-Vol 5: A New Life-

-Lava Monster(3)-

Determined to not use any of his skills, Kenshin only used his bare fists and his full force to fight with the golem. It was indeed strong, with diverse skills, it’s also unpredictable and annoying to deal with. But, this was what he wanted. He sought a challenge, and after dealing with all those small fry monsters, he knew only monsters beyond level 60 or special monsters at level 50 could make him sweat.

Except for the agility, every other stat of this burning golem was freaky, of course not as freaky as his. From its attack power to defensive power to skills that deduct the damage it receives, everything about this creature was weird. Its as if, the monster was designed solely for tanking damages and counter every skill he possesses. Well, considering it was a monster spawned from his system’s influence, that might be the case.

Kenshin cracked the ground with the force of his jumping, barreling towards the approaching golem. Due to its low agility, it was profoundly slow in its movement. But still, it's every step managed to cover several tens of meters. The golem suddenly stopped when it saw the target vanishing from its sight. It didn’t have the time to ponder over it; with a flash its target appeared in front of its face, aiming its legs towards its flame-y chin.

Expecting some form of resistance, Kenshin had braced himself for the impact, but he didn’t expect to simply pass through the red boiling lava construct and appear a few meters behind. Kenshin broke his momentum and awkwardly stood on the ground looking at the golem turning around slowly.

There was no notification about any damage being inflicted upon it, neither did he received any. It seems the lava part of the monster was totally invulnerable to all types of damages. If so, then what was all that damage resistances for? Scratching his head, he sorted through all the memories of RPG games he played in the past, trying to remember how to deal with the monster of this type. There was no hint supplied by the system on how to deal with it, so he had to figure out everything on his own.

While he was searching for the answers, his body wasn’t idle either. A high amount of INT and WIS means he could some do pretty interesting things, like what he was doing now. He can, simultaneously, do several things at once. Like how he was fighting as well as thinking about the monster's weaknesses without any need to split his consciousness. The process was similar to how several tabs could simultaneously be opened at the same time in a computer without affecting the overall performance.

Before the golem turned completely, Kenshin vanished again creating a deep trench in the ground and appeared beside one of the golem’s legs. Raising his right foot, it gave a vicious kick to it.

[-400]

A high enough, but still not by much damage value floated above the golem.

His attack value was 1498; 60% damage reduction means the golem chipped away nearly 900 damage points from his attack. Out of the remaining 600 damage points, the monster’s natural defense was 200, so it only received a measly 400 damage. To a monster with 2000 HP, 400 was still high. But it could regenerate that amount of HP in a few minutes, it even had a skill for that.

A frown appeared on Kenshin's face when he saw the damage value he managed to deal on it. If his barehanded attacks could only amount to this much, it might take forever to kill this monster. But again, a grin threatened to split his face, ‘Yes! This is what I am looking for!’ thinking of this, Kenshin poured his everything into attacking the monster.

XXX

Chiba was having a hard time for the past few days. She was clearly annoyed by her guild members who were pestering her to accept a sleazy deal. Standing at the height of five feet three, she was neither tall or shot for a girl. She had a slender body and an above average face, coupled with her pale skin and unique green colored hair, she can be counted as a beauty no matter where she went. Her bubbly temperament also added a few points to her appeal.

All in all, she was regarded as a local madonna by everyone.

Although she was very happy by the praise, she never let it go to her head. She never strayed from her path, always going forwards with a smile, no matter the difficulty. Her family was very poor. Her father left her mother when she was very small, and the woman had raised her alone shouldering many pains and tribulations.

To such a hardworking woman, the god smiled upon her. When Chiba was ten years old, she awakened a skill after a particularly stormy night. It was a magic skill of wind element. From that day Chiba, as well as her mother’s life, changed forever. Later that month, she was recruited by a local small scale guild and learned how to fight despite her mother’s protest. To not make her worry needlessly, she trained diligently and mastered her powers at the shortest time possible, becoming stronger than even the guild master in the following years.

Riding on her coattails, the guild also climbed the social ladder, becoming a medium tier guild in Ibaraki. But as the guild became powerful socially, its members began to change. They no longer had that warm disposition Chiba liked. If she had to use a word, it would be that they became vain.

They no longer cared about bonds they formed for all these years and blinded by the greed of upper echelons. But Chiba didn’t abandon them. It was them who made her what she was now, how could she abandon them? Besides, she also held a faint hope in her heart that, one day they would come to their senses and return to being the warm members she once remembered them to be.

That shimmer of hope dashed from the 17-year-old’s heart after what happened last night.

Last Sunday, the guild attained a party at an expensive place. It was hosted by a huge business magnet who deals with all kind of dungeon materials. The nature of the business made him very influential in Ibaraki.

In that party, he somehow captivated by the beauty of her and wanted to pursue her. But Chiba denied flat out. Although the man had an enviable business that boomed and thrived in the current era and regarded as the most influential man in the locality, she still didn’t want to be pursued by him.

Why?

Because, that man…he was even older than her mom. How could she date a man who was old enough to be her father?

But he never gave up and used his influence to pressure, the guild and her, to accept his proposal. He gave them an ultimatum to make her marry him or be reduced to what they had been initially, losing their political power. Such a threat may not be anything to her, but to her guildmates who were so drunk in their money and power, it was like a thunder falling on their heads.

They begged, requested and even resort to threat to make her accept the proposal. The guild master, whom she lovingly addressed aunt, even went as far as dragging her mother into the conversation. It was the last straw that broke the camel’s back, losing all hope for their salvation, she threatened them to resign and stormed off.

And now, she was in the dungeon, working off all the stress she accumulated over the past week. Feeling all her stress thinning, she decided to return home and spend the whole day with her mother, but when he was heading for the teleportation gate, she came across a fascinating view.

A huge burning stone giant and a small man with tattered clothes were busy in a heated battle that looked almost like a movie scene. She was so busy admiring and marveling the fight that she forgot the weirdness of a burning monster appearing on a swamp dungeon.