Lizardman (3)
The moment the female monster appeared, Alpha Male activated automatically.
Stats have increased.
This effect will persist as long as the target remains alive during battle.
Because there was a female among the enemies, his stats had risen by 2.1 times. His average stat now exceeded 75, putting him in an incredibly powerful state. On top of that, he had the practical swordsmanship he’d learned from Shin Jiyeon while fighting the giant bats.
“Kieek!”
“Kyaaaak!”
The lizardmen charged at terrifying speed. As expected of D-rank monsters, their velocity was on a completely different level from anything he’d faced before. They swam skillfully through the sticky mud swamp and then burst onto land, their movements so fast that an ordinary person would have struggled to react.
What’s more, their high intelligence made their monster placement remarkably systematic. Instead of three of them simply rushing all at once, two charged forward with spears while one hung back, aiming a bow.
They even have a ranged attacker.
It felt like the difficulty had jumped up another notch by forcing the party to split roles. But even if it wasn’t true long-range capability, Jihun had a squad member with decent reach of her own.
“Briana!”
“Yes!”
Briana, who had evolved into a hobgoblin upon reaching D-rank this time, hadn’t only gained the ability to speak. Her strength, stamina, and other stats had also shot up dramatically, and her weapon handling had become far more proficient. She used to wield a whip about three meters long, but with her increased strength and better understanding of the weapon, she could now handle a full five-meter whip.
“Take care of the one with the bow.”
“Understood, Master.”
There was no need to risk diving between the close-range enemies to target the archer first. Jihun and Kar would focus on the melee fighters while leaving the distant one to Briana, whose reach was long enough. With that decision made, Jihun dashed straight toward the spear-wielding lizardmen.
“Krrang!”
Though she was still E-rank, Kar was a combatant in her own right. She followed right beside him to provide support.
Briana evolved, so Kar should be evolving soon too, right?
Thinking that, Jihun stood shoulder to shoulder with Kar. There were two enemies, so they would each take one. His plan was to finish his opponent quickly and then assist Kar.
“Kihak! Kura! Riduto!”
At that moment, the male lizardman facing Kar shouted something at her. It was probably similar to what Briana had heard before—traitor for siding with humans, and so on. But Jihun’s familiars didn’t waver in the slightest at such words.
“Hup!”
Whoosh!
Kar launched a kick without even bothering to respond. The male lizardman, startled, hurriedly leaped backward. Having fully recognized her as an enemy, he gripped his spear properly and thrust it at her.
Swoosh!
While it was a close-range position, a spear was long by nature. If he committed to the thrust, he could attack from a distance that could fit two people between them. In contrast, Kar was a pure close-combat brawler. The reason she’d been able to land that kick earlier was because the opponent had let his guard down thinking she was the same kind of monster. Once the distance was opened, she had no choice but to dodge the incoming spear strikes again and again.
She would have to stall for time until Jihun could join her—
The enemy is temporarily stiffened and intimidated.
“Kyaaak?!”
Thud!
Thanks to the stiffness effect and his boosted stats, Jihun was able to dispatch one lizardman without much difficulty.
Female monster defeated.
Mana has increased by 1.
Obtained Low-grade D-rank Magic Stone.
He immediately turned his head toward Kar, but then—
Creak…
The sound of a bowstring being drawn. The ranged lizardman had taken aim at Jihun. It had probably planned to provide support during the fight, but the battle had ended so quickly that it was only shooting now. However—
Whirr—
A long whip flew in from somewhere and wrapped tightly around the bow the lizardman was holding.
“Kiek?!”
Startled by the sudden whip, the lizardman looked in the direction it had come from. There stood a hobgoblin smiling brightly.
“Not a chance.”
She yanked the whip hard, trying to snatch the bow away. But the opponent was also a D-rank monster and refused to let go so easily.
“Keeek!”
Clench—
It gripped the bow with all its strength, refusing to release it, and reached out to untangle the whip wrapped around the weapon. At that moment—
“Hng…!”
Briana skillfully loosened the whip for a split second before snapping it again, sending a wave of force through it.
Slither— Thwack!
“Kiek?!”
The wave of power caused the taut whip to suddenly jerk forward and go slack. The lizardman, who had been pulling with all its might, lost its balance and tumbled backward. Naturally, the bow it had been holding was ripped from its grasp.
“Kar! Finish it!”
“Grrrng!”
Crack!
At the perfect moment, Kar snapped the neck of the remaining close-range lizardman. The fallen ranged lizardman was then finished off by Jihun, who had already closed the distance.
Slice!
Female monster eliminated.
Strength has increased by 1.
Obtained Low-grade D-rank Magic Stone.
Female monster has disappeared. Stats have returned to normal.
The first battle against the lizardmen ended without much difficulty. Thanks to the magitech boots, his feet didn’t sink into the mud, allowing him to fight at his usual condition. The strengthened Briana was now strong enough to win a one-on-one against a lizardman, and while Kar couldn’t defeat one outright, she could at least buy time. Of course, if two or more latched onto her it would be dangerous, but it seemed she could handle up to four at once.
