Why do I bother fighting these especially strong monsters?

Because if I ignore them, they will chase me down and I will have to fight anyway.

But that's not the only reason.

Sometimes the exit is blocked until I defeat a certain monster.

So there is no other choice.

Anyhow, the fur and feathers from this guy is highly resistant to dark attacks.

But unfortunately, after this guy dies, they will lose their effect over time.

It feels like a waste, but I only eat a bit of his meat and leave the rest of the corpse behind.

Using a nearby pond, I refresh myself and then finally enter a tunnel, which opened up, after I defeated the monster.

It goes on for a long time, but then I finally reach a crossroad.

To the left, there is a big cave, which is home to a variety of monsters.

Up ahead is a small room with water and a nest of those blue flying monkeys.

And finally, to the right, is where I have to go.

However, before that, I decide to go straight to the pond room.

When I arrive there, I look around.

The cave is really small.

The size is only about five or six of these safe houses.

Along the right side of the wall is a pond of muddy water.

The pond is swarming with palm sized creatures.

They look like lizards, but they have four pairs of thin legs and very long necks.

Those things aren't usually hostile and try to avoid combat.

Even if I somehow manage to invoke their fury, they aren't really dangerous.

No poison, curse or anything of that sort.

The rest of the cave is filled with silver grass with an occasional green mushroom here and there.

The grass is probably the primary food source for these little critters.

I tried eating is myself, but it's quite disgusting.

It's bitter and makes my throat sore.

Further back on the left side is where all the blue flying monkeys are.

They ceiling is really low, so they can't escape into the air in combat.

I don't know why they reside in a place, where they have this much disadvantage.

But who cares.

Since those guys are normally small fries anyway, this makes it even easier.

I have no reason to not slaughter them.

Griping my sword, I dash at them.

The blade relentlessly rips through their flesh like it's nothing.

Ten...twenty...thirty...

I keep rapidly producing corpses without a pause.

After no time at all, all the monkeys are dead.

I approach the pond and drink some cleansed water.

Then I grab one of the monkey corpses and return to the crossroad through the tunnel.

This time, I turn left, in the direction where my target lies.

The corridor in this direction starts a little narrow, but slowly expands as I march forward.

Eventually, it stops being something called a tunnel and turns into a huge cave.

And at that moment, my nose picks up a terrible stench.

"Ugh..."

I hate this stench.

Every time I get here, I cringe.

I can't get used to it no matter how many times I do this.

It's just impossible.

I continue walking while trying to contain my urges to vomit.

It doesn't take long until I reach another one of those safe houses.

Not wanting to waste too much time, I just throw the monkey corpse near the table and leave again.

The cave keeps getting wider and taller as I go.

Finally, I turn a corner and I see the source of that disgusting stench.

This entire part of the cave is filled with this putrid smelly thing.

It's a colossal purple slime.

It sticks on the walls, drips from the ceiling and completely blocks anyone, who might want to think about getting through here.

And that certain someone, who would like to pass here, is me.

But its smell is the least of my worries here.

Because it's extremely powerful!

In fact, it's probably the most powerful monster I have encountered yet.

If I agitate it with my attacks, it will split parts of its body into thousands of mini slimes and completely overwhelm me.

And if that wasn't enough, just touching any part of the slime will give me a strong curse.

That curse will render me blind and will rapidly drain my mana.

In other words, I have to kill this entire thing in one clean sweep.

But even if I use hell serenade, it would only take out about a quarter of its entire mass.

It's just that huge.

I have faint memories of trying to modify hell serenade to amplify its area of effect.

And the result is this.

I take out the crimson scroll with black magic circle drawn onto it.

I hold the scroll in front of me and supply it with more mana to activate the spell.

As the sheet of paper is slowly dyed black, the concentration of mana appears before it.

It gets denser and darker as it draws power from the scroll and me.

The scroll turns pitch black and starts to crumble before finally turning into ash.

At that moment, the dense concentration of mana is shot towards the slime at high speed.

[Armageddon!]

Not waiting for anything, I turn my heels and run.

Without looking back I try to get as far as possible.

It doesn't take long, until I hear a loud explosion and a shockwave hits my rear.

I'm violently flung away and fall onto the ground.

After few seconds I raise my head to feast my eyes on the spectacle.

The cave, which was earlier covered in purple slime, is now covered in black flames.

Hmm...

Every time I do this, I feel some sort of satisfaction.

I wonder why...

...At any rate, it isn't safe here, I need to get back to my safe house.

I get up and start running away again.

When I eventually reach the safe house, I enter it.

I walk beside the table and grab the monkey corpse, which was lying on the ground.

[Cleanse impurities]

[Fire bubble]

After I cleanse the meat, the bubble gobbles up the corpse and starts grilling it.

The slime is the fourth big obstacle.

First the wave of gargoyles, then the ogre and slime duo, followed up by the black griffon and then this colossal slime.

And just like the gargoyles, I don't fight it.

I blow it up.

However, this time it's not because I want to be efficient.

It's because that's the only way I know.

Unlike the gargoyles, I can't defeat it in a fair fight.

