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Chapter 102: When In Trouble, Quereble

After returning to Foret Noir, we decided to hold a review meeting first.

The main opinion raised was the overall lack of firepower. I never thought that our party would have to withdraw due to a lack of firepower.

Even so, the problem was that barrier. It was obvious that if we didn’t produce enough firepower to break through that, the situation would gradually become worse. As I was thinking that it is essential to increase everyone’s firepower somehow, Shinku made another suggestion.

「Can’t we learn that magic barrier too?」

As expected of Shinku, she doesn’t get too fixated on one thing.

If not only the demons but also monsters like the Arch Chimera can use it, there’s no reason why we can’t learn it. Right then, I suddenly remembered something.

「Didn’t Quereble say something when Drake passed the Trial of Ice?」

「Ah… He said, “That ice wall is as hard as my magic barrier”!」Drake.

「That’s right! That means Quereble can use a barrier similar to that!」

「Nn. Let’s ask him to teach us.」

After coming to this dungeon, Quereble had a fulfilling life such as training Mare and Cherry, going in and out of the dwarf workshop to give advice, and having small talk with Yaou in the Plainvelt dungeon. He seems to be having a pretty good time.

「Then let’s have Quereble come here too.」

As I conveyed the message to Quereble via telepathy, he immediately came to the core room.

「Weren’t you guys supposed to only come back after a month after clearing the dungeon?」

「Truth is, the boss of the dungeon was a tougher opponent than we thought. It seemed difficult to clear it safely, so we decided to return for the time being.」

「Fo fo fo… A monster that even you guys are struggling with. How interesting.」

「To give you a rough explanation, it was a variant of Chimera called “Arch Chimera”. It seemed to be a high S rank or even higher. The most troublesome thing was that it had mastered barrier magic, so we couldn’t land that many telling blows on it.」

「Hou? A monster that can use barriers… That’s quite a tough enemy, isn’t it? So, did you call me to learn how to break through that barrier?」

「That’s also a part of it, but the most important thing is that we also want to be able to use barriers. Please teach us how to do that.」

「Alright. It will take some time, but you guys should be able to learn it. But you need mana to train. So get a good rest today and let’s start tomorrow.」

「Thank you! I mean, is there even an effective way to break through barriers?」

「There are many ways to do it, but all of them are very difficult. With you guys’ current strength, there is no other way but to destroy it by circulating mana through your weapons. But to put it the other way around, once you master barriers, enemies who don’t have a weapon that can circulate mana through them will be no different than other small flies. Whether or not you’ve mastered this skill will open up the limits of your abilities to the sky.」

According to the explanation we heard from Quereble after that, the attack methods that can be used at present against the Arch Chimera that uses barrier are adding attributes to the weapon, attacking with high firepower, and adding attributes and effects to magic like Drake’s Breath. It’s basically a brute-force attack that can capitalize on the opening created when the barrier is destroyed.

It seems that once we become proficient in manipulating mana, we will be able to use methods that obstruct the flow of mana that builds this barrier. But this is apparently quite difficult, and can take up to a few months to master it. We probably shouldn’t consider this method at the moment.

According to Quereble, 2000 years ago, this technique could be used by both humans and demi-humans, and there were even rare geniuses who could master it within a few weeks. It sounds like Kinu might be able to do it, but that might put too much strain on her. Though, Kinu herself seemed fired up to master it…

For the time being, we set the goal of being able to put up barriers on ourselves as well, and prepared for the training which begins tomorrow onwards.

However, I noticed that we didn’t have a training center.

Therefore, I simply remodeled the first floor of Foret Noir, which was currently unused, and turned it into a plain area to create a simple training center. After that, I asked Ars to help me build a facility where we could rest, a kitchen, a toilet, a bath, and to have several elf maids from Alraine’s clan house come as support personnel.

The elves had been helping with Alraine’s reconstruction work, but almost all of them wanted this role, so it seems that a rotational shift was decided.

Now then, the preparations are complete. Considering the period of leveling up and the time to defeat the Arch Chimera, the special training period is constrained to only about a month.

However, with the best teacher, the best training environment, and the clear goal of breaking through the Arch Chimera, my motivation for the special training was at its peak.

Besides, I was really excited to learn a new technique, a magic barrier.

Ahh! ! Tomorrow can’t come soon enough!!