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nChapter 20: Defense Specialized and Friend Strengthening

n「Yosh, I’ve arrived!」

nRisa arrived at a small house inside the forest. It was a log house.

nRight beside the house, there was a water wheel that was slowly turning to the flow of a clear river.

nIn front of the house were a small field and some unchopped firewood that was probably left there are after chopping firewood.

nThe sounds of the small birds echo pleasantly.

nRisa approached the house, “KonKon” she knocked the door and waited.

nAfter a while, the door opens from inside.

nWho came out, was white long beard man using a staff.

n「For someone to come here, how rare…… for the meantime, come inside. In these places, there are a lot of dangerous monsters」

nThe old man said that and let Risa enter the house. Risa obediently entered the house.

nIf the AGI stat is low, the old man will not be in his house, and the event will not occur.

nInside the house, there was only a few furniture.

nIf asked which one was the most interesting, on the top of the shelf around the ends, there was an old small sword that was emitting a very certain presence.

nAfter that, Risa without saying anything, sat in the chair that was near to the table.

nThe old man placed a teacup with tea in front of that Risa.

n「You should drink, your body should get relaxed a little」

n「Uhm… thank you very much. Itadakimasu」

nRisa drank the tea. As the old man had said, her body really got relaxed a little.

nPrecisely, her MP was fully recovered.

nIt is unknown since her HP was full, but in the information, it is said that it would recover.

n「Fumu…… you should rest for a while. I will go to draw 【Magic Power Water】」

n【Magic Power Water】is the water that is drawn up from the springs that recover magic powers. And the place of that springs can be heard from the NPC in the town of the second stage.

nIt was about 30 minutes far away in her current position.

nRight here, Risa started to talk as if she was waiting for that.

n「Yes, then, I will go draw it instead」

n「n, really?… I’ll leave it to you here huh…… recently, the condition of my feet had worsened」

nWhen the old man said that, he gave Risa a glass bottle.

nA blue colored monitor appeared in front of Risa.

nIt was stating, Yes, No.

nRisa pushed the Yes, and accepted the quest.

nThe【Magic Power Water】was immediately checked by the non-combat players as soon as they get to the second stage, but they couldn’t draw it up from the spring whatever they did.

nThey were able to drink it in that place and recover MP, but it is impossible to bring it back currently.

nThe only way it could be drawn up, was using the glass bottle that is passed during this event.

nBut, that also disappears from the inventory after drawing it up after an hour.

nIt means, it was a spot that was prepared for this event.

n「Well then, I’ll go now!」

n「I’m sorry… I’ll count on you」

nAnd, Risa jumped out of the log house towards the springs.

nThe monsters that are inhabiting around here are mostly 3 types.

nThe first one is the Big Spider.

nAs its name is, it was a large spider. Its size is about 1 meter and it’s spider thread attack that binds the target is very troublesome.

nThe second one is the Sleep Beetle.

nIt is a beetle that has status debuff attacks that make its target asleep. Its size is only a little bigger than the normal beetle, so it is a scary monster that is easy to be overlooked and receive a surprise attack from.

nThe third one is the treant.

nIt is mimicking a tree, and is good at surprise attacks.

nBut, it has a characteristic that it is the only one tree that has a red fruit inside this forest.

nKnowing that beforehand, the chance to avoid it will surely go up. But, even without that, the attack range of the branches and roots is long, and there are a lot of players that are blocked on all sides and loses.

nRisa is running through the forest.

nAs she has preliminarily investigated, there are not one monster appearing.

nAnd, she properly arrived at the springs for about 30 minutes.

n「It’s beautiful……」

nThe waters that are clear as it can be was shining faintly and shimmers to the surrounding trees and flowers.

nTo that fantastic spectacle, Risa stopped her feet for a while and viewed the springs.

nAnd, after she drank the spring waters to recover her MP, she heightened her concentration.

n「It’s from here… huh」

nRisa drew the water to the glass bottle, and put it in her inventory. The time limit is one hour.

nIf she cannot reach the log house within the time limit, the event will end as a failure.

nAnd, the monsters that did not show up at all when she got here, flows out from the forest as if they were waiting for this moment.

n「I should go…」

nRisa looked back, and jumped to the forest and ran. The unpleasant sounds of the spiders echo.

nThe event really starts from here.

nThe path that took 30 minutes without monsters, return from there with monsters within an hour.

nTo obtain【Super Acceleration】, she must go through this test.

n*HyunHyun* the threads of the spiders sounded while they shot from the top of the trees. If these hits, she would be bound and it would be the end.

n「Yo, tto! ……!! 【Mirage】!」

nRisa runs through, and to her body, a ton of Sleep Beetles hit.

nBut that got squashed and distorts its shape, and melts in the air.

nWhile glancing at that, Risa broke through the swarm of the Sleep Beetle.

n「That’s bad, that’s bad… tto!」

nFrom Risa’s feet, sharp tree roots reached out.

