âFirst, we began to move west from this town with four units, including dummy units. This is the road that connects the main towns, and we moved with General Mathew along the mountain road south of this road. And it was right around here that we were attacked.â\n
ăMizuho and Marion explained the details of the most recent attack to Hiroto, ufsing the map spread out on the table.\n
âFumu âŚâŚ.â\n
âThe summoned demons first blocked this road to stop our movement, and then attacked from the north and south sides of this road, respectively.â\n
âHow many were there?â\n
ăHiroto turned to Marion.\n
âAbout that. I donât know the exact number, but there are about fifty quick ones, including gargoyles, on the front, and thirty each on the north and south sides, mainly of the beast type.â\n
âThatâs a lot âŚâŚ, even for a low-grade demon. The summoner must be someone with great skill to be able to manipulate them without any problems. In that case, we should consider the possibility that they are still hiding their abilities.â\n
ăHiroto was surprised by the sheer number of them, and when he mentioned this guess, both Marion and Mizuho were also surprised.\n
âYouâre saying they still have some power left?ăItâs not possible. Whatâs the point of that for an enemy who doesnât have time to spare, Domori Hiroto?â\n
âI felt that there was something half-hearted about it, but itâs not like the enemy would cut corners âŚâŚ.â\n
ăIt seems that they both thought that the assassins had their target in front of them and donât understand why they would cut corners.\n
âAhh âŚâŚ about that.â\n
At this point, Hiroto realized that what he had said and their reactions didnât mesh very well, and he decided that he needed to tell them about summoners while he still could.\n
ăLack of information could put them both in danger in future battles.\n
âThe summoner uses his or her spiritual or magical power as a catalyst, so the amount of catalyst needed is proportional to the number and rank of the non-humans summoned. In addition, the summoning time is not infinite, and the summoner has to keep giving the spiritual power or magical power steadily throughout the summoning. Thatâs why they are required to maintain extreme concentration while summoning non-humans.â[TN: non-humans refers to spirits, demons, monsters, etc]\n
ăMizuho and Marion also nodded. That is the basis of the summonerâs ability when it is activated.\n
âAs Marion-san said earlier, a summonerâs most powerful ability is to manipulate the summoned non-human in a place where they can concentrate without being detected by the opponent. Thatâs why summoners are skilled in stealth skills to avoid detection by their opponents. âŚâŚâ\n
ăAt this time, Hiroto recalls the female summoner warrior comrade who fought together with him in the demon world before.\n
ăShe was a well-known summoner in the demon world and had received repeated requests from the kingdoms of the humans living in the demon world to serve them with unparalleled treatment, but she was an eccentric who showed no interest in such requests.\n
ăHowever, when the Demon God attacked the kingdom, the female summoner fought together with Hiroto and showed her great power in defeating the Demon God.\n
(Amanda-san, I wonder how you are doing?ăAre you still researching summoning methods?ăBut that person was the exception of the exception, she didnât run and hide even though she was a summoner. âŚâŚ)\n
ăHiroto told Mizuho and Marion, remembering the words from that female summoner sometime ago.\n
âAnd what if the summoner is found?ăWhat if you run into enemies in a place where you canât even hide from them, to begin with?ăThat can always happen when you are in battle. So the summoner is always thinking about âŚâŚ what to do in that situation.â\n
ăMizuho and Marion were taken aback by what Hiroto said and immediately understood what he meant.\n
ăAbility users with biased characteristics will always have blind spots in their abilities.\n
ăIn particular, Mizuho, who is a spirit user herself, is good at medium to long-range fighting. On the other hand, it is said that spirit users are not good at close combat.\n
ăThis is certainly true, but the spirit users know that. For this reason, the Shitenji family, one of the most prestigious families of spirit users, has even systematized their own body techniques to compensate for this weakness.\n
ăIf so, it would be naive to think that the summoner would keep his or her own weaknesses intact.\n
ăMizuho and Marion accepted what Hiroto had said.\n
ăThe two of them are very quick-witted in this area.\n
ăHiroto looked at Mizuho and Marion, who had become serious, and quietly continued talking.\n
âSo âŚâŚ summoners who have surpassed a certain level never fight with all their might.â\n
ââŚâŚâ\n
