ShangriLa Frontier Chapter 659: Removing Cats From the Ventilation Shafts Part 1
「Ah!? Are you perhaps Tsuchinoko-san!? THE Tsuchinoko-san!?」
「Hmm? Umm…… I do not believe that we have met one another before, haven’t we?」
「Are you perhaps going to challenge the contents of those Crystal Nest Cliffs right now!? Would it be quite alright with you if we were to accompany you in your endeavor!?」
「Umm…… Sure? As long as you do not disturb me and don’t get in my way, that is?」
「Ahh…… We have a Tank amongst our ranks, and another Tank, Magic Warrior, a Healer and……」
「Hm? Something’s wrong?」
「Let’s pretend that there is a tree branch right here. A really long and a really sturdy branch of a tree that just happened to fall from the rest of the tree, and it lies just right here in this place, precisely in our way. And right next to it there is another, exactly the same tree branch.」
「Huh?」
「Alright, here’s the problem for you to solve: you see two huge dump trucks speeding their way towards those branches. What do you think is going to happen?」
「Umm…… The trucks are going to break because of the branches?」
「I mean isn’t obvious that the branches are going to be crushed flat by the trucks?」
「Honestly either one of those answers is correct in this particular scenario. Now then, let’s change some variables here, shall we? What do you think would happen in the same situation, but you subtract the “tree braches” for “rear guard” and the “dump trucks” with “Tanks”?」
「Umm…… I don’t really know……」
「It’s a problem of what you are going to do before the initial set up, and I tell you that Tanks will do you no good in there. Heck, even if both Heaven and the Earth swapped places somehow, the Tanks would still do you no good in there no matter what.」
「…… But, but Tsuchinoko-san, you yourself look quite durable to me, so you were going to capture that place normally by some method, correct?」
「Listen, the name of the game in this place is avoidance. Avoidance of the threat that you are going to encounter for sure. And this area is actually perfect for making various aerial jumps and juggling the aggro of the monsters that dwell there. So having that in mind, the two most important stats to have here would be Agility first and Dexterity second. If you are really intending on challenging it…… I think you would require to have either ninjas or some means that would allow your warriors to be ejected into the air.」
「Huh, yes……?」
「Incidentally, does your Magic Caster knows the “Fly” spell, by any chance?」
「Wait, so there is a genuine flying magic in this game after all?」
「Well, it’s not like I know about this myself or that I have a spell like that, but I heard from the reliable source that indeed, there is such a spell in this game. So let me put that in a different way: what are you guys intend to do in case that you are going to get attacked?」
「Ehh, hmm, umm…… S-Somehow, I think that you are trying to make that place seem like way greater of a deal than it really is. Then according to your words just now, wouldn’t all that make this place all but impossible to clear while playing solo?」
「Ahh…… I see. I get it now. That’s the misunderstanding right there. Because you seem to think that I have managed to clear out that place before? Well, that’s not it, I’m afraid. For you see, I have always been killed over and over again, without exception.」
「Huh? What do you mean?」
「Those guys that inhabit that place? Because their strategy is to literally swarm you like a wave of crystal mass, this is more than enough to send your body flying over the cliff and all the way down to the bottom of it. But you know the best part here? It’s that those guys can also send all of the mined ore down to the bottom of the cliff as well, so you don’t actually need to come back in here to collect all the materials that you would need to pick up.」
「And that means, in other words……?」
「You avoid the crystal wave, sprint back in to mine some more, pick up as many as you can before you get sent flying to your death…… And later you just die, go collect the materials, come back there, mine some more ore, get sent flying again…… Rinse and repeat of the whole process, basically.」
「……………」
* * *
I personally like to think that by discouraging those four from going to the Crystal Nest Cliffs I did them a favor, kind of like saving four unsuspecting fools from becoming victims of the monster waiting there. Going there with Tanks really is an impossible of a task, so even people like Josett would be nothing more but a scorpion food in a place like that. The way in which those scorpions rush at you in a massive crystal wave should be heralded as a natural enemy of all tanks out there, and I certainly do not have time or willingness to explain to others in greater detail whatever it is that they should be doing. But as long as they keep on growing strong, acquiring new skills and magic, once they will perhaps go back from their very first excursion to the New World, they might be able to take this challenge head on and at least have SOME sliver of a chance of survival.
Well, it’s not like I’m all that adept at killing those scorpions here, at least not in a “normal” way. But if I see one of those guys getting exhausted and ready to be killed, you can bet your ass that this is exactly what I am going to do…… But I guess that this time around is going to be somewhat troublesome as well.
「Alright then Sigma. Do you have any idea as to why we have come here instead of staying inside of the Behemoth?」
「Unknown: The reason as to why it is better for us to be in here than gaining clues about the Orchestra capture eludes me.」
「No, you see, that does not matter right now. Orchestra is important, sure, but you know what takes priority over it? Extraordinary Monster that can be found in this area.」
Since Orchestra is not going to up and vanish on us, as we could have seen after Mirei-san defeated it, its priority is not all that high on my list at the current moment.
「Now then, I shall tell you the detail of our operation in here: it is to collect the information about “Golden Age” and defeat it if possible! …… An that’s about it!」
「…………」
「Don’t look so down, come on! You are a vital part of this entire operation , so act like it!」
At the same time, we started our assault.
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After ten seconds or so.
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