Tamer 14
BGM: Wuthering Waves 3.0 Ost(Opening)
Chapter 14: New Weapon
TL : Cnine
ED/PF :
Part 1
「Pixie gave 950 EXP huh.」
So basically, fighting normally nets me 50 EXP.
It gives more EXP than an ogre and dies in one hit, so I thought, “Sweet, easy levelling!”
「But… They are flying. And so damn small.」
They're like, 10 cm tall.
I got lucky this time, but trying to land a hit while moving was a joke. One missed swing and I’m the one getting blasted in the face with pixie magic.
Compared to endlessly cutting down ogres like some empty, mechanical task, hunting Pixies — with their constant dodging and spells — feels frustrating, risky… And inefficient.
「Uhm?」
When I checked my status, my HP had only fallen by a mere 2 points.
I’m a monster tamer, after all. My stats were much closer to a spellcaster class, so even taking a Pixie’s spell head-on only resulted in this trivial scratch.
That alone makes it painfully obvious, if I took a physical hit, the damage would be far more severe.
Pixies aren’t just flying spell dispensers, they could probably hit you too. And honestly, dealing with a tiny, hyperactive, zooming terror monster sounds like a terrible plan.
「“…Yeah. I’ll stick to farming ogres on the 4th floor.」
If I’m heading up to the 6th floor, I definitely need to grind a bit more first.
I’m running solo, so if anything goes wrong, I might not be able to recover on my own. Better to be overly careful than sorry.
If the Dungeon Association had already figured out how abnormal I am, I’d be panic-grinding right now. But there was no sign of that, so I could finally relax and level up at my own pace.
「…If only the Pixies were a bit bigge— Wait, hold up?」
I was wrong all along, they didn’t need to be bigger. That’s it. That’s what I’ve been looking for this whole time.
「Dear me… Have I just cracked it?」
Pixies are only about 10 cm tall. Even if I linked ten of them together into a weapon, it’d barely be about a metre long.
Goblins are about a metre tall, which means if I turned them into a Quadra Gob-Sli club, I’d be swinging around a weapon close to two metres long.
Using Pixies as weapons on the other hand wouldn’t be hard for me at all. Honestly, after handling that Gob-sli club, this feels like easy mode.
If I gathered twenty Pixies and used them like a whip, I could probably smash past the 20x EXP mark in one go.
And they didn’t stink like Goblins, and they actually look good. I mean, why wouldn’t I use them?
But… There was still the problem of the Goblins and Slimes.
These guys weren’t mindless creatures anymore. They’ve got brains, they’ve got levels. Just tossing away creatures that smart and that strong feels like a waste of pure potential. Level 70 Goblins and Slimes? If they fought for real, they’d be terrifying.
The power I feel from these guys wasn’t a joke, they’re clearly stronger than the ogres on the 4th floor.
Sure, I could grind them down into raw EXP with my monster fusion skill, but it feels like a waste. There’s got to be a smarter, better use for them.
「Right, plan A: catch some Pixies and try swinging them around like weapons. I’ll think about the rest later.」
If using Pixies as weapons turns out to be a dud, I could always fall back to my trusty Quadra Gob-Sli club.
That’s exactly why ditching the Goblins and Slimes, or turning them into EXP right now, would be a terrible idea.
Even if I stop using them as weapons, they could still walk behind me as bodyguards.
And if the Pixie weapon plan actually works… Then evolving the Goblins and Slimes into full-on guardians with the monster evolution skill might be the perfect move.
◇◇◇
Yeah, so I caught 20 Pixies.
Small. Fast. Impossible to handle delicately. Trying to weaken them without obliterating them was exhausting, and when I failed, I crushed more than a few. So much wasted time.
「But honestly, that still wasn’t the worst part.」
Using the Monster Taming skill was something straight out of a nightmare.
Because it only works on weakened monsters, I was left staring at tiny Pixies shaking violently, twitching, and pulling grotesque expressions.
Yeah. That image was stuck in my head.
「Good grief… That nearly stopped my heart.」
I forced myself to stop after capturing twenty pixies, any more and I’d be spiralling into a life-long addiction. Honestly, for that kind of self-restraint, the entire male population should rise and applaud me.
