Chapter 354: Isolation (1)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 354: Isolation (1)
The lakeside where the garrison was located was one of the few safe zones on the Dark Continent. That didn't mean total safety, though—that just meant monsters didn't spawn naturally here. And monsters weren't the only dangerous things in the labyrinth. Case in point:
Beeeep! Beeeep! Beeeep!
The alarm spell detected an enemy and sounded an emergency siren. It was clear who the intruder was. Even if a monster happened to enter the safe zone by chance, said monster wouldn't also fire a mana cannon.
"It's Noark!"
"An enemy invasion!"
However, there was another problem here. We knew who the enemy was, but how did they get here? The main unit, which had gone ahead, should have conducted a thorough search of the area before advancing.
There's no way the main unit was attacked.
I decided to operate under that assumption because of the size of the main unit. There was no way that many troops could have been annihilated in that short period of time. If they were in such a tight spot, they would have contacted us, and if they did, the Third Corps we belonged to would have immediately provided support.
They ambushed us away from the eyes of the main unit.
The above possibility was the most plausible, and based on this premise, the intruder's troops were likely to be few in number. In order to avoid the eyes of the main unit, it made more sense to move in small, elite units. Of course, I had no way of knowing what was actually going on for sure.
"Mister! What are you doing? Let's go!"
Jeez, it's Riehen. Though I guess there's no need to correct her since Raven's misunderstood our situation anyway.
"Okay, let's go out now." I stopped my train of thought there and rushed out of the barracks.
"U-Uh...!"
Immediately, I saw a cannonball made of pure mana coming at us from straight ahead.
Whew, good thing I took the lead.
Kwaaang!
When I blocked it with my shield, the remnants of the mana exploded and scattered in all directions. The shock was significant, but not enough to push me back. That was because the Mark of the Guard Corps absorbed 50 percent of the blow.
"A-Are you okay?" a voice behind me stuttered.
Don't be a chicken.
Was this because the Magic Corps were always in the rear? "I'm fine." I reassured Raven's aide, who was surprised by the cannonball that had just exploded in front of his nose, and quickly gave orders. "Alex, right? Stay close behind me."
"Y-Yes!"
"Emily, Erwen, you two follow behind too and protect this man."
"Okay!"
Our formation was established in an instant. Normally, this stuff should have been done by the team leader, but well, it looked like he was the type to only ever do what he was told. Even if I was the one giving the orders, I didn't think he would argue.
"Alex, where is the vice captain's barracks?"
"O-Over there!"
"Then let's head there first. Stay close."
"Yes!"
While adventurers rushing out of barracks headed toward the outskirts in their groups, we moved further into the camp because the objective of our group was to escort someone. Well, to be honest, that was an excuse. I just figured I could learn more about the current situation if I went to the command center.
And Raven could be in danger too...
I picked up the pace and arrived at the barracks where Raven would be. Raven was standing outside. Around her was a crowd of uniformed wizards belonging to the Magic Corps. It looked like they were performing some kind of incantation by drawing a magic circle on the ground.
"Vice Captain Raven, what is the current situation?" I asked.
Raven furrowed her brow at my quick approach and question. "Why are you guys—"
"Obviously we came to carry out our assigned mission since it's an emergency."
"Ah..." Raven nodded in understanding. It seemed she had just remembered that our group's assignment was changed to escorting her. But apparently there was one thing still bothering her. "Alex Halo, why is this man making the report you should be making? Aren't you the team leader here?"
When Raven glared at him, Alex froze, unable to hide his dismay. "A-About that..." It was only then that he realized that I had naturally begun leading the group. That was still no defense, though.
"About that?"
"No, I... I will correct this!"
"How are you going to correct that...? Ha, it's fine. I don't have time for this right now."
"Vice Captain, we've finished charging it with mana!" One of the wizards shouted. Raven ended the conversation there and walked between the wizards.
[Arua Raven has cast the rank-two defense spell Wall of Gold.]
A big iron wall barricaded the entire lakeside. To be honest, my jaw dropped as soon as I saw it.
Wow... she uses rank-two magic now?
Dozens of wizards had poured their magic into the Wall of Gold, but it was ultimately Raven who stood at the center of it all and cast the spell. Put simply, with enough mana, she had advanced to a point that she could use a rank-two spell.
This feels weird...
With her nickname of Golden Wizard, I had expected her to be quite strong now. But could I even bring a kid like this back to my clan? Being the vice captain of a corps meant she already had a solid life ahead of her without having to live as an adventurer.
"This will buy us time for now. Good job, everyone."
