F-Rank Puppeteer!! But I'll be Queen, and I'm not a narcissist!!!!! Chapter 63: The Rare Monster: Cloud Stalker

"..." Eve and I descended the floors, and it took a while to get out of the sli area. They only stopped appearing from the 7th floor, and it took us 5 hours to reach the 7th floor, which was a really boring ti.

"Finally, Eve... I thought we’d never stop seeing slis," I say to Eve as we stop to camp here near the entrance to the 7th floor. The scenery has changed from a cave to a forest.

It’s an apparently common forest, with many trees, so clearings, and I hear the sound of water as I see a waterfall in the distance. The environnt also has a pleasantly cool climate.

"Evelyn-sama, I think this is the area of the wolves and goblins, right?" She asks, and I agree. We’ve left the cave area with just slis for a forest area, which is perfect for living beings.

"Yes, it is... Let’s camp for just an hour, okay!" I warn, and she agrees. We need to rest - one of the biggest mistakes many make when going into a dungeon is not stopping to rest.

It turns out that resting in the dungeon initially may seem easy and not worth it, but the deeper you go, the harder it becos to rest.

So we need to conserve our strength while we can, resting whenever possible. I put the bag with our things on the ground while Eve starts making a campfire, gathering wood from the ground in one spot.

"It’s so weird how it’s nightti in here, huh?" I say as Eve looks at the "sky" with strangeness. As soon as I ntioned it, she really noticed this strange fact.

"It’s... true. We were going down, how can there be a night sky in here?" She asks incredulously, while I grab so pitch used for torches and throw it on the twigs she gathered for the campfire.

"Believe it or not, I have no idea? I an, the ceiling doesn’t seem fake, you can see the stars, and the moon in the sky appears to be moving as well." The ga never really delved into what dungeons are and where the monsters ca from, since the ga was from Grace’s perspective, and she spent a lot of ti in the castle.

"Well, shall we eat? We have... a very hard bread, two not-so-tasty buns, so crackers, and extrely tough jerky... oh, and I brought so salt," I say honestly, as Eve rolls her eyes.

"Evelyn-sama, I know we don’t really need to eat like the others, but I also know you like to eat and even feel hunger despite not needing food. However, bringing these things is the sa as not bringing anything."

"They have no real function for you, after all, it’s food with no good taste, plus the fact that it won’t help much at all."

"If that’s the case, isn’t it better for to hunt a wolf for us to roast?" She gives a good idea - a wolf would have plenty of fresh at, and we could use the salt to give it so flavor.

"Sounds great..." I say before hearing a strange crackling sound, imdiately silencing with the strange noise that seems to be slowly increasing.

’That sound...’ My hair stands on end, and I sll a strange tallic scent that reminds a bit of the ozone sll I’ve seen in chemistry classes at school in the past.

"Eve, shhh," I tell Eve to be quiet. She doesn’t understand, but I, as a knower of the ga, recognize the electrical crackling. I grab Eve’s hand and pull her away from the improvised campfire that hasn’t even been lit yet.

I hide behind a tree with her, and soon I see a relatively rare monster coming out of the tree.

"!!!"

’A Cloud Stalker!!’ I see a monster that’s not that strong, but has considerable rarity.

It’s a yellowish wolf with a white "mane" and black marks scattered throughout its body. This monster has electric powers and a perfect core for to use.

[Cloud Stalker] A storm wolf with high magical power and great affinity for electric magic, with a powerful physical build and great speed.

’To have encountered one so early...’ This is bad. The monster itself is not a big deal, the real problem is that monsters tend to flee from stronger monsters. This is the 7th floor, and having a Cloud Stalker here ans that sothing dangerous is in the lower floors.

’This monster should probably be on the 15th to 18th floor...’ This is really too complicated.

’What could make the Cloud Stalker descend to the lowest floor of the wolf level? That’s many floors...’ It’s a fast monster. If it had only encountered a slightly stronger monster, it wouldn’t have fled to another floor.

Especially, it shouldn’t have descended so much - it should have fled to a single floor below at most. It having descended so much can only be for two reasons.

Either it was being pursued and could only lose the monster chasing it much lower than its normal level, or the monster that appeared at its level is so strong that it could only try to get out of its hunting ground.

"Evelyn-sama, what do you want to do?" Eve asks as I think quickly. Although this monster is strong, it is still weaker than Eve. In comparison, this monster should be Rank C, while Eve is also Rank C, but with strength close to Rank B.

"Kill it... We need its core. It has a lot of magic, it’s perfect for using in a mage puppet, and it should also give you good experience." This world doesn’t have levels like in other gas.

Power here increases through Status. Killing many monsters or powerful monsters can increase the Status and amplify the general powers you have through magic.

"Also, Eve, be careful with charging attacks. This monster deceives the eyes using electrical crackles to ss with the brain’s electrical currents, so even if you see its movent, you may not react in ti if you rely only on your sight." I inform her, and she quickly draws her sword.

"The weak point is its belly!" This is the part with the least defense and resistance to attacks, being one of the few places with a low level of electricity, allowing them to attack there.

"Okay, I’ll help you hide." She says, holding and jumping up into the tree in an extrely silent way, as the Cloud Stalker sniffs the pitch I spilled on the twigs where I was going to make a campfire.

’Okay... this... this is good... it hasn’t been able to detect our scent yet. Also, I need to get used to seeing things being killed...’ I observe attentively as I cling to the tree.

"Eve, also, surprise attacks need to be quick. The electrical field that made our hair stand on end works like a radar! If you get too close, it will notice you," I warn her, as this is an important part so she doesn’t make a surprise attack and get surprised.

"Understood, Evelyn-sama. I’m going," Eve says, leaping to another tree with extre elegance and precision, without making a single sound.

...

...

...

I move between the trees, observing the strange electric wolf, seeing it sniffing the ground. It seems to have noticed that Evelyn-sama and I are around, but I think it still doesn’t know that we know about it.

’Evelyn-sama said it will notice if I get too close...’ I co down from the trees and gather three stones. Imdiately, I approach a little and fire a stone to a corner, one to the right of the wolf, and one up above the wolf.

As soon as a stone hits a tree, it looks, but quickly looks at the stones that approached it, showing how it works. I pick up another stone and throw it to the opposite side of where I am.

When I hear the sound of it hitting sothing, I charge at the wolf, which looked in the direction of the sound. With a quick lunge, I try to stab the wolf.

As soon as I’m close, it turns quickly to , noticing , but I’m already so close that I can hit it.

"GAARRH" It lets out a roar of pain as I make a cut on its leg and jump back.

’Tough...’ I didn’t feel like I was cutting flesh, I felt like my sword had hit sothing tallic, even though it cut.

The wolf, like an animal, charges at , but I dodge its lunge with a jump, seeing the damage it did to the place of the blow.

’Electricity...’ Touching the ground, I quickly grab a stone while the wolf turns to and tries another lunge. Its whole body pulses with electricity as it cos at extrely fast.

I crush the stone with my hands and throw the dust in its face, dodging to the side as it struggles because of the powder in its eyes. It tries to charge at even with its eyes closed.

But when it’s close, it opens its mouth and lets out a roar, firing an electric blast that I dodge barely, while approaching and cutting one of its eyes.

"GRAAAAHH" It lets out a roar that shakes the ground, while a large electrical field begins to emanate from it, expanding, which hits , but it’s not very effective.

’I’m not made of flesh and bone.’ My body doesn’t conduct electricity that well. Although I bleed and my body has bones and "flesh," they are not really "real," they are more of a material that simulates this.

’I’ll finish this quickly.’ I think, as I prepare to advance.