LIGHTNOVELONLINE Chapter 73
A golden weekend morning after midterms.
The main gate of Kizen was crowded with students trying to go down to Rochest.
On one side of the gate, a long line of carriages that had received reservations were waiting. Students who wanted to go picnicking in the valley or on the beach were bargaining with the wagoners.
And if there were students who were excited, looking forward to such a happy holiday,
“Ah… for reeaal! What’s this?!”
There were also students hanging onto running wild hippos since the weekend morning.
Meilyn was making a long face.
“I was crazy! Secret technique of cooking monsters, my ass……!”
To be in this kind of situation on this golden weekend…
Meilyn wanted to strike her past self in the head like a certain other person once said.
It started like this.
Meilyn and Camibarez begged Simon to learn Hong Feng’s monster cuisine, and Simon sent a letter to Hong Feng.
Hong Feng gladly responded to the letter and informed him of the time and meeting place.
When Simon and his comrades arrived at the meeting point after finishing their preparations, four hippos were grazing around.
……And that was it.
“Hey, Meilyn! Aren’t you in a dangerous position in many ways right now?”
Rick, hanging on the hippo behind her, teased her as usual, but Meilyn responded as though finding him pathetic.
“I’m wearing shorts today, you crazy bastard!”
“Ah, how did you not fall for this?”
“I’ll see you after I get off this thing, honestly.”
She growled and pulled Rick down with force before stealthily turning her head.
Camibarez was now hanging on with a resigned look, and Simon was…
‘……It pisses me off that he, yet again, is the only one riding it well.’
Simon held the hippo’s body with his two legs and kept his balance sitting upright. Only the assistants rode like that. It was a whole different level of stability.
After going through such a difficult time, the four finally arrived at their destination.
“Huff! Phew! Whoa, that was so tiring! We just got here, but we’re already out of energy.”
Rick gasped for air as he rested his hands on his knees. Meilyn and Camibarez were already lying on the grass.
Simon was the only one standing upright and checking Hong Feng’s letter.
“Let’s take a short break and depart right away.”
Hong Feng said that it wasn’t difficult to teach the recipe for cooking monster, but she needed prey. So, she suggested hunting a monster called a nustlelack.
It was some kind of a mission.
According to Hong Feng, the nustlelack was an invasive species and was disturbing the forests of Roke Island.
It was a monster that originally lived inland. Still, somehow it came to Roke Island, and its population increased drastically due to its tremendous eating habits and reproductive rate.
Hong Feng’s mission was to capture the leader of the nustlelacks.
She mentioned that the monster would be butchered and eaten after the hunt was over, so capturing the boss monster as unscathed as possible was important.
“Unnng… No matter how much I think about it, it feels like we were handed work.”
Muttered Meilyn as she stood up. Simon said in a soft voice as though comforting her,
“Professor Hong Feng must have her ways of thinking. It’s a win-win, since we can practice hunting monsters too.”
“……That’s true.”
“Simon!”
Camibarez rushed towards Simon.
“What is it, Cami?”
Hiding behind Simon’s back, she stretched out her hand, a tense expression on her face.
“O-Over there!”
Simon’s head turned.
Perhaps they smelled the scent of humans. Three nustlelacks were prowling around and approaching them.
They had a short and blunt body, their whole body was covered with turquoise hair, and their faces looked like a mix between a gorilla and a pig.
“I’m gonna go insane. Do we have to eat something like that today?”
Scowled Meilyn, and Rick chuckled.
“I think it’s going to be pretty good. Might taste like monkey meat.”
“I’ve never tried that!”
[Gourrgh!]
The nustlelacks started rushing toward them.
‘Ah, come to think of it…’
Simon turned his head and looked at his group members.
The members, busy preparing dark spells, opened their eyes wide and looked at Simon as if wondering if there was something wrong.
‘This is the first time we’ve all properly fought together.’
There were restrictions on the set position in the Cyclops performance assessment, but it was different today. A stage where everyone could fully put their strengths together and fight.
Simon felt strangely excited by that fact and turned his head back to the front.
“I’ll start.”
Simon pulled the virtual lever.
He took out skeletons armed with spears and shields from the subspace one by one. A skeleton with a shield rushed forward and clashed with a nustlelack.
Kakiing!!
The nustlelack’s main weapon was its sharp claws and teeth. While the shield skeletons blocked the attack, a skeleton with a spear turned around and thrust its spear.
Pshk!
The tip of the spear stabbed the nustlelack’s body. However, it couldn’t pierce through because of the beast’s strong muscles.
“Excuse me.”
At that moment, Rick approached with gentle movement and lightly touched the skeleton’s spear.
‘Enchant.’
The spear was dyed black, and it pierced through the nustlelack’s body before coming out the other end. The monster’s eyes flipped over and drooped.
“Be careful~ More of them are coming from the left and right.”
“We know!”
Crackle!
As Meilyn, standing on the right, swung her arms, black flames spread across the nustlelacks, leaving them writhing in agony.
“Hyaaah!”
Camibarez could be seen firing blood bullets from a kneeling position on Simon's left.
The moment the blood bullets hit a nustlelack’s body, a red explosion boomed out. It had the destructive power to shatter the upper half of the monster with one blow.
Simon also moved.
He pulled out three skeleton archers from the subspace, and Simon himself also took out the gold bow he got for free from the weapon shop.
‘Load.’
Shk.
Simon and the skeletons simultaneously loaded an arrow into their bows and pulled their strings taut.
