CH 96

Tendo-kun returned as casually as he’d gone, as if drawn in by the smell of sizzling meat.

“... What’s going on?” he asked.

“Hey∼ you’re back, Tendo-kun∼”

“We’re cooking meat, have some.”

He was welcomed in by the Glamourettes, whose lines were so sickly-sweet, I could almost see ♥ marks at the end. That being said, now that they’d become allies, I didn’t so much cringe at the scene as look at it warmly.

“Meat from what?” Tendo-kun turned his sharp, somewhat suspicious eyes from me to the stick of slightly large lumps of medium rare meat in my hand alternatively. I didn’t mind at all. He was born with those eyes, so him just looking normally makes him seem intimidating. Getting needlessly scared would be rude.

“Snake meat. I caught some from around here. I’m sure you can see that they’re fine to eat.”

“Right.”

“We only had salt, but it’s pretty good if you eat it hot.”

“Thanks, I’ll have some.”

Tendo-kun rested his laurels in a gap between our circle around the fire.

“Tendo-kun, have this one!”

“This big one’s just for you∼”

“Ah, thanks.”

Even Tendo-kun couldn’t resist the allure of meat after so long as he gladly took and bit down on the stick the Glamourettes had prepared for him.

“... It’s great.” He commented.

“Glad you like it.”

Today is the first time the 5 of us all sat down together for a meal. Sure, we still had some kinks to work out, but if you saw a picture of us, you’d surely see party members enjoying food together.

So, now that I’ve fished in Tendo-kun with the allure of meat, let’s get down to business.

“Tendo-kun, I need to ask a favor.”

“I’ve got no more monster parts.”

“I don’t need anymore either. No, this is about something else.”

“Go on.”

“I want to have Rando-san train her geomancer calling. It won’t take too long, so I was hoping we make base here during that time.”

After having observed Rando-san on our way here, I felt a great need to nurture her powers. She’s all but given up on her calling, saying it’s too weak, and even now, she’s no stronger than she was when she came to this world. Even if her starter skills are shit-tier, any new skill she gains might be cheat-tier, who knows. There’s no loss in trying, is what I’m trying to say.

There’s always the risk that we might end up in a zone devoid of mobs like goma or skeletons and chock-full of high level monsters. So before they disappear on us, we ought to use them to level up and up.

What’s worse is that she’s way behind compared to everyone else in the party, yes, even including me. She’s probably not gained a single experience point, in other words, she’s been at level 1 all this time. If she doesn’t get more useful fast, and I mean ASAP, there might come a time when protecting her would be the least of our worries. Once that happens, things like friendship or camaraderie, won’t mean shit.

I know this sounds cold, but this is so we can avoid a worst case scenario. That’s right, like those girls who had voted not to use their resources to heal Mei-chan, and left her to die alone. That’s something I don’t want happening to Rando-san.

“... Can you do it?” Tendo-kun asked.

“Yes. I’ll make Rando-san stronger, count on it.”

I speak from personal experience. Though barely, I did in fact manage to beat Higuchi in a straight match.

What’s more, Rando-san is a Geomancer, which is not a support class like Takanashi-san the Sage, but a combat class like Class Rep the Cryomancer. Her powers should let her use her element to strike and kill enemies.

Thus, even if her starter skills were a bad roll, she can definitely get better ones through training.

“Alright, fine. But I’m not waiting more than a few days.”

“That’ll work, thanks.”

OK, that’s the toughest hurdle cleared. Tendo-kun seems like a man-of-his-word type. It’s like he has a sense of integrity, or more like, enough pride that he’s true to himself.

And that’s all the groundwork done. The next part depends on how hard Rando-san is willing to work for it.

“ ―― Ohkay Rando-san, are you ready to raise that level?”

“Egh, this blows....” There was Rando-san making an unpleasant face at the fairy square door.

“Heh, have fun in your remedial classes, Kyoko.” Smiled teasingly one of the Glamourettes, Nonomiya-san.

So here’s the lineup for our “Rando-san special level-up course”, mini party: There’s me, who made the proposal and am party leader, Rando-san, our star of the show, and Nonomiya-san coming along as a guard. Rem too, of course.

Which means that the fairy square will be occupied by Tendo-kun and Yoshizaki-san only. I wish you good luck on your together alone-time, Yoshizaki-san.

