Itai no wa Iya nanode Bōgyo-Ryoku ni Kyokufuri Shitai to Omoimasu Chapter 8

Defense Specialization and Clearing a Dungeon

「Exploring a dungeon, huh… I feel like it’s finally my time to go on an adventure!」

She spent her last 3000 gold to buy potions, just in case.

With only 40 HP, even the lowest-grade potions were good enough for her.

Besides the giant bee ring, she also had 【Meditation】.

After making the preparations, she headed for the dungeon. Her goal was to go to the 【Poison Dragon’s Labyrinth】, which was written about on the information forum.

「I have 【Poison Resistance (Medium)】, so I’ll be fine!」

She ran out of the town, eager to get to the dungeon.

She trudged in the opposite direction of the forest. If this were outside the game and Kaede didn’t have her great shield and short sword, she would look like an elementary school student on a field trip.

On the way, some monsters attacked her, but since no damage got through, she didn’t need to take them down.

The monsters around here seemed to be smarter than the ones in the forest, and once they realized that their attacks were not going to work, they would leave.

Since there were no witnesses, Kaede’s unusual defense was never exposed.

As Kaede walked along, she started to notice more and more withered trees around her, and the landscape became more desolate.

The ground became covered with swampy puddles that made plopping sounds.

She saw a raised part of the ground, gaping wide open.

「Is that it?」

Kaede walked in and found that the ceiling was higher than she had expected and she could hold her great shield properly.

As she made her way deeper inside, she found poison-colored slimes and lizards crawling on the walls and ground and charging at her.

「Eh—! Eek!」

She thrust her blade into a slime, but couldn’t get the core, which was drifting around in its translucent body, doing no damage. However, the slime’s body slam also didn’t do any damage.

「Mmmm… since it’s come to this. Take that! Great Shield pree-ess!」

She fell forward with her great shield onto the slime and crushed its whole body. It wasn’t a skill, so it wasn’t like it was supposed to be powerful, and it was an attack full of openings that put you in enemy territory.

However, it didn’t matter to Kaede, who could take all the attacks and poison with no damage.

The shield attack did little damage, but it seemed to be enough to crush the slime’s core.

「Alright! Let’s go further in!」

Now that she knew how to deal with slimes, Kaede moved deeper in. Incidentally, Kaede gave up on trying to kill lizards because her AGI was not high enough: they would always slip away before she could attack them.

Wondering how many times she had done this, she threw herself to the ground, shield in hand. At that moment.

『Skill 【Shield Attack】 has been acquired.』

Kaede quickly read the description of the skill. She did have a general idea of what it was from the name, but she checked just in case.

【Shield Attack】

Attack with the shield. Attack strength depends on STR. Small Knockback Effect.

Acquisition Conditions

Using a shield, deal a final blow to 15 monsters.

「It doesn’t seem very useful… but knockback sounds strong!」

As she went deeper and deeper, she saw flowers that sprayed a purple, apparently poisonous mist and fish that spat out poison swimming in a poisonous swamp.

After slipping past them, she finally reached the deepest part.

In front of Kaede were huge doors, three times as tall as her.

She pushed the double doors open with all her strength.

The doors screeched open, as if their oil had dried up, revealing the room inside in its entirety.

There were poisonous bogs everywhere, covered in thin, purplish vapors.

And just as Kaede entered the room timidly…

The doors behind her slammed shut.

「Wha!?」

As if to drown out that short scream, a dragon with a few parts of its body melted emerged from a poisonous bog.

「I-is this the Poison Dragon!?」

With no care about Kaede’s fluster, the dark purple breath was sprayed.

Kaede herself was almost unharmed, but her equipment? Not exactly.

「Ah, my great shield and short sword…」

Corroded and falling to pieces, this equipment could function no longer. Luckily, she wore the ring under a glove, and that was the only thing safe.

And on that occasion.

The great shield’s VIT 28 bonus used to be quadrupled by the effects of 【Absolute Defense】 and 【Giant Killing】. In other words, her VIT dropped by 112.

This meant that even more damage from the breath spewed by the Poison Dragon would get through.

Each time she got hit, she took 3 damage. Kaede’s health was reduced by 1 on the first breath.

In other words, if this kept up, she’d be killed in 13 more hits.

「Whew… concentrate! 【Meditation】!」

Kaede closed her eyes and focused.

This time, she would have to use 【Meditation】 while in pain from the damage inflicted on her body. Without concentration, 【Meditation】 would not be effective.

The ring, 【Meditation】, and the potions that she had bought with what little money she had left. Using them all, aiming for an even higher level 【Poison Resistance】 was her only chance to win.

Using 【Meditation】 made her pain and fear fade away. It was as if Kaede’s body was melting away, and she felt nothing.

Just like that, she continued to endure, and when she had less than 20% of her HP left, she drank a potion.

She repeated that several times.

Her rate of recovery was not keeping up. Either she would run out of potions, or she would gain resistance.

Whichever would come sooner.

After she endured like that for a while, a sound echoed in her head.

『Skill 【Poison Resistance (Medium)】 has leveled up to 【Poison Resistance (High)】』

That was what Kaede was hoping for, but she still wasn’t able to rejoice.

The pain of her skin being burned still remained.

Her resistance was still not enough.

She was not sure if her resistance skill would level up any further, but she had no choice but to bet on it.

By the time the last potion bottle had been emptied.

「Phew… Hooray…」

What echoed in Kaede’s head was the notification that she had acquired a skill called 【Poison Immunity】.

Now, even the breath pouring down on her felt comfortable.

However, she could not just rest. Kaede, as she recovered her health, thought.

In sum. The weapon is broken now. With this, how do you defeat this dragon? The dragon’s attacks do no damage. Neither do Kaede’s attacks.

There’s no way out of this.

What’s more, you can’t get out of this room unless you die or defeat it. Welp, maybe this is a situation that even the developers didn’t expect.

「Ugh… well, let’s try some things! Tomorrow’s still a holiday, right!」

Yes, fortunately, tomorrow was still a school break. She could take her time.

After much thought and experimentation, Kaede finally decided to try a certain something.

「That dragon meat looks scruffy and tender… maybe I can eat it with 【Poison Immunity】!」

She approached the body of the Poison Dragon while being showered with its poisonous breath.

And then. Kaede clasped her hands together—

「…Itadakimasu.」

and bit into its back.