Chapter 40: Snap Decisions, Sloppy Play
Sunraku: "Firepower's lacking."
On my sixth respawn—courteously placed right in the arena's waiting room—I delivered that assessment to Emul.
I hadn't expected a brutal onslaught of numbers and levels right out of the gate. After a few attempts, I'd figured out their patterns and realized the strategy itself was simple... but I hit a problem that was obvious in a sense: my stats just weren't enough.
Above all else, my DPS was lacking. The dogs—the Packhounds—were likely monsters that spawn as "a single monster" but possess "separate HP bars." Kind of like a boss character with HP bars for each individual part.
Sunraku: "I've mostly got the strategy down, but if I don't cut down the time it takes to kill each one, they'll just eat me alive."
Put another way, if I can just solve that one problem, they'll be easy to take down.
Trying to force my way through with critical hits was tricky because the other hounds would attack me in the meantime. Still, maybe I'd been excessively wary just because they were dogs with black fur. Once I saw what lay beneath the lid, they turned out to be nothing more than trash mobs whose numbers and coordination were the only annoying parts. Honestly, it was a bit anticlimactic.
Emul: "Is that so, wa?"
Sunraku: "Anyway, I'm about to level up, so I'm gonna go grind some EXP real quick."
Emul: "Huh?"
Lookie here, doggos, it's chow time. The menu is me, but I'm only killing one of you lot. Yeah, you. Tough luck. Oh, great—the dreaded "one short" gremlin! Sorry, looks like I need one more kill. Alright, I'll make it you. Ah, wait, at least let me kill this one fir— blergh.
Sunraku: "Alright, level up."
Emul: "You died so fluidly, wa!?"
About five minutes later, having finished leveling, confirming their behavior, and blowing off a little steam, I greeted the dumbfounded Emul as I stepped out of the arena's waiting room. The best part about this scenario—and more specifically, the practical combat training in this arena—was that there was no death penalty. I could suicide rush as many times as I wanted.
The downside was that, combined with my accessory's effect, the experience points were a pittance. If not for the EXP I'd gained from Mud Digger (even split with Emul), I probably would've had to kill several dozen more Packhounds. Actually, the EXP gain is blatantly low here. Are event enemies specifically nerfed in EXP? Damn them.
I opened my status window and allocated the points gained from Mud Digger and the few Packhounds. Not into STR... but 5 points each into STM and DEX.
Sunraku: "I’ll keep two points in reserve, just in case... Yeah, that’ll do."
Firepower is what I lack, but at this point, raising my STR would be too little, too late. In that case, I'll increase my DPS from a different angle.
Sunraku: "...Alright! Watch this, Emul. I'm gonna go take those mutts down right now."
Emul: "Wah, good luck, wa!"
At times like this, declaring your goal to someone else—even just for show—helps steel your nerves. Having given Emul my victory forecast, I stepped back into the arena.
Sunraku: "I’ve figured out your trick, mutts! I’ll turn you into a scattered flock... though you’re dogs, not birds!"
My words weren’t particularly meaningful, and I doubted they could understand them, but my intent to provoke seemed to get across. The Packhounds charged in with a roar... I see. So you're the command tower.
Sunraku: "I've memorized your ugly mug! Raaah!"
After a few attempts, I'd figured something out.
Individually, these monsters weren't that troublesome. Their true annoyance was concentrated in their group tactics... but even so, their coordination was too good. While I could just chalk it up to excellent AI, I kept observing and finally found it.
Sunraku: "Instead of lording it up in the back, you hide among your underlings. You've got a real rotten personality, y'know that?"
An individual that only howled and clearly never attacked. A commander, hiding among the attacking units while issuing orders from a safe zone. I pegged this one as the lynchpin of the "Packhound" monster.
My guess seemed to have hit the mark. The other Packhounds, realizing I was targeting only the commander, lunged to sink their teeth into me, but their movements were clearly lacking their usual precision.
Seeing them crash into each other mid-air as they leaped—it was hard to believe these were the same monsters that had surrounded me from all sides, latched onto my limbs, and methodically hunted me down just moments ago.
The time efficiency was still rough due to the level gap, but if I kept hacking away with the Vorpal Chopper like I was swinging an ice pick, piling on attack after attack and critical hit after critical hit, they'd eventually hit their limit.
Sunraku: "So without someone to hold the majority together, it’s just a bunch of scattered minorities, huh?"
Pretty damn ironic and amusing. Picking off the Packhounds once they finally started fighting amongst themselves was, at the very least, far easier than dodging attacks from a high-level player.
Sunraku: "Alright! Raaah!"
The last one burst into polygons and scattered. I let out a cheer of triumph.
Even if each enemy mob had relatively little HP, with a gap of nearly forty levels, taking down a single one still took time. Even while fighting amongst themselves, the Packhounds' AI wasn't stupid enough to just sit there and get beaten to death. Picking them all off one by one was pretty exhausting in its own way.
At times like this, I feel a tiny bit of envy toward brainless STR-maxed muscle warriors.
Emul: "Good work, Sunraku-san, wa!"
Sunraku: "Ah, yeah. If possible, let the next one be a single monster..."
Calling that the first enemy when it was a dozen or so bodies... honestly, what a drag.
Emul: "The next one is properly a single monster, wa!"
Sunraku: "Huh, what kind of..."
Second one: a bear with tentacles growing from its back, each ending in what looked like a snake's head... Parasite Tentacle.
Sunraku: "That feels like multiple monsters!"
Damn it, I don't know which one's the main body, but I'll beat the crap out of them all!!!