Not even a tenth of the iron sand sphere was used. And, although there wasn't an actual need, Tanaka was still drawing some iron from the earth, accumulating more and more, making the iron sand sphere grow while spears of iron sand formed in the air, floating under Tanaka's control.
At the same time, nine gorillas that had been hiding, some even stronger than the first one that appeared, the highest level among them being Rank S Lv11, emerged.
Each of them took a position from a corner of the forest, almost surrounding Tanaka, leaving only the sky and the area behind him open.
When he saw them inflate their mouths and inhale, Tanaka knew what was coming and acted accordingly, shooting several iron sand spears in each of their directions.
"ROARR!!"
Roars upon roars resonated through the gorilla forest, causing chaos, followed by the sound of startled birds taking flight across the sky.
'So, in general, these gorillas aren't weak, nor are they overly strong, and they can inhale air and attack using the wind they inhaled…'
With that knowledge, Tanaka saw no reason to delay the inevitable and got serious.
Spears upon spears of iron sand formed; in an instant, there were 20 iron sand spears floating, and under his control, Tanaka aimed them at the gorillas.
"Whoosh!"
At the same time, the gorillas exhaled the air, causing wind tornadoes to burst from their mouths, but this was anticipated by Tanaka, who shot the spears in pairs.
"Bang! Bang! Bang…!"
The moment a spear made contact with the wind tornado, it began dismantling the attack, allowing the second spear to pass through, heading straight toward the gorilla that tried to escape, but they were within Tanaka's reach and paralyzed in place.
The sounds of gorillas being struck in the head and heart resonated, and soon one by one, they began to fall as they went out of Tanaka's control.
[You Gained 24,270,000 EXP!] [You Gained 48,540,000 EXP!] [You Gained…!]
"Thud! Thud! Thud…!"
A total of ten thuds echoed as not only these nine gorillas hit the ground, but also the last one that had attempted to flee.
There was no item drop, but the EXP was generous. After all, it was an amount that not even the boss of the Orc dungeon had given him.
And, unlike the monsters from a conventional dungeon, the bodies of these gorillas didn't vanish to become loot.
'So, I'll have to dismantle them myself to find anything of value?' Tanaka touched his chin thoughtfully.
Creating five shadow clones, he left them there to dismantle the gorillas before delving deeper into the forest.
As he flew, he took out a piece of paper and pen and began writing a note to try communicating with the shadow clones left outside.
Whether they were the ones in Uzushio or even those in Ame.
After making two notes and marking the letter A prominently on the back of one folded paper and U on the other, he placed them in his inventory.
Knowing about the 1/100 time difference, he didn't expect an immediate response.
Tanaka stopped as he reached a crystal-clear blue lake. The water was so transparent that even in the deeper parts, everything could be seen clearly.
And at the bottom of this lake was some kind of monster. Or at least, it looked like one due to its immense size. Perhaps as big as the Bijuu Isobu?
The aquatic creature submerged in the lake resembled a Kraken.
This type of creature wasn't appealing for a confrontation, after all, he wasn't some knight princess, alpha archer, or crusader. So he promptly ignored the lake, flying further away.
And when he saw one of the tentacles emerge from the lake, instead of counterattacking, he simply ascended higher into the sky, completely ignoring the creature's attempt to start a fight.
As he flew, Tanaka spotted a mountainous area and headed there. The moment he arrived, he saw several enormous snakes, as large as the giant anacondas from movies.
Some even reached the size of the snake summoned by Orochimaru.
'Is this… the Ancestor of the Ryuuchi Cave snakes?' Tanaka wondered.
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Mountain Snake Rank S LV5
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Seeing their names and level, although Tanaka didn't know exactly if they were the same species Orochimaru had summoned, he felt it didn't really matter since the level of each of these snakes surpassed even the strongest snake Orochimaru had summoned in the war.
With their tongues flicking, the mountain snakes noticed him and raised their heads to look at him.
If he had a fear of snakes, seeing at least 20 of them staring at him like this would have scared him senseless by now.
[2+3=5]
After dealing with the snakes, he still hadn't leveled up.
'The amount of EXP I need to level up is absurd...' he sighed.
With only 50% of the EXP bar filled, he felt he'd need to kill at least 40 Rank S beasts.
As he sat on a stone-made armchair, he created a campfire and used the iron sand to form a large skewer, spearing a generous piece of snake meat.
Around the fire, he arranged slightly elevated stones with a perfect notch to hold the skewer and created a rock golem to keep turning the skewer with the snake meat.
As the snake meat began to roast, a delicious aroma mixed with spices filled the air.
Drawn by the smell, some animals approached, but before they could attempt to steal the meat, Tanaka expanded his aura, scaring them off.
A reluctant Rank S tiger didn't want to leave, so Tanaka aimed his index finger at it and shot a kind of Reigan, piercing its forehead with a spherical blast of pure energy.
The death of the massive mountain tiger served as a warning to other cheeky animals who thought about trying their luck.
On the map, he watched the red dots retreat. Within a thousand meters of him, no animal dared to approach after that.
However, just as he was about to eat, a yellow dot began moving closer. Although marked as yellow—meaning neutral—it was a large entity, so he expected it to be someone of at least Rank S approaching.
'Sigh, can't I even eat without interruptions?' he thought.
But he didn't make any hostile move, as he saw it was a neutral entity. As long as it didn't turn red, he wouldn't attack.
Then, as a porcelain-like white hand, smooth enough to reflect the campfire's dim light, emerged through the bamboo grove… Tanaka's calm expression changed.
Before him stood a woman with incredibly delicate features. Her long, stunningly white hair fell all the way to the ground. Her eyebrows, trimmed very short—a symbol of nobility—and the lipstick on her lips highlighted her elegance even more. Her ethereal presence seemed to radiate a light of its own. She wore a sort of white, one-piece dress that trailed along the ground, softly illuminating from her feet up to her chest.
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Rank S Lv20 Kaguya Ootsutsuki
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'How could she appear here? And, with this level of power... Could she be considered the final boss of this dungeon?' Tanaka remained alert.
Now... She seemed to be the version that had yet to eat the Divine Tree's fruit. Yet, even so, her power level was already considered so high?
Perhaps, at this moment, she was the highest-level living being on this planet.
His thoughts, along with his astonishment at standing before the most beautiful woman he had ever seen, were interrupted the moment he heard her ethereal voice, laden with an archaic dialect and noble mannerisms.
"Human, what are you doing here alone? And… what is that strange smell?" As she finished speaking, her stomach growled.
||- Note -||
Chapter 122 is already released on Pa treon!
patre on.com/Tozoku