Astral Online: Cursed by the Demon Lord to Become the Strongest Beautiful Girl, I Rapidly Grow and Dominate with Cheat Skills Despite Being the Weakest Profession - Chapter 27

Chapter 27: The Great Bear of the Forest

 

Even if my level is 22, if I have to deal with more than 50 monsters, it’s fine if it’s just me, but Kuro and the others can’t endure it.

 

Even using my ?Perception? skill to its fullest, it’s difficult to completely avoid the monsters closing in on us like a wall.

 

Thus, the choice is to break through the area with the fewest monsters with all our might and move forward.

 

With Aria providing support with her bow, Sora and Kuro fought and advanced for about an hour against monsters with an average level of 15.

 

We managed to break through the wall, but it seems the active monsters also stirred up other monsters in the area.

 

Even after defeating the attackers, new monsters quickly targeted us.

 

In such situations, stopping means getting surrounded and dying—that’s common sense.

 

It’s tough, but for now, we have no choice but to endure and deal with the enemies in front of us.

 

“Haa!”

 

Sora narrowly dodged the repeated stings of a 50-centimeter-long bee monster, the Poison Bee, with a hair’s breadth precision. Using ?Sonic Turn?, she got behind it and struck with ?Strike Sword II?, a move accompanied by a blue flash, depleting the enemy’s life.

 

Then, three giant bees aimed their stingers at me, firing them like bullets.

 

Ha, I can see them clearly!

 

Compared to me who used to practice endlessly with Shin and Rou, knocking down bullets with a crowbar in a VR FPS game, these seemed slow to me.

 

Sora calmly watched the poison stingers approaching at supersonic speed and activated ?Sword Guard II?.

 

She swung her sword, cutting down all the stingers before they could hit.

 

“Sora!”

 

Kuro appeared from the side of the Poison Bee with a ?Sonic Turn? and used ?Dual Nail? repeatedly.

 

Spinning around the enemies like a top, she swiftly drained the life of the three Killer Bees.

 

“Sora-sama, Kuro-sama!”

 

The Poison Bees still surrounding us were swiftly taken down by Aria’s rapid shots from atop a tree.

 

Kuro and I used ?Sonic Sword?, creating trails of light in the darkness.

 

We cooperated to neatly divide the fallen enemies into three parts.

 

For those monsters not fully defeated by our attacks, Aria finished them off with her arrows before they could get up.

 

With this, most of the monsters were defeated.

 

However, it wasn’t over yet.

 

“Well, well, is this today’s main dish?”

 

“That’s huge!”

 

Standing in our way, as if to prevent us from advancing, was a giant bear with a level of 25.

 

Sora’s ?Insight? skill provided details on this formidable forest creature.

 

—– —– —– —– —– —– —– —–

?Forest Bear?

A giant bear monster.
Its skill, Bear Knuckle, has an attack power of 300, capable of depleting the life of a level 10 adventurer in one hit.

—– —– —– —– —– —– —– —–

 

However, both Kuro and I have HP points exceeding 300 at max.

 

If we won’t be killed in one hit, this is just a big target.

 

??There was a time when I thought that.

 

“Seriously, are we really dealing with hit-and-run tactics this early in the game?”

 

Hit-and-run.

 

It’s a strategy of attacking and then withdrawing to avoid getting hit by large monsters, and it’s the best way to prevent taking a direct hit.

 

In other words, it’s a basic tactic in games.

However, the Forest Bear was quite a troublesome monster.

 

“Sora, it seems like no matter how much we attack, it keeps healing!”

 

“Yeah, it looks like we need to hit it with our maximum firepower all at once!”

 

Sora and Kuro, who had been attacking with ?Sonic Sword? while avoiding the bear’s attacks, were frustrated by the monster’s incredible regeneration skill, which fully healed it every 10 seconds.

 

According to the Insight skill, it was absorbing energy from the ground to recover.

 

The strategy is either to lift it off the ground or deplete its health before it can heal.

 

Lifting such a huge creature off the ground seems impossible, so our only option is to deplete its health quickly.

 

In that case, it’s time for the ?Enchanter?’s turn.

 

“Kuro, let’s enhance our attacks!”

 

The enemy’s attribute is Wood.

 

The activated buffs are ?Fire Attribute Enchantment? and ?Attack Power Boost Enchantment?.

 

After using it on me and Kuro, my MP drops from [220] to [140], leaving me with [80] remaining.

 

“Hah!”

 

Dodging the dangerous, heavy, and sharp knuckles of the giant bear, Kuro’s enhanced ?Sonic Sword?, now wrapped in flames, deeply slashes the Forest Bear’s leg, causing it to lose its balance.

