LIGHTNOVELSTORY Chapter 210 - The Scarecrow's Prayer (11)
A pigeon doll descended from high in the sky, as if falling onto Jade’s head.
In order to properly send a pigeon doll in the Witch’s Forest, where magical tools were prone to malfunction due to the thick negative-dimensional mana, the method was to fly up high, like drawing a parabola to minimize contact time with the negative-dimensional mana.
“As expected of Yuan. It seems he extorted them from the enemies who entered the forest.”
The legs of the pigeon doll sent by Yuan had white bracelets dangling along with a letter.
There were enough for all five people here to wear and have two spares each in case of an unexpected situation.
If they encountered enemies, they would definitely aim for the bracelets, so the more spares, the better.
The durability of the bracelet itself was not very high, so there was a high risk of it breaking if a certain amount or more of mana was used.
In the end, even the bracelet that helped them use magic was a magical tool, so it couldn’t be helped.
“It seems we can all wear them on our arms.”
“Wow! We can finally use magic properly!”
Silua, who had been frustrated by not being able to use magic, happily put the bracelet on her wrist.
Even with the bracelet, as a puppet master, her magic efficiency was exceptionally poor, but the more power, the better.
When Jade handed a bracelet to Gilbert, who didn’t know how to use magic, he was puzzled.
“Am I supposed to wear it too?”
“Yes, the function of the bracelet is to help you release mana. It’s adjusted for using magic, but it will also help with using sword energy.”
“Is that so?”
Gilbert wore the white bracelet with wonder.
After checking Yuan’s letter, Jade burned down Arcana’s safe house and wrote something in his notebook.
“With this, we’ve destroyed seventeen of them. It’s a very complex magic. It’s indeed worthy of sealing the Witch of the Four Disasters.”
Jade was convinced that the person who created the sealing technique using this forest as a medium was at least an 8th tier magician.
Perhaps they were even at the 9th tier level, called a sage.
The level of a magician did not always coincide with combat power, but there were no weak people among the magicians above the 7th tier, called archmages, who started to be called Honorables.
“Sorry to interrupt your concentration, but what are you writing? A code?”
Sophia, who had put on the white bracelet, smashed the safe taken out of the hut with holy magic and asked.
Jade’s notebook had a series of unrecognizable symbols and characters.
Below it, a rough map of the forest and the locations of the safe houses destroyed so far were marked.
At Sophia’s question, Jade finished writing and smiled.
“It’s a habit to write in code when doing magic research. I was just calculating if my plan is feasible.”
Everyone showed interest in Jade’s answer.
“Wicked enough for that Yuan to call it wicked?”
“If the Young Master evaluates it like that, it must not be an ordinary plan, right?”
“Hmm, a plan acknowledged by that Yuan.”
“Me, me! I’m curious about the plan that is wicked enough for that Yuan oppa to revise his own plan!”
Jade was flustered by his colleagues’ great interest.
“My plan is not that amazing. I just changed the last part of Yuan’s plan a little. And I’m hesitant to tell you because I haven’t finished calculating if it’s feasible yet.”
However, when Jade took a step back, his colleagues were curious about the plan but let it go.
“Then what is Yuan oppa’s plan?”
At Silua’s question, Jade thought for a moment and smiled. That smile resembled Yuan’s smile.
“First, we continue demolishing the huts like now. About twenty more and the preparations will be complete.”
“And then?”
“We need to collect the black opals in the hut safes. They will be used for future operations, so the more, the better.”
Jade collected the black opals from the safe Sophia had smashed. Before he knew it, the pouch containing the opals had become heavy.
“Since we’ve destroyed about half of the target, I think we can move on to the next stage. Mr. Yard, Gilbert, and Silua, please continue heading towards the center of the forest while destroying the huts. Silua, you know how to find the huts, right?”
“Yes! I know, don’t worry!”
Jade smiled at Silua’s lively answer.
“Sophia, please prepare.”
When he called Sophia with a grin, she was puzzled at first, but laughed cheerfully at Jade’s explanation that followed.
“Puhahaha! This will be fun, let’s do it right away.”
******
The 3rd and 4th squads of the 1st management unit carefully walked through the forest, leaning on lanterns containing ghostly fire.
The 25 personnel were divided into groups of five, moving with some distance between them.
The management unit had left 80 unit members to deal with the scarecrow, but in fact, the Witch’s Forest was most efficient when moving in groups of five.
If there were more than that, the shadow beasts would sense their mana and rush at them.
Of course, even if they moved with fewer numbers, it didn’t mean the shadow beasts wouldn’t rush at them.
It was just that the shadow beasts far away wouldn’t notice the intruders and would roam the forest as usual, but if they were nearby, they would sense the mana with their sensitive sense of smell, befitting beasts created with mana, and rush at them.
The fewer the numbers, the less likely they were to be detected, but if they reduced the number of people because of that one possibility, they wouldn’t be able to counter the shadow beasts.
“Here it is. The safe house has really collapsed.”
Only the collapsed and burned debris remained where the hut had been.
The debris that had turned into charcoal still emitted a chill with the blue ghostly fire.
“The ghostly fire unique to the undead, as expected, it’s the dullahans controlled by the scarecrow. Collect the samples.”
The magicians of the management unit efficiently collected the traces left by the dullahans and the ghostly fire in special cases.
The powerful familiar, the scarecrow, had simple behavior patterns.
Perhaps because of that, it preferred to directly confront enemies rather than commanding familiars that required individual orders when dealing with enemies.
