I'd had a bad feeling about this, you know.
Ever since I learned that seahorse dragons were called dragons.
『Dragon: A type of Monster said to be a subspecies of the True Dragon. Though classified as inferior, some individuals among them rival the True Dragon species in power.』
Yup.
A Monster that falls under the lower tier of Earth Dragons.
Taxonomically, would that make it a Fire Dragon?
If Earth Dragons exist here, then Fire Dragons probably do too.
There's no way they'd be in the Middle Layer, right?
Let's pray that's the case.
Anyway, my thoughts were drifting into escapism there for a bit, but let me seriously think about the problem right in front of me.
『Ello Gene Seven — LV7 Status HP: 461/461 (Green) MP: 223/223 (Blue) SP: 218/218 (Yellow) Rage: 451/466 (Red) Average Attack Power: 368 Average Defense Power: 311 Average Magic Power: 161 Average Resistance: 158 Average Speed: 155 Appraisal of Status failed』
『Ello Gene Seven: A lower-tier dragon Monster inhabiting the Middle Layer of the Great Ello Dungeon. Omnivorous, it swallows anything whole with its massive mouth.』
The Monster was leisurely swimming through the magma.
For a lower-tier dragon, its appearance was more catfish than anything else.
And "Seven" didn't suit it at all.
Not that there's any point complaining about this world's naming conventions.
The most distinctive feature was definitely that huge catfish-like mouth.
If I got swallowed by that, no thank you — at my size, I'd go straight down.
Successfully Appraising its Status was huge.
The chance of a successful Status Appraisal is roughly one in three.
Being lucky enough to hit that one-in-three chance here was a blessing.
Charging in without knowing a catfish's exact Stats would be far too dangerous.
The monsters in the Middle Layer had mostly been on the weaker side, but this catfish was head and shoulders above the rest in terms of strength.
I'd rather just avoid it if I could.
But the catfish was swimming right next to the path I needed to take.
Given the pattern so far, the likelihood of it attacking was extremely high.
Hmm.
What should I do…
Well, if I really wanted to flee, I could probably outrun it with my speed, but having that ridiculously high Rage bar chasing after me the whole time would be a pain.
And even if its Yellow bar was on the low side, it still had more than double mine.
More importantly, I couldn't Appraise its Skills.
If the catfish had something like SP Consumption Reduction at a high level, I might not be able to escape in the worst case.
I mean, I doubt it, but still.
Too strong to fight head-on.
Then running really is the best call?
Yeah.
No point pushing myself too hard.
Things have been going well lately, but that's exactly when you get careless and pay the price.
I've learned that lesson, you know.
Can't get cocky.
I need to stay humble and keep my head down.
Alright then, time to make my move — nice and slow. If I get spotted, I'll bolt at full speed.
And that's right when another catfish surfaced from the magma below, just a short distance away.
Huh?
Hey, hold on!?
That's not what we agreed on!?
I'm not being cocky and I'm already in trouble?!
The catfish locked eyes with me, stared blankly for a split second, then opened its massive maw.
Backstep!
The catfish's enormous mouth clamped shut right where I'd been standing.
It then climbed casually onto the land.
So this thing had limbs — I just hadn't noticed while it was submerged in the magma.
And its entire body was covered in dragon-like scales.
It practically screamed "high defense."
Yeah.
Time to run.
Geh!?
I turned in the direction of my escape route, only to see the first catfish crawling onto land as well.
They've got me in a pincer position — there's no way out!?
What do I do!?
Fine, if it's come to this, I have no choice but to take down the one in front of me with a quick strike!
I wrapped poison threads around the catfish's body.
They'd burn up almost immediately, but if I could get even a little venom into it…
Sure enough, the threads caught fire right away.
To check whether the poison was working, I looked at the catfish's HP.
It had gone down a little.
Poison seemed to be effective after all.
Then if I could just get a proper dose in…
The catfish opened its mouth wide with a snap.
And charged straight at me.
Whoa!
Scary!
But I deliberately held my ground until the last possible moment!
Just as the gaping maw bore down right in front of me — Poison Synthesis, activate!
I disengaged by a hair's breadth!
The catfish swallowed the synthesized Spider Venom instead of me, gulping the whole thing down.
In an instant, its HP began plummeting at a terrifying rate.
The speed of the drain was absurd.
As if in response to the agony, the catfish writhed and thrashed wildly.
Whoa… my poison had gotten this strong, huh…
Wait — the other one!?
I turned my gaze and saw the second catfish had actually backed off a little, shaken by its companion's predicament.
O-oh.
Well, yeah. If you saw your buddy writhing in agony like that, you'd think twice too.
I'd assumed dragons never fled, but I guess that was just the seahorse.
With that, the healthier catfish turned tail and ran.
Seriously?
And here I was planning to be the one running away.
Who'd have thought it'd be the other way around.
…Does this mean I'm allowed to get just a little cocky?
Aren't I pretty strong?
Anyway, I finished off the writhing catfish with a mercy blow.
I aimed Poison Synthesis at the catfish's face as it twitched and flailed.
It gave one final shudder, then went still.
『Experience Points have reached a threshold. Individual Small Poison Taratect has leveled up from LV6 to LV7.』
『All base stats have increased.』
『Skill Proficiency level-up bonus acquired.』
『Proficiency has reached a threshold. Skill "Concentration LV9" has become "Concentration LV10."』
『Conditions have been met. Skill "Concentration LV10" has evolved into "Thought Acceleration LV1."』
『Proficiency has reached a threshold. Skill "Evasion LV4" has become "Evasion LV5."』
『Proficiency has reached a threshold. Skill "Life LV7" has become "Life LV8."』
『Skill Points have been acquired.』
Huh?
Along with the level-up, Concentration had apparently hit its cap.