‘Fire!’
* * *
* * *
When Simon naturally released the power in his right hand holding the arrow along with the command, not one but four arrows flew at the same time.
Psssshhhhk!
Soon, they stuck into a nustlelack running toward him.
Two shots to the head and two to the chest. It died and collapsed right away.
‘Reload.’
Shk… Sshhk.
Simon and the skeleton archers reloaded their arrows in unison.
‘Fire!’
This time, the arrows flew in different directions. Nustlelacks approaching through the bushes were hit by arrows one by one and collapsed.
“On the front! They keep on coming from the front!”
Shouted Rick.
More than six nustlelacks were rushing all at once from the grass.
Seeing that, Meilyn said,
“Simon! Cami and I have enough firepower, so please pay more attention to tanking!”
“Ok.”
One of the strengths of Summoners was that they could move flexibly depending on the battle situation.
Simon put the archers back into the subspace and resummoned the normal skeletons.
He lined up six skeletons with shields using cross-operation.
“Enchant is going in!”
Rick took out a shield from his subspace, enchanted it, and gave it to the skeleton without a shield, completing the defensive line in the blink of an eye.
Thump!
Thuuump!
The nustlelacks who rushed in immediately slammed into the line of shields with their whole bodies, but Simon clenched his teeth and maintained the formation.
‘Hang in there!’
He repeatedly alternated between the thoughts of skeletons 1, 3, and 5, and then the thoughts of 2, 4, and 6.
Since the skeletons’ defenses loosened in those few seconds when his thoughts were cut off, he had to endure it with cross-operation.
“……Urk! I won’t last long!”
“Back off now, Simon!”
Simon raised his head.
Meilyn, who had soared high in the sky before he realized it, was clutching a burning black flame in the palm of her hand. She spun in a circle once and swung her arm straight down.
<Dark Flare>
Fwoooooooooosh!
Dark flames fell on the heads of the nustlelacks, causing a massive explosion. However, the skeletons retreated safely, avoiding getting caught up.
A near perfect level of control. Charred ashes crumbled in front of the shields.
“Nice, Meilyn!”
“That’s nothing.”
After gently descending to the ground, she smiled while combing her hair back under her ear.
[Gourururugh]
Just then, a nustlelack ran toward her from behind her back. She looked back, flicking her sky-blue hair around.
Booooooom!
Immediately, a red explosion erupted from the monster’s body, and it fell to its knees. In the distance, Camibarez was seen lowering her hand.
“Thank you, Cami!”
“Yeah!”
Simon and his comrades started marching forward after overcoming the crisis. They went deep into the forest, defeating each of the nustlelacks that came out one by one.
Could it be because of the Cyclops performance assessment? The four people worked in harmony, and it was almost perfect.
“Woah, it’s no joke.”
Said Rick, who cut through a nustlelack’s body while looking behind him.
One side of the forest was completely dyed black by Meilyn’s firepower.
“By the way, Meilyn, is it okay to use fire-based dark magic like that in a thick forest like this? What if you cause a forest fire?”
“Dumbass.”
Meilyn frowned while drawing a magic circle.
“The flames of the jet-black elemental system are artificially materialized flames, so they will go away over time.”
“Ah… I see.”
“So you piss off too, please.”
“Yohoo~ good roast right there!”
“Gosh.”
Meanwhile, Camibarez was gasping for breath, looking as though she had used too much blood. She was also feeling slightly anemic, and her head was starting to feel dizzy.
“Cami, are you alright?”
Simon quickly approached her and checked her condition.
Her gaze went toward the smooth nape below Simon’s face for a moment.
Her heart throbbed frantically all of a sudden, and she felt very thirsty. Her mouth opened on its own and she felt a twinge in the ridge of her nose.
Just once.
Just once will do. Let me put my fangs in there and take as much as I wa—
“Cami?”
“……Ah!”
Startled, she backed off to a seated position and covered her mouth. Simon tilted his head.
“What's wrong?”
“N-N-N-Nothing! It’s just that I’m a little dizzy.”
“Then let’s take a break.”
Simon waved to Rick and Meilyn, who were going ahead, signaling a break. They both nodded, also feeling the need to take a break.
‘Ugh…… What’s wrong with me?’
Camibarez buried her face in the palms of her hands.
It had been almost 5 years since she felt the instincts of a vampire. She thought she had completely suppressed them now, but Simon continued to shake those thoughts of hers.
“Cami! Are you alright?”
Meilyn came running, but Camibarez forced a smile and said that she was fine.
Meanwhile, Rick was looking at the traces on the floor.
“There’s a good chance that the head nustlelack is around here. I see more footprints that are much bigger than the usual nustlelack’s. I think it was here until very recently.”
“Is that so?”
Simon took out something large from the subspace and dropped it on the floor.
It was nothing other than the golem’s core.
“Then I’ll prepare the golem while we’re taking a break. Let’s break through the forest with this in one go.”
“Oh, good idea!”
Simon dug a little in the ground with his hands and placed the golem’s core in the hole. Soon after connecting the golem’s core to his thoughts, he began to form jet-black.
Whir. Whirrr.
The soil began to stick to the Golem’s core like a magnet. It was the first time seeing a golem being made for everyone, so they watched with fascination.
Stomp! Stomp!
As 1/3 of the golem was completed, unusually loud footsteps could be heard.
Rick drew his sword and shouted,
“Everyone, be careful! Something is coming this way!”
——