Itai no wa Iya nanode Bōgyo-Ryoku ni Kyokufuri Shitai to Omoimasu

Defense Specialization and Ice

Sally was careful of the walls and floor as she proceeded down the narrow path and eventually reached a T junction.

She stuck her face on the wall and peered over around the corner of both sides.

"!"

Sally saw that something was sparkling in the air, far down the left path, and she quickly pulled her head back.

Just then, a strong wind blew through the T junction.

The wind and noise hindered her, but Sally did not miss the shining sphere that had flown past.

"...Hail?"

While she couldn’t tell if she was right or wrong, it was clearly a solid.

It had shot out like a bullet, and Sally would have likely died if she was hit.

"Okay, then I should go to the right..."

After thinking about it for a moment, Sally ran out into the path in the same direction that the wind was blowing.

"’Icicle.’"

The pillar of ice easily reached the low ceiling and became an obstacle that blocked the center of the path.

A wind blew again just like before, but the hail shot right past Sally, who was hidden behind the icicle.

"That seems to be it."

Once it was quiet, Sally moved away from the icicle and hurried on.

She didn’t know if there would be a second wave, and so she listened for any noise coming from behind as she ran.

"Oh, I was wrong after all."

She couldn’t tell if there would actually be a corner to turn because everything was so white, and so Sally had to get close to find out.

Still, all she had to do was use the same method to go in the opposite direction, which was not too big a hassle.

If anything, Sally had not been able to brush away the suspicion that there was something in the other direction.

Sally cautiously walked back, anxious to see if the wind would blow again.

However, it turned out that the trap only activated once when entering the hallway.

Sally reached the end of the opposite side, and this time took a path that had a slight upward slope.

And at the top of the slope was a large room that had nothing particularly unusual.

There were three more paths leading out of this room.

"Not this one...okay, I’ll try the one on the right."

Just as Sally reached the center of the room, pale clouds came out of the ceiling and floor.

There were 10 of them in all, and they were covered in a white mist.

"’Fireball’!"

Due to the hail attack a moment ago, Sally assumed that these were all ice-type enemies, and so she quickly attacked them with fireballs.

While the HP bar of the clouds diminished after being hit, they still had 60% left.

"Magic isn’t too effective."

Sally didn’t have much MP to begin with, and so it would be hard for her to use magic as her primary attack method.

As she considered this, she felt a wind at her back, and she quickly jumped out of the way.

"This monster is hail too..."

Sally realized that the hail attack in the hallway was something like a narrow beam attack. She considered the locations of all 10 clouds as she began to attack.

"’Quick Shadow.’"

In the second that Sally was able to escape the enemy’s attacks, she pulled out her daggers and moved in on the clouds.

"’Double Slash’!"

Her attack power was also raised due to ’Sword Dance.’

The clouds quickly died under the succession of attacks that she unleashed, and they disappeared as if melting.

"Yes, clouds are easy!"

Sally looked like she was quietly dancing, as if she were following predetermined moves as she executed the clouds.

There were no unnecessary movements, and she would take the clouds’ HP in the shortest amount of time possible.

Ultimately, the clouds that shot hail were not able to give Sally as much as a scratch.

"Now, to the right side as planned..."

And then Sally realized something after several minutes of exploring.

This area of clouds was designed like an intricate ant nest.

And many of these splitting routes that ran in all directions led to traps with hail and icicles that blocked Sally from progressing.

The larger rooms had not only small clouds, but monsters that looked like ice dolls.

Sally was not great with fire attacks, and the ice monsters tended to have high defenses, but the monsters were not able to hurt Sally either, so she had no choice but to slowly chip away at their health.

Winning and having an advantage were two different things.

After clearing another area with a barrage of hail bullets, Sally confirmed that she was safe, and slumped down on the ground.

"I think that I should be pretty high up now."

Sally petted Oboro and looked at the path ahead.

The enemies inside of this cloud were not very strong for Sally, but the design of this place and the traps were tiring.

"Am I close to the goal? ...Let’s go, Oboro."

The route that Sally was taking started to become narrower, and there were fewer split paths.

And finally, Sally saw a color other than white at the end of the path.

There was a blue magic circle on the ground up ahead, and it was quietly emitting a light.

She knew for sure, that there was something or someone beyond that circle.

"Yes, let’s go."

Sally stretched out her right hand.

There was a flash and Sally disappeared.