Capítulo 143: A Hungry Elf, Boss Fights, And Their Encounters (2)
Hey, Shun here!
Hard boss raids, sweaty competition, try hard gamers, that's the beauty of gaming. It's funny how people went from entertaining themselves by playing some board games to some some digital things that was made up of a string of 1's and 0's.
I definitely missed the part of history when those clunky computers from my past life's era gradually turned into the ultra thin computers that my dimension's Earth is using today.
✽✽✽✽✽✽✽✽✽✽
(Shun's POV)
So, I think I have to say this first but these hard-shelled shrimps are quite the formidable foe. Their outer shell or maybe you could also call it a carapace? Anyway, whatever it is, it's really hard to stab through at first.
However, thankfully, my knives are really sharp and, by the time I started to enter the groove, I was just monotonously picking them up from the lake and slicing them up using my knife. Once I figured out the trick, I was killing these armored shrimps with ease.
By the way, if you're wondering what they drop when you kill them, the loot just simply says, 'shrimp'. Yeah, I wish I was joking but that's really it.
The developer's bad naming sense aside, I quickly refocused as I saw an Armored Shrimp(temp) enter my peripheral vision. When it entered my range, I quickly grabbed it with my free hand before pressing my knife against the gap.
I already buffed myself with an ATK [Enchant] so I wasn't worried that I'd lack the strength to pierce through it's armor. After putting some strength into the knife I was holding, a crunching sound was heard before the armor of the shrimp got bisected starting with the gap.
Without much resistance due to my superior levels, it didn't take long before it gave a death cry and disappeared. Yet another [Shrimp] has appeared in my inventory.
"Similar to the real world, kitchen knives could be used as weapons with no problem. Hmm… So far, this has been my 100th—"
「Special conditions have been met…」
「The [Cooking] Sense is level 10 or higher…」
「Kill over 100 enemies using a Cooking-type equipment…」
「You successfully unlocked "Ingredients Knowledge"…」
✽✽[Cooking]✽✽
Level: 28
Description:
Is a crafting Sense that allows the user to produce food items from ingredients.
[Skills]:
• "Preparing"
- A skill that could be used in handling, decanting, cutting, or arranging any food ingredients.
• "Processing"
- A skill that allows the user to alter any food ingredient to change its eating quality or shelf life. This also allows the user to change the shape of a food into something that has been registered.
• "Facilitating"
- A skill that can be used to shorten the time it takes to prepare the ingredients.
• "Cooking"
- A skill that allows the user to quickly make dishes right from the raw materials. However, because this skill is used to make it all at once, the evaluation will be lower.
• "Ingredient Knowledge"
- For 10 minutes, a red marker will appear on the enemy. Whenever the marked location is attacked, an additional damage correction will be added.
✽✽✽✽✽✽✽✽✽✽
In other words, it was a skill that reveals the weaknesses of monsters. When I tried it, a red marker appeared in a gap in the shrimp's shell.
Unlike [Enchant], it felt more like a Sense increasing weapon damage. An additional damage correction within a limited range felt completely different from how enchant worked.
"Heeh~ looks like there's also skills that could be unlocked when using Senses like [Cooking]. That's news to me. I should tell this to the girls later." I made a mental note to myself.
It was then that my eyes landed on the deeper parts of the lake.
"I've gathered enough ingredients. Now's the time for the main objective…"
Except for the occasional shouts and giggles of Kaede-san and Tsuka, the surroundings of the lake is overall quiet and unnerving. Due to the crystal clear water, you could make out the silhouette of the aquatic plants at the lake bed dance along with the underwater streams.
After taking a deep breath, I dove straight underwater. As I swam deeper and deeper, I noticed that I could swim a lot more freely as there was less resistance.
Wow, this place is beautiful, I thought as I looked around, relishing the sight. That was when I found a building at the bottom of the lake.
I was definitely curious as to what it was but it was then that, on the edge of my peripheral vision, I saw the black shadow of a fish-like thing swim towards me at breakneck speed. Thankfully, since I have the [3D Restriction Release] and the high leveled [Swimming] Sense, I managed to evade the attack by a large margin.
'What the… What was that!?'
I looked over my shoulder to see where the fish is at and there it was, a 2m long grayish-black quadrupedal fish with a yellow coloration on the tip of its fin. It somewhat resembles a tuna, but this one is a quadruped.
I'm convinced that this is the boss of this place, a unique monster, but why does it look like a prehistoric animal or something? Well, I don't have time to nitpick on these things.
'What's the name of this thing? Uh, Devonian Yellowfin Tuna?' Now, what do I do? I definitely want to go inside that mysterious building on the bottom of the lake and examine it closely, but this guy will definitely get in my way.
There's no other way than to get rid of it. For good.
I clenched the knife I was holding and waited for this huge tuna to make a move. It didn't take long before the tuna swam towards me at a breakneck speed, fully intending to hit me with its massive frame.
This sight gave me flashbacks so I inadvertently avoided the attack, even though I was already ready to counter it. Anyway, my subconscious actions aside, when the tuna noticed that I managed to dodge it, it made a U-turn before immediately going for a tackle again.
