This is insane.
The mountains are incredible.
After the boar, I hunted a few more Monsters, and every single one was delicious.
What a surprise.
The tastiest thing in the labyrinth had been the eel, but the mountain was absolutely stuffed with things just as good.
I got so caught up in it I was running all over the mountain.
Raaaabbit iiis tooooo delicious, yaaay!
When I first heard that song, I had the dumb misconception that rabbits must be tasty because of it, but I wasn't entirely wrong!
That said, if I hunted too much, I'd throw the mountain's ecosystem out of balance.
Unlike a game, Monsters didn't spawn infinitely here, and if I wasn't careful, with my current strength I'd genuinely end up hunting every living thing on the mountain to extinction.
Even in the labyrinth's massive Lower Layer, overhunting had already been reducing Monster numbers.
I'd been hunting around a thousand or so per day down there.
At that pace, no matter how vast the Lower Layer was or how many Monsters there were, a decline was inevitable.
Hunt Monsters, eat them, recover SP, use the recovered SP to hunt more Monsters.
Rinse and repeat.
Whether that was a virtuous cycle or a vicious one, I couldn't tell.
Anyway, I decided to dial back the mountain hunting for now.
I'd managed to gather fruits and other edible plants too, and eating nothing but Monsters would make for a pretty lousy nutritional balance.
Well, not that I'd ever eaten plants inside the labyrinth.
Inside the labyrinth, it had been nothing but Monsters.
It was actually kind of amazing that I'd never even drunk water.
That would be unthinkable for any normal-world creature.
Monsters were truly something else.
Maybe being born as a Monster had its perks, when it came to that sort of thing.
Anyway, by the time I'd finished gathering ingredients, the sun had set again.
Hmm.
I could just camp out here, but since I'd come all this way, maybe I should head to the mountaintop and watch the sunrise?
Oh, that sounds good.
I'd only ever seen sunrises on TV.
Well, given the mountain's modest size, it probably wouldn't be all that breathtaking, but still.
And so, I set off for the mountaintop.
Even in the darkness of the mountain at night, Dark Vision let me move along smoothly.
Every now and then I'd snag my body on a sharp branch, but with my high Defense, I never took any real damage.
My Defense was in the four-digit range, after all.
Nothing could scratch me.
But I couldn't get cocky.
Status in this world was important, but it wasn't everything.
Even if the opponent's Attack was less than a tenth of my Defense, I could still get hurt when I got hurt.
Back at that fortress, I'd been skewered by a spear, after all.
Well, that very mechanic was what had let me defeat the snake back in the day.
Looking back, I was amazed I'd won against that snake with the Status I had at the time.
My Status back then had been in the low double digits.
The snake's had averaged around 300.
If Poison Fang hadn't failed to pierce me, I would've been done for.
By the same logic, even against opponents far below my level, I could still sometimes take damage.
Unlike the snake, I had Status Ailment Nullification so I couldn't be killed by poison, and I had automatic HP recovery so things never got truly dangerous.
Besides, I was literally immortal.
Still, as a self-proclaimed evasion specialist, taking damage was pretty humiliating.
As I was mulling this over, my HP dropped.
It was just one point eaten from my Satiety stock, and automatic recovery topped it right back up, but— The question was, why had my HP dropped in the first place?
HP dropped.
Which meant something had damaged me.
Something.
Natural phenomena could barely scratch me in my current state.
So, it had to be a deliberate attack from someone.
That was the only explanation.
At the mountaintop.
There was a single Monster waiting.
『Paelence LV7 Status HP: 972/972 (green) MP: 810/877 (blue) SP: 899/899 (yellow) Stamina: 720/871 (red) Average Attack Ability: 918 Average Defense Ability: 888 Average Magic Ability: 867 Average Resistance Ability: 856 Average Speed Ability: 901 Skills "Wind Dragon LV5" "Dragon Scale LV6" "Magic Power Perception LV3" "Magic Power Operation LV3" "Wind Magic LV2" "Shadow Magic LV1" "Wind Reinforcement LV2" "Wind Attack LV6" "Accuracy LV5" "Evasion LV6" "Stealth LV7" "High-Speed Flight LV5" "Three-Dimensional Movement LV5" "Presence Detection LV6" "Storm Nullification" "Dark Vision LV4" "Vision Enhancement LV3" "Life LV2" "Magic Power LV1" "Burst LV1" "Endurance LV1" "Strength LV1" "Durability LV1" "Caster LV1" "Guardian LV1" "Dash LV1"
Skill Points: 7750 Title "Assassin" "Monster Slayer"』
So it was that guy.
A wind dragon.
Unlike that puffer-fish pseudo-water-dragon from before, this one actually had a proper dragon form.
Though since its wings doubled as arms, it might be more accurate to call it a wyvern.
Strength-wise, it was probably the lord of this mountain.
Frankly, it was no match for me right now.
But I tightened my focus all the same.
I believed the reason my HP had dropped was because the Assassin title's surprise attack damage bonus had been applied.
But that was a secondary issue.
Normally, I shouldn't have been hit by an attack from an opponent at this level, surprise attack or not.
So why had I taken the hit?
It was obvious.
I'd completely let my guard down.
I'd been getting a little too strong lately and grown complacent.
Back when a single hit meant instant death, I'd been razor-sharp. Now my attention was clearly scattered.
This wouldn't do.
I refocused and charged to meet the incoming wind dragon.
The result was total overkill.
Sorry.
I may have gotten a little too serious.
I apologized to the remains of the former wind dragon — now reduced to a state so gruesome that even a mosaic filter couldn't help.
There wasn't enough left to even eat.
Yeah.
Letting your guard down was bad, but getting too serious was bad too.
『Zana Horowa LV14 Name: None Status HP: 6011/6011 (green) +1800 (detailed) (1718 up)
MP: 16553/16553 (blue) +1800 (detailed) (3261 up)
SP: 3765/3765 (yellow) (detailed) (892 up)
Stamina: 3765/3765 (red) +1800 (detailed) (892 up) Average Attack Ability: 4141 (detailed) (1308 up)
Average Defense Ability: 4206 (detailed) (1302 up)
Average Magic Ability: 15739 (detailed) (3130 up)
Average Resistance Ability: 15675 (detailed) (3130 up)
Average Speed Ability: 10833 (detailed) (2472 up) Skills "HP Super-High-Speed Recovery LV1 (new)" "Pinnacle of Sorcery" "Demon God Art LV4 (1 up)" "Magic Power Infusion LV9 (1 up)" "Magic Power Strike LV4 (3 up)" "SP High-Speed Recovery LV3 (1 up)" "SP Consumption Greatly Eased LV3 (1 up)" "Destruction Reinforcement LV8 (1 up)" "Blunt Reinforcement LV1 (new)" "Slashing Reinforcement LV9" "Penetration Reinforcement LV2 (new)" "Impact Reinforcement LV2 (new)" "Status Ailment Great Reinforcement LV3 (1 up)" "Fighting God Art LV2 (1 up)" "Aura Infusion LV7 (1 up)" "Aura Strike LV3 (new)" "Dragon Power LV9 (1 up)" "Venomous Attack LV8 (1 up)" "Corrosion Attack LV5" "Heterodox Attack LV7 (1 up)" "Poison Synthesis LV10" "Medicine Synthesis LV9 (1 up)" "Thread Genius LV2 (1 up)" "Versatile Thread LV7" "Thread Manipulation LV10" "Telekinesis LV4 (1 up)" "Throwing LV10" "Shooting LV5 (1 up)" "Spatial Movement LV9" "Concentration LV10" "Thought Super-Acceleration LV2 (1 up)" "Precognition LV2 (1 up)" "Parallel Will LV8" "High-Speed Calculation LV8 (1 up)" "Accuracy LV10" "Evasion LV10" "Probability Greatly Corrected LV1 (new)" "Stealth LV10" "Camouflage LV4 (1 up)" "Silence LV9" "Tyrant LV3 (1 up)" "Judgment" "Naraku" "Decadence" "Immortality" "Heterodox Magic LV10" "Wind Magic LV7 (6 up)" "Earth Magic LV7 (5 up)" "Shadow Magic LV10" "Darkness Magic LV10" "Dark Magic LV6 (1 up)" "Poison Magic LV10" "Healing Magic LV10" "Spatial Magic LV10" "Dimension Magic LV6 (1 up)" "Abyss Magic LV10" "Fortitude" "Pride" "
Skill Points: 4900 Title "Evil Eater" "Blood Kin Eater" "Assassin" "Monster Slayer" "Poison Artisan" "Thread User" "Merciless" "Monster Slaughterer" "Lord of Pride" "Lord of Fortitude" "Lord of Wisdom" "Dragon Slayer" "Bringer of Terror" "Wyvern Slayer" "Lord of Sloth" "Monster Calamity" "Champion" "Human Race Slayer (new)"』