A Cheap, OP Brawler

I haven"t gotten the chance to talk to everyone about what skills and such they"re able to do on the field. I know from fighting in the raid the other night that Kalline"s able to use a shortsword but this is the first I"ve seen of her taking up the bow, which comes as a shock to me, considering she"s a Mercenary.

{Is the efficiency for weapons equal for everyone in their respective cla.s.ses?} I ask Nyra in my mind.

{I see, so it"s like having talent in a weapon that partially determines what cla.s.s would be best for them.}

All of that talk in my mind, of course, took place in a span of few seconds thanks to my Hyper Thought Processing skill.

"Let us go with the "Roaring Thunder" tactic just as we discussed, girls. Erizora?" Kalline then asks her, taking the lead in this sudden monster subjugation mission.

"All right … Master, forgive me for what you"re about to witness."

I was about to ask her what she meant by that until she closes her eyes and opens her mouth.

"[Shrink]!"

And in the next instant, the Ogre-Human hybrid that was taking up most of the carriage"s s.p.a.ce moments ago disappears, surprising Ume by jumping in her seat. I barely managed to restrain myself doing the same to keep from Sue waking up.

Kalline then walks over to where Erizora used to be and reaches down to her seat, picking up something that fits in her hand.

On closer inspection, it"s the same Ogre-Human who "disappeared," only to be found in a much smaller size along with her signature kan.o.bo weapon and clothes. With my eyes to make a guess, she looks to be around 10 centimeters right now [~4 inches].

"Did Erizora just get smaller with a Null Spell just now? I"ve never read of such a thing. This has to be a rare type," Ume says as Kalline sets the smaller Erizora on her shoulder.

"Let us go, Ren!"

"Right!"

Kalline immediately leaps out the back of the carriage first, followed by Ren, and then Mametama while changing to her adult form in a puff of smoke before they all turn 180 and make a run, pa.s.sing our carriage and heading to the scene where the monsters are.

From there, I activate one of the new skills I learned last night, Shared Vision, which allows me to see whatever my familiar sees while not hindering their senses. Tephalia actually told me of this skill last night since she was aware of me being so new of having my own familiar. This will be how I"ll watch their performance while on the scene. The drawback is that I won"t be able to see what"s going on from my own eyes unless I split one each, but that will make things confusing since this will be the first time I"ll be using it. I figured this will be a good practice run since Ume and Kenaka are also with my body.

{Wow, it"s like I"m watching someone playing one of those FPS games,} I think as I watch Mametama sprinting behind Kalline and Ren through her own eyes.

Nyra answers Mametama for me through Telepathy.

{Anyway, Mametama, while you"ll be my eyes, I"d like you to help out the girls however you can without getting too involved for now. Like, tell them however you know about the monsters they"re approaching.}

"Kalline, Erizora, Ren, may I advise you on the monsters you"ll be facing?" Mametama asks them.

"I can tell from their scents that we"ll be dealing with Howlers," Ren starts.

"I can confirm that with my Deadeye skill. 6 art blue and 1 is violet. That 1 Howler could be their pack leader if they art gathered like that," Kalline added.

"You are right in that a.s.sumption," Mametama says. "Like the wolf-like monsters they are, they"ll be catching your presence soon enough. I should warn you that the Violet Howler is Level 70. The Blue Howlers are between 40 to 60. I know that much from my Monster Appraisal skill."

"Then, we will use this chance to take the first attack. Erizora, prepare thyself."

It could be because Erizora"s smaller size that I couldn"t hear her response, but from Mametama"s view, I could see Kalline knocking an arrow to her bow. She draws the string back to prepare the shot.

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To my surprise, Erizora climbs on top of the knocked arrow near the head and hangs on to it for dear life.

{Wait, don"t tell me …}

"Let us initiate "Roaring Thunder!" Erizora! Go!"

Fwip!

"Aaa …!"

Kalline points her aim upward before letting the arrow fly. Even from Erizora"s smaller stature, I could still make out her tiny scream for a moment before it quickly fades away.

Mametama changes the direction of her perspective to the Howlers they"re approaching. They look to be minding their own business until they catch someone"s presence, but it was too late.

"Body Slaaaaaaaaaam!" Erizora cries as she suddenly appears at normal size while falling from the sky.

If it were anyone else while taken place on Earth, I don"t think they"d walk away scot-free from such a fall that puts a belly flop on water to shame.

One also has to wonder if Erizora would damage her "goods" this way. Considering they"re the largest in this group, they"d certainly be the first to hit the ground. I make a mental note to give her some personal healing while giving her t.i.tanic t.i.ts the love and respect they deserve later.

The ground shakes a little when Erizora slams the ground, right on top of one of the poor unsuspecting Howlers before getting flattened like a pancake. The impact was great enough that even sends other Howlers around her up and off the ground.

