WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Irevi

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Chapter 30: Ruler of Lightning

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An automatic defense skill that every magic-related class supposedly had.

The Lizardman was using a barrier that boosted its toughness so it wouldn't be taken down in one blow by an enemy with superior physical abilities.

Wasn't that fucking unfair? It was a warrior with a skill designed to counter warriors.

Was the weapon it held actually a staff, not a spear? Then again, its muscles were packed on like some goddamn lunatic's.

The fact that it was lightning-elemental was a problem too. None of my resistance skills covered lightning.

And given the nature of electric attacks, there was a chance my movements would lock up the instant I got hit.

Of course, I wouldn't know for sure until I took a hit.

Either way, I needed to figure out how to break through that shameless barrier first. There had to be some kind of restriction.

-Tap tap tap tap!

I opened up the distance from the rapidly approaching Lizardman, pulled a few more rocks from my inventory, and threw them.

At least it wasn't very fast, so I should be able to keep my distance and harass it freely.

-Bzzzt!

The flying rocks were shot down by electricity again. Since I was at it, why not see how many times it could block them?

I had plenty of rocks stored in my inventory. This time, I took out five small ones at once and scattered them through the air.

Three of the five rocks were shot down, while the other two simply missed.

But even if it had stood still, only two rocks would've actually hit. I'd thrown them that way on purpose.

Since it had bothered blocking rocks that wouldn't have posed much of a threat even if they landed, the skill seemed to activate automatically rather than manually.

It had even intercepted rocks that wouldn't have hit it anyway, so I could roughly tell the barrier's activation interval.

And obviously, that barrier couldn't stay active forever.

Was it time-limited? Was it limited by the number of activations? Or was it a toggle skill that lasted until its MP ran dry?

Thanks to the difference in speed, I had the initiative anyway. I'd take my time wearing down its resources one by one.

-Whoosh!

This time, I threw my shield instead of a rock. Since it was much heavier, the force behind it was on a completely different level.

The Lizardman's electricity collided with the shield as it flew toward it like an arrow. With a crackling sound, the shield was knocked away.

Rather than shattering like a rock, it was merely deflected by the electricity.

The electricity discharged by the barrier seemed to have the same power regardless of the projectile's type or strength.

-Kerrrk!

Maybe it didn't like me throwing things at it without giving it a chance to fight back, because the Lizardman charged faster than before.

I took a spare shield from my inventory and equipped it, then rushed forward with my longsword raised.

If the barrier's activation interval was what I expected, I could get through it with a thrust instead of a slash.

I used my favorite charging skill, Sword Charge, and aimed for its heart.

Maybe it had assumed I'd keep fighting like a coward from range, because confusion crossed the Lizardman's face.

It wasn't expecting a counterattack. This was a perfect thrust. It had to land.

-Bzzzt!

But my Sword Charge cut through empty air. More precisely, it passed straight through a flash of lightning.

The Lizardman turned into lightning and let my attack slide past, then got behind me and thrust its spear at me.

Fuck, don't tell me you're physically immune?

* * *

Relying on Intuition, I dodged the spear stabbing in from behind, then quickly leaped away and shifted my stance.

[Intuition Lv.8]

The Intuition skill warned me with a distinctive tingling sensation whenever an attack came from outside my field of vision, like this.

When it was low-level, I'd wondered what kind of skill it even was. Now that it had reached level 8, there wasn't a more broken skill around.

There had been plenty of times while fighting High-Rank Warrior Lizardmen when I'd wondered if I had eyes on the back of my head.

Now I could move as if I actually did.

-Swish!

When its thrust missed, the Lizardman quickly shifted its stance and swung its spear sideways.

It switched attacks incredibly fast. Even in pure skill, it didn't fall behind the red-striped High-Rank Warrior Lizardmen at all.

I could've taken a hit from the spear shaft and counterattacked, but I dodged this time.

It used lightning. There might've been electricity running through that spear shaft too.

More importantly, it wasn't an opponent I could trade blows with at this close a distance. One wrong move and I'd enter the barrier's activation range.

I threw the hand axe hanging from my waist, then kicked off the ground to create some distance.

“Whew.”

Fuck, that scared the shit out of me. What the hell was that just now?

It wasn't some natural-type Devil Fruit user from a pirate manga. It turned into lightning to dodge my attack.

If it really had an ability like that, wasn't it impossible to beat? The protagonist of that manga only won because he was made of rubber.

No, there was no way it was genuinely physically immune. It had to be an evasion skill with some kind of restriction.

Either it couldn't be used consecutively, or it had a limited number of uses. It had to be one or the other.

The biggest problem was still the barrier. I might get electrocuted the moment I entered a certain range, which left me unable to do much.

“Should I switch weapons?”

I stored my sword in my inventory and took out a spear similar to the one the Lizardman used.

[Novice Spearmanship Lv. 8]

I'd learned spearmanship for just a situation like this.