âYou canât hide, and you always leave some extra power in case you have to fight them. And they always have a hidden sleeve for when that happens. In most cases, it is the strongest summoning âŚâŚ that you can do. You just have to stay focused even when you have an enemy in front of you, a non-human who will protect you or let you escape and crush your enemy. We donât know about this enemy yet. But keep it in mind.â\n
ââŚâŚ Okay.â\n
ăMizuho and Marion braced themselves for what Hiroto had to say.\n
ăThey didnât mean to be careless. But even if you are not careless, if you donât always think about the enemy, you may not be able to get back.\n
ăNow, they firmly burned the words of their peers into their minds. And for Mizuho, the reputation of this Rank D boy further increased.\n
ăHiroto was relieved that the two had accepted his story.\n
ăBoth Mizuho and Marion were outstanding beyond compare. If they were simply good at what they do, they would be able to beat out most non-humans and rank among the best of all the ability users.\n
ăHowever, Hiroto knows that in a battle, the results are not always what they seem. Winning or losing a life-threatening battle has many factors, and a small lack of knowledge can determine the fate of the battle.\n
ăAnd this knowledge is mainly based on oneâs own experience and the shared experience of oneâs comrades-in-arms. This is where Mizuho and Marion, who are in their first battle, are lacking the most.\n
ăThis is not their fault.\n
ăIt can be called the first and biggest obstacle that anyone who wants to put themselves into battle goes through.\n
ăHiroto did not want to see Mizuho and Marion get injured. Thatâs why he wanted to pass on all the knowledge he had gained from his experience.\n
ăAt this moment, unaware that Hiroto was seriously thinking about it, the two girls had a question about the boy in front of them.\n
ăHow could a boy of the same age, but of a lower rank than them, know so much about summoners?ăThey thought so.\n
ăIt looked as if he was talking about his experience and knowledge as if he had acquired it through actual combat.\n
ăAnd another questionâŚâŚ.\n
ăRather, this one is a bigger question.\n
ăWhy do this boyâs words fit so easily into my mind?\n
ăThis made me feel as if I had always trusted this boy.\n
ăHaving such thoughts, Mizuho and Marion stare at the face of Hiroto as if to confirm.\n
ăâŚâŚ separately, they donât feel anything.\n
ăWell, when they stare at him for a while, they will feel a little annoyed, just like when they first met him.\n
ăSomething about him makes me mad like heâs not telling me something important like heâs not being frank, like he should be more intimate with me, or that heâs distancing himself.\n
ăBut maybe, unexpectedly, contrary to appearances, you can rely more on âŚâŚ this boy, though it may be a misgiving.\n
ăAnd I hope you can rely on me, too. âŚâŚ\n
âIâm sorry, this is off-topic, but the other spiritual ability user âŚâŚ what?ăW-Whatâs wrong?ăBoth of your faces are a little red. âŚâŚâ\n
âItâs nothing!â\n
âI-Itâs nothing.â\n
âI-Is that so?ăWell, letâs talk about the other person who seems to be a spiritual power userâŚâŚ.â\n
ăMizuho and Marion responded with a loud voice, which made Hiroto flinch, but he continued to talk.\n
âNaturally, the spiritual ability user must have some reason to produce spiritual power, right?ăWhat was it like?ăDid you feel anything, like a skill being activated?â\n
ăMizuho and Marion, who had managed to calm down, looked at each other at Hirotoâs question.\n
âI think so. Marion and I were also on the lookout, but we didnât feel any skill activation. And what do you mean by that spiritual power too?ăIt was so thin and hazy that you had to sharpen your senses to notice it. It was as if I was in a thin fog of spiritual power. âŚâŚâ\n
âYes, I noticed it too, about the third time after I started being attacked. So I immediately thought it was a newcomer, but no skills were triggered, and here we are.â\n
âAnyway, theyâre creepy as hell!ăIâm sure they are quite skilled, but they donât attack all at once. I donât know what the hell they are aiming for âŚâŚ. Just because their spiritual power is drifting over a wide area, it doesnât mean that they are doing anything with it, and we donât know where they are channeling it from.â\n
ăHiroto tilted his head as they spoke.\n
âUmm, itâs definitely odd that they are not fighting hard enough even though they donât have time to spareâŚâŚ But I think thereâs something aimed with that drifting spiritual power,âŚâŚ.â\n
ăHiroto once again looked at the map that Mizuho and Marion explained to him, and confirmed the topography. It was a typical mountain road with poor visibility, with large and small mountains standing in disarray and the road swerving from side to side.\n
(I thought that the enemy summoner was somehow collaborating with other ability users to prevent them from finding out where he was, but that doesnât explain it. âŚâŚ)\n