"No problem, vice captain!"
"Everyone, follow me." As Raven started walking away with the air of a leader, the wizards of the corps followed suit.
I sped up to stick next to Raven. "Where on earth are you going now?"
I was worried about her reaction even as the words left my mouth, but thankfully, Raven glanced at me and answered with an annoyed expression on her face. "We received a missive from the command center of the Third Corps: activate the defense spell first and then go to central headquarters. If that answers your question, please don't ask me anymore. I have enough to think about as it is."
I fully understood how annoying it was to have your thoughts interrupted so I just shut up and followed along. When we arrived at the central headquarters not long after, Raven entered alone. I tried to follow her.
"...Why are you following me?"
"Our group's mission is to protect you!"
"Stop talking nonsense and stay outside. That's an order."
I had no choice but to take a step back in the face of Raven's stubbornness. I was curious about the conversation the leaders would have inside. I wondered if there was a way to eavesdrop. I asked Erwen and Amelia about this, but they didn't seem to have a solution.
And Raven could be in danger too...
I picked up the pace and arrived at the barracks where Raven would be. Raven was standing outside. Around her was a crowd of uniformed wizards belonging to the Magic Corps. It looked like they were performing some kind of incantation by drawing a magic circle on the ground.
"Vice Captain Raven, what is the current situation?" I asked.
Raven furrowed her brow at my quick approach and question. "Why are you guys—"
"Obviously we came to carry out our assigned mission since it's an emergency."
"Ah..." Raven nodded in understanding. It seemed she had just remembered that our group's assignment was changed to escorting her. But apparently there was one thing still bothering her. "Alex Halo, why is this man making the report you should be making? Aren't you the team leader here?"
When Raven glared at him, Alex froze, unable to hide his dismay. "A-About that..." It was only then that he realized that I had naturally begun leading the group. That was still no defense, though.
"About that?"
"No, I... I will correct this!"
"How are you going to correct that...? Ha, it's fine. I don't have time for this right now."
"Vice Captain, we've finished charging it with mana!" One of the wizards shouted. Raven ended the conversation there and walked between the wizards.
[Arua Raven has cast the rank-two defense spell Wall of Gold.]
A big iron wall barricaded the entire lakeside. To be honest, my jaw dropped as soon as I saw it.
Wow... she uses rank-two magic now?
Dozens of wizards had poured their magic into the Wall of Gold, but it was ultimately Raven who stood at the center of it all and cast the spell. Put simply, with enough mana, she had advanced to a point that she could use a rank-two spell.
This feels weird...
With her nickname of Golden Wizard, I had expected her to be quite strong now. But could I even bring a kid like this back to my clan? Being the vice captain of a corps meant she already had a solid life ahead of her without having to live as an adventurer.
"This will buy us time for now. Good job, everyone."
"No problem, vice captain!"
"Everyone, follow me." As Raven started walking away with the air of a leader, the wizards of the corps followed suit.
I sped up to stick next to Raven. "Where on earth are you going now?"
I was worried about her reaction even as the words left my mouth, but thankfully, Raven glanced at me and answered with an annoyed expression on her face. "We received a missive from the command center of the Third Corps: activate the defense spell first and then go to central headquarters. If that answers your question, please don't ask me anymore. I have enough to think about as it is."
I fully understood how annoying it was to have your thoughts interrupted so I just shut up and followed along. When we arrived at the central headquarters not long after, Raven entered alone. I tried to follow her.
"...Why are you following me?"
"Our group's mission is to protect you!"
"Stop talking nonsense and stay outside. That's an order."
I had no choice but to take a step back in the face of Raven's stubbornness. I was curious about the conversation the leaders would have inside. I wondered if there was a way to eavesdrop. I asked Erwen and Amelia about this, but they didn't seem to have a solution.
"Vice Captain!" After about thirty minutes, Raven came out of the barracks. I quickly went to her side to ask how it went, but all I received was a cold reply that she couldn't tell me.
Ha... she really is ruthless to people she's not close with.
I missed the old Raven. She did everything I asked her to, even with a disgusted expression on her face.
"Emily, can you find out?"
"I was planning to already." Information was priceless at times like these, so I collected it through Amelia. Because of her expertise in this area, it didn't take long, and she came back with a report a while later. "First, communication with the main unit is blocked."
"Then does that mean we can't receive support from them?"
"Well, not exactly. They normally contact each other at regular intervals. If that communication stops, they'll realize something has happened on our end."
"Then the main issue here will be how long we can hold out until the main unit returns."