* * *

Once I started seriously brawling with High-Rank Warrior Lizardmen, I quickly began to feel the limitations of my weapon.

More specifically, I realized just how much reach mattered in close combat.

The Lizardmen used all kinds of weapons, including swords, shields, axes, and hammers, but spears were the most common.

It wasn't like Lizardmen were small to begin with. Every one of them was a massive bastard nearly two meters tall.

They already had superior builds, then they used longer weapons to keep me at a distance. It was a real pain in the ass.

It had improved my ability to force my way into close range, but swords clearly had their limits.

So, with my swordsmanship growth slowing down anyway, I began trying weapons other than swords.

The first one I chose was the spear.

I happened to have some excellent instructors. Spears were the Lizardmen's most commonly used weapon, after all.

I learned spearmanship by clashing spears with them in real combat, eventually acquiring the skill and raising it to level 8.

And it wasn't just spears.

After getting used to the spear, I learned how to use axes and blunt weapons. I even figured out how to fight with just a shield and no weapon at all.

The sword-and-shield combination was still what I handled best, but I could now surpass High-Rank Warrior Lizardmen in most weapon skills.

My class was just Warrior, but I was basically a Weapon Master.

Sure, calling myself a master was a stretch when all my skills were still at the novice level, but this was more than good enough for the third floor.

When I took up the Lizardmen's distinctive spearmanship stance, the white Lizardman tightened its grip on its spear in surprise.

-Whoosh!

I charged first and thrust my spear at the flustered Lizardman. It was so surprised that its reaction was slow.

I kept my distance from the electrical barrier's range and used spearmanship like an outboxer.

Its spearmanship looked quite skilled too, but there were oddly sloppy moments here and there.

“Ah, I get it now.”

What I'd learned while studying spearmanship was that Lizardman spear techniques had their own forms and sequences.

The more experienced the Lizardman, the more smoothly it executed those sequences, and the better it filled the gaps between them.

But maybe because it had that ridiculously overpowered lightning barrier, this one left its defenses wide open whenever it moved outside those established forms.

-Bzzzt!

Whenever I attacked those openings, it used its lightning-transformation evasion skill to change position.

It was using a skill rather than experience to cover the gaps in its spearmanship.

But after seeing it several times, its pattern started to show. Was this your first real drawn-out fight?

-Swish!

I predicted where the Lizardman would appear after using its evasion skill to get behind me, spun around, drew my sword, and slashed.

I'd gone through the trouble of learning all sorts of weapon skills. It would be a waste not to switch equipment in the middle of battle and exploit its openings.

I'd already figured out how many times it could use that lightning-transformation skill consecutively. It couldn't dodge, and my sword cut straight across its face.

And when I threw the hand axe earlier, I'd become completely certain of the lightning barrier's weakness.

The electricity it fired when someone entered its activation range wasn't that strong.

I'd been wanting to raise my lightning resistance anyway.

-Bzzzzzt!

The moment I entered the barrier's range, a bolt of lightning shot through my body.

It definitely stung, but it wasn't unbearable. I threw aside my spear and raised the dagger at my waist.

Then, just as I was about to drive the dagger into its throat, the Lizardman's face twisted strangely.

I'd fought Lizardmen so often that I could roughly tell what that expression meant.

It was smiling.

Not because it was happy, but the kind of sneer that came out when an opponent walked right into a trap it had prepared.

“Ah, shit.”

Shining lightning wrapped around me. I could tell at a glance. It had been hiding a trump card that could restrain me.

The lightning surrounding me formed a ring, then poured bolts of electricity down on me inside it.

-Bzzzzzzzt!!

The dagger fell from my hand. It didn't hurt much, but the muscles all over my body trembled violently.

A skill that paralyzed anyone within range through electricity, then subdued them. It was the worst possible counter against a melee warrior.

With its usual sneer, the white Lizardman leisurely approached me as I stood there unable to move, sizzling with electricity.

-Kerrrk, kerrrk!

It picked up the dagger I dropped and raised it high, as if daring me to dodge if I could.

It seemed to know just how broken that paralysis trap was in a fight between warriors.

That was why it was openly exposing itself with such a smug expression.

But listen here, you lizard fuck.

What level do you think my Paralysis Resistance is?

-Stab!

A new dagger pulled from my inventory pierced the Lizardman's throat, triggering a critical effect.

I'd been wary because I'd never been hit by a lightning-element attack before, but paralysis was just a secondary effect after all.

It probably wasn't strong enough to break through the resistance I'd built by stuffing myself with cocktails of every poison imaginable, including paralysis poison.

That was only natural for a third-floor field boss.

[Paralysis Resistance Lv. 11]

There was no way a resistance skill in the double digits would be broken through by something at this level.

The lightning barrier I'd been wary of and its evasion skill both turned out to be nothing but flashy tricks once I looked at them closely.

“Your name was what, Ruler of Lightning?”

What were you going to rule with this level of strength, you pathetic lizard bastard?

Footnotes:

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