Lures

Mallory wasted no time in tracking down more potential dangers around the outside of the walls as many other vases were unearthed.

The monsters that had been drawn in had attacked her relentlessly and had fallen under her spear.

Many of them were lower ranking monsters that could be found in the beginner areas or a little further into the dungeon.

If ordinary people encountered them on their own or with an inexperienced party, they would suffer heavy losses.

The biggest factor that played in the favour of Visa City was that it was not so easy for them to breach the city walls and only those that could get over the walls would pose any kind of real danger.

The walls were armed with various things to prevent such monsters from doing so but there would always be problems if a large number of them had came all at once.

Firing arrows, bolts and dropping things on them would only be useful on smaller numbers and a longer battle would need those things to be reloaded and resupplied once their numbers became low.

They had been able to handle the monster waves over the many years but there had been many that had died or had been injured during the defence of the walls.

A kind of item that attracted monsters and caused them to gather near the walls would only result in monster wave after monster wave until they were found and destroyed.

Monsters had been slain and the three vases had been destroyed then Mallory arrived at the next location.

Any fragments that remained from the lures which had retained the strange aura had been purified before she had moved onto the next one.

She almost performed a full circle of the outside of the walls and found herself on the path which lead to where she came from but was stopped upon detecting a final vase.

Instead of opening the small box that contained it, it was wrapped up and Mallory had placed a talisman on it.

Her voice was calm as she spoke in her native tongue. "Seal."

A faint light shone on the talisman and wrapped around the box.

Mallory saw that the aura that was connected to the talisman had wrapped around and contained the strange aura within so that it could no longer spread outside of the box.

The aura had disappeared and the monsters which had been attracted had been much less than before.

Mallory had already done a good job in clearing the monsters that were close to the walls and the remaining monsters that had remained nearby only sensed the strange attractive aura for a short moment before it was sealed away and placed in her bag.

She wasted no time as she leapt towards them with Valis pointed towards them, she moved at incredible speeds that it was difficult for them to catch up to her and they turned to a mist before they were aware of what was happening.

Her speed and leaping abilities were her greatest advantages and when they were put to use properly, she could move around and use her environment to the best of her abilities to leap from place to place.

A simple obstruction became something she could jump to and kick herself off so that she could get a better angle to attack from.

Attack, retreat, attack, retreat and repeat was the rhythm of battle she was getting into as she used guerrilla tactics against the monsters.

One monster was assassinated, she moved away from her current location quickly to avoid any monster attacks then positioned herself to leap back towards a nearby monster.

At times she had leapt up into the air and stabbed out Valis many times towards those below her and other times she had leapt towards a tree then kicked herself off it to change her direction suddenly which caught them off guard.

A hit and run style suited her well and Mallory had tried her best to incorporate it into her regular everyday battle style that would be used on her own or with a group alongside her.

So long as she did not encounter a monster that was a large threat to her that was with a group of monsters or an oversized group of monsters that would overwhelm her, there was no problem using that style of combat.

Mallory finished collecting the magic stones and then set off down the path that the others had went down. "Phew.. that was quite the fun experience. I wonder how they are doing without me? That must have been at least forty monsters that had gathered nearby and it has not even been that long since the last monster wave so those tools sure have been bothersome. Good thing they are gone now."

Each of the lures were buried in a location close to the middle area of each wall on the north, east, south and west of the city but they had been placed where there were more trees so that they could avoid being spotted burying them by those on the wall.

It helped draw the monsters close enough to form a larger group nearby until they noticed the walls and the humans on them.

Mallory had broken the first three right away upon figuring out that there would be at least four of them then sealed the other one to study.

While Mallory was being kept busy with those things, the carriage continued down the road without encountering any danger.

They did not know that Mallory had been the reason behind the monsters not attacking them.

Some talismans were stuck to the carriage which had the effect of repelling monster of a certain rank.

Due to her being level two and making talismans that could be used to repel, dispel or seal, their effects were very strong and worked against a lot of low level monsters, items, poisons, curses and other harmful things.

They were getting closer to their destination as they saw a wooden wall and gate which had been built to surround a place which had a lot of open space while there were no large buildings that had stood out to those looking from the outside.

It showed that most of the homes or other places that were lived in were only made up of one floor.

Almura heard a strange noise which sounded a little familiar then she stuck her head out of her carriage. "Hey! You are back!"

Mallory pedalled quickly on her bike and had caught up to the side of the carriage just as they were getting closer to the gate.

A gruff voice spoke from the other side once they had knocked on the gate. "State your purpose and affiliation!"

Mallory raised an eyebrow and looked a little puzzled. 'We sent word before coming so shouldn't they be aware we were on our way.. they should have opened the gates for us if they knew we were coming.'

It was strange that they had kept the gates fully locked when a representative of the city lord and the Seshat familia was coming over.

According to what she had been told, the villagers had usually been prepared for those that reported to their village. 'Are they doing this on purpose or has the letter not arrived? Well, it does not matter.'

Her voice was loud and cold as she raised her voice. "Mallory of the Seshat familia coming at the orders of goddess Seshat and the city lord of Visa City! Please cooperate and open the gates!"

There was some grumbling inside in lowered voices before the gate was unlocked and it was pushed open.

In front of the eyes of Mallory was many fields and there were a lot of basic wooden and stone buildings, shacks and barns.

There were a lot of people walking around, laying in the haystacks or working in the fields.

Everything would seem normal if viewed from the place where Mallory stood but her eyesight was very different from others. 'We have some work to do here..'

She turned around and beckoned Almura, Franco and Swaine inside then turned a cold glare towards the person who had been on duty at the gate. "A notice was sent before our arrival. Why have you not opened the gate before we came or even as we arrived?"

She made sure to pass over the document to prove her identity and purpose for being there as she scolded him a little.

It was not that she was really annoyed with how things had turned out but it was that she wished to find out why things had changed.

It was best to be blunt about it and to use her current authority to gain the information she needed just as she had entered the village.

There was clearly a big problem with the village which was not shown to the eyes of outsiders.

If there was a sudden change to the way they had acted to an official on duty then there had to be some reason behind it.

The sooner that the source of the problems was detected, the easier it would be to solve the problem.

Once the problems with the village were solved, the rewards for solving them would not be small.

Mallory grinned a little as she thought about the potential Excelia that would be gained but her happiness was not felt by the other person who was suddenly intimidated by her grin which had showed her sharp teeth.

Her whole demeanour changed from a small and cute looking cat girl into an intimidating person that would harm them if they answered wrongly.

A cold sweat went down the back of the man as he looked at the girl in front of him. "Ahem.. I am sorry. Let me explain…"