"Oooh! It's working! Great job."
"It's nothing. I am great to be of help."
"Don't sell yourself out. You are a big help this time. I will give you a reward later."
"Thank you very much, Sir Arthur. I will be looking forward to it."
"As you should. Tell me what you want when we return to Academy City. As for now… I will need to deal with something first."
The plan went smoothly.
I could see Isabelle's slumping figure as she sat motionlessly on the ship from where I was hiding behind a tree. Garcia was standing beside me, smiling brightly as I patted her head.
It went better than I had thought, although Isabelle's reaction was more severe than I imagined.
When Isabelle was busy fighting Cecil earlier, I quickly dealt with the sea monsters and met up with Garcia. She created a big illusion where Scylla showed up and ate me whole using her <Illusion Magic> powered up with the equipment [Sage's Veil] I lent her.
That was the beginning of the plan. To create a bigger impact, I used my skill <Mountain Cleaver> to create a large wave that pushed the ship to the shore.
In the middle of the confusion, I kicked all the thugs Garcia gathered for Cecil down to the sea. Those guys were just extra to make Cecil's act believable, but it seemed like Isabelle had seen through it easily.
"The real monster will arrive soon. I need to weaken it so Isabelle can defeat it herself." I spoke to Garcia as I retracted my hand from her head.
"I am counting on you to speak to her, Garcia. In 10 minutes, I will send a message to Isabelle through <Love Letter>. At that time, convince her to go after me."
"Yes, Sir Arthur. May the Goddess' blessing be with you."
"May the Goddess' blessing be with you too, Garcia," I replied to her and put on [Shadow Cape], disappearing into the shadow.
The next plan was for Isabelle to defeat her past trauma and move on. That would be hard, considering Scylla was a hard monster to beat, especially for Isabelle in her current condition and Level.
So I needed to weaken it and kill Charybdis in less than 10 minutes. I might need to unleash my full strength today, so doing it near the town was a bit too dangerous.
'There it is.'
I found a cliff in the place nearest to the big red dots on my radar. One of the dots was bigger than the other, twice the other one's size. Because I was already close, I jumped out from the shadow and threw [Shadow Cape] into my inventory.
Stopping on the edge of the cliff, I looked at the calm sea. No one would ever think beneath that calm, blue sea swam two Boss-rank monsters that could destroy a city or even many regions single-handedly.
Because they were swimming in the deep, their shadows could not be seen from the surface. However…
'It seems that I can use <Appraisal> on them now.'
My skill didn't care about the depth and only cared about how far away they were from my radar, with me as the pivot.
And when I used it on those two, the result came out with a bit of a surprise.
---
Scylla
Level 90
HP: 16500
MP: 1000
A legendary monster sealed near World-End Waterfall. Her upper body's appearance is similar to a beautiful woman, and she has tentacles as legs with a big mouth underneath her lower body. She's trying to get revenge on humans who dared to seal her and swore to return to Hell once again.
---
Charybdis
Level 35
HP: 3500
MP: 2500
A legendary monster sealed near World-End Waterfall. Its appearance resembles a large worm, often depicted as a deadly whirlpool due to its mouth shape.
---
Charybdis' Level made sense as it was one of the early bosses. I could kill it easily with my current status and equipment. Probably, I only needed a few minutes to force it to surface and spent another 5 minutes to defeat it.
And this monster was probably who brought over Scylla's tentacles that I saw back on that island this dawn.
The problem was Scylla.
"Her HP and Level are too high for a sea monster. But I bet its defense is paper-thin compared to other bosses."
Personally, I had never encountered a Scylla before. Her skill set was unknown to me, and Isabelle couldn't deal any huge damage alone against her in this condition.
The only hope was to aid her.
'My plan needs to be revised slightly.'
I would leave the monster dying, for sure. But afterward, I needed to enter its mouth and burst out from inside, relieving Isabelle's worry and hopefully curing her trauma because she would understand that Scylla wasn't that strong of a monster that could be defeated by the two of us.
"Let's start by fishing them to the surface. Hopefully, I can slash Charybdis in half because I doubt its defense is as high as Ghost Marionette."
Saying so, I took out [Sword of Mars] and got into a stance, raising it high above my head.
