Leave a comment

“Ohh…you have some hefty defenses built up here.”
“Heheh, that’s what a large amount of Points will get you.”
Sorleon admired the defenses around Nebel, and Crim puffed her chest with pride in response.

The path leading to the town had been delimited by new sturdy and tall stone walls, which stood like two large cliffs on both sides of the path. Those were the strongest defensive structures available to build, and Crim had spared no Points in getting them.

Once they were past the outer walls, the familiar town of Nebel, built on a hill next to the lake came into view.

“Ohh…this is a really nice view you have here.”
“Yes, this type of scenery is the best. Our base is just a pile of snow and it’s cold all the time…I’m a bit jealous now.”
“I know. I wouldn’t say I hate it, but white and gray does get monotonous after a while.”

Sorleon and the rest of his companions voiced their thoughts of the town, with the lake’s sparkling reflection of the sun as a backdrop.

“Mhm… Everyone from Nord Glacier, welcome to the Foggy Lakeside Town of Nebel, safeguarded by Lua Cheia!” Crim puffed her chest again as she welcomed the first visitors of her town.

◇◇◇

After that the members of Nord Glacier were guided to Crim’s guild house.

“Hinagiku and Lycoris don’t want to get close to me, I’m so sad…”

The warning Crim had sent about Ernesta had worked, and the two girls made sure to maintain a constant distance away from that knight. Seeing the way they refused to get closer put Ernesta in low spirits, but eventually there was one person who approached her.

It was Frey, who finally had gathered the courage to apologize.

“Umm…Ernesta… I’m really sorry about what happened during the tournament.”
“Huh… Ah, you’re that mage from back then. Are you talking about our fight then?”

Saying that, she gently placed a hand on her chest, but did not seem too bothered about it.

“You know, things like that happen during fights all the time, so I don’t really mind…”
“Still… It wasn’t proper.”
“Heheh, you’re surprisingly noble.”

Ernesta seemed to notice something in the way Frey kept avoiding her gaze, bringing a mischievous smile to her.

Ah, he’s getting eyed by an older girl.

Despite his usual brazen attitude, Frey was still roughly the same age as Crim, having barely started high school, so he was still weak to older girls.

As far as Crim knew he also had no romantic experience whatsoever, so it was hard to know exactly what Ernesta was thinking about when looking at Frey. All she could do was to offer her early condolences in her mind.

“I see, so you were worrying about that all this time… Heheh, that’s kinda cute.”
“Hm-Hmph… Not at all.”

Ernesta had lost their previous encounter, but now she had the higher footing, so she grinned and took a step forward, making Frey become oddly flustered…until a small figure stepped in.

It was the half mechanical girl, who had been hiding away together with Hinagiku.

“Umm…Lycoris?”
“I don’t think you should do that.”

She was usually really shy, so it was rare for her to act that way, and Ernesta actually stepped back seeing how intently Lycoris was glaring at her.

“…Yes…you’re right, I’m sorry. I apologize for taking things too far with you too, Frey.”

Realizing she had gotten carried away, Ernesta politely bowed in apology. But then her gaze softened as she turned to look at Lycoris.

“Also…heheh, I see what’s happening here now.”
“What…what do you mean..?”

Lyroris trembled slightly as Ernesta leaned down and whispered something into her ear, without letting anyone else hear. A moment later Lycoris’ face quickly turned red, the change so rapid that it almost felt like it would emit a sound effect.

“Th-that’s not…that’s not it..!!”
“Ah, Lycoris?!”

Lycoris dashed away, her face still beet red, and Frey hurried to follow after her. Crim watched that scene unfold, and then approached the perpetrator of everything, that female knight.

“…Say, what was it thou whispered into Lycoris’ ear?”
“Oh, it was nothing. I just told her to not worry since I won’t try taking her lovely older brother away from her.”

Saying that, she rested one side of her face on a hand, appreciating the cuteness of Lycoris’ reaction. But Crim could only heave a sigh.

At least Ryunosuke hasn’t logged in yet since he’s still at work.

That was the only saving grace.

◇◇◇

Once all the greetings were out of the way, Reinhard mentioned that it was best if they checked everyone’s power levels again, so they headed out to Schwarzwald.

They went into the western area of the forest, a place Crim seldom visited.

While the eastern area was calm enough to take a walk in, the trees in the western area grew more tightly, giving it a darker appearance where stronger monsters roamed around, including various monstrous insects. Since they were training to face off against Adnammelech, only those who were not demons fought there, leaving Crim, Sorleon, and Lueger aside.

Once they felt like they had gotten enough training in, they returned to Lua Cheia’s guild house.

“Welcome back, everyone. The tea is ready and served, feel free to take a cup.”

