Chapter 9: Run, Chased by Damage over Time
I'll admit it: I underestimated Shangri-La Frontier.
I figured it was just an easy game praised by the masses, something I could handle as long as I put in a little effort. Thinking, I can clear this without taking damage even if I don't have any herbs, was pure arrogance. Clearing Fuckaria must have gone to my head a little. In that respect, I suppose I should thank the Gluttonous Serpent.
But at the same time, let me make one excuse.
Sunraku: "How the hell was I supposed to predict that a serpent monster would throw shit at me?!"
You look like a dragon, for crying out loud! Don't you have even a little pride?!
I opened my status screen and checked my current HP: 28. About twenty seconds had passed since I got hit by the poison dung, so it was dealing 1 damage every ten seconds—probably percentage-based damage. I had 28 HP left, or effectively 27 before the next tick, which meant 270 seconds. Four and a half minutes. That was the time limit left to me, Sunraku.
How long would it take to run to Secondale? What was the optimal way to manage my stamina? More importantly, how much HP did the Gluttonous Serpent have left? Damn it, at times like this nothing pissed me off more than this game's system not showing enemy HP bars!
Sunraku: "Screw it! I'll kill it fast!!"
RTA isn't my specialty, but I've done my share of time attacks.
The Deadly Knife. SLF's critical-hit criteria. The Gluttonous Serpent's durability and defense... I had to work out the answer from the information I already had.
Critical hits in this game aren't random. As far as I can tell, they happen either when a player's attack lands in an ideal way or when it strikes a vital point.
And the Luck stat gives a bonus to the former judgment.
For example, if a perfectly vertical downward swing would score a critical, then the higher your Luck, the more angular leeway you get—one or two degrees off might still be judged a critical. Something like that.
Then there was the Gluttonous Serpent.
With serpent-type monsters, the head is usually the weak point. But despite how this one looked, it had high burst speed. The intended strategy was probably for several players to pin down its head while an attacker crushed it in one go.
I couldn't do that, so forcing an attack on the head would only waste time.
Then what? Attacks anywhere else were either less effective or had to get through heavily armored scales... If there wasn't a weak point, I'd make one!!
Sunraku: "There!!"
Thank God the Deadly Knife is a pointed deba-style knife. If it were shaped like a Chinese cleaver, a thrust would probably be judged as blunt damage.
I activated Scoopias. The tip of the knife drove into the Gluttonous Serpent's flank, ripping through the scales and exposing a wound of bare polygons.
Apparently that was too much for it. The serpent writhed and tried to coil around me, but I'd already figured out most of your attack patterns!!
I used Tap Step to evade while sticking close to the wound. The instant the Gluttonous Serpent's action ended, I switched straight to offense.
Sunraku: "Stamina! Five per hit!!"
I hadn't fully recovered from the evasive move, so I had to stop after three attacks.
If I completely ran out of stamina, the game would force me into a fatigue animation. And I'd already confirmed that landing Scoopias left a "wound" behind for several seconds.
I hammered more attacks into the weak point I'd forcibly created, triggering a critical. Unable to take it, the Gluttonous Serpent reeled backward. I used the opening to check my stamina and the skill's reuse time—its cast time.
Sunraku: "Drop dead!!"
The stamina needed to activate Scoopias... I had enough.
The critical checks from landing Scoopias... both the left and right strikes were criticals.
Polygons burst from the Gluttonous Serpent's wound. I could've sworn the Deadly Knife gave off a faint glow.
Then the polygon explosion spread across the serpent's entire body, and its massive frame burst apart.
Sunraku: "Y-YESSS...!"
Does the fatigue animation seriously make you feel exhausted too...? No, more importantly—the drops! HP! Stamina! I'm out of time!!
Without even checking them properly, I threw the dropped items into my inventory, confirmed my stamina had recovered, and started running.
Bad, bad, bad. My HP was already down to single digits. That shitty snake took way too long with every single action!!
Sunraku: "Run, run, run...!!"
Normally I'd probably be looking down into the ravine and shaking, but screw that. I sprinted across the suspension bridge at full speed.
HP remaining: 6! I had to reach town in fifty seconds... and buy an antidote!? No—more importantly, update my respawn point!!
Damn it, my stamina wouldn't last. Having to slow to a walk while it recovered was maddening. At this pace I'd die before I got there... No, wait.
Sunraku: "If I soloed the area boss, then I get all the EXP to myself... Bingo!!"
I'd leveled up! And I had points too!!
With my thoughts on the verge of short-circuiting, I barely managed to register the 30 points I'd gained and dumped half into STM and half into AGI.
Sunraku: "UOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!"
Then, pushing my nearly doubled speed and endurance at full throttle, I hurled myself into Secondale.