Chapter 179

Chapter 179 Strongest Sage, Goes Deeper Into the Prairie

" . . . More incoming monsters . "

"Looks . . . like it!"

Alma shot an arrow at a boar monster coming from afar while saying that .

The arrow accurately pierced the monster's heart, killing it instantly .

Burrowing snakes aren't the only monster that pop up here .

There are of course flying and ground monsters around, and all of them have turned gigantic without exceptions .

Against these powered monsters, even Alma's arrow that usually pierced five monsters in one shot could only manage to kill one with an exact vital shot .

Since arrows don't work well against burrowing monsters, Alma is mostly in charge of flying and on-ground monsters .

"Umm . . . Over there!"

On the other hands, Ruli is beating these monsters with magic tools .

Normally Ruli would be in charge of creating arrows for Alma most of the time, but since a high powered arrow can't manage to beat two monsters at once this time around, they're acting independently now .

Ruli's strategy is similar to the strategy I used on that snake earlier on .

Whenever snake monsters come out of the ground, she hardens the soil to stop their movements .

One thing that's different is my strategy has myself as the decoy, while Ruli is using magic tools for both roles .

Thus, it's not as efficient as my way, but it enables her to safely beat monsters from a distance .

Even though she'd need to stock magic stones for this tactic, such is one of the strong points of Glory Crest .

Even the past me used a variety of schemes to fight monsters .

"Don't tell me, I'm the only one who can't locate monsters here?"

The examiner asked me in the heat of battle .

Indeed, this fight has us fully making use of Passive Detection .

Especially for monsters below the ground, you can't rely on most of your senses against them .

However . . . it's not like all of us can do it .

"I don't think Iris knows when underground monsters are going to attack either . . . . Well, not like there's any need to be on guard in Iris case though . "

Iris got blown away while I was speaking .

The snake monster powered up by the parasite monster made a surprise attack on Iris from below .

Due to the damage on her magic circuit, Iris's mana control and detection are unreliable .

She can roughly know the location of monsters above grounds, but those under are just too much for the current Iris .

"Alright, got another one!"

However, Iris doesn't seem fazed at all by the ambush .

Rather, it feel more like 『Prey found!』 to her .

And she's not mistaken .

In fact, she didn't even have a scratch on her from the burrowing snake monster's ambush .

So long as Iris is impervious to its fang, the snake's mana-powered neurotoxin is useless against her, and even if the fang did go through her defense, mana-powered toxin would dilute itself inside Iris's enormous mana pool, it probably won't have any effect .

There's too large of a gap between a dragon and a snake, regardless of how powered it is .

"Sooi!"

While still being blown away, Iris readied her spear mid-air and threw it at the snake monster .

It's just a simple throw without magically enhanced strength or anything . . . but with Iris's brute strength, the thrown spear had practically turned into an iron stake for the snake .

The snake didn't get staked, it got torn asunder, crushed by the spear .

"What is that? Some kinda ace buff magician or something? I haven't seen her chanting even once though . . . "

"Nope, Iris is just very awfully sturdy, she can't use magic . "

Iris killed another monster while we were conversing .

Although it may not compare to [Enforced Detection], her simply moving around would flaunt her mana around to act as a bait to the surrounding monsters .

As a result, Iris beat the most monsters after me .

" . . . Can't use magic? Yer' kidddin' me?"

"It's true . . . . Also, you don't need chanting to use magic . The reason why monsters have been appearing in front of me since awhile ago is thanks to a chantless spell too . "

I took a half step back as I said that .

And then, a snake came out of the ground I was standing on, so I made use of its momentum to cut it in half with my sword .

I'm not using magic to converse my mana .

I only draw monsters here with [Passive Detection], and then kill them with the lowest amount of effort .

"Are there nothing but monsters in this party . . . . "

◇

We got close to the center of the prairie as we battled on .

The incessant monster attacks suddenly stopped midway through .

"They're not attacking anymore . "

"I don't detect mana reactions either, think it's finished?"

" . . . You really did it . Those monsters were ridiculous, but Mathias's party is beyond even them . . . "

Iris, Alma and the examiner spoke .

Indeed, there's no easy-to-detect mana reaction from monsters in the vicinity .

"Normally you'd think so . . . but I feel something odd in the surrounding mana . . . And that boss Mathias-san mentioned didn't come out either . "

However, Ruli objected to the opinion that the subjugation was over .

