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The Summoner is Going c242 Part 3

Did the whole S3E1 map really only have annoying monsters in it?
I tried using Call Monster again.
There were a lot of horses but a relatively low number of any other monster.
I guess those monsters would be our consolation prize.

But it was honestly tough to accept that the S3E1 map just wasn’t a good map.
It felt like there had to be more to it.

「You did say that there is a ghost that appears at night?」

『Yep. Although from what the forums say, it doesn’t drop any items and it’s not fun to fight though.』

Haruna’s answer was not what I was hoping for.
Was that really it?
Since we entered the map, we hadn’t seen a single other player.
It was definitely an unpopular map.

Frigate Bird Lv.4
Monster　Enemy Target　Active
Battle Position: Air

Finally, we met a monster I was actually looking forward to fighting.
It was the Frigate Bird.
It looked like a normal black seabird, but it had a very characteristic red throat.
Well, it looked like a seabird, but it still appeared quite far inland.
What was our first encounter like?
Helix was the first to find the monster, but in only a few moments afterwards, I could already spot it flying straight at us.
It was very fast.
It was also quite big.
A flock of about 10 Frigate Birds flew straight at us.
Yep.
It was our first encounter, and we already had to deal with a flock of them.

Wel, we were in a Union of six summoner parties.
But judging just from the number of flying monsters, we were still at a disadvantage.
Starting with Helix, all of our flying Summon Monsters started attacking to keep the Frigate Birds busy, but it made almost no difference.
Some were still able to get through to attack us on the ground.
Since I knew they were coming, I had some time to cast spells though.
The chorus of songs from Nias, the Mermaid, and the Lorelei resounded around us.
That would definitely help, but I wanted to remove the threat all at once.
At the sign I gave the others, we started intercepting the Frigate Birds’ attack.

「Wind Shield!」

『Fire Wall!』

『Wind Shield!』

The spells that me, Adele, and Konohana released simultaneously came out just in time to intercept the Frigate Birds.
Of course, we aimed the spells so that the walls would end up next to one another, not on top of one another.
It made the spells less efficient, but we wanted to cover the largest area possible.

『Light Explosion!』

『Dark Explosion!』

『Aqua Slash!』

Irina, Haruna, and Hyodor all shot attack spells at the Frigate Birds that managed to pass by the walls.
Did we manage to annihilate all of them?
Nope, more than half of them were still alive.

Well, at least the spells were doing damage.
Looking closer, I saw that the Frigate Birds had sharp beaks, with bent hooks at the tip.
I got hit several times by them, so I thought I was starting to accumulate a lot of damage on me…
But Rig was covering me, so I was quite safe.

What else were these Frigate Birds capable of?
The monsters that we managed to knock out of the air and onto the ground were struggling wildly, but their struggling was quickly put to an end by the wolves.
There were only two left still in the air.
One after the other, our flying Summon Monsters took them all down.

How dangerous was the fight actually?
It was probably quite dangerous.
I was just fortunate that I had Rig. Rig allowed me to not take any damage on direct hits.
There were a lot of attacks that I couldn’t intercept in time.
It was a scary situation…
Maybe I could use other wall spells like Thorn Fence, Stone Wall, or Ice Wall at a closer range next time?
I wasn’t so sure what to do…

「What about the item drops for this guy? Could it be that these Frigate Birds also have terrible item drops?」

『Yep.』

I still tried collecting item drops anyway, to confirm it in person.
I didn’t get any item drops.
There were 11 of them, but not one of them dropped even a single item.
They didn’t drop anything.
What an annoying monster!

But I suppose it couldn’t be helped…
Let’s keep heading towards the sea.
Well, it wasn’t like the battles were completely in vain.
Haruna’s Mermaid managed to get its Class Change and change into a Merrow.

But we kept going, taking down any horses that decided to ambush us along the way.
Meat, meat, and more meat.
Almost all of our item drops in the map consisted of just meat.
Well, at least we could look forward to a delicious lunch.

The time was 10:20 am.
We arrived at the Area Portal of the map. The Sunrise Lighthouse.
Although we had to face a lot of unnecessary battles along the way, we managed to arrive slightly ahead of schedule.
If we weren’t interrupted so often, we could have probably reached the Area Portal by 9 am.
Those Frigate Birds were definitely the most troublesome enemy on the map.
But our patience had finally received its reward.

When we arrived, I took a good look at the Area Portal.
It was a lighthouse at the tip of a cape extending into the sea, but it looked like it wasn’t just the lighthouse, but the entire cape that counted as an Area Portal.
It was quite wide.
There were two bays on either side of the base of the cape, which were likely being used as ports by players.
Like the name suggested, there certainly was a lighthouse at the tip of the cape.

But…
There were no other players around.
It felt quite lonely.
There were several buildings though, so it was quite a shame that there weren’t any other players. The atmosphere of the environment seemed quite lively.

『I have a feeling the Fisherman Brothers would drool looking at this place.』

『Speaking of which, they were looking for a permanent base, right?』

Huh…
I was surprised to find out that Haruna and Konohana were familiar with the Fisherman Brothers.
The place certainly seemed appropriate for a base.
The only issue was just that the monsters in the map were not appealing…
Supply and demand, I suppose.
That was probably behind why the map was so empty.

