Day 5 of the event. After the usual production activities, Aeon, Chess, Puyosuke, Seguro and I have been exploring the lake since the morning, but nothing has come of it.

I knew it was on a floating island but not in the lake in the same location...so there should be a base area for Berserk King Kong and maybe one more.

I started exploring the forest in the afternoon. The members of the team are Lily, Setia, Grey, Ricule and Darley. Then Lily says she's going to take the controls.

''Please take your sister Lily's feelings into consideration. Master Tact.

Geez... the escape route is blocked...

The usual outbursts begin when I ride Darley.

I know what it's like to be a rodeoer... but it wasn't going to be like this.

'Lilly, we have to stop.'

You'll have to wait!

No good. I gently tighten my grip on Lily's reins from behind and slowly loosen the reins. Then Darley calms down too.

'Oh...'

"First of all, if you want to calm him down, don't pull the reins too hard. If you pull too hard on the reins, Darley will suffer. Now, give me the go-ahead.

Uh-huh.

When Lily gives the order to move forward, she grips the reins tighter. That's what this is all about. I support Lily and try to keep her from pulling the reins too hard.

Then Darley runs as usual.

'Wow!'

Lily looks pleasant.

'Remember what this feels like, okay?　When you pull the reins hard, it's when you want to make a sudden change of direction or when you want me to stop because it's dangerous. That's about as good as it gets under normal circumstances.

'Yes!　Thank you!　Tact.

After that, even without my help, Lily's control was steady. So much so that she easily knocked the Wolfman out of the air while riding the Darley.

'I'm glad to see that your sister Lily is no longer a marvel, but I'm not convinced...

What's the matter with Setia... it's good to be able to fly it properly.


Once again I head to the next base area. I have a pretty good idea of where the base area is.

The first base area we found was southbound from the north, and there were two base areas to the east and west. The first base area we found was south from the north, and then two base areas to the east and west. There's only one left in the south.

But what we found down south was not a base area.

This is... ruins?　Setia, is it poisonous?

Yes.

So it's not the base area...but it looks like there is a stone tablet. I'll call Mr. Lewin anyway.

I'm sorry to be so busy. We've found a different ruin south of the first base area.

'Well, it's in the south. But not in the base area?'

'According to Setia, there is poison here. Perhaps not.

I see. It's too far away for us to go, so you'll have to explore. I'll tell Mel and the others.

Please.

There you go. Now that we have clearance, let's explore.

Liqul, I'll call Aeon and Koibei instead of Darley. Now, let's go explore the ruins, shall we?

The inside of the ruins are full of traps. There are many arrows and spears coming out of the pitfalls and walls. Well, it's easy because Koibito detects it.

And monsters came out too. That's it!

Ghost Lv 4
Summoned Monster Target Active

This is the ghost I saw in the wilderness. I killed him with Setia and Magic Bullet because he's a bad member of the team if he gets possessed.

That's why Setia and I are very active in the ruins. In the middle of the battle, an information will be played.

'Your staff level has reached 20. The martial arts 【Trident Magic】 and 【Shift Change】 have been acquired.

Hmm. I used it. First of all, Trident Magic. It's like a technique that shoots magic bullets at up to three targeted enemies. It's also possible to fire three bullets into one body. It's a bit of a convenient technique.

But even more useful than that is the shift change. The shift change is a move that allows you to swap out party members. For example, if I'm targeted by an enemy, I can swap places with Lily and leave the battle to her.

There are many other strategies that could be used. For example, I could change the biting Gray and Puyosuke, or I could change Hiyori and Kurotetsu.

The problem is that you can only replace one pair. And it seems that you can only use this martial skill once in a battle. They don't let you swap out as much as you want, do they?

We explored safely while using the light and apparently arrived at the end of the line. It was a large hall.

And something appears.

A phantom?
?　?　?

So there is a boss after all.

The meaning is the same ghost, but this guy was like a ghost. And he had a scythe as a weapon. Pre-Reaper Evolution, you might say.

Well, what to do... a ghost boss is not what I expected.

As I was thinking about this, the Phantom possessed Lily. Lily, under the control of the Phantom, attacked Aeon... you were aiming at the wrong person.

As a result, Lily gets beaten up by Aeon as usual. The Phantom is so merciless that it moves over to Ion, this time aiming at me.

As a result, the Phantom leaves Ion. No, because it's the same as the usual training. In fact, it's much weaker than the training. It's only natural that this isn't working according to Aeon's thinking.

And then it comes to me next. This guy....he's so dumb. You have a natural enemy in this place, you know.

''I'm sorry, love fire. Blood Awakening, can you take care of it?

'Yes, sir!　I'm going!　Blood Awakening!

