Progress through the Middle Layer was going reasonably well.
I ran into several other species of Monsters besides the seahorse-like ones, but none of them were anything special.
As long as the terrain wasn't working against me, I didn't think I could lose.
But that terrain disadvantage was exactly the problem, you know.
First: the magma.
This one was brutal.
When the enemy Monster was sitting inside the magma, the best I could do was throw rocks.
And even those rock throws didn't deal much damage.
Unless the opponent came up onto the shore, I was basically helpless — not much different from doing nothing at all.
If they ran out of MP like the seahorse creatures and waltzed up to land, that'd be fine, but some Monsters just stayed in the magma or fled outright, which made them a pain to deal with.
The reverse was even worse — ones that started on land and then dove into the magma when they got cornered.
Not being able to use my threads was rough too.
Throwing rocks was one thing, but if I left them out for too long, they'd catch fire even on solid ground.
The worst part was the threads I unconsciously emit while moving. I always have threads trailing from me without thinking, and here they'd catch fire. The flames would travel along them like a fuse, and before I knew it, my rear end was on fire.
The very first time — and I mean literally, not metaphorically — when my butt literally caught fire, I panicked.
I lost a chunk of HP from that alone.
I used Poison Synthesis to put out the flames, which cost me even more HP.
But it was all I had on hand that could douse a fire, so what else could I do?
Reluctantly, I started cutting off my unconscious thread output more frequently.
Otherwise I'd just end up setting my butt on fire again.
And I mean literally, not metaphorically.
Sleep was another problem.
If I tried to build a nest in this state, it would obviously burn down along with everything else.
I gave up on that and decided to sleep in the shadows of some rock formations instead.
Of course, sleeping was basically impossible.
Trying to rest in a scorching hellscape where you're constantly taking damage, all while worrying about Monster presences nearby — even with my thick nerves, there's a limit.
But I still had to sleep.
So I ended up getting almost no real rest, but I did my best to catch what sleep I could whenever I found a suitable rocky spot.
Anyway, in a sense, the conditions here were worse than the Lower Layer. The one saving grace was that the Monsters were weak.
The Monsters here were roughly on par with the ones from the Upper Layer in terms of raw strength.
There might be strong ones in certain areas, like snake-type ones, but so far everything I'd encountered was on the weaker side.
The biggest difference from the Upper Layer Monsters was whether they used the terrain to their advantage.
That was what made even unremarkable Monsters into genuine threats.
Honestly, when I'm the one doing the fighting it's manageable, but having it done to me is a real pain.
Well, there were plenty of them, but there was nothing I couldn't handle.
All that leveling had paid off — I'd gotten significantly stronger.
Against opponents at this level, I could win even factoring in the terrain disadvantage.
That said, with so few healing options, taking even one solid hit could put me in a pinch, so I couldn't afford to be careless.
Besides, the Monsters here had one more annoying trait.
Three Monsters stood before me.
『Elropique, LV8 Status HP: 164/164 (Green) MP: 166/168 (Blue) SP: 175/175 (Yellow) Stamina: 176/181 (Red) Average Attack: 137 Average Defense: 123 Average Magic: 121 Average Resistance: 117 Average Speed: 143 Status Appraisal failed』
『Elropique, LV8 Status HP: 163/163 (Green) MP: 169/170 (Blue) SP: 174/174 (Yellow) Stamina: 170/183 (Red) Status Appraisal failed』
『Elropique, LV8 Status HP: 166/166 (Green) MP: 169/169 (Blue) SP: 177/177 (Yellow) Stamina: 178/182 (Red) Status Appraisal failed』
They were Monsters that looked like red dogs.
Just by appearances, they were actually kind of cute, but their abilities were pretty brutal.
Especially bad matchups for me, too.
First, they had a great sense of smell.
They were dogs, after all.
They could easily pick up on my Stealth and come charging at me.
So my usual ambush tactics were out.
Well, they'd barely been working since I entered the Middle Layer anyway, so it wasn't a huge deal.
Next was this.
Fire covered the red dogs' bodies.
That's right — these red dogs happened to cloak themselves in flames.
While they were on fire, it was difficult for me to engage.
Touching them directly would deal damage just from contact.
This was the signature annoying trait of the Monsters in this Middle Layer.
Their bodies ran hot all over.
Some, like the red dogs, actually set themselves ablaze, but even the ones that didn't were still pretty hot.
The seahorse creatures were the same way.
And when I touched them, I took damage.
I'd been gritting my teeth and enduring it against the seahorses, but doing that against something actively on fire like the red dogs would rack up serious damage fast.
So I came up with a countermeasure.
Dodge the red dogs as they charged.
Their speed was decent, but compared to me, they were still way slower.
Dodging was easy.
I slipped past two of them, then jumped over the third.
And as I soared over the red dog's head, I triggered Poison Synthesis.
The powerful venom drenched the creature head-on, and it toppled over from its own momentum without missing a stride.
My poison being potent certainly helped, but the Monsters around here probably didn't have any Poison Resistance to speak of.
So dousing them in venom was enough to take them down effortlessly.
Since I never had to make contact, I didn't take any damage either.
I paid the remaining poor red dogs a visit with some venom of their own.