A hero who wants to help others wants to live a normal life - Chapter 50

Chapter 50   Incidents and Strategies

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After finishing our lunch break, we changed our strategy and were acting cautiously, but we were able to fight better than we had worried.

So that was good, but another problem arose.

“From the look of things, it seems like there are more monsters. What should we do?”

We hadn’t actually counted them, so there might be some discrepancy, but still, it feels like the number of monsters is increasing.

“Does that mean we’ve gone too deep?”

Near the entrance, a lot of people come and go, so the monsters are hunted frequently, and their numbers are low. Naturally, the further you go in, the more monsters there are. So, if the number of monsters has increased, it means we’ve probably ventured deeper.

But did we really move to such a deep area?

“…No, we’ve been walking around, but I don’t think we’ve strayed that far from the base.”

Yeah, that’s right. We’ve been making sure to hunt monsters at a stable pace, always staying within a safe distance where we could escape if necessary.

“But isn’t it weird? Normally, the more enemies you defeat, the fewer there should be, right?”

“Exactly. That’s why a lot of the other teams tried to rush and go all out from the start.”

Monsters, after all, are living beings, so if you kill them, their numbers should naturally decrease. That’s why the students wanted to gather points by hunting near the safe area where the teachers were stationed, as long as there were still plenty of monsters around.

However, despite hunting a lot, the number of monsters hasn’t decreased. If it’s not just my imagination, then something is definitely off about this situation.

“How about the idea that new monsters are being born? I mean, monsters just suddenly pop up, right?”

“That can happen, but it’s not likely. Monsters usually come from existing creatures that have mutated, and if that’s the case… oh, I see. Maybe this is exactly what the teachers intended.”

Moriya seems to have understood something and is nodding to himself, but what does he mean by “exactly what the teachers intended”?

“What do you mean, Moriya?”

“Oh, right. Well, monsters can appear naturally, but certain conditions need to be met for that to happen, right? I was thinking, would the teachers leave such an environment unchecked and choose it as the test site?”

Monsters primarily live as organisms and reproduce, but that’s not the only way their numbers increase.

There are three ways monsters can increase. The first is through the reproductive behavior I just mentioned.

The second is when plants or animals are exposed to an abnormal amount of skill energy, causing them to mutate or change depending on the type of skill or blessing used nearby.

The third is the most important, and it’s something both simple and obvious.

That is, monsters can be born from the wishes of a certain “blessed one.”

The wish that created monsters through blessings, desiring the world to be destroyed, continues even if the person who made that wish has already died. In other words, monsters are suddenly born—no, they “emerge.”

However, this “emergence” doesn’t happen just anywhere. What’s needed for monsters to appear is negative emotions. To put it simply, ill feelings.

Even without a blessing, every person has wishes. In fact, not just humans—any living being can have wishes or emotions.

These negative emotions that couldn’t manifest as blessings gather together, and with the support of the blessing that created the monsters, they turn into monsters.

“Certainly, the environment where monsters emerge can be detected, and it’s unthinkable that this location wasn’t scouted beforehand.”

But the environment where monsters are born can be detected in advance.

Even though it’s a test where students have agreed to the risks of injury or death, would they really choose such a dangerous place as the test site, especially when it involves the children of important figures, like foreign princess and other high-ranking individuals?

“Exactly. So, that means they purposely left it as part of the test. In fact, the environment was perfect, so they might have chosen this location because of it.”

“They did mention that the test was designed to simulate real combat, so incorporating unpredictable elements makes sense. But… isn’t this a little too dangerous?”

I think Moriya has a point. In the future, we might have to work in environments where monsters could suddenly emerge, so it’s not out of the question that we should get used to this kind of thing now.

Still, it feels a bit too dangerous. This is our first test fighting monsters, after all. Even if they want to build up our ability to handle sudden situations, wouldn’t it make more sense to do that in later tests?

“I’m sure the school has taken precautions. Remember, they said at the start not to worry if we saw teachers patrolling around.”

Well, they did hire external people for this reason…

“Right. So, assuming this was intentional, we need to decide what to do.”

“Got it! So, does this mean we’re in a bonus time?”

Bonus time? Oh, because there are a lot of monsters coming out, making it the perfect time to rack up points? Now that she mentioned it, that might not be entirely wrong.

“It feels more like a fever time than a bonus time, but that’s basically the idea.”

“So, why don’t we just charge into the source and blow it up? That way, we can score a ton of points!”

Well, that’s true, but… isn’t it a bit too dangerous?

“No, but isn’t it tough? If multiple monsters attack us, it’ll be hard for just Moriya and me to handle it.”

“We don’t have to fight them directly, right? Just get close enough and then blow them up from a distance! That would work!”

… I see. Rinrin’s abilities can be a hassle, but if she’s at full power, she can unleash a pretty powerful and wide-ranging attack. If we use that effectively, we could gather a bunch of enemies together and take them out in one go.

“Indeed, if we go that route, we can defeat many enemies while ensuring a certain level of safety. Fortunately, I’m a long-range ‘blessed one,’ and Rinrin has skills that allow her to attack over a wide area.”

“Exactly. Rinrin’s attack power is quite high, and if she moves right after attacking, it should work.”

Moriya and Kujou nodded in agreement with Rinrin’s idea.

“But just defeating them doesn’t score points, right? Attacking and moving immediately just tires us out.”

No matter how many enemies we defeat, it doesn’t mean anything if we can’t collect the parts that count for points. It would just end up being a tiring loss.

“We can collect the parts later. Even if someone can use body enhancement skills, they could only carry one or two at most. If we want to carry more, we’d need to dismantle them, but we wouldn’t do that on the spot. If anyone does dismantle them, we can just keep an eye on them. Also, the battlefield is being recorded by drones. If someone tries to steal parts, their evaluation will drop. With so many clans watching, nobody would do that.”

“Hmm… well, okay, but don’t do anything reckless, alright?”

So, we decided to search for the source of the monsters and carry out a surprise attack plan.