Thanks to that, research on the scarecrow’s ability to cut enemies with its scythe and turn them into dullahans was lacking.
The source of the power to create undead was assumed to be the witch Dorothy, the scarecrow’s master, so the samples were even more important.
“Once the collection is done, immediately install the wedge.”
The 3rd squad leader, who had put the samples in his bag, pulled out a stake from his waist and stuck it in the ground near the collapsed hut.
Then, he wrapped a rope made by intertwining black opals around the stake, and three magicians began chanting magic spells.
At the sound of their chanting, the black opals resonated and released mana.
The unique mana of the opals mixed with the negative-dimensional mana near the stake, creating a mana void zone around it.
As a phenomenon like a vacuum occurred, the other two magicians chanted different spells to activate the stake.
“The installation is complete.”
The magicians breathed heavily and sweated.
Although they showed temporary exhaustion symptoms due to excessive mana use, the 3rd squad leader encouraged his subordinates.
“According to the urgent report, at least one more must have been destroyed. In case more safe houses have been destroyed, recover mana while moving.”
“Yes!”
After the management unit concealed the stake and left, Jade and Sophia, who had been watching in hiding, emerged from the bushes.
“You’re going to pull that out, right?”
“Of course. If I see such an interesting magical tool and just pass by, I’m not a magician.”
Jade easily disassembled the magic of the stake that the five magicians had painstakingly driven in and pulled it out like pulling a radish.
“Those people will feel empty when they find out later.”
“That’s why it’s fun, isn’t it?”
The two showed playful smiles.
“Now then, let’s arrange a blind date, as Yuan said.”
Sophia began to scatter small amounts of holy power to attract the shadow beasts.
Holy power, which had the opposite attribute to negative-dimensional mana, was a powerful provocation to the shadow beasts.
At the same time, Jade released the mana contained in the black opals, creating a mana void zone around them.
“Seriously, how can Yuan come up with such ideas?”
“I agree.”
Hundreds of shadow beasts, moving along the flow of mana, passed by in a line without noticing the void zone where even the holy power was erased.
And not long after, the management unit heading to the place where the hut was destroyed began screaming and firing magic.
A large-scale blind date with shadow beasts, which they usually encountered at most a dozen, had been arranged.
******
Looking at the leaf shadows created by the ghostly fire, a huge mana flow was observed near the location where Arcana’s safe house had been.
Judging by the single white dot that had appeared in the mana flow that surged like rough waves, it seemed that Jade and Sophia had arranged a blind date according to my plan.
Although they looked weak, easily defeated by the dullahans, the management unit was an elite combat magician unit carefully selected from the elites of the kingdom.
To be precise, the 73rd Magic Battalion was the elite, but since most of the management unit had infiltrated as members of the 73rd Magic Battalion, it was the same thing.
Anyway, with 25 people, they wouldn’t die easily to the shadow beasts. If it seemed like they would die, the soft-hearted Jade and Sophia would save them.
Later, when they were captured as prisoners, I planned to kill only those who needed to be killed, put leashes on them, and release them.
They were destined to live freely and then rush to stab “Arcana 01, The Magician” in the back as soon as I called them, but wasn’t it better than dying?
“Hmm~ When will they come?”
I had written only plausible contents that I, as the magician bastard, wouldn’t be able to resist in the communication magical tool, so the remaining management unit would all come to the forest.
The management unit was originally scheduled to come, so I’ll skip that, but the important thing is the magician’s other subordinates.
Of course they’ll come, right? Those Shadow Tower guys won’t move their heavy butts unless it’s serious.
What I’m aiming for are the hidden forces outside the Magic Tower.
Given the situation and the tempting bait I’ve put out, I think it’s okay to have expectations.
It would be the icing on the cake if other Arcana forces also get involved in the process, but that would be too much to ask, right?
While I was thinking about this and that, the scarecrow asked me.
“Hey. But what are you making my dullahans do?”
The scarecrow controlled the dullahans as I told him to, but he didn’t seem to understand why.
“What am I making them do? We’re preparing a grand welcome since we’ll have guests coming.”
“A welcome?”
“And by the way, it also includes preparations for breaking the seal.”
Although the safe houses acted as wedges to maintain the seal, destroying all the safe houses didn’t immediately break the seal.
The wise witch Dorothy foresaw that when Arcana tried to break her seal, something unfavorable to her would surely happen.
So even when she was being sealed, Dorothy interfered with the sealing technique and hid traps so that if someone tried to break the seal, means to protect herself would be triggered.
Everything I had Jade do and what I had the dullahans do now was all to break the seal.
At my words, the scarecrow seemed to ponder for a moment and then gave up thinking.
“Well, fine. Thanks to you, we got rid of the annoying guys and even the annoying huts, so it should be okay.”
Shouldn’t the witch have put something proper inside that scarecrow’s head instead of straw?
Then, at least, it would have a thought.
At that moment, the scarecrow suddenly turned his head and looked at the empty air.
“…Intruders. So many that I can notice right away.”
At the scarecrow’s words, I used Eunha’s eyes to examine the direction the scarecrow was looking.
As the scarecrow said, hundreds of armed magicians were entering the forest.
At a glance, it seemed far more than the quota of the management unit.
They split up and entered deep into the forest, just as I had guided them with the magical communication tool.
I couldn’t hold back my laughter and burst into laughter.
“Ahahaha!”
Snap!
The moment I snapped my fingers-
Boom! Kaboom!!
Explosions occurred throughout the forest with a roar.
“From now on, it’s time for a game of tag! Try to run away well!”
If you get caught by the tagger (explosion), you die.