𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝟏𝟔𝟑
‘Where is the soldier?’
Right now, there were only three of us here: me, Nayra, and Nabek. Nevertheless, Nabek confidently stepped forward to confront the Owlbear, and soon after, I could see him use a skill.
“Summon Karzen Kingdom Soldier!”
Pabat!-
‘Soldier Summon?’
Around Nabek, who used the same skill I had acquired, a total of about 10 soldiers appeared. Looking around at the 10 soldiers armed with decent leather armor, there were roughly 3 soldiers with swords and shields, 4 soldiers with long spears, and finally 3 soldiers with bows.
“Command: All-out attack!”
And following Nabek’s command, the soldiers rushed towards the Owlbear without hesitation. To be honest, with their expressionless faces and silence, it felt like some kind of dolls were moving.
Bang!- Kwabang!-
“Kuereong!”
‘Still, they fight well.’
The soldiers with swords and shields surrounded the Owlbear, and behind them, the soldiers with long spears thrust with all their might. Also, in the distance, the soldiers with bows were continuously firing arrows, so if there were no major changes, it seemed like they would win.
Anyway, as I expected, the Owlbear collapsed before long, and along with that, Nabek looked at me with an expression that seemed to ask, “How about that?”
“Amazing skills, aren’t they?”
“……Yes, they are amazing.”
Anyway, after watching the soldiers with such amazing skills, the two NPCs and I walked for a long time and finally arrived at the Beadi Mountain Range.
However, as we arrived at the mountain range, I felt a growing headache.
‘Sigh, it took 4 hours to get to this mountain range.’
And this isn’t the end. I still have to find the Highest-ranking Demon. How am I supposed to find that guy with this group? As a result, I was getting annoyed, but Nabek quickly dispelled my worries.
“Command: Scout the surroundings.”
“……?”
At the word “scout,” the 10 soldiers began to scatter and run off somewhere. Was that possible with soldiers? Having discovered something new, I asked Nabek.
“They can scout too?”
“Yes. Not only scouting, but also defense, escort, and even tasks like gathering if the commander is skilled.”
‘Oh.’
These were things that could never be done with existing summoned creatures. Until now, I had thought of summoned creatures as being for combat, but after hearing Nabek’s words, I realized that this skill was much better than I had thought.
“How about you have your soldiers scout the area too, Rudin-nim?”
“Should I?”
Intrigued by his suggestion, I tried summoning soldiers just like Nabek.
“Skill Use: Summon Karzen Kingdom Soldier.”
Pabat!-
[Summoning Karzen Kingdom Soldiers.]
[Related Stat Summon (156) is applied.]
[All stats of the Karzen Kingdom Soldiers are increased by 78. Health and Magic Power are increased by 780 each.]
‘The level doesn’t go up.’
If I had summoned them with Karzel’s Card Summoning, their levels would have increased as well. However, since I used a different skill this time, only the Summon stat was applied.
But still, the increased stats were decent.
If all stats were increased by 78, it was like their levels had increased by several tens, so I was generally satisfied.
[Related Stat Command (48) is applied.]
[Ding!~ You have used a Unit Summoning Skill for the first time. Unit Summoning Skills can be used more efficiently through commands.]
[Currently, you can use 2 commands based on your Command stat.]
[All-out attack. Scout the surroundings.]
Reading the message, it seemed that two commands were the limit with my current Command stat. However, after confirming that the necessary “Scout the surroundings” command was available, I took my eyes off the message and gave the same command as Nabek.
“Command: Scout the surroundings.”
[Please specify the target to scout.]
Target? If it’s a target……
“Um, demons?”
[Starting to scout the surroundings.]
Along with the message that the scouting had begun, the 10 soldiers ran off somewhere, and I was once again impressed as I watched them. Couldn’t I use this scouting feature later when I need to find something? It was certainly more versatile than most summoned creatures.
“So, we just have to wait now?”
Since Nabek and I had sent out the soldiers, a total of about 20 soldiers were scouting. So I asked the question, but the answer came first from Nayra, the one who dragged me all the way here.
“We can’t leave it all to the soldiers. Wouldn’t it be better for us to move around and look for the demon as well?”
From my perspective, where I needed to find the demon as soon as possible, there was no reason to object. However, since I didn’t know in what format I would receive the scouting results, I expressed my doubts.
“What about the soldiers who return after scouting?”
“Ah, you don’t have to worry about that. Even if we move, the soldiers will send a specific signal to inform us of the results.”
“Well, then it’s fine, but……”
Somehow convinced by Nabek’s explanation, I walked around the mountain range with these two. However, instead of the demons I was looking for, the mountain range was full of players who had come to hunt.
“Attack the back!”
“What are you doing?! Hold its attention! Just hold on for 10 seconds!”
Perhaps because the mountain range was vast, I could see players hunting whenever I walked around, and the monsters they were hunting were mantises bigger than humans.
Was their name Mantis?
While watching the players fend off the attacks of the mantises, whose forelegs gleamed like blades, and the players attacking from behind the mantises, a message popped up in the message window.
[One of the scouting soldiers has been killed by a Mantis.]
[The location of the dead soldier is marked on the map. You can check the location with the command ‘Map Check’.]
“……”
I never thought they would inform me of the scouting results in this way.
When I opened the map and checked the location where the soldier died, I could see a red dot marked about 10 minutes away.
It seemed to be marking the location of the soldier who died from the Mantis.
“Huh? That woman looks like an NPC from the Church of Light.”
“What nonsense. Why would an NPC come all the way here?”
“No, I’m serious. I remember seeing her before.”
[One of the scouting soldiers has found ‘Shaz, the Intermediate Demon’.]
[The target to scout has been found. The location is marked on the map.]
