Chapter 559 – Phantom Mist Valley

The valley is broadly divided into three types of locations. The upper layer and the valley floor. And then the maze section inside the cliffs that connects the upper layer and the valley floor.

Of course, the upper layer of the valley is covered in thick fog, but the valley floor is also such a place. While it’s a bright area like the outside, the visibility isn’t good due to the fog. This also has a magical interference effect. Life Sense magic is useless through the fog.

The sky… or rather the ceiling is covered in fog, and its internal structure isn’t well understood. In BFO, there was a player who experimented by flying upward toward the ceiling to see what was above, but no matter how far they went upward, they couldn’t escape the fog, and when they gave up and returned, they came back in clearly less distance than they had moved upward.

Because of this, it’s said that the fog covering the ceiling might be in some kind of infinite loop. There are also theories about sensory illusion… but since the fog covering the ceiling isn’t directly related to exploration, let’s set that aside for now.

Throughout Phantom Mist Valley, illusions are projected in the fog, so in the upper layer, if you’re deceived by them, there’s a danger of falling. Therefore, the theory was that you shouldn’t wander around too much in the upper layer, but instead quickly find an entrance to the inside of the cliffs and explore the valley floor from there.

After explaining these various precautions for the valley to everyone, we descended from the 20th floor branching point to Phantom Mist Valley. This was because even after looking around the Market, we couldn’t obtain Cannon Beans.

“Indeed… I believe this is also where the Sprint Birds we bought at the Market before are said to appear,” Grace said, tilting her head.

Sprint Birds are large bird monsters that appear in Phantom Mist Valley. They have appearances like ostriches, cassowaries, or moas.

“Yeah. They appear on the valley floor of the gorge. I hear they’re rarely seen, so we can’t expect too much though.”

“Mhm. Indeed, we don’t see them much at the Market either.”

Both their feathers and meat quality have high utility value, but considering their appearance frequency, they’re relatively Rare monsters.

“The monsters we came to search for this time were plant-based ones, right?”

“Cannon Beans, right? They grow clinging to the cliffs and launch long-range attacks on anything that approaches. Think of them as Evil Weed from autumn enhanced many times over,” Claudia answered Ashley’s question.

At a distance, they attack by firing seeds. At close range, they use vines like whips. The beans they fire… have at least enough power and speed that movement with just Levitation can’t completely avoid them.

“Right. Normally, you can’t descend the cliffs from the outside because Cannon Beans and other monsters are there. If you want to hunt Cannon Beans, you have no choice but to hunt those within range from the valley floor… but.”

“In our case, we don’t particularly need to do that.”

“That’s how it works. That’s why we brought Lindwurm along this time too.”

When I nodded at Rosemary’s words, Lindwurm happily purred.

If we’re flying, we can make the cliffs themselves our hunting ground. There’s also sufficient space, so it won’t hinder Lindwurm’s activities either.

So the plan is to hunt Cannon Beans while moving along the outside without going through the inside of the cliffs.

“Well then, shall we go? Compared to the lower floors, the monsters aren’t that strong, but don’t let your guard down. Other than that, be careful of the fog and illusions. Just in case, it might be better to move through the air from now on.”

At my words, Marlene nodded repeatedly. Everyone else also nodded and used their Magic Tools.

“Well then, we’ll take the lead.”

“Yeah, please do.”

Irmhild and Sheila stepped forward. Belius would bring up the Rearguard.

It would probably be safer to proceed by detecting temperature and sound rather than relying on vision. Belius can also watch the front while being alert to the rear, so he’s very reliable as the Rearguard.

Now then… let’s move. The upper layer of Phantom Mist Valley has flat land spread out exactly like a tabletop mountain. The valley extends here and there like a maze, with fissures running across this flat surface. I thought if we advanced a bit, we’d immediately encounter a valley.

That estimation seemed to be mostly correct. As we proceeded straight ahead, before any monsters appeared, we immediately encountered a sheer cliff. Fog hung here and there, and visibility wasn’t good.

“What should we do?”

“This time our purpose is to draw out Cannon Beans… Right. I’ll ride Lindwurm and go ahead as bait.”

