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Ch.087 - Crab!

  The talks between Elara and the receptionist had come to an end. The result was that the money she earned from this in one day would go into a TAC account in Sam’s name, and their cut would be taken at the end of the day before transferring the rest to Sam’s main account. Elara would show up and get an available slot, she didn’t need a large one, just a corner or shelf somewhere, but she would get a payment terminal and all that stuff, on loan. It was a pretty good deal.

  When she’s done for the day, if that is when she chooses that she’s done or when she’s out of product, since TAC is open 24/7 there is no time limit on how long or often she can be there.

  However, to get everything properly registered, it would take at least a few hours to go through everything, so she couldn’t join immediately. Due to this, she opted to go with the group for now.

  Leaving for the Tower they soon found themselves back in the tropical paradise that’s the Third Floor. Had it not been for yesterday's massive expense, it would be all positive... at least for now.

  Janik had, as Janik does, already checked the Guide material and found out where to go for the easier and lower-level monsters, which was towards the archipelago they saw yesterday. The weather was still nice, and everything was idyllic, perhaps save for the thought that in not long, they would be underwater surrounded by gore and death.

  “Zar,” Dia stated to get his attention as she tugged on Sam’s coat. “Dia... want to run... In for- Jungle.” Correcting herself midword she looked almost pleading.

  Sam couldn’t help but laugh. She had somewhat explained the thrill about this earlier, and since they were just walking to get to a certain spot, there was no reason not to let her go.

  “Sure, keep your armour on at least, but have fun, we’re going down there.” Pointing at a landmark for her to find them in case she went too far.

  Smiling widely she just disappeared into the forest on all fours, looking surprisingly happy for something so mundane in Sam’s mind. Janik and Sam shared a chuckle as they continued towards the ocean, based on distance and speed it would take about an hour or so.

  “We need to be on the lookout for the Tidecallers,” Janik broke the silence with some info as he showed Sam an image of one, it looked like a super vague humanoid shape of water, having runes along its body. “They are water mages of sorts, they can slam you into things underwater and are surprisingly stealthy.”

  He swapped images and showed Sam an underwater image, the only part he could see was the runes which looked like they were floating around in water on their own. “They only have a few spells, but at least we’re lucky and Defence works against them.”

  “That’s convenient,” Sam replied. And it was, he had been hit by things that ignored Defence before and it was... not pleasant.

  “There are mages on this Floor, proper mages, so that’s going to be interesting. For now, I say we do as planned, go test out the breathing thingy, and try underwater combat with a single target to start with,” Janik smiled, focusing on what’s important.

  They kept walking, talking about things they needed to test like how it was to attack and move underwater, or how the shocking and fire things would work. Though the Guide already explained it, they wanted to get a rough feel for it.

  Static Charge already confirmed that the pulse won’t hit the user, so Sam is safe, but that didn’t do anything for Dia and Janik.

  The walk didn’t take as long as they expected, though, in the middle of a jungle, a path had been maintained enough to walk comfortably, so they didn’t have to trek as much as they just had to walk.

  Finding themselves exiting the forest line onto a large and flat beach, it was almost idyllic how perfect it was. Long, covered in pale sand, waves washing up and retreating, the odd boulder here and there but all in all it was a perfect vacation spot. To the point that it almost felt weird that it wasn’t too hot with normal clothing on.

  The main issue was the local fauna, they were lucky enough to find a single target instead of a group, but the single target was a crab whose central body was the size of a car, with glowing blue eyes, spikes along its shell and powerful-looking claws.

  [ Reefclaw

  Level: 42

  STR: 18

  DEX: 6

  VIT: 25

  SPT: 3

  HP: 945 / 945

  Damage: Heavy Pinch 134, Tidal Slam 52, Crushing Grip 276.

  Defence: 100

  Abilities: HP Boon, STR boon, Tidal Slam, Crushing Grip. ]

  [ Tidal Slam: Gathering water around your swing you can send forth a wave of water, knocking targets back. ]

  [ Crushing Grip: If you land an attack on a target you can grab them. Crushing Grip makes it extremely hard to get free. ]

  Sam appraised it from afar and shared the findings with Janik.

  “It has 945 health, 100 Defence, and if it grabs you it’ll hold you hard and keep squeezing. And it can swing water at us with a knockback.”

  It was a simple explanation that covered what Sam felt was appropriate.

  “How much damage does it do?” Janik added, asking a quite vital thing that Sam didn’t properly consider to share.

  “It can pinch you for 134, the Crushing does 276 and the water thing does 52. I guess that it’ll go for a pinch and grab onto you then and keep squeezing, crabs are strong so...” Sam had no proper basis for it besides speculation and that normal crabs were absurdly strong with their exoskeleton, leveraging their tiny strength into something massive.

  “Yeah... so.. Don’t get hit, but that 100 Defence and 900 health is the problem,” Janik mused.

  “I think I can do fine, it’s on land now so... give it a go before we go into the water. You want to have a go first or should I just do my thing?” Sam was slightly eager, and he felt extremely confident.

