Weakness: The Rock Monster is made up of irregular stones, with each connection point being quite fragile. If more than half of these connection points are damaged, the Rock Monster is considered defeated.
…
By using gravel—which has an irresistible allure for Rock Monsters—as bait, you can lure one into a trap made from ropes. Then, you can sever its body’s connection points… This is Su You’s method for killing Rock Monsters.
Although it sounds simple, Rock Monsters tend to move in groups and are extremely strong. To pull this off, Su You first has to find a way to lure a single Rock Monster away from the group. Otherwise, since even handling one can be risky for her, facing two at once would almost certainly be fatal.
On top of that, Su You needs plenty of materials to carry out this plan.
These materials include the gravel used as bait—she had already used up her original supply, and it took her a long time to find this new piece.
She also needs a lot of rope to set up the trap, so whenever she came across fibrous plants while searching for gravel, she collected as many as she could.
Thanks to her stone knife, Su You was able to cut open the stems of these fibrous plants to gather fibers.
Although this does wear down the durability of the stone knife, it’s still more efficient than using a wooden needle. The stone knife is a more advanced tool, so it loses less durability per use—on average, she can process three fibrous plants for every point of durability lost.
Moreover, better tools mean faster collection and less physical exertion…
After gathering enough fibers and crafting them into ropes, Su You assembled them with the gravel bait, and her “Rock Monster Trap” was complete.
So far, this trap has helped Su You successfully kill five Rock Monsters. Including the one she just defeated, that makes six in total.
Su You released the rope, shook out her numb hands, and walked over to where the Rock Monster had fallen.
[Obtained Gravel ×2]
[Obtained Gravel ×1]
The first two pieces of gravel dropped from the Rock Monster, while the last one was the bait she had used earlier.
After all that effort—losing dozens of stamina points and making her hands ache from pulling the rope—she only got two pieces of gravel… Just as Su You was about to sigh in frustration, she spotted something with a strange bump in a pile of leaves.
Brushing aside the top layer of leaves, Su You found a whole stone block.
[Obtained Stone Block ×1]
Although its location was odd, this stone block must have also dropped from the Rock Monster.
In other words, this Rock Monster gave Su You a total of five pieces of gravel!
For context, the most she’d ever gotten from previous Rock Monsters was three pieces, and sometimes only one. This one alone was worth two of the others.
With this extra stone block, Su You’s mood instantly brightened.
She gathered up the dropped items and the ropes from the area, then checked the condition of each rope.
The trap had used five ropes in total. Perhaps because the Rock Monster had struggled so violently, three of them were now close to snapping.
She could still use them if she had to, but there was a risk the Rock Monster might break free…
After thinking it over, she tied the three damaged ropes together to make a new one, then took a fresh rope from her backpack.
“Four should be enough.”
In fact, this trap only requires three ropes at minimum, since the Rock Monster has five connection points—its head and four limbs. Since it’s considered dead if more than half the points are severed, breaking three is enough.
Su You used five ropes partly to make up for her own lack of strength, to prevent the monster from escaping and to increase her margin for error, and partly to speed up the kill.
With practiced hands, Su You set up the four ropes and picked up the gravel, ready to lure another Rock Monster at a different spawn point.
The companions of the high-drop-rate Rock Monster she just killed were all clustered together, making it hard to lure one away. So she decided to check another spot where she’d previously seen a Rock Monster to see if any were alone.
Su You’s plan was sound, but reality turned out to be very different from what she expected.
When she arrived at the first Rock Monster spawn point, the clearing—where there should have been three Rock Monsters—was completely empty…
Wait, no!
It wasn’t exactly empty!
Because Su You saw seven or eight pieces of gravel scattered across the ground, along with a large stone block!
Normally, seeing so much gravel—and even a stone block—would have made Su You rush over to scoop them up. But this time, her first reaction wasn’t to collect the loot, but to immediately hide herself in the bushes.
Because these stones weren’t just the resources she needed most right now—they were also a warning sign.
It was obvious that these stones were the drops from the deaths of those three Rock Monsters.
Rock Monsters don’t commit suicide, and she hadn’t killed them, so it had to be some other creature… In Sunset Continent, it’s not just players who can make monsters drop loot—other creatures fighting and killing each other can also cause drops.
In other words, while Su You was away, some powerful creature had easily killed all three Rock Monsters.
Why “easily”?
Because Su You didn’t see any signs of struggle.
To be able to kill Rock Monsters without giving them a chance to fight back—even though they move slowly—shows just how terrifyingly strong this mysterious creature must be.
Thinking back to the large claw print she’d seen earlier, Su You’s heart was pounding, her grip tightening until red marks appeared on her palm.
She now had two choices: leave immediately, or grab the gravel and stone block before leaving.
If she left right away, she’d most likely be safe, thanks to her protective aura.
This mysterious creature was so powerful, yet she hadn’t been harmed at all. Unless it was completely blind and hadn’t noticed her, the only explanation was that it simply didn’t want to attack her—at least for now.
But if she chose the second option…
To be honest, the only reason Su You was still lingering here was because she was truly tempted by all that gravel and the stone block.
With this haul, she’d have all the materials she needed…”
“Certainly! Here’s a fluent, natural English translation of your text:
Translator thought: Thank you so much for visiting the site and reading the story. If you would like to support my translation you can buy me a cup-ontea. You can also help by shopping in our store or watch the youtube video to get more traction to the website. If you can’t wait to read the next chapter why not subscribe to our monthly plan, you will get 15 chapter every month for $35.
