Chapter 279 Part 1
The time is 1:40 PM.
The venue for matches at the New Training Grounds has undergone a change.
The eight-field arena became four fields.
Rocks were piled up in the leftover space by Clay Golems.
They’re temporary spectator seats.
And there are eight players across the four fields.
All of them take off their helmets and respond to the cheers of the audience.
Among the eight players who had survived the fifth round, I saw some acquaintances as well.
Shinonome the Stonemason, a high-tier stonecutter.
Joji the Skipper.
Shelvie, who had become a Fencer.
Lydia, who has become an Elemental Sorcerer『Light』.
It’s amazing I don’t even have to【Identify】4 out of 8 of them to know who they are!
Of the remaining four, three haven’t changed classes.
A dwarf fighter with an axe, a sorcerer with a staff, and a hunter with a bow and arrow.
And the last one is a Saber.
He’s carrying a sword on his back.
Based on the blade, it’s an Odachi. [1.TN Note: an extra long japanese sword]
「Giedre is on Shinonome’s team, right?」
「We’re both dwarves and hammer users. And we’re production workers. Of course I am」
Fiona was calling out to Giedre who’s in a seat behind me.
To his sides are Kaya, Yosaku and Hannes.
Other production job players were also gathering.
Before I knew it, I was in this corner.
Well I guess this is the natural result of sitting in the direct center of the spectator seating.
Next to Margrit-san, Adele and Irina appeared at some point.
Along with a bunch of summoned monsters.
What kind of zoo is this!?
There are two production workers who survived to the top 8.
As expected, there’s a lot of cheering around me for those two.
But there seems to be an exception.
There were cheers for Lydia, who showed up on the playing field in front of me.
「Keith, you have a history with that player, don’t you?」
「But this time at least there’s not gonna be an incident or anything right?」
Margrit and Fina are both pranksters!
I feel meaningful gazes on me.
I’m gonna go with ‘no comment’ here.
I can’t risk stepping on a mine.
Lydia’s opponent is the Saber.
Lydia’s weapon is the bow and arrow, same as when she fought me.
Of course, if she can keep fighting at the bow and arrow’s range, her victory is assured.
The opponent knows this, of course.
They’ll try to close the distance.
The strategizing has already begun before the match starts.
That’s because you can recombine your skill set.
Half the match may be decided before it even starts.
It’s not quite ringside, but there seem to be some players cheering near the field.
Among those players are some familiar faces.
Gavi, was it?
It seems that not only Lydia, but all of her party members have already changed classes.
The same goes for the group of five cheering on the opponent, Saber.
I can feel their enthusiasm from here.
「You know, all of her equipment is made by us」
「Really?」
「Yeah. She’s a faithful customer」
Oh.
Certainly the Wind Spirit Village has everything you could need.
「Her opponent seems to be reasonably well equipped too」
「Of course. He’s one of our repeat customers」
「Ara, really?」
He’s a customer of Giedre, huh?
But the one who forged that sword doesn’t seem to be Giedre himself.
When it comes to production workers, I guess they have a lot of connections.
They seem to be well versed in many things.
Oops.
The game has already started!
The Saber’s tactics were quite interesting.
He has Earth Magic set.
Using Stone Wall over and over he carefully closes the distance.
What about Lydia’s moves?
There aren’t any stand out ones.
She shoots arrows to keep him in check, but she’s probably just waiting to see what happens.
More than that, the fight after the distance was closed was excellent.
Why did the Saber lose?
He carefully approached from afar while on guard for attacks, which may have conversely been to his disadvantage.
No, in this case, I would say that it was Lydia who made a fitting choice.
She used Illusion to create an illusion of herself.
During that, she vanished with Invisible Blind and came around behind him.
Then, a point blank Pulse Laser Burst.
She continued to pound a series of archery Martial Arts into him to keep the distance.
And then once again, Invisible Blind.
The repetition of those moves left him stuck.
「He’s stuck, huh」
「It was a different player, but the one I lost to was also a light magic user」
「It’s certainly a useful class」
Everyone has their own opinion.
Wait, Yosaku’s been dazzled by light magic too?!
But still.
The match was definitely one-sided, but I think the Saber did have a proper chance of victory.
That’s easy to say from where I’m sitting but.
The time to erect the stone walls was distributed evenly to Lydia too.
That was unnecessary.
What if he had closed the distance quickly, prepared to take some damage?
Illusion might have been unavoidable, but she probably wouldn’t have been able to use Invisible Blind.
Well, in the end it was a horrible defeat and that can’t be helped.
The sixth round, the quarterfinals, is over, and the top eight has been narrowed down to the top four.
As for Joji?
Defeat, believe it or not.
His opponent was a dwarf fighter.
What about the throwing net?
According to Saki, he properly used the throwing net and caught his opponent.
But he himself got dragged around and was hit with a number of axe attacks from close range.
That’s not good.
What about Shinonome?
He defeated a bow wielding hunter with brute force.
And Shelvie?
She was defeated.
The match went all the way to the time limit, so I was watching that game too.
