Chapter 96: The Power of a Geomancer ( 1 )

Chapter 96: The Power of a Geomancer ( 1 )

Tendo-kun returned as casually as he’d gone, as if drawn in by the smell of sizzling meat.

“... What’s going on?” he asked.

“Hey∼ you’re back, Tendo-kun∼”

“We’re cooking meat, have some.”

He was welcomed in by the Glamourettes, whose lines were so sickly-sweet, I could almost see ♥ marks at the end. That being said, now that they’d become allies, I didn’t so much cringe at the scene as look at it warmly.

“Meat from what?” Tendo-kun turned his sharp, somewhat suspicious eyes from me to the stick of slightly large lumps of medium rare meat in my hand alternatively. I didn’t mind at all. He was born with those eyes, so him just looking normally makes him seem intimidating. Getting needlessly scared would be rude.

“Snake meat. I caught some from around here. I’m sure you can see that they’re fine to eat.”

“Right.”

“We only had salt, but it’s pretty good if you eat it hot.”

“Thanks, I’ll have some.”

Tendo-kun rested his laurels in a gap between our circle around the fire.

“Tendo-kun, have this one!”

“This big one’s just for you∼”

“Ah, thanks.”

Even Tendo-kun couldn’t resist the allure of meat after so long as he gladly took and bit down on the stick the Glamourettes had prepared for him.

“... It’s great.” He commented.

“Glad you like it.”

Today is the first time the 5 of us all sat down together for a meal. Sure, we still had some kinks to work out, but if you saw a picture of us, you’d surely see party members enjoying food together.

So, now that I’ve fished in Tendo-kun with the allure of meat, let’s get down to business.

“Tendo-kun, I need to ask a favor.”

“I’ve got no more monster parts.”

“I don’t need anymore either. No, this is about something else.”

“Go on.”

“I want to have Rando-san train her geomancer calling. It won’t take too long, so I was hoping we make base here during that time.”

After having observed Rando-san on our way here, I felt a great need to nurture her powers. She’s all but given up on her calling, saying it’s too weak, and even now, she’s no stronger than she was when she came to this world. Even if her starter skills are shit-tier, any new skill she gains might be cheat-tier, who knows. There’s no loss in trying, is what I’m trying to say.

There’s always the risk that we might end up in a zone devoid of mobs like goma or skeletons and chock-full of high level monsters. So before they disappear on us, we ought to use them to level up and up.

What’s worse is that she’s way behind compared to everyone else in the party, yes, even including me. She’s probably not gained a single experience point, in other words, she’s been at level 1 all this time. If she doesn’t get more useful fast, and I mean ASAP, there might come a time when protecting her would be the least of our worries. Once that happens, things like friendship or camaraderie, won’t mean shit.

I know this sounds cold, but this is so we can avoid a worst case scenario. That’s right, like those girls who had voted not to use their resources to heal Mei-chan, and left her to die alone. That’s something I don’t want happening to Rando-san.

“... Can you do it?” Tendo-kun asked.

“Yes. I’ll make Rando-san stronger, count on it.”

I speak from personal experience. Though barely, I did in fact manage to beat Higuchi in a straight match.

What’s more, Rando-san is a Geomancer, which is not a support class like Takanashi-san the Sage, but a combat class like Class Rep the Cryomancer. Her powers should let her use her element to strike and kill enemies.

Thus, even if her starter skills were a bad roll, she can definitely get better ones through training.

“Alright, fine. But I’m not waiting more than a few days.”

“That’ll work, thanks.”

OK, that’s the toughest hurdle cleared. Tendo-kun seems like a man-of-his-word type. It’s like he has a sense of integrity, or more like, enough pride that he’s true to himself.

And that’s all the groundwork done. The next part depends on how hard Rando-san is willing to work for it.

“ ―― Ohkay Rando-san, are you ready to raise that level?”

“Egh, this blows....” There was Rando-san making an unpleasant face at the fairy square door.

“Heh, have fun in your remedial classes, Kyoko.” Smiled teasingly one of the Glamourettes, Nonomiya-san.

So here’s the lineup for our “Rando-san special level-up course”, mini party: There’s me, who made the proposal and am party leader, Rando-san, our star of the show, and Nonomiya-san coming along as a guard. Rem too, of course.

Which means that the fairy square will be occupied by Tendo-kun and Yoshizaki-san only. I wish you good luck on your together alone-time, Yoshizaki-san.

“Tendo-kun said that there are only jiras and zombies on the wetlands around here.” I announced the objective. “Our target will be zombies, since we can’t handle jiras if they flock together.”

“Uhuh...”

“K.”

Rando-san didn’t seem motivated at all, while Nonomiya-san was in casual picnic-mode. It feels useless getting worked up all by myself... but I’m sure Rando-san will get into it too once she has a handle on her powers.

“Alright, then before we leave, Rando-san, please show me your skills.”

“Oh come on∼, didn’t I tell you like, 5 minutes ago? Don’t tell me you forgot already, Momokawa∼”

“No I remember them. I just need to see what they’ll look like before we―― hey, don’t, stop that!!”

I don’t know what’s gotten Rando-san so annoyed, but she started giving me a nuggie for no reason. I mean, it doesn’t hurt, but I’d very much rather have the softer kind of skinship if she’s offering.... Okay, she needs to stop or else we can’t get started.

“... Fine, here we go∼” Rando-san lazily raised her arms in front of her to invoke a spell, “ ―― Tera Shield.”

Right as she finished her chant, the ground in front of her let out a deep rumble, slightly shook, and then, out rose a rectangular block of earth like garage shutters that’d been reversed to come out of the floor.

