Heavy Knight Volume 1 – Chapter 24

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Chapter 24 – Hunting a Golden Rana

“Ribbit! Ribbit!”

The Golden Rana kept hopping along the corridor.
Both its eyes were large gems that radiated an emerald light.

――――――――――――――――――――
Monster: Golden Rana
Level: 40
HP: 2/2
MP: 36/36
――――――――――――――――――――

I swallowed a large gulp.
It was a Golden Rana without question.
If we manage to take this one down, then not only will our level go up by a lot, but I will be that much closer to getting the [Smoldering Fang of Madness].

Its HP is a measly 【2】….
Even so, there must’ve been countless adventurers that got into trouble because they were unable to shave away even that single digit HP.

“There! Th-there, there is one! There is one there! Wh-wh-what should we do? What should we do now!?”

Luce keeps incessantly tugging on my arm.
I tried to keep my voice down to avoid letting the Golden Rana escape, but my excitement shone through.

“Take a deep breath, Luce. Let’s calm down first. Whether we can defeat that one depends largely on whether we can keep our calm.”

“Y-yes!”

Luce takes a deep breath in, then slowly lets it out.
It’s obvious she is at her wits’ end.

However, I understand that feeling.
Seeing it in the flesh is simply too exhilarating.
The presence it emanates cannot be compared to its game version, it’s like a living treasure chest that’s walking around.

“You’ve put all your Skill points you got from leveling into [The Fool’s Acrobatics], bringing it to 【10】, right?”

“Y-yes! I was able to get the Skills Elma-san was talking about.”

Luce fervently nodded her head.

“Good, then please do as I say. I will be waiting for it, so Luce, you’ll need to corral it this way.”

“Leave it to me! It’s alright, Luce. You can do this, you can do this….!”

After giving herself a pep talk, Luce kept taking deep breaths.

“……um, you know it’s alright to not succeed right away, right?”

After getting her breathing in order, Luce started running towards the Golden Rana.

The Golden Rana doesn’t start to run until an adventurer gets closer than four meters.
Also, the diameter of the corridors in the Angel’s Toybox is four meters.

It’s designed in a way that even if the Golden Rana is right next to one side of the corridor, you won’t be able to sneak through on the opposite side without alerting it.
However, that only applies if you are walking on the floor.

The diameter of the corridor was four meters, but it was six meters tall.
That means the diagonal distance to the opposite corner is over seven meters.

With 【5】 points in [The Fool’s Acrobatics] you get [Acrobatic Steps].
It not only increases your walking speed, but as long as it’s active the user can walk on walls and ceilings.
That being said, it only lasts for two seconds, which is followed by a three second cooldown.

Which means by using [Acrobatic Steps] you can get around a Golden Rana without alerting it, then shank it in the back.

“[Acrobatic Steps]!”

Luce ran up the wall, then kicked off from the ceiling, swiftly landing on the floor behind the Golden Rana.
With this Luce and I managed to hem in the Golden Rana between us.

“Ribbit!”

The Golden Rana got alerted to Luce, but instead of running towards me it turned towards Luce and started running to try and get around her.

Since we first needed the Golden Rana to run in my direction this situation does not bring joy.
However, this situation was of course within my expectations.

“[Doppel Illusion]!”

Luce form multiplied into four shadows.
[Doppel Illusion] is a Skill you get at 【10】 points into [The Fool’s Acrobatics] which can create illusory clones of the user’s body.

With the width of the corridors in Angel’s Toybox it’s impossible to avoid all illusory clones created by [Doppel Illusion].
And the cowardly Golden Rana would never just jump into an illusion on purpose.

This is one of the holes in the defense the Golden Rana’s resistances provide.
Having a total resistance against abnormal status effects means that [Blind] and [Phantasm] would never work on it.
However, what it can’t do is see through the illusory images created by [Doppel Illusion].

The Golden Rana turned around instantly and rushed towards me.
It was as fast as a released arrow.
That 【Agility: 67】 is not just for show.

The second hole in the Golden Rana’s defense is that the [Shadow Stomp] I got also works on it.
Since the [Shadow Stomp] is a pretty unique Skill, its effect is not considered an abnormal status effect or a debuff.
And of course it’s not an elemental attack either.

Since the effect of [Shadow Stomp] only continues while the user keeps their foot on the floor it’s usually easily disrupted by the monster simply ramming the user, but… the Golden Rana only has an 【Attack: 9】, which means that no matter how much it struggles it won’t be able to hurt me at all.

However, the problem is whether I can land that [Shadow Stomp].
Although the corridor is not that wide, it’s still four meters.
Its Agility is three times as much as mine.
To tell the truth, this is much harder than getting behind it with [Acrobatic Steps] and barring its way with [Doppel Illusion].

“I better not fail at this after suggesting it in the first place….”

I took a white magic stone out of my Magic Bag.
It’s a Holy attribute magic stone.
It’s something I bought together with Iron Piercer for the hunt for the Golden Rana.

Depending on its attribute, a magic stone displays some kind of effect when filled with mana.
Fire attribute magic stones shoot flames, water attribute magic stones create water.

However, compared to magic Skills the MP usage is much larger for a much lesser effect, so they are rarely used.
They are mainly used as ingredients in item crafting.

This Holy attribute magic stone doesn’t have that big of an effect either.
It gives off a healing light, but a Healing Potion is much more efficient for that.
However, the fact that it gives off light is what’s important for me right now.

“Come, Golden Rana! I will catch you!”

The Golden Rana turned on a dime in front of me and dashed to the left.
I have absolutely no way of catching up to it.
Even the size of its shadow is no longer than approximately 50 cm, not a size that you can target reliably.
I threw the Holy magic stone to the left.
The magic stone flew right in front of the Golden Rana’s face, almost grazing it.
The same time it impacted the wall it emitted a healing white glow.

Due to the light, the Golden Rana’s shadow grew to multiple times its former size.
I vigorously stomped my foot down.

“I got you, Golden Rana!”

The Golden Rana’s erratic high speed movements seized right away, as if it was tethered to the ground.

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6 thoughts on “Heavy Knight Volume 1 – Chapter 24”

  1. I was wrong on both skills! (Is author bullying me?)
    MC said that Luce had to use either a dagger or a wand when he first saw her, so [The Fools Acrobatics] must be close to
    70% AGI and 30% INT or something…

    1. I’m pleasantly surprised too. The illusion seems pretty meh, but the wallrun is the perfect kind of niche skill applied to useful effect.

  2. However, I understand that feeling.
    Seeing it in the flash is simply too exhilarating.
    The presence it emanates cannot be compared to its game version, it’s like a living treasure chest that’s walking around.

    Isnt it flesh?

    Thanks for the chapter!

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