Unfortunately enough for the examiner who looks really eager to go home . . . she's right .

"Ruli is correct, the boss hasn't shown itself up yet . . . Well then, which way do you think it is?"

"Unn, judging from the state of mana . . . Over there?"

Ruli pointed right .

Hmm, she managed to notice the oddness in the mana reaction, but I guess she still cannot grasp the mechanism behind it yet .

Well, just the fact that she could see through this camouflage without prior knowledge means that she's got quite the talent in mana detection .

It took the past me around 30 years to even notice it after all .

"Close but no cigar . The correct answer is over there . "

I pointed left .

The exact opposite of Ruli's guess .

"It's not close at all! It's totally the opposite direction!"

"Nah, don't sell yourself short . . . How does the mana reaction over there feel to you?"

I pointed at the direction Ruli pointed at first .

"Unn, I don't see mana reaction that feels like of monsters . . . There's some really really small reactions though, but I think that's just bugs or something like that . "

"Then how about over there?"

I pointed at the place where the boss is .

Ruli looked over there . . . and seemingly noticed the camouflage .

"Ah, there's a place without a single reaction, not even from bug!"

"That's the area where the boss monster lurks . It has set up a kind of barrier to stop its mana from leaking to the surroundings . "

Some parasite type monsters remake the environment around them to suit themselves better .

The camouflage that prevents mana from leaking is a part of that .

For those monsters, the reason is probably not to prevent their mana from leaking, but simply because a place with dense mana is more comfortable to them .

"A mere monster constructing barrier . . . . "

"Their barrier differs from the barrier we create with magic though . "

We're heading to the barrier the monster put up .

Suddenly someone said halt .

"Hold it, you guys have already passed the test . There's no need for you to defeat that thing . "

The examiner stopped us .

Looks like we've passed the Rank B Qualification Test .

It's nice that we were able to pass it easily, but . . .

"Didn't the quest I took ask for Testra Prairie Subjugation? It won't count as one if we don't defeat that . "

I point at the barrier .

The barrier seems to be covered in grass and soil, it only looks like a mound from over here, but judging from the mana reaction, it's apparently a dome-shaped barrier .

Monsters that are shutting themselves inside the barrier are harmless, but in reality, those monsters probably dug underground where the barrier didn't reach and went outside the prairie .

"You're right, the quest is about Testra Prairie Subjugation . . . but the content was [Subjugating monsters, especially those that could become a threat, in the outbreak at Testra Prairie . ] . The quest should be considered as complete even without you defeating monsters that shut themselves inside a barrier . "

I see .

At the time being, that might be right .

Not like the monster inside is going to come out anytime soon after all .

Personally, I'd like to raise our rank as fast as possible, so it's easier if we don't have to beat that .

Ordinarily I would have gone to beat the monster regardless of quests or such, but I'd be wasting time to recover my mana then .

. . . However, since we've taken up on this quest, I can't exactly do that .

"If we leave that alone, that thing would break out of the barrier and attack towns . Time left until that happens . . . about two weeks I reckon . "

Hearing that, the face of the examiner who looked like he was going back turned serious .

To the point that I doubted he was the same person .

" . . . Are you telling the truth?"

"Yeah . "

" . . . Is Frejia included in those towns?"

"It's really hard to believe . . . But if Mathias says so, it's practically guaranteed . . . "

Saying that, the examiner ponders .

Afterward, he bowed deeply toward me .

"I ask you . Could you please defeat that monster? I don't wanna expose that town to danger . Of course, I'm gonna fight too . "

. . . I see .

He'd like to avoid endangering himself, but he'll fight for real if the town is in danger huh .

Looks like this examiner isn't just a coward .

Well, I guess an adventurer that would run away at the prospect of going to a dangerous location wouldn't be entrusted to be a rank up test examiner .

"Got it . . . . Are you fine with that, you three?"

That's always been my intention since we took this quest .

And I couldn't possibly forsake a territory friendly to Eis Kingdom .

It was one of the reasons we could took this quest so quickly after all .

. . . It might stand to reason if it were a hostile territory though .

"Of course! That's what we come here for!"

"Yes! . . . I'm a bit curious about that monster-made barrier too!"

"I'm not really sure, but I just need to beat up monsters right?"

Looks like the three are in agreement .

Let's get on to the kill . . . is what I'd like to say, but I have something to ask them first .

Our moves would slightly change depending on the answers .