We enjoyed a leisurely hike for a while, but even though we hadn’t been in the dungeon for long, we noticed beginners battling monsters all around.

In a typical open-type dungeon, the number of monsters on the outskirts is low, and the encounter rate increases as you go towards the center of the location. However, in this dungeon, the enemy density seems unusually high.

Moreover, it seems that not only slimes, but other monsters also appear in the marsh. Surprisingly, slimes seem to be a rare occurrence. The players were mainly fighting against deer.

At first glance, the creatures appeared to be ordinary deer rather than monsters. Indeed, deer can be dangerous animals, not easily defeated by a bare-handed human. While deer are usually timid and don’t attack humans, they can become aggressive during mating season or when hungry.

The deer in this area seemed to be in a perpetually aggressive state, categorized as active monsters.

“[Appraisal]. [Wild Deer]. It says they’re wild deer.”

“Exactly. I wonder if deer antlers can be used for something.”

“Wanna take one down? By the way, are there deer in the Liebe Great Forest?”

“Yeah, there are. They’re larger, though. Even though the farm was disbanded, the ants still occasionally set traps and catch them for food.”

While ants seem to prefer the larvae of some creatures, they also hunt large monsters due to quantity issues.

“An ant swarm hunting and eating a giant deer sounds terrifying just by the description.”

“You get used to it, they’re kinda cute.”

The difficulty level of the large deer in the deep parts of the Liebe Grand Forest is uncertain, but it feels like it’s between level 2 and 3. Hunting is challenging for worker ants alone, but with a swarm of cavalry and infantry, it becomes manageable.

“Only deer and slimes, huh? Want to go check out the boss?”

“We can, but… if it’s a ☆1 dungeon with no special gimmicks, the boss would probably be defeated quickly. Maybe this marsh periodically loses its monsters?”

If monsters dominate a dungeon, they respawn three hours after death. However, during that time, minions cannot be revived, resulting in an empty field for three hours.

“Even if it gets defeated quickly, there could be bosses that are ridiculously strong, right? Boss areas aren’t included in the difficulty rating. If you’re so curious, why not check it out?”

“…Let’s do that. I’m curious.”

Apologies to the hardworking rookies here, but we decided to test our skills against the boss of this area. We also planned to conduct a revival experiment.

While they initially thought of testing it with a dragon if there was one, the existence of a dragon was uncertain, and the priority was higher for the revival experiment than dealing with a dragon.

Lyra walked ahead, and I followed.

“Do you know which way to go?”

“As I mentioned earlier, I’m traveling with the setting of having a blind little sister, so you can’t walk ahead, Rare-chan. Anyway, I don’t know which way the boss is, but I thought there might be more small fry in the direction where they increase. However, overall, it seems quite balanced, and there are even more small fry on the outskirts.”

My [Demonic Eyes] showed a similar reaction in picking up magical power. Although the entrance where we entered fromis too far to see, it seems that the density of small fry is higher in the direction they came from, at least within visible range.

After walking for a while, my [Demonic Eyes] picked up players running towards them from the front. It became clear as they approached that they were quite flustered. Perhaps an irregular monster appeared.

“Run! It’s time! I’m warning you! This isn’t a train!”

“Time? What time is it? And are you guys foreigners or something? What do you mean by ‘train’?”

Lyra probably said that because they had mistakenly thought of them as players. They had gone through the effort of setting up an NPC interaction with the beginner boy, and if these people spread the word that they were players, it would ruin the setup.

“An NPC, huh! It’s a waste of time then!”

With that, the three of them ran off.

“…’Waste of time’. I wonder what that means.”

“Isn’t it like this? They probably called out to us just in case, maybe fearing they’d be labeled as ‘train’ on the forum later. But since we’re NPCs, there’s no point in talking to us; that’s what they mean, right?”

While it sounded condescending, in extreme situations, one could understand such an attitude. However, considering the ongoing event period, their death penalty was very light.

Though it might not be a case of extreme conditions, there seemed to be no consideration for protecting the weak NPCs.

