Chapter 28: Stone Statues

Gargoyles.

Stone statues of strange beasts with grotesque faces and wings that have come to life.

Resistant to fire, slashing, and piercing.

Vulnerable to bashing attacks.

*C-lang-kreee!*

“Ugh! What a horrible sound.”

I complain as my axe clashes against the gargoyles divebombing me.

It sounds so horrible!

Reduced damage is bad enough, but why’d they add this kind of grating racket?!

It’s almost painful!

The “almost” is probably calculated, though.

When I look… un, the axe’s durability is going down by 1 point for every strike.

Although my durability is only reduced by 10 right now, I don’t know how long this dungeon is going to be.

…

Should I punch them?

I mean, even despite the axe’s disadvantage, I’m completely pulverizing the parts I’m hitting.

The gauntlets Chie gave me had a damage augmentation of 5%, after all.

Ah, my equipment read out?

Currently it’s:

—

MAIN WEAPON

Spectre’s End

One-handed Axe (Mist-Touch)

A light-weight axe that shimmers with an eerie light.

Attack: +87-92 damage

Durability: 90/100

Special: This weapon is a Mist-Touch weapon. It is possible to deal half-damage to incorporeal opponents.

—

SPARE WEAPON

(sometimes offhand weapon)

Beginner’s Axe: Forest Walker

One-handed Axe

A normal weapon of a person familiar with the forest.

Attack: +5-10 damage

Durability: 50/50

—

HEADPIECE

Wild Striker’s Hairpiece

Headgear – Crafted

A seemingly simple band to tie back hair made with several different weaves.

DEF: +85, WIS: +45

Attack Speed: +2%

Durability: 110/110

Crafter: Cherisse

—

OUTERWEAR

Wild Striker’s Hooded Jacket

Outerwear – Crafted

A short-sleeved, fur-lined, short hooded jacket.

DEF: +275

Crit Damage: +100

Durability:125/125

Special: Reduces any penalties from Cold effects by 10%.

Crafter: Cherisse

—

INNERWEAR

Wild Striker’s Corset

Innerwear + Necklace – Crafted

A fur-trimmed corset with a chain necklace attached.

DEF: +250, WIS: +100, DEX: +5

All Resistances: +110

Durability: 150/150

Special: 10% chance to deflect 50% damage.

Crafter: Cherisse

—

ARMS

Wild Striker’s Gauntlets

Gloves – Crafted

Fur-lined leather gauntlets.

DEF: +115,

Damage: +5%

Durability: 100/100

Crafter: Cherisse

—

LEGS

Wild Striker’s Leggings

Pants – Crafted

Cloth pants.

DEF: +100, WIS: +25

Attack Speed: +5%

Durability: 120/120

Crafter: Cherisse

—

BOOTS

Wild Striker’s Boots

Boots – Crafted

Fur-lined leather boots.

DEF: +100, DEX: +10

Movement Speed: +10%

Durablity:110/110

Special: 5% chance to nullify movement and restriction debuffs.

Crafter: Cherisse

—

Honestly, this stuff is RIDICULOUS.

I bet I could go through a whole other area before I’d have to worry about new armor.

Right now, most equipments don’t go above 50 DEF/WIS, but Chie’s stuff is overwhelming.

And all of them have both the primary stat increases AND secondary stat bonuses!

AND, it’s rare for equipment to have secondary stat bonuses, like Movement Speed and Crit Damage, but it’s even RARER to have any primary stat increases besides END, DEF (against physical damage) and WIS (against magical damage) on armor!

And despite that, Chie made me two pieces that boost DEX!

So, yeah, the fact that Chie can make this equipment tells me exactly how big of a deal she is.

And if you didn’t know, she’s a BIG deal.

By the way, none of the armor gives me a boost to END. If there was any leeway for an END boost, Chie chose to invest it into DEF.

Un. Good job! I approve.

But this OP-ness in this dungeon is…

…

The gargoyles’ attacks do SHIT.

I don’t even bother dodging the gargoyles’ attacks.

My HP is at 2130 right now and, thanks to Chie’s armor, the claw attacks are doing 0 damage and the bite attacks are doing 2, after all.

I could freaking stand here doing nothing and be fine.

In other words…

Defeating the gargoyles isn’t too hard.

Bashi-! Bashi-! Crash!

Wing, wing, slam into the ground!

Like that, I single out one gargoyle, take out its wings, then smash it into the ground before turning to another one.

Because I’m being conscious of the durability of my axe, I leave the downed gargoyles to Ellis, who shoots it with Water Magic from behind.

The gargoyles are tenacious, even if they’re weak, and it seems their DEF…. durability?… is kind of high.

Well, I already told you about the amount of damage they do, so it’s still easy killing.

Since there were only 4, Ellis finishes them off and soon the gargoyles disappear in a flash of a million lights.

Some coppers and rubble drop from them.

“Oh, I forgot to set the party loot options.”

I quickly open the menu.

By default, the system makes everyone pick up dropped money and items on a first-come-first-serve basis.

I hadn’t bothered to set my own defaults, but I prefer to auto-split the gold if there’s more than two people in my party.

Or like, it’s better to always auto-split the gold!

I forgot when I partied up with Fen, though, since he didn’t bother trying to get the drops from stuff I killed.

It isn’t like we can’t calculate the 3-way split, but slightly troublesome things are still troublesome.

Auto-split mode automatically calculates how much money drops and how much each person should get. Under this mode, the money you picked up would automatically go into your currency count until you’ve taken your portion. Any extra money will remain as a world-item in your hand until it’s given to a person who hasn’t picked up all his money.

Under the system default, the money you pick up would normally go into your currency automatically.

Anyway, while I’m doing that – it takes about 5 or 6 seconds – and Ellis is picking up drop items, Fen has reappeared.

He has a sullen look on his face.

“What’s up?”

I asked.

“… I can’t fight these.”

“Huh?”

Fen’s sudden complaint surprised me. He’s totally glaring at the gargoyle rubble, not really responding.

“What do you mea – Oh.”

At first I thought he meant Ellis and I killed them too fast, but speed shouldn’t be a problem for Fen. If it’s anything, it’s…

“Right. You use daggers and your STR is… *coughcoughcough*”

Fen shoots daggers at me from his eyes.

Of course, not literally.

Hahaha! Looks like his damage doesn’t even break the gargoyles’ defense!

I can’t resist smirking at him.

“W-what about CC?”

Ellis asks.

“Can’t.”

Fen grinds his teeth.

Hm?

I tilt my head.

“You have so many CC options, and you can’t do any of it?”

“The traps have too high of a material cost, and doesn’t work on flying enemies.”

“Hahaha-! Wow, these are like, your worst enemies!”

Oops, I couldn’t help laughing out loud.

Of course Fen is scowling.

“Well, it’s not like it’s necessary for you to help…”

Ellis says, but that’s the exactly wrong thing to say with Fen!

Although she doesn’t know him well.

Fen just makes a kind of sour face and a shrug.

Ellis continues,

“By the way, the gargoyles disappeared, but there’s a lot of rubble lying around that ended up not being drop items.”

Fen and I look over real fast.

Ellis is standing in the middle of the stone room, her hands lifted up, palms facing upwards as if she’s presenting the scene to us.

“…”

“…”

The first one was me; the second is Fen slowly melding back into stealth mode.

Right. Monsters disintegrate immediately, leaving behind nothing but drop items, but right now there’s a pile of rubble…

Ignoring Fen’s disappearing act, I beckon Ellis over.

“H-hey, Ellis, maybe you should move awa–“

*Fwoosh*

“Kya!”

With a strikingly high-pitched shriek, at least from Ellis, the rocks and rubble suddenly rise up and shoot towards the center of the room.

Stuck in the hailstorm of rocks, Ellis manages to run through and out of the range of the whirling rocks.

“You okay?”

“Ah…hahaha… I just lost 1/4th of my health, it’s not too bad…”

Un, for a rearguard in the dead center of an AOE, it’s not too bad.

