Kapitel 14: First Dungeon, Captured Mobs
Hiruma summoned the Stone Golem while still being drawn into the turn-based instance.
Hiruma's current zone was indistinguishable from this dungeon-managed turn-based combat instance. Aside from the game-like textures, the sun shone brightly, the sky was light blue with few clouds, and the land remained a green plateau—a valley with tiny hills.
More specifically, Hiruma was still on the pale brown, dry dirt path that led to Farebury.
After a split second,
As the battle plans came together, Hiruma's tall, powerful, sluggish stone companion appeared on his right side.
Hiruma was in the top left position of their two-person party. He maintained his superior initiative here, moving first on both sides. The maximum number of opponents per battle in the dungeon was reduced to four. These four adversaries appeared in front of Hiruma and his stone companion.
They were all different mobs.
Regarding mob group spawning and allocation, the system's non-Hiruma turn-based combat instance settings in the dungeons differed from the games.
Another nice feature was that rare map mobs, which normally only appeared in obscure, hidden locations no longer had to be sought out in their preferred locations; they were still rare but could appear anywhere.
This last peculiarity applied to mobs like the Metal Slime families, even if defeating them was difficult; they were all cowards born with incredible agility and exceptional toughness and were quick to flee—even if they were stronger than the gamer's party.
In these non-Hiruma turn-based instances, mobs faster than Hiruma's agility could flee on their turns. Still, bosses and boss battle mobs could not.
"Are you ready, big boy?"
Hiruma was unrivaled in these turn-based battles in that the action countdown did not apply to him and his party, so when the battle started, he asked his partner.
The Golem let out an eerie and primitive growl as soon as he asked. It thundered in Hiruma's mind. He immediately captured the Golem's zealous mood; the Golem was ready to make a big splash. He was eager to impress Hiruma by crushing the arrogant opposition.
It was an affront to stop Hiruma's march and attack him; the rock giant's nature was as fierce as his appearance.
Hiruma smirked at his first adversaries, a gang of nasty and screeching runts. A Bodkin Archer, a Bunicorn, a Dracky, and a Bubble Slime comprised the group of four.
-The first of the four monsters who couldn't use Nen was the Bodkin archer, who had the most initiative in the enemy camp. He was a green, imp-like creature dressed in a simple pale dirty brown hood and matching tunics.
As a marksman, he carried a bow and a quiver of arrows. However, these were only cosmetic features; in the original game, the small archer could use the bow and shoot his arrows as long as he remained alive.
Now, stamina impacted the illogical abilities of game mobs like him. Consuming the shot was like throwing two punches at him. Because most Bodkin Archers were early foes, their attacks dealt little damage. As they grew stronger, Bodkin Archers would be annoying with their relentless shooting skills and peskier damage if encountered elsewhere in the game's advanced maps. The Bodkin archers had a basic summoning ability to summon minion Bodkin Archers.
To Hiruma, this skill would only make a difference in the outside world, and there was still a commonsense limit to the number of minions. Bodkin Archers could also use the 'Buff' skill to increase their allies' endurance and toughness.
-The Bunicorn was the second Mob; the Bunicorn was a hare with a single horn, gray fur, and a yellowish-brown horn. Except for his charge attack, he possessed no special abilities.
-The third Mob was the Bubble Slime, who appeared silly but was a dangerous Mob; Hiruma's attention was drawn to him. As his name suggested, the Bubble slime was a relative of slimes, but he was more fluid and green in comparison; he also appeared to be perpetually bubbling, though the bubbles appeared to hang in place rather than constantly produced.
Hiruma checked three of his main attacks from the start. These were the Poison Attack*, his basic toxic melee and long-range move that coated his attacks with poisons and acids; the Spooky Aura*, which reduced an enemy's resistance to Magic and adverse moves; and the Dazzle*, an illusion that created duplicates of himself not just to fool an attacking opponent. This last move was an all-around illusion but was frequently used to reduce accuracy.
