...Perverts

"...Perverts."

The lake shuddered.

Beneath its surface, something buried there opened its eyes, and the water of the fairly sizable lake began to churn and overflow its bounds.

It was almost as if the lake itself had been made for the single creature living at its bottom — the whole body of water moved for it alone.

Before long, that something revealed itself completely.

A green thing... bearing a giant lotus petal on its back.

"A frog?"

A frog far bigger than the Goblin King of Union I'd caught before — and this one carried an enormous lotus petal on its back, its rubbery green skin looking tough as old leather just from sight.

But the frog's level was a mere 45.

Compared to the Goblin King, who had been a full 62, it was unquestionably the weaker of the two.

No need to suffer like I did last time, then.

The frog flaunted its massive bulk and flailed its forelegs outward — less an all-out attempt to attack me than the gesture of something swatting an insect out of its way.

With a great fwaaash!, the churning water erupted, and the whole wave came crashing down over me.

I tried to dodge, but the flood was simply too much and the frog too enormous — an unavoidable water bomb.

"...Perverts."

The camera did catch me drenched after that first wave — and yet the chat filled up with question marks, because I was standing there perfectly dry.

"Nothing of the sort that you're imagining, everyone."

As long as I could use Manifestation — the casting of basic magic by hand — through the power of spirits, wrapping a thin layer of wind around myself to shrug off water was child's play.

In the terms of the martial novels my viewers loved, it would be a body-protecting aura of qi; in magical terms, a mana barrier draped over the whole body.

Repelling actual attacks at my current level was still beyond me, but deflecting a splash of water was well within reach.

And honestly, my body is strong enough on its own — no need to waste precious mana on something like that.

...Seems there are quite a few fans I'll be leaving wanting.

"So if I catch the frog... can I do a little sword dance?"

I snorted at the flood of bowed heads in the chat.

They really are like village children in moments like this — adorable when they're excited and curious, but every so often that mischief streak kicks in and makes me want to smack them one.

I squared my spear.

The frog, apparently miffed that its attack had been dodged, raised both forelegs this time.

Then slammed them down.

The instant those front legs struck the earth, a colossal surge of water leapt toward the sky — and through the gap, spear in hand, I drove straight for the frog's heart.

Clang! The frog's chest skin was rock hard.

Hardly surprising — last time, even Turtle Sword charged with wind affinity had barely managed to bite in.

-Kroo!

The frog thrashed its whole body wildly, trying to shake me off its chest.

But it was simply too big to get any leverage, and by now the green spearhead had long since dug into that chest.

Crunch... crunch... I pressed harder and harder.

No matter how tough the hide, sustained force will drive a blade through eventually.

Just a little more, and I'd reach the heart—

The message flared up right in front of me as I kept forcing the spear deeper.

I glanced back — about ten of the lotus monsters I'd caught earlier had just been summoned in.

The moment they materialized, they began spraying blade-leaves everywhere.

Left with no choice, I withdrew my spear and dodged the leaves.

Kwagagak! The blade-leaves slammed into the frog's hide, but that skin was so dense they left nothing but shallow gashes.

Piercing it outright was beyond them.

To pierce, I'd need that level of raw attack power — which meant raising the output of Spear's Roar, and raising the output would make the rest of my hunt that much harder.

If this were my final hunt, I'd happily burn it all, but I still had plenty of monsters left to catch, so pacing myself was the smarter play.

Evading the blade-leaves, I activated Flight — one of the enchantments woven into the Blessing of Nerindia.

As I climbed high into the sky, the giant lotus petal on the frog's back came into view.

At the center of that vast blue-green leaf rose a round, lotus-pink heart of the bloom.

A weak point practically begging to be struck.

I released Flight.

Gravity pulled my body down.

Gripping the spear in both hands, I plummeted toward a single target.

A trickle of mana seeped into the spearhead, and accelerated by my fall, the spear's charge grew faster still.

At the last moment, I added a Sphere Attack, twisting the spear slightly to put the weight of the technique behind it.

Spinning, and yet not spinning, I drove the spear down into the heart of the lotus.

Unlike that armored hide, the blade sank in with almost insulting ease.

-KROOOOOOOO!!

The lotus, so graceful a moment ago, was shredded to tatters in an instant — and the frog convulsed, its massive body thrashing in a frenzy.

So that was the weak point.

-Kroo?

-Kroooooo...!

Through all of it, the thing couldn't have cared less about its own minions — it kept convulsing even as they were crushed flat beneath its enormous bulk.

The lotus monsters were flattened into lotus-leaf pancakes in the blink of an eye, and the survivors, desperate to live, forgot about throwing blade-leaves entirely and bolted in every direction.

I drew the spear back.

All that remained now was to finish cooking this berserk frog.

"I really do need to get a proper weapon soon."

A giant hammer would have been perfect for this.

Having to take down a monster that size with nothing but a skewer of a spear like this...

Muttering my complaint, I twisted the spear shaft.