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Chapter 157.3: Operation Crossing The Bridge 2
Anyhow, since my vocation was the kind of vocation that belonged to a spellcaster type called shaman, my status should be optimized to use magic including the amount of my magical power. That’s why my magical power shouldn’t be that low.
But I’d yet to make sure whether this skill called 『Echo』 would work against the weakest monster in this dungeon, goma. Even at the best, this was nothing more than a shi*ty skill. Be happy, 『Red Fever』, you got a comrade!
「Haah, I never expected a day that I missed goma would come, there’s none of those in this area after all.」
If that was the case, I guess using a black skeleton was more practical for me.
「Haah… what should I do now.」
I was crestfallen, heaving a sigh while looking at the summoner’s skull fitted on the 『Fool’s Cane』 with the high zombie hanging upside-down as the background.
I had no idea which one of my classmates’ skulls was this skull, could it be that this sh*tty skill was the reason for that person’s death? If that was the case, my condolences, comrade. Well, I wouldn’t give you my condolences if summoner was one of the cheat vocations though. I mean, if it was a cheat vocation, the chances were high that the person got overly confident of his power only to have Tendou turn the table against that person.
When I was in the middle of my escapade, the chirp of a small bird reached my ears.
The bird that was chirping in this jungle was a bird similar to a tree sparrow whose chirping awakened me when I first arrived in this dungeon. I thought they were adorable birds, different from the wild little birds, but I was wrong. They were gathered around the corpse of a high zombie, pecking its body with their little beaks.
「… 『Echo』.」
The moment I used that skill, one of the little birds twitched and stopped moving.
「Did I just… succeed!?」
I noticed that the skill would work out somehow. It was just my intuition.
But the feeling became more apparent when I invoked 『Echo』.
In a high zombie’s case, I felt it was impossible. It felt like trying to paint an entire canvas with 0,3 mm mechanical pencil but when it came to the tree sparrow, the tuning felt like I had dumped a can of paint on the canvas.
+++
When I tried to give it an order to come to me, it flapped its wings and perched on my shoulder.
「Oo, it seems I just heard something really amazing.」
It turned out, the reason why dominating monsters with mana was so difficult was that they already had mana in their body, forming some sort of resistance to it. But that wasn’t the case because a normal wild animal didn’t have mana, to begin with, it was easier to tame them.
Well, the reason was trivial for me anyway. What was more important was the fact that I could finally tame them.
Now then, let’s see if the animal that was tamed with 『Echo』 could be summoned with a summoning circle.
「YEAH, IT’S POSSIBLE!!」
When I swung my cane, the tree sparrow perching on my shoulder went down towards the small red summoning circle that appeared on the ground, and disappeared with a puff, leaving a trail of black smoke behind.
And when I swung my cane one more time, the black mist came out again, forming the shape of a tree sparrow.
「HELL YEAH!!!」
It turned 『Echo』 was working on a small animal such as a tree sparrow. In addition, I could summon the subordinated animal with a summoning circle too.
In the case of skeletons, thirty bodies at once was my limit. But if it was only this tree sparrow, I could go as far as a hundred.
Or maybe, I could go for a bigger bird…
「I did it! Now I can do something about Sakurai-kun with this!」
===
Finally, our preparation to breakthrough Sakurai sniping blockade was completed.
My first card was equipping Mei-chan with my avatar created with 『Twin Shadow』, a psychological tactic to induce hesitation in Sakurai-kun.
The second card was me rushing in with my makeshift air force while Mei-chan kept Sakurai-kun busy.
「Hehehe, speaking of flying in the air, it sounds like a cheat.」
I was grinning from ear to ear while grasping on the 『Fool’s Cane』 which had the summoner’s skull fitted on its tip, looking up at the sky far away from the geofront.
Up there was the gathering of numerous birds of various sizes and species.
「Yosh, now turn back.」
I swung my cane once as I gave such an order, following which the birds fell down, flapping their wings as they landed on the ground.
The bird that gathered under me was the bird that I found around this area with the effect of 『Echo』. There were various kinds of birds starting from small-sized, tree sparrow-like birds to big-sized, colorful parrot-like birds.
But then, I could send them back home using a summoning circle just by saying 「Return」. It was an extremely reliable function for a summoner’s familiar.
But there was one bird left behind when I ordered them to return.