A staff-wielding sorcerer didn’t only make use of multiple magic skills, but also fought skilledly to keep a distance.
To put it frankly they ran away but.
I think that’s a reasonable thing to do.
Shelvie is a Fencer, in other words, a tank.
And she’s heavily equipped.
That’s probably one of the reasons why the match went on so long.
To be honest, if even one of Shelvie’s attacks had hit the target, the outcome would have been the opposite.
In fact, even from what I saw, there were some dangerous moments.
Anyway, the top four are decided, huh.
The semifinals of the beginner league will apparently be held here too.
Putting those matches aside, the predictions for the intermediate league winner are heating up around me.
Who’s going to win?
It’s a little hard to predict.
I feel like the advantages and disadvantages vary depending on opponent.
「There are two dwarves left in the tournament. I’d like to see one of them win」
「It looks like those two will face off in the semifinals」
Will Giedre’s hopes be fulfilled?
There’s no doubt that a dwarf will be left in the finals.
He makes a complicated face at Kaya’s point.
That means the other semifinal will be between Lydia and the wand-carrying Sorcerer.
It seems that the finals will be between two contrasting opponents.
「Who would you predict as the winner, Keith?」
「To be honest, I don’t know. If I had to guess, I’d say Shinonome」
I mean, everyone around me is for Shinonome.
How do you expect me to go against them here?
No.
I do actually have my reasons.
They’re just gonna simply hit each other.
Hammer versus axe.
Both dwarves.
If they’ve gone all out on one point, the level difference will come into play.
The rest is up to the difference between weapons and the armor.
Both are in metal armor.
Between the hammer and the axe, I’d think the hammer has the advantage.
The semifinals of the intermediate level have begun.
The matchup between the dwarves was a fierce battering contest from start to finish.
To my surprise, they both changed equipment for the battle.
They brought shields.
And that choice drew out the duration of the match.
At the same time, it seemed to be giving Shinonome the upper hand.
「Shinonome removed【Heavy Hammer】, did he」
「It looks like he chose to take【Heavy Shield】instead」
Yes.
The difference in shields is working subtly.
If they both resolved themselves to get hit as power fighters, taking a shield was reasonable.
That decision was made by his opponent as well.
But.
There was a big difference in their equipment.
The opponent’s shield isn’t that bad or anything but.
The shield that Shinonome has seems to be bigger and tougher.
Not to mention that the shields themselves have now become bludgeoning weapons for both parties.
At the end of the match, both of their helmets were half blown off.
It was just that fierce a battle.
Shinonome was judged the victor and advanced to the finals.
「So, who’s his opponent for the final?」
「It’s Lydia!」
Reina seemed to have been watching Lydia’s match.
It seems like right after the start she unleashed a barrage of bow martial arts skills to crush her opponent.
What kind of choice will she make against Shinonome, a dwarf?
And Shinonome too, against a bow holder and Light Magic wielder what strategy will he take?
The final match has already begun.
They’re reading each other’s cards already.
「So, Fiona. What do you see after the final?」
「I imagine there’ll be an event」
「I agree with you there, but what do you think’ll happen?」
「Whatever it is, I’m excited to find out」
Giedre and Kaya seem interested in more than just the fighting tournament.
Last time a Majin appeared during the awards.
It’s quite possible that something could happen this time too.
It seems that Fiona is thinking about how to respond to that event as soon as possible.
「And the reason we finished up our trade with you guys so early was in anticipation of an event」
「Do you want trouble?」
「I want events, not trouble」
「Aren’t those the same thing to you?」
I thought they would start arguing between rows but.
The beginner league finals began.
That’s right, you have to watch the game, don’t you?
This matchup was between a sword- and a spear-bearing fighter.
The highlight?
The battle of wits.
Both fighters are looking to eliminate the other’s advantages.
At the same time, they’re trying to cover their own shortcomings.
They seem to have a good number of skills.
And their armor looks fairly nice.
It’s pretty hard to come up with a decision.
Their spells were mainly support, and there were barely any offensive spells.
Without attack spells, the effect is kind of plain.
It’s plain, but.
For me, it’s fun.
That’s because the spearman’s movements are particularly nice.
While trying to take advantage of the spear’s strong point, it’s long range, he read and responded to the movements of the sword fighter.
The spear wielder’s level is 4.
The sword wielder’s level is 6.
He outskills his enemy, and while he does get close, he has good timing to slip out of the sword’s range.
Not completely of course, but.
Why did the sword wielder lose?
He was relying on his martial arts skills.
No, I don’t think relying on them is a problem.
All that I can say is that the spear fighter was skilled at handling those attacks.
In fact, the sword wielder put up a pretty good fight to last until they had both used up their martial arts skills.
In the end, the spear fighter was judged the winner.
I heard that the awards are going to happen all together after the intermediate finals.
There’s no movement from the guild leader on the dais.
Huh?
Master’s not there.
And at some point Juna disappeared too.
The guests still seem to be there, though.
Where did they go?
NEXT CHAPTER
RELEASE RATE
Summoner is Going
Speed up schedule by 10 hours
Current schedule: Every 80 Hours
Thanks.