 

??Countdown begins.

 

She looked back and shouted to me as I chased after her.

 

“Sora, now!”

 

“Leave it to me.”

 

Sora approached the Forest Bear.

 

With such a large body, it shouldn’t be easy for it to regain balance with a deep wound in one leg.

 

As expected, the Forest Bear tried to prevent Sora’s approach by swinging its right arm sideways in an unstable stance, supporting itself with its left hand.

 

??8 seconds remaining.

 

“Is that all it takes to stop you?”

 

Sora timed her jump and used the giant right arm of the enemy as a foothold, accelerating further with ?Sonic Sword?.

 

The Forest Bear, now almost at point-blank range, tried to bite Sora.

 

Before it could, the flaming silver sword in Sora’s right hand emitted a blue light.

 

With all his might, Sora executed ?Strike Sword II?, driving the sword deep into the bear’s belly.

 

??Time remaining: 5 seconds.

 

“Raaaaaaahhhhhh!”

 

With a fierce roar, Sora activated ?Dual Nail II?.

 

While the blade, glowing green from its initial blue color, was still embedded, he slashed it sideways and then delivered a second, high-speed strike that deeply cut into the enemy’s head.

 

But it wasn’t enough to finish it off.

 

Count remaining until recovery: 3 seconds.

 

The Forest Bear’s health was down to about 10%, and it was preparing to recover.

 

“Sora-sama!”

 

At that moment, Aria, who had been providing support from the trees since the battle began, took the perfect opportunity to shoot the Forest Bear between the eyes.

 

The critical hit caused the Forest Bear to lose its remaining health and vanish into mist, just like the other monsters.

 

??That was close, it was down to 1 second!

 

If we had been a moment slower, it would have fully recovered.

 

I was anxious inside, but thanks to Aria’s final push, we managed to defeat it.

 

“Pant, pant… That’s all of them.”

 

According to my ?Perception? skill, there are no more enemy reactions in the area.

 

I let out a sigh of relief and joined Aria, who had come down from the tree.

 

“Good job!”

 

“You too, Sora!”

 

When Kuro and I extended our right hands for a high-five, Aria looked at us with curiosity.

 

Sora raised her hand and explained to her:

 

“This is a gesture we adventurers use to share praise and celebrate victories. It’s called a high-five. It seems like it might not be a part of your culture.”

 

“No, we don’t have anything like that among us.”

 

“Yes, Aria, you should raise your hand too!”

 

“Uh, okay, I understand.”

 

When Aria raised her hand as Kuro told her to, Kuro immediately high-fived her.

 

“…!?”

 

Aria looked at her hand, still tingling from the shock, with a surprised expression.

 

“Adventurers seem to come up with such fun things.”

 

“Hehe, right?”

 

“Yes, um… may I also try a high-five with you, Sora-sama?”

 

Aria raised her right hand, and I gave her tiny hand a hearty high-five.

 

…Ah, sharing joy really is a wonderful thing.

 

As I was indulging in this feeling for a moment, Aria said:

 

“To think that you two almost defeated all those monsters by yourselves, Sora-sama and Kuro-sama are indeed strong.”

 

“I feel like Sora defeated more than half of them on her own.”

 

“That’s thanks to the ?Perception? skill.”

 

Being able to avoid attacks while facing away, even when surrounded, is indeed powerful. Also, knowing the exact positions of enemies allows for quick transitions to the next target.

 

Seeing Kuro’s envious expression, I added, “Being able to check safety without visual confirmation is great, isn’t it?”

 

“If you knew how to obtain it, I would have told you…”

 

“Since Sora’s skill is from a limited quest, it’s unavoidable.”

 

“I’ll let you know right away if I find any useful information.”

 

“Really?”

 

“Yes, I promise.”

 

“Yay!”

 

Well, even if they find it, I think their heads will go crazy if they try to use the ?Perception? skill at the same level as me right away, so it’ll probably start from two meters.

 

As I thought about this, Aria, holding the ?Magic Lamp?, smiled.

 

“You two seem like close sisters.”

 

“Rather than sisters, we’re more like junior apprentices under the same master.”

 

“I was also told by the captain that Sora is like a senior apprentice.”

 

“Senior? Oh… it seems like you two have a complex situation.”

 

“Yes, that’s right. Anyway, it’s pointless to dwell on this, so let’s head out and make for Aria’s team’s base as soon as possible.”

 

“Yes, we need to save the forest as quickly as we can!”

 

With that, Aria filled herself with determination and began walking ahead.