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Chapter 210 – Part 1

Translation: Charlotte
Editor: Weasalopes

I logged in.
Tet time was about 5:20 AM.
When I left my tent and looked around, many players were already busy moving about.
Yep. The crisis we were in did demand a lot of manpower.
But it was nice to see so many people active from so early in the morning.

Where were Fiona and the others?
After looking around for a bit, I spotted them.
They were sitting around a table, chatting about something.
I was expecting to see Mio and Reina around the table, but I was surprised to see Hannes, Shinonome, Fay, and Mitsurugi too.
It didn’t look like they were getting together for just a meal either.

「Good morning, Keith. You got back quite late yesterday?」

「Or rather, you were up quite late.」

「We’re still having breakfast!」

Behind Mio was Adele.
Irina, of course, was next to her.
They didn’t seem to have eaten yet and had bowls of food in their hands.

「Ah, we should probably get another bowl for Keith.」

「I’ll take care of it!」

「I’ll help out!」

Adele and Irina swapped seats with Mio and Reina.
I sat down next to Irina on the table to wait for breakfast.

「Keith, about our organization…」

「Organization?」

「Yep. I’m thinking of combining parties together using Unions to form separate divisions, but I want you to act on your own.」

「Act on my own…?」

Come to think of it, I did feel like something was off about the move from the day before.
My mobility in the field.
My mobility was my strongest weapon.

「None of our horses are fast enough to match you, Keith. I think you are much more suited to being a scout helping with reconnaissance rather than marching together with everyone else.」

Fiona turned her gaze to Adele and Irina.

「So that’s what you were going to say!」

「We’re going to be scouts too, I suppose.」

「So basically, since we’re just moving slowly and intercepting any monster ambushes on the way, I figured you don’t really have to follow us around.」

「Huh… Well, if that’s all right…」

Yeah. Her suggestion made sense.
I wouldn’t mind getting to take it easy for a while either.
If I could have Adele and Irina with me, fighting monsters back-to-back wouldn’t be so difficult too.

「But honestly, I wish we had more Summoners.」

「We won’t get any stronger just waiting around.」

Shinonome’s words were very heavy.
It seemed like all the other Summoners in the west were either in the Wind Spirit Village or in the Spring of Mist.
Or at an Area Portal in another map zone.

How large was the participating force?
There were more than 150 parties at the Relay Portal we were in.
About 90 parties would sortie from the Wind Spirit Village.
The people in N1W2 map zone are about 30 parties.
The parties at the Spring of Mist were surrounded by monsters and immobilized.
In total, it was going to be a raid involving more than 1500 players.
What a massive scale…

Still, it’s low considering the total players in the game.
Personal choice was a thing.

What did the itinerary look like?
At exactly noon, approaching from the south of the Wind Spirit Village, all players who could would set up Instant Portals.
Having a bit of a temporary forward base, it would let all the players have lunch and log out for a bit before getting into the real fight.

「It’s troublesome if you have to chase them.」

「It’s fine. The next day we’ll travel to the Spring of Mist and scatter the monsters there.」

Shinonome’s opinion is simple and clear.
I’m convinced.
Well, for me too, it’s plain and simple.
In terms of mobility, I’m comparable to a centaur.
You just need to find the monster and hunt it.
I don’t think I’ll have time to strip off the items, though.

The time was close to 7 AM.
Participating parties were gathered in front of the entrance to the cave and began to move out.
Spectacular.
It’s a small army.
In the lead was a party of select Production Job Players, Fay, Hannes, Yosaku and Mio, Riena and Fiona-san.
The rearguard was a hybrid team of dwarves and elves led by Shinonome.
Each Union consisted of five parties.
Hmm.
It was well-organized for something thrown together on short notice.
Well, it seems the players in the beta had similar experiences.

「We’ll get going then, I suppose.」

『Alright!』

『Understood.』

I left together with Adele and Irina.
I started by using 【Magnetic Compass】.
And the wide area map is also a little small and always displayed in a virtual window.

We are a Ranger unit.
It seems that you can act freely.
There are many things I want to do.

Grasp the power of demons.
Along with that, the distribution of forces.
If possible, the presence or absence of a base.
And confirmation of the existence of the Majin.

The possibility that a Majin is involved should be considered.
There was testimony that it was actually seen.
What if you have a commander in charge?
Of course, there is a possibility that the Majin is doing it.
If we can take down the commander, we can finish it.
Reconnaissance?
I never intended to be satisfied with just reconnaissance.

Any way about it, harrying them is good, yes.

What about my Summon Monster team?
I had Volff, Zangetsu, Helix, Obsidian, and Heather.
My team was built to focus entirely on mobility and reconnaissance.
The weapon in my hand was a Capture Rod of Torture.

Adele’s Summon Monster team was prioritizing movement too.
She had a White Horse, a White Wolf, a Golden Fox, and a Hawk.
It was nice to see most of Adele’s team consist of Class Change Summon Monsters too.

What about Irina?
Her team consisted of a Battle Horse, a Hawk, a Wolf, and a Fairy.
The only Class Change Summon Monster on her team was Rote Kaiser, her Battle Horse, but each Summon Monster was at a high level.
Hawkeye the Hawk and Muret the Fairy were moments away from their Class Changes too.
Irina’s team was no weaker than Adele’s.
She would do just fine.

Both Adele and Irina were holding bows.
I could leave long-range attacks to them.

Well then.
We headed to the north-west.
It was quite obvious that all the Centaurs were coming from the west.
If we kept going, there was a chance for us to find where they were all being deployed from.

『That’s strange… There aren’t any monsters around.』

『Yeah! It’s actually kind of anticlimactic!』

「Let’s expand our search range.」

Yep. It would put us at risk, but it would be fine.
There weren’t very many monsters around us.
Even after I used 【Call Monster】, I could only find several Enraged Cranes and Float Eyes.
It was very bizarre.
I knew the fields of W2 were usually quite empty, but if I recall correctly, there were always at least a few Raptors here and there.

But after a while, I discovered a terrifying reality
I found the reason behind the lack of all the monsters.
In the distance was, a swarm of Raptors.
As far as I could tell with 【Call Monster】, there were at least 100 of them.
There were probably even more of them that I couldn’t see.
I had no idea how many of them there actually were.
I just knew it was an unbelievably high number.

There was one more issue that came too.

『Keith, do you see that…?』

「Let’s stop approaching them… This is bad.」

There was a Majin that looked like it was leading the swarm of Raptors.
Or at least, it looked like a Majin… The figure was human-like.
The figure was riding a Minor Griffin.
It was a pity that the Majin was too far away for 【Identification】 to work.