The year has come to March.

　It's been about six months and Cecil is feeling much better. He is learning more than ever, partly because of Mihai.

Allen, take me on a hunt.

　This is what they say now. Apparently Cecil wants to be strong. This is not allowed by the baron, so he says he can't do it.

　He'll be twelve years old in a little over six months. I've been in the building for three and a half years, and I can feel the passage of time.

　Even now, six months later, I don't know what duty the Granvels have in the house that resulted in Mihai's death. I've heard from Rickel before that the kingdom is not at war with any country. Because of Mihai, I asked him again, and the answer was the same.

　North of this kingdom is a vast empire that is dozens of times larger than the kingdom. Decades ago we were at war, but now we have a peace agreement and are not at war. Rickel told me that story again.

　About the hunt, at the end of February we destroyed an entire orc village. It took longer than the goblin villages, but even so, the orc villages have disappeared from the foot of the Shiro Dragon Mountains. However, there is not an orc village only at the foot of the Shiro Dragon Mountains on the Baron Granvelle side. Someday, there will be another village that will be populated by orcs from somewhere, but for now, they have completely disappeared.

　Thanks to this, we have the manpower to work in the mining area to mine mithril as planned starting next month in April without delay. With the absence of goblins and orcs, it is said that many of the adventurers have switched jobs. This makes me regret the loss of jobs in the goblin and orc villages, but when I see the actual bodies of the victims, I believe it was right to destroy them.

　The village where the smelting furnaces for smelting mithril ore into mithril will be placed will be ready in the spring. It was said that the mining area would also begin mining after summer.
　For the first few years, I don't expect to produce that much, but I think it is important to start.

　One concern is Viscount Carner. The white dragon migration was reported two years ago in March.
　It's been two whole years and I haven't heard anything from the baron. We haven't heard from them even though the white dragon has moved and mithril is no longer available. I don't think I can run the territory without mithril, but it's not like he's crying to me either. This silence is rather eerie. The baron seems to be concerned about it too, and often has his steward confirm it.

　After wiping out the goblin and orc villages, Allen is still in the Shiro Dragon Mountains. Not at the foot of the Shiro Dragon Mountains.

　You are in a desolate place where the forest is beginning to diminish in vegetation. The forest gave me a clearer view of the Bailong Mountains. The mountain ranges are long and extensive. What you see now is part of that slope. However, seeing the mountain face from above is very different from seeing it from the sky with a summoner.

(Now that's a nest of armor ants.)

　There is a large camel-like bulge in the slope. In and out of this bulge are armor ants about three meters long and wide.

The hole is quite small. Or maybe the ants are bigger.

　The burrow is only large enough to accommodate an armored ant. It appears to be large enough for a person to go in and out, but seems to be too small for armor ants. This is a den about the same size as a suit of armor.

(Isn't that a problem for armor ants to get into?

　I heard from Raven about how to defeat the armor ants. Raven just heard from someone else, and he didn't answer me as clearly as usual. According to Raven, there's a B-ranked hexenbiest called the Queen Armor Ant in the nest, and you have to defeat her. Otherwise, the queen armor ant will continue to give birth to armor ants.

　A large number of armor ants are moving in and out of the armor nest. It is easy to imagine that the path of the nest hole will be blocked by armor ants when you try to break in.

It's like a one-way tunnel. Isn't the hole too small for the ants?　(This is not to say all of them, but quite a few armor ants need to be taken out and defeated to get in?

　There are over a thousand armored ants inside this nest. The original plan was to eradicate these armor ants, but in order to defeat the queen-armored ants, which are the parent ants, we must first take out the ants in the nest and defeat them.

　Allen summons 4 beast D summons, 1 insect D summons, and 1 fish D summons to the armoured ant's nest, sharing them.

(Everything's a challenge, right?)

　You can't know any hypothesis without trying. There's no strategy book here, or anything else. Let's see how well these six pieces work together. After being cornered in the orc village, Allen will try to attack it from some distance.

　The six summons head into the desolate area, with its bare rocks and stones. Beast D's summons are large enough to be easily noticed. They will move forward without hesitation.

"Git!

"'Gigantic!

　As the summonses got closer, one of the armored ants snapped its large jaws and let out a warning-like sound. As if in response, the armored ants that were already outside reacted and began to clack their jaws and make warning sounds.

　Perhaps summoned by the chorus of ants, armor ants are slowly emerging from the nest. Dozens of armored ants surround the nest.

(Oh!　Good, good, keep popping up. Keep them coming up. Six summons aren't enough for this one. (More to come)

　Summon 20 more beast D summons. Already strengthened beast D summons the beast D summons head to the armor ant nest under Allen's direction.





　The area around a nest of armor ants becomes a battlefield.

　The armor of ants is so hard that they tell Beast D's summons to crush their heads. The exoskeleton that protects their heads is somewhat softer than their armor. I usually tell them to do so when they are hunting with the summoner squad.

　So he knows to aim for the head and chew it up without giving instructions again. They are aiming at the head and attacking from where they are headed.

　The most important thing in hunting is how to hunt monsters in a short time. The efficiency of the hunt is proportional to the number of hexenbiests.

(Mm, still doesn't look good.)

　Allen is watching the battle with the hawk eyes of Bird E's summoner from more than 50 meters away from the nest of armor ants.

　The beast D's summoner attacks are adding more armor ant corpses, but it's not for nothing. The weaknesses of the beast D's summons also become apparent as we defeat this amount of armor ants.

　The exoskeleton of ants is very hard. Because of this, a single strike from the Beast D summoner cannot crush the exoskeleton-covered head of an ant in armor.

　To defeat them more efficiently, you will need to work together. It would be better to attack one armored ant at a time to ensure that we kill them one by one to limit the damage, but that coordination doesn't work.

　Aren is giving them various instructions, such as to prioritize the monsters that the other Beast D summonses attacked, and so on. However, in a prolonged battle where the situation is rapidly changing, the futility of the battle becomes greater. This ant could be killed by one more hit, but it attacks another armor ant and is attacked by an armor ant that it missed, and so on.

　From a distance, there is a lot of futility.

(At a level above 100 intelligence, there are many mistakes in their own judgment, and they need to be able to communicate with other summons.

　It may be that the system is set up to make misjudgments with a certain probability, or the mistakes are noticeable in the long run. I'm wondering if this will improve with training, but it seems to be related to intelligence.

　As for the intelligence dependence, Bird D and Fish D, whose intelligence reaches 400 through reinforcement, are able to communicate with other summons.

　Bird D's summons can only say 'ho' and Fish D's summons cannot speak. However, they can still communicate with each other.

(Well, that's about it for now. (I don't have summons with 300 intelligence, so this is a tentative test result.

　Summons of various intellects increased and verified
Intelligence less than 100
　Use your skills, but you can't do what I say.
Intelligence 100+　
　Can understand instructions outside of their specialties. Has errors of judgment.
　Cannot communicate with other summons.
Intelligence 200 or above
　Fewer errors of judgment.
Intelligence 300 and above
　Unable to verify as there is no corresponding summoner.
400 or more intelligence
　Summons can communicate with each other. It can communicate with Allen and give him instructions through a shared summon.

(With 400 intellects, they can communicate through a shared summoner.

　As a result of this verification, directing a summoned beast summoner of beast D that is not shared by directing a summoned beast of beast D with shared 400 intelligence as the leader of the summoner squadron is possible. However, the summoned beast of Bird D who gave the shared instructions will give instructions to the summoned beast of Beast D as if it were a message game. Simple instructions are often required for this to work.

　Watching the movements of the beast D's summoner while watching the armor ant's nest attack and defend, he would explore new possibilities.