It had a crow-like figure both in color and appearance, looking like your normal average bird. This one was the only one who was different from the other birds, it was a corpse doll’s Rem after all.
「As I thought, it is easier to use those birds by appointing Rem as their leader.」
I’d already understood something from the very first skeleton summoning experiment that the familiar created with summon skill or the familiar tamed with 『Echo』 had extremely low intelligence. They’d follow my order faithfully, but that’s all for they couldn’t adapt to the situation.
At least, I knew that trying to teach them tactics or swordcraft in one day was literally impossible.
That’s why when it came to actual combat, I’d to give precise orders but… this was just the right time. Things would become more complicated when I gave different orders to several familiars at once.
Things would be far easier if I could give them a command with a click from the mouse, you know, just like those PC games. Though things might be easier for me as I gained mastery over that area, the current me wasn’t as skilled when it came to manipulating the object outside my field of vision.
For example, when I ordered the birds to fly, they would fly till far ahead in the blink of an eye. When I tried to directly control the familiar, I found out that the live operation was restricted to some extent.
And in this situation in which the aerial operation was hopeless… Rem became my own solution.
Rem’s thinking capabilities and movements were still going strong even after the number of her clones increased again, well it might be because she had parallel ability built into her specs. That’s why having one Rem, Bird Rem to be exact, commanding the flock of birds in my place reduced my burden as the summoner.
+++
All I needed was to explain the outline of our strategy to Rem and she would understand what I wanted to do with her own thinking capabilities. I mean, she could already make her own decisions to some extent when she met an unexpected variable in our plan, she could already judge for herself whether she should continue the mission or retreat.
And now, by appointing Rem as the familiar unit’s leader, all they needed to do was obey Rem-sama’s command.
And just as I expected, even the brains of those birds (well, they’re birds after all) familiars showed enough intelligence to be able to at least follow Rem’s order. Move, attack, or retreat. As long as they could follow those orders precisely, it was already enough for me.
「How’s your side, Mei-chan?」
「Yup, I think it’s great.」
As a side note, while I was in the middle of training the birds, Mei-chan who was in the middle of training to repel the rapid firing arrows with her black tower shield replied so with a smile on her face.
Since our opponent was an archer, training to repel his arrows was mandatory. Know yourself, know your opponent, you won’t lose in hundreds of battles.
Which reminds me, the only opponent who used bow and arrow so far were those ugly gomas with their tattered, clumsy-looking arrows, the same went for Mei-chan, she rarely met a living armor who used bowgun or bow and arrow as their weapon.
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That’s why she was in the middle of intense training to repel Sakurai-kun’s sniping since she had to cross the bridge while protecting my shadow. Well, we can train as much as we can after all.
Currently, Rem the first, Arachne Rem, and Rem the third were in the middle of shooting arrows relentlessly toward Mei-chan. Since Arachne Rem’s upper half was that of a human, she could use a bow and arrow normally. I mean, look at centaurs, they could use bow and arrow with their upper half too, so Rem should be able to do that too.
Anyhow, since Rem had already mastered archery, the three of them could shoot from three different directions without missing their target. Any normal opponent would be killed against such a relentless barrage.
But still, as expected of Mei-chan, our berserker. She could easily fend off the arrows that came from her blind spots.
「This should be enough but I can’t help but feel anxious since Sakurai-kun’s archery is more amazing than this.」
「As expected, it’s because his vocation is 『Archer』 right. Since the other party has martial art too, this training might be far from enough.」
「Uhm, but still… I will protect you, Kotaro-kun.」
「No, it’s my turn to become your shield now.」
「Ah… you’re right, tehehehe.」
Now, I could also look cool in front of Mei-chan by becoming her shield, it’s my shadow though. I mean, it was true that we could easily win this fight if I made full use of 『Pain Return』 when Sakurai-kun shot my limbs which in return would decrease his combat power, and then bring the battle to close combat but… sorry, I’m a realist, I wouldn’t place my bet on probability, and self-sacrifice wasn’t in my blood.
In the end, Mei-chan still took the most dangerous role but somehow, I felt a pang of guilt upon seeing her smiling affectionately, praising me for thinking about various tactics without even showing a trace of discontent on her fa… Yup, let’s stop with this meaningless self-deprecation.
What I’d to do now was place my trust in Mei-chan’s power, pray for the success of my tactic, and go challenge the lonely 『Archer』, Sakurai-kun.