‘Huh?’
Ignoring the chatter of the surrounding players, I saw the message that an Intermediate Demon had been found and told Nayra next to me.
“It seems like they found a demon…… an Intermediate Demon.”
“Where is it?”
Nayra, who reacted immediately to the word “demon,” asked about the location first. Someone else will be fighting, so why is she asking about the location? But judging by her expression, she looked like she was ready to charge ahead.
Anyway, I told Nayra the approximate location while looking at the map.
“Just go straight in that direction.”
“Understood.”
Huh? Surprisingly, Nayra moved in the direction I pointed without hesitation. Nabek hurriedly chased after her, and I followed them, but my pace was not fast at all.
‘She needs to learn her lesson.’
As I leisurely walked towards where the demon was, I witnessed the two NPCs who had already arrived fighting the demon. However, surprisingly, Nayra, who had rushed in recklessly, was showing remarkable performance. She was gradually overwhelming the demon by firing arrows and spears made of pure white light.
Bang!- Kwabang!!-
“You damn child of light!”
“Vanish!”
‘……She’ll win even if I leave her alone?’
It wasn’t a joke, it seemed like there was no need for me to intervene. Anyway, the demon, which had a human form with only its hands glowing red, dodged the arrows of light that Nayra was firing and swung its hands in the air. Following its trajectory, blade-shaped flames shot towards Nayra, but……
“Divine Barrier!”
Kwaaaang!!-
They were blocked by the shield Nayra created. I confirmed that it was a powerful attack, as a significant explosion occurred. I then briefly turned my head towards the multiple footsteps approaching from behind.
“Wow, what is this? An Intermediate Demon?”
“See? I told you she was an NPC from the Church of Light.”
“Maybe she’ll give us a quest if we help her?”
Looking back, I could see the players who had been fighting the Mantis earlier admiring Nayra. As they said, I wasn’t sure if I would get a quest even if I helped Nayra, but I had no intention of stopping them from volunteering.
Just then, one of the players approached me and said,
“If you don’t mind, we’d like to help.”
“Sure, go ahead.”
“Huh? You’re not an NPC?”
Did he mistake me for an NPC too?
“The NPCs are those two in front.”
I pointed to Nayra, who was diligently attacking in front, and Nabek, who was protecting her. Nabek had received various support magic from Nayra, so the demon couldn’t easily approach. And if it tried to fight from a distance, it was being overwhelmingly pushed back by Nayra.
“If NPCs are coming all the way here…… what kind of quest did you receive?”
“The quest to catch that demon over there.”
“A quest to catch a demon? What’s the reward like?”
“Well……”
Again, there were only two things to consider as rewards for this quest: 200 gold and a random Rank A Faith Skillbook. Besides that, there was experience and Divine Contribution Points, but I had no idea what the Divine Contribution Points were used for.
In the first place, this was the first time I had received a temple-related quest.
“Some gold and a skillbook?”
“Ah, is that so? Anyway, we can help too, right?”
Instead of answering, I nodded, and the player talked with the others for a bit before rushing towards the demon. They had been hunting here, so they must have been quite skilled, and as I expected, the demon was easily defeated by the combined attack of Nayra and the players.
‘But it took longer than I thought.’
Even with Nayra’s light attacks and the combined attack of the players, it still took quite a while to defeat the Intermediate Demon. As a result, the soldiers I had summoned had already disappeared. Of course, I could summon them again, so it didn’t matter, but apart from that, it didn’t seem like these players would be of much help when fighting the Highest-ranking Demon.
“Who are you?”
And as soon as the battle ended, Nayra asked the question, and one of the players confidently answered.
“We are adventurers. We saw that you seemed to be in danger, so we took the liberty of helping you.”
‘……Do they have to speak like that?’
It was like the speech of a knight from a fairy tale. And what danger? She was rampaging like a fish in water. Still, it seemed to have an effect, as the vigilance in Nayra’s expression disappeared, and she continued to speak to the player in her usual calm tone.
“Thank you for your help. However, this is a dangerous task. I cannot let you get hurt because of my selfishness.”
‘Huh? Then what about me?’
Does that mean it’s okay for me to get hurt?
Considering the situation earlier where she went crazy at the word “demon,” I even felt a sense of dissonance, but I decided to stay silent and observe. The player, however, seemed unwilling to back down and shook his head, saying,
“It’s alright. We should help each other in times like these.”
“……”
‘To interpret that, it means, “We don’t know what’s going on, but we’ll help you, so give us the quest.” Right?’
On the other hand, Nayra seemed to have interpreted it a little differently, as she was nodding slightly with admiration. As expected, the player’s voluntary offer to help seemed to have moved her.
“Yes, if you say so, I am grateful. If you don’t mind, would you help me defeat the Highest-ranking Demon?”
If it were me, I would have at least thought about it for a moment at the mention of the Highest-ranking Demon. However, these guys didn’t seem to care about that and were just overjoyed at the quest that had appeared.
“Yes! We got a quest!”
“The reward is amazing too! What are you waiting for?! Accept it quickly!”
And at the urging of their companions, the player nodded.
“Of course.”
“Thank you.”
‘Well, it’s not like I’m the one dying, so there’s no reason to care.’
Anyway, I looked at the players, and there were four of them. The number of people had suddenly increased to seven, but for some reason, I didn’t feel like our fighting power had significantly increased.
“Um, are you not offended by any chance?”
“Offended? Why would I be?”
Suddenly, one of the players who received the quest approached me and said that, but I couldn’t understand and asked back in confusion.
“We interfered with the quest you were in the middle of.”
“Ah, it’s fine, don’t worry about it.”
At my answer, the player seemed relieved.
“Really? Then, please take care of us.”
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