“Tendo-kun said that there are only jiras and zombies on the wetlands around here.” I announced the objective. “Our target will be zombies, since we can’t handle jiras if they flock together.”

“Uhuh...”

“K.”

Rando-san didn’t seem motivated at all, while Nonomiya-san was in casual picnic-mode. It feels useless getting worked up all by myself… but I’m sure Rando-san will get into it too once she has a handle on her powers.

“Alright, then before we leave, Rando-san, please show me your skills.”

“Oh come on∼, didn’t I tell you like, 5 minutes ago? Don’t tell me you forgot already, Momokawa∼”

“No I remember them. I just need to see what they’ll look like before we―― hey, don’t, stop that!!”

I don’t know what’s gotten Rando-san so annoyed, but she started giving me a nuggie for no reason. I mean, it doesn’t hurt, but I’d very much rather have the softer kind of skinship if she’s offering…. Okay, she needs to stop or else we can’t get started.

“... Fine, here we go∼” Rando-san lazily raised her arms in front of her to invoke a spell, “ ―― Tera Shield.”

Right as she finished her chant, the ground in front of her let out a deep rumble, slightly shook, and then, out rose a rectangular block of earth like garage shutters that’d been reversed to come out of the floor.

Taking all of 10 seconds, Rando-san now had her Tera or stone shield measuring in at 2 meters tall, 1 meter long and with a thickness of 30 centimeters.

“Wait, that’s not stone!?” I retorted flamboyantly, to which Rando-san gave an annoyed. “We don’t talk about that.”

I mean, with a name like that, I feel scammed. Every way I look or touch it, this thing’s all earth.

“But it’s quite sturdy if you ask me. Isn’t this good for blocking attacks?”

“I guess?” Rando-san shrugged indifferently. But it’s strange. It looks like it’d make good defense so why doesn’t she use it?

“Think about it Momokawa, if I take that long to put up the wall, even a goma can just go around.”

“Oh. Good point.”

Enemies don’t wait around when you’re trying to kill each other. Even gomas, one of the weakest monsters, move with the same agility as a normal human. So if the only thing blocking their path is a 2 meter wall rising at a rate of 20 centimeters per second, they can find any number of ways to go around.

She’d be too late to start casting once they’re up close.

“Wait, hold on a minute, are all your spells like...”

“ ―― Tera Kris Sagitta.”

This time, it wasn’t a scam and a large ‘spear’ made of actual stone is what Rando-san had created. I say ‘spear’, because it isn’t at all like how you’d imagine a spear, as in with a sharpened head and body that’s easy to hold. It has the shape of a circular cone, sharp on top and having the girth of a human torso… rising out of the ground at a painfully slow 20 centimeters per second.

Half a minute passed, and we had ourselves a 3 meter stone cone reaching up toward heaven.

“Um,” I asked, “does this one always point up?”

“I can do it at an angle if you want.” said Rando-san, to my great relief. It’d be a pain to make use of what is essentially pointy pillars.

“I see what you mean now. The speed is a big issue.”

Seeing is believing, and from what I saw, I can now believe why Rando-san is so reluctant about even trying. Heck, her starter skills might be more useless than my own―― no, I’m getting ahead of myself. With Tera Shield and Tera Kris Sagitta, she might have difficulty attacking but she can definitely use tactics like blocking passages behind her, or even hole up in a fairy square by sealing off all the exits.

“Alright Rando-san, how’s your mana holding up?”

“Holding my what?”

“Mana, it’s like an energy source for using magic. Use too many spells and you’ll feel really tired from expending too much mana. Worst case, you can pass out too.”

“Wait, seriously!? I didn’t even know!”

“You just need to make sure not to cast more than you can handle, and you’ll be fine.”

But maybe it’s better for her to know the risk by first-hand experience at least once. It’s best to know the limits of your abilities. That goes double for Rando-san who apparently didn’t even know the concept of mana until I told her just now.

“So?” I inquired. “Feeling tired or anything?”

“Mm, donno?”

“Then, have you ever tried seeing how many spells you can use?”

“Oh yea∼, I did do a bit of practice at the beginning. But then, it like, just wouldn’t get faster, so I stopped.”

“Oh I remember that,” Nonomiya-san chimed in, “you went and made a ton of these walls, almost a hundred, maybe?”

“Wait,” I broke in, “and you didn’t get tired from that?”

“No, I don’t think I was.”