What are you, a level 1 Magikarp who only knows Splash?
This time when we got in contact I didn't avoid it completely. As its huge body missed me once again by a hair's breadth, I swung the knife at the marker that appeared on the tuna's body.
I immediately felt a dull thunk register on my arm upon impact. This only meant one thing, my damage was not enough.
Thankfully, my knife didn't get stuck on the tuna's body. After twisting my body mid water, because I'm underwater, I once again waited for the tuna to attack me.
I have just one target. I'll hit it repeatedly until I kill you.
Looking at the damage I dealt, I only managed to deal 3% of this big boy's HP. Man, this reminds me of that time when I battled the Big Boar for the first time.
'Since that is the case… "Curse — DEFENSE" and "Enchant — ATTACK, SPEED".'
I was able to apply a debuff on the tuna before our next collision. Thankfully, the lake's waters are pretty clear.
I didn't have a good way of going about and cutting the tuna at first, but I did manage to somehow chip around 10% of its HP while sustaining a lot of damage myself. I would be dragged underwater whenever my knife gets stuck on the tuna's flesh, resulting in me receiving massive damage.
Sometimes, the tuna will change it up and will attempt to scratch me using it's limbs but it was to no avail. I got to say though, this tuna got a lot of mobility underwater. Everytime I would get dragged by it, I would rapidly lose a ton of HP.
Whenever this happens though, I would just swim back up, replenishing my HP with the numerous [Potions] that Mutsuko-san gave me. That said, it was tough.
I already got the hang of maneuvering underwater. The only thing that was missing was my technique when stabbing it.
'Man, I wish this tuna was just something I have to prepare for a sushi or something.'
That was when it hit me.
'Wait… Prepare a sushi… A sushi… Oh, dumb me, why am I stabbing so much when this big tuna is literally throwing its entire weight at me!? Isn't this the most ideal way to use a knife?'
With these thoughts in mind, I began experimenting.
Three times…
Four times…
Five… six… seven… eight times.
I confronted the tuna repeatedly until I got the hang of it. Mechanically, my body remembered how to attack the tuna to deal the most optimal damage.
With my body fully remembering how to deal with this tuna like it's muscle memory, I could now end this long battle.Perfect, the tuna was heading towards me.
With elbows close to my body, I impaled the opponent in the place with a red mark using the knife I clenched in my hands. When the force of my propulsion and the tuna's force was added together, the knife cut smoothly.
'Good, it worked.'
After my knife landed exactly on the red dot, it suddenly changed into a long red line that goes until its tail. When I managed to cut through it's body, I managed to chip off 10% of its HP.
Heh heh, now, it's my turn to go on the offensive. I kicked the water and proceeded towards the tuna head-on.
The moment we closed in on each other, I twisted my body and pierced the knife into the longest marker once again. I then put more strength into my legs and continued to swim forward until the knife reached the tail. Coupled with the momentum I've had from kicking the water, and without wasting my strength, I cleanly cut along the marker.
"Yet another 10% off of his HP. 56% left."
I confronted the tuna again and again after that. If I miss the chance to avoid, I'll be hit by the tuna's mass and loose a ton of HP, but if I just avoid it normally, I won't be able to deal a large amount of damage.
Every time we crossed each other, its HP vanished. Then, it came down to the final showdown.
*Stab*
The kitchen knife was stabbed into tuna's body, depleting the remaining sliver of HP left on its HP bar.
'Ingredient preparations complete?'
Man, that was a formidable enemy. In a one versus one situation, I think this one is on par with the Blade Lizard and the Humming Tempest. Each of them have differing traits and I think any of the aforementioned monsters could wipe the floor with any players if they're in a more suitable environment like this Devonian Yellowfin Tuna.
As I was thinking of such things, the tuna turned into digital particles. In its place was a treasure chest, which I'm assuming was the reward for subjugating thing unique underwater monsters.
Oh, wait, it's sinking!
I followed the sinking treasure chest in a hurry, and after making sure everything is calm on the bottom of the lake, I opened the treasure box. I am very much excited as to what this guy will give me.
I looked at the items I received expectantly and was immediately stunned by what I saw. There's no way. There's no way those devs are giving me this…
I battled a strong unique boss monster in its own territory and all so…
'Why the heck is the reward for killing a tuna with a fancy name like Devonian Yellowfin a set of cooking tools?!'
◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆
※~To be continued~※
Shameless Promotion:
Consider supporting me back on my ko-fi page: ko-fi.com/jadepanda0031! It's got up to 20 advanced chapters for you to read.
Author's Remarks:
※ Alright. I'm not intending for the ending to be a cliff, okay? I'm just having a bit of a headache right now so I thought this would be a good stopping point.
PENSAMENTOS DOS CRIADORES 
JadePanda003
JadePanda003 Huge thanks to the help of my members back on my ko-fi page!
Ototsu_Yume
Sam Morgan
Holo
Ryan
CiekawyN
Ninetf9
Ad-it(D-Hunter)
NuA
Kaberial
Status de energia semanal
-- Ranking de
Poder 
-- Pedra de
Poder