Volume 4, Chapter 32 – Ambush Kill

The summer forest was filled with the chirping of insects and the roars of beasts. Compared to the daytime, the number of monsters active at night was greater, and it was much harder to tell direction. This created the common knowledge that the forest at night was exceptionally dangerous. An adventurer might dare to venture deep into a cave, but they would never dare to walk in a forest at night. The common vines, bushes, streams, and rocks of the day all become enemies after nightfall.

This was even truer for an undeveloped primeval ¹ resembling the earliest ages in the history of the world. forest.

However, there are exceptions to every rule, such as the Hermion Forest today.

A swarm of snakes, hissing and dripping saliva, slithered through the dense woods. These were serpentine monsters known as [Hallucinogenic Snakes]. Their hard, slender fangs could pierce most armor, and their short, powerful bodies meant they were agile. Coupled with their swarming nature and potent venom—a single bite would cause unconsciousness within ten breaths—no adventurer would ever want to encounter them.

But now, this swarm of Hallucinogenic Snakes was desperately writhing, slithering toward an open space in the forest without looking back, as if they had seen something terrifying.

Camilla’s group had been waiting for a long time.

“They’re here.”

Tiffany, who was extremely sensitive to smells, abruptly plunged her white divine staff into the ground and began to chant a spell in a low voice. Yisi was the only one who had been frozen in time for two and a half months ² meaning no improvement. ; during this period, Tiffany had already learned support magic. Although she couldn’t be called proficient, it was sufficient.

“[Strength Boost], [Barrier Seal].”

Golden and earthy yellow lights flew respectively onto Refina and Mary. The effect of [Strength Boost] was self-explanatory, while [Barrier Seal] was a magic that could increase the defense of the target.

After Tiffany’s enhancement magic was applied, the snake swarm finally emerged one by one from the dense forest, appearing on the grassy area where the group stood. Camilla, who had prepared her attack magic in advance, held her staff horizontally and aimed the spell at the very front of the swarm.

Normally, the snakes would have surely noticed the unusual cloud floating twenty meters above the ground, but now, with something terrifying chasing them from behind, they failed to notice the abnormal change in the weather.

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This led to the beginning of their annihilation.

“[Icefall].”

As Camilla’s voice fell, several finger-thick icicles descended from the sky. The icicles fell with the speed of flying pebbles, even creating nail-sized pits when they hit the ground.

The sharp pain finally made the fleeing snake swarm notice the change in the environment. They tried to escape the range of the ice cloud, but the number of icicles falling from the cloud had already changed from a few scattered ones to a shocking downpour. As countless bits of dust splashed up from the ground, the snakes caught within were soon buried forever due to their numerous injuries.

“Miss Camilla is amazing!”

Mary’s praise made Camilla raise her eyebrows smugly.

“The grand finale is yet to come—[Greater Icefall].”

Pouring all her remaining magic into her staff at once, the staff, made from the horn of an Earth Dragon, burst with a strong cyan light. The ice cloud hanging twenty meters high responded in kind—it no longer rained down finger-thick icicles, but a single, massive ice cone three meters in diameter and over six meters long.

Carrying an overwhelming force, the moment the ice cone hit the ground, the entire earth trembled. The snake swarm following behind the vanguard was instantly crushed into paste, and a dent as deep as a fingertip appeared in the ground.

As if it had expended all its power, the ice cloud dissipated after creating the giant ice cone. Camilla, as if she had just finished a long run, supported herself with her hands on her knees, her forehead covered in beads of sweat.

“Phew… as expected… this magic is too difficult for me…”

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[Icefall] was originally a top-tier first-circle spell, equivalent to magic that could only be used by someone around level ten. Normally, the final blow should have been a giant ice cone with a diameter of over five meters, but the one Camilla summoned was only three meters. Of course, considering she was only level 9, it was already an exceptional performance. If it weren’t for the Earth Dragon Horn Staff, she would have had a hard time even forming the ice cloud.

“That took out at least ten of them.”

Refina, who was standing in the front line with Mary, remarked with a hint of awe. The Hallucinogenic Snake was a monster of around level 7. Annihilating ten of them single-handedly was a very remarkable achievement.