âMoreover, if you were to try to drift spiritual power over a wide area in such terrain, the mountain itself would be in the way and take quite a while. What does that imply, exactly?â\n
ăHiroto crossed his arms and stared at the map.\n
âThe summoner should also be fighting while keeping track of us, so he should be nearby. But I canât locate them at all. âŚâŚâ\n
ăAs he mentioned earlier, the summoner canât be that far away from the summoned non-human.\n
ăThough, it would be a different story if the summon is only given a simple command and a suitable catalyst, it is necessary to keep on giving catalysts to the summoned non-human whenever it needs to be moved flexibly.\n
ăOf course, in that case, you need to know the location of the non-human you summoned.\n
ăTo the non-human this timeâthe catalyst, in this case, is magical powerâ and the summoner is always thinking carefully about how to allocate the magical power.\n
âThatâs right. Summoners have a limited distance to cover in order to grasp the location of the non-humans. Not to mention this amount of summons. I donât think they would be detected unless they were close by. âŚâŚâ\n
ăThe summoner can grasp the location of non-human they summoned even without looking. This is because they are able to sense the spiritual or magical power of the non-human they summon.\n
ăThe higher the summonerâs ability to sense this spiritual or magical power, the better the summoner is, and the more perceptive they are, the safer the summoner can operate from a distance.\n
âWhile sensing such a large number. The amount of magic power would be considerable, but âŚâŚ?ăWait, detection ability!ăMaybe the role of this fog of spiritual power is âŚâŚ then it is no wonder that Shitenji-san and the others could not find the enemy. If thatâs the case, they rather wanted us to think they were nearby last time!â\n
ăHiroto took his eyes off the map and raised his head.\n
âHiroto, did you find out anything?â\n
âWell, Iâm still guessing. âŚâŚâ\n
âThen, just tell us. Domori Hiroto.â\n
ăMizuho encouraged Hiroto to share his thoughts.\n
âUmm. You both know that spiritual power and magical power repel each other, right?ăI think that drifting spiritual power may be applied to enhance the summonerâs detection ability. In other words, theyâre boosting their detection abilities and attacking us from farther away than we can imagine.â\n
âEh?â\n
ăMizuho and Marion didnât understand what Hiroto was talking about and looked dumbfounded.\n
ăThe summoner, who is mainly a magician, can raise his sensing ability within a thinly drifting fog of spiritual power. âŚâŚ\n
âThatâs âŚâŚ ah âŚâŚ I see!ăMaybe!â\n
âWhat?ăMarion, what does that mean?ăDid you find out anything?â\n
âAh, yes, maybe what Hiroto-san is thinking is âŚâŚâ\n
ăWhen Mizuho turned her head to ask Hiroto for an explanation, Hiroto smiled and explained to Mizuho.\n
âIf you drop ink on a blank piece of calligraphy paper, even a tiny drop will stand out.â\n
âHuh?â\n
ăSo what?ăMizuhoâs expression gave such an impression.\n
âBut, Hiroto-san. Then, where would be the ability user who is drifting spiritual power?â\n
âThatâs also âŚâŚ assuming that this assumption is correct, and then looking at the map, I vaguely figured out where they are. Well, itâs a process of elimination now.â\n
âEh!?â\n
âReally!?ăHiroto-san!â\n
Marion is amazing!ăAs heâs impressed, Hiroto approaches her, gives her a respectful look, and puts his hands in front of his chest.\n
âWait!ăThat one just now⌠why .â\n
âMarion-san, you are much more worthy of praise than that,âŚâŚ.â\n
ăHiroto replied, embarrassed by Marionâs gaze.\n
ăLooking at the conversation, Mizuho was momentarily annoyed by Marionâs movement but still did not understand what Hiroto was talking about.\n
âSo, Domori Hiroto. Explain from the beginning âŚâŚ.â\n
âBut now we can plan our countermeasures for next time!â\n
âYes!ăHiroto-san. The summoner is probably farther away than we thought!\n
âSo âŚâŚâ\n
ăHiroto turns to face Mizuho with a confident and innocent face, probably because of Marionâs praise.\n
âShitenji-san!ăNow you can give your enemy a big blow with this!â\n
âThis is why âŚâŚ Domori Hiroto.â\n
ăMizuho was looking down and her shoulders were trembling slightly as shadows formed on her face.\n
âYes?ăWhat is it?ăShitenji-san.â\n
ăHiroto enthusiastically asks Mizuho.\n
âFrom the beginning, âŚâŚ.â\n
ââŚâŚ?â\n
âExplainnnnnnnnnnnnnnn!!â\n
âYes!?ăYesssss â-!\n
ăAnd so, Hiroto and the others meticulously put together a strategy in preparation for the next enemy attack.\n
âendâ\n
<hr class="wp-block-separator has-text-color has-background has-luminous-vivid-orange-background-color has-luminous-vivid-orange-color is-style-wide">\nAm I the only one finding Mizuho irritating?\n
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