Ellis doesn’t bother to drink a potion, either, since as soon as she ran out of range, she went back out of combat and started regenerating HP at a regular rate.

A bit red in the face, Ellis asked,

“What’s going on?”

“Hm…”

I watch as the swirling of the rocks gets tighter and faster.

“…It’s summoning something?”

My experience as a gamer tells me that’s what this type of sfx means!

*Bang!*

With a loud noise and a shockwave, the rocks clashed together.

“…Centaur. ish.”

I couldn’t help saying that.

The upper body kind of looks like a minotaur, though.

And the lower body kind of looks like a feline-ish animal.

And it’s made out of rocks.

So it’s not really a centaur. But it’s centaur-ish. A centaur-ish golem?

“…**** rocks.”

Pffft!

Although it was so soft I couldn’t tell what he said, I’m pretty sure Fen just swore at the stone centaur thing.

KUUUUUOOOOOR!

*Crash!*

Tehe.

While the centaur-ish thing roars, showing off its position as a sub-boss, I throw my axe riiiiight at a certain point…

*Kshaaak-!*

Bingo!

Even though I didn’t have any high hopes that it would work, when I throw my spare axe right at the point in the centaur-ish things chest where all the rocks had been aiming for when they smashed together, the rocks split apart with the slightest of cracks, before they were sucked back into the formation like magnets.

It’s basically a short stun! Sweet!

Seriously, although I really was hoping it would work like that, I didn’t think it actually WOULD at all.

Tiny gamble, success!

Ok, so I was actually just trying to interrupt this guy’s entrance animation.

But good results are the only thing that matters~!

I charge in with a,

“Heh, weak point found!”

“Ah – hey!”

“…Got it.”

Ellis, still recovering, calls out in surprise, and I hear Fen’s whispering voice from somewhere.

“Haha! I knew you’d get it, Fen!”

The thing’s big, but it’s not so big that a run and a jump won’t let me aim for it!

Luckily my axe is big enough that I have a little bit of lee-way to hit that spot, although a hammer would give me even more degrees of freedom…

*Bash!*

*Sssthunk!*

“Damn, you’re too good!”

I say that with a lot of envy.

Just when I hit that spot with a little bit of luck again and the cracks showed, Fen’s dagger whizzed by and stuck into that perfect little spot in the centaur-thing’s chest through the small cracks.

KUOOOOR!

The centaur-thing roars in fury and pain.

Shit. That timing and aim; that talent is too good, too scary.

It kind of pisses me off.

Luckily, Fen has no strength, that is, STR, so he’s not much of a threat, but if he ever got that too…

Tch.

I grit my teeth in a mad grin and prepare to rush ahead again, hoping to maintain the prolonged stun and deal extra damage, when

“!”

A typhoon strikes that same spot and blows the cracked rocks around in a spiral.

Ellis, with her fast deduction abilities, uses a mid-level water magic spell to blast the rocks apart!

Although it’s a CC skill with light damage to restrict enemies, in this kind of case where it’s blasting an enemy apart, I wonder what kind of damage it’s doing…

“Ah-! Chance!”

From watching Fen’s dagger, I realize that attack the cracked areas do more damage!

Although it’s more like ‘does damage at all’ for Fen.

Shit, is he psychic?

I feel a piercing glare sent in my direction.

Anyway, daggers begin appearing one after another, sticking into the centaur-thing, and I don’t wait too long to join the damage party!

*Crash, slash, slash, bash, tk tktktkt*

That last sound effect was from Ellis’ water magic raining down onto the centaur.

“… Ah-! Back off!”

I yell a warning as a strange ripple of energy comes from the centaur-thing.

KUOOOOR-!

It yells in anger, and a shockwave explodes outwards, throwing Fen and I backwards.

Ellis was already far enough away.

“Kh. Not much damage, but how annoying. It re-assembled itself.”

“It would have anyway, since Maelstrom was over.”

Fen scoffed at my complaint.

“Well well, let’s go for round 2-!”