Lindwurm seemed pretty restless like this. I’ll have it go back and forth at an appropriate distance without going too far ahead, acting as bait while figuring out enemy positions.

We’ll broaden our movement range. The idea is to deliberately act conspicuously to lure enemies from a wide area.

Mounting Lindwurm, I took off from the cliff. Circulating Ki. With a sensation of becoming one with the mounted Lindwurm, I accelerated with tremendous force. Before the fog spreading before my eyes could writhe and take form—I scattered it with Wind Magic and dove to the valley floor. With an abrupt stop, I reversed direction and rapidly gained altitude.

“Haha.”

A laugh escaped at the sensation that could be called exhilaration brought by that unleashed speed. Lindwurm also laughed happily.

Simultaneously, something—a silver shadow—leapt up from the valley floor. That silver-furred creature demonstrated changing direction by jumping from cliff to cliff, then charged toward us.

It was a goat—a silver goat monster. Solid Goat, a monster that moves at high speed unaffected by cliffs and rocky terrain, attacking with headbutts using its sturdy skull and horns.

Lindwurm gauged the angle at which the goat was charging, deployed a Shield at its feet, and grabbed it to make an abrupt stop. It stopped sharply and reversed direction. Good timing. If I slammed Ouroboros to match the charging goat, it would hit directly in the flank. The Solid Goat that was sent flying with sparks remaining crashed into the cliff wall and fell toward the valley floor.

“Lindwurm. Right.”

I warned Lindwurm. Whoosh—a bean projectile tore through the air flying toward us. Was it about the size of a baseball? Laden with plenty of magical power for hardening—it would probably have considerable power if it hit directly.

Lindwurm turned its head and avoided it without even looking. Because we’re united through Circulating Ki, I can convey warnings and evasion methods through sensation faster than words. It’s probably a form of mutually covering for each other through our respective senses.

In my Monocle’s field of view, I clearly captured the magical power carried by the bean. While Life Sense doesn’t work, with the Monocle, I can apparently detect the flying beans by the concentration of magical power.

Identifying the direction it was fired from, I launched a wind bullet to scatter the fog, revealing a plant monster clinging to the cliff.

Cannon Beans. A monster with a human-like silhouette in head and limbs. The limbs feel like bundled vines, and it carries giant pod-like sheaths on both shoulders. From there, it can fire beans continuously like a multi-barrel cannon.

But I won’t let it fire the next shot. Lindwurm’s body sways left and right. By kicking off Shields and flying with rebounds, I scatter its aim. The Cannon Beans’ muzzle tries to fix its targeting point as it moves—but I’ll confuse it by projecting illusions with Mirage Body.

Then—.

What descended from directly above was Sheila. Using her coat’s power to disappear, she launched a silent assault.

The water blade extending long from her Pearl Sword flashed as she passed by. It cleanly bisected the Cannon Beans’ body.

However, perhaps because it’s a plant-type monster with high durability, even with its torso cut in half, it still moved. The half-body in midair tried to identify the attacker who had Form Shifted to attack—but.

“There you are.”

There was a shadow charging in with ferocious speed. A single strike from an axe wrapped in purple lightning this time split the Cannon Beans vertically from the part that would hit its head through its torso. So we took it down with Sheila going first to concentrate its attention, followed by Grace’s Charge attack from above.

First one down. We only let it fire one projectile too. I’d say that’s a decent result.

“It seems we can manage this,” Claudia said, looking at the terrain map with a smile.

What I grasp is reflected as surrounding terrain data in the Caduceus that Claudia carries. In Grantios, together with Balor, I grasped enemy movements on the battlefield… well, it’s similar to that, I suppose.

The strategy is for me to go ahead with Lindwurm, flying along the cliffs as bait, and then share information with the Rearguard members to hunt without letting the enemy wastefully fire bean projectiles.

Hmm. If I do it well, I feel like I might be able to directly catch the flying projectiles too… well, maybe I’ll try that later.

First, let’s proceed with hunting Cannon Beans after gathering materials from both the goat we just defeated and the Cannon Beans.