I hate being in pain, so I think I'll make a full defense build

Itai no wa Iya nanode Bōgyo-Ryoku ni Kyokufuri Shitai to Omoimasu 277

Defense Specialization and Searching for the Key

“First, we have to return to where the horse is.”

“Hehehe. That’s no problem. Watch.”

Sally took out a whistle from her inventory and blew into it. After a while, a horse came out of the bushes.

“Ohh! Amazing! You can call it with that?”

“Yes. It’s useful because you can call it no matter where it is.”

“I haven’t noticed since I’m always flying in the air, but do a lot of people ride them?”

“Yes. It’s a good mode of transportation. There will probably be even more soon.”

The speed and area in which you could run changed depending on the horse, so you had to look for what was best for you.

“There are monsters that migrate in almost every area. So, where should we go…”

“Ah, maybe it’s in the sea? We explored it a lot already, so I think it would be easier to narrow it down!”

“That’s true. Let’s do that then.”

Sally told Maple to get on the horse, and then they raced through the forest.

“Wo-won’t we crash into something?”

“Don’t worry. I have a lot of practice!”

It turned out that Maple’s fears were for nothing, and the horse jumped over bushes and moved through trees as naturally as if it were dashing through the plains.

“We’ll get there in no time!”

“We have to use what we prepared!”

Ultimately, they reached the sea without a single accident.

“Be careful. There should be an octopus somewhere.”

“The thing that gave you your tentacles, right? How was it?”

“…Huh? It was pretty delicious, even though it was raw!”

Maple said. Sally immediately flicked her forehead.

“Ugh. I was talking about how strong the boss was. You were caught out of nowhere, right? Do you think it would be bad if that happened to me?”

“I think it would be dangerous if it happened in the cave. It’s really narrow…”

Maple answered with a hint of embarrassment. Sally wouldn’t get caught by any normal attacks, but it would be a different story if they were talking about the unavoidable ‘abduct on attack’ gimmick.

“Alright, we won’t go close to this island you talked about. Now, will you stay above me and use ‘Dedicated Affection’?”

“Okay! This time, I’ll ride on Syrup and wait for you!”

Maple put on her snorkel so that she would be able to see Sally. Then she enlarged Syrup and went out into the sea.

Once the water below was deep enough, Sally jumped off of Syrup and into the water.

Maple watched her go and also made sure that Sally stayed within range as she moved Syrup.

“Hmm…”

Sally checked the range of Maple’s Dedicated Affection, and then searched for the group of fish.

Corals of all kinds of colors spread out in the sea. And fish that normally wouldn’t be living together were swimming around. There were several gaps in the ground that looked like they led to someplace deeper. However, she was not about to go anywhere that was so dark.

As Sally continued to explore, she discovered a group of tropical fish. And so she used a dolphin kick to move in their direction. Thanks to her high ‘Swimming’ level, it wasn’t hard for her to catch up to them.

“…”

However, she was so fast that Maple wasn’t able to keep up.

And while the range was quite large, it wasn’t large enough to protect something that was actively trying to move away.

Even now, fish with sharp fangs would ram into her, or corals would elongate as if they had octopus tentacles, and they would try to grab onto her legs.

Sally decided that it couldn’t be helped, and she accelerated her speed in order to shake them off. And then she continued to pursue the fish. As for whatever monsters that caught up with her, she attacked them with wind blades.

Like this, she chased after the tropical fish for some time. At first, they seemed to be swimming in a circle along the same route, but then they started to enter a crack in the coral.

Sally approached it cautiously and then took out a flashlight from her inventory in order to peer inside. But while she could see that there were fish in there, she couldn’t see anything else. As it seemed very deep, she resurfaced once and called to Maple.

“Sally! Are you okay? Sorry that I couldn’t keep up with you.”

“I’m fine. It was my fault for moving away.”

Sally held onto Syrup as she explained to Maple what had happened.

“I see. So, it will be fine if I stay right here?”

“Yes. Thank you.”

“Leave it to me! And I’ll prepare potions so it will be fine if you take damage… You can concentrate on exploring without having to worry!”

Maple said this confidently. Well, then. I’ll also not fail to accomplish my task. Thought Sally with a fearless laugh. And she returned to the depths of the sea.