Translation: Charlotte
Editor: Weasalopes
I logged in at 4 am.
There are already several people in the【Instant Portal】.
I looked around a bit and exchanged greetings with some summoners.
That was when I spotted them.
「Oh, morning.」
「Good morning.」
Adele and Irina were already logged in.
「What time is your match today?」
「Our match is at 9 am, at the new training ground A.」
「We"re in the same place, huh.」
「So, you want to have the match here?」
「Yeah that"d be nice.」
I was glad I set up my tent close to the edge of the portal.
We would have enough s.p.a.ce to get a few matches in the morning.
There were already a few summoners up and about.
There weren"t a lot of them, but some other parties were already scouting out the area.
It was still pretty early.
「Well, let"s wait for our turn.」
「I guess so.」
「It"d be nice if you could take it easy on us~」
「I might, actually. I"m changing up my strategy today, after all.」
「Eh?」
「What?」
I"m going to go with just Jericho and Senki this time. I want to test something out.」
「What do you want to test out?」
「Well, it"s better to test it out now rather than during a tournament match.」
We had six matches before we ate breakfast.
I got four wins and two losses.
In those first two losses, I tried to have Jericho focus entirely on defence.
It wasn"t a very good strategy.
I strengthened Jericho with spells, but it still wasn"t enough.
The first two fights ended to time-out, and I lost.
After that, I changed up my strategy.
Yep.
How do I make the best use of Jericho?
I had already found the answer.
「What!? That"s cheating!」
Adele protested loudly.
Hmm…
But it still looked like a sound strategy.
「A golem"s downside is definitely their lack of mobility…」
「Therefore you have another Summon Monster carry it instead? That"s got to be foul play!」
「I don"t see anything wrong though, Adele.」
「How do you plan to fight that, Irina?」
「Yeah…」
In detail, my plan was…
Get Jericho to liquefy and then stick to Senki.
That way, I could easily get Jericho behind the front line.
There, Jericho could change back to his solid form and wreak havoc
That was all.
Yep.
I just used Jericho instead of Rig!
Although Senki was noticeably slower with Jericho than with Rig…
But Senki was still fast enough.
I could have used a physical enchant spell to increase Senki"s AGI stat…
But I figured he would be fine.
「But now I have a new problem on my hands.」
「What is it?」
「It"s Rig. I"ve always gotten Rig to stick to Senki.」
Hmm…
Should I have Rig stick to me instead?
It would be a bit heavy, but I should still be able to walk.
It was time for breakfast, so I decided to think about it later.
「Keith, could I talk to you about the match earlier?」
「Yeah?」
After finishing the food Bunraku made us, Irina asked me a question.
How can I help you?
「I learnt a lot from the fights too.」
「Really?」
「Yes. Toggle is pretty good at causing confusion, right?」
Yeah.
Irina had been fighting in a way that made use of Toggle a lot more.
「What do you have in mind, Irina?」
「Especially combined with the fast attacks the beast monsters can deliver… It"s definitely something we can work with.」
「But…」
「Yeah, I suppose not having a tank is a pretty big risk.」
「Yeah, don"t push yourself too far.」
Yep.
Please try the strategy at your own risk.
「We"re going to get moving at 7:30 am!」
Ooh.
I spent a lot of time having matches with Adele and Irina.
Haruna and Konohana were already making announcements.
I had two more matches after eating breakfast.
I tried having Rig stick to me.
Adele and Irina tried focussing on speed and confusion tactics.
They were good fights.
《【Evade】Level Up!》
《【Block】Level Up!》
《【Tree Magic】Level Up!》
《【Balance】Level Up!》
Some skills levelled up.
I was especially interested in【Balance】.
I did try to always cut my dodges as close as possible in the hopes that it would make a difference, but…
Well, whatever.
The move was on a much larger scale than the one from the day before.
It was definitely something to be afraid of.
「Thanks for letting me ride with you.」
「No worries.」
Yep.
Someone else joined me on Zangetsu"s back.
It was Hyodor.
Zangetsu was completely fine, even with Rig hitching a ride too.
There were no issues whatsoever.
It seemed like Hyodor hadn"t summoned a horse yet.
He didn"t have【Horsemanship】either.
「I guess horses are really useful after all.」
「Yep. Although you need a lot of skills to use them properly.」
A hawk was resting on his shoulder.
A wolf followed at his feet.
Hyodor had a pretty orthodox team.
「Let"s get going!」
Haruna gave the signal.
「Aoooooooh!」
Wolf looked up and howled.
An army of Summon Monsters started moving.
It was a slow march.
But nevertheless, we reached Remut well in time for the start of the games.
We were still on horseback, after all.
There was only one monster attack on the way.
A heroic Horned Rabbit.
It was the most feared monster in the starting map, but it was taken out in mere moments.
The hawks and owls swooped down all at once and plucked it to pieces.
Great.
It was like a scene from a horror movie.
Helix and Obsidian were in the pile, but I couldn"t tell exactly where they were.
Strength in numbers was really quite a scary thing.
We arrived in Remut.
Because we were such a large group, we decided to split up outside the town gate.
「This evening will be the last summoner meetup!」
「Please do join!」
Haruna and Konohana made another announcement.
Another one, huh.
No, I should just treat it like the last meeting.
It would let me enjoy it more.
「Well then, let"s get going.」
「「Yes!」」
I switched out my team for the one I would use in the match and entered Remut.
Matches hadn"t started yet.
But heat was definitely in the air.
Adele and Irina pa.s.sed through to the waiting room.
Well, that was fine too.
It looked like their match was the first match of the day.
Let"s see how they"re going to fight…
「We"ll get going now!」
「We"ll see you later.」
「Yeah. I"ll be watching you guys.」
I secured a good seat near the entrance and watched the field.
Hmm…
Their enemies were definitely tougher.
? ? ? Lv.12
Fighter On Standby
? ? ? Lv.12
Fighter On Standby
? ? ? Lv.11
Treasure Hunter On Standby
? ? ? Lv.11
Hunter On Standby
? ? ? Lv.12
Sorcerer On Standby
? ? ? Lv.12
Sorcerer On Standby
Wow.
They were definitely stronger.
And a strange team makeup too.
Both fighters had very heavy-looking equipment.
They were both carrying big shields.
One of them had a mace, while the other had a sword.
I suppose the Treasure Hunter would fight in the front?
The Hunter was a pretty standard-looking archer.
Both sorcerers had staffs.
Adele and Irina definitely had to watch out for spells.
Hmm.
There was no question about the battle log, but I felt like taking a video of the match would be a good idea too.
I spent some time figuring out how to do it.
I managed to somehow get it working before the start of the match.
A violent movement occurred immediately after the game started.
Toggle charged straight at the enemy.
U-chan slowly approached the front line.
Adele and Irina had a tiger each and scattered to the left and to the right.
A bold strategy.
There was a lot of risk with splitting up like that.
What was their goal?
What did the other team do?
They spread out to the right and to the left.
The Hunter moved to fight Adele.
The Treasure Hunter moved to take care of Irina.
It soon turned into close quarters combat.
They were still both in a position to surprise each other.
The Hunter paused.
For a moment, it seemed like he was going to move backwards.
But that moment was fatal.