As mandated by the almighty Goddess, prophet Shadyna is on a mission!

Which is witnessing the death of at least ten thousand. Sateri, isn't your religion a bit too extreme…?

Since we are already talking about cults, there's another one too.

_ Little girls: Loli falling from the sky, GET!!!

One that worships little girls, to be specific. Can I go home now?

Seconds after I landed on the ground, the two dozen little girls nearby blasted the monsters they were fighting with a renewed vigor to clear space, then proceeded to hound me like I'm some sort of rare drops. I mean, I did drop (from the sky), but I am not sparkling, nor do I have a big "SSR" text above my head!!!

They never change, don't they? These DFC Degenerates…

_ Vladina: Now now, she is not our ally so don't get too friendly.

The biggest pervert of them all is not joining in for some reason. She is standing from a distance and trying to calm down the subordinates to little effect.

Should I be grateful or offended by her action, I wonder? Tough choice~

_ Girl in uniform: Shut up, . You are just jelly.

_ Vladina: Why?!

_ Shrine maiden girl: And I will choose getting beaten up by a loli over two fat-filled hags who should never be in customer-facing positions!

That's oddly specific, just saying. Also, I would appreciate if you don't say that out loud since a good portion of my guild fit that description!

_ Bandaged girl: Step on me please! Or stare at me harshly at least!

Are you seriously saying that with such a cute face?! This is way beyond "friendly" already, you little pervert!

, this isn't the time to faint from shock of being completely ignored. Get your cute butt over here and do something about these maniacs~!!!

…

Five minutes later…

_ Vladina: So, what brings you here, Little Sprout?

As expected of a guildmaster, she recovered quickly even after the relentless dissing of her own guild members. Doesn't seem to be interested in saving me from the endless head patting and cheek pinching though. Sigh~

_ Shadyna: I was looking for a good place to grind and figured the raid horde would have the highest mob density in the game.

_ Vladina: Second highest, actually. And you need to take the mobs' levels into consideration too. Raid horde mobs are of all levels so it might be more efficient to try a lower level field…

She pauses for a second, then facepalms.

_ Vladina: Though I suppose that is not something you need to worry about.

_ Shadyna: Whatever could you mean~?

Of course I have to worry about the enemies' strength! For other players, that is.

_ Vladina: Well, not many people grind raid hordes so go ahead. I recommend going to the other side and charge at the horde so that they will come to you.

Yeah, I kind of saw that as I was scouting around the horde in the air. I would have picked anyone else in the area instead of too, if there had been anyone to pick! They are the only organized parties fighting the horde, and even then, they pursue from the rear rather than attacking it frontally. That's probably to pick off mobs at their own leisure without getting a whole swarm in the face. It is the safest approach to an endless horde of murderous creatures of darkness, but it won't be my first choice if I have a 10k kill quota to fulfill…

Still beats not having any kill at all though!

_ Shadyna: Uhm… Why is your guild the only one grinding here? Is there something making it infeasible?

_ Vladina: Not really infeasible, but rather inefficient? Against this many enemies, you are going to need a lot of supply to stay in the fight. On the other hand, you can't just set up an encampment when the enemy will go past after an hour or two. It's a planning and logistical nightmare, so everyone except for our alliance finds it easier to camp in a corner of a normal hunting zone.

Can't argue with that, I suppose. If there was a zone with similar mob density, I would choose it over chasing after a wandering horde in a heartbeat.

_ Shadyna: I see~ Does that mean the rest of the alliance will be joining soon?

Even if the angle of approach is questionable, the big four guilds alone house hundreds of combatants at peak hours. That translates to at least hundreds of kills every few minutes, enough to satisfy Sateri's impossible demands in a day or two.

…Wait, does that mean these quests were never meant to be done solo? Sateri, I want to file a bug report~

_ Vladina: That was the plan, until needed to monitor his ex-manager like a stalker, wanted to study her archrival in unnatural habitats like a stalker, and chased after boobs because he's a Sateri-chan-damned stalker!!!

…Da heck?

The rant continues for a while after that. From what I could pick up, Unity of Mankind's macho leader was freaking out because the degenerate head maid prioritized stalking over cooking, and Blue Blood Federation could not participate as their butlers were too busy covering the stalkers' shifts, or in other words, all the other teams under my management.

Concerns about the player base's morality aside, is there even enough space around Hessy and Elri for all of the stalkers following them?