「Piii」
「You’ve got a tiny human face, you know. Would it kill you to say a single word of Japanese?」
「Piii」
Yeah, this one’s a lost cause. Still just a low-tier monster. Barely above a goldfish, really.
Cute as it looks, the fact it couldn’t even say a word proves it was useless. Guess I’d just repurpose it as a living weapon. Might as well make the best of it.
「Right then, you sparkly nuisances, assemble! Twenty-Pixie Whip formation!」
At my command, every pixie shot their arms up like overly enthusiastic cheerleaders. One latched onto another’s ankles, who grabbed the next, until twenty of them dangled in a gloriously ridiculous living chain.
And thus was born my newest masterpiece of weaponry: the Twenty-PixWhip(Pixie Whip).
I gave it a gentle swing, and to my surprise, it cracked through the air with precision, landing exactly where I intended.
「Not bad at all.」
Or maybe, was it because I’m just getting ripped from levelling up so much?
Right now I’m level 70, top-tier among high-rank explorers, so it was honestly no shock that even a complete newbie like me could swing a two-metre long PixWhip like it’s nothing. Perks of high stats, really.
「If I get the hang of this… I could probably handle an even longer one.」
Anyway, I should collect a few more pixies while it was convenient.
Catching them later is a major pain in the arse.
「Gyagyah!!」
「Hm? Ah, yes, yes. You are spectacularly ugly. But chin up, life’s tough for all of us.」
「Gya! Gyagyah!!」
What now?
I literally just tried being nice, and the goblin’s still screeching like a broken alarm clock.
「Gya! Gya!」
It jabs a finger at the tip of my twenty PixWhip, practically panicking.
「Welp, the poor pixie at the tip is on the brink of death, eh?」
Makes sense.
Even with me holding back, the one at the very end must have taken the full brunt of the impact.
Honestly, it was a miracle that she was still alive. As expected of a monster.
I used my monster recovery skill on the poor pixie that was twitching pathetically at the very tip of the whip, flooding it with a soft glow until it stopped looking like it was about to meet its maker.
「I really need to level you lot up after catching you. At this rate you’ll snap in half before you’re any use.」
All the pixies listed on my status sat neatly at level 35.
Good news, though, that means they’d level quickly. And once their endurance improves, they’ll stop dying every time I swing them around. Always a bonus in a weapon.
===
By the end of the morning, I’d captured thirty-five pixies altogether. The afternoon was dedicated to kicking around a bunch of 4th floor ogres to raise my own level.
「Status」
===
Status
Name： Sakura Kikyo
Occupation： Monster Tamer
Lv：72 ↑2
HP：286 ↑10
MP：414 ↑13
SP：6
Skill
Monster Taming54 Monster Recovery7 Monster Enhancement7 Monster Fusion Monster Reborn
Monster Evolution
Tamed Monster
GoblinLv72×7 GoblinLv71×8
SlimeLv72×2 SlimeLv71×2
PixieLv51×35
EXP to next level: 50890
===
Using a whip properly takes practice, especially when your whip was made of tiny screaming pixies.
Right now, the 20-pix formation feels perfect in my hands, almost like it was made for me.
With more skill I might eventually wield a 30-PixWhip, but after a few disastrous trials, it became painfully clear: at 30 or 35 PixWhip, the thing becomes impossible to aim.
So I settled on twenty for my main whip, and the remaining fifteen would have to make do as backup components.
「Thirty-one times EXP, eh… 」
A chill crept down my spine. It was ridiculous, borderline terrifying. And the worst part? I’m starting to think my own genius might be a bigger monster than anything in this dungeon.
With the 20-PixWhip boosting my gains and my own strength added in, I’m already sitting at a 21 times. But once I strap those ridiculous Quintuple Gob-legs onto both feet, my EXP efficiency blasts up to a downright absurd 31 times. Even I had to admit, that’s the sort of maths that should terrify people.
A 4th-floor ogre coughs up 38 EXP on its own. Under my turbo-charged setup? One smack, one corpse, and suddenly I’m pocketing 1,178 EXP like it’s pocket change.
And yet… Despite the numbers, the 4th floor still feels sluggish, like I’m wasting potential with every swing. Once I hit level 80, I’m done with this place, I’d climb to the 6th floor without looking back.
At level 80, I doubt I’ll fall behind anything. If anything, the monsters should be scared of me.