「What about the monsters in the sea?」

『Only hermit crabs and sea snakes have been confirmed in this area.』

『Although the Union that first cleared this map didn’t bother fighting in the shallow water because of the sand.』

Haruna and Konohana answered my question almost immediately.
And immediately afterwards, they started sifting through the forums again.
Ah, you don’t have to do that for me…
I had a feeling that at least the sea around the Area Portal would be safe.

I let Nias dive into the water at the bay.
Konohana’s Lorelei quickly followed suit.
Haruna’s Merrow too.
They all left their ponchos on their horses.
It was Nias’s first time at the sea after a long time.
I could let her enjoy it to her heart’s content.

But, then again…
Something still felt off about the map.
The map was supposed to be 4 squares away from Remut.
The Frigate Birds were certainly a threat in large flocks.
But taking them individually, not so much…
The monsters in the map simply felt too weak, compared to other monsters in other maps 4 squares away from Remut.

I thought of the Panzer Rhinos I met in W4.
The mammoths I encountered in N2W2.
Even the Nue and the Chimeras I encountered in S1W3.
The Float Heads in S4.
The cat in S3W1 that was so strong it managed to kill Obsidian in a single hit.

Something felt wrong…
I couldn’t rationalise that feeling of discomfort away.

We decided to break up the Union.
Afterwards, we all recalled some of our Summon Monsters.
Those Summon Monsters were recalled to make space for other Summon Monsters.

It was an amazing sight.
If I had to give a reason as to why, I would say…
I didn’t know we had this many Mermaids!
There were suddenly three more of them!
Like they said they would, Adele, Irina, and Hyodor summoned Mermaids for themselves too.
We had a group of mermaids at the beach.
Soon afterwards, there were two more Dolphins too.

Dolphin/Nina　Lv.1
Summon Monster　On Standby
Battle Position: Underwater　Water Attribute

I also used 【Identify】 on one of the dolphins.
Nice.
With that, I was sure that I would also be able to summon a Dolphin.
I temporarily recalled Zangetsu, and selected the 26th line in my list of Summon Monsters.

Summon Monster List
Wolf
Horse
Hawk
Owl
Wood Puppet
Bat
Wood Golem
Beast Ape
Demon
Red Fox
Tiger
Viper
Skeleton
Slime
Mist
Lion
Giant Tortoise
Fairy
Giant Bee
Big Spider
Big Crab
Sea Snake
Mermaid
Giant Scorpion
Dolphin

Yep.
As expected, the Dolphin showed up.

Also, Haruna and Konohana did something else quite interesting…
They both had a new free slot since they used Fuse Monsters, so they decided to summon a Big Crab and a Sea Snake.
Our teams suddenly looked quite prepared to fight underwater battles.
Hyodor also summoned a new Bat, and immediately fused it with his Fairy to make a new Fusion Summon Monster, an Imp.
With the then freed-up 15th slot, he summoned a Slime.
We were all slowly growing stronger.

But as expected, our eyes mostly drifted towards the Mermaids.
It was very interesting how each Mermaid was unique.

I took a good look at the Mermaid that Hyodor summoned.
The Mermaid had a short, boyish haircut. After looking at Hyodor, I suppose one could almost say the Mermaid was his older sister.
She was probably a little taller than Hyodor.
Watching the Mermaid chase around one of the Dolphins definitely made her seem like a tomboy.

Adele named the Mermaid that she summoned Me-chan.
She looked like a very serious and mature woman.
The kind of girl who would be the class representative, or part of the student council.
Thinking about it some more, her atmosphere was a bit similar to Irina’s…

Irina summoned a mermaid too, and named her Tia.
Irina’s mermaid looked like the youngest of all, and she was almost sparkling.
The reason behind that was clear.
That chest of hers was dangerous.
Irina’s Mermaid was clearly the strongest among the six Mermaids.
She was hiding them with both hands, but it looked like they were about to spill.
What was about to spill?
You know, that.
The soft and squishy ones.

The new mermaids didn’t have any proper equipment yet, so Adele, Irina, and Hyodor immediately recalled all of them.
To be honest, that just made me look forward to seeing them again even more.
In many different ways.
It was a nice sight for the eyes.

Well then.
It was time for me to fill my 26th slot too.
Yep, it would be best to go with what I knew I would like.

Remus　Wolf Lv1（New！）
DEX　10
AGI　26
INT　11
STR　11
VIT　12
SPI　12

Skills:
Bite　Evade　Threaten　Listen

Great.
My journey towards an Orthros was proceeding nicely.

「Oh! You summoned another one!」

And I immediately had to sacrifice it to Adele.
Well, it was already pretty much a rite of passage.
I had no choice but to give him up.

Summon Monsters:
Remus　Wolf Lv1（New！）
DEX　10
AGI　26
INT　11
STR　11
VIT　12
SPI　12
Skills:
Bite　Evade　Threaten　Listen

Companions:
Adele & Irina & Haruna & Konohana & Hyodor