Verdant Water Buffalo

After resting, Kurumi continued along the planned route.

A small stream appeared ahead, along with a herd of entirely green water buffalo.

Verdant Water Buffalo

Level: 31

Life Level: Ordinary Monster

HP:

Attack: 550

Defense: 300

Skills: Sunlight Absorption, Water Pillar, Bark Skin.

Monster Description: Water buffalo that have lived in the forest for a long time, becoming one with it!

To be fair, the description was absolutely right.

If those buffalo had not been spraying water at each other, Kurumi might not have noticed them at all. From afar, they looked like clumps of moss-covered dirt.

Water Pillar was a long-range magic attack. Slow had little effect on these buffalo, since they were already incredibly slow.

As long as she avoided their Water Pillar attacks, there would not be much of a problem.

Kurumi used up the effect of her last Fairy Bottle for the day.

Blessing of the Fire Fairy: Accuracy +10%, Critical Hit Rate +10%, Base Strength +10%, Base Attack +10%, Remaining Time: 9 minutes 59 seconds.

"Damn, isn't this fairy's blessing a little ridiculous?"

Kurumi looked at the 507 Attack shown on her status panel, along with the Accuracy and Critical Hit stats. Could an escort quest really give such a fucking item?

Her attack was high, but the buffalo's defense was high too.

-414! (Critical Hit!)

-207!

-415! (Critical Hit!)

That 10% Critical Hit bonus really was no joke. She attacked three times at random and landed two critical hits.

With the passive effect of First Bullet, plus the Holy Tree Leaf's effect within the forest, these high-defense, high-HP buffalo were like immobile targets. By focusing fire on one, she could usually kill it within two minutes.

One hour later.

Kurumi stood atop a Verdant Water Buffalo's corpse, collecting the spoils of battle.

She obtained a total of 103 silver coins, but no equipment or skill books dropped.

Kurumi continued along the stream, encountering more and more buffalo. There were occasionally other types of solitary magical beasts as well, but they were not as convenient to kill as the buffalo, and she was not sure whether she could handle them alone.

So Kurumi waited for those solitary magical beasts to leave before slowly killing the buffalo.

Finally...

After four hours of grinding, Kurumi rose from Level 14 to Level 15.

Following the stream, she found that the waterway had widened considerably. It could no longer be called a stream—it was now a river. Downstream lay a fork, where snowmelt from the Green Mountains flowed through the branches and into rivers, lakes, and waterways.

In the broad river sat a gigantic water buffalo. Its exposed back resembled a green clump of earth the size of a small house, standing in the middle of the river.

Countless smaller buffalo surrounded it. Kurumi roughly counted them and found there were at least over a hundred.

And the large buffalo at the center was the Verdant Water Buffalo Leader!

Kurumi glanced at the boss's stats. Its Defense was as high as 500; without Blessing of the Fire Fairy, Kurumi could not even break through its defense.

"Ding!"

"System Notification: You have entered a boss territory. Because you have killed a large number of Verdant Water Buffalo, you have been locked onto by the Verdant Water Buffalo Leader and forcibly entered combat!"

"Moo! (Enemy!)"

The "clump of earth" in the center of the river stood up. The buffalo in the water erupted into motion, and the previously tranquil river surface instantly boiled.

Its beady eyes glared fiercely in Kurumi's direction.

"Shit!"

Kurumi panicked slightly and immediately activated First Bullet. Her speed instantly surged by 100%, allowing her to leave her original spot at a speed comparable to teleportation.

The next moment, dozens of Water Pillar attacks arrived.

A massive spray of water exploded where she had been standing.

While dodging, Kurumi summoned three shadows and began frantically clearing out the smaller buffalo.

-207!

-207!

-103!

It took an hour and a half, and she even used Holy Tree Rejuvenation, but she finally cleared out all the little water buffalo. She even leveled up once in the process, reaching Level 16!

Only the buffalo leader in the middle of the river remained.

Seeing all its underlings slaughtered, the boss blasted two enormous columns of water from its nostrils and fixed Kurumi with an enraged glare.

It charged at Kurumi on its thick limbs.

Verdant Water Buffalo Leader

Level: 32

Life Level: Silver Monster

HP:

Attack: 1250

Defense: 500

Skills: Sunlight Absorption, Water Pillar, Bark Skin, Water Domain, Forest Stealth, Forest Link, Summon Underlings, Charge.

Monster Description: The moo-moo is angry! The moo-moo has thick hide and plenty of flesh, so before attacking, you should consider whether you can even break its defense~

Its massive head charged toward Kurumi.

Kurumi felt her body stiffen, as though she had fallen into a swamp.

Water Domain?!

"Switch!"

Kurumi switched places with the clone in the distance.

The next instant, the clone was smashed to pieces by the Water Buffalo Leader.

"City of Eating Time!"

The dark-red domain instantly spread out.

-80!

-160!

-80!

The clones simply could not break its defense. Those three damage numbers had all been dealt by Kurumi herself, and even critical hits only did 160 damage... At this rate, she could shave off at most 10% of its health per minute, but it also had Sunlight Absorption and could restore health.

Kurumi did the math. This battle would take at least an hour!

"Moo! (My underlings, come to my side!)"

The Water Buffalo Leader shook its head and bellowed. Three little water buffalo instantly leaped out of the forest, glaring fiercely at Kurumi.

"Damn it, I already killed all the mobs, and it can still summon more out of thin air? At this rate, won't it be impossible to kill?"

Kurumi suddenly did not want to fight anymore. Her attack power was already insufficient, and if she also had to deal with three mobs, she would have no way to bring down the Water Buffalo Leader's health.

"I've already started fighting. If I really can't win, I can leave then!"

Kurumi gritted her teeth and had her other two clones draw the mobs' aggro while she attacked the leader itself.

Since she did not know whether killing the mobs would cause them to be summoned again, the clones did not attack at full strength. Instead, they led the mobs in circles within the range of City of Eating Time.

The more monsters there were within City of Eating Time's range, the faster Kurumi's Time Value increased!

Kurumi had to kill the leader as quickly as possible.

"Time Gun Charge!"

Activating the Time Gun's first active skill instantly granted her 100 Time Value.

"Third Bullet (Gimel)!"

The bullet carrying dark-red power struck herself, and her base attributes instantly surged by 50%.

Her attack power rose to 760!

The active effect of Third Bullet only lasted five seconds. During those five seconds, Kurumi could finally break through the Water Buffalo Leader's defense properly!

"Time Gun Flash!"

Kurumi used Flash to evade the Water Buffalo Leader's Water Pillar attack, then pressed another skill button!

"First Bullet (Aleph)!"

All speed increased by 100%!

Kurumi felt that she could barely suppress the recoil of the Time Gun anymore. With First Bullet's active effect, her attack speed reached 2.35 attacks per second.

Kurumi raised the gun and aimed at the Water Buffalo Leader, unleashing all her firepower in that instant!

-260!

-520!

-265!

-390!

-250!

In an instant, a string of red numbers popped up above the Water Buffalo Chieftain!