“Miss Refina, they’re coming!”

“Mm, getting ready!”

Tightening the metal gauntlets on her hands, Refina charged out before Mary. Due to Camilla’s attack, the eyes of the somewhat injured snakes had all turned red. Hallucinogenic Snakes had an extremely vengeful nature and would retaliate against any creature that had harmed them. Now, with the enemy right in front of them, even blocking their escape route, they would naturally not let Camilla’s group go.

Seeing Refina and Mary charge at them, the leading snake whipped its tail hard against the ground, opened its mouth wide to reveal its fangs, and lunged for Refina’s neck.

But Refina simply extended her left hand and easily caught the arm-thick snake. The caught snake subconsciously turned back to bite her fist but was blocked by the gauntlet she was wearing. The sound of teeth breaking against metal, crack, was heard.

The intense pain from its broken fangs made the snake writhe, frantically shaking its head and tail, trying to break free from Refina’s grasp. However, Refina simply used the snake as a weapon. Like wielding a meteor hammer, she fiercely swung the struggling snake in her hand to the left, crashing it heavily against another snake that was charging up.

The sound of breaking bones could be heard.

The two snakes, as if they had lost their skeletons, lay limply on the ground.

Clang!

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A dull bell-like sound suddenly rang out from the side. Refina subconsciously looked back. A small, translucent magic shield was blocking an attack next to her. Along with it was a small snake that had fallen to the ground, wobbling as if it had fainted.

It was support from a teammate.

Refina turned her head.

Tiffany was making a V-sign at her—Tiffany said it was a gesture for victory. Although Refina couldn’t understand why this gesture represented victory, she had remembered its meaning.

Thanks.

Sending her gratitude to Tiffany in her mind, Refina continued the fight. On the other side, Mary was under immense pressure. Moreover, a shield warrior was not well-suited to deal with agile snakes. If she didn’t deal with the remaining five or six snakes quickly, Mary might get poisoned.

As for why most of the snakes were targeting Mary, it was because of the magic Camilla had cast on her beforehand, [Shield of Arcus] ³ changed from aegis shield at ch10, i go with more literal tl. using aegis feels a bit wrong cause its an aggro buff , which could focus the aggro of monsters onto a teammate.

Taking advantage of the moment when her other companions had just finished their attacks, a total of three Hallucinogenic Snakes launched a frontal assault on Mary. Mary, in turn, pushed her shield forward with both hands, colliding head-on with the three attacking snakes.

The all-metal shield was, of course, harder than a creature’s bones. As if they had run head-on into a wall, the three snakes began to writhe in pain on the ground. Mary then used the bladed edge of her shield to deliver the final blow.

The shield, which weighed about the same as Mary, descended from the sky. Under the immense force of gravity, the three snakes were cut in two, one after another.

Almost at the same time, Refina also finished off the remaining stragglers. The snake swarm was thus annihilated.

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Wiping the sweat from her forehead, Mary leaned on her shield and let out a long breath.

“Hah, I feel like the snakes are really scary. It would be better if they were wolves or demons.”

“Indeed… none of us use long weapons, and swords are better for dealing with snakes. But if other adventurers heard us say this, they would definitely think we’re ungrateful. How many waves has it been now?”

The one who answered Refina’s question was Camilla, who had already recovered from her mana exhaustion and had come to her side.

“The fifth wave.”

“I can feel that I’ve leveled up… This speed is unbelievable.”

Since a few hours ago, they had been brought to this forest by Yisi to hunt monsters. At first, Refina thought that the so-called hunt meant they had to find the monsters themselves in the forest. She had even wondered why Yisi would say something so thoughtless—the forest at night was exceptionally dangerous. Just surviving until the next day was something to be thankful for, let alone hunting monsters at night.

But Refina was soon struck down by reality.

It wasn’t that Yisi lacked common sense, but that Yisi was too lacking in common sense.

Of course, the latter “common sense” referred to the fact that what Yisi was doing was far beyond Refina’s imagination. Refina had never seen such an absurd hunting method.

Translator Note

yikes snakes.