Volume 3, Chapter 33 – The Ice Fairies

“Just charge straight through, don’t get tied down fighting the fairies!”

“””Yes!”””

Clementine swung his fiery red greatsword fiercely to the right, and the resulting sparks instantly made countless floating ice-blue fairies retreat several meters.

This was the Flame Conquerors’ first encounter with monsters. As they were about to reach the cave Yisi had marked, countless ice balls the size of a human head suddenly emerged from the snow-covered ground. These monsters, called Ice Fairies, attacked with body slams and by summoning ice shards. Although they were nothing but round ice balls with no facial features or limbs, they could float in mid-air.

“Guild Leader, these guys are being commanded by something! They aren’t retreating even with fire magic!”

“Tsk, we fell into a trap. Form up! Annihilate all of them, don’t drag this out!”

Hearing Clementine’s command, the Flame Conquerors immediately tightened their formation. The shield warriors moved to the outer circle, while the magic casters and spear users moved to the inner circle. After their initial contact, there were still over thirty Ice Fairies left. It wouldn’t be long before they were all annihilated.

Sensing an opportunity, Yisi, who had been a bystander, walked to Clementine’s side and pointed out the dozen or so Ice Fairies that were further away from the team and observing.

“Clementine, can you leave those ten over there to us?”

“Ah, I’ll have to ask for your help, Miss Yisi. Ice Fairies are monsters that live in a swarm. If we let them fly back to warn the others, we can forget about our investigation today.”

“Understood. Camilla, Mary, Tiffany, this way!”

“Okay, Onee-sama.”

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Going around the main battle, Yisi took her companions and detoured to an open space behind the Ice Fairies. This open space was on higher ground. Her group could crouch behind a rock formation below and avoid the Ice Fairies’ line of sight.

The Ice Fairies were all around level 7. Having her companions challenge all of them at once from the front would be very difficult, so Yisi planned to cheat a little by using a surprise attack.

After confirming that the Flame Conquerors couldn’t see them, Yisi, who was crouching with her companions in a blind spot in the snow, snapped her fingers.

“[Spatial Lock]”

As if frozen in a photograph, everything in the open space, including the occasionally blowing cold wind, became motionless.

It seems [Spatial Lock] can affect an area. In the future, if I encounter a large group of enemies while challenging monsters, I can secretly use [Spatial Lock] to subdue them. [Spatial Lock] doesn’t produce a magical light when used, so I don’t have to worry about anyone seeing it.

After confirming this, and to test the experience gain, Yisi dispelled Spatial Lock and then charged out of the blind spot with Camilla and her group.

“Mary, take out the one closest to you! Then, make sure you protect Camilla and Tiffany!”

“Yes, I know!”

With her metal shield at the ready, Mary leaped out of the blind spot and appeared behind an Ice Fairy. She then brought her long, rectangular shield down on it from above, as if swatting a fly.

Splat.

Amidst a spray of snow, the Ice Fairy’s HP instantly dropped to 0, and it turned from an ice ball into a pile of shattered pieces. At the same time, all the Ice Fairies in the open space discovered Mary because of the loud noise and began to swarm her.

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Yisi glanced at her Omniscient Map. After taking out the Ice Fairy, Mary’s experience increased by 2%. The companions who did not participate in the kill did not gain any experience.

If I also participate in the kill, how much experience will Mary and the others get?

In Ragnarøk, there was a mechanism similar to an experience penalty. When a high-level player led a low-level party to kill a monster, the low-level players would get almost no experience. She wondered if the same applied in this other world. If it didn’t, she could perhaps catch a dozen evil dragons, beat them until they were on their last legs, and then let Camilla, Mary, and Tiffany deal the final blow. A normal dragon’s strength was lower than a Fallen Angel’s, which was why Yisi even considered such a thought.

While her companions’ attention was focused on the Ice Fairies in front, Yisi used Teleport to get in front of one of the Ice Fairies on the side. She reached out and grabbed the ice ball-sized Ice Fairy with one hand. The Ice Fairy naturally struggled, but it had no effect against Yisi’s brute strength. Yisi’s other hand brought her index finger and thumb together, and with a little force, she flicked the Ice Fairy.

Crack.

A crack appeared on the Ice Fairy’s round body.

Its HP dropped by 90%.

That was close.

If I had used a little more force, it would have died instantly.

Yisi quickly took the nearly shattered Ice Fairy to Mary’s side. She first summoned an Ice Wall to separate the battlefield, then explained to the stunned Mary.

“Mary, use anything you can to finish this one off.”

“I don’t know what’s going on, but if it’s Master’s command…”

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Mary put her shield on the snow, then took the Ice Fairy in both hands and, with a pop, smashed it with force.

Her experience didn’t increase at all.

Well, the other world has an experience penalty mechanism too. Yisi reluctantly patted Mary’s head and told her to continue fighting.

I should have known. If there was no experience penalty, those high-level adventurers would have been leveling up the low-level ones long ago.

Yisi simply retreated to the very back, leaving the entire battle to her companions.

The Ice Wall she had summoned was quickly smashed by the Ice Fairies, and the battle resumed.

Just like before when they were facing the silver wolves at the city gate, when facing multiple enemies, Camilla chose to use magic to create obstacles, changing the situation from being attacked from three sides to only being attacked from the front by Mary.

“But this way, Tiffany can’t level up at all…”

Tiffany didn’t have any means of attack, so she couldn’t gain experience.

Maybe it would have been better to have Tiffany learn offensive magic like [Light Arrow] or [Fireball] before auxiliary magic.

An Ice Fairy swooped down from the air and flew straight towards Mary. Mary raised her shield in front of her, and the two collided with a heavy crash.

Crack.

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Ice was, of course, no match for steel. A crack appeared on the Ice Fairy’s body, and it wobbled as it prepared to retreat. It was at this moment that Camilla’s attack arrived.

“[Ice Shard]”

With the Ice Fairy’s original flight speed, it would have been very difficult for an ice shard to hit it. But now that it was injured and moving slowly, hitting it was no different from hitting a stationary target in Camilla’s eyes.

Crack.

The ice shard hit the Ice Fairy, leaving a fist-sized dent on its surface. When Camilla’s second Ice Shard hit, the tattered Ice Fairy finally broke into countless pieces.

Camilla and Mary’s experience increased by 1%.

So if more people participate, the experience will also be divided…

Even with the previous lessons, the low-intelligence Ice Fairies still didn’t choose to work together. Because of this, Camilla and Mary were able to handle them with ease. In the process, Camilla also leveled up from level 8 to 9, and her skill bar now had a new magic spell called [Collapse].

That must be the effect of the staff made from the Earth Dragon’s horn. It could make a small area of land suddenly sink.

With Mary holding off the monsters and Camilla responsible for the kills, the pattern repeated itself. Soon, there were only less than four Ice Fairies left. Besides a very willing-to-help Tiffany watching from the side, there were no other problems.

—No, she should take that back.

An Ice Fairy that had escaped from the Flame Conquerors was secretly approaching Tiffany from behind. Although it was a wounded monster with less than 30% HP, if it wasn’t discovered in time, it would surely cause a lot of chaos for the team. Yisi decided not to remind Camilla and Mary for now, to see how the two of them would handle it.