They might look harmless, but anyone who thought that meant they were easy to deal with would be dead wrong. Unlike the Raider Fish, Blue Crabs, Mermaids, and other conspicuous threats lurking in the water channels to ambush Adventurers, Light Quartz hid in the forgotten nooks and blind spots of the caverns, silently hovering.
Like patient hunters, they waited for exactly the right time, the right place, the right moment to deliver a killing blow to careless Adventurers.
They had only one method of attack: a ranged energy blast that was extremely rare in the Dungeon, or even on the surface. To put it bluntly, it was a beam similar to magic.
But with its nearly unavoidable speed and extreme penetrating power, it was far more dangerous than ordinary magic.
Using this method, hiding in easily overlooked corners, they'd picked off who knows how many Adventurers.
"Same type as those lizard monsters a couple floors up, but compared to those... a Light Quartz ambush is way more lethal!"
Remembering the instant that beam had hit him, Leon still felt a chill. If he hadn't refreshed his Frost Armor the moment the explosion hit, relying only on the previous layer that had already taken considerable damage over time... that shot might not have killed him, but it would have done serious harm.
It wouldn't have caused a crisis for the team, but between the damage to his armor and cloak and the potions needed to heal his injuries, that one sneaky little attack from the Light Quartz had nearly cost Leon losses exceeding a million Valis!
A million Valis!
That was over a million!
Sure, he wasn't hurting for pocket change these days, but a loss was a loss. That was over a million, nearly a tenth of their total haul from this Expedition!
For someone who guarded his money the way Leon did, this was a personal insult.
"Scorch!"
"Fireball Fireball Fireball Fireball Fireball Fireball Fireball Fireball!"
Leaning on his staff as he stood, Leon cracked a smile.
No words wasted. He opened with a quick combo into infinite Fireballs, all aimed straight at the Light Quartz!
Blazing light surged from the tip of his staff, the flames painting his face orange. He stared, unblinking, at the fire erupting across the crystal's surface and the Fireballs detonating point-blank against it, his grin spreading wider and wider.
"Die!"
A relentless barrage of explosions consumed the Light Quartz before it could so much as react, swallowing it completely in a chain of detonations.
"Hah!"
Leon spat on the ground, his expression pure arrogance.
"All you've got is cheap shots. Head-on, you're just some little crystal with zero mobility. You think you can show your face around me?"
Watching the enemy shake violently in the sea of flames, its surface rapidly melting, before it finally dropped to the ground and crumbled to ash, the rest of the group snapped out of their stupor.
Strengthened Species. Light Quartz. Dead.
Its end was a textbook demonstration: pop up, get dropped.
Laurier's drawn arrow hovered for a moment, and the comment she'd been holding back finally burst out.
"That escalated and de-escalated way too fast. Was that Light Quartz really a Strengthened Species? Compared to the Moss Giant, they're not even on the same threat level!"
Jeanne swept her Banner Lance in wide, powerful arcs, effortlessly shattering the countless Iguazu that swarmed toward her, their bodies bursting into a blood mist that drifted through the air.
She glanced at Leon, completely unharmed and having instantly killed the Light Quartz the moment he'd counterattacked, and quietly exhaled. At the same time, her tactical mind kicked back into gear.
"It's probably a difference in their design. That first shot that hit Leon, for instance. If it hadn't revealed itself and had stayed hidden in the cavern, using those nearly undodgeable beams to keep sniping us, we'd have had a much harder time dealing with it."
Rose smashed a dense cluster of Iguazu into paste with a single shield bash, her kite shield blazing with pure white light, the smile never leaving her face.
"Looks like... not every Strengthened Species has the same intelligence as that Moss Giant."
Leon brushed the dust off his cloak and layered on a fresh coat of Frost Armor. Firing off Fireballs to cover his teammates without even looking, he spoke over his shoulder.
"One look at that thing and you can tell. It's a crystal. Barely any intelligence at all. Born with that limitation."
Everyone fell into brief thought.
By now Persephone had finished clearing the Iguazu in front of her and quickly moved to Jeanne and Rose's side to help reinforce the line. She pushed her glasses up, a flash of cold light from the pale blue waterfall glinting across the lenses, and offered a tentative theory.
"Could it be that the Moss Giant, being a humanoid-type monster... has higher intelligence because of it?"
"If that turns out to be true, it would be enormous intel!"
The closer to human form they were, the greater the intellect and wisdom they developed through evolution. If that was the case, then...
Just imagining that future was disturbing enough on its own.
Especially when you considered the sheer malice the Dungeon's monsters bore toward life on the surface. If they also gained intelligence rivaling humans, combined with the overwhelming physical advantages they already possessed... it really might be possible for the world to slide back into the chaos of thousands of years ago.
Leon glanced at Persephone's rapidly shifting expressions and quietly pursed his lips.
Worrying over nothing. If you people knew the Dungeon already has intelligent monsters... you'd probably drop dead from shock.
Thinking that, his hands never stopped. Without even looking, he kept up a relentless magical bombardment against the incoming Iguazu swarm.
"Fireball!"
Another salvo of explosions ripped through the flock, charred bodies raining down.
Killed Strengthened Species monster. Excelia +19
Killed Strengthened Species monster. Excelia +11
Killed monster. Excelia +1
Killed monster. Excelia +1
Killed monster. Excelia +1
Killed... Excelia...
...
...
Leon glanced at the notifications popping up nonstop in the lower left corner of his vision, the corner of his mouth curling upward.
"Humanoid type, crystal type, whatever. At the end of the day, it's just a special kind of Irregular. Adventurers have been exploring the Dungeon for thousands of years, and even now... even after the Guild compiled all their known intel into records, they still wouldn't dare claim they understand the Dungeon all that well. Take the Moss Giant, for example. I'd bet the Guild doesn't have detailed intel on it either..."
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