CH 171.2

Chapter 171.2: An Extremely Obvious Decoy Tactic

The moment I thought so, I glimpsed the shadow of the superior species of gore, the grimgore, suddenly appearing from the shadow of the building before then hurriedly hiding back. As if it could hide such a huge figure. We should be able to stop the red raptor with that fella.

We couldn’t find a rare monster, nor did we find a treasure box.

And just when I was starting to think that today’s exploration was unsuccessful… we found THEM.

Or chanced upon them to be exact. We chanced upon them when we entered a small, hall-like circular building.

「BUMOMO, BUOAAAAAAAAA!」

The one raising a mad cow-like cry had ox head… yet, it was walking on its two feet like a gorilla instead of four.

I guess it was okay to call them minotaurs. No, I felt that it was stronger than that due to its gorilla parts. I mean, it looked like the ox-headed version of the boss of goliath.

Yosh, I shall call you 『Minogorilla』

「There’s two of them huh… What do you think, Mei-chan?」

「Uhm. They’re weaker than gogma.」

「Then, please team up with Rem to take care of them. I’ll stand guard against the raptor outside.」

「Leave it to me.」

The seemingly powerful Minogorilla was gonna face the power tag team of Mei-chan and Rem-Dark Knight. Yeah, I could rest assured when I left the minogorilla to them.

「――Kotaro-kun, we’re do~ne.」

And then, to be honest, she massacred them with her unique skill on the first strike! I mean, the fight literally ended the moment it started.

「Great, this fella is the best material for the new Rem.」

Well then, today’s recipe was as follows.

The base was the fresh corpse of minogorilla. And after she was created, a giant crab’s shell would be added as her outer shell instead of armor. Raptor’s claws and scales would become the sub outer shell.

And then, though I had no idea what would happen to her, I decided to dump everything that we got from the high-zombie boss.

Next, was the usual mandragora, and THAT which was extracted from my little Momokawa.

「――『Vile’s Clay Doll』」

It’s done. It kept sucking in quite a lot of my mana, made me feel light-headed but not enough to make me fall.

「GRRR… UGOAAAAAAAAA!」

「Ooh, she has a more monster-like feel than usual.」

Rem the 4th was rising from the chaotic magic circle while raising energetic(?) cries.

Rem the 4th’s height was comparable to Rem-Dark Knight. Her body was clad in muscle armor. Well, her base was the macho minogorilla, after all.

No, those muscles might be the effect of the high-zombie boss’ materials. I mean, the base body might be that of minogorilla but the upper half of her massive body was just like that of a human. Her muscle didn’t swell as much as the high-zombie boss, but it was pretty close to it.

Maybe that just how powerful the effect of the materials taken from the boss monster was. Or else, could it be that it might be just a coincidence since the materials that constructed her were compatible with each other? Let’s verify this fact later.

Well then, now we had the 4th whose build resembled that of the high-zombie boss, but different from that guy. 4th had atrocious-looking ox-like head and shell that was made from the giant crab.

The one barely killed by my shadow yesterday aside, there were still the other two who were slain by Mei-chan before, so we pretty much had a lot of crab shells.

As a result, the minogorilla’s huge frame was covered with a thorny and rugged shell. Even though it wasn’t as tough as living armor’s armor, the likes of raptor’s claws would hardly be able to put a scratch on it.

「Yup, the 4th is nicely done.」

Nevertheless, her specs were a far cry from Rem-Dark Knight.

But that was enough. Since Rem’s new body surpassed the minimum requirement that I need.

「Next, let’s try the new curse.」

Well, it wasn’t practically a new curse though. I mean, I didn’t see the usual daydream whenever I received a new curse. If I had to say, it was akin to… a game’s level-up skill system.

『99 Ghost』：Empty skull isn’t actually empty. Attachment and dying wish are phony and yet, it accumulates advancing into a dead-end, forming a spirit. Will it go into the path of righteousness or fall into depravity?

Though I noticed that the flavor text of the explanation was as confusing as usual, I noticed a change the moment I got this curse. And that happened whenever I used 『Fool’s Cane』 to summon skeletons corps to do something.

『High Zombie』：One of basic familiars. The skeleton is enhanced with additional muscles for its exoskeleton.

The only monster I could summon by using 『Summoner’s Skull』 up to this point was only 『Skeleton』. And two additional basic skills, 『Echo』, and 『Simple Summoning Circle』. That’s why no matter how it was re-arranged, I wouldn’t miss any chance in the line-up.

And that change was the appearance of the 4th skill.

Rather, their real name turned out to be really the 『High Zombie』. I mean, I knew that I had given them with such a simple name when I first saw them, but to think that it was used as an official name for the skill. Well, maybe it was named that way since that skill was given to me.

「Come 『High Zombie』!」

And then, when I swung the cane, the figure that I was really familiar with appeared from the blood-red magic circle along with the feeling that it sucked my mana more than when I summoned skeleton.

「OOOO, UOOOOOOOOOOOO!」

It scampered with all of its power like an athlete while raising lively cries. Sure enough, I successfully summoned a high-zombie.

Naturally, the fellas who were called by me weren’t that atrocious undead who would rush toward me on sight, it was the fellas who would absolutely follow my order.

But the maximum number I could summon in one go was seven. Nevertheless, these seven could easily crush fully armed skeleton corps with their bare hands. Their power, speed, toughness were far above skeletons.

+++

And yet, the reason why these guys were becoming one of the small fries was simply that they’re a muscle-brained monster who only knew how to charge the moment it found an enemy. But it wouldn’t be the case when they’re under my control.

「It seems the plans will go really well if we’re using these 『High Zombie』.」

Yup, their specs were better than what I expected, and now had to return them to the magic circle.

It might look like I had learnt a new summoning skill but… this might be the power of my new curse, 『99 Ghost』.

The number of abilities that I could use for each skull of the owner of the vocation into 『Fool’s Cane』 was three. I could be unconsciously feeling that three was the limit of 『Fool’s Cane』, it couldn’t increase or decrease.

That’s why it never came to me that if I kept using it, I would be able to gain proficiency and learn a new skill like what happened in the game.

But it seems such a limit was disabled by Ruinhilde-sama.

With this 『99 Ghost』, the skull was no longer a mere skull, it would gain experience and growth as if it were still alive and could gain new abilities. I mean, the 『Advancing into the dead end』 might be referring to the deceased vocation holder, and it gained the possibilities for growth with this new skill.

And then, whether to make it grow normally or in a strange way, everything was up to me. Since it was literally nothing more than soulless skull, it was nothing more than a weapon for a shaman.

「Now everything has been prepared, I won’t lose this time.」

I’ve tested all that I needed to and gained more and more splendid results. No matter how cunning the red raptor was, it was nothing more than a monster.

「You’re going to lose if you think that you can clash with human intelligence.」

Anyhow, now it was time to start the second, obvious decoy tactic.