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Published at 7th of December 2019 11:40:02 AM


Chapter 63

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Adventurer Life Day 66 (Wed) – Noon – Palmyra City – Northen Village – Ulmine

 

Now then, during the time Nemo and his party were in the middle of hunting in Olbia, from a village of Ulmine, located three days away, northeast of Olbia, an unusual situation occurred to which a group of skilled adventurers came to investigate.

 

Speaking of remote villages, it is customary in this world for these to be built in places difficult to reach.

This village is no different, and was located on a flat plane of a 6m high cliff.

 

To reach there, you would need to climb up along a wooden ladder.

With that, this place was said to be a safe location for humans as there are no reported cases of flying monsters around the area.

 

However, the village as of now is completely silent, which was completely different compared to its usual liveliness. The homes all appear to be empty.

… That is, except for one.

 

Among the silence of the village, there was only the village chief’s house, a stone house slightly larger than all the other houses, where people still appear to be coming in and out.

And from a little far off from the village were some people with a sharp smell, and were gathering in and out of the building.

 

They were the team of adventurers funded by the adventurer’s guild from Comnes and other southern cities from about a month and a half ago.

Their reason for being here is to investigate some strange occurrences coming from the Norden forest, east of Comnes.

 

Inside the house has a large map spread out on top of a wooden table.

A man, who seemed to be one of the scouts, explained and pointed at various parts of the map.

 

“The horde is about 5 kilometers west from this village. Right now, the hunting of the surroundings are going quite well and nothing strange was detected.

“It won’t be long before that group will begin to notice us.”

 

The soldier, leaning against his chair, spoke bluntly after listening to the scout’s reports.

His face was covered up by his messy bluish hair and beard, where even the eyes were only seen from time to time.

The stomach was slightly protruding, but the thickness of his arms and the sharpness of his eyes shows his competence in his line of work as a veteran.

… The man’s is known to others as Eric the Blue Beard.

 

At that, a female adventurer, fully equipped in metal armor, rushes in.

 

“Eric! Ruben’s party has come back!”

“Ohh! Back now is it? Hopefully we can know what those monsters are going to do now.”

 

Soon after, a warrior in leather armor and in his late 30s came in to the building.

 

“Greetings, Eric… Pardon me here. The others are resting nearby for the moment.”

 

With his helmet on hand, the man sits on the chair and left his shield against the wall.

This man was a warrior from the Comnes guards, Ruben.

 

Just a month and a half ago, some forest wolves, which should have originally lived inside the forest, appeared within the rock fields of Comnes after being driven out of their habitat…

As such, he was one of the people assigned to investigate the cause for that.

 

Since then, there were some changes in that group’s movements when tracking it down. This had been a joint mission with the research team from the southern cities, far from Comnes.

 

“I was only making use of the fact that there are none of the residents left here, so there’s no need for thanks. But before that, you’ve been keeping a close eye on those for that past two days. You must’ve been worn out from that… Thank you for the hard work.”

“No need. It’s only a part of my service. Though I am admittedly tired, I can still manage to do some more.”

“Already leaving is it… though have you been able to find the leader of that group?”

“Yeah… The leader of that was without a doubt, an Elite Orc. We were also able to confirm a number of other Elites under it.”

 

When hearing this, his eyes opened wide.

 

“Hmph!… This is more of a troublesome situation than expected.”

 

The ‘group’ these adventurers are investigating… is the abnormally large horde of orcs that have been continuously moving southwards.

 

 

 

 

– Adventurer Life Day 66 (Wed) – Morning – Olbia City – Plain Fields by the Palmyra Road

 

Now then… We’ve arrived back to the field from yesterday…

 

Today, I’m going to test out the spears and other weapons with the skeletons.

First, I’ll distribute these spears with the 4 new skeletons from Phillips’ group and the other 14 normal skeletons.

 

The rest that doesn’t need any investigating for the moment would go out hunting like normal…

Their grouping is quite similar to the one from yesterday’s.

 

Dismantling however, will be done by Centurion’s team while Benedetta would deal with their surroundings.

 

Now with that taken care of, I can concentrate on testing out the skeletons with the new weapons, the spears being the first to test out.

 

 

This morning, I’ve been thinking of simply using the normal skeletons to use the spears… but after a while, I noticed a simple problem I forgot to take into account.

 

(… I actually don’t know how to use a spear…)

 

And for that, I’m going to have to consult with a pro on this… or in any case, Phillips’ opinion.

Right now it’s just me and Phillips alone here.

 

“Thanks for helping me out on this.”

“Do not mention it my lord. However, to be teaching a group in using spears and shields… how nostalgic.”

 

I had an image imagined in my head like the native warriors from Africa, equipped with a spear and shield.

