We Have One Hour (2)

About five hundred meters in, we finally encountered our first unavoidable enemy. It was a larger version of the trolls from before, about three times as big. Does the monster outside the safety zone have the trait of being larger?

I quickly raised my hand and waved it forward with a shout, "Let's wrap up this fight quickly!"

As the vanguard, Hailey and I rushed forward, where she was faster as my weapon was slowing me down drastically.

"Over here!" Hailey taunted as she swung her spear, causing a visible wound on the troll's leg, the only part that Hailey's spear could reach. As soon as it hit, a number 6 appeared on top of its head.

*GRAAAAAAH!*

Angered, the troll completely focused on her, ignoring the others, including me. It wasn't a wise choice, literally.

Just as Hailey managed to swing her spear three more times, downing the number to half instantly, I managed to sneak to the enemy's back and raise my hammer. "Hup!"

With some effort, I swung the hammer from the ground up, aiming to at least break the enemy's leg. The result was a disaster.

*SPLAT!*

Like a poor mosquito meeting a flyswatter, the giant troll, which received the hammer's strike from its legs, turned into pieces of meat that were scattered around. Hailey, who was right where the rain landed, hurriedly moved out of the way.

Before Hailey's spear could even finish the countdown, a single powerful swing from my hammer immediately killed it. Everyone stared at me like I was a weirdo. I could guess what they wanted to ask, so I quickly placed the hammer on my shoulder and shrugged.

"That's 4,000 damage for you. It even killed a troll in one hit."

"No, no, no. Hailey's spear has a third of your damage, but it couldn't kill the monster in three hits!" Lily retorted immediately, shaking her head like it would get torn off.

Well, that's where the difference between blunt and piercing weapons is. "Hailey's spear focuses on damaging a point, while the hammer's damage propagates through the impact."

I thought the earlier monsters just died because the hammer was too much for them, but thinking back, I guess the impact from the hammer alone was enough to incapacitate them. A direct hit would literally mean death for them.

"I wonder just how far the hammer's damage could go," I muttered while staring at the hammer resting on my shoulder.

If it could work against bosses, then I could probably do a one-hit-kill on a lot of them easily, ignoring the fact that all their materials would end up wasted. I could then literally farm levels! Well, that's if my experience wasn't broken, though.

After that, we continued onward. After the first encounter, we then needed to fight a monster every 100 meters or so. It seems that as we go further from the hunting grounds, the number of monsters is increasing.

The backline members were having a pretty easy time, though, since Hailey and I were basically waving OP weapons. For medium-sized enemies that couldn't be killed by her in one hit, the counter appears with a 3 or below count. Due to that, unless we encountered a large monster like a troll, Hailey's fight would end before we could even come close.

It was great, though, since, due to that, we're all starting to understand the logic behind the sure-kill counter of the Rhinoceros Lance of Death's hex. It was definitely not based on level, as most monsters we encountered were roughly at the same level. The only differences between them were two things: their energy and size.

The general rule seems to be that the more energy it has and the bigger its body is, the higher the number of hits required. On the other hand, a monster that is both small and low energy requires fewer hex hits, or even none at all, exhibiting an instant one-hit kill.

"The insects that invaded before had strong bodies but had low energy, so they all got killed with a single touch of her weapon," Toki explained.

The same goes for the octopus boss. Due to it being large but having little energy, it was determined to have a pretty low hit count.

As we paved our own road forward, through a mountain of monster corpses, a few hours had passed. During that time, we had already covered roughly 3 kilometers and were now in the vicinity of the underground mall.

Although Hailey and I were battered, the others were pretty much raring to go. They were able to conserve most of their energy, after all. The problem, however, was that someone, or something, was already at the underground mall, blocking access to it completely.

"What the heck is that?!" Mina couldn't help but mutter in both fear and awe.

Right at the edge of the hole leading to the underground mall, a gigantic monster of green and gray stood tall. It looked like a mix of a turtle and a porcupine, creating a vicious-looking appearance as its one-hundred-meter-wide body sat down in peace.

