Chapter 24

"Ribbit! Ribbit!"

The golden Larna hopped down the passage with a wet slap, slap.

Its eyes were enormous gemstones, gleaming like emeralds.

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Monster: Moneybags Larna

Lv: 40

HP: 2/2

MP: 36/36

――――――――――――――――――――

I swallowed nervously.

There was no doubt about it. It was a Moneybags Larna.

If we could defeat it, I could level up in one go and get closer to buying the 〈Smoldering Fangs〉.

Its HP was only 【2】...

And yet countless adventurers had surely come to grief because they couldn’t whittle down that single-digit HP.

"I-It’s here! It’s here! W-What do we do? What do we do?!"

Ruche tugged urgently at my arm.

She kept her voice low so she wouldn’t scare off the Moneybags Larna, but her excitement still showed.

"Take a deep breath, Ruche. First, calm down. Whether we can hunt it depends on how coolheaded we are."

"Y-Yes!"

Ruche took several deep, noisy breaths.

Just looking at her made it clear how flustered she was.

But I understood how she felt.

Seeing one in person was incredibly exciting.

It had a presence far beyond what it had in the game; it was like watching a living treasure chest walk around.

"You put the Skill Points you got from leveling up into 〈Fool's Acrobatics〉 and raised it to 【10】, right?"

"Y-Yes! I learned the Skills you told me about, Elymas-san."

Ruche nodded emphatically.

"Good. Stick to the plan. I’ll wait here for the Moneybags Larna, so drive it toward me."

"Leave it to me! You can do this, Ruche. I can do this, I can do this...!"

Ruche desperately repeated those words to herself, then took another series of deep breaths.

"...And, you know, it’s okay if you fail, all right?"

After steadying her breathing, Ruche ran toward the Moneybags Larna.

A Moneybags Larna wouldn’t start fleeing unless an adventurer came within four meters of it.

And the passages in 〈Angel's Toy Box〉 were four meters wide.

Even if the Moneybags Larna was at one edge of the passage, the layout made it impossible to squeeze past it on the floor.

But that was only if you stayed on the floor.

The passage was four meters wide, but the diagonal across it was five and a half meters.

At 【5】 in 〈Fool's Acrobatics〉, you could learn 〈Acrobatic Footwork〉.

It increased your walking speed and let you walk on walls and ceilings while the Skill was active.

Its duration was only about two seconds, though, and it had a thirty-second cooldown.

In other words, 〈Acrobatic Footwork〉 let you slip past the Moneybags Larna without alerting it and get behind it.

"〈Acrobatic Footwork〉!"

Ruche ran up the wall, kicked off the ceiling, and swiftly dropped back to the floor behind the Moneybags Larna.

That put Ruche and me on either side of the Moneybags Larna.

"Ribbit!"

The Moneybags Larna noticed Ruche, but it didn’t charge toward me.

Instead, it turned toward her and started running to slip past her.

That wasn’t ideal, since we needed her to drive it toward me first.

But of course, I’d anticipated something like this.

"〈Doppel Illusion〉!"

Ruche’s figure split into four shadowy images.

〈Doppel Illusion〉 was a Skill learned at 【10】 in 〈Fool's Acrobatics〉 that created illusory copies of its user.

In a passage as narrow as this one in 〈Angel's Toy Box〉, it was impossible to get past Ruche without running into the illusions created by 〈Doppel Illusion〉.

And the timid Moneybags Larna wouldn’t dare charge into an illusion.

That was one of the loopholes in the Moneybags Larna’s resistances.

The Moneybags Larna was completely immune to status effects, so it couldn’t be afflicted with the 【Blindness】 or 【Illusion】 status effects.

But it couldn’t see through the illusions created by 〈Doppel Illusion〉.

The Moneybags Larna immediately turned around and charged at me.

It came at me like an arrow loosed from a bow.

Its 【Agility: 67】 was no joke.

The second loophole in its resistances was that my 〈Shadowstep〉 worked on it.

〈Shadowstep〉 was a highly unusual Skill, so this movement restriction wasn’t considered a status effect or a debuff.

And of course, it wasn’t an elemental attack, either.

〈Shadowstep〉 only worked while my foot pinned the target’s shadow, so a monster could easily break free with a body slam—but the Moneybags Larna had 【Attack: 9】, so no matter how hard it tried, it couldn’t damage me.

The only question was whether I could successfully use 〈Shadowstep〉.

Even if the passage was narrow, it was still four meters wide.

The Moneybags Larna was more than three times as fast as I was.

Honestly, this was far harder than getting behind it with 〈Acrobatic Footwork〉 and blocking its path with 〈Doppel Illusion〉.

"I can’t afford to mess this up after coming up with the plan..."

I took a white magic stone from my 〈Magic Bag〉.

It was a holy-element magic stone.

I’d bought it along with the 〈Iron-Piercer〉 specifically for hunting Moneybags Larna.

Magic stones produce special effects when mana is channeled through them, depending on their element.

A fire-element magic stone emits flames, while a water-element one releases water.

But compared to magic Skills, their effects are far too weak for the MP they consume, so they’re hardly ever used.

They’re usually used simply as materials for crafting items.

This holy-element magic stone didn’t have any impressive effects, either.

It emitted healing light, but a 〈Heal Potion〉 was far more efficient.

But I needed the light it emitted.

"Come on, Moneybags Larna! I’m going to catch you!"

The Moneybags Larna made a sharp turn right in front of me and fled to the left.

There was no way I could catch up to it.

Its shadow was only about fifty centimeters long—not nearly big enough for me to aim at and step on.

I threw the holy-element magic stone to my left.

It flew past the Moneybags Larna, barely grazing its snout.

The stone struck the wall and emitted a white, healing light.

The light stretched the Moneybags Larna’s shadow several times its length.

I brought my foot down hard.

"Got you, Moneybags Larna!"

The Moneybags Larna, which had been hopping around at high speed, froze in place as if pulled taut by a string.