However, the spears bought back in that weapons store were about 3m long, and given how clumsy the skeletons are, it’ll be difficult for them to use with one hand.

Because of that, it doesn’t seem like it would be able to penetrate much through the Demon Horn’s tough defense  reliably.

With those problems appearing to me, I asked for some advice.

 

“Then, wouldn’t it be better to just hold the spear with both hands?”

“I thought of that, but I’m a little worried about them not having a shield…”

“You only have to fix their shield to their arms… just like with me, see?”

“Eh… …?”

 

I look blankly at the round shield fixed onto Phillips’ arms…

 

This entire time, I’ve been comparing the normal skeletons with Phillips’ subordinates as they’re about the same size and have no shields equipped to them. And so, without thinking, I removed the option of having the shields fixed onto them.

I kind of feel silly from that…

 

Phillips made a stance with his spear and shields as an example for me to see.

 

“Ooh.”

 

Watching Phillips’ stance, the shield attached to his arm was facing me and the spear was also pointing directly at my direction.

Although he wasn’t doing anything besides that, I’ve been feeling a constant pressure as if that spear would be lunged right at me at any time.

 

“I see now… If you hold the spear like that, then the shield from your arm will be in the right position from there. And then, if there are allies doing the same stance standing side by side then it would form a wall of shield…”

“That’s right.”

 

Though it is small in comparison, the shield covers more than half of Phillipos’ left side.

If there are others doing the same, then their shield will cover their right.

If we were to maintain that sort of form, then we can have a spiked wall like that.

 

And even more so, with this, we can still have the skeletons hold their spears with both hands. Even those clumsy skeletons can be quite dangerous if it were like this.

 

Probably seeing the expression from my face, Phillips made a light chuckle.

 

I’m not sure what kind of face I am making, but after having finally found a way to make the skeletons still viable, I can probably make a guess.

 

 

 

 

Before starting on that however, I try to modify something using Bone Manipulation for one skeleton as a trial.

 

“Oh… what could this be?”

“This one is something I only heard before, so it’s not particularly special… but how about it? I think this can suit well for those clumsy skeletons.”

“Hmm… Certainly with this, it would make things much easier for them.”

 

The little bit of renovation I made for them was that, instead of having the shield attached to the skeleton’s arm, the shields are now fixed on to their bone directly just like with their armor.

This way, there’s that little bit more freedom in the arms in comparison.

 

Another thing to note is that since the shield is attached to the forearm, there’s now little burden acting on their fragile wrists… It’s quite convenient how these aren’t human to begin with.

 

In addition, since the normal skeletons are slightly stronger than the average human, the weight of the shield held from one arm shouldn’t bother it too much… It’s their clumsiness that’s the problem and having to use both hands somewhat fixes that.

 

This plan had the seal of approval from Phillips himself, so I went ahead and applied it to the rest of the 13 skeletons.

 

Eventually, all skeletons that were fully equipped with their armor, now have the same set up.

When they were walking, the shape of the round shield gets in the way, and there’s no way to adjust it since it is fixed, so I made some minor adjustments to that.

 

“Hm… So is it ready yet?”

“Hold on, wait a bit… Alright, there should be no problems now. Hey, try walking!”

 

From those words, the group of skeletons moved forward.

 

“… Oohh. That’s nice!”

 

With the spear in hand, the skeletons walked on smoothly… Despite cutting off the size of the shield, it still covers the majority of the skeleton when joined together, apart from the lower portion of their bodies.

Even so, that area is still armored anyways.

 

Seeing them like this, almost feels intimidating…

 

 

 

 

(However… I wonder how much this would help practically…)

 

We wandered around the prairie, marching through with 6 skeletons in line.

Not long after, a large individual was seen approaching.

 

The skeletons all went into formation…

As the Demon Horn comes closer, it gradually lowers its head and increases its speed… and then…

 

(Oohh!)

 

They actually stopped it!

 

As expected, the new strategy was able to stop it completely this time… The Demon Horn couldn’t get through.

 

On the other hand, the skeletons from the further ends began to close in, thrusting their spears into it!

It wasn’t long before the monster lay beneath the grass immobile.

 

 

 

 

A perfect victory!

I couldn’t hold back my laughter at that accomplishment.

 

Satisfied from this, I had Phillips return back to hunting around the field as I moved now onto dealing with our long range abilities.

At that, I called Benedetta over, who had been keeping an eye out on the surroundings.

 

Borrowing the bow and arrow from her, I handed it over to a skeleton to test it out. However, the result for this one was disappointing… though it was something I expected.

 

The first thing to notice was that it wasn’t able to switch a new arrow very well… Even when that’s done, it would still struggle with drawing out the bow, either the hands would get tangled around the bow string, or the arrow would simply be dropped onto the ground.