Rinse and repeat!

It was over real quick.

Every time it re-assembled itself, I’d lead the attack to hit it in the chest.

Of course, I missed the perfect a couple times, but since I had most of the aggro, it didn’t matter since it wouldn’t target the other two squishies. I could just aim again.

Is it just me or can Fen tell when I’m going to miss or not? He only sent the daggers when I made successful hits.

Anyway, after 4 more rounds of axe, dagger, Maelstrom, the centaur-thing roars, then collapses in a pile of rubble and drop items.

This time the rubble only remains for a short time before disintegrating and disappearing.

How boring! And here I was hoping it had a rage mode.

Before I can complain,

“It’s better this way.”

Seriously, I think Fen’s psychic now. I should stop hanging out with him so he won’t be able to read my mind-!

Just kidding.

I’m pretty predictable, and I’m fully aware of it.

—-

—-

TALENTS

[Axe]Lv24 (+1)

[Bolstered Endurance]Lv27 (+1)

[Sharp Senses]Lv22

[Scavenge]Lv22

[Spirit of the Wild Hunt]Lv21

[Inheritance of the Forest Guardian]Lv23 (+1)

[Discovery]Lv18

[Bolstered Dexterity]Lv19 (+1)

[Counter]Lv16

[Mine]Lv15 (+1)

[Scribe]Lv10 (+2)

Avg Lv: 18

TP: 18

—-

—-

EXTRA

In NuSphere headquarters, frantically working employees were undergoing a strange tension.

“Hey! Where’s Chief? We need an okay-“

“A-ah, Department Head, please wait a moment, there’s a matter-“

“Aaaah-! When can I stop pulling all-nighters?!”

“Don’t lie, you slept for three hours yesterday! You’re fine!”

These were the employees who made up the studio that was developing OriginStory.

Project Chief Sakamoto rubbed his temples as his team was beginning the descent into panic.

“I can’t believe someone already triggered THAT! What will we do?! Aaaah, mou! It’s too soon!“

“Shut up, Fearo! It’s not like it was that far in advance before the others. A week or two at most!”

Sakamoto sighed.

“Alright, alright, Nuku. Anyway, who found out about that progress?”

“Juri did. Ah, she got found out as a GM Assistant, too.”

“Ah-! Mo-mo! You said you wouldn’t say-!”

The reason the employees in Sakamoto’s team have such strange names is because this team is the GM part of the in-game Public Relations team of OriginStory. They commonly use their in-game names to talk to one another.

Mo-mo, a 30-something year-old man with glasses, leaned back and chuckled.

“Honestly, it’s not that big of a deal for us. It’s the development teams that are in trouble~.”

Sakamoto sighed.

“Please, don’t let them hear you say that. They’re running around like crazy people who’ve lost their senses from working too hard, so they might just actually murder you.”

“Hee~.”

Mo-mo responded carelessly.

A beautiful older woman laughed, saying,

“Come come, let’s all get back to looking over the notes from the development teams. This is their hell, but once the Secret Beta comes to an end and the updates happen, it will be our hell!”

Nuku gnashed his teeth.

“Why the hell are they changing so much in the game-play?”

He howled.

Fearo sneered,

“Um… it’s really not THAT much, you know?”

“Shit, yes it is! Even just changing FONTs will cause an endless stream of complaints! Adding quests and regions aside, any other changes are a pile of trouble! Us visible GMs are going to be in for a world of shit.”

“It’s fine, since some of the hidden GMs will be helping on the GM ghosting accounts.”

“You’re severely underestimating this, you know?! It ain’t just stuff like UI cosmetics!”

Thinking of the impending troubles they would be having in-game, the GMs, GM Assistants, and In-Game Assists all turned pale and went back to browsing the documents on their computer.

Juri stared kind of blankly at the screen.

She didn’t know why everyone was so worked up. She thought the changes weren’t really that big and that they would make things a little easier to play, while not changing any of the basic mechanics.

Poor Juri didn’t really understand that against any change, whether it made things easier or harder, that there were always going to be people who hated change.