Taking all of 10 seconds, Rando-san now had her Tera or stone shield measuring in at 2 meters tall, 1 meter long and with a thickness of 30 centimeters.

“Wait, that’s not stone!?” I retorted flamboyantly, to which Rando-san gave an annoyed. “We don’t talk about that.”

I mean, with a name like that, I feel scammed. Every way I look or touch it, this thing’s all earth.

“But it’s quite sturdy if you ask me. Isn’t this good for blocking attacks?”

“I guess?” Rando-san shrugged indifferently. But it’s strange. It looks like it’d make good defense so why doesn’t she use it?

“Think about it Momokawa, if I take that long to put up the wall, even a goma can just go around.”

“Oh. Good point.”

Enemies don’t wait around when you’re trying to kill each other. Even gomas, one of the weakest monsters, move with the same agility as a normal human. So if the only thing blocking their path is a 2 meter wall rising at a rate of 20 centimeters per second, they can find any number of ways to go around.

“Aye.”

As each meter long spear rose from the ground, Rando-san used Eternity on them, causing brief glows of white.

“One here too.”

“What’s that?”

“One of my curses, Blackhair bind.”

I tied up blackhair rope between the trees 30 centimeters up from the ground. I think something like Eternity should work on magic from other casters too.

“Well? Did it work?”

“It lit up, so I think it did.”

Having confirmed so, we are now ready to commence the operation.

“Now, all we do is lure the zombies into the trap.”

A very simple trap, I might add. We get the zombies to chase us to this point, at which point, the brainless idiots will definitely trip on the blackhair rope and fall. Their landing point: riddled with Rando-san’s stone spikes.

“Zombies are dumb. They’ll only chase what’s in front of them, so they’re gonna fall for it, no doubt.”

“You’re sure about this? What if they don’t?”

“If not, either Nonomiya-san or Rem can finish them off.”

Which is why they’re here as guards. Plan doesn’t work, no problem, we’ll just solve it using brute force. This is how you make contingency plans.

“Nonomiya-san and I will go lure them in now. Rando-san, you stay here. I’ll have Rem guard you just in case.”

“O-ok, be back quick, alright?” Rando-san’s voice sounded shaky. Guess she’s a bit scared.

“Alright, let’s go.”

“Sure.”

We ran in the direction of the zombies, spears in hand, mine made of iron while Nonomiya-san’s, steel.

We’d ran 50 meters away from the trap and saw that the zombies had increased. What was 4 when I first checked had now become 6. Well fine, that’s still within the error margin.

“Howdy there, dumbies, come get some shaman!”

“Over here!”

We threw a few stones and yelled randomly to get their attention.

“Ghrk, ooo...”

“Uoaaaaa!!”

Seeing live human prey, the pack of zombies made a break for us―― as in, they’re getting here super fast!

“The hell, zombies aren’t supposed to run that fast!” I yelled, kind of in a panic.

“Zombies here sure are full of life∼” Nonomiya-san wasn’t.

“Momokawa, run faster, dude!”

“Don’t leave me behind, Nonomiya-san!”

“Sheesh, you’re a handful.”

Unlike you with your fighter class body, I still have normal human stats!

But I had no time to complain.

“Ugraaa!!”

“Uh! Huuhhh!!”

Their drool spraying everywhere, the zombies were gaining on me. 50 meters, so close but so far.

“Come on, Momokawa, they’re almost behind you∼” Nonomiya-san said, still casual.

“Haah, hahh... Argh, fuck it! Blackhair bind!”

The leading zombie really had almost caught up to me, and I had to trip its legs.

“Aww, here I thought we’re trying to use the trap∼”

“Here I am, trying not to die!”

I made the wrong call. Should've let Rem handle the running part. While regretting the retrospectively bad decision I somehow managed to clear the remaining distance. Coming up to the rope trap, I didn’t do anything else stupid and went over it.

“Goal.” Nonomiya-san cheered in monotone, having broken not a sweat.

“Hahh... hahh....” I was exhausted and out of breath. But I can’t tap out now. I have to see if the trap actually works. “Fucking zombies! Come get some!”

“Gugarrhh―― booghhhh!” Was the sound of them getting skewered. The spears were completely out in the open, right in front of them. The black rope also clearly stood out between the trees. And yet, zombies who only saw prey missed these details―― jumped into the stone cones all by themselves, just like how I pictured it.

“What the fuck!?” Yelled Rando-san. “Ew ew, no! What’s with this gore, aaah!”

“Wow, they’re just jumping in.” commented Nonomiya-san.

The rotten bodies of the zombies lodged themselves into the spears of stone. The spears are somewhat thick, but running into them at full sprint easily opened gaping holes on the dumb zombies.

Some of them that were following after another, fell into the same spear and became skewered together.

And all this while, Rando-san, who got a front row seat, has been yelling ew ew ews.

“ohh, guhhh...”

The spears were set up haphazardly, so not all the zombies were skewered through. They still had their shoulders or flanks gouged into, but paying no mind to the damage, they still attempted to get to us.

“Blackhair bind.” I pinned them to the ground. “Rando-san, spears please.”

“W-wait, what...?”

“They’re not moving, so it’ll be fine even if your spell is slow.”

“Go for it, Kyoko!” Nonomiya-san chimed in.

“Ugh, I... fine, Tera Kris Sagitta!”

The stone spears grew out from under their bellies like bamboo shoots, and as they were bound down by me, the zombies had no means of resistance to getting pierced through and dying for good.

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