39 : Planning Time – 1

“… Well, this is bad.”
“Chuu?”
I respawned in the safety area and held my Poison Rat’s Pointed Hat up to my face to repress my sight as I closed my other eyes.
Succumbed in darkness, I recalled my battle earlier with Venomulard.

“My poison gets cleansed immediately and the opponent undeniably had the upper hand when it came to close combat as well as long range combat, huh.”
In conclusion, Venomulard,『Leader Of The Poison Rats』was an enemy that I stood no chance against.
Its stats were high, but that alone wasn’t much of a concern since that’s simply the standard for bosses. The real problem was that I was just horribly incompatible against him.

“Specifically speaking, that poison resist and dispel really clashed with me…”
First off, my main source of strength, poison, has no effect.
The number of stacks was significantly reduced and on top of that, he can cancel it in a single move before the damage even occurs. It’s basically worthless in this fight.
Hypothetically, let’s say that the cleanse is something that’s guaranteed every time he receives the poison status effect. It might make a bit of sense to hinder his actions then, but even if I tried to bait it with just single digit poison stacks, it’s still only wishful thinking.

“No matter how you look at it, long range fights were no good either.”
When your opponent is using explosive venom as a projectile, it’s better to give up on long distance battles.
I was prepared for it and quickly retreated, yet I still got hit in the end. It was impossible to dodge with my physical capabilities as of now.

“That leaves close combat…”
However, even if you get close enough, he has that poison mist, those 6 legs that could be used to attack and a tail that’ll wipe you out. In addition, he didn’t use it this time, but he can likely bite with those atrocious front teeth as well.
I might be able to anticipate these attacks by watching closely with my 13 eyes, but I wouldn’t be able to slip through everything and land a decent hit with my physical agility.

“He still hasn’t called on his rat underlings either.”
It wasn’t set in stone that Venomulard would call forth Poisonous Bite Rats, Poison Spitting Rats, or Young Poisonous Rats.
Even so, if the situation of the fight became unfavorable for him, he’ll likely take action and do something about it.
I don’t know how long it’ll take for them to arrive, but holding the belief that no reinforcements will come is again, just wishful thinking.

“Hmm, I’m really out of luck here…”
I might as well give up on defeating Venomulard for now and figure something else out.
Should I just move on to what’s happening in the center of the curse and make my new objective finding out how the curse was being gathered as well as how the dungeon was being maintained?
I’ll come up with a way to get stronger before deciding to defeat Venomulard later. Instead, I’ll ensure a means to leave this dungeon first.
Actually, that might be just as daunting.
As far as I could tell, the curse in Venomulard’s chamber was the densest I’ve seen yet, and I didn’t see a path or anything that would lead further into the dungeon.
In other words, Venomulard himself was the center of the curse. Or possibly, the source of the curse was somewhere within that room. If only I could sneak in and search the room without being noticed by Venomulard , but… that’s probably impossible isn’t it.

“Let’s run a quick simulation.”
“Chu“
I put my hat back on and used the rat bones in the room to recreate the walls of Venomulard’s chamber as well as him personally.
After making it easier to understand, I thought about how Venomulard would act after I barged into his room.
I don’t have to defeat him for the time being.
First off, I needed to uncover a way to actually fight him.

“Well, if I wanted to fight him up front, should I take the mid-range approach and watch his movements while striking whenever he’s unguarded?”
If I wasn’t able to fight him directly, then I’d never be able to draw out all the cards in his sleeve.
Since it’s a fight after all, there’s a chance that it’ll reach its conclusion before I could even coax out all of what he was keeping unknown, but it also seemed unlikely for the fight to end without anything unknown being brought to the table.
Not only that, but in a game like『CNP』, it wouldn’t be too far off to assume that your enemies would get stronger each time as they continued to pile up wins.
Venomulard also didn’t seem like the type who would relax and celebrate after a win, but rather, one who would stay on guard despite his victory.

“It was obvious, but I clearly didn’t have enough cards in my hand.”
After theorizing various movements and actions, I let go of the now scattered rat bones.
What I visualized in my head managed to border the realms of possibility. I could finally picture how I’d be able to hold a candle to Venomulard, albeit only slightly.
You could say that it’d be rude to demand a battle from an enemy coated in mystery when you’re significantly unprepared yourself, right?

“The walls, sorcery, new items. The 3rd floor still had a bunch of secrets waiting to be unraveled.”
First, we’ll go through every nook and cranny of the『Tower of Mice』.
I practically haven’t searched the 3rd layer at all yet and there might’ve been things that I overlooked too.
Next, I’ll also consider ways to deal with the abilities Venomulard’s revealed thus far alongside the abilities his other rat underlings might have if he really does call them in like I expected him to.
If I died every time he brandishes a new unknown move, Venomulard could easily get much stronger.
Lastly, I need to get stronger as well.
Aside from levels and equipment, my evil eye should have at least one more upgrade I could acquire. If I go through the proper procedures and follow how many ever steps, I may even obtain a totally different evil eye.
In any event, there was a plethora of things that I haven’t tried out yet.

“I guess I’ll just poke around the bulletin board for now and see what kind of information I can get.”
I rummaged through the bulletin board for any useful information, then timely logged out.