"Arrow a.s.sault!" "Multi-Throw!"

Kalline and Ren take advantage of their confusion to initiate their own attacks. Kalline repeatedly shoots arrow after arrow with clean form and finesse, each skewering the Howlers in the air. Ren switches from running on all fours to only two before suddenly throwing many copies of her daggers at the remaining monsters on the ground, cutting and stabbing them as they got in their paths of trajectory before disappearing in a poof. Unlike using copies with the [Duplicate] Null Spell, a skill like Multi-Throw can allow one to use a set amount of MP to produce a number of daggers to be thrown at a target or general area at once.

The remaining Howlers recover from their shock and suddenly grow hostile towards the approaching girls. The purple one who acted as their leader lead the attack by going to their nearest target, Erizora, who would"ve been completely vulnerable after such a large drop.

"Graaaaugh!"

"Yip!?"

But much to their dismay, Erizora shakes it off like a champ and blows them away with a swing of her iron kanabo. I could even hear the crack of their bones from Mametama"s ears as they were sent flying.

Yeah, I doubt they"d live after a hit like that.

Seeing Erizora"s power itself, the Violet Howler changes tactics on the spot and aims its direction at Ren.

"I call to thee, Terra, immobilize my enemy, Trap Hole!"

Shubababa!

"Aroo?!"

To the Violet Howler"s shock, Ren casts the Terra Magic spell, Trap Hole, causing the ground beneath it to collapse before it falls inside.

"I call to thee, Terra, blind my enemies, Sand Gust! Stab!" "Change! Bow and Arrow for Spear!"

Ren follows up her spellcasting with one that sends a wave of sand at the remaining Blue Howlers, causing them further confusion as they run about blindly with what"s in their eyes. Ren then quickly approaches one of the Howlers before throwing herself and pierces its neck with one of her daggers using the Stab skill. Meanwhile, Kalline switches gears by using her armlet to quickly switch from using a bow and arrow to a durable looking, iron spear. She then approaches the Violet Howler trapped in Ren"s hole, the worst possible place for it to be attacked with no way to dodge. Just as the purple wolf-like monster was about to make its escape, he drops back in by the piercing attack of Kalline"s spear. She then quickly drops one attack after another on it from above, the Violet Howler cries in pain from each successful hit until it stops.

While Ren finished off her first target, a Blue Howler next to her was close enough to make out her form and attack straight on if it wanted, but it didn"t get the chance to do so, because Erizora"s kanabo crushed its skull from above.

Soon enough, the area went quiet aside from the winds blowing. Blood was scattered around the battlefield before more starts to pool around the Howlers" bodies.

Dddda, Di-da!

Drrbing-bong-bing!

The victory and level-up tracks play in my mind, officially ending the battle.

{Just as I had thought … if it"s like this, then it"s no wonder the slave industry has been standing for this long,} I think.

As part of my preparations last night, I took advantage of the benefits I had as a black-ranked adventurer and most of the money I had to spend heftily on some valuable items from the IBS in my IEB. Mainly, the Greed Ring 3"s, of which the wearer can gain an additional 50% of EXP from winning battles. I bought one for each of my party members, making a total of 4.

Of course, 3 of those 4 I gave rings to were against it at first, as it would be crazy for servants and slaves to even carry such valuable items, let alone use them to their advantage. I argued, however, that since we"d be escorting an important client like Lady Krauss, then we needed to stay sharp and get stronger by taking advantage of every EXP we could get our hands on. Not to mention what we"re planning to do after that quest ends: to get an audience with the Demon King. Surely, there were chances we"d have to face some difficult opponents that may stand in our way, so it was essential that we take opportunities to get stronger when we could.

The 3 who opposed at first, Ren, Erizora, and Kalline, couldn"t argue any further, but then they brought up the question of why I didn"t buy a Greed Ring 3 for myself. When I told them I had 4 of them synthesized into the tanto as it was made, in Nyra"s own words, there was no further questioning.

I did let them know that if we end up fighting monsters along the way to Palocaesy, I wanted to try something out with Ren and Erizora"s cooperation. Of course, they said they"ll go along with whatever I had planned, which brings us to moments before the battle with the Howlers started.

Amazingly, one of the benefits of owning a slave as Ms. Carmen explained to me two days ago was that I could actually control how much EXP I could take from them as my own from the "Slaves" settings, from 0 to 100%, and I wouldn"t even have to lift a finger. This was set up so slaves would be prevented from getting stronger than their owners before they have funny ideas of turning against them, as well as a.s.suring the owner"s safety should he/she be inexperienced in battle yet want to increase their levels near effortlessly. With such a system, not only did it prove how valuable the slave industry is, it proved how those with enough money can get great power for little effort, if they don"t send their slaves out in the field to die, of course.

