Chapter 135

Chapter 135 Strongest Sage, Perplexed

""Mathi-kun!""

Ruli and the others were panicking when they saw me falling down .

Thus I reply to them .

"I'm fine!"

"Eh, that's–"

Ruli's voice was drowned out by the roaring sound of the collapsing ground .

I kick the side of the created hole and leap . . . . Below .

Since the monster was simply falling, I reached the bottom of the hole faster with my acceleration .

Merely a second difference, but it was enough .

I moved to my destination during that time .

Arriving at a cavity that was only big enough for one person .

I went inside and held my sword upward .

Abdomen is one of the weakest point of a creature .

That doesn't change with monsters .

It's hard to directly attack the abdomen of a four-legged monster above ground–but I can do it as much as I want from here .

The monster's defenseless abdomen falls to where I am .

There I stabbed my sword strengthened with physical reinforcement .

"GAAAAAA"

The monster attempts to crush me with its foot while screaming in agony and rage .

However, the monster's attack never reaches me . I didn't even need to evade .

This hole is big enough to make the monster fall, but too small to have it freely move around .

Thus, the monster couldn't do anything but receive my attack and died in less than one minute .

"Alright, subjugation complete . "

"Mathi-kun!"

Ruli rushed to me when she saw me coming out of the hole .

It appears that they also joined the fight judging from the arrows stuck on the monster's back .

"Are you alright!? I was surprised when the ground suddenly caved in . . . . "

"That was part of the plan . I was the one who made a hole on the ground after all . "

" . . . Eh? But didn't the hole opened when the monster ran on it . . . . "

Ruli looked dumbfounded to hear my reply .

Looks like she didn't notice .

"Besides the little there was on the surface, the ground was hollowed out . So it would collapse right when the monster rushed on it . "

" . . . A pitfall?"

"Yea . It's a practical version of the magic I usually use to restore the schoolyard . Disqualified Crest can only open a hole this big, but other crests can make bigger ones and even install magic tools inside . "

"But how'd you make such a big hole that fast . . . . "

"You just have to get used to it . Since the forest soil is soft, you can easily do it if you just know the trick . Ruli too, you can make a hole this big if you practice . . . . Well, it's hardly usable against monsters that fly in the sky though . "

By the way, putting magic tools inside a hole to make an instant death trap is an effective tactic for a solo Glory Crest .

I used it often too in my younger days in my past life .

I didn't use that tactic and plunged myself into hole to do the attacking this time though .

"I . . . I'll make sure to practice it next time!"

"Yeah . By the way, I recommend explosion-type magic for the installed magic . By locking the explosion inside that hole, you can concentrate the force on the monster and give way more damage than using it on level ground . "

I dismantled the monster while talking about that and put the usable-looking parts into the storage magic .

I'm reluctant to have my maximum mana reduced so I didn't store the sell-able parts .

. . . We finally arrived at the dungeon city after that battle .

The time was roughly evening .

And this is the first thing I uttered when we arrived .

" . . . W-what's with this city . . . . "