Chapter 297 Part 1
Our travel is going well, isn’t it?
Yeah, smooth as silk.
That said, there are some changes.
A new Skill has become available for me so I’ve learned it.
It’s 【Silence resistance】
It required 10 Bonus Points to learn, which is quite the steep cost.
But I want this!
Would it be effective against enemies like Exorcising Priests or Exorcising Gurus?
That’s what I think.
There’s more.
Our Summoned Monster formation has also changed.
We have slightly less Wolves and Hawks on us.
The MP bars of the Support-oriented Summoned Monsters like Mermaids and Fairies have also decreased drastically, and are on the verge of depletion.
As a result, we’ve replaced the former for Owl-type Summoned Monsters.
And there are now more Fox-types filling the Support role.
The two Orthros we had on us are in good health, and a third one has been added to our formation as well.
We used to have only 1 Werewolf in our original formation, but now there are two.
Several other Summoned Monsters have undergone their Class Change.
More than half of our Wolves and Hawks have Class Changed.
We can safely say that our overall military strength has increased significantly.
However, I cannot be too optimistic.
Each of us players’ MP bars are a problem.
We’re trying to recover them with Mana Potions while moving, but another battle like the one we just had could get dangerous.
Mana Potions also have a cooldown between each use, and it’s not like we have an infinite stock of them either.
I hope the situation doesn’t get too dire.
There are other challenges as well.
For instance, the amount of time each player can remain logged in.
We need to take that into account as well.
The group of players that has to leave at the earliest has until 3 PM today.
We have to consider the possibility of having to cut the battle short so that they can leave on time.
This complicates things.
Last time, Haruna and Konohana were in charge of coordinating these things.
We’ve asked them to take care of this this time around too.
After all, if we don’t know each player’s circumstances, we won’t be able to start a fight at ease.
Still…
This is troubling.
What can we see in the distance?
A Slave Beast – Turtlesnake.
Of course, this is a different one than the one from earlier.
【Identify】 still doesn’t work on the monsters that have gathered around it, but we can probably guess what they are anyway.
What’s circling above it?
A flock of Lesser Gryphons.
There’s clearly a large number of them.
Hmm.
This is a problem!
『What should we do?』
『Taking a detour is gonna eat up our time!』
「Didn’t those guys arrive sooner than expected?」
That’s right.
There are four other Slave Beast – Turtlesnakes.
There are also two Kim Kui Slaves.
What’s more, regarding this group in front of us, we haven’t taken the time to bring the number of monsters around it down.
There may be a lot of them to begin with, but those Lesser Gryphons in the sky are already pretty bad news.
And this isn’t because it’s a large flock.
Their ability to attack us from above means that even a single one of them is troublesome enough already.
And they’ll be even more difficult to deal with if they’re backed up by their own ground forces.
『I’ve spoken with Fiona. She told me that we don’t need to force ourselves into going towards the Silent Bamboo Woods area.』
「Do we have enough of an interception force?」
『In fact, she said she would be grateful if we could chip away at the strength of that group.』
Chip away, huh?
She’d be grateful if we could do that?
Well, if people expect us to do it, there’s not much else for us to do.
Let’s chip away at them.
How shall we do this?
The strategy itself remains unchanged.
We go around the turtle, pull the monsters guarding it away from it, and destroy them one by one.
That’s our only option.
If possible, I’d like to get rid of the Majins this Slave Beast – Turtlesnake probably has sitting on top of its head first.
But in any case, those Lesser Gryphons and their Majin riders are in the way.
In fact, there’s probably going to be some Exorcising Priests among them, so I’d like to do something about them.
「I wonder how many of them are there…」
『There’s an insane number of doggies!』
『There seem to be around twenty Lesser Gryphons.』
『The Svadilfari Slaves and Tri-horned Lizards are probably on the other side of the turtle.』
「The same goes for any Obsidian Beasts, too.」
All I can do is sigh.
I wasn’t expecting something like this!
But I guess we should take a leap of faith and give it a try.