-The fourth Mob was a Dracky. Normally, as an early game and Nighttime Mob, the Dracky was cute but deadly if taken lightly. The Dracky was essentially a bat, albeit with a peculiar appearance; he had large wings, antennae, two round feet, a long and thin tail, round eyes, and a fanged mouth that seemed to always be smiling.
He didn't appear particularly thoughtful or strong, much like slimes. Nonetheless, he was quick and possessed an annoying repertoire of early abilities. Snooze*, which put foes to sleep for one or more turns depending on the foe; Squelch*, which poisoned foes; and Drain Magic*, which robbed foes of MP, which was now overall energy, were all known to the Dracky.
Hiruma would have paid attention to this Dracky if he were a wizard type, but he wasn't; Nen was currently more of a supplement to his skills than his primary reliance; Hiruma relied on his body. Furthermore, the Dracky couldn't plunder his Nen because he didn't know the energy.
As a result, Hiruma concentrated his initial efforts on the most troublesome Mob; he moved quickly and attacked.
The boy gathered power in his hands, transforming them into the typical Zoldyck's sharp claws, stimulating his already slightly familiar and cheating Close Combat Nen mastery. Then, using the turn-based instance, he automatically performed a pounce, a flying maneuver, and, most importantly, a crosswise leap toward his target—the Bubble Slime.
Hiruma stabbed the Mob with his knife-like hand. There was no blood or spectacular visuals, but a burst-like streak of orange and red light materialized for a split second above the opponent's head before vanishing. Rather, his figure dissipated slowly, like vapor from the instance.
K.O.
Hiruma used his assassin's skill to remove the unappealing Bubble Slime in one shot.
The latter returned to his original position as quickly as he flew forward.
Except for the obvious disappearance, his stabbing spring had no discernible effect on his opponent before it. Even if it had, there would still be no number. The small burst icon on top of the Bubble Slime's head represented damage, big or small; it always looked the same.
The next attack was made by the Bodkin Archer, an overexcited and fast-looking arrow shot, though it was a simple attack. The little green Mob appeared to wish to channel years of rage into his feeble move.
The attack landed on the Stone Golem, who accepted it without hesitation.
Hiruma was relieved that the damage did not deplete 1/100 of his tall unit's stamina. There wasn't much to brag about or fear for this type of Mob in the original Dragon Quest 8 game, with a maximum HP of 21 to 28. Mobs who were not reborn through the system had extremely low starting abilities.
Whether half-baked, normal, or wild, Stone Golems were always in a different league than Bodkin Archers. In the Dragon Quest 8 game, sandstone golems were encountered far on some coasts.
Hiruma reminded his slow Golem to parry—with its own fundamental attack move—when the Dracky, the third in terms of speed and thus initiative in the enemy's party, made its own basic attacking move with its pointy fangs. Despite the low attack, everyone, including professionals such as priests, had this move.
Even though the Stone Golem was a monster and nothing like a priest, he had a terrifying power from the start. As a result, Dracky's watery onrush zapped him.
Hiruma's Stone Golem's confidence and spirit immediately returned. The battle was over as soon as his turn came up. The massacre began with the unit collapsing and slamming a heavy punch on the Bodkin Archer, who died on the spot.
The fight continued, with a dodging and annoyingly nimble Hiruma dispatching the Dracky on his own turn. The battle ended with the Golem stomping his foot on the Bunicorn.
There was no second outside between the start of the battle and its conclusion.
The combat itself was worthwhile with the right stats. Still, the most advantageous aspect of the turn-based combat was that time stopped, with no aging on the inside.
Hiruma wished he could pause time on Earth; he would've had more time to do many things that could've improved his life, even as a young man. For example, if he could pause time, he would not have died as he did.
He realized those thoughts were pointless when he remembered that time was only paused for turn-based combat. How could such simple things exist?
--
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Out of the turn-battle instance, with the automatically resumed time, there were two large wooden crates and four mobs in front of Hiruma.