nWith Risa’s status, she would surely die with one hit.

nWhile Risa was dodging the tree roots, she checked the surrounding.

nThere were three trees that have red fruits with it. It was no doubt treants.

n「【Fire Ball】!」

nThe blazing ball of fire hits the slow moving treant, and burns violently its trunk.

nThe treant’s angry voice echoes throughout the forest.

n「This is…!! That might’ve been a miss…」

nRisa had caught on the monsters that were approaching, attracted by the treant’s voice using【Sensory Awareness II】.

n「【Mirage】!」

nRisa made a phantom of herself run towards the direction of the springs.

nThe beetles got easily lured by that, but that wasn’t the case with the spiders. They probably have some kind of skill, they were moving towards Risa’s direction.

n「It wasn’t effective! 【Slash】!」

nWhile dodging the spider threads, two consecutive attacks.

nTheir HP bar surely was reduced, but there’s still 70% of it. She had no time at all to defeat that.

n「Damn it!…… the treant is also too annoying…!」

nIn addition to the enormous number of enemies, they were moving as if each of them different purposes.

nOn top of that, the spider’s AGI was quite high. It wasn’t that much different with Risa.

nIn the first place, that was natural since it was a quest made for AGI Specialized to challenge it.

n「【Ocean】!」

nFrom Risa’s feet, water thinly spread. The spiders that were chasing her plunged into that and decelerates.

n「【Slash】!… 【Wind Cutter】!」

nSlashing through the roots and branches of the treant, Risa continued to move forward.

nThe distance between the spiders gradually opened.

nBut it also wears out Risa’s nerves.

nShe would be caught if she stops running, but this is inside the forest.

nThe trees that were crowded, the bushes beneath the feet, and there might be mud somewhere.

nIf she was caught on her footsteps, the situation would only be the worst.

nRisa heard a flying sound with her ear, and turned around.

n「Beetles again?!…… no way」

nThe monsters that inhabit this forest are “mostly” three types.

nRight, there was another type of monster that was rare to encounter.

nApproaching from behind, was a giant dragonfly.

nAnd its name, Wind Dragonfly.

nIts name comes from the way it flies at high speed as if there were no trees at all, while accelerating with wind magic.

n「That’s too unlucky!…… damn it…! 【Wind Cutter】!」

nShe threatened, shooting blades of wind to her back.

nIn this situation, there was no time to fight. She should do something and run away somehow. Even now, their distance was gradually closing up.

nHighly mixed wind magic passes through Risa with sounds of cutting wind. While dodging the wind magic using the trees as a shield, she spreads out the 【Ocean】and checks the spiders.

nShe diverts the Sleep Beetle that flies from the side with 【Mirage】. Just like that, while she was running, she was once again surrounded by monsters.

nImpatience appears in Risa.

n「Spiders coming from the front… treant from the left. I’ll go left!」

nUsing【Sensory Awareness II】at its fullest, she gained the information the most she could get, and chooses the best route.

nTo the direction where there are more trees, to where it is hard for the dragonfly to fly. Three treants in front of her. Of course, there was no time to make an opponent of them.

n「【Mirage】!」

nThe treant easily fell for it, and pierces out tens of its sharp branches towards Risa’s phantom.

nThe treant, seemed to have felt it clearly, it was having a creepy laughter triumphantly.

n「Thank you! You really saved me!」

nRisa, with relief, mumbles.

nWhat it pierced through wasn’t Risa.

nIt was the wing of the Wind Dragonfly, one of it.

nEven if it was the Wind Dragonfly, it couldn’t completely dodge the unexpected attack.

nThe Wind Dragonfly that had its wing broken drops its speed.

nThe distance with Risa opens up.

n*GachiGachi* the Wind Dragonfly shot wind magic to Risa while sounding creepily, but that kind of desperate attack had no way of reaching Risa.

n「Ha〜…ha〜… Arrival!! Ha〜! Seriously, maybe this is the most exhausting ever…」

nThere was the log house in front of Risa.

nShe took 52 minutes, and reached it just below.

nRisa opened the door of the log house.

n「I have returned!」

n「Ohh! I have been waiting for you, thank goodness that you’re fine, thank goodness…」

nRisa who broke through tens of deadly situation made a subtle face, but the old man did not care about that and continued to talk.

n「Fumu… I have to give my gratitude… let me see, come here for a second」

nAfter saying that, the old man brought out one scroll from the drawers.

n「You can learn the skill【Super Acceleration】with it. It should help you somehow… you don’t need abstain」

nAfter saying that, the old man’s appearance blurs and disappeared.

n「It is something I don’t need」

nA voice came from behind Risa, Risa turns back in a hurry.

nThere was the old man, smiling happily as if a boy who has succeeded his prank.

n「Fufu… you should devote to your training」

n「Y-Yes!」

nShe instinctively replied, and Risa left the log house.

nGaining a new power.

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