Let"s Farm Some EXP
「What are the conditions to becoming an S-ranked adventurer?」
「You have to kill an S-ranked monster, and perform an incredibly meritorious feat. But since no one has actually killed an S-ranked monster before, there"s no S-ranked adventurer around. Send a hundred men to kill one and it"ll send them all packing. Plus no one can achieve a corresponding incredible deed… or so I thought.」
Mylia eyed her spear. She probably thought her combo could work against an S-ranked monster.
I have no idea what an S-ranked monster is like, but I have plenty of spells that reduce defense so perhaps it"s possible to take one on.
「With this, we can take on ranked monsters soon.」
「We might as well take on a few at a time so we can rack up achievements in one go.」
I levelled up after we killed the Blood Tiger. Judging by her performance, I think Mylia can fight a few more monsters at a time.
「Do you remember the combo for multiples enemies?」
「I do. Combo Attack, Combo Attack…」
She recited the combo I taught her earlier. Good. Looks like she remembers. I only told her once and she actually recalls them. She must have pretty good memory.
「All right. I"ll bait three monsters this time.」
「Bait?」
「Drawing a monster"s attention using taunting spells is called baiting. If there"s lots of enemies, you bait only enough. Only the amount you can take at a time.」
「You mean you"ll split a group of monsters?」
「Exactly. The swarms in this forest have an average of six monsters so we"ll basically kill half a group at a time.」
Based on our performance, I think we can take on six at a time. But with that many monsters, there"ll be serious trouble if we fail. We"ll just keep it at three for now. That way if Mylia fails in her combo, we can recover easily.
「So you can even split a group of monsters, huh?」
「Even a s.h.i.+elder can do it without much difficulty, no?」
「There are s.h.i.+elders who can do it, but it"s a highly-advanced skill. With two top-notch s.h.i.+elders, one would draw the attention of half the monsters, and the other will draw the other half. Whoever is found first will have to run around until the other s.h.i.+elder"s battle is over. It"s possible to do it solo, but the success rate is fifty-fifty. You"ll have to rely on luck mostly.」
That"s awfully inefficient… Splitting a group is an easy thing to do. You just have to study the monster"s movements.
I could release something like a textbook about Skills for adventurers. Though there"s a high possibility that society will collapse if I do so. It"ll be a while before I can teach people about the Skill Learning system.
After walking for a bit, we spotted a group of six Blood Tigers at just the right location. We"ll use them as target practice.
「Blood Tigers up ahead. I"ll bait three of them.」
「Got it!」
「Here we go. Magic Taunt!」
I baited three Blood Tigers with the spell. There are two things to remember when baiting a part of a group.
First is to keep the right distance. Too far and the spell won"t reach. Too close and the other monsters might notice once the fight starts.
The second thing to remember is to not bait the leader. If the leader gets baited, the rest of the monsters will follow him as well. So it"s pointless to try to bait a part of the group if the leader gets included.
As to why they have two s.h.i.+elders work together in this world, my guess is that they"re not aware that there"s a leader. The leader"s appearance doesn"t differ from the rest, however, and it takes careful observation of their movements to determine which one it is.
「You really got three!」
「Yeah. Now just do what I told you to and take them down! Magic Guard!」
Sage Skills aren"t created so they can take the tank role. So there"s a bit of adjustment to be done when taking on three enemies at a time.
「No, you don"t.」
A Blood Tiger lunged and tried to claw at me and in response I brandished my staff in a full swing aiming straight for its claws.
「Gah?!」
My staff and the Blood Tiger"s claws clashed, and with a lurch, I sent the monster flying.
That was more than just the Magic Guard"s effect. I applied a critical counter on top of the spell to increase the power of the critical strike.
「Sticky Bomb!」
At the same time, I fired Sticky Bombs at its feet to restrict its movement. Swinging a Sage"s staff doesn"t really amount to much, but one of the strong points of the cla.s.s is you can also cast spells while in the swinging motion.
People think that spellcaster-type job cla.s.ses don"t need to learn how to produce critical hits, but if you could use it like this, you"ll have more strategic options. It"s especially crucial for when a Sage takes on a tank role.
「You sent the Blood Tiger flying?!」
Surprised, she rushed behind the Blood Tiger, and started unleas.h.i.+ng her combo.