Chapter 287: Middle-aged menâs Full 100% middle-aged men edition from middle-aged men of Useless Middle-aged men? Part 2
The entire castle is covered in traps dueăEverlasting Trapăâs ability, making me the only one capable of freely moving through it, thanks toăTrap Ring â Automatically Disarms Trapsă. Thatâs why I turned it into guerilla warfare, but even so, middle-aged bombers remain a nuisance preventing me from getting close to the target. Getting surrounded in the castle will be the end. Being indoors comes with a perk of having many obstacles to cover from explosions, but because it is indoors, explosions become directional, travelling far and with quite a destructive power.
If I use Magic Wrap to the full extent itâs not an issue at all, but self-inflicted damage will make prolonged combat impossible. And if I donât use it, theyâll immediately catch up to me because of the difference in stats. I keep fighting while carefully controlling and then making instant escape, but at this rate I will be the one to collapse first.
Itâs not even evening yet, but if I keep doing nothing but stalling for time I will get cornered eventually. Even so, I canât start yet, the setup is not yet complete. The Kingdomâs First Division is said to be defending the border, so they canât move, the Second Division is protecting the Capital. The Third Division has fully collapsed with troops deserted and the chain of command dissolved. And the Royal Guard is most likely following Royal Girl and Meripapa-san and is heading towards the Frontier. If a stampede were to happen inside the Kingdom in such conditions, it would be overrun without a chance to provide any resistance. Thatâs why I want to bait it to the Frontier and defeat it here, but suddenly being forced inside the castle, Iâm now too busy getting chased around for any of that.
It wouldnât been that bad if it were cute girls we are talking about, but Iâm not happy about getting chased around by middle-aged men. Having said that, I also donât want to get caught, hugged, or exploded by middle-aged men! Killing them will make an explosion, so Iâm running around while warding them off with Cane Arts, avoiding them blowing up in my face.
However, those guys shouldâve come from the Theocracy. If so, it might be a problem. The Frontier is basically the sticks. With few contacts with the outside it had no information exchange going. Thatâs why so far I received no complaints from ShintĆ MusĆ-ryĆ« school of this world, but if the Theocracy has ShintĆ MusĆ-ryĆ« branch, they might get angry at me?! I mean, I kept calling it ShintĆ MusĆ-ryĆ«, but I havenât even seen it, much less, taught in it? And while feeling it might be a limit of what can be claimed to be cane arts, I shoot a group of mercenaries with cane arts and jump down to a terrace. If I knew it would be like this I wouldnât have given away all of the magic stone hand grenades.
Itâs just like back then, when I was living in the Evil Forest, running around from monsters, hiding, and ambushing them, the equipment remains the same, and Iâm still running around, clubbing enemies. The only difference to speak of is that the enemies changed from goblins to middle-aged men. Since I donât get how are they really different, everything remains the same.
Taking a low start I instantly close the distance, taking a swing with ăStaff of the World Treeăthat I extended to the length of a long club, knock the nearby middle-aged bomberman off his feet, and using that chance to get past him, cut down two mercenaries, then knocking away another one, jump around the corner on my right! Immediately, a shock wave sweeps over⊠Good grief, I have low HP and ViT, so if caught in a chain of explosions Iâll instantly die! Even one might be dangerous at point-blank range. I feel like I might survive one or two thanks to my gear, but I donât want to actually test that.
I think that I got rid of about one or two thousand of them with traps and ambushes, but middle-aged men are still swarming around. Are they perhaps spawning somewhere? Donât tell me that the Churchâs trump card is artificial middle-aged man overflow? If so then this world is doomed. I donât think there is any saving from that. Alright, letâs destroy them all along with this world itself!
Finally, the night has fallen. Flare signals are still two white ones. No overflow, but also no Frontierâs army in sight. It probably will take them another day, but such a prolonged fight is too risky for me.
With them switching from trying to explode from the inside to long-range barrage, Iâm pinned here. Iâm causing havoc with slotted in the clothesăMagic Beast Hide Armor â SpE 50% Up, ViT 30% Up, Slash Immunity, Spell Evasion, Physical Evasion, Skill: CloneăâsăCloneăskill, which had no use until now, but since itâs my first time using it the effectiveness is lacking. I mean, until now it was way faster to just rush in than doing whatever with ăCloneă? Thereâs even a rumor that I actually forgot that there is even such a skill, but I remembered about it when I was reviewing candidates for mithril upgrade, is how completely unused it went until now? I mean, if I usually had time to use ăCloneă, Iâd use it to first get out of morning starâs range!
And this ăCloneăis merely an illusion, so I canât use it for anything beside running around. There is no time for cloning when Iâm trying to escape the sermon. In the first place, I never had to deal with the problem of receiving long-ranged attacks from an ambush or getting shot at by a large number of opponents, so I donât have any specific countermeasures prepared. Yeah, school boys usually take part in evacuation drills at most, and nothing like running around while repeatedly being shot from a bow? If this was part of daily life, school boys wouldâve been on the verge of extinction by now.
But this is worrying⊠They can spot me even if I erase my presence, and keep tracking even if I move at high speed. The problem comes from the Churchâs knights taking command. Iâm slowly but steadily getting cornered. And then escape through a secret passage. And then after bludgeoning a few people, I once again get locked on and gradually cornered. And then get away through a hidden passage. Then beating up a few people and then a few more I get surrounded again⊠And escape though a hidden door. Yeah, itâs very hectic! Well, I was the one who made this place, so Iâm super familiar with the layout?
While conserving mana, I still continue remodeling the place as Iâm running around, so they canât rely on a map. So they canât corner or surround me. However, the other party is probably also waiting for their preparations to complete. No idea what they are preparing for, but if they are trying to do something, Iâd like to somehow hinder them, even so, itâs too hectic for me to get near them. A war of attrition in a deadlock. They are losing troops, and Iâm losing highschool boy energy from being surrounded by middle-aged men. Even if I wanted to recharge, Armored Pres-san isnât around, and even if she was with me, sheâd probably scold me for trying to do it at such a place! Yeah, if at least I had Flat Gazium I wouldâve been able to withstand this middle-aged manâs concentration, but even that is absent, only mana is gradually restored in vain through Magic Power Absorption.
Hm, I wonder if it would be alright to quickly go back to the Carnage Town, and drop by the guild to restore on Flat Gaze Pres-san Flat Gaze? I mean, Iâm pretty sure they havenât changed the quests on that bulletin board?