After failing to acquire a star rune from a 1-star monster multiple times, Miri and Anne decided to take a short break as they reevaluated their current situation.

  “Goddamn it! What’s up with all these contestants snatching up all the 1-star monsters from us?!” Miri snapped, kicking the base of a nearby tree to vent her frustration. “It just pisses me off!”

  “Well, I wouldn’t say that it’s all that surprising,” Anne remarked. “Out of all the star runes, the ones from the 1-star monsters are pretty much the easiest for solo contestants to acquire. And since there’s generally a large portion of contestants who went into the trials taking the solo route, that means that the competition for the 1-star monster runes is exceptionally high.”

  “Yeah, I figured that this was going to happen to some extent,” Miri said with a sigh. “Just didn’t expect the competition to be this fierce, you know.”

  “What should we do now?” Anne asked. “Should we continue pursuing runes from 1-star monsters in the hopes that fortune might smile upon us?”

  “Hmm…you know what, I don’t think we should. I highly doubt we’ll have much luck on it anyway. Instead, I think we should work our way up the star level and hunt down a 2-star monster.”

  “A 2-star monster? Are you sure about that? It’s likely going to be more dangerous.”

  “Yeah, but since there’s two of us, it’s probably not gonna be too difficult to take one down. I mean, we’re not having any luck with hunting down 1-star monsters anyway. Might as well give it a try, right?”

  “Hmm, that does sound reasonable.” Anne took out the monster scroll in order to check the list of monsters. Even though monsters of the same star level were generally of equal difficulty in terms of acquiring the runes off of them, they were not necessarily equal in terms of general combat ability. This meant that it took a careful eye to distinguish a strong 2-star monster from a weak 2-star monster and weigh the pros and cons of facing each of them. “Which of the 2-star monsters do you think we should go after? If we were to go after one of the weaker ones—”

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  “Nah, let’s not go after one of the weaker ones,” Miri suggested. “Instead, let’s go after one of the stronger ones.”

  “One of the stronger ones?” Anne asked. “Are you sure?”

  “Yeah, I’m sure,” Miri answered. “I mean, if you think about it, out of all the contestants who go after the 2-star monsters, most of them will probably go after the weaker ones first in order to have an easier fight. With so many contestants going after the weaker 2-star monsters, they’re bound to clash and fight over it, leading to those runes being more than they’re worth.

  “On the other hand, contestants would be less likely to go after the stronger of the 2-star monsters, meaning that there’ll be less contestants to fight over for their runes. Heck, by now, I bet that most of the weaker 2-star monsters have probably been hunted down, leaving the stronger 2-star monsters mostly untouched. Rather than take the more popular option which will also have more competition, we should instead take the less popular option which will also have less competition. Take the road less traveled and all that.”

  “Hmm, that does sound reasonable,” Anne said. “However, if we do go after a stronger 2-star monster, we’re likely going to fight a tougher battle with the monster itself.”

  “Not unless we can single out a monster that we might have a distinct advantage over,” Miri said as she scanned the list of monsters. “Hmm, let’s see…ooh, how about the basilisk?”

  “The basilisk? Are you sure?”

  “Yeah, I’m sure. Its main feature is its poison, right? You are such a good cleric that the poison is practically a non-issue. Given our specific set of skills, the basilisk is probably the best choice out of the bunch.”

  “Why, I’m flattered that you’d place so much faith on my healing skills.”

  “And my faith has not been misplaced so far. You really are the best! So, what do you say?”

  “Hmm, this does sound like a solid plan. Very well, then, we shall go after the basilisk.”