Taking a detour carries the risk of getting ambushed and held by a swarm of monsters.
Can we wipe those guys out?
I guess it can be done if we take the time.
However, I don’t think we will be able to reach the Silent Bamboo Woods in time if we do that.
Well, depending on the outcome of the battle over there, we might be able to deal with these guys.
「Are you here, Hyodor?」
『Y-yeah!』
Hyodor was a little farther away.
We continued our conversation using the whisper feature.
「Can you still use Spirits?」
『Yes. I haven’t used them today yet.』
「Are there any other Elves here apart from you, Hyodor?」
『Unfortunately, no. I wish there were, though.』
There seems to be a certain bitterness in his tone.
Summoner Elves…
From what I’ve heard, those seem to be quite rare.
But I just had to double-check with him.
「I want to do something about those Majins, especially the Exorcising Priests.」
『What about the Wind Spirit Sylph? She can use her power to prevent them from casting spells.』
「Really?」
『The problem is that it has a short duration. I’ve tested it quite a few times while hunting Majins myself.』
「How large is its range?」
『It’s the same range as any AoE offensive Wind Magic spell. I think it can reach quite far ahead.』
「Got it. You’ll probably have a chance to use this in the upcoming battle. Please keep that in mind.」
『Roger that!』
Hmm…
I’ve heard that relying on Spirits decreases the experience points you gain during that battle relative to how much you’ve used them, but we can’t afford to get greedy here.
This is a situation where we might have to use them despite their cost.
「Also make sure to give thorough instructions to your Summoned Monsters! Our main targets are the Majins and their mounts!」
『Yeah!』
『Copy.』
『Understood!』
Now.
How many Majins can we get rid of?
I’m hoping we can get two or three pulls through.
Still, there are many monsters.
However, this also means that our AoE offensive spells will be highly efficient at dealing damage to them.
I won’t be using Boosted Power in this next battle.
I don’t think we’ll be able to defeat this Slave Beast – Turtlesnake in one sitting.
The plan is to have as many of the monsters following it chase after us so we can eliminate them and then retreat.
However, an unexpected report comes.
『Looks like we’ve killed the Majins that were on top of the turtle!』
「What?」
Apparently, this is true.
It seems that one of our AoE spells has actually reached the Slave Beast – Turtlesnake.
There’s no doubt about it.
I’ve just confirmed it.
However, there are still other Majins out there.
The Exorcising Priests riding those Lesser Gryphons.
Several of our Summoners have had their buffs completely dispelled by them already.
None of us seem to have fallen yet, but as long as those things are at large, we won’t be able to remain at ease in this battle.
They’re very troublesome.
I break through the group of monsters.
This time, I re-enter the group of monsters.
Let’s see how many monsters will chase after me?
I would like to reduce the number of their high-mobility monsters as much as possible.
This is beyond what I had expected.
It seems that pretty much all of the Garms are following me.
The Lesser Gryphons and their Majin riders as well.
And there’s a lot of Svadilfari Slaves and their Majin riders too?
Have all the high-mobility monsters in this group of monsters come after me?
That seems to be the case.
They seem to have lost control after their commanding Majins were taken down, don’t they?
「Hyodor! The Spirit!」
『G-got it!』
The Majins are coming.
Those Exorcising Priests are definitely among them.
If only it weren’t for them…
There’s no other monster I hate as much as them.
It’s almost traumatic.
I’ll leave dealing with the Lesser Gryphons to our Bow users, while I take care of those at the back.
My opponents are the Svadilfari Slaves and their Majin riders.
I estimate there’s at least fifty of them in total.
Some of these Majins are Bard-types, but I can’t hear their singing voices.
This is thanks to the ability of Hyodor’s Wind Spirit, Sylph, who is flying above us.
Actually, more than a mere ability, I should call this a Spirit’s Blessing.
I’d like to take down at least these Majins before its effect wears off.
NEXT CHAPTER
RELEASE RATE
Summoner is Going
Speed up schedule by 10 hours
Current schedule: Every 80 Hours
Thanks for the treat.