Chapter 279: Competing With Remilie (1/2)
“We’ll rest here today.” [Schieber]
After wiping out the horde of undead, we made our way for the Town of Departed Spirits again. But the deeper we went, the more undead we came across. Considering the time we used to wipe out the big horde, we decided to make camp earlier than planned.
The night was the hour of the undead, and even if not for that, it was dangerous to move in the dark. There was no reason to rush, so it was the right decision. Schieber-san was the one who suggested it, but no one disagreed.
“Remilie.” [Schieber]
“Leave it to me. Ryouma-chan, I’ll show you a useful spell.” [Remilie]
“Okay! I’ll do my best to watch!” [Ryouma]
“Holy s.p.a.ce!” [Remilie]
The mana she released was much greater than anything she’d released until now. As a faint light spread from her, mana and light pa.s.sed through our camp and settled in the outer perimeter of our defensive line, taking on a dome shape.
The air inside the dome was much cleaner, perhaps due to Remilie-san’s mana filling the dome.
“This is the light intermediate spell, Holy s.p.a.ce. With this spell, you can temporarily create a s.p.a.ce that undead monsters can’t enter. Zombies, skeletons, and even wraiths would disappear if they so much as touch it, so it’s often used to make camp in places like this.
There’s a few things to keep in mind. First of all, the duration and area depends on the caster’s skill. It can’t erase powerful undead, and there have even been cases of them forcing their way through. In such cases, the holy s.p.a.ce would be able to weaken the undead, but it will use up mana really quickly, and if you just leave it be, the holy s.p.a.ce will be dispelled. So strong undead needs to be dealt with immediately. Also, you shouldn’t rely on it too much. As much as possible, pick a safe place for your camp.
For the meantime, try copying what I did. For your first time, it’s good enough if you can make a s.p.a.ce big enough for a single person to lie down.” [Remilie]
As such, I gave the spell a try. I used light attribute mana, used the key points of barrier magic to decide the area-of-effect, visualized that s.p.a.ce being filled with light attribute mana, then uttered the chant.
“Holy s.p.a.ce.” [Ryouma]
The spell was invoked just like I imagined, but it was a lot harder to manage compared to barrier magic. If barrier magic were walls, and the mana you filled it with was water, then this spell is like cloth. A wall could keep water in place without letting it pa.s.s through, but with cloth, water seeps out. Without sufficient concentration during invocation, the mana filling the spell would quickly leak. In any case, it seems I somehow succeeded.
“Remilie-san, how did I do?” [Ryouma]
When I asked that, Remilie-san appeared troubled.
“It’s a bit rough around the edges, but you succeeded. Congratulations. You learned Holy s.p.a.ce. I’m glad you didn’t struggle, but it doesn’t feel like I’m teaching at all. This is said to be the hardest spell among the intermediate light spells to manage too.” [Remilie]
“I can use a bit of barrier magic, so I tried doing it while copying that feeling.” [Ryouma]
“That’s because barrier magic and light magic are similar in the sense that they both use spells and mana to cause a phenomenon. So when you use them for similar goals, the usage and effects can be similar.
In the first place, magic was just categorized to make it easier to teach the next generation. They basically just said, ‘barrier magic is like this’ or ‘light magic is like this,’ so there’s no real need to fuss about it. I think you’re the sort that would be better off like that too.” [Remilie]
Since coming to this world, I’ve realized for myself just how flexible and convenient it is, so I’ve always found the saying that ‘all magic is the same when it comes to handling mana’ to fit really well.
“In any case, you managed to learn Holy s.p.a.ce already, so let’s start making camp.” [Remilie]
“After all, you can’t quite call it rest even if the undead don’t come if we leave ourselves exposed to the weather.” [Reinbach]
“But of course.” [Ryouma]
In that case, we should start by preparing the tent… Or at least that’s what I was thinking when Schieber-san called out to me.
“Ryouma, I’ll take care of the camping preparations, so can you build a wall with earth magic around us? We have Remilie’s Holy s.p.a.ce, but it’s still better to have a wall in case something unexpected happens.” [Schieber]
“The situation has been like this so far, after all… Don’t worry, I’ll take care of it. How big would you like the walls?” [Ryouma]
“Make them as wide as your arm span and as tall as the distance from an adult’s waist to just below the chest. Bigger than that would create a big dead angle and make it hard to see to cast spells. Don’t make it completely impenetrable too, just make it so that it can obstruct and restrict movement.” [Schieber]
“Very well. My helpful slimes are with me, so something like that won’t take long.” [Ryouma]
“We’ll help out too once we’re done preparing the camp, so you don’t have to push yourself too hard.” [Schieber]
But even though he said that, I don’t think the job he gave me would be any difficult. I’m sure I can finish it really quickly.
To start, I opened my Dimension Home and brought out six types of slimes: the stone slime, the spider slime, the wire slime, the sting slime, the metal slime, and the iron slime. Then I took the now 10,000 stone slimes and brought them to one of the surrounding walls of rock, where I then broke a portion of it with Earth Magic, then made the rubble just small enough to pa.s.s for a pile of stones.
“I wonder if you guys can grow bigger by eating these.”
When I said that, they crowded the pile of stones. You couldn’t tell which was which when they weren’t moving. I left them there for the meantime and returned to the campsite.
Just as the name ‘Stone Slime’ implied, the stone slimes were slimes with the body of a stone. They reproduced by using the nutrients they’ve gained to split just like the other slimes, but by instructing them not to, they could grow from a tiny pebble you could pick up with your fingers to a ‘big stone’ bigger than my palm.
I’m taking advantage of that trait to make them as big as possible. Afterwards, I’ll tell them to stack themselves in the right locations and the stone wall will be complete. Stone walls have been used since ancient times in castles as well. My stone walls might not turn out to be as amazing, but they’ll do more than well enough given our objectives.
The slime stone walls alone would fortify our camp well enough, but there’s another twist.
With the size of the stone wall specified by Schieber-san as one block, I arranged them into two layers around the camp with a gap big enough for one or two people to pa.s.s. The inner and outer rings were offset, then when I was done determining the general position, I dug a hole in the gap using earth magic, then put up two sticks of metallic slimes.
“Please take care of it in order.” [Ryouma]
The spider slimes, the wire slimes, and the sting slimes that have been waiting moved out simultaneously.
The spider slimes climbed up the metallic slimes and built a nest with their threads, then with the support of the spider slimes, the wire slimes stretched their bodies and spiraled between the two rods. Finally, the sting slimes created poison needles and stuck them onto the two metallic slime sticks. Voila! Just like that, my very own barbed wire trap was complete!
Unfortunately, the undead aren’t alive, so the poison won’t have much of an effect. Though if it touches the clothes or penetrates the flesh, it should still be able to obstruct them. More importantly, this barbed wire trap is really a combination of my slimes, so I’ll be able to tell immediately how many undead there are when they make contact. Nothing could be better for defense.
It was in this way that my slimes and I worked together, and when the construction of the defensive line was starting to progress… 90% of the work was completed in just 30 minutes since the camp was just two tents and a bonfire. All that was left was to check the work and make sure that all the preparations were done correctly.