Chapter 8: Birdhead Versus Giant Snake
Sunraku: "The number of hits needed has gone up, but I have to be careful about durability."
He muttered to himself as he turned an Almiraj into a burst of polygons with a Goblin's Hand Axe that was about to break. He was saving the Deadly Knife. The Mercenary's Twin Blades were also getting low on durability. This was, after all, a beginner area—whatever you called it: novice, rookie, newbie. Unless something unusual happened, he thought he could get by on level advantage alone...
Sunraku: "...Is that it?"
Ahead, the line of artificial structures visible in the distance was undoubtedly the second town, "Secondale."
There was a single suspension bridge crossing the ravine that cut off the road from this forest—marked on the map as "The Rampant Forest"—to Secondale. And standing before the bridge like a gatekeeper... no, perhaps "coiled" would be more accurate? A giant serpent was there, flicking its tongue as if lying in wait for players heading to the next town.
Sunraku: "A so‑called field boss? Or area boss? Either way."
It seemed he couldn't reach Secondale without defeating it. Recommended party size: three. Recommended level: 10. Could he do it solo? If things went badly, he'd have to go all out or respawn in Firstia.
Come to think of it, respawning as a "it was all a dream" scenario meant losing all items in his inventory, right? The thought suddenly occurred to him, so to avoid proving that, he had to clear without a single death at all costs.
Sunraku: "When it comes to serpent‑type monsters... constriction, biting, swallowing whole, poison, molting... Those are the major attack patterns."
At the very least, as long as the serpent didn't suddenly explode "to go beyond player expectations for fun," he should be able to manage with player skill.
Sunraku: "If I recall, once a solo player or party challenges an area boss, other players and monsters can't interfere."
Honestly, he didn't mind surprise interruptions or chaos, so he felt a little conflicted. But being able to fight the boss one‑on‑one without fear of ambush was welcome. After some practice runs in preparation for the boss fight, he stepped out from the thicket and challenged the area boss of "The Rampant Forest"—the Gluttonous Serpent.
The name was grand, but it was only a beginner boss. Its movements were easy to read, and there were no cheap "first‑time killer" attacks.
With this avatar moving almost exactly as he intended, he thought it would be easy to defeat it without taking damage... There was a time when he thought that.
Sunraku: "Geez!!"
The Mercenary's Twin Blades, reduced to polygons with an unavoidable crack, showed how high the Gluttonous Serpent's armor value was.
He'd been careless. It was certainly a difficulty that even beginners could clear, but challenging it with nearly broken weapons was too much of a handicap. Contrary to its sluggish appearance, the Gluttonous Serpent slithered smoothly across the ground and lunged at him with its mouth wide open.
He twisted his body to dodge and activated Knuckle Rush, slamming a somewhat sloppy flurry of punches into the serpent's cheek.
(Oh, each individual punch has its own critical-hit check, doesn't it?)
He landed about ten punches, feeling a strong impact two or three times. Not every hit in a single skill activation was critical; each punch had its own separate check. Even without a knockback effect, taking that many high‑level blows to the face seemed to deal decent damage, as the serpent reeled its head back.
In that opening, he used the high‑speed equipment switching he'd practiced beforehand—a fairly important technique in games that allow multiple weapons—and equipped his hidden ace, the Deadly Knife, in both hands.
Standing there, dual‑wielding cleavers with red‑black blades as if soaked in the blood of their victims, half‑naked with a bird mask and those intensely staring eyes, facing down the serpent blocking the bridge to the new town—it was probably a ridiculous sight. But for a critical attacker built around dying in a single hit, this was currently the optimal setup.
Sunraku: "If you can't even use Teleport—a coordinate-desync bug—then...!!"
Unless it could instantly teleport its coordinates, land invisible attacks from behind, or become a mass of instant-death hitboxes, it wasn't worthy of being his enemy.
Sunraku: "I'll fillet you into three pieces—bweh!"
Changing the subject—when fighting serpent‑type monsters, which body parts should you watch out for?
Well, most people would answer the head or the tail. After all, their limbless form defines them as serpents, and their attacks are usually constriction, biting, or sweeping with the tail.
That's why he never expected it to shoot something like sludge from a hole near the tail, not the tail itself. To his embarrassment, he was hit dead‑on by the Gluttonous Serpent's sludge... yeah, probably excrement.
Thankfully, it wasn't the level of realism that fully replicated the smell—what a beastly quality that would be. But instead of a bad odor, a disgusting sensation like having cold, dead compresses plastered all over his body assaulted him.
And more importantly, the really bad part was:
Sunraku: "This is bad..."
His HP was being chipped away every second. Slip damage. In other words...
Poison.