Curse Arrows.
Their raw killing power wasn't particularly high, but they carried extremely potent negative effects.
And in most cases, they could directly penetrate an enemy's surface defenses.
Even a hardened outer shell wouldn't stop them—the arrows would seep straight into the body, planting their curses inside.
Armor fared no better.
Even if a target was fully armored, the curse arrows would slip through the armor itself, reach the skin beneath, and trigger the curse.
And once the curse took effect…
BOOM—
A dull, thunderous crash echoed across the plain.
The [Hammer-Tail Horned Bull] collapsed as all four of its legs buckled beneath it, dropping heavily to its knees.
The Rising Pillar already embedded inside its body was driven even deeper.
It had lost the vast majority of its strength.
Izparut once described Curse Arrows like this:
Their weakening effect was so powerful that a Second-Tier warrior would be reduced to the helplessness of an infant.
And the defense-softening effect could turn the hardened flesh armor of a Second-Tier defender into something as fragile as sponge—easily pierced by any attack.
It seemed…
Even against a Third-Tier monster, the effect was just as devastating.
Heavy Wall blocked its advance.
Rising Pillar delivered the first offensive strike.
Curse Arrows crippled and weakened it.
After just a single round of spells—
The [Hammer-Tail Horned Bull] was already on the verge of death, kneeling on the ground and waiting to die.
The rest was simple.
Kanzaki Rei didn't have any cruel habit of tormenting monsters that had done nothing to him.
An Ice Lance slid low across the ground.
It curved around and slipped beneath the suspended abdomen of the Hammer-Tail Horned Bull, whose body was still propped up by the Rising Pillar.
BANG!
BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG—
Ice tore through the creature's body, wreaking havoc inside its flesh.
Very quickly, the Hammer-Tail Horned Bull stopped moving altogether.
Its life force vanished completely.
After killing it, Kanzaki Rei stood there for a moment, looking thoughtfully at the corpse.
Hmm…
So Third-Tier Lord-class monsters aren't actually that strong.
With my current strength, killing them is indeed quite easy.
However, he wondered what kind of strength King-Class monsters possessed.
In Second-Tier dungeons, the strongest monsters were typically Lord-class, and they were usually the gatekeeping boss.
Only very rarely would a Second-Tier dungeon contain two Lords simultaneously.
But once you reached Third-Tier dungeons, Lord-class monsters weren't necessarily the strongest anymore.
There was a very small chance of encountering King-Class monsters.
And it was said that when Level 3 adventuring parties encountered a King-Class monster of the same tier, roughly thirty percent of them were wiped out entirely.
As for the remaining seventy percent that avoided total annihilation…
They still often suffered casualties.
That seventy percent didn't mean they had defeated the King-Class monster.
It simply meant they had managed to escape.
Only a tiny number of Level 3 adventuring parties—so few they weren't even counted in statistics—could confront a Third-Tier King-Class monster head-on and actually defeat it.
Kanzaki Rei glanced at his own palm.
Now that he had confirmed he could defeat Third-Tier Lord monsters relatively easily, it meant he could handle Third-Tier dungeons with a fair degree of confidence.
Joel soon returned with the harvested loot.
15 gold.
A staggering profit…
It was hard to say whether this result was unexpected or entirely predictable.
Unexpected, because according to the books, a fully harvested Third-Tier Lord should normally be worth only 3–4 gold.
Predictable, because this was Harvest Month. Increased yields were only natural.
Still…
This was far too much.
The value of the harvest was four to five times higher than usual.
Even Zorrel sounded amazed.
"This year's Harvest Month feels way richer than previous years."
Kanzaki Rei asked curiously,
"Wasn't it like this before?"
Zorrel shook his head.
"At least not in Rhein Town."
"In past years, even when harvests increased, you wouldn't often see profits multiply several times over."
"Most of the time, a fifty percent increase was considered normal."
"So that means… this Third-Tier monster should've only yielded about 6 gold."
Six gold.
Compared to fifteen…
That was indeed a huge difference.
Zorrel scratched the back of his head.
"But today…"
"Maybe it's because it's the beginning of the month?"
Kanzaki Rei suddenly recalled something.
When Kumironi and the others had left earlier, they mentioned something.
"The beginning of a Moon Sovereign's cycle is when their influence is at its strongest…"
Zorrel nodded vigorously.
"Yes, yes!"
"That's probably the reason."
"This year's harvest is unusually abundant. Maybe Lord Yakadikto has personally descended into the world…"
Kanzaki Rei tilted his head slightly.
"Personally descended?"
He hadn't seen anything about that in the books.
Then again, maybe it was written somewhere—he just hadn't reached that part yet.
After all, this world was vastly different from Earth. There was no way Kanzaki Rei could absorb every piece of common knowledge in such a short time.
There would inevitably be things he hadn't learned yet.
The topic of Moon Sovereigns was definitely one of the areas he still knew very little about.
At the time, he hadn't asked too many questions because he was worried about exposing his lack of basic knowledge.
Later, through subtle probing, he realized something interesting.
Many people in this world…
Didn't actually understand the world that well themselves.
On top of that, cultural differences between continents were enormous.
Given that his identity was that of someone who had come from a remote, obscure nation, he didn't really have to worry about being suspected.
To be honest…
Even if Kanzaki Rei publicly announced that he had transmigrated from China on Earth, people here would probably just assume that Earth was the name of some distant region on another continent in this world.
Heh…
What exactly have I been so cautious about all this time?
Still, for the sake of safety, Kanzaki Rei chose not to reveal too much information about himself.
Zorrel looked up at the sky.
The sun was slowly sinking toward the west.
But today's sunset looked completely different from usual.
Normally, sunset simply meant the sun descending.
But today…
It felt as if the entire sky itself was descending.
Following Zorrel's gaze, Kanzaki Rei finally noticed it.
The entire sky seemed to be pulled like a canvas.
Everything in the heavens had frozen in place as the sky slowly slid westward, gradually disappearing beyond the distant mountain range.
Meanwhile, the stars and moon were drawn into view from the eastern horizon.
The stars remained fixed in their positions like a painting—only shifting horizontally as the sky itself moved.
It was a magnificent spectacle.
Edith poked her head out from inside the carriage.
"Sky Scroll: Starshift Horizon."
"This is the unique celestial phenomenon that appears when Yakadikto governs the Moon Cycle. It lasts for an entire month."
"It's my favorite celestial phenomenon of the whole year."
Celestial phenomena.
Whenever the ruling Moon Sovereign changed, the sky itself would display different transformations.
When Yakadikto governed the lunar cycle, the entire sky moved like a scroll painting, as though an infinitely long canvas were constantly being unrolled.
Zorrel gazed at the heavens with admiration.
"They say that during the month ruled by a Moon Sovereign, there's a chance they might personally descend into the world to observe the lives of mortals."
Kanzaki Rei couldn't help asking,
"Is that just a legend, or does it really happen?"
Zorrel laughed self-deprecatingly.
"Who knows?"
"I'm only twenty-eight years old. I've only lived twenty-eight years of life."
"And I've never seen a real god."
"But if the legend has been passed down for so long…"
"It probably isn't completely false."