Chapter 158 <Banana Throw>

Within the unexplored dark forest I entered, I stumbled upon a cave. The entrance of it glowed with magical wonders—red and blue crystals were settled up on the rocky canopy, and as bright and beautiful flowers guarded the wild meadow of its soil.

A sanctuary of monsters. My senses already fathomed the presence of swarms of monsters inside the crude yet noble house.

Satisfied, I chuckled.

The falling ivy tickled my neck as I passed through the dark gape of the sanctuary's entrance. As a cold breeze, from deep within the cave, whispered the words of the house in my ears, I felt a change. I was home. Monster-types' home. There was a roof, walls, and everything.

"So…" I murmured, "where are they…?"

The minute I entered, bat-type monsters went rushing at me. When I asked about "they," those bats certainly weren't the ones concerned. Despite that, their flaps of wings and screeches were what welcomed me in.

I cut the swarm down without batting an eye.

"Not you people," I winced. Squinting my eyes at the dark, [Night Vision] kicked in pretty fast, and I got perfectly used to the darkness. "Mana Perception" had still its uses. So, where were they, my funky creatures?

I quickly covered the entire area of the cavern. Only mentally jumping and running at every corner it presented, however. By the entrance, I explored it all. My eyes were shut tight as I navigated through the entire vast area.

At once, my eyes shot back open.

"There they are."

My eyes lit with a blue flame of expectations.

The hunt began.

With my arms locked behind my back, and my eyes shining with determination, I stepped in. Leisurely strolling my way to the end of the cavern while fighting off any non-desirable monsters coming my way was what I then planned to do. It was rather easy. A child's play. For minutes, rather low-level monsters, most of them being giant insect-type, kept coming at me.

Humming a tone, I destroyed them all as they came, and more minutes passed before I encountered worthy enemies.

I came here for a reason: At some point, it was a giant poisonous centipede that came my way, its hundreds of legs rumbling on the rocky walls as it scrambled toward me.

Confident, I faced the giant creature. It seemed to me the fellow monster planned to hit me with all its jerky articulated fangs. It didn't stop. It rushed fast. Before it impacted me, I quickly thrust a hand forward and activated <Intimidate>.

At once, it became a tamed beast. Or no, "forcefully subdued" was more accurate.

I could swear I saw the monster's shell glow with sweat, then. Before it hit me, all its crawling, jerky legs came to a consensus: they stopped, motionless. Under the blue mana crystals of the rocky canopy, my hand calmly reached out to the monster-type… and I patted its armor head. "Easy, boy. Eaaasy." The shell was robust. The giant centipede promptly understood how inferior it was compared to me, that other monster-type guy.

If it jerked back to scramble off back to its hole, the centipede knew I would crush its head right away.

"You're a good boy," I snickered, still caressing the smooth shell of the insect-type beast. Gently telling my pal about how the follow-up of our confrontation was supposed to go, I apologized. The centipede jerked back, but my claws pierced its shell armor and I kept it in front of me.

I activated "Dwelling." That good ol' unique skill that I initially "needed" in order to survive at first. For the sake of Skill. Shaking our dark sanctuary, the centipede may have been thrashing its thick body all around before the unique monster-type, me, called off the Character, turned to an Undine-like water spirit, and climbed into the centipede's skin.

For today, that was a first attempt at not wasting my potential. It had been a long time since I'd gone around using that skill. The handiness of it wasn't the least bit rusty. I wasn't out of shape. Swiftly, I was in. But… as expected, my first attempt at using that skill was a failure.

Right off the bat, the System notified me. I didn't have time to appreciate my first steps as a giant monstrous centipede. The System notified me of an overload of the Receptacle's mana core. That was due to the Player's overwhelming strength. I might have gained the passive skill "Resistance to Poison +5," but you know what happened then.

In a bright sea of white flames, the entire centipede was burned to a crisp. That also helped me upgrade some other passive skill I had, "Pain Resistance +2," but that was it. I felt the pain of my Receptacles, yup.

Amidst the remains of blackened ashes, the Undine rose back up, and I shook my head. "Barely strong enough…" I mused, out loud, summoning back the Character.

"I thought it might last a little longer, but… nah." My difficulties finding a suitable Receptacle, now that I was as overwhelmingly strong as I was, were to be expected. Before I buckled down to it and got my lessons on the art of mana regulation and its control, that was to be expected.

"Sure, I expected as much anyway," I nodded. "All I got to do is find some monster-type powerful enough, and I'm all set, am I right."

Yes, that was to be expected. Hence why I came to this cave. I felt the presence of a stronger monster-type down this place. So, anyway, I shrugged and promptly trooped forward like I was supposed to.

The deeper I ran, the more powerful the enemies became. Similar to how I met with stronger foes deeper into the woods, I met with stronger foes within the noble wild cave.

Still not half as powerful as I was, however, but I was on the right track.

After the poisonous centipede, for a time, many others of the same race came at me. Not bothering climbing into their shells, I absent-mindedly cut them all down, up till I reached the other levels of the cave. What drove me to this cave was the strong fragrance I picked from grassy slimes earlier. Yet, I still didn't meet any.

From cow-sized frogs going all "Kero-kero, kero-kero," I went to dark, nocturnal sorts of bald apes going all "Ooh ooh ah ooh!" then to plenty of other insect-types, and finally… my sword and I reached the deepest level.

I learned <Double Quick Leap>, <Catch>, [Resistance to Illusion +1], <Banana Throw>, and [Banana Wielding +3]. "Quick Leap" worked in a similar manner to "Slash." It made me do a quick dash, but upward, and allowed me to, whether I choose to, perform yet another jump midair. I'm afraid I couldn't use "Catch" for the time being for reasons I ignored. About the ape-related skills, they were pretty self-explanatory. As a matter of fact, the last ape I slayed fell to a neat banana throw I performed— ❮ New Title "Terror of the Apes" has been acquired! ❯