Chapter 155: 100 Meters Per Second Part 1
Kutanid of the Abyss possesses a unique ability that sets it apart from all the rest of Unique Monsters.
It is something that is cut above even someone like Wezaemon who managed to carve out the time of the world itself to preserve something and prevent his own death, and even Luukan’s ability to create his own alter egos from the surrounding darkness.
Cutanid’s ability could even bring back what was destroyed to the state of “whole” again. It seems that juggling life and death was as easy for it as flipping the switch from “on” to “off” over and over again.
It wasn’t just strong. It wasn’t downright broken. It was simply unreasonable. Every RPG out there needs to follow a certain rules in order to function properly: there has to be player character, there have to be NPC, monsters, quest, time limits, and all other stuff like that…… And what Kutanid does is basically taking all of those concepts and throwing them out the window.
However, even though it was the enemy that is simply despair-inducing, it is still a part of ShangriLa Frontier’s system. Which means, as a scenario, there has to be a way to defeat it or a loophole that can be exploited.
It’s not that I hate puzzle games, but I sure hope this quest wasn’t going to be like: in order to do this you need to first do that, acquire that and learn that, which can only be done at this location at that particular time. Otherwise it would quickly devolve into a sh*tty game of the biggest kind.
「Now, it’s time to find out a thing or two.」
I was able to witness the ultimate predator of the day getting devoured by something much more fiercer than it during the nighttime. I was also able to see with my own eyes how much of a change underwent in the city as a result of this power.
It is indeed amazing. But it is only a game. And every power, no matter how strong or potent, must have some limitations. Or conditions necessary to trigger them. Its like entering the house in any normal RPG, an action that changes the area and upon getting back on the overworld map the enemies are respawned or the destruction is fixed.
If so, then question one: what are the condition for Kutanid to reset the area?
And question two: how large portion of the city can be destroyed at once?
Lastly, question three: how strong are the “Seals” guarding Kutanid?
「I’ll do my best to destroy it all…… Just like those monsters did before me!」
So I jump off the roof, avoiding the thunder-monster that was coming straight at me. I was getting the feeling that it would want to crush me, so I started to move towards one of the four towers that I could see in the distance.
I could hear some really unpleasant sounds behind my back, and when I jump off the roof in a hurry I could see and hear the blue lightning hitting the place where I was standing just a moment ago, crumbling the building away and turning it into dust and rubble. I could even feel some of the debris hit my back.
「Oi, wawawa…… That was dangerous!」
I land safely on the ground, now ridden with stone and debris, and after activating a wide range of my skills I make a run for it trying to put as much of a distance between myself and the monster that I possibly could. Then I jump onto the rooftops again and continue my run.
Just then I could feel a tremendous blast right behind me. Looking back, the monster deployed its fins and smashed them into the ground, most probably hoping to blast me away together with rubble and stones.
「…… That’s actually kind of amazing.」
It’s not that I doubt the power of this monster, but I don’t want to risk it by letting it hit me even by accident. Something tells me that it would only end one way: with me getting pretty much one-shotted.
What came as even more of a surprise, was just how well I was managing to avoid this thing. All the while jumping from roof to roof, kinking off walls and avoiding the fallen rubble.
It was always at a last possible moment, but I was doing it. Running like mad, jumping, evading, hanging onto the edges of rooftops and climbing. This seemed almost too good to be true.
「Guess this machine is not called “latest model” for nothing, huh……」
It looks like compared to its predecessor, the headgear, this new bed-like machine allows for some even greater performance and even tighter controls.
In reality, unlike in games, such a dramatic increase in performance couldn’t be achieved in mere days. You’d need weeks and months of repeatedly doing the same manoeuver over and over again to actually master it.
But right now my avatar was moving way smoother and issuing the commands to it was way more intuitive. And is it only my imagination, or is the quality of textures gotten way better? Not everything, but some things were clearly bigger, sharper and more detailed.