“If it were you, would you have helped?”

“…I won’t know until it happens. If it’s someone with no vested interests, probably I would help. If there are interests involved, I would choose the option with benefits.”

Upon hearing my answer, Lyra said “alright” and smiled. It was unclear what she meant by “alright”, but since she was lightly irritated, whether there were interests involved or not, Lyra had decided not to help.

“However, ‘train’. To explicitly say a word that stands out like that means they’re somewhat conscious of their actions, right?”

“True… Maybe it’s that. Something’s coming, Lyra.”

Chasing after the players, something large approached from the front.

Or rather, it was probably a bear, based on its shape.

“It has quite a bit of LP. MP is strangely low, though. With just one of these, the difficulty level could easily go up to ☆3. What is this?”

“This place is at ☆1, which means this bear normally resides in a place not counted in the dungeon’s difficulty rating.”

“…So, this guy is the boss then? Why did it show up?”

“Probably just got hungry.”

“Why not let minions bring food?”

“Hey, Rare-chan. This was a blind spot.

Even if it’s a boss monster, not everyone necessarily has high INT. And it’s not guaranteed that everyone has the [Subordinate] skill.”

“Huh? [Appraisal]… This is…”

The gigantic bear — not as big as a Giant Corpse, but a Gigant Blumbear — had mostly allocated points to STR, VIT, and AGI. Furthermore, it didn’t have the [Subordinate] skill.

It can be said that acquiring [Subordinate] without racial skills is usually impossible. In other words, those who didn’t acquire it naturally or when they were reincarnated would generally never obtain it throughout their lives.

This bear belonged to such a race.

“A big… temperamental one?”

“There used to be a tank with that name a long time ago, so maybe it took the name from there?”

The name didn’t matter at this point.

Despite being a boss-class monster, the Gigant Blumbear didn’t have the [Subordinate] skill. However, judging from the situation, it usually resided in the boss area. Therefore, it was highly likely to be the boss. What could this mean?

“…There’s a boss, but the other monsters in the territory aren’t necessarily the boss’s minions. And this boss, without [Subordinate], probably occasionally leaves the boss area to go outside, rampaging like this to seek food. What those players mentioned about time might be related to the boss’s mealtime, don’t you think?”

Certainly, if you thought about it that way, things made sense. However, that meant…

“So, this dungeon is something that can’t be controlled by anyone else.”

“That seems to be the case. Even if the boss is defeated, it doesn’t mean the small fry will die off in a chain reaction. And in the absence of the boss, the situation where the territory is dominated by another single force is practically impossible. Well, originally, it’s challenging to overwrite the control of a designated dungeon area unless done very skillfully, mainly because there are almost certainly players involved. Good job on that grassland, Rare-chan.”

It was also a stroke of luck, but the result was satisfactory.

“So, the question of how the bear initially dominated this area remains, but I’m satisfied for now. However, this is a learning experience. If it’s just about not wanting the territory to be taken away, this is also an option.”

The Gigant Blumbear was already looming in front of them, glaring at Rare and the others. It seemed to be cautious and not attacking suddenly, a wise move despite having the intelligence level of a wild beast.

“Is it like a wild instinct due to the low INT?”

“Yeah.”

“Yeah? What’s that supposed to mean? Do you have any ideas?”

“No, my wolf subordinates mentioned before that they got lost when they lost their wild instincts.”

“Oh, really? Is that because you raised INT, or because they became Rare-chan’s subordinates?”

“I don’t know anymore, and there’s no way to verify it.”

“Well, true. Even if it was due to raising INT, there might be downsides to increasing stats, not just benefits.”

It’s troublesome to be told something like that now. However, even if that were the case, there was undoubtedly more benefit than drawback.

In fact, the wolves, when they were a wild pack, were only able to run away individually from opponents they encountered, but now, they can overpower them with their strength.

“For now, let’s cook this bear.”

