranteed to have their own tactics and experience from their long time surviving in this harsh environment. Fighting them is on a whole different plane of difficulty compared to what I’ve been through till now.

Low-stage wyrms are the only type of monster that can bypass the magic power perception and operation skills by using their wyrm-related skills, so they are exceptions.

I can’t plunder wyrm-type skills though... Greed has one restriction which is the inability to plunder race-restricted skills, whether it’s due to them being exclusive for a specific species or being unobtainable by your own species.

Another very serious problem I’ve noticed during those last couple of days is that my leveling speed has decreased by a huge margin, I didn’t get a single level in more than 5 days!

I can only chuck it up to my new race’s downside or something. There’s gotta be a downside somewhere in there, right?

If we’re speaking game terms, this monster race should have a restriction like Can only level up by hunting monsters with a level higher than your own or something along those lines.

Doesn’t pose much of a problem to me anyways, the race itself has the solution for this problem, an extremely overpowered skill set that allows you to easily hunt stronger foes.

On a different topic, unlike when Kumoko procrastinated in getting certain skills and then got caught up in the fire resistance problem when she entered the middle stratum, I made sure to obtain whatever I can get my hands on at the earliest convenience.

Skills gain proficiencies all the time without your knowledge, it’s better to get what you can and let it lay there gathering dust rather than ignoring what’s not useful for you leading you to miss out on something that could help you out of a pinch.

Right now, all my resources are refilled and the skills I’ll be frequently using are up to my combat power standard.

I’ve captured the tracks of those sniper crabs a couple of hours ago. The current plan’s to get my revenge, then leave this cave and move on to an area with a higher average power level.

Since this path was my choice, I’ve gotta commit to pursuing it while putting everything on the line!

Not much time later, I find my targets, a group of sniper crabs walking on a wall.

They seem to be hunting for real right now, unlike the carnival game they had with me last time, it doesn’t change anything though.

Unlike normal crabs with their crappy motion detection eyes, these guys have high levels in vision-enhancing skills coupled with the Cooperation skill. If one of them detects you, then you can bet the others know about your presence as well.

They don’t have Presence Perception though, and my range is much higher than theirs now that I evolved.

Finding a nice little rocky hill nearby, I orient my body to aim at the closet crab’s back, Expel two poisonous spikes, then promptly hide behind the hill and observe their reaction through my sphere.

Who’s the game target now, assholes?!

The other crabs start to gather around that one.

My stats numbers are a lot higher after grinding for a couple of days, so the crab’s hard shell was pierced through like paper.

And even though it escaped the fate of instant death because of its body structure that’s unlike normal crabs, it’s down for the count because it’s blinded.

How did I blind both of its eyes from behind? My shot easily penetrated through its body from back to front, hitting some important nerves along the way.

I can only shoot one more time from this position before my position gets exposed so I gotta make it count.

Simulating my next actions according to the information from Spatial Awareness and Future Sight, I rapidly ascend while shooting two more spikes at another crab, then swiftly dive down deep behind a different rocky formation.

Afterwards, the fight just turned into a deadly game of hide and seek, with me being both the hider and seeker.

My stats have long left these guys behind; I’m wasting my time killing them for nothing but the sheer satisfaction of revenge and a tasty last meal before leaving this cave.

A few seconds later, the entire group of five crabs can be seen flailing around aimlessly after losing their vision.

Finishing them off, I choose to plunder the Poison Spike skill off of all of them except for one as it’s the one with the most comprehensive strengthening through levels. Levels in it increase the poison’s potency and the ratio of stats to spike strength at the same time.

The other skill I plundered was Poison Enhancement because who would say no to extra damage, right?

 

{Acquire skill [Poison Enhancement LV 1].}

{Proficiency has reached the required level. Skill [Poison Spike LV 5] has become [Poison Spike LV 6].}

 

Neat! Next up, I should focus on maxing out Poison Spike and getting the Deadly Poison version to skip the first stage of the Poison Attack series in future race evolutions.