"At long last, Yeet... Moving, using energy and calories... it all took its toll on me. Everything changes when I'm the embodiment of walking diarrhea. I'm not sure how my stomach is this strong, bro."
"As his old fanboy, I was initially upbeat, but Illumi's return isn't necessarily good news for us; this poison training stuff is a lethal bitch."
"The shocking truth is that Killua gets shot with a higher dosage than me; his whole Zoldyck upbringing is on another tier. Meanwhile, I'm almost crying here with a Healing skill and Nen... If I didn't have the memories, dammit! I don't want to think of it!"
"All right, all right, Me! Stop bitching, stop bitching!" I'm not a crying baby, am I? It's just an insensitive concoction of poisons! How can I be a Zoldyck if I bitch all the time? Let's just get through this, B! This isn't the worst I've ever seen."
Hiruma was clearly fighting off stupors; the poison was a drug to his body. He wasn't a drug-addicted adolescent... He wasn't good at that stuff, so mentally, it was all new to him. His body was okay with it. He eyed the group of fainted mobs with a contorted and somewhat distracted sneer, and his lower eyelids the same unwell purple hue as when he was in his room.
He seemed demented.
He took slow steps toward the small guys because he didn't want to be sucked inside another instance—not that walking slowly would make much of a difference. It was nothing but him struggling to break his bad habits as a gamer.
The drugs were also at work here.
For a brief moment, Hiruma indulged in some fantasies. He was mostly thinking about his ability to breed monsters of similar species in his small world; he could also create non-turned-based dungeons with drops of monster blood, so they could train on their own.
He opened his hand and placed the sleeping Mobs in his Wagon, leaving his thoughts behind. Even if he didn't use any mobs later, there was no wasting them; they were food.
There was no point in finishing Mobs because he didn't gain experience through kills but still received rewards. He would be sinning too much against the human and animal worlds if he was transmigrated into the Zoldyck House with the ability to gain strength through kills.
He put the Stone Golem back in the Wagon, chuckling, and then turned to the two fallen chests. Like his novice package, they had fallen from the sky in a white light.
He thanked God and opened the chests one by one.
He received two drops from the first wooden box: a mediocre Oaken Club and a dreadful Copper Sword. The weapons were nothing special except that they couldn't be broken.
They were indestructible; Hiruma didn't know his great grandfather Maha's true power, but not even he could shatter the weapons—whether Excalibur was wielded by a cultivator or not.
The feature did not make the items sharper or stronger; it was simply a game feature. Only Hiruma and the system could break the items, regardless of which verse or anime they came from. This first feature would be shared by all weapons Hiruma obtained through drops in the future.
-There was only one reward that came out of the second chest. The Steal* Skill was a skill. It didn't have a level; with proper training, it could steal anything.
Hiruma was speechless as he looked at the next drop... Isn't this the same as designating him as a Nen Specialist? Unless he bartered the skill but did he have a big head?
"Oh, I see I have a thick one, according to my Nen type..."
Hiruma frowned in the open and breezy plains.
"No, Enhancers should be eccentric and outlandish. Netero and Phinks are not stupid; it's a world cliche. Komugi was also an enhancer, though she was too unassuming to realize she was smarter than most people."
"I'm not exactly the smartest in the world, but I shouldn't be dumb."
"Well...What the hell does it matter?"
Hiruma finished his random thoughts with a sigh and shrug of his shoulders.
He entered town moments later and purchased his antidotes. Despite having 500 of them, he still had enough currency to buy a lot more, thanks to Milluki and Zeno's gifts of tens of thousands of game-gold currency.
Hiruma also bought other potions and multipurpose status items.
He wasn't one of many in the beginner's town, but he was cured. He wouldn't have to worry about turn-based monsters mugging him in the open grassland now that he was back to himself and armed with holy water.
He'd had twelve other turn-based encounters before arriving in Farebury, with no successful Steal* or drops.
He was fortunate the first time; leveling up the reward-related skills appeared more difficult than anticipated.
Wöchentlicher Energiestatus
-- Power-
Rangliste 
-- Power-
Stein