"<Body Enhancement>, <Holy Enhancement>, <Blessing of Angel>, <Sword Edge>, <Sharp Edge>, <Razor>, <Limit Break>."
I used almost every buff I had in hand, and the sword started to glow bright red, fire burning wildly around it. Obviously, I added more MP into the sword to activate its effect. This time I didn't want to split the sea but evaporate it alongside Charybdis.
As for Scylla, I doubted that monster would die in just one attack due to its Level and HP.
However, I was also a bit curious about my current status, so I opened it and took a peek, only to be surprised.
---
Name: Arthur Vainglory
Race: Human
Lv: 100
Sins: 499
Virtues: 80
Status:
HP: 24400/24400 (MAX 100)
MP: 18900/19840 (MAX 100)
STR: 1050 (MAX 100)
VIT: 640 (MAX 100)
AGI: 990 (MAX 100)
DEX: 640 (MAX 100)
INT: 582 (MAX 100)
LUC: 198 (MAX 100)
---
After using <Limit Break>, my status were doubled. And <Body Enhancement> added half of my STR and AGI after <Limit Break> was used.
As a result, I became quite a monster with a lot of HP and MP.
Of course, this wasn't possible before because of my limited MP. Before I used <Limit Break>, my MP would get depleted first.
The other buffs I used were directed toward my weapon. And I was ready to unleash it anytime soon.
I followed the dots' movement on my radar and waited until it came right in front of me.
"Not yet."
They were still a bit far. Scylla would detect my presence when she was close, and the slight movement on the sea was what I was waiting for.
"They are not here yet."
I knew I should save my MP for the next fight, but I wasn't sure I would be able to kill Charybdis if I missed just slightly.
So to make sure that I wouldn't miss, I pumped more MP into [Sword of Mars]. The fire got bigger after I added 300 MP to the weapon.
Hmmm–!
It hummed, almost unable to hold on to the excessive MP I added more and more into its steel body.
But it would be over soon. So please hold on.
The dots approached faster, and then…
"Laaaa…–!"
A shrill voice with a high note belonging to a woman rang loudly in the area. I narrowed my eyes as it was impossible for me to plug my ear because I noticed a movement in the sea.
"There you are!"
My lips curled up into a big grin as I activated my last skill, the one I got after mastering <Swordsmanship>.
"<Dimensional Breaker>"
The name escaped my mouth as I swung my sword down. Nothing happened in a second, but then the flame burst like a torrent. The space got distorted, and the ground split.
Cling!
Only a small sound resounded at first. Then it was followed by an earthquake and explosion.
Grrr…!!
BOOOMM!!!
A bright light covered the area, bathing the surroundings with an orange hue. The temperature rose immediately, and the forest behind me got burnt and only left a barren land.
The split ground burst open, spewing lava as high as the sky and evaporating the water around it. And in the middle of that was a giant worm with its large mouth filled with teeth open wide. The lava covered its body, turning it into ashes.
And besides that body was a giant figure of a naked woman with long hair made of hissing snakes. Three of its eight tentacles were cut, and they writhed in rage and anger as she jumped into the raging and boiling sea.
---
Scylla
Level 90
HP: 10080/16500
---
She didn't run, however. On the contrary, she seemed angry and approached me at a high speed.
Just that one attack took almost half of her HP. Still, it wasn't enough. I needed to chip its HP more.
Scylla, who had arrived in front of the cliff, jumped out of the sea and used its tentacles to stand. It cast a shadow over me with its large build, probably around 50 meters tall.
Her dripping saliva from the big mouth filled with razor-sharp teeth underneath her body, added to the sight of the sea coming back together and calming the lava down behind her, was terrifying.
"Kshaaaaaa!!!!"
The monster tried to intimidate me with her scary voice, but I just stood there motionlessly without any fear.
"Come and eat me, monster."
I said calmly as I jumped toward its big open mouth and sent the <Love Letter> I had written beforehand to Isabelle.
Chipping its HP would be best done from the inside as no wound would be visible, and I would have time to think about how to burst open this monster's stomach.
"I believe in you, Isabelle."
I muttered for the last time before Scylla swallowed me from her lower hole.
This was a bit anticlimactic, but at least this was the best way I could think of.
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