Of course, it would be a waste of effort to force them into traps that they would usually avoid.
If you had the power to push them onto the trap, it would be easier to just kill them.
"You sure do think of strange things…"
"Karen, you"re the one that said "I don"t see why you have to fall in on purpose when you can just make the monsters trigger the traps.""
"Uhh…"
Karen looked very confused. But this time, Haruki was very confident in his position.
It was like this during that time with the potatoes as well. Karen always gave him the most interesting suggestions.
Haruki rated her unexpected ideas very highly.
"But, that"s not what I meant…hahh… Well, did you learn something from doing that?"
"I learned that monsters can get caught in traps!"
"Is that information going to be useful?"
If you wanted to drop a monster into a pitfall, they had to be a monster you can kick into the air. Furthermore, they would have to land in the range of the trap, which was just 1 meter in diameter.
How many times would all of those requirements conveniently overlap for you?
"…One day…"
Haruki"s shoulders slumped at Karen"s question. And he answered without confidence.
It was when they had encountered Silver Wolves ten times and killed 35 of them, that Haruki discovered an especially large room.
This was likely a boss room.
Up until now, they didn"t do anything as stupid as stepping on a trap during combat. However, they might not be able to keep track of the trap locations if they were fighting a boss.
He looked from afar and checked the position of each trap.
The room was about 20 meters long and 20 meters wide. There were 5 traps.
They were all pitfalls that would bury them up to their waist if they fell in.
The traps were scattered randomly around the room.
This was especially dangerous placement for someone like Haruki, as he constantly dodged and attacked.
"These are the times when I really wish we had a shield-bearer to stand in the front. Things would be so much easier."
The boss on this floor was a Big Wolf. And the standard way of fighting it was to use a shield-bearer to keep it in one place.
The difficulty of this fight would change greatly depending on whether or not you had a shield-bearer.
In fact, he had read about it in a certain Adventurer"s blog. A team without a shield-bearer had forced their way in and ended up falling into the pitfalls when trying to dodge the Big Wolf"s attacks.
"…What should we do?"
She could no longer stand the silence.
And so Karen asked Haruki hesitantly.
"Yeah. It"s quite possible that I"ll step on the traps if I dodge its attacks while fighting. That being said, I"ll probably get hit if I don"t move around."
Perhaps if he was extra careful, he could manage to avoid getting hit.
It might be possible if he raised his Agility by 1 point.
Haruki thought hard about it.
"…Ah."
A unique idea flashed in his mind.
Yes. He would go with that!
Haruki quickly put down his bag and took a pot out of it.
He took in a deep breath and paused.
Haruki closed his eyes tightly and strengthened his resolve.
"Karen. Can you promise that you won"t tell anyone about what I"m about to do now?"
"…Yes."
She must have been pressured by the sense of urgency. Karen nodded with a croak.
Haruki had been thinking about it for a while. When he would tell her about the skill board.
If he continued to hide it from her, it would make it harder to decide during crucial moments when it would help them to raise a skill level.
In that case, it would be best for him to just tell Karen about the board.
Haruki made up his mind and took the skill board out.
"Karen. Take Rhea out of the magic bag."
"Uh…Rhea?"
"Yeah."
As he said this, Haruki displayed Rhea"s stats on the skill board.
Rhea(0) Gender: Female
Skill Point: 8
Cla.s.s: Leaf Demon
-Vitality
Stamina 0
Natural Recovery 0
-Strength
Strength 0
-Agility
Quickness 0
Dexterity 0
-Technique
Weapon mastery
Throwing 0
-Intuition
Detection 0
-Special
Treasure Chest 0
It was all still so bizarre.
And what was Treasure Chest? It was just dirt.
Haruki kept these thoughts to himself and started to distribute the 8 skill points.
Rhea(0) Gender: Female
Skill Point: 8 → 0
Cla.s.s: Leaf Demon
-Vitality
Stamina 0
Natural Recovery 0
-Strength
Strength 0 → 2
-Agility
Quickness 0 → 1
Dexterity 0 → 1
-Technique
Weapon mastery
Throwing 0 → 3
-Intuition
Detection 0
-Special
Treasure Chest 0 → 1
"Rhea. Can you replenish your ammunition from this pot?"
What"s this all of a sudden? Rhea seemed to say as she swayed. However, she extended her nozzle and started to suck in the potato stones from the pot.
Perhaps it was because he put a point into Treasure Chest, she was able to fit more inside than he had expected.
Huh? What? He could feel that Rhea was surprised.
"Alright, Rhea. When I say the word, will you attack the boss with me?"
I don"t really understand.
Still, Rhea nodded.
"Alright. 3, 2, 1, go!!"
As he gave the signal, both Haruki and Rhea launched the potato stones at the same time.
Haruki replenished her reserve from the jar, while Rhea sucked up the stones from the Treasure Chest.
The bullets shot straight forward all at once and slammed into the Big Wolf.
"—aarrr!!"
Dents started to appear on its legs, head, and body.
Haruki"s bullets broke the boss"s bones, while Rhea"s stabbed deep into it.
It didn"t take 10 seconds for the boss to become completely silent.
Rhea"s potato stones were clearly faster than Haruki"s.
Strength 2 and Throw 3 were no joke.
Haruki was sure that if he were to fight Rhea, there would be nothing that he could do other than be annihilated.
And yet she wasn"t even a year old…
How was she so strong?
"Karaboshi."
Karen was gripping her staff and looking at him very seriously.
Haruki sensed anxiety in her expression that he couldn"t put his finger on. And so he braced himself.
When she had first seen Rhea, her eyes had been filled animosity.
So was she now feeling fear after having seen the power of Rhea"s bullets?
Was she going to demand that he uproot her? Kill her?
A cold sweat began to run down Haruki"s back.
"If you were going to use ranged attacks, why wouldn"t you ask me to join you!?"
"…Oh, that…"
"What do you mean, that!? I can use magic too, you know!? I can use it much better than that Rhea thing!!"
Apparently she was still looking at Rhea as a rival when it came to using ranged attacks.
As for Rhea, she was feeling a little sick after defeating a strong monster and leveling up. Her stem drooped to the side.
Still, the leaves were twitching, and it was evident that she was angry.