Chapter 288

Defense Specialization and Mimicry

And so the members of Maple Tree steadily increased their number of kills . Unsurprisingly, their tamed monsters brought on big changes to their fighting style . This was especially noticeable in Kanade’s case .

“While the effects are weaker, unlimited use is great . ”

‘Mimic’ had a rather long cool-down, but aside from that, the tamed monster and Kanade were a perfect match . No matter how many magic books that Sou used, as long as the original was still on Kanade’s bookshelf, the used magic books would appear on Sou’s shelf again when ‘Mimic’ was reactivated .

Because of this, combat was generally left to Sou, as a way of determining its strength . And Kanade mostly wore a robe and hid in the trees or in the shadows .

So if Sou was attacked, then the real Kanade could help while staying safe at the same time .

“Sou’s starting to run out of books now… Alright . Sou, ‘Dormant . ’”

As Kanade sensed that someone was coming, he returned Sou back to his ring in order to hide his trump card .

But when Kanade saw the players that made their way through the bushes, he chuckled to himself .

“Ahaha . I have the worst luck . ”

It was Dread and Drag . They came with a black wolf and a stone golem respectively . As both were top class players, he did not have a high chance of winning when they had tamed monsters .

“Ah, it’s just one person… Sorry, but we still won’t hold back . ”

“Oh, it’s Kanade . Haha! Wonderful!”

“I’d be stupid to…stick around! ‘Wood Wall’!”

Kanade created a wall of wood to separate himself from the two as they brandished their weapons . And then he tried to escape . It was just as he thought that he could get away .

“Earth! ‘Sand King’!”

He heard Drag order . Kanade looked over his shoulder and saw that in a flash, his wooden wall had turned into sand . And then Dread and his wolf came after him .

“‘Firestorm’! ‘Tornado’!”

“Shadow, ‘Shadow Dive . ’”

A tornado of fire and wind shot out from Kanade’s direction . But before it could reach its target, the fur of the wolf, who was called Shadow, became even darker as both it and Dread seemed to dissolve into the ground . It happened so quickly . And just like that, they were able to dodge the tornado .

“‘Super Accelerate’!”

“‘Mother Nature’!”

“Earth! ‘Earth Control’!”

Kanade used a skill that Syrup had in an attempt to stop the accelerating Dread, but he missed his target .

“Arrggh! ‘Ground Splitter’!”

“‘Shadow Clone’!”

He could not allow them to stop his movements, and so Kanade activated a cloning skill .

However…

“Shadow, ‘Shadow Pack . ’”

Clones began to emerge from the shadow of the wolf’s feet . And they far outnumbered Kanade’s clones as they tore through them in seconds .

And since Kanade couldn’t move due to Drag’s Ground Splitter, he was susceptible to Dread’s short sword .

“‘Triple Slash’!”

Kanade’s HP and defense ability were not high, and so there was no way for him to endure the attack . And so he turned into light and vanished .

Once Dread and Drag were sure of it, they put away their weapons .

“Good . Maple Tree are our rivals, after all . We can’t let them go to the field where it’s easier to acquire medals . ”

“…It was kind of too easy . I bet he still had powerful skills . ”

“Well, I guess . But there is no use worrying about that . After all, there was still a death effect . ”

“Yeah . We have to go and hunt some monsters if we want a high ranking… It’s a waste of time to fixate on players . ”

This time, there wasn’t much merit in actively hunting down other players . The most important thing was to hunt as many monsters as possible . And so the two of them left the area .

After a while, a robed player returned . It was Kanade .

“Phew… That was close . I didn’t have much of a chance against them . But good work, Sou . ”

Kanade came out from behind some bushes and picked up Sou, who was now a slime and about half its usual size .

“‘Division’ and ‘Mimic’… Thanks to them, there were no casualties . ”

While the wooden wall was still up, Kanade had used a magic book to disappear and switch places with Sou, who he had called out . And then he had used ‘Division’ to make a fake Sou fight in his place .

As it was necessary for the main body to be close by, it was a gamble as to whether it would be found . However, it had worked out well .

“And I was able to see their monsters . So this was a good experience overall . But…they sure were strong . I’ll have to discuss it with Sally later . ”

While it had been a short fight, it was clear that this wolf called Shadow and the golem called Earth, had very dangerous abilities . Sou’s magic dealt quite a lot of damage and covered a wide area . He even used some skills that Maple and Sally had . But it hadn’t been enough . In that case, he would have to find a way to deal with them, or he would be in trouble the next time .

“Now, I hope that my next encounter is with a monster . ”

Kanade put the now small Sou on top of his head, and then started to walk in order to search for the next monster .