When Lyra said that, the next moment, the Gigant Blumbear suddenly slumped down with a thud. It wasn’t dead, but it seemed unable to stand due to the severity of the conditions. In an instant, Lyra’s body shone with mana, and then [Demonic Eyes] observed a decrease in MP. After that, the LP of the Gigant Blumbear began to decrease rapidly, and it fell.

“What was that, what did you do?”

“It’s the Evil Eyes’ abnormal status attack. I applied both poison and weakness simultaneously. I can set different abnormal statuses for each eye now.”

Applying multiple abnormal statuses simultaneously. It was a story unheard of before. Can such a thing be done?

At least, it couldn’t be done with the [Evil Eyes] that I possessed, so is this a racial bonus of the Evil King, or is it possible as you unlock the skill tree? Thɪs chapter is updatᴇd by n0velfire.net

Weakness is a state abnormality where all attributes decrease by a certain percentage. In that aspect, it is similar to a plague.

The difference lies in the fact that while a plague worsens over time, weakness gradually recovers. Additionally, a plague, when worsening, can infect the surroundings, but weakness doesn’t do such a thing. There’s no chip damage coming from it.

If we assume time is a factor, a plague could be considered a superior version of multiple abnormal statuses. However, if it’s a short duration, its effectiveness is lower than other abnormal statuses.

The reason Lyra didn’t use a plague this time might be due to these considerations.

On the other hand, severe poison continuously inflicts damage as a percentage of the maximum LP. Since it causes more significant damage and can induce multiple symptoms compared to weak poison, it is challenging to treat with medicine.

The damage inflicted in this case is determined by the strength of the poison and the VIT value. If the target’s VIT is high, the damage is reduced.

Normally, the intensity of poison is a fixed value, but it seems Lyra can get a bonus to the intensity of poison she inflicts due to the characteristic ‘poison’.

Despite being strong, the Gigant Blumbear appears to be a wild boss around ☆3. There’s a considerable difference in abilities between Lyra and it. Is it dealing damage that could be considered fatal poison?

“By the way, when do you think percentage chip damage, like poison, refers to the maximum LP?”

“…At the moment the damage is applied, right?”

“It seems not. I’ve tested various things, and it seems that it’s decided at the moment when the poison is inflicted.

When you receive both weakness and severe poison at the same time, the resistance check for each abnormal status is performed simultaneously. If resistance fails, weakness is executed immediately, and the attributes decrease.

Generally, when in a weakened state, the maximum LP also decreases. This is because the VIT and other attributes decrease, not directly related to the weakening effect itself. The decrease in the maximum LP is irrelevant to the weakening effect.

On the other hand, for severe poison, when resistance fails, it moves to the initial process, determining the damage ratio between the intensity of the poison and VIT. At this point, it’s a simultaneous check, but since VIT has been reduced due to weakness, the effect is calculated with the decreased value.

The actual damage value is also determined at this point. However, the timing when the maximum LP is recalculated is after the entire process is finished. At this point, the maximum LP hasn’t decreased yet, so the original value is used to determine the damage.

So, if you apply both weakness and severe poison simultaneously, you can inflict damage far beyond the actual percentage.”

“That was a long report. What about the plague? Also, wouldn’t it have been easier during the time of the Archangel if you did that?”

“I did, but both weakness and the plague were resisted, so I could only apply severe poison.

And the plague is the same. It’s more troublesome because it includes the effects of those two. But it takes time for the effects to become visible. Until now, I thought that the damage would increase exponentially as it worsened. However, it’s probably not the case, and it’s due to the specifications I just mentioned.

While weakness recovers over time, the plague worsens. Ideally, if I could include the plague along with these two, it would be perfect. Well, for now, it’s fine.”

‘For now, it’s fine’, which means it can be done if she decides to.

She mentioned being able to apply two different effects using her right and left eyes. If that’s the case, to apply three simultaneously, she would need three eyes.

“Could it be, Lyra, can you grow more eyes?”

“Oops. That was a slip of the tongue. Pun intended!”

“…The bear seems to be dead, you know?”

“Hey, pay attention over here for a moment.”

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