Could it be that Rando-san actually has a massive amount of mana? Or maybe it’s that the earth (not stone) wall is just very cost effective because of the compromise.

“So, do I use the third one now?” Rando-san asked.

“Ah, of course.” I said. “You can do it on these two.”

“Aye aye, here’s nothing―― Eternity.”

Similar to Soma Sakura’s Holy Enchant, this magic made the earthen wall and stone spear glow white. A glow which then disappeared instantly, revealing that nothing had changed.

In other words, Eternity had worked as expected.

Objects made using magic have a tendency to disappear after a certain amount of time. This applies to Class Rep’s cryomancy, and my own curses like blackhair bind. Being MAGIC, the physical manifestation of spells is constructed using mana, and once the spell has completed its task, the mana disperses, meaning that nothing is making up the visual representation and so it’s also gone. Well, that’s the gist of it.

In comes Eternity, a spell that can transform things created in mana into the real thing.

That means, if we left these very solid looking wall an spear alone, soon enough, they would’ve disappeared into nothing without leaving a trace. Casting Eternity on them, on the other hand, makes them last forever. That is, until someone intentionally destroys them or until they erode away in time. For these are now, a real wall made of hardened earth, and a real spear made with a large stone chiseled to a cone.

The more I think about it, the more mysterious it seems. And, at least in my opinion, this is a very promising spell. Although, if I was asked whether we could use it in battle…

“Hmm, not gonna be very useful in a skirmish, but I can probably think up a lot of other uses.”

She doesn’t even get tired after spamming a hundred walls, so there’s the option of having her take her time to make huge ones. Add in some tera kris sagittas and sprinkle some Eternity on top and she could make a stronghold anywhere she wants.

Then again, due to the nature of the dungeon, it’s pretty rare to have an enemy come waltzing into your stronghold like that.

“Okay, let’s get going. Next, we’re testing these in a real fight.”

Soon, it’ll be the moment of truth. Will Rando-san’s geomancy prove useful or will it just reaffirm her negative convictions.

We walked around the wetlands for barely 5 minutes before finding our first batch of targets.

“Look there,” pointed Nonomiya-san, “Zombies.”

“Hey, can we please not?” Rando-san requested. “Zombies really make me sick every time.”

“I know what you mean, they reek to. You’ll get used to it.”

“Bleh∼”

Rando-san still acted like a high school girl, while Nonomiya-san, who’s well into her role as a knight, gave her sage advice. Zombies used to creep my out too with their meat and organs in live display all the time, but after my experience fighting more than enough of them, I got used to it too.

“There’s 4 of them… Nonomiya-san, do you sense any others?”

“Mm, nah, we’re good.”

She might not have the superior sensory prowess of a thief like Higuchi or Natsukawa-san, but as a knight, a fighter class calling, she has the best presence sensing out of any of us here. We’re also away from the pools and in a small wood, so there’s little chance of jiras suddenly swarming us.

“What’s the plan?” asked Nonomiya-san. “I can take 4 zombies easy.”

“We want Rando-san to kill them, right?”

“Right, no shit.”

Oi oi, you alright there, Nonomiya-san? Don’t tell me you’ve developed a personality where you feel an itch to hunt down any enemy you see, you don’t right?

“Momokawa∼” Rando-san called unenthusiastically, “What am I doing again∼?”

I ignore her and observe how the zombies are moving and what’s around them. And I calmly think.

“Okay, Rando-san, make spears diagonally from here to those trees over there.”

“Uh, where again?”

“From here, at this angle.” I used my own spear to show her precisely.

“Can you control the length of a spear?”

“No idea∼”

“Try it, then. They need to be around a meter. Hmm, picture it like stopping your spell in the middle of doing it.”

“... Wow, I did it.” Rando-san successfully grew a Tera Kris Sagitta as specified. From what I observed with Class Rep and Souma Sakura, the spell can be changed to a degree when the caster wills it into a different size or strength level. I mean, I do that sort of thing like breathing air.

Which is why I figured Rando-san could do it too. It might be harder to make it bigger, but getting a smaller than average size should be easy.

“Okay, don’t forget to do eternity on them.”

“Aye.”

As each meter long spear rose from the ground, Rando-san used Eternity on them, causing brief glows of white.

“One here too.”

“What’s that?”

“One of my curses, Blackhair bind.”

