Chapter 36

7/17 This is the 6th post of the day.

I was aiming for a single Poison Mouse.

(Hmm... It doesn’t seem to be in a group, but it won’t move too far from the other one about 30 meters away. I wonder if the other one will come closer...)

I slowly approached on tiptoe, and the Poison Mouse seemed to notice me, reacting with a start and keeping its eyes on me.

When I glanced at the other Poison Mouse a bit further away, it seemed not to have identified me as a threat yet, as it was still buried in the grass, apparently eating.

If I can see it, the Poison Mouse can see me too.

At first, I was happy about the wide field of view, but I was internally nervous that if "a companion is attacked!" all the brown objects moving around in the field of view would suddenly gather.

(I hope it continues to act alone...)

Thinking this, I got about 10 meters closer.

Here it comes!!

Only one came at me!

And... oh, oh, it’s so slow!!

It seems a bit faster than a Horn Rabbit, but now that I’m level 8, I can easily dodge even after it uses [Charge]. The Poison Mouse, hopping a bit as it approached, was surprisingly slow, which was actually a problem.

Maybe it’s because it’s a rat but about 50 cm long and unnecessarily big.

Even the small rats on Earth are clearly faster.

"A, a, a, no way! The sword comes out first!!"

Like a batter who suddenly gets a fastball after a slow pitch...

Unable to hold back my body due to the gap between expectation and reality, I spontaneously changed from a horizontal swing to a thrust.

In an awkward stance that would make anyone familiar with swordsmanship say, "What the heck is this?" I faced the Poison Mouse with the tip of my sword pointed forward...

The Poison Mouse tried to dodge but couldn’t, and it was impaled from the head, slightly off-center.

[You have obtained [Poison Resistance] Lv1]

[You have obtained [Poison Resistance] Lv2]

"Wha...?"

Due to the messy stance, I fell to the ground, but I was surprised that I managed to defeat it anyway.

More surprisingly, I gained the [Poison Resistance] skill from just one enemy.

Moreover, the announcements kept coming, and the skill level immediately reached 2, leaving me stunned and unable to stand up.

(...What is this... What happened? ...No, I need to think about this later! What about the other one!?)

Looking around, the other one, which was a bit closer, was still buried in the grass and didn’t seem to notice its companion’s death.

Relieved, I returned my gaze to the corpse right in front of me.

"The poison sac is in the head, but I stabbed it in the head..."

According to the information from Rody, the head of the dissection department, damaging the head would destroy the material value.

Worst case, it would be unbuyable, and at best, the material value would be 'E' or 'D'. However, since it was my first time, I decided to take it back anyway, collecting the head, the tail as a reward, and the magic stone.

Thanks to my experience in the Palmera Great Forest, I didn’t think much of dissecting a rat.

(I might as well go back to the entrance for now since something incomprehensible just happened...)

Quickly putting some distance between myself and the monster, I immediately opened the status screen to check the details of [Poison Resistance].

[Poison Resistance] Lv2: Increased resistance to poison. Always active. No MP consumption.

The details were as expected.

However, the sudden jump to skill level 2 and 16% was puzzling.

The only explanation is that the Poison Mouse had a high level of the [Poison Resistance] skill.

This is the only plausible explanation, and I’m pretty sure this assumption is correct.

If so, this could be a very hot monster...

After all, this [Poison Resistance] skill has a bonus to defense.

It immediately increased by +3, and if I can get this far from one enemy, I might be able to reach level 5 or 6 with a bit of persistence.

That would significantly boost my defense.

It would be a very helpful stat against the orcs in the Lulub Forest.

Moreover, the Poison Mice seem weaker than expected and are quite numerous...

Hey, is this a bonus stage?

Anyway, I decided to defeat another Poison Mouse to check how much the [Poison Resistance] skill experience would increase.

After that, I would hunt them in large numbers while searching for the Air Mantis.

▽ ▼ ▽ ▼ ▽

About three hours later, after running around and taking breaks, I had defeated four Poison Mice and was confident that their [Poison Resistance] skill was level 4.

Why?

Because after the skill level reached 3, the increase per enemy became 20%.

This indicated that the increase rate from the initial state to skill level 1 was the same as in the Palmera Great Forest.

Assuming the monsters in the Palmera Great Forest had skill level 1, it’s unlikely that the monsters in a low-level hunting ground would have skill levels 2 or 3, so it’s safe to assume that the monsters there had skill level 1.

Therefore,

If I hunt normally, I should easily reach skill level 5.

After reaching skill level 4, the increase rate per enemy became a flat 2% per level, so the required experience for each level doesn’t seem to increase exponentially...

However, since the monsters with skill level 4 have a higher amount of skill experience per enemy, and they are easier to find and more numerous,

It’s a piece of cake.

At the very least, I should aim for skill level 6.

If possible, I’d like to reach skill level 7.

This is because, after obtaining my first skill level 4, the pattern of bonus stat increases changed.

Previously, the corresponding stat increased by +1 at level 1, +2 at level 2, and +3 at level 3, but at level 4, the corresponding stat, in this case, defense, increased by +5.

This suggests that the higher the skill level, the greater the increase in bonus stats, so I expect that hunting monsters with high-level skills will make things much easier in the long run.

The Poison Mice are great... really great.

It’s rare to hear of a poisonous creature dying from its own poison, but since they have poison sacs in their bodies, it’s natural that they have some level of poison resistance.

In these three hours, I also defeated two Air Mantis, which were not much of a challenge.

They have a green body that blends well with the grass, making them hard to distinguish, but while hunting Poison Mice using [Perception], I sometimes noticed something moving in the grass.

I couldn’t tell if it was an Air Mantis just by the presence, but when I followed it with my eyes, I saw a large mantis head peeking out of the grass, so I used [Charge].

I was able to neutralize it before it could use wind magic, so it was an easy enemy that posed no threat.

When I got close, it tried to swing its front legs, but when I hit it with my sword, the legs were cleanly cut off, so there was no real confrontation.

It was just a creepy giant insect.

I was a bit worried that it might use wind magic while I was fighting the Poison Mice...

Is it because they are F-rank monsters?

Or is it because I’ve been persistently hunting in the Palmera Great Forest to raise my skill levels?

The ease of the Locker Plain makes me nervous that I might get overconfident.

—And then, I might go to an E-rank hunting ground and get killed.

I wonder if this is what happened to Paiser’s son?

Thinking about this, I decided to be more cautious and not move to the next hunting ground until I reach my target skill levels.

It’s more efficient and safer to move to a new hunting ground based on skill levels rather than my vague sense of strength or the feel of the monsters.

[Wind Magic] to at least skill level 3.

[Poison Resistance] to at least skill level 6.

I’ll stick to this plan and then decide what to do next.

With this decision, I finally took a bite of the portable food, which I had been holding in my hand and hesitating to eat, and which I had named 'Horse Dung Replica'.

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