Koibito wears a silvery white aura and chants a spell.

"I purge and cleanse you of all your sins.

The Phantom sees the shining sword and rushes away, but it's too late.

''A flash!''

Love Fire has a momentary pause and Phantom cuts both ways. Then comes Info. Huh? A blow? Maybe Love Fire's Blood Awakening is worse than I thought.

''You have cleared the 'Ancient Ruins'. I've gained 3 skill points.''
'The level of the sword of love fire has reached 10. I have acquired the martial art [抜打].

Get skill points! Now I have 39 skill points left.

And then Koihi learned Nukiu Uchi, which is one of the Battoujutsu techniques. It's a technique to check with the first battou and kill with the second sword.

The reason for the low skill points is because... the boss was weak? I guess it's because this is not the base area after all. So what is this place then?

"Oh, that was awful...

Well, I'm sorry to hear about the two possessed.

Now, I'm going to dismantle the raggedy Phantom. Here are the results.

Rags: rarity level 3 Material Item Quality E
An ordinary piece of cloth. Flammable.

Darkness Stone: rare degree 3 Material Item Quality E
A stone that possesses the attribute of darkness. It is used to make weapons and magical stones.

I don't know what the use of a piece of cloth is. What would you use a piece of cloth the size of a handkerchief for? Alright, I'll give it to Mew.

But more importantly, I've got the Darkness Stone! This is going to be fun.

I knocked it down in a daze, but when I thought about it, if it wasn't for the love fire, I'd be stuck.

I lit up the area around me to see if I could find the stone slab I was looking for and found the spot on the wall where the mural and stone slab would have been. The text and the indentations make it clear.

The mural looks like a mural from ancient Egypt. It depicts the entirety of a battle that once took place.

First, an iron ship comes from the sky. Then, a huge female entity astride a dragon and using small demons as her messengers invades the island.

The island is poisoned and finally the dragon and the giant woman attack the iron ship.

Then Lobo appears, and Lobo, the dragon and the giant woman fight, and Lobo wins.

The people of the poisoned island honored Lobo until his death.

It's rough, but it sounds like the story goes like this.

I immediately contacted Ruin via communication.

'We've captured the ruins of the example. I found the original murals and stone tablets there.

'You gave me a quick and awesome report. 'Can you send me a squash of the mural?　How was the writing?'

"'Come from the sky' is the first word. The next word is unknown, followed by 'the one who brings misfortune' and the last one is 'and fight and destroy it.'

'From the text, the being from the sky and the rathboss fought, and the being from the sky won.'

It looks like. The mural describes the scene. There's a mural of a demon-like thing the size of a robot fighting.

'I see. I'm sure that place was meant to give you a strategy without the hint of a stone tablet. 'Was there a boss?'

'I was there, but it was weak. It was a phantom, but it was a blow with love fire.

''If you're dealing with ghosts, it would be easy to attack them if you have a priest. I'm told that the purification magic is a special magic against the undetected.

Hoh. I didn't know there was such a thing as magic. It would be easier if you had it.

''Anyway, I'm pretty sure I see this event's strategy as making the Lasbos fight the Lobo. That would make sense for that Lobo's monstrous setup.''

Certainly, if there's an entity that can fight and win against a Rasboss, it would explain that strength.

''This information...I'll take care of it for now. I'm sure you'll be able to find out what's going on. There's no way anyone will get ahead of you.

Yes, sir. If the event were to move, it would be around the last day, right?　I'll be back over there after I take a few scraps here.

'All right. Let's gather some trusted people and have a strategy meeting.

I take a squawk and send it to Ruin. I wish I could have made it back with a return, but now that I'm back here, I decided to bring Lily and Ion back and summon the liqueurs back.

We were to have a strategy meeting in the evening, so we logged out after we arrived.


Then at night, the people who gathered were me, Ruin-san and the other production workers, Mel and the others, Chiffon and the others, Luke and the other summoners, as well as Tristan-san and Raiden's recommendation, and a few of the fierce beast handlers.

First of all, Ruin-san nailed it down that the contents of this talk will not be shared with the board or other people.

And then I'm going to tell the story... but first I'm going to speak to the uninformed.

'I'm not impressed with your eavesdropping... you can either show yourself or be attacked by my summoner, whichever you prefer.

When I told them that, they panicked and it was a party of five ninjas who showed up.

'Well, we'll wait, that we will!　I am not a suspicious one.

How can you say that, trying to eavesdrop?

I told Ruin-san about them in advance. I didn't know they were ninjas, though.

''Nugu...I apologize for that, that I do!　I just thought I'd hear some good things about how suspicious you all are.

What do you want to do?　Mr. Lewin.

'I have a problem with people talking on the board, and ninjas can be an asset. Let's allow them to join the meeting here.

'Oh!　I'm not grateful!　It's useful, that it is!　Ah, my name is Hikage.

The other members call themselves Wind Shadow, Water Shadow, Earth Shadow, and Thunder Shadow. It's a famous anime story. But of course, questions are raised.

''Is it okay?　Mr. Lewin?

It'll be okay. You know what would happen if you told the board or those guys over there, right?

I'm afraid of Mr. Lewin.

'Of course it is. Everyone is strictly forbidden, that it is.　If you do, you'll be prepared to be blacklisted for production jobs and have your name exposed on a bulletin board, that I'm sure.

I don't, that I don't.

'What?　I never said I would do that, did I?

You're lying! I was going to do it for sure! Everyone present must have thought so.

''But how did you break the blockage of my people's attention, that I did?

'You touched the hardwood when you came in here, didn't you?　The big spider had thread detection. It was obvious.

'Nah!　I didn't know they were also serving as traps to detect intruders... but even though I knew they were coming, I didn't know exactly where they were.

Then Konoha, Sabik and Root appear from the trees behind them.

''Hee!''

Snakes have heat detection. It's no use trying to shut off their presence. Also, my owl has a hiding place. I had them watching us the whole time.

It's a complete defeat, that it is...

The bad luck of these guys is that they came while Aranea was busily working on her yarn.

And once again, the meeting began.

Name Takuto, Intermediate Summoner Lv 10.

Vitality 44
Magic Power 88
Muscle Strength 31
Defensive Strength 22
Agility 28
Dexterity value 63

skill

Fighting lv7 Kicking lv14 Staff lv19 -> lv20 One-handed sword lv10 Throwing lv3 High speed chanting lv9 -> lv10　
Summoning magic Lv 21, sealing magic Lv 3, smelting Lv 9, mining Lv 14, felling Lv 15, dismantling Lv 22 -> Lv 23.　
Appraisal Lv 12 -> Lv 13 Identification Lv 18 Wind Magic Lv 20 Fire Magic Lv 21 Earth Magic Lv 21 Water Magic Lv 20　
Dark magic Lv 20 Light magic Lv 28 -> Lv 29 Lightning magic Lv 20 Explosive magic Lv 18 Wood magic Lv 18 Ice magic Lv 16　
Spacetime Magic Lv 18 Swimming Lv 5 -> Lv 8 Reading Lv 8 Cooking Lv 26 Feeding Lv 6 Fishing Lv 14 Synchronization Lv 5

Name Setia, Elf lvl 26 to lvl 27

Life force 32 to 33.
Magic power 82 to 84
Strength 24
Defensive Strength 19 to 20.
Agility 21
Dexterity value 82 to 84

skill

Staff Lv 9 -> Lv 13 Bow Lv 6 Woodworking Lv 10 Collecting Lv 10 Medicine Lv 5 Wind Magic Lv 3 Fire Magic Lv 7 Water Magic Lv 12　
Earth magic Lv13 Wood magic Lv15 Tree magic Lv5 Elven knowledge Lv12 Spirit summoning Lv4　

Name Love Fire Cerian Beast Lv 23 -> Lv 24

Vitality 52
Magical power 48 to 50.
Strength 52.
Defensive Strength 31
Agility 56 to 58
Dexterity value 43 to 44.

skill

Swords Lv 9 -> Lv 10, two swords Lv 1, flame magic Lv 5, foxfire Lv 9, presence detection Lv 9 -> Lv 10, danger detection Lv 5 -> Lv 8.　
Witchcraft lv1 Blood Awakening lv3 -> lv4

Name: Sabik Black Mamba Lv2

Vitality 36
Magical power 10
Strength 26
Defensive Strength 15
Agility 25
Dexterity value 20

skill

Bite Lv 5 Bite Lv 4 Coiled Lv 4 Deadly poison Lv 5 Heat detection Lv 2 -> Lv 3

Name Locomoco Cloud Sheep Lv2

Vitality 52
Magical power 20
Strength 5
Defensive Strength 32
Agility 20
Dexterity value 6

skill

Physical contact Lv3 Danger perception Lv2 Runaway Lv1 Hair growth Lv4→Lv5 Breastfeeding Lv4→Lv5 Cold resistance Lv1

Name Airy Ibex Lv 5

Vitality 43
Magical power 19
Strength 25
Defensive Strength 17
Agility 33
Dexterity value 18

skill

Angular Artillery Lv3 Climbing Lv1 Danger Detection Lv4 Leap Lv1 Gale Lv3 Light Magic Lv6 Breastfeeding Lv4 to Lv5