Un-Solo Leveling

10. Disgusting Monsters

Before attacking the big larvae, Indra observes them first. Their bodies look soft but it may be a problem because his punch & kick power will get absorbed. So he needs to aim for their heads that look hard instead.

The larvae are now eating thick roots coming out of the cave walls with their sharp mandibles. Their mandibles seem to be their weapons, but Indra thinks that it's not enough. There must be other weapons they use to protect themselves, but he doesn't know what.

'Hmm, I need to be very careful when attacking them. They might have hidden weapons.'

Indra looks at his hands which are now wrapped with bandage-like cloth. He uses the goblin cloth he has washed and cut into long strips to wrap his fists, wrists, & ankles. They don't increase attack power whatsoever, but it just feels better wearing them on his fists.

After getting ready, Indra dashes toward the big larvae. There are 11 larvae and he chooses the one that is quite far from the others. But before he gets close to them, the larvae seem to have realized his presence as they all suddenly look at him.

"SHIT!"

Indra is surprised, but he keeps his calm and reduces his speed. He is wary in case the larvae have long-range attacks and he is correct. Some larvae suddenly shoot green liquid from their mouths while some shoot white liquid from their asses.

Indra quickly stops and jumps backward to avoid the liquid shots. While the white liquid just drops and sticks on the ground, the green liquid actually starts melting the ground and thin smoke comes out of it.

'Acid?!'

The green liquid is acidic and it's strong enough to melt the ground, so his body will surely melt if it hits him. But he doesn't know what the white liquid is, so he throws a stone into it. The stone just drops on it and stops.

'Hmm? The stone doesn't bounce or roll? It must be quite sticky.'

Indra throws a stone again, but now with more power. The stone stops again when it drops on the white liquid. So he knows the white liquid is very sticky.

'How scary. They use the white sticky liquid to stop the enemies' movements and then melt them with the acid or eat them. Damn, how do I approach them? They will be easy targets if there are magicians or archers. My only long-range attack is Binding Chains, but it only stops enemies' movements. They still can shoot those 2 liquids even if they can't move.'

Indra thinks while retreating because the larvae are approaching him. They are slow, but they can shoot their liquid attacks quite far.

'AH?! STEALTH!'

Indra almost forgot he has a Stealth skill because everything is still new for him and he hasn't used any skills for a few days to train to control his power.

'If they can't see or sense me, they can't attack me. Stealth's mana consumption is still quite high for the current me even though I've raised my intelligence stat and reduced its mana consumption a little. But if I can kill them all, maybe I can level up and replenish my mana.'

Indra quickly uses Stealth and the larvae really get confused. They look around to find him but they can't see him or sense his presence. These larvae are sensitive to presence, that's why they could sense Tiger quite fast before.

But Stealth erases one's appearance & presence, so they can't find Tiger at all. Then the massacre begins. The invisible Indra starts killing the larvae by crushing their heads with stomps. He kills them quickly and then he tries something on the last larva.

Indra kicks its soft body instead of its hard head and as he thinks, the body absorbs his attack power and the larva is fine. He exposes his position instead of killing the larva that quickly shoots acid liquid at his position.

But he reacts quickly by jumping backward. Then he stomps the larva's head to kill it. Now he knows he can only target their heads because blunt attack doesn't work on their bodies. Maybe sharp weapons will work, but he isn't good with sharp weapons.

After killing 11 larvae, Indra's level really rises to 15. These larvae don't give that much XP, but there were enough of them to raise his level by 1. But then Indra finds a problem. There are too many larvae as he goes deeper into the dungeon.

They gather in groups of 11-15 and Indra can level up to 17 after killing 2 groups. The problem is he doesn't level up after killing the 3rd group. It means his MP doesn't replenish so he can't use Stealth anymore.

His Stealth has leveled up to Level 2 now and with his current intelligence stat, he only needs 70 MP per second. Although the activation cost is still 200 MP, the mana consumption for each second has reduced by 30%. Too bad he only has 1,600 MP left, so he can only use stealth for 20 seconds which is still not enough for the current him to kill 15 larvae.

Even if he can kill each larva for a second, he will only have 5 seconds left to move to each larva. He's also not sure whether these larvae will give him enough XP to level up and replenish his MP. But using Stealth and crushing their heads is the best strategy he can think of.

'Fuck it! I'll just kill as many as I can while I still can use my Stealth.'

Indra runs and then uses Stealth when the larvae notice him. They get confused when he suddenly disappears, so they don't shoot their acid & sticky liquid. Then they start getting killed one by one without knowing where the enemy is.

He tries to be quick, but he can only kill 9 in 20 seconds. The confused larvae are shooting their acid & sticky liquid randomly, so Indra needs to move around more to avoid them which costs more time. Indra's level doesn't increase, so he retreats after his Stealth wears off.

'I'm not fast enough to move and kill them in a short time while dodging their random attacks. But now their number is low and my sense can keep up with their attacks. I can still kill them all and I only need some more XP to level up.'

With that determination, Indra charges forward to finish the remaining 6 larvae. He is very focused right now to avoid all the larvae's acid & sticky liquid, the ones they are shooting and already scattered on the ground. It's not easy because there are many scattered liquids and the cave is quite narrow.

Indra moves carefully, but sometimes he steps on the acidic liquid. His shoes melt quickly and soon his feet touch the acid, making him get burnt. His feet hold on better than his shoes because his magic power and vitality give him more resistance.

It still hurts though, but he rather step on the acidic liquid than the sticky liquid. If he steps on the sticky liquid, he'll be unable to move and become an easy target for the larvae. He needs to endure the pain when he runs and stomps the larvae heads, but he can finally kill the last 6 larvae.

Indra levels up to 18 and he quickly uses Heal to heal his burnt feet. He has been raising his Heal skill to Level 3 by using it every day when he didn't hunt. The process was a bit painful though because he needed to injure himself by making a little cut on his palm and heal it, but it's worth the effort because now he can heal his injuries quite fast.

'Level 1 Heal won't be able to heal burnt skin, so I'm really glad I grinded the level of my Heal skill. This is an essential skill for my & my comrades' survival, so I need to keep leveling it up. Though I will need to think of an excuse to my parents about my shoes.'

Indra's shoes are completely unusable now, so he will need to buy different shoes. He needs to walk barefoot now, but it's not a problem because he never uses shoes when he trains, even outdoors. So he doesn't feel uncomfortable as he walks to the Boss room.
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