I tied up blackhair rope between the trees 30 centimeters up from the ground. I think something like Eternity should work on magic from other casters too.

“Well? Did it work?”

“It lit up, so I think it did.”

Having confirmed so, we are now ready to commence the operation.

“Now, all we do is lure the zombies into the trap.”

A very simple trap, I might add. We get the zombies to chase us to this point, at which point, the brainless idiots will definitely trip on the blackhair rope and fall. Their landing point: riddled with Rando-san’s stone spikes.

“Zombies are dumb. They’ll only chase what’s in front of them, so they’re gonna fall for it, no doubt.”

“You’re sure about this? What if they don’t?”

“If not, either Nonomiya-san or Rem can finish them off.”

Which is why they’re here as guards. Plan doesn’t work, no problem, we’ll just solve it using brute force. This is how you make contingency plans.

“Nonomiya-san and I will go lure them in now. Rando-san, you stay here. I’ll have Rem guard you just in case.”

“O-ok, be back quick, alright?” Rando-san’s voice sounded shaky. Guess she’s a bit scared.

“Alright, let’s go.”

“Sure.”

We ran in the direction of the zombies, spears in hand, mine made of iron while Nonomiya-san’s, steel.

We’d ran 50 meters away from the trap and saw that the zombies had increased. What was 4 when I first checked had now become 6. Well fine, that’s still within the error margin.

“Howdy there, dumbies, come get some shaman!”

“Over here!”

We threw a few stones and yelled randomly to get their attention.

“Ghrk, ooo...”

“Uoaaaaa!!”

Seeing live human prey, the pack of zombies made a break for us―― as in, they’re getting here super fast!

“The hell, zombies aren’t supposed to run that fast!” I yelled, kind of in a panic.

“Zombies here sure are full of life∼” Nonomiya-san wasn’t.

“Momokawa, run faster, dude!”

“Don’t leave me behind, Nonomiya-san!”

“Sheesh, you’re a handful.”

Unlike you with your fighter class body, I still have normal human stats!

But I had no time to complain.

“Ugraaa!!”

“Uh! Huuhhh!!”

Their drool spraying everywhere, the zombies were gaining on me. 50 meters, so close but so far.

“Come on, Momokawa, they’re almost behind you∼” Nonomiya-san said, still casual.

“Haah, hahh… Argh, fuck it! Blackhair bind!”

The leading zombie really had almost caught up to me, and I had to trip its legs.

“Aww, here I thought we’re trying to use the trap∼”

“Here I am, trying not to die!”

I made the wrong call. Should've let Rem handle the running part. While regretting the retrospectively bad decision I somehow managed to clear the remaining distance. Coming up to the rope trap, I didn’t do anything else stupid and went over it.

“Goal.” Nonomiya-san cheered in monotone, having broken not a sweat.

“Hahh… hahh….” I was exhausted and out of breath. But I can’t tap out now. I have to see if the trap actually works. “Fucking zombies! Come get some!”

“Gugarrhh―― booghhhh!” Was the sound of them getting skewered. The spears were completely out in the open, right in front of them. The black rope also clearly stood out between the trees. And yet, zombies who only saw prey missed these details―― jumped into the stone cones all by themselves, just like how I pictured it.

“What the fuck!?” Yelled Rando-san. “Ew ew, no! What’s with this gore, aaah!”

“Wow, they’re just jumping in.” commented Nonomiya-san.

The rotten bodies of the zombies lodged themselves into the spears of stone. The spears are somewhat thick, but running into them at full sprint easily opened gaping holes on the dumb zombies.

Some of them that were following after another, fell into the same spear and became skewered together.

And all this while, Rando-san, who got a front row seat, has been yelling ew ew ews.

“ohh, guhhh...”

The spears were set up haphazardly, so not all the zombies were skewered through. They still had their shoulders or flanks gouged into, but paying no mind to the damage, they still attempted to get to us.

“Blackhair bind.” I pinned them to the ground. “Rando-san, spears please.”

“W-wait, what…?”

“They’re not moving, so it’ll be fine even if your spell is slow.”

“Go for it, Kyoko!” Nonomiya-san chimed in.

“Ugh, I… fine, Tera Kris Sagitta!”

The stone spears grew out from under their bellies like bamboo shoots, and as they were bound down by me, the zombies had no means of resistance to getting pierced through and dying for good.