Nearly ten hours had passed since the main unit departed. Even if they retreated and came back to help due to the loss of contact, it would take considerable time for them to return.
"How's the reaction on the adventurers' side?"
"Not too bad. They all believe in the Golden Wizard. They seem to think nothing will happen this time either, just like the last."
"Last?"
"Ah, I know about that too!" Erwen, who was looking for an entry point into the conversation, jumped in to explain. Apparently, the garrison had been attacked just once before, in the early days when no one really had any information on each other. "That woman infused mana into a magic circle she set up in advance and summoned this wall at that time too. Noark tried to penetrate it for hours but was unsuccessful and ended up fleeing."
This was the incident that had earned Raven the nickname of Golden Wizard. Afterward, Noark realized Raven was always around protecting the garrison and never attempted anything like that again—until today.
"Something is off."
"Definitely..."
Unlike Amelia, who agreed with my muttering, Erwen tilted her head. "Off?"
"Yeah, you guys said they never made the same mistake again after failing last time."
If they were reusing a strategy that had failed once before, it was safe to say they had prepared a workaround. Those pricks from Noark were not stupid. The guys who once prepared a large-scale explosive spell in anticipation of our main troops escaping to Dimension Square through a portal were just poking around this time? That made no sense.
The problem is how they're going to penetrate that...
I thought back to the spell Wall of Gold. It was high-level magic that could only be used if a wizard had maxed out on mastery of Earth and Lightning magic.
It's not a concentration spell, first of all.
Unlike other spells that required a continuous flow of mana to sustain, the duration of this spell was determined in proportion to the amount of mana used in the initial casting process.
Also, if the wall is damaged, it's possible to repair it by infusing more mana.
I could see why the other adventurers weren't feeling all that bad about our current odds. To start, there was a corps of wizards here. Repairs could be done if anything broke down, and the spell could be recast at least twice.
I just don't see it playing out like that.
After all, I just met a Hans, didn't I? Operating under the assumption that the enemy had some kind of trick up their sleeve, I vigorously brainstormed.
"Um... Mister?"
"Leave him. It looks like he's thinking about something."
How are they planning to break through this wall? Did they bring along a high-ranking wizard like Fallen Scholar? But in the first place... do they even need to penetrate it?
If I were them, I would have closed the distance and induced a melee instead of shooting cannons from afar, but these guys didn't do that. They launched long-range attacks and gave us time to use Wall of Gold... as if they were waiting for us to do just that.
In other words, they wanted us to use the Wall of Gold.
If so, what was the reason? When I thought this through from their perspective again, I quickly came up with an answer. "Because they've already snuck in." There was nothing easier than destroying an enemy whose guard was down from within.
But it seemed Erwen and Amelia didn't understand what I was saying. "What do you mean by that?"
Instead of answering Amelia's question, I looked at the Wall of Gold surrounding the lake and asked, "Do you know how long this wall has stayed up in the past?"
"It would have been... about eight hours. I heard it remained intact long after the main unit arrived."
So it is. Eight hours, huh?
That was how long we would be confined within these walls.
***
The moment I fleshed out Noark's plan in my head, I went straight to Raven's barracks. "I have something to tell you."
"I'm sure I told you to wait outside the barracks. Did that woman tell you to imitate his rudeness too?"
Raven scowled at me, but it wasn't like this was my first time seeing that expression on her face. Unbothered, I passed on all the information I had for her. Even Raven, who at first questioned what this conversation was all about, experienced a noticeable shift in expression as the story progressed.
"Why Noark is repeating such a fruitless attempt... We were curious about that as well. And you have a point. I will compile this theory and immediately relay it to my superiors—"
"Not relay, you need to prepare measures right away."
"...I'll take care of that. You can leave."
I even cut her off and spoke firmly, but unfortunately, it didn't work out all that well. Was it because I wasn't speaking like a barbarian?
"I guess that didn't go well."
"I can only hope Raven passes it on to the higher-ups."
A while after I had come out of the barracks and spent some time guarding it from the outside, out of nowhere, something dark soared through the air and landed in front of us.
Thwack!
Then, it slowly stood up. "Gruhhh!" It was a corpse with squelching skin.
"Vice Captain!" After about thirty minutes, Raven came out of the barracks. I quickly went to her side to ask how it went, but all I received was a cold reply that she couldn't tell me.
Ha... she really is ruthless to people she's not close with.
I missed the old Raven. She did everything I asked her to, even with a disgusted expression on her face.
"Emily, can you find out?"