Saying that, Sorleon’s maid Lety pointed at a table which she had covered with iced tea cups and various snacks. Everyone took a seat and began to drink the tea, while discussing how their training had gone.

“Sigh… Being the main tank is so hard…I’ll need to put in some more work in…” Freya, the one member who had gotten the most exhausted, muttered that.

Crim had been coaching her on how to be a tank for the last few days at any time they could.

That had started to bear fruit now, as she was doing a quite good job, but since it was still a new playstyle for her, it left her exhausted. Being in the frontline was way more taxing than casting spells in the rear lines.

But then the response came from none other but Lueger, who usually kept to himself.

“You should be more confident.”
“…Huh? Ah, sorry…”

It was a rather blunt comment. Freya’s shoulders twitched a little hearing that, feeling like he was criticizing her, but that seemed to make Lueger flustered as he quickly tried to amend his words.

“Oh, no…I’m not saying you’re at fault…”

Everyone stared in confusion as he struggled to find the right words, and Ernesta could not stand watching that anymore so she stepped in to help. “Okay so, what he’s trying to tell you is that you already have the skill necessary to be a top class tank, so you shouldn’t doubt yourself so much.”

“Yes…that’s what I meant.” Lueger sighed in relief knowing that his intention had finally been translated by someone.

“Oh…thank you…” Being complimented by an expert had been the last thing in Freya’s mind, but now that she understood that, her stressed reaction quickly eased up.

“That’s great, isn’t it Freya?”
“Yeah, and it’s also thanks to everything you taught me, Crim!”
Freya hugged Crim in an outburst of happiness, and this time Crim remained still, making no efforts to pull herself away.

“…Well, I think we have a pretty good grasp on each other’s abilities, so let’s discuss a bit more about the actual raid then.” Sorleon said as he pulled out the board that was stored in a corner of the living room. That quickly made everyone focus their attention on him.

“First, I have no complaints about the power of anyone from Lua Cheia.” Hearing him say that, everyone from Lua Cheia let out a sigh of relief. “But…and maybe I’m not really in a position to say this, but I can tell that each one of you can shine in your own way. Rather than trying to put everyone in a tight formation, I feel like it’d be more efficient to give everyone some freedom to move on your own.”

“I see. So depending on the situation me or Frey could also assume command then?”
“Mhm, I think that’d be for the best. From what I’ve seen, you and Frey have quite a lot of experience in various fields, so I feel like I can count on you to adapt to any situation, alright?”

In response to Sorleon, Crim and Frey gave firm nods.

“Moving on, this doesn’t necessarily apply to Crim, Frey, or Freya, but we need to discuss how to handle AoE attacks.”

The three Sorleon mentioned nodded in agreement. Crim and the twins had known each other since they were small, and they had played through many different types of games together, so they all had a wealth of knowledge.

But this was going to be the first raid boss Hinagiku and Lycoris had ever fought, so there was a lot for them to learn.

“Ah…oh…ee…what?”
Unsurprisingly enough, Hinagiku and Lycoris looked puzzled.

“AoE, it stands for Area of Effect. High difficulty raid bosses usually have phases when the battlefield gets littered with warning marks, showing where large attacks will land. They usually deal a lot of damage or apply certain debuffs, and in some cases they can one shot you if you don’t evade them on time.”

“Hm…”
“Hiee…”
Hinagiku and Lycoris recoiled in fear when they heard Sorleon’s response.

“Hahah, don’t worry you two. Usually there’s a pattern to those attacks, so as long as you memorize it and stay calm, they’re actually easy to avoid.”
“Right, there’s some like waves that come or go, or they scatter in different directions. I’ll try to explain how to dodge the most common ones, so just remember that.”

Reinhard quickly chimed in to comfort the two girls, and Sorleon also began to list off the most common types of AoE attacks on the board. The way he explained everything in a quick but understandable manner really highlighted his position as the leader of a competitive combat guild. He was essentially giving a crash course on raid bosses.

After the one they mentioned earlier, he also added attacks that would land where the players stood and scatter in an area around there, and so on. There were other mechanics usually associated with bosses too, each with their quirks and pitfalls.

Sometimes bosses also had gimmicks like restricting the movements of players into smaller areas, which would be bombarded with attacks. They also mentioned how to reset aggro and to watch out for DPS checks.

This was the first time anyone was truly fighting that raid boss, so no one knew what to expect from it. So Sorleon was trying to teach everything he knew about bosses to Hinagiku and Lycoris, who were listening very attentively and soaking it all up like sponges.

Crim and the others already knew most of that, but they still paid attention, as it was always good to have a refresher.

As they listened, they continued drinking the tea and eating the snacks prepared by the maid, then moving on to discussing the topics Sorleon taught, going on late into that weekend night…