The meat is done grilling.

I bite off a chunk of it and start chewing.

Unfortunately, the way I deal with the slime has a few consequences.

First, armageddon costs a huge amount of mana.

It's actually so much, there isn't a point in time, where I have enough mana in my body to cast it.

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To get around this, and to prepare the magic circle beforehand, I enchant a scroll.

I pour half of the needed mana into it and then regenerate enough mana overtime before I get here.

When I get here, I will pour the remaining half of the mana required and activate the spell.

That's another reason why I'm trying to not waste my mana early on.

The other thing is, it will take a considerable amount of time, before the slime is completely burnt and the black fire subsides.

So in the meantime, I don't have much to do.

Usually, I return back and try to explore some other tunnels and passageways.

I swallow a mouthful of meat and lie down on the ground to rest.

After some time of resting, I exit the house.

Then I head away from the burning slime in the direction I originally came from.

The cave starts getting narrower again and I find myself back in the tunnel.

Soon, I arrive at the crossroad and head right to the pond room again.

When I arrive there, I drink a bit of cleansed water and then return back to the crossroad.

After getting there, I decide to go right, which leads to the den of monsters.

I don't really have anything to do, but sitting around doing nothing isn't too attractive for me.

Since the books are kept at the start, I can't even study up.

I tried to bring them over a few times, but they were a hindrance and always got damaged in my fights.

And I think I have mastered pretty much all of their content anyway.

So, for now, I'm going to secure some more food and materials from the monsters here.

Eventually, I get to the tunnel's end.

...Huh?

There are corpses of various monsters everywhere.

Not a single live monster.

I'm pretty sure I didn't massacre them this time...

I walk into the cave while enduring the strong stench of blood.

This big cave has several openings in it.

I checked them all in the past and they were all dead ends used by these monsters as dens.

Hmm...

There are supposed to be some purple flowers around here.

But all I can see are their severed stems.

No, really, what happened here?

Did a bladed tornado visit this place?

This is the first time I see this happen.

My ears pick up some monster cries in one of the holes.

I decide to enter it.

After looking further in, I see a shocking sight.

The monkeys?!

The flying monkey monsters, whose den I supposedly annihilated back in the pond room are here.

There is only a handful of them, but somehow they are completely overpowering the monsters here.

Wait, why is their fur purple instead of blue?

And why do they seem so much stronger than I remember?

Could it be...

Those flowers outside?

I never actually tried to eat them, but...

While I'm lost in thought, the monkeys start surrounding the last dog monster.

The dog spits fire at them, but to no avail.

They relentlessly slash and stab at the dog with their claws, while he struggles to defend.

I don't remember these monkeys being immune to fire.

I better kill them, so they don't cause problems for me later.

Drawing my sword, I dash at them.

In a single slash two monkeys are split in half.

They stop assaulting their prey and instead turn against me.

My sword wards off claws of one the monkeys to the left, while two others charge at me from the right.

I dodge one and catch the arm of the other while inserting my sword into its stomach.

Their movements are more ferocious but more predictable than normal.

The two remaining monkeys start to tenaciously slash at me, while I avoid all of it with minimal movements.

How did they defeat all of these monsters?

They seem like a joke.

Are they running out of energy?

If that's the case, why don't they run away instead of going all berserk?

I throw my sword at one of them while catching the wrist of the other.

The sword pierces the monkey's head and its body falls down.

I swing the other monkey around in a spin and crash it into the ground.

The sword, which I pull out of the corpse, then pierces head of the last one.

Well, that's done.

I should try to eat those flowers at some point to confirm their effects.

After pulling my sword out and waving it in the air to shake off the blood, I hear a sound behind me.

Turning around, I lock my eyes on the source.

It's the dog they were attacking.

He has wounds all over its body and is probably just barely alive.

His eyes are fixated on me.

I walk up to him with my sword in hand.

I raise the sword and...

...

...

Why am I not finishing him?

It's just another monster...

He is almost dead anyway...

Just one swing will do it...

His pleading eyes are looking straight at me as he whimpers.

The hand holding my sword starts to tremble.

What are these doubts?

This...hesitation?

...

I slowly lower my sword and extend my palm.

...

[Heal]

What the heck am I doing...

His wounds start to slowly close as I pour mana into him.

It takes several minutes to completely recover him since the injuries were quite severe.

"Haaah..."

I fall on my rear out of mana exhaustion and look at the dog.

With his injuries gone, he gets up and walks up to me.

He shows absolutely no hostility.

Our eyes lock with each other and we stare at each other.

...

After several minutes pass, he brings his head closer to my cheek and rubs it.

"Hey!"

I try to push him back with my hands.

And then he starts licking me.

"Stop!"

He finally stops licking me, he steps back and then looks into my eyes once again.

My cheek feels hot...

Well, he does breathe fire after all.

...But what's with those eyes again?

...

I slowly extend my hand...

And pat him on his head.

His eyes close as he lets out silent growl.

Hmm...

This feels even better than when I blow up the slime.

...

Maybe I made a good choice?

I wasted some mana on healing him but...

Looks like I gained a companion.