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Volume 7 Chapter 8 Part 1

Translator: Kell

About half an hour later.

We were gathered in a hollow right in the middle of the city of Raijis and the active volcano, looking at a map of the mountain.

“Hmm… If they’re holed up in there, launching an attack will be tough,” I muttered as I studied the terrain.

The summit of the volcano has a clear view of the surrounding area, making it difficult to create blind spots. Just getting close to the summit would turn you into an easy target for Ether Cannon.

There are no trees near the summit, so there are no places to hide. The only way you can snipe from a kilometer away is if you can catch the target off guard. If there is no blind spot where you can shoot without being seen by the target, you need to get very close—at least a hundred or two hundred meters, to make sure your attack reach the enemy.

However, at this distance, an Ether Cannon will hit almost as soon as it’s cast. In that respect, it’s more of a gun or a cannon than a magic spell. Getting close from the front is not a good idea at all.

Using Mana Invisibility is an option, but it’s not exactly a flawless cloaking spell. In the unstable terrain of an active volcano, even just walking will cause stones to move, making the enemy aware of a surprise attack.

If there’s only one enemy, or if there are places to hide like in a forest, there’s still hope for a successful surprise attack, but that’s not the case for a mountain summit with three people fortifying it. It’s just not possible.

From the number of spells that was cast, there’s only one Awakened Mage among the three. Since they were assigned to protect the summit, they have to be skilled elites.

It’s possible that all three are incredibly strong. But I have one more plausible theory. They have the same group composition as us; one main force—that is, me—and a bunch of supports to back me up.

Even those with powerful Skills aren’t invincible, so it’s only natural to have an expert by your side in areas that Awakened Mages don’t excel in, such as enemy detection and defense.

If someone with a close-combat class was Awakened, they could have sent them to the vicinity of Raijis. That fact that they didn’t meant that it’s more likely that there’s only one enemy who used the Awakening System. Although, I can’t deny the possibility that there are other Awakened enemies, so we have to be vigilant.

And when it comes to surprise attacks, the biggest obstacle is not the enemies themselves, but the environment—the active volcano. There are many active volcanoes back on Earth, but BBO’s active volcanoes are completely different.

The volcanoes of this world are ‘alive’ in the truest sense of the word. The moment you take a step into one, the volcano itself senses the invasion of foreign beings, and sends many enemies to attack you, spawning endlessly to get rid of the intruders.

However, there is a place where you don’t get attacked. It’s called a Sanctuary, a safe zone inside an active volcano.

The Sanctuary is a great position to fight against humans. After all, you can concentrate on attacking while the enemy gets swarmed by monters. You’d be hard pressed to find more favorable conditions than this.

But of course, the Sanctuary is not just located anywhere. Normally, there’s only one of it—at the summit. Not only was the enemy an expert in sniping, they had also the unique environment provided by the volcano on their side.

A Sanctuary also has an important role besides being a safe zone. That is, the Awakening system.

When you have a volcano’s Sanctuary and the number of Wisdom Stones required for your class, you can activate the Awakening System. Since the enemy has both the system and Sanctuary to themselves, fighting them head-on is going to be tough.

Even if the enemy is not skilled in combat techniques, they can win by simply brute-forcing it. Combat skills don’t matter at this point. It’s like using a bamboo spear against an opponent that fires their machine gun at random. It’s simply impossible.

“All right,” I said. “Let’s create our own Sanctuary, then.”

I’ve already informed the troops about the Sanctuary. Since the enemy’s Awakened Mage is holding the mountaintop, we have no chance of winning with our current state.

“I guess we have no other choice, huh?”

“We don’t. It’s gonna be a bit rough, but I’m sure it’ll work out.”

Sanctuaries are normally only found on mountaintops. Keyword: normally. You can, in fact, create your own Sanctuary by performing a ritual. To do that, though, you first need to get inside the volcano and basically fight it.

In order to fight the large number of enemies that appear in the volcano, I have to use powerful spells like Steam Explosion, and thereby giving away our location to the enemy. When that happens, we’ll have to fight while continuously avoiding the sniper’s projectiles. It’s going to be a huge pain in the butt, but we have no other better strategy, so we’ll just have to go through with it.

“Everyone good?” I asked. “Got enough mana?”

“Yes, sir!”

“All right, then. Let’s go!”

We were about to enter the Raijis volcano.

About an hour later, we arrived at the foot of the volcano.

“So this is the Boundary,” Sachylis mumbled as she regarded the scene in front of her.

What she saw was something you would not find on Earth. Right on the border dividing the flat land at the foot of the mountain and the slope was a pool of lava, like a moat protecting a castle.

It wasn’t something created by the Empire to protect their base. The volcano itself built it as a defensive measure.

Beyond the lava pool was a mountain slope. There was nothing out of the ordinary at first glance. It looked like an ordinary mountain, overgrown with trees.

But if you looked closely, you would see a river of lava flowing through the woods. Trees stood along the banks of the scorching river like it was nothing. Common sense would tell you that a forest fire could occur just ten seconds later, but the trees were completely unharmed. Everything that grows in this forest is part of the body of the active volcano.

The trees are a blessing for us. If the volcano was a rocky mountain, it would have been much harder to avoid the sniper’s attacks. It’s thanks to the trees that we’re able to talk at the foot of the mountain, since they blocked the view.