  Just looking at his numbers he should be fine.

  “Oh, I’m also confident that you have this, but I think I’ll give it a go. Be ready to help if needed, ok?” Sounding a bit hesitant at the end, he seemed to trust Sam enough to give this a go even at his surprisingly low level compared to the crab.

  “Sure thing;” Sam replied as he guided Elara down to the forest floor before disappearing entirely.

  “That... just feels wrong...” Janik let out as his backup disappeared from his sight.

  “Yeah, but I’m still here,” Sam replied as he used a Psyhand to pat Janik on the head.

  Sighing a moment before psyching himself up, Janik pulled his two swords and went for it. Walking calmly towards the crab to get as close as he could before something happened, and it didn’t take long for it to do so.

  It was doing something in the shallows but one of its eyestalks suddenly lifted and looked towards Janik. It eyed him for a few seconds before turning around its massive body and charging him. Showing surprising agility with its massive body, and in the sand no less.

  The distance was closed in seconds and as it came into range it lifted both its claws, stabbing them down towards Janik. Sam had moved into range to be ready at a moment's notice.

  Janik jumped closer ending up too close for the attack to hit, as the pincers pierced the sand Janik was underneath its body, with a powerful thrust he stabbed both his swords upwards.

  [ HP: 565 / 945 ]

  A solid hit. The crab let out a weird hissing and bubbling sound as it reacted by stepping to the side, getting out of sword reach. It looked agitated as its movements were challenging and jittery.

  It went for another attack, again sending one of its claws out like a spear towards Janik. He didn’t seem to dodge this time but took a solid stance with one leg behind him almost as if he was bracing for impact, his swords were lifted in an X in front of him. As the claw crashed into it there was almost a glint of light as Janik’s body moved almost unnaturally fast, redirecting the blow just enough to miss but also having one of his arms swing around and slamming his sword into the crab’s claw.

  [ HP: 425 / 945 ]

  Sam silently reacted to the trade of blows, this felt like perhaps he tried out his counterattack ability, and since Janik’s health didn’t change he must have successfully blended it with Active Defence.

  Appraising Janik confirmed his theory, there was a new skill on the list!

  [ Active counter (Synergy skill)

  By blending Active Defence and Counter Stance the user can parry without taking damage and deliver a counter strike in return.

  -This skill requires at least two attacks.

  -This only works against one attack at a time and can only deliver a single strike. ]

  Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

  Sam didn’t know if he had merged those skills before, or if he did it right now, but it looked amazing.

  The crab delivered another attack, but Janik repeated the action and had him parry and strike at the virtual same time. An amazing sight that slowly trickled away at the crab’s health.

  [ HP: 285 / 945 ]

  Stepping away before stepping back in, the crab came forth with both its claws, Janik sidestepped one of them and managed to parry the second, though there was no counterattack this time. It was also an amazing sight; seeing a normal-looking human actively redirect all that strength and weight.

  As Janik was going in for the last attack, the crab swung its claw towards him, a shimmering field of water had covered it from nowhere and loosened itself at the peak of the swing, making its way towards Janik like a flying wave. However, Janik seemed prepared for it and managed to drop down into the sand to have it miss, it splashed with great enough force against the sand behind him to dig out a small crater.

  Stumbling back to his legs he went for the crab again, though the Crab had other ideas. Stepping backwards, its method of movement was superior on the loose sand, it let out a stabbing attack towards Janik once more.

  Janik’s smile turned into a grin as the swords came back up into an X, the claw contacted the same blink-and-miss-it movement from Janik changed his stance and swung his sword at the Giant Crab’s claw, landing a solid hit.

  [ HP: 145 / 945 ]

  The crab stepped away, looking panicked... as far as a faceless crustation could. Rather than fight it turned around and made for the ocean at great speed.

  “Sam, I can’t run on this sand... Finish it off, please,” Janik commented in no specific direction like someone ordering an airstrike.

  Sam did as requested, 145 health remaining had him only manifest a few named weapons they dug themselves through the thick shell as the crab stopped its legs and fell forward mid-step.

  Janik sighed with a satisfied expression as he sheathed his swords. Looking around he couldn’t find Sam and chuckled.

  “You know, you not coming into view even after attacking is oddly terrifying.”

  Sam returned his weapons to the Item Box, and as he dismissed the Psyhands he deactivated Invisibility, standing a bit of distance away from Janik as he had been moving around a lot.

  “I know, right,” he smiled almost excitedly.

  [ Experience gained: +7 500 000. ]

  Sam’s eyes widened at the number change, this was the first enemy they had met here and it gave more than the Leviathan on the last floor... And this was just his half of it. The balancing of the System needs some work. But that could also be the reward for making it to this Floor.

  “Oh, nine more of these and I’ll level up!” San exclaimed happily.

  “I just need the one,” Janik smiled in return, looking satisfied with the events so far.