 

Before it could ruin the bow any further, I had to tell it to stop in a fluster.

Even with my earlier optimism, this one isn’t ever going to work out, from what I could see, so I gave up and took the bow off of the skeleton.

 

“Thanks for that Benedetta… Here’s your bow back. I couldn’t tell, but hopefully it wasn’t damaged or anything.”

“That’s okay, this bow pretty strong so I wouldn’t worry too much… Even so, to think your skeleton couldn’t even start to draw the bow.”

“I honestly didn’t think it would be this clumsy… Oh well, it can’t be helped. I’ll try to find something else a little easier to use.”

 

Once I handed it back, I had six of my skeletons pick up some nearby stones about the size of a baseball.

 

 

 

 

After that, we found another Demon Horn to try it on, and so I had them throw stones from behind the skeleton shields.

 

“It seems like it had worked. The monster’s movement became quite dull afterwards.”

“Hm… It did indeed stopped, but whether that was from the stones or not still haven’t been proven.”

 

The monsters here deal mostly by rushing into their targets, meaning that we have to deal with the initial attack from their end, however, compared to ordinary humans, skeletons still are stronger, and when throwing a large stone, it can catch them from a considerable distance.

 

Even when it doesn’t benefit from my skill bonuses and can’t use Benedetta’s bow either, their accuracy is much higher than I expected.

Able to hit monsters from even 20 meters away.

 

As I thought however, without the Engraving and Plating buffs added, they couldn’t take the Demon Horn with just that, but even so, it was considerably damaged before it even reaches the spear users.

 

And then no sooner, an arrow lodged deeply into the top of its head, causing it to collapse right there.

Seems like they were able to penetrate properly this time.

 

Benedetta’s arrows had been individually Engraved and Plated, which seems to be enough to make a complete difference compared to what happened yesterday.

 

And so once again, our entire party made a complete revamp…

 

 

Right now, while making up some new throwing bullets for the skeletons to use, I wanted to check how different it’s power is in comparison.

 

This one is the same as the ones used yesterday, which was made from the bones of Demon Horns.

Ever since the incident with the ‘mysterious voice’, my performance has greatly improved. Making about 10 pieces of these only now takes 10 seconds to finish, including the Engraving and Plating added to it, and I distributed these between the skeletons.

 

Normal skeletons, when directly controlled, doesn’t have the same bone weapon bonus that I would have.

However, these bone bullets are heavier than their stone counterparts, so I thought testing these out wouldn’t hurt.

 

Now then… I tried having the six of them throw at once, and from what I could see, the power of these is clearly considerable.

The poor Demon Horn couldn’t even do anything as it continues getting pummeled by a wave of bone bullets before collapsing.

The difference between the stone bullets is way higher than I thought…

 

Furthermore, when I tried throwing one myself, I was able to finish it off from about 50 meters away.

In addition with the throwing bonus from the Alchemist protection, combining it with the bone weapon bonus increased the power far more than I would have thought it would…

 

Finally, I check on the bone-made throwing knife I also made yesterday.

 

Even though I call it a throwing knife, I could only get it as sharp as a paper knife with my Bone Manipulation skill.

Because of that, I had to change the shape a little, making it more like a pick, so although I would call it a throwing knife, it’s more like a bou shuriken instead.

 

For the time being, I try throwing it lightly onto a nearby tree, and even though I mentioned it having the sharpness of a broken pencil, the tip still sunk quite a bit into the trunk.

Depending on how I use it, I might even be able to penetrate even the steel armor from this world.

 

 

Though having this sort of ability made me happy at first, I was stunned when I realized I couldn’t extend the distance very much.

 

This is because once the knife travels to about 10m, it begins to stall quite abruptly, making it unable to penetrate with the tip.

 

I’m not sure if this is just a normal thing or if it is the skill preventing me from throwing further, but now matter how many times I try, I couldn’t get past that distance limit.

 

In the end, this is still a pretty good hidden weapon to keep with me.

Since the power is considerable, it should be pretty useful depending on how it’s used.

 

Satisfied with the all of the results, I decided on focusing on hunting for the rest of the day.

 

 

 

 

—- Summoning Memo —-

Centurion Team:
Members: Centurion, Skeleton 1 – 7
Equipment: Hatchet, Shield, Armor and helmet

Phillips Team:
Members: Phillips, Skeletons 8 – 14
Equipment: Spear, Shield, Armor and helmet

Other Skeletons:
15 – 49: Club, Round shield, Armor and helmet

Metal Golem ‘Talos’: 1
Wooden Horse: 1

#Golems can be divided to a maximum of three bodies.





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