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Volume 7 Chapter 9 Part 1

Translator: Kell

“They’re coming!” I shouted. “Watch out!”

I leapt back. Immediately afterwards──a pond of lava appeared in the place where I was until just now. From it, monsters jumped out one after another.

What appeared were ordinary animal-type monsters such as boars, wolves, and deer. Individually, they’re not that strong. They’re probably the strongest among the normal monsters you’ll see in Count Meigis’ territory, but compared to Area Bosses and the like, they’re pretty weak.

Area Bosses stronger than these bunch are common back at the Count’s place, so my troops should be able to take down around five of them even without me. However, the monsters were numbering over thirty now, and more still sprang out of the pool one after another.

In battle, numbers is power. If even only one of ten reach the target, they will be injured. If you’re injured, your movement will become sluggish, and it will be harder to counter the next attack. Eventually you get more and more injuries, and in the end, you’re a goner.

Being crushed by numbers like this is one way adventurers lose their lives. Human armies would hesitate to charge into an opponent they can’t defeat, but in the case of the monsters from the volcano, they rushed onward, no matter who the enemy was, without even caring about their own lives. They were no longer living beings at this point, but rather more like disposable cannon shells.

This lava pool that mass-produces monsters is the first stage of the defensive measure of the volcano. And it’s a necessary step for the creation of the Sanctuary.

What makes this volcano so annoying is the hostiles’ incredible fire resistance. All of the monsters here in the forest can handle extremely high temperatures, as you would expect, since they can withstand lava itself. There’s no flame magic that’s powerful enough to melt rocks, so high heat is practically ineffective. There’s an exception, though. With the Awakening System, there are other ways to produce higher temperatures, but with that much power, it’s far more efficient to use other types of magic instead.

Among the many types of offensive magic, the most powerful attribute is undoubtedly fire. Fire magic has much higher power and magical efficiency than other attributes, although it has a few drawbacks, like friendly fire, or causing a wildfire. This is also the reason why I only use fire-based attack magic.

Flame Circle, in particular, has a wide range, high power, and moderate mana cost, making it a favorite in group combat. It’s also possible to use it continuously, which is a big advantage over Steam Explosion. Not being able to use it is a huge pain against all these monsters.

You’d expect fire-type monsters to be weak against water-type or ice-type spells, but these monsters barely have any weakness. Ice magic, especially, is not that effective, and can only deal similar damage to physical attacks. It’s easy to take the monsters down individually, but when there are hundreds of them, it can prove troublesome.

“Fire magic doesn’t work!” I said. “Use any other type of magic! You can use half of your arrows!”

I looked for a spot where the monsters were tightly packed. After finding one, I shot a spell right in the middle of them.

“Ice pillar.”

They’re not weak against the spell, but I had no other choice, since I got nothing that’s better. Now I could knock them all away with a shock wave from Steam Explosion, but the loud bang will definitely draw the attention of the enemies at the mountaintop.

If we’re just cutting down trees and fighting monsters, we can choose any other location so we don’t get noticed. Unfortunately, there is no way to hide the explosion of that spell. That’s why I only want to use it after the enemy had noticed us.

Sooner or later, they’re going to find out anyway. We want to be as prepared as possible for the Sanctuary creation before then.

“Power Slash!”

“Piercing Arrow!”

My comrades also used their Skills one after another to kill the monsters. Since using fire magic is useless, taking them down with a wide AoE attack is difficult. Thankfully, Count Meigis’ army are trained in anti-monster combat.

The ones selected for this expedition are a handful of the elite in the Count Meigis army. Sure there are a lot of enemies, but they’re not that high-leveled. They shouldn’t have that much trouble. Using anti-group combat techniques, we took down monsters one after another.

While in the middle of the fight, one of the squad member, A Spirit Swordsman named Michael, shouted. “Yulia, watch out!”

“Right!”

Yulia, also one of our members, jumped to the right, and a hole opened up where she just was. I couldn’t see what made the hole on the ground. It was just that fast.

“So they finally noticed us, huh?”

The only magic spell that can do that without any sort of warning is the Ether Canon. The enemy Mage had noticed our presence and attacked us.

I already expected them to notice us around this time. Even if they couldn’t see us, trees falling left and right would’ve drawn their attention, so it would be no surprise if they became aware of our presence from the top of the mountain.

We were expecting the enemy to notice us while in the middle of the battle. So we left just enough trees standing to block the sniper’s vision, even as we proceeded onward.

The enemy probably doesn’t know exactly where we are. But if they know our rough location, they can fire magic at random. If they keep firing one shot every ten seconds for an hour, that’s 360 shots total. There’s twenty of us, so there’s a good chance that some of the squad members will get hit.

Ether Canon is a spell that can kill instantaneously upon hit, so we have to dodge it at all costs. If a crucial members gets killed, it could cause our whole squad to fall apart. And in comes Michael, a Spirit Swordsman whose role is to counter the sniper.

A Spirit Swordsman has a Skill called Spirit Clairvoyance. While the name suggests it can predict anything that will happen in the future, its range is actually very limited. In fact, it’s practically useless most of the time.

Spirit Clairvoyance predicts the point of impact of spells, arrows, and other attacks. It might sound like a very handy Skill, but it’s only useful after a spell is cast. And there lies the problem.

In normal combat, you can immediately tell where a spell like Fire Bomb will hit just by looking at it. For Steam Explosion and Deadly Pain, by the time you see the point of impact, the spells are already exhibiting their effects.

In short, by the time the spells have taken effect, it’s too late. It’s faster to just use your eyes. The Skill is just a waste of mana. That’s how Spirit Clairvoyance is seen in normal combat.

But, in cases where you can’t see the attack, or it takes time for a spell to hit after it’s cast, then Spirit Clairvoyance comes in handy. Exactly like the situation we’re in right now. A bullet that’s too fast for the eye to follow, flying through a distance, taking several seconds before it hits.

“Sir Eld! On you!”

“Roger that.”