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TL: ALT
Chapter 201 – Fisherman
Yamato brought the Men’s Association explorers to Kandori’s top-secret lab in the Umihotaru Dungeon as a kind of gift to get closer to Seiji Tozaki.
He tricked them into wearing an item called the “Freedom Contract Collar,” which deprives the wearer of their freedom.
However, contrary to their agreement, Seiji Tozaki did not appear at the lab.
Kandori said earlier that she was responsible for assessing Yamato’s resolve.
Kandori told Yamato to use the explorers of the Men’s Association as test subjects for her experiment.
Yamato tried to extract information from Kandori while postponing a decision.
Thanks to this, even I, as an outsider, was able to see the situation as it was.
And while Kandori asked Yamato to make a decision, Yamato made the opposite decision.
He encouraged the explorers of the Men’s Association to go after Kandori.
Of course, he didn’t leave everything up to the explorers.
Yamato’s first move was to use his unique skill, Schadenfreude.
Schadenfreude is a skill that forcibly reduces the maximum HP and current HP of all combatants to 1.
At the same time, Yamato readies his rapid crossbow and fires an arrow at Kandori.
The Men’s Association explorers who have made it this far in the relatively high-level A dungeon are a group of people who can be said to be reasonably skilled.
Compared to the S-rank monster class explorers, they are nothing, but in terms of skill, they are probably at the top of the class.
However, they are all too slow.
Kandori’s level is 221309.
Her agility is over 770000.
In contrast, Yamato’s level is 727.
His agility is only 17550.
Yamato’s agility is high for his level (he seems to have boosted it with skills to increase his hit rate), but it pales in comparison to Kandori’s.
The other explorers of the Men’s Association are not much different from Yamato in terms of level, and they are inferior to Yamato in terms of agility.
However, there is still a glimmer of hope for Yamato and the Men’s Association.
Yamato’s Schadenfreude is also effective against Kandori.
Even though there is a large level difference, you can win by dealing only one point of damage.
Yamato must have chosen the Rapid Crossbow, a long-range weapon with a high rate of fire, to compensate for his low agility with skills and equipment.
Perhaps Yamato planned to use this strategy against Seiji Tozaki?
According to Yamato’s promise to Tozaki, Tozaki was supposed to be present when the members of the Men’s Association were handed over.
The chances of contacting Tozaki, who is a member of the Diet, would be limited.
Even if you could make contact, you would certainly be asked to meet in a public place.
There would also be security guards.
But what about a dungeon?
As long as you’re involved in shady human trafficking, it’s not a bad idea to keep the other person locked up so they can’t escape.
Even on Tozaki’s side, it’s likely that only a few close associates would be brought to the scene of such a deal.
In such a situation, there’s a chance if you use Yamato’s Schadenfreude.
What kind of chance?
Of course, it’s a chance to bury Seiji Tozaki in the dark.
However, Yamato’s plan went wrong.
Seiji Tozaki did not show up at the scene today.
Although he broke his promise with Yamato, if you believe Kandori’s explanation, it seems that “it is foolish to believe that promises will be kept without any coercive power.”
Of course, Yamato had no intention of keeping his promise either.
As a result, Yamato ends up being set up by Kandori and Tozaki.
It’s surprising that the cynical and clever Yamato fell for such a simple story.
Perhaps the negative psychological effects of Tozaki’s Change of Strategy are starting to show.
“How stupid. You don’t even understand the situation you’re in.”
Kandori, with a calm look on her face, prepares to unleash Water Stream Radiation on the approaching explorers.
Water Stream Radiation is not a particularly strong monster skill, but Kandori still has 5.75 million magic powers.
What’s more, thanks to Schadenfreude, the HP of the explorers on the Men’s Association side has been reduced to 1.
The same goes for Yamato, the user of the skill.
The situation is such that they could die instantly from a single arrow or a splash of water.
Due to the overwhelming difference in agility, Kandori will probably see Yamato and the others’ movements as if in slow motion.
In truth, there is no need to use any skills.
Kandori is not even equipped with anything other than accessories, but that is irrelevant.
Even without martial arts skills, if you can dodge their slow attacks and kick them in the shin, they will die instantly.
Kandori’s face is relaxed.
Or rather, it’s more like she’s completely uninterested.
She looks at them with eyes that seem to be looking at insects.
Or maybe even more than that.
Even if the insects were flying vigorously, it would still be surprising.
However, the movements of these murderous explorers are much slower than those of summer insects.
But.
If we’re talking about relaxed, the person with the most relaxed expression here is not Kandori.
If you want to know who’s hiding it, it’s me.
My current Agility is 5.17 million.
This makes Kandori’s movements, which have an agility of 770,000, look sluggish.
It was a good thing that Yamato used Schadenfreude to chip away at my HP.
After some preparation, I unleashed a Wind Blast, a non-chanting spell, in the middle of the lab.
“Gyoooo!”
“Gyaaaa!”
“Guaaaa!”
Everyone was blown away and hit the wall or the floor, but of course, they weren’t killed.
The Hero’s unique bonus only left them with 1 HP and rendered them incapacitated.
What I should be aware of is Kandori’s skill set.
After all, Kandori has Self-regeneration 1.
I don’t want to make the same mistake I made when I let Clovis die because I didn’t notice Brain Eater’s Self Regeneration.
Actually, before Wind Blast, I used Skill Seal on Kandori.
That’s what I was talking about before.
My current level of Skill Seal is 5.
I can randomly seal 5 of Kandori’s skills.
This time, the randomly selected skills are Split 1, Tentacle, Body Hardening, Physical Reflection, and Magic Absorption.
On the other hand, the remaining skills were Gluttony, Self-Regeneration 1, Skill Macro, and Water Stream Radiation.
It was good that Physical Reflection (which reflects physical attacks back to the attacker once, but the timing is critical) and Magic Absorption (which absorbs magic attacks at random) were sealed, but the skill I wanted to seal the most, Self-Regeneration, was still left.
However, this time, it was a special case.
This is because of the Schadenfreude that Yamato used just before.
When I check Kandori’s HP using the Usurper skill, both the maximum HP and the current HP are 1.
If the maximum HP is 1, even if there is self-regeneration, the HP will not go above 2, and it seems that the state of being unable to act will not be resolved by regeneration.
Unexpectedly, it has become a perfect fit.
As someone who has prepared various other means of incapacitation, I was a bit disappointed, but it’s fine as long as it saves me the trouble.
The sight of the male party explorers, Yamato and Kandori, scattered and lying all over the room is reminiscent of the phrase “piles of corpses.”
Of course, they’re only incapacitated with 1 HP left, so no one has died.
“――I think that’s about it for now.”
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