It's a f*cking jellyfish.
In my whole time in the Dark Sea, a jellyfish monster is the last creature in the ocean I would think that would become a boss here. Although there was a chance, I didn't see any of it even when I reached the highest waves of monsters back then. Even the supposed wave 20 is not a jellyfish monster.
But seeing our wave 20 jellyfish monster, made me wonder whether the enemies spawned here in the Dark Sea were not completely scripted by the laws of nature.
"Manato, I am quite sure wave 20 is not a jellyfish... Should we engage or should we retreat?" Pandora asked, ready to accept the decision I will make.
"Although I am not entirely sure about this guy, we will have to try it out. Check things out and see whether we can defeat it. If not, we retreat. That is our only option."
Everyone nodded and put their weapons ready. We didn't engage immediately but waited for the tentacle jellyfish to move. I also recalled my pets but kept the followers out in case things get dicey. I can just recall them if they are on the verge of dying.
The jellyfish is a slow mover. It's like it is moving one tentacle per 3 minutes, but I can also tell that this guy will be a huge pain in the *ss to beat up. Slow monsters have one thing in common, they are pretty tanky, and in some rare cases, they are also pretty strong and their attacks hit like a truck.
I don't have any idea what attacks this guy can do but we will have to see whether everyone can defeat it or not. We also cannot see its status and name besides being big due to our distance. But it would be a bit hard for us as well to fight in close quarters as well so I have an idea to check out its name and its HP.
"It's moving a lot slower than expected, we should go and do the offensive first. Magicians, Rangers, and anyone who can deal with a ranged attack, use your strongest range attacks while keeping in distance. Akira, you deal with the incoming attacks meant for the range attackers. Mom, Pixie, heal anyone who will get damaged if necessary. Ensure no one had their health drop to zero."
The elves nodded and nock their bows ready and aimed the arrows at the jellyfish, then they started chanting an elvish chant which made the mana around us gather at the tip of their arrows. Sora and Riko started chanting as well while aiming their palms at the walking jellyfish with their strongest spells since those strong spells needed to use some chants to release. Akira readies his shield, keeping his [Attack Redirection] skill ready as well while Mother prepares the [Bottle of Goodness] to heal and buff while Pixie is waiting for injuries to appear as well.
Tina alongside Cotton who also is learning to use some buff casting are currently releasing their powders to everyone, putting their buffs in enhanced mode to ensure the attacks of everyone who is going to fight will have a better impact on damage upon hit.
I read my Versatile Weapon's cannon form. The gun can be fired far but I doubt the bullet is able to reach that high if fired from where I stand right now toward the boss so a cannon is the best possible projectile I can use at the moment while I still have no skills that are actually meant for range attacks.
As for everyone else who relies on melee attacks, they will be focusing on the tentacles and hope to at least damage them and cause the towering giant to fall down to the ground.
"On my signal, 3, 2, 1! FIRE!"
I then fired off the cannonball from my Versatile Weapon which is then followed by the arrows and magic spells fired off, landing straight into the blob of the jellyfish.
As soon as it hits, the name and its panel appeared right before us.
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[Man O' War]
Level: ?????
HP: 1/1
Traits: ???, Invulnerable
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My eyes went wide, after all, I have never expected the HP of this boss to be sitting in a single digit and it is the lowest digit aside from zero which is 1. Since it has a single HP, then it must be easily killed with one attack right?
Nope.
One of its traits is Invulnerable, a trait common to bosses that has some kind of buff present in them during the first few hours but that is only present during quests and main bosses. During those times, they have some conditions that get them to be removed as a result but bosses who have this trait in the overworld are not something to be trifled with.
Unless we know its weakness, then this boss is something that we cannot attack and fight normally. All of our attacks will not be showing any sort of damage to this boss. And seeing it with this trait alongside the fact that it has a single-digit HP, it's clear that this boss cannot be killed by any normal means.
"Manato... this isn't good. Our attacks are not working!"
I can totally see that. Seeing the boss just ignore all of our attacks, it was like the boss did not see us at all. I don't know what to do about it but seeing its trait, there is no way we will defeat it. Well, aside from attacks that inflict instant death mechanics. I have a chance to deal instant death on an enemy but I don't even see that working.
"I think we should retreat."
The boss is not showing any signs of aggression. In fact, it just ignored us, the attacks we used did not even faze the big monster. Even if it only has one HP, that only further cemented my theory that this boss cannot be killed by any means. If it can die in just one flick of a hand, then that would be some weak monster. Seeing it alive and well, I can see this monster remain strong and well even if it is literally bombarded with skills.
ραndαsnοvεl.cοm "Are you sure about this? I mean, it only has 1 HP..." Riko tried to convince me to fight it but I insisted.
"No. This boss is not something we can't beat right now. Maybe in the future but now? Not possible, even with all of us ganging up on it. Let's get back. It's fortunate that this boss just shrugged off our attacks like nothing because if it responded, then we will be totally dead right now."
Because of my decision, everyone has no choice but to retreat. They can only watch as we move away from the towering monster as we returned to the surface.
...
...
...
...
"Ah, you mean the Man O' War? Yeah, that thing is not something you guys can kill. Not even the strongest being in the world can't beat it. It's basically an immortal being. Don't worry about it, it appears from time to time but it's pretty docile and no one dies from it or has been reported to have died from engaging against it. But you guys should be the first people in this generation to have seen the ascension of the Man O' War on the surface," The Automaton that I named Jim who watches and helps adventurers descend and ascend to the Dark Sea answered nonchalantly, not even caring the presence of the towering monster.
"Is it a regular occurrence for this monster to go up to the surface?"
"Not that regular but it does go up once in a while. It's not pretty common but it's something I see from time to time. My last sighting of this big guy was 200 days ago."
"So it's not something we should be worried about then?"
"Yep. And since you guys have seen it ignore your attacks and just remained in its neutral state, it's best you guys should not bother fighting it if you meet it once more while fighting there. We have no records of its attacking, but there might be some chances that it will change and we will get the first few casualties from some people which might be you guys if you continue to fight it even though you guys can't kill it."
After our discussion with Jim, I sighed and watches as the towering monster Man O' War slowly disappear on the horizon and slowly returned to the deepest parts of the waters.
"I think it was a good decision that we didn't fully engage in it. If it cannot be killed, then there is no way wasting our time there can actually do anything on it," my father approved of my decision of pulling off from the battle.
I can only shrug at it. As much as I want to see it as nothing but a harmless creature, there must be a reason why it appeared before us all of a sudden. However, I don't have much idea of what it does other than being a menacing guy.
"Ugh, I am tired. Enough farming for the day, let's go home."
Yep, we should go back home for now, enough monster hunting for today.
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