"I was planning to already." Information was priceless at times like these, so I collected it through Amelia. Because of her expertise in this area, it didn't take long, and she came back with a report a while later. "First, communication with the main unit is blocked."
"Then does that mean we can't receive support from them?"
"Well, not exactly. They normally contact each other at regular intervals. If that communication stops, they'll realize something has happened on our end."
"Then the main issue here will be how long we can hold out until the main unit returns."
Nearly ten hours had passed since the main unit departed. Even if they retreated and came back to help due to the loss of contact, it would take considerable time for them to return.
"How's the reaction on the adventurers' side?"
"Not too bad. They all believe in the Golden Wizard. They seem to think nothing will happen this time either, just like the last."
"Last?"
"Ah, I know about that too!" Erwen, who was looking for an entry point into the conversation, jumped in to explain. Apparently, the garrison had been attacked just once before, in the early days when no one really had any information on each other. "That woman infused mana into a magic circle she set up in advance and summoned this wall at that time too. Noark tried to penetrate it for hours but was unsuccessful and ended up fleeing."
This was the incident that had earned Raven the nickname of Golden Wizard. Afterward, Noark realized Raven was always around protecting the garrison and never attempted anything like that again—until today.
"Something is off."
"Definitely..."
Unlike Amelia, who agreed with my muttering, Erwen tilted her head. "Off?"
"Yeah, you guys said they never made the same mistake again after failing last time."
If they were reusing a strategy that had failed once before, it was safe to say they had prepared a workaround. Those pricks from Noark were not stupid. The guys who once prepared a large-scale explosive spell in anticipation of our main troops escaping to Dimension Square through a portal were just poking around this time? That made no sense.
The problem is how they're going to penetrate that...
I thought back to the spell Wall of Gold. It was high-level magic that could only be used if a wizard had maxed out on mastery of Earth and Lightning magic.
It's not a concentration spell, first of all.
Unlike other spells that required a continuous flow of mana to sustain, the duration of this spell was determined in proportion to the amount of mana used in the initial casting process.
Also, if the wall is damaged, it's possible to repair it by infusing more mana.
I could see why the other adventurers weren't feeling all that bad about our current odds. To start, there was a corps of wizards here. Repairs could be done if anything broke down, and the spell could be recast at least twice.
I just don't see it playing out like that.
After all, I just met a Hans, didn't I? Operating under the assumption that the enemy had some kind of trick up their sleeve, I vigorously brainstormed.
"Um... Mister?"
"Leave him. It looks like he's thinking about something."
How are they planning to break through this wall? Did they bring along a high-ranking wizard like Fallen Scholar? But in the first place... do they even need to penetrate it?
If I were them, I would have closed the distance and induced a melee instead of shooting cannons from afar, but these guys didn't do that. They launched long-range attacks and gave us time to use Wall of Gold... as if they were waiting for us to do just that.
In other words, they wanted us to use the Wall of Gold.
If so, what was the reason? When I thought this through from their perspective again, I quickly came up with an answer. "Because they've already snuck in." There was nothing easier than destroying an enemy whose guard was down from within.
But it seemed Erwen and Amelia didn't understand what I was saying. "What do you mean by that?"
Instead of answering Amelia's question, I looked at the Wall of Gold surrounding the lake and asked, "Do you know how long this wall has stayed up in the past?"
"It would have been... about eight hours. I heard it remained intact long after the main unit arrived."
So it is. Eight hours, huh?
That was how long we would be confined within these walls.
***
The moment I fleshed out Noark's plan in my head, I went straight to Raven's barracks. "I have something to tell you."
"I'm sure I told you to wait outside the barracks. Did that woman tell you to imitate his rudeness too?"
Raven scowled at me, but it wasn't like this was my first time seeing that expression on her face. Unbothered, I passed on all the information I had for her. Even Raven, who at first questioned what this conversation was all about, experienced a noticeable shift in expression as the story progressed.
"Why Noark is repeating such a fruitless attempt... We were curious about that as well. And you have a point. I will compile this theory and immediately relay it to my superiors—"
"Not relay, you need to prepare measures right away."
"...I'll take care of that. You can leave."
I even cut her off and spoke firmly, but unfortunately, it didn't work out all that well. Was it because I wasn't speaking like a barbarian?
"I guess that didn't go well."
"I can only hope Raven passes it on to the higher-ups."
A while after I had come out of the barracks and spent some time guarding it from the outside, out of nowhere, something dark soared through the air and landed in front of us.
Thwack!
Then, it slowly stood up. "Gruhhh!" It was a corpse with squelching skin.