At present though, there’s no more value for me to stick around these parts, so I start heading for my planned destination.

Despite this underground cave system being more of a maze than the Elroe labyrinth, you’re sure to find an exit as long as you follow the larger openings when encountering split junctions.

The downside? The vaster the area is, the stronger and larger the monsters that haunt it.

Since I don’t actually have any specific destination in mind after becoming the top dog here, most of my routes are chosen on the assumption that they lead to a suitable leveling area.

Come to think of it, these caves are eerily similar to MMORPG instances where they have a high number of monsters scaled according to levels like the blade-fish and its evolution, followed by elite monsters like the sniper crabs, then there’s the boss monster which is the leviathan...

If we consider it from this perspective, then... I’m still in the beginner dungeon.

I really hope my guess is incorrect. The thought of the leviathan being nothing but the boss of the tutorial area sends shivers down my spine... Imagine what the end-game bosses would be like.

My thoughts are cut off by the feeling of the normally dead water currents coming to life around me, alarming me that I’m already at my destination.

A huge underwater ravine enters my sight beyond a circular cave opening, its size is at least ten times that of the demi-leviathan’s cavern, and it’s missing a roof, making this area accessible for water dragons from above.

It has a length of at least 5 kilometers with an unknown depth according to Manager-san’s estimates.

Some sunlight can still penetrate the water barriers and reach down here, turning the scene into an eerie mixture of day and night.

This monster and flora distributions are extremely diverse as well. From top to bottom we have water dragons, juvenile non-monster marine life, adult marine life, first-stage monsters, and so on.

My entry point is at the second stage monster’s section, but that doesn’t mean I’m safe. There’s no rule that says monsters can’t wander around outside their areas, is there?

And judging by the pitch-black waters spreading beneath me and my inability to capture the seafloor of this ravine through my sphere, sea dragons might not be the apex predator here, not even close.

Every time I look down, I can’t help but imagine a huge tentacle shooting upwards and dragging down an unsuspecting sea dragon to its doom. Shivers.

 

{Proficiency has reached the required level. Skill [Fear Resistance LV 6] has become [Fear Resistance LV 7].}

 

Let’s just stick to the walls and prioritize information from Future Sight, shall we...

On another note, I can see a couple of water dragon wyrms swimming around, getting myself some wyrm-related titles and skills would be a nice addition to my collections.

What would happen if I used a bunch of temporary stat gain skills before shooting a poison spike at max power? I’d imagine my toothpick-sized spike would do damage similar to a .50 caliber bullet by then, hehehe.

Sadly, it probably won’t be as satisfying as I think it’d be, my spikes focus entirely on penetration and poison instead of straight-up damage, so it’d travel through all media unimpeded to infinity and beyond style.

Back to the present, water dragons have a lower number of preceding evolutions compared to other types of dragons, that’s why there is an overabundance of those guys in the ocean, preventing humans and demons from exploring it.

As a tradeoff though, they are much weaker on average compared to their other elemental counterparts. Such that they tend to gather into groups to fight stronger prey.

There’ll be no safe resting places in my upcoming adventure, the only way I can rest would be if I enter some small side cave. I’ll be grinding non-stop without breaks in between (Mealtimes not included)!

 

After scanning the surroundings for a while, I find my first prey here.

 

 

Judging by this guy’s skills, it should be a water wyrm two stages below the final dragon evolution.

To describe what I’m looking at, I’d say it’s a four-meter-long shark with a navy-blue armor-like upper body half and a white lower body half. Its body width is too high in ratio to its length, looks similar to a very chubby juvenile shark.

It’s much deadlier than its silly appearance lets on though, as it’s loaded with high-level Deadly Poison Attack and Water Wyrm skills, along with its high intelligence as a high-stage dragon-type monster.

Finally, I found a decent opponent after such a long time down here, this is gonna be fun!