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Chapter 234 Part 1

I logged in.
The time was 6:10 am.

《You have received two pieces of information from the GMs. Do you wish to read them?》

More info from the admins?
Well, I already knew what one of the news was going to be.
But what was the other piece of news going to be about?

《Update: As of yesterday, the database has been updated!》

That much I was expecting…
Well, I could leave checking that out for later.

《Update regarding the database: The number of players that own a skill at each level has been added!》

Hey, hey.
Doesn’t that mean a lot more data to go through?

「Good morning!」

「We’ve already prepared breakfast, you know?」

Bunraku.
Looks like your opportunity to shine has been taken away from you.

Well, I was the last one to log out from among all of us, after all.
So I suppose being the last one to log in would be quite justified too.
I wasn’t l-late okay!

「I wanted to start by verifying our plan for today…」

｢Oh? What kind of plan do you have in mind?｣

「So only I’ve logged out at the S5 Area Portal, the Temple of Dust.」

「So that means that the rest of us will fly off to the S3 Area Portal, the Grey Forest, if we were to use Return Home?」

「Yes.」

But before proceeding with the plan, I had to check how everyone was doing.
I knew that everybody present had Spacetime Magic.
Mine was at Level 14, which was a bit out of place…
But Adele and Irina were at Level 7, meaning they could use Instant Portal.
Hyodor’s Spacetime Magic skill was at Level 3.
Haruna and Konohana were both at Spacetime Magic Level 5, which meant they couldn’t use Instant Portal yet.

But… What if we were to get everyone in a party of six people to log out at different Area Portals or Relay Portals?
If there were two players in the party capable of using Instant Portal, the whole party could use Return Home to teleport to any one of the six locations.
No, I suppose the strategy would work even if the person casting Instant Portal and Return Home were the same person, essentially bringing the number of people required to one.
The line of thinking seemed solid.

But there was a problem.
There was a possibility of everything breaking down if one player in the party were to die.
It was definitely a risky strategy.

Well, figuring out if it worked would come first.

After finishing my meal, I got up to quickly get moving.
From where we were, it would take less than 5 minutes to walk to the closest Area Portal, the Temple of Dust.
A new sight was seen that day, having six Summoners without any Summon monsters in one party!
It was a very rare sight.
Besides us, I doubt there would be any players strange enough to think of something like this.

So, who was going to take the lead in the front?
Was it… me?
Of course huh…

It was just a 5-minute walk, but it still didn’t seem that sweet to me.
We were all constantly using spells to strengthen each other.
From using Call Monster, I also knew how the situation was around us looked like. At least when it came to monster populations.
I still wanted to be wary of Killer Scorpion ambushes though.

It was just a law of nature. Things go bad exactly when you don’t want them to go bad.
I wonder how that law applied to our situation…

Serket’s Servant Lv.5
Monster　Enemy Target　Active
Battle Position: Ground　Fire Attribute　Wind Attribute

Serket’s Underling Lv.4
Monster　Enemy Target　Active
Combat Position: Ground　Wind Attribute

Serket’s Underling Lv.4
Monster　Enemy Target　Active
Battle Position: Ground　Fire Attribute

It was the group of monsters that attacked us the night before.
But this time, there were a lot less of them.
There was one Serket’s Servant.
There were two types of Serket’s Underlings, and three of each, making for a total of 6.

In total, I only had to fight 7 of them.
Customers?
Yep, I had to treat them like well-esteemed customers.

Their armor seemed quite rigid, and I noticed that they were just the perfect size to try out my choke techniques on.
That was definitely going to be a lot easier than swinging around my sword.
Well three of those Serket’s Underlings were immediately taken out by Adele, Irina, and Hyodor though. Their arrows flew at them, and the deed was done.

I was the only one fighting in the front, but it still looked like I was going to be just fine.
Although thinking about it in terms of party balance, there was definitely still quite a problem there.

「Wait, what? We suddenly won.」

「Well, there weren’t many of them, after all.」

「Have you always been fighting like this Keith?」

「Yep, yep.」

「Well, it was the same fighting style that won him the tournament, so I think we’ll be okay.」

Adele and Irina answered Hyodor’s question on my behalf.
Yeah…
They weren’t wrong.
They weren’t wrong, but it wasn’t like I was always fighting like that, you know?
Just remember the Mammoths.
Or the Spinks and Sphinx…?
It’s not like throws and joint locks would work on such big enemies!

I tried collecting item drops from the monsters, and they dropped poison antidotes.
To be precise, they dropped Strange Stones.
Three of them, to be exact.
It was a subtle haul, but at least I managed to get myself some good items.

We arrived at the Temple of Dust.
The memory of that fierce battle was still fresh in my mind, but at some point, the desert landscape had completely disappeared.
The ground was now paved with stone.
Hey!
Wasn’t the name “Temple of Dust” just a big misnomer then?
Well, there was a lot of sand around the temple.

「Well then, I’m going to log out for a bit.」

「See you later~」

After quickly setting up a tent in the Area Portal, Irina jumped in and logged out for a moment.
She came back out of the tent in about 3 minutes.

「Sorry for the wait.」

「It’s time for the second stage, yeah?」

「Yep. We’re going to get out of the Area Portal and use Return Home now…」

I added Irina back into our party, and we stepped out of the Area Portal together.
After that, Konohana cast Return Home.

The surrounding scenery changed in a moment.
Where did we fly to?
We were suddenly in the middle of a forest.
Looking into the distance, I could see the landscape, along with all the trees change into a shade of grey.

「Well, everything is going according to plan so far, I suppose.」

「Yep, no surprises yet…」

「Alright, guess it’s my turn to use Return Home.」

This time, Irina was the one who started casting Return Home.
In a moment, the scenery around us changed again.
How did it go?

In front of my eyes, the Temple of Dust reappeared.
Huh…
It certainly was quite an amazing feat.

There was a problem though… Did that mean we would have to refrain from logging out at any different Area Portals?
I mean, it was a problem that could be solved by always using Instant Portal…
It seemed worth the convenience of easily switching back and forth between Area Portals dotting the whole map.

「Alright, I suppose it’s my turn now.」

We had to be thorough in verifying everything.
It was Haruna’s turn to test the idea.
She took a moment to log out at the Temple of Dust.
She came back in no time.

After stepping out of the Area Portal, Hyodor used Return Home, sending all of us back to the Grey Forest.
In the Grey Forest. Haruna used Return Home again, sending us all back to the Temple of Dust.

Wow…
The idea seemed crazy at first, but it was starting to sound more and more solid.

「It went just as planned, yes?」

「Irina! It looks like this will really work!」

「I had an idea of how it was going to work in my mind, but experiencing it myself is still quite the shock.」

「Is it going to be absolutely necessary for at least one person in the party to have Instant Portal though?」

「I suppose if it’s just for one way trip there wouldn’t be any issues?」

「Just think about it! Even with just Return Home you could coordinate with many other players to create a vast network of spawn points!」