Although it wasn't moving at all, its eyes were looking around, watching out for anything moving that tried to approach it. Even other monsters who got close enough were impaled by a flying spike, dying in an instant.

"Sister, please check it's level. And be careful."

If it was a weakling, then we can simply make it move out of the way, or even kill it off now. However, if it were more powerful than its appearance suggests...

Kaede simply replied, "Leave it to me," before carefully making her way closer until her appraisal could be used. About a couple minutes later, she finally returned, but just like the time when they met the octopus boss, her face was pale.

With cold sweat still falling down her forehead, Kaede pleaded. "It's a 5th stage monster! We can't handle it with just us. We should retreat!"

A 5th stage! It was the most powerful monster that I have seen up until now, not including the invading monsters. Given our stats, I guess we can't really fight it head-on, or else we'd all die a horrible death.

Even if we had the Witch of Ruin, a bona fide 4th class change player, it was doubtful if we could handle this beast. Continuing ahead has become almost impossible already.

"... But coming here just to turn back without doing anything is wasteful!"

We wasted so much time and effort to reach the mall, only to turn back because of a powerful boss monster. I can't be that wasteful!

After a bit of thinking, I turned to everyone and announced "Alright. From here, I'll be moving alone."

"What?! Are you crazy, Ruin?! You'd die if you headed there!" Mina quickly reprimanded me, as if my choice was nothing but suicide.

I quickly shook my head, smiling. "I have a skill that can move me directly to the entrance, so I have a high chance of sneaking in without getting detected."

The skill Ground Shrink that I gained previously was convenient in letting me move around rapidly, almost at the level of teleportation, but the stamina it consumed was no joke. With just one use, I'd fall down on my knees and pant like a runner who just finished a marathon at top speed, nonstop.

However, seeing that the turtle wasn't wary of the mall's entrance, there should be no monsters there... I think. As long as I reach the entrance without getting detected, then I can just spend some time recovering my stamina before resuming the plan.

After a while of convincing, the others were finally willing to let me go. However, it came with a caveat from Kaede. "You need to finish it all within an hour. If you went past the time limit, we'd force our way to the mall too, no matter what the turtle monster's reaction would be!"

One hour is plenty in my case. If there's anything that would make me unable to return after that long, then that means I'm either injured and can't move or dead. The girls must've known this too, but they still mentioned it regardless, as if claiming that "if I die, they'll follow" and weighing down on my conscience.

I wouldn't want that anyway, so I agreed with the time limit. "One hour, got it."

As soon as our talk ended, I crept to one side where the coast was clear and took a deep breath. The mall's entrance, the large hole in the ground, was literally a straight line ahead of me.

Just in case, I placed the hammer back in the World Storage, took a potion, and kept it between my lips, ready to drink it at any moment. I also took a sturdy rope and tied it around my body, while keeping the rest rolled loosely around my left arm.

With this, my preparation was complete.

"Well then, I'll be off. Later, everyone!"

I leaned forward and kicked the ground hard. As soon as I did, before I entered the turtle monster's vision, I activated Ground Shrink.

"...!"

The view seemed stretched as I appeared right in the middle of the hole leading to the mall. As expected, I wasn't able to stop right at the edge and started falling.

Using the rope on my left hand, I took the other end, which had a weight attached to it, and threw it toward a nearby beam. I wasn't an expert on throwing weapons, but I knew physics well enough.

The rope, pulled by my dropping body, started looping around the beam until the friction was enough to stop me from falling. However, the other end was still rapidly coming loose.

I had limited time, so using the falling impact before the rope became taut, I turned it into a swinging motion, heading for the nearest stairs. Just as the motion was about to reach its peak, I used a blade to cut off the rope, sending me flying from the centrifugal force.

"Ugh!"

I was barely able to grab the edge and land. After pulling myself up and drinking the potion to cure the rope burns and torn muscles, I was finally able to sigh in relief... Until the moment I realized what was below me,

"Those are... eggs?"