For me, while I do want to get stronger, I want my ent.i.tled slaves to have opportunities to grow as well, which brought me to buying Ren and Erizora a Greed Ring 3. What do you think would happen if the two of them wore an item that gave them an additional 50% of their total EXP gained after the battle, while at the same time I have their "Slave" page set that I could receive 50% of that total experience for my own stats?

The result: each of their bonus 50% of EXP would go to me, leaving the three of us with the same amount of EXP gained after winning a battle. Ren and Erizora would still get all of their EXP with no problems as they would without wearing a Greed Ring 3, and I would get the full total of EXP as if I was there fighting alongside them, even if I was sitting in the carriage watching over Sue while they did the physical labor.

On another note, if I had Mametama directly involve herself into that battle with the Howlers, according to what she and Kenaka had told me when I asked them last night, since they"re roaming in this realm due to my summoning them with a spell, you could say they"re constant attack spells made from my own powers, ready to be landed onto an enemy at a moment"s notice. If their attacks land and defeat our targets, while they earn a percentage of the total EXP I would gain from winning a battle, I could still get the full total as if I were fighting the battle on my own.

If I had Mametama involve herself in that battle with the Howlers for a brief moment, there could be a chance I"d receive 200% of the total EXP gained from winning that battle; the first 100% for my magic getting involved through Mametama, plus another 100% from Ren and Erizora"s EXP through the "Slave" settings. That was just a theory, though, and I would test it at another time, but thanks to the success of that battle, I gained a ton of level-ups for a couple of new cla.s.ses I switched out with what I had up to then for something I want to do with later. Along with my Brawler and Sage cla.s.ses staying on me, I switched out the rest with Mercenary LV 1, Cleric LV 1, and Dark Mage LV 1. Where those came to after the battle ended, I"ll bring it up the details later, but they all generally went up by 30 levels.

"… There are none of them left. They"re all down," Mametama says, not just to the girls, but myself as well as she slowly approaches the scene.

"Mission accomplished! Twas some excellent work from the two of thee, especially since this was our first attempt at "Roaring Thunder!" Erizora, how art thou feeling after that fall?" Kalline asks her.

"Ha! You kidding?! I could take 5 more of those things! I got these babies to thank for their great power and cushioning!" Erizora exclaims before pounding her large L cup chest. "Moreover, I didn"t think flying like that would be so much fun!"

"Ah, well then … good to see thou art well, but the Body Slam skill takes quite a bit of HP, yes? We will have to get that recovered before our next a.s.sault."

"Other than that, we make such a great team!" Ren cheers with her hands up. Her tail wags with great enthusiasm. "It"s just to be expected of those serving Master! Master, you saw all of that, right?! How did we do?!" she asks Mametama, knowing I"m sharing her eyes.

"… You girls were awesome out there." I couldn"t help but say that aloud.

Considering my fear of heights, I would not have the b.a.l.l.s to replicate what Erizora did. Not taking my heightened defenses into account, I"d likely freeze up and fall to my death due to the sheer shock of it all.

"Huh? They"re done already?" Ume asks, unaware of what happened outside of the carriage.

"No doubt! Those girls annihilated those Howlers!"

"Quite the team they make, eh?" Kostos and Pantos say, respectively.

"I expected nothing less from my niece," Eugus says while puffing his chest like a proud parent.

"All right, go ahead and gather the spoils and we"ll catch up to you momentarily."

"—So, Milord says," Mametama answers Ren for me.

"All right, we will have to go over how to defeat them while they art still under good condition for dismantling in the future, but we will work out the flaws as we go. Without further ado, let us gather the spoils," Kalline says.

""Yes!""

Nyra asks me, referring to the one lone white dot I saw on my map and appraised with Size Up.

{After seeing some of her skills, no doubt, but we shouldn"t reveal ourselves just yet. Let"s just see how she responds and we"ll move accordingly.}

~~

"Holy s.h.i.t, those girls are insane!" Tyvera exclaims. She"s currently lying on one of the higher rock structures, using her Deadeye skill to watch all of the events unfolding kilometers away while hiding herself.

"Gabriella! I just saw one h.e.l.l of a battle between our targets" party members and some Howlers."

"Not yet. They"re likely in that carriage I saw the others came out of."

"Yeah, yeah, I hear ya. Tyvera, out." Cutting the connection with the Messaging Crystal, she looks at a different direction briefly. Her focus is on the clearing where she last saw the man fighting the horde of monsters the other day. Somehow, she had hoped there would be some sort sign of him still alive, maybe appearing over there again like he did the other day. If Tyvera knew what became of that man, she would surely move on with a peace of mind.

"Agh, get it together, Tyvera," she berates herself while shaking off those thoughts. "That was then, this is now. You have other priorities to attend to. Gotta do your part." With that, she continues her surveillance on the party approaching Palocaesy.