The shadow shook.
A gentle breeze blows from the dark cave’s wide open entrance. Getting fired up like the flickering flame that blazes, my heart beats loudly.
I closed my eyes, inhaled large amount of air and breathed out deeply. In order to work out the courage deep inside, I try to recover my calmness many times over.
In the ground illuminated by the campfire, gravel like bare rugged stones are lined up. I have to explore the cave to clear the tutorial. Light is indispensable since I will be walking in the dark. Without a doubt, there are also monsters waiting.
How far does the cave spread out, how long will the torch keep on burning, I think over those thoughts and move into action.
Among the torches installed in the surrounding four walls, I take away three and poured over gravel and sand of the cave to put out its fire.
The light source decreases and the darkness deepen. I recalled the demon’s words and called out status in my mind.
Status
＜Mukou Hibari：♂16＞
E ：－
HP：0
MP：0
MA：－
MS：－
PP：1,500
CP：1,994
PP increased by as much as 1000 points from the initial 500 points distributed from CP. I confirmed if calling it to mind, similar to Common Point exchange, is the way to spend it.
Personal Point Exchange
・HP：100
・MP：100
・E
－Fire：1,000
－Water：1,000
－Wind：1,000
－Earth：1,000
・MA
－???：1,000,000
・MS
－Cognition：1,000
・Miscellaneous goods
－Cypress stick：10
－Bamboo spear：30
－Wooden sword：50
－Whip：70
－Tonfa：80
－Club：90
－Cypress pole：100
－Nunchuks：110
－Three-section staff：110
－Metal bat：150
－Torch：100
－Water：100
－Ration：100
Not only weapons but also acquiring food with Personal Points is possible? If you think about it paradoxically, the tutorial’s process might have to advance with the a.s.sumption of food.
Based on the names of items in the exchange, E and MS seem to be attribute and magic skill according to my guess. The one I’m not sure of is MA. The needed points to acquire it are on a completely different scale. It’s no use to thinking about it in this present situation.
It is said that a typical human being can win barehandedly if it’s against something smaller than a medium-sized dog. A weapon is necessary, but what should I choose?
There is a lineup that goes on like that of what can be seen somewhere in the start of a game, but everything is a striking weapon. The metal bat is the safest and reliable among these, the cypress stick’s exchange point is too low that I feel uneasy. It is the cypress pole that is bothering me a bit. (TN: Cypress stick is written as ひのきのぼう, while the cypress pole is written as ヒノキノボウ. Both are read as hinoki no bou.)
Since it’s for hurting and killing monsters, anything after the club seems hard to break and st.u.r.dy all over as a striking weapon.
How is the cypress pole really different from the cypress stick? The weapon of the same name is written in hiragana and katakana. There is a tenfold difference in the needed points for exchange, it is more expensive compared to the club. Since this is a tutorial, I’d like to think that there are no extreme misses, but I feel very uneasy.
In the end, after a great deal of trouble, I was not able to defeat my curiosity and chose both the cypress stick and cypress pole.
I thought of the exchange decisions successively with only a short delay in between, and then two poles appeared before my eyes without any warning.
Both are wooden poles without big difference in appearance. With a thickness that of an arm, the feeling of grasping it wasn’t bad. There is a heavy impression, the response I feel from striking with it. Which one is which, I can’t possibly distinguish them if I didn’t notice the difference in time in which they appeared.
I wrap a handkerchief around the wooden pole, as a simple measure so it won’t slip and as a hand protection. When I swung and messed around with the wooden pole for a moment, I have learned my lesson after a splinter of wood lodged in my hand. I also no longer experience it slipping out and flying into an unexpected direction.
After acquiring weapons, I raised HP and MP once. The needed points for each one after that increases by 200. Apparently, it seems the needed points to raise HP and MP changes progressively.
Although I was expecting only a bit, I don’t feel any different despite raising HP and MP. I cannot actually feel it because it’s only a slight change, or is there another reason?
The remaining points are 1,190.
The remaining choices are to raise HP or MP again, choose one from E, get Cognition from MS, or put points in reserve by not spending.
If you think about completion of the tutorial, fire that practically guarantees light source is attractive. Water that can secure one’s drink, wind that can read something like air flow, and also earth that can create terrain traps are not bad.
However, there is only one point in my mind that didn’t fall into place. I didn’t feel anything even though I raised HP and MP. It isn’t a problem if it is because the change is so small that it can’t be perceived, but what if it wasn’t.
Why bother putting the item like Cognition in MS. An unfriendly designed device without any explanation. A demon that quickly kills while summoning people.
I chose to learn Cognition.
Laughter is heard in the cave.
The sound that strike the wall then came back and the sound sent out by the mouth resonates, greatly stimulating my ear ca.n.a.ls. I feel quite sick like I’m having a motion sickness.
However, I could not stop my laughter. I can’t help doing so because I was so excited.
It seems the result of choosing Cognition was correct. I got a new sensation completely different from the five senses. That is, perhaps something called magical power. I could not see it or touch it, even so I became able to know that it exists for sure.
In fact, I only feel small magical power that dwells in my body. Faint magical power filled the atmosphere. There’s none in the cypress pole, but magic power dwells in the cypress bow.
The world is literally filled with it. I am shaken by the big change in me that can be called as enlightenment, like floating in the air, like the earth shaking, the crankiness I felt had not settled.
I sensed a new magical power in the dark which cannot be seen by the eyes.
Its magical power is bigger than mine, that magical power slowly approaches this way. Its speed is that of someone who seems to be cautious, so it shortens the distance bit-by-bit.
Hiding in the darkness, my eyes can’t identify the situation but my new sense is informing me. My instincts alarmed and I made a guess. It’s a monster.
Holding down the trembling of my body by grasping the cypress pole tightly, I get ready to prepare for a counter attack by wielding it.
A place where light don’t reach. I can’t still tell the distance from here, but the other party caught me. Suddenly with a howl, it rapidly approaches.
It’s fast.
It’s much faster than me running with all my strength.
It appeared from the darkness, the figure exposed by the campfire is a black-haired four-footed beast. Sharp fangs are visible from the open mouth, it is barking in rage.
Dog. No, the wolