Chapter 236: Chapter 144: Limit Match Part 2

Originally, this place was a tropical island above the sea level, but with the appearance of Kutanid the whole island got dragged underwater and inverted to what we can see right now. That fact alone speaks volumes about the strength of this inversion ability.

「Kutanid only invites those to his home that he deems worthy. So there is no other way to meet him rather than having to play his sick little games.」

「Hmm, is there anyone at all who managed to go meet him face-to-face and tell the tale?」

「There was actually someone like that. They say that he managed to get into the citadel, confront Kutanid and pierce his left eye. Then he escaped the city before its inhabitants could kill him.」

「Hee…… You sure know some juicy details about that.」

「That’s because the man in question was my grandfather.」

「Some relative you got there.」

Right, intel organization time!

First of all, the overall purpose of this Unique Quest EX is to meet some extra conditions without which it will be impossible to actually face off against Kutanid. So us being dragged in here could actually be like getting cursed by Luukan…… Meaning there surely is some sort of way to get this thing done.

That way would be defeating the four “seals” in forms of mini-bosses, which are sure to have some battle gimmicks added to them for increased difficulty. Otherwise I don’t know the reason for locking them in fixed locations rather than letting them roam freely. Also, if there are even more gimmicks like having to face them all alone, I think I’m gonna cry.

Welp, at least I know what I need to do. For now, I’ll just store all of my important items in INVENTORY and patch myself up. By the way, since I’ve obtained the Arcana “Fool” my need for medications went up slightly.

「Uhahahahahahaha! I feel like the Pied Piper of Hamelin right now!」

I run like a lunatic through the bluish-lit city. Behind me, there was a cavalcade of at least a hundred fish people and occasionally there would be mermaids coming to attack me from above.

Even though they all looked like beautiful women, I had absolutely no problems with kicking them and occasionally slicing them apart. They were monsters, after all, so it was quite alright for me to do so.

In retrospect, this whole scene looked like something taken straight out of a horror game, with the mermaid’s screams serving as the most eerie BGM you’ve ever heard in your life.

「Like, I know that I’ve been collecting aggro on purpose here, but don’t you think that’s going a little bit overboard!?」

If their numbers increase even further, this won’t be a horror anymore but it will rather turn into a complete comedy. Even though they were doing their best to try to catch me, they were so slow that I just wanted to laugh at them for wasting their efforts.

And so I kept on running, gathering even more attention to myself and looking for information and my lost companions, occasionally picking up items here and there.

「Momentum! Power! Unreasonableness! If you’ll want to catch me, you’ll have to do better than that!」

Comparing it to the crystals scorpions suddenly ganging up on you out of nowhere, this was actually a walk in the park for me. Not to mention that the mermaids could do their worst to try to debuff me, because apparently their songs counted as curses, and thanks to Luukan’s Curse Marks I was still immune to any curses they might throw at me.

As a matter of fact, if the mermaids’ curse afflicted only my ears, maybe it would amount to something, but since it was trying to afflict my whole body, the Curse Markings went into effect and protected me.

Also, I know that it is just a mimicry, but there was something oddly satisfying or even disturbing about being able to hit them in the jaw and not feel any guilt about it. I mean, they wanted to look like that, so it can’t be helped, right?

But after a few short skirmishes it started to hit me: it was useless trying to fight them all. They would just come at me infinitely without stopping, only exhausting my stamina and wearing out my equipment.

「Save completed…… Right, I’ll go out to have a look around.」

「Where are you going?」

「My companions are still somewhere around this city. So I need to find them. They are as important to me as my weapons are, you see.」

When you secure a respawn point and eventually stop being afraid, there is only one thing you have left to do in this situation.

「A special attack.」

「In this scenario…… Does “hiding” amount to default strategy or something?」

Having that in mind, what I was about to do might just be pointless aggro gathering, but…… Right here, right now in this strange city, it was the best thing that I could actually do.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

「Close your eyes and listen closely. Listen to the sounds that the water is carrying from afar.」

There were only two possible outcomes of the action that I was supposed to do right now: either we get some sort of response and we’ll know what to do, or we’ll have to relocate because of the friends that will try to close in on our location.

「Haaa…… IS THERE ANYONE IN THERE!?」

「SSSSSSAAAAAANNNNNNRRRRRRAAAAAAKKKKKKUUUUUUSSSSSSAAAAAANNNNNN……!!!!!!」

Bingo! It responded!