Greatest Alchemist? Chapter 644

Mermanger, Fishing Escorts

After making the equipment of the four new people who would join the training, we conducted some training session focused on acquiring the skills for spears, daggers, and martial arts, just like we did for Fluna.

There were many skills that would be beneficial to have, like the Body Control Skill, Evasion Skill, Insight Skill, Stealth Skill, Enemy Search Skill, but these would be easy to obtain in combat.

Once again, we came to a high difficulty dungeon.

This was the second time for Fluna, so her physical abilities and levels had improved, and her skill level had also increased, so we didn’t need to support her as much as we did the first time.

This time though, we had to support Lana, Mina, Shana, and Wistina, so I wasn’t confident Kaede and I were enough.

Berkut was joining us this time too, so I asked her to support Fluna again, meanwhile Akane and Lulu-chan were participating as well to help the other four.

Given how Akane always found everything bothersome, she rarely ever joined the power leveling sessions with the Sanctuary Residents, but I wonder what got into her this time.

「Okay, we’ll advance to the middle floors, so if you’re tired or not feeling well, speak up immediately.」
「「「「Yes!」」」」

Lana and the others responded enthusiastically.

「Berkut, please support Fluna.」
「Leave her to me!」
「Fluna, focus on your scouting and stealth skills.」
「Yes!」
「Kaede, you’re with me. Akane, Lulu-chan, do your thing.」
「You can count on me.」
「Lulu’s got you, nya.」
「Now then, let’s go! Mermaid Squad, Mermanger!」

I know they really want to call it Mermaid Squad Mermanger, but Mermaids[1] didn’t actually make sense in this world.

Everyone was fired up because of Akane’s rallying, so it’s fine this time.

After inspecting our equipment, we stepped foot into the dungeon.

Although our numbers had increased, the amount of supporters also increased, so we reached the middle floors safely. Fluna and Berkut polished their teamwork, while Lana and the others succeed in improving their combat-related skills as they leveled up.

In particular, the girls needed to be on the lookout for monsters all 360° around them when underwater. Enemy Search and Stealth skills were absolutely essential.

And surprisingly, Fluna exhibited talent in that regard as well.

「Ha!」

She turned around and, with her sickle spear, struck down a monster that approached from her blindside.

The Merfolk possessed latent abilities from evolution in order to survive underwater.

These abilities included sensitivity to sounds in water and sensing vibrations underwater.

In addition to her newly acquired skills, Presence Detection skill and Enemy Search skill, Fluna’s spacial awareness rivaled even those of seasoned warriors.

And this trend seemed to extend to the other members as well, boosting our confidence that they would become excellent fighters.

Fluna, Lana, and the others had regular jobs fishing and producing salt, so we could only do a maximum of three days of power leveling in dungeons.

In total, we went dungeon diving five times, and by the last few times, Fluna and the mermaid squad’s team coordination improved so much that they managed to reach the lower floors with Berkut.

And today, we were coming with the Mermaids fishing.

The Mermaids have two fishing methods, catching fish by using nets, or by using a harpoon to catch big fish.

This time, I was outside the barrier together with both the mermaids who were swimming and casting nets underwater, and those with harpoons in hand hunting for large fish.

Inside the Sanctuary barrier, there were plenty of small fish that crowd together to protect themselves against huge fish. Large fish that weren’t monsters could pass through the barrier, but there weren’t that many of them because the inside of the barrier was the Mermaids’ fishing grounds.

If the mermaids wanted to go after big fish, they needed to go outside of the barrier, but if there were large aquatic monsters lurking outside, those monsters would attack them.

Until now, that is.

「Lana, you take the right!」
「Understood!」

With Fluna giving orders, the five of them flawlessly protected the Mermaids fishing.

As a benefit of leveling up, their underwater swimming speeds were much faster than any fish or monster.
Utilizing that speed, a single thrust of their sickle spears could bring down a fish larger than me.

「You all are doing great.」
「Thank you. It’s all because of you, Takumi-sama.」

I greeted Fluna as she surfaced and poked her head above water.

I was useless in underwater battle, so I had been observing from a small boat.

「!?」
「Oh! Everyone! Take refuge in the barrier!」

The moment I noticed it, and Fluna’s orders for the mermaids fishing to evacuate was practically concurrent.

「Lana, Mina, Shana, Wistina, Fish Scale Formation!」
「「「「Roger！」」」」

At Fluna’s command, the five of them held up their sickle spears and took a charging formation.

It was then that the water sprayed upwards, revealing a gigantic sea snake-like monster that let out a roar.

It was a Sea Serpent, one of the larger monsters among the sea monsters.

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Footnotes:
1. I typically write 人魚 [Ningyo] as Mermaid because there were no men, but it is more accurately “Fishfolk” in this world’s context. In this line, it is written as マーメイド, implying the word “Mermaid” itself is foreign. [↩]