____________

Meanwhile, at a gemstone store…

_ Hessenria: Pure black is reserved for so that is out. That leaves us with dark purple, but we share the same dark theme so it's a problem. Personally, I think dark grey or deep blue would suit you and Stella well. However, Ren is used more and is better off with purple. Maybe I should change mine instead? Hmm…

Standing next to her, starts to understand what it feels like to be at the other end of a fashion show. She would try to put a stop before getting something forced on her again, if it weren't for something else requiring her attention.

_ Fuelri: Uh, … The stalkers have started to fight among themselves.

_ Hessenria: Let them. There are only so many hiding spots around here after all.

Some distance away from where the two are standing, the strongest (though probably not the subtlest) stalkers are murdering each other to claim the best hiding spots that can be used for illegal purposes. Not that the "hiding" part is doing much good for them in this case, with all the signature moves being thrown around in full view and all that.

_ Fuelri: …Did they seriously think we didn't see them tailing us as soon as we left the cafeteria?

_ Hessenria: Do you really want to know?

The great champion takes a look at the maniacs undoing all of her hard work to prevent the destruction of Tyrel…

_ Fuelri: …I'll take the blue gem.

And decides that it's not her problem, as long as it's someone else other than doing it!

____________

_ Shadyna: Actually, do you mind if I tag along?

Since seems to be under the impression that I am going to grind on my own, I get straight to the point. If solo play was my intention, she wouldn't see me in the first place.

_ Vladina: Uh… why?

_ Shadyna: Because I'm a pacifist so I would rather not fight anything?

Uh… Girls, what's with the dubious look~? While it's true that I kind of set you on fire when we last interacted, I am really trying to avoid blood on my hand this time you know~?

_ Vladina: Look here, just because you are a loli doesn't mean…

_ Shadyna: Is it no good?

_ Vladina: W-well…

Tsk~ Her defense is higher than I expected. She is wavering as soon as I use puppy eyes though. Maybe another push will do?

_ Shadyna: I was going to bake some cookies as compensation too…

_ Little girls: Loli's handmade cookies!!!

_ Vladina: Girls?!

Her guild members have already succumbed to their desires!

Well, it's not like I need specifically. Any decent party (or two) will do.

_ Vladina: Girls, calm down! Think about it for a sec…

_ Girl in uniform: , shut up and stop bullying lolis. You have no power here.

_ Vladina: I am the guildmaster though?!?!

Oof, objection completely overruled. I know how that feels~

…

Now that I have secured the personnel, the next step is to improve the efficiency. The new CEO is taking over, and she will up the productivity even if that means killing off half the staff, possibly in a literal sense~!

_ Vladina: …Where did this tower come from?

_ Shadyna: I built it?

And judging from the menacing horde approaching, I made it in time too. Otherwise, I may have to change my job to Cute Combat Engineer and build this thing in the middle of a warzone.

_ Vladina: …In the five minutes we just spent eating cookies?

_ Shadyna: Un, I had spare materials from my guild's [Purification] and [Transmutation] training.

_ Vladina: No, the origin of the construction materials is not the problem…

_ Shadyna: Well, I wanted to make a whole fort with walls and all, but didn't have enough materials.

Good materials, that is. Literally half of the materials Elri brought back were transmuted into different materials, which means no improvement on quality. All I can say is that and 's training was well-rounded at least.

Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more.

_ Vladina: No, the amount of materials is not a problem either…

_ Shadyna: Sure, I could have built a bigger bunker instead, but a bunker in a fantasy game is not really immersive, don't you think?

Uh… why are you facepalming? Gothic Lolitas should be graceful and elegant you know? Your whole rotten personality is way more than enough for a gap moe already so there's no need for even more unsightly behaviors you know?

_ Vladina: Little Sprout, you have no right to talk about immersion after building a stone tower in five minutes!

_ Shadyna: Eh~~~

Something something, gameplay over realism~? Look, your guild members are already making themselves at home and decorating the place.

Wait, why are you girls turning it into a resort?! What happened to fortifying the place to prepare for the upcoming battle?!

____________

At the edge of a hunting zone nearby, a small party is performing their daily fauna eradication duty, also known as "grinding level". Or at least, that was the plan.

_ Player #1: Say… You told me that we should change location because the raid horde was coming.

Of course, there are brave challengers who take on the horde. Most of them quickly realized the errors of their way after being mowed down once or twice, and learned to just relocate for an hour or two when the horde arrives. Tyrel is an exception, being the main town and all, though everyone can just treat it like the good old raids in that case.