  “Well, I feel satisfied with that test, on land at least. The next thing is to see how it goes in water.” Lifting his hand to scratch his chin with his thumb and bent index finger, he looked towards the water.

  “Well, yes, but first you gotta tell me about that counter of yours.” Sam knew Janik was an experienced combatant, but since Sam had been doing all the fighting for... a while, he had halfway forgotten Janik’s level of experience. Making this scene surprisingly exciting and amazing to behold.

  His excitement came out a bit based on Janik’s expression.

  “Ah, you like that, eh?” His wide smile came back, the compliment going straight to his ego. “I’m very glad it worked out as I didn’t get to test it first,” ending with a small nervous chuckle it was clear he meant what he said.

  “That movement looked almost unnatural, it was pretty cool, to be honest!”

  Janik’s ego-boosted smile became oddly embarrassed, though it didn’t disappear entirely it was clear that he wasn’t too used to that level of eagerness towards him.

  Though in the midst of all of this, his expression changed with a thought. “If you get yourself a counterattack ability and learn this... You’ll be unstoppable...”

  Sam hadn’t considered that, but he was somewhat right. Depending on how it scaled he had 50 hands at the moment, not counting his normal ones. A mix of this could make him even more of a one-man army than he already was.

  He needed to look out for a counterattack skill.

  A few more minutes passed as they both gushed about Janik’s amazing movement, Sam replicating it almost to show Janik how he was moving. Janik smiled back and explained that it didn’t even hurt, even though the guided movement made it look like it would tear his arms off. It did feel weird, though, being guided that fast.

  Dia came out of the forest line not long after, her fur was covered in mud, leaves, and small sticks and she looked like she had been rolling around the entire place. She was walking on all fours, both her tails high and wagging as she came walking over with what looked like a dead large rat. Sam had heard of jungle rats before but he didn’t know they were real.

  She looked incredibly proud of herself as she came walking over, ignoring the giant crab in the distance as she stopped in front of Sam, dropping the dead rat near his feet and looking at him with the most adorable excited expression.

  Sam just looked at the situation with a confused expression. He understood that pets tended to give their owners ‘the hunt’ as a kind of gift but... What should he do about it?

  “I... Think I’m flattered but... what should I do with this?” He ended up asking hesitantly.

  Janik was struggling to not break down in laughter.

  “Var griv, ryth thir Zar,” Dia replied in her native tongue, looking even prouder.

  Sam was happy that he understood her. She had taught him enough that he could even analyze the value of the words.

  Var was a reference to self, similar to Me, or I. Griv was Hunt or rather the act of hunting. Ryth was a special word, it meant Gift, but it was not the only word meaning this, Ryk also meant gift. Ryth was an emotionally important gift, not something you just give to anyone. Thir was a reference to prey,., so in the context of hunting it was the rat in this case. And Zar was her already well-used word for Mate.

  Directly translated, this became; I hunt, gift prey Mate.

  Translated with context, it meant that she had hunted, and she was giving Sam an important gift; the prey from the hunt. Which he knew was an important thing for most animals as well as her culture.

  “Well... I’m flattered but... I’m going to be honest and say that I don’t know what to do with it...”

  Janik failed to contain his laughter, seeing this from his angle must have been amusing.

  “Is yours,” Dia added as she got up on her hind legs, becoming bipedal. “You do what you want.” She smiled wide and looked at him excitedly like she wanted to see what he’d do with it.

  Sam... didn’t have words for this, she was so absurdly excited about giving him this dead, bloodied rodent, that he couldn’t just throw it away... He crouched down and poked it, putting it into his Item Box.

  “I’ll store it for now...”

  Janik was calming down a little but still having fun with this, Dia was ignoring him and smiled even wider and more satisfied that Sam was storing it.

  “Aaaanyway, since you clearly need it,” Sam commented with a drawn-out sound to change the subject as he was looking at Dia’s dirty self. “I think we can give underwater combat some testing. I’m sure there’s something out here somewhere.”

  “I think we’ll test it in the shallows first, mainly for Dia’s sake,” Sam commented as he took out his and Dia’s mask, he expected the back of her head to struggle with the concept of breathing underwater.

  Janik nodded. “Probably not a bad idea.”

  “Elara!” Sam called out to the snake hiding in the forest.

  It didn’t take many seconds before she popped her head out from a hiding spot, waving her body to make herself seen.

  “We’re going in the water for a while, you fine just waiting around here?” Sam continued now that he saw her.

  She simply nodded and pulled her head back down. Sam expected her to be hunting or something and... since she was so insecure about the Venom thing earlier he decided to give her a heads up right away.

  “In case you wonder, you can use as much of your Venom as you want, it’s yours, after all.”

  Elara didn’t give any hints that she heard him, as she was already gone, but he knew she did, he spoke loud enough that it shouldn’t be an issue.

  “Then, shall we?” Sam asked as he motioned for the water towards Janik.

  He nodded and started walking, taking his own out of his backpack which was going to be filled with water in not long.

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