“Wow. You guys are seriously fighting well now. Briana got way stronger after becoming a hobgoblin, and Kar did great against those lizardmen too.”
Of course, even in truly dangerous moments, they had one final bastion. Shin Jiyeon, who had been watching the fight from the back so she could jump in if things got risky, approached them with a look of admiration.
“Hehe, thank you.”
“Kyrrng. Tatuhta.”
Briana and Kar both smiled bashfully at the praise.
“Mm, but these really are great. The ground is a swamp, but it feels just like walking on concrete.”
Jihun was impressed by the performance of the magitech boots. Normally his feet would have gotten stuck in the mud, slowing him down, or he might have sunk completely and been unable to move at all. The power of the mana floor was incredibly useful. The fact that he could run and swing his sword, that Briana could stand firm and have a tug-of-war with the lizardman using her whip, and that Kar could dodge the spear with fluid movements—all of it was thanks to these boots.
“Hehe, I did well bringing them, didn’t I?”
“Yeah, yeah. You did great.”
Jihun stroked Shin Jiyeon’s head as if she were a good girl.
“Hehe, hehet…”
She beamed with a bright, happy smile at the head pat.
“M-Master… I worked hard too.”
“Kyahng, Ktarah!”
Seeing that, both Briana and Kar started subtly begging for head pats as well.
They’re so cute…
Thinking that, Jihun patted each of their heads in turn.
# The gate itself progressed without too much difficulty. Whenever lizardmen appeared they fought, and when there were too many, Shin Jiyeon stepped in to take some down. As a result, her stats rose again. Since they were D-rank monsters, she seemed to gain stats even with fewer kills than she had needed against the E-rank giant bats.
Unfortunately, Kar didn’t get to shine enough to evolve midway. Still, whether because her stats had risen quite a bit or because she had grown used to fighting lizardmen, from the middle of the expedition onward she was able to dodge attacks skillfully and even land a few hits of her own.
“Hoo… We’ve already reached the boss room.”
After hunting roughly sixty lizardmen, the place that was clearly the boss room finally appeared. It was still a swamp, but the area was densely surrounded by trees, as if it had been deliberately sectioned off into its own separate space. That had to be the boss’s territory.
The battles themselves had taken quite a while, so they had already been inside the gate for nearly four hours. They had taken breaks in between, and since they were hunters—or monsters—their stamina was high, but spending close to four hours in a damp, heavy, humid space was still quite exhausting.
“Still, it’s a relief this is a straight-line gate. Sometimes you get maze types or huge field types, you know? Those are actual nightmares.”
Field type. That was exactly what the first F-rank gate Jihun had ever entered—the one where he met Briana—had been. The map itself was quite small, but instead of a straight path to the boss room, it had been a wide open field with forests stretching in every direction. That was why everyone had been scattered when they hit the teleportation trap.
In those cases, to avoid wasting magic stones, you had to find the boss room first and then thoroughly sweep the entire field while killing every monster. Of course, if the map was too large, it was better to just kill whatever you ran into and hurry to find the boss room to clear it. But because the map was literally so vast, finding the boss room itself was extremely difficult.
Maze types literally twisted the map like a labyrinth, meaning you would wander around in circles inside the gate trying to find the boss room. Naturally, both of those were far more difficult and time-consuming than a simple straight-line map, so they were lucky this swamp map hadn’t turned out to be a huge field type.
“Anyway, we just have to kill the boss and we’re done.”
Jihun let out a long breath as he spoke, shaking off the fatigue that had built up until now, then stepped inside.
The boss… Will it be humanoid again this time?
Ah… I really hope it’s not a male type like last time…
A new comrade…? Or just an enemy we have to kill…?
Karutu, kraga…
Each of them carried their own thoughts as they slowly entered the boss room.
“………”
Whether it was tension from the upcoming battle or tension about the boss’s appearance, everyone looked around with nervous expressions. And then—
Warning! You have entered the boss room. The boss monster is appearing!
Boss Monster, Lizardman Knight ‘Serina’ has emerged!
“A named monster…!!”
“If its name is Serina…?!”
Both Jihun’s and Jiyeon’s eyes sparkled with excitement.
And right in front of them—
Splash—!
The swamp water exploded upward, then spread out in a magical wave. From within that surge, someone walked out.
“Kark…”
Short blue hair. A reptilian horn rising from the top of her head. Her eyes glowed purple like amethysts. She wore scale-like armor dress that left her chest and thighs completely exposed, making one question whether it actually functioned as armor at all.
The Lizardman Knight ‘Serina,’ who had appeared while parting the water to both sides as if she could use magic, was an incredibly beautiful woman bathed in blue light.
“Uwooooooh!! Finally! Finaaally!”
“Kyaaaak! Lady Serina! She’s a goddess-level beauty!!”
The instant she appeared, a fan club was instantly born.