_ Player #2: Yeah. Look at the sun. The black spot is turning this way and pointing at us.

_ Player #1: I know. I can see how dark it is around here, and you said the same thing half an hour ago…

Normally, the area will turn dark first, then the horde will move in a few minutes later. "Normally" being the keyword here.

_ Player #1: But I'm not seeing any horde…

The murderous mobs and bosses of darkness dead set on destroying everything in their path are nowhere to be seen today for some reason, which understandably confuses the parties that stay until the last minute.

_ Player #2: …Okay, I'll go check it out then!

_ Player #1: Wait, no!!!

_ Player #2: Don't worry! I'll be right back! And I'm going to attend my daughter's wedding after that!

With parting words full of death flags, the player runs in the direction from where the horde is supposed to be marching.

_ Player #1: But you are the taaaaaaaaaank!!!

The desperate plea from the squishy fell on deaf ears.

…

_ Player #2: I'm back!

_ Player #1: Uh-huh.

_ Player #2: I found the horde and uh… we probably won't need to relocate.

_ Player #1: Wait, why?!

_ Player #2: They are busy swarming a stone tower full of little girls.

_ Player #1: …

_ Player #2: Stop judging me with those dead eyes! I'm not joking! Those girls seem to be holding so… let's continue?

_ Player #1: After [Resurrection], sure.

_ Player #2: …Sorry.

_ Player #1: You had better be, you darn blockhead!!!

____________

_ Shadyna: Huh, so they can't spawn ahead of the horde.

_ Vladina: [Elemental Blast]! They spawn at the rear, to be exact. We will have monsters inside the walls whenever the raid visits Tyrel otherwise.

_ Shadyna: Heh~

Well, that makes things easier for me. I was worried about mobs spawning behind the tower and bypassing us. Not that there's a weak point or something of sort, but if monsters spawn there and move away from us, there will be fewer for to kill!

_ Vladina: Is there something on your mind? You can step on me if you want.

_ Shadyna: I refuse~

If anything, I will sooner kick her off the battlement to bombard the enemies below! …And she might actually enjoy that too.

_ Shadyna: But still… it would be nice if we can improve our efficiency ju~st a tiny bit more.

_ Vladina: …Are you for real?

_ Shadyna: Un.

To be fair, the little girls are doing extremely well compared to the average players I have seen during my travels. And no, I'm not saying that because they are not dropping dead on top of my head, although that is a big plus admittedly.

The melee fighters are tanking properly at the tower entrance to attract attacks and grind their defense skills while the fast movers run around to lure the faraway mobs to us. The nukes brought out their biggest immersive fantasy equivalent of guns and are blasting everything to kingdom come. I made the cookies using different recipes tailored for each girl's role too, making their hard-earned dumplings from the tournament look like cheap food now.

So yeah, they are already at peak performance, and it shows. Anything less than a variant evaporate in the endless barrage like water droplets on a fire. There's not much I can do to make it better except for giving them actual equipment so that they can one-shot variants and even some lower level bosses. Promise to keep equipment for domestic use only aside, I don't have enough materials to craft gear for two dozen players!

It's expensive to be OP, sigh~

I can also hurl these degenerates and kill everything in the vicinity with [Mancannon], but that kind of defeats the purpose of my pacifism in the first place. Another problem is that are here to grind their attributes and skills for the most part, whereas killing monsters for the loots are only secondary. Headbutting monsters to death do not help with the former, unfortunately.

That should give them experience for STR or CON at least, I think…

_ Vladina: Hmm… Does the loli on your belt have any special buffs? Like how 's sword can debuff on top of existing debuffs I mean.

A different type of buff that can stack on normal magic buffs? Well…

_ Shadyna: I would have done so if there was any. She has a lot of strong but normal support spells and this [Soul Linkage] passive skill, which allows her to cast any spell I have. However, her attributes and equipment slots are lower than mine so my weaker spells are still better. There's also [Form Switch] to change into a normal pet, but she is vulnerable and can deal damage in that form. A [Symbiosis] healer suits my pacifist style better.

_ Vladina: …Let me get this straight, you have an OP as heck pet that can use YOUR spells without unlocking or grinding, tank bosses for an eternity, and deal damage at the same time, not to mention the buff skills. This girl can play all roles from support to full nuke and you are using her as a HEALBOT?!

_ Shadyna: …Pretty much?

Uh… could you stop orz-ing? Or at the very least, do that without stopping the spellcasting please?

_ Vladina: was slaving away for a whole month for her, and you are using her as a walking potion…

LDR bonus and emotional support too, though I feel like that wouldn't change her opinion much.

To my defense, Lutena started with the healing skills, so it's not like I am using something outside her original design. She is good at that to boot. That's why it never occurred to me that I could use her combat form as another HP fodder during my dive into the sun. Even if I had, I would still have her on healing duty. Her spell power is that good.

Is that OP? Well, compared to 's Yassyl who has a plethora of support spells in her white form and defensive spells in her black form, my girl is pretty much on the same power level, so it's probably just how pets from unique bosses are.

The [Soul Linkage] does seem out of whack though, which may or may not be related to the hot pot crafting I did before getting her, seeing how Yassyl does not have anything similar to it. Funny enough, it's near useless for us. Most of her spells are stronger to begin with, so there's no point in casting mine. The rest are either utility skills that she doesn't need, or attack skills that I REALLY don't need.

…Now that makes me think about it, did I get scammed? I depleted my wealth thrice just to get some fireflies along with a skill I barely have any use for. There was no telling what I would get, sure, but one would expect something remotely useful after such big payments, right?

And now I'm doing it again.

Twice.

…I'm really gullible huh.

Don't look so sad, Lutena. I love you regardless of your abilities. Heck, Gelly wouldn't be here with me now if that wasn't the case, so cheer up and stop reading my mind, okay? Cheek pinch, cheek pinch~

Now then, back to the drawing board. Is there anything else I can do to buff these little girls? Something that they can effectively use for their grind but won't be of help in any other circumstances… Is there something like that in this game?

…Wait, there is.

In fact, I am standing on one right now.

_ Shadyna: Say, do you happen to know if your attributes would get experience from using siege weapons?

_ Vladina: How did our talk about the poor pet come to that?!

Something something, logic and causality?

If I use a siege engine, it will be a piece of furniture which I can place on the tower. can freely use it without being able to bring it anywhere else. Not without my explicit permissions anyway.

_ Vladina: As for your question, yes, obviously? You still need to cast your own skills to get the boost from [Construction] items after all. With [Engineering] doesn't change that if you are not using its siege attacks. You can also make a hybrid item with enchantment for the constant-cast effect.

Un, that sounds about the same as 's explanation. I mostly use [Construction] as part of my equipment's crafting, hence the lack of experience and knowledge in using them in isolation from other skills.

That's why, stop looking at me as if I have no common sense whatsoever!

_ Shadyna: In that case, a furniture-weapon-armor hybrid siege ballista enchanted with your favorite AoE spell will do the same right?

_ Vladina: …

Ah, she froze. Could someone snap her out of it so she can get back to the killing please?

_ Shadyna: Or would you prefer a channeling attack spell instead? I don't know how the constant-cast will behave in that case though.

Either it will require manually using the item like my excavators, or it will fire non-stop as soon as someone gets on it.

…Rather than enchanted, the latter sounds more like a cursed item to me.

_ Vladina: I… I'll take [Elemental Blast] please. Also, will you marry me?

_ Shadyna: One [ Elemental Blaster] coming right up~

And I'll pretend I didn't hear the last part, un.

…

Some crafting later, turned into a cute petite murder machine that obliterates anything in her sight.

For something that I barely put together by scraping what was left in my inventory and fresh loots from the ongoing battle, that's not half bad. While she might not have the attribute bonus from having other equipment pieces, she has access to everything that makes my weapons great: range, damage, skill boosts. Add in a [Devotion] from her guild member along with my conversion buffs (which I totally did not forget until half-way through), and the band of lolicons can finally bring true equality to the horde of darkness!

As in, everything dies equally fast, boss or no.

With no chance of the horde breaking through our defense now, I can lie down on a chair with Lutena and enjoy my beach vacation peacefully. It may not have swimsuits, or even a beach for that matter, but I certainly have secured the (degenerate) cute girls!

_ Vladina: You really don't have any intention to fight huh, Little Sprout…

_ Shadyna: I've told you many times already. I'm a pacifist~

____________

Back at Tyrel, the awkward date has pretty much normalized. Contrary to the typical stubborn elves, is surprisingly adaptable. In fact, it is just a normal date between two friends now, if one can ignore the army of stalkers still fighting among themselves for the next hiding spot that is still intact.

_ Fuelri: I think that's about it for this shop. Where should we go next?

_ Hessenria: Weapon shop. Let's see if there's any design that can inflict more pain on Mera.

Whether their choice of shop can be considered normal in a date is still up for debate though.

[The corruption wave has been repelled, for now…]

_ Hessenria & Fuelri: Eh?

Out of nowhere, a system message was sent. Almost all fighting comes to a halt as a result, with everyone as dumbfounded as the two lovebirds (temporary). No one expected this message, not since the corruption raid mechanics were changed to a wandering horde.

_ Fuelri: The horde can be defeated?

_ Hessenria: But how…? Even when it comes to Tyrel and we had home field advantage, we still couldn't defeat it…

It was at that moment, the lead waitress had an idea. There's no suspicion. It is the default answer to all unexplained feats until proven otherwise.

_ Hessenria (PM): Mera, who's in charge of guarding today?

_ Merashiel (PM): You see~ I ma~y have told her to stay put nicely~?

Facepalming in total defeat, begins walking again.

_ Hessenria: Let's go, .

_ Fuelri: Uh… where to?

_ Hessenria: Weapon. Shop.

To say that the reputable cafeteria takes workplace negligence very seriously is probably an understatement.

--- Topic: Raid horde strategy? ---

## Serious Mage

As thread's title. We do know now that defeating them is possible at least.

##

## Heaven Piercer

Kill them all. GG EZ (=^・^=)

##

## Flame knight of Darkness

A solid plan! NOT!!! (╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻

##

## Nearseeing Sage

He was correct actually. Kind of.

The trick is to funneling all of them into a kill zone in their path. Once you have every mob and their mom home in your position, blast them with AoE so hard that they cannot approach quickly enough to surround you. As the dark spot of the sun moves away from your location, their valid spawn area reduces gradually. This is only possible if they are attacking from one and only one direction, otherwise they will keep respawning all over the place in the shadow.

Once you have that covered, it's only a matter of aggroing the newly respawned mobs and holding out until the sun's shadow is cleared. Kill the survivors and you are done.

Or… if you can somehow kill every single mob before one can respawn, that will probably work too. Either way, you are going to have to kill them all, literally.

##

## Manly Warrior

Holy Sateri-chan… (*_*;

So that's why I didn't see a single raid mob the whole time. Thanks for the input, great sage!

Did you come up with this strategy by the way? It seems to require a lot of meta knowledge.

##

## Nearseeing Sage

…(-_-;)

Not in this case. We were just trying to kill as many as possible and… well, that happened by accident.

##

## Big Hammer

o.O…

##

## WarlordPwnage

Whaddaya mean, BY ACCIDENT?! (╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻

##

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--- Topic: Siege weapon usage ---

## Big Hammer

Siege weapons are part of the game and were even used against a Magnus Bestia, but I don't think I have seen them used seriously anywhere else. Thoughts?

##

## Silver Merchant

To be fair, they are good at what they are supposed to do, which is bringing down static defense. Their bonus damage against buildings is the only thing that does not take ten minutes to destroy walls, and their range lets you safely bombard from three zones away, making them closer to modern artillery than medieval siege weapons IRL, but I digress. If you need to destroy something massive and doesn't move, get a siege weapon.

As for why they are not used elsewhere, they can't be enchanted/enhance without being a hybrid item (extremely weak), their ammo is EXPENSIVE, and they are sloooooooow.

If you have the gold to run a siege weapon build, that gold builds you a much stronger mage, is the general census.

##

## Fire mage of Justice

That, and there's no castle to siege in this game yet, unless you are a raid mob planning to attack Tyrel again.

Back in the beta days, there was this guild who actually used siege engines as their main weapons. Their ballista battery made for some really glorious barrages. (￣ー￣)

##

## Manly Warrior

I remember that! And they nearly made it work too, since the guildmaster was the owner of Architect Origin title.

They couldn't hit anything smaller than a barn however, so Phoenix Ashes and DFC Sages just went around and smacked them in melee during the big four guilds' rise to power. (^_^;)

##

## Mage of Sin

A big reason why it fell out of style too. If even Architect Origin could not make it work, no one else could.

On the other hand, traditional siege warfare may have a bigger part soon, once BB Conglomerate confirms that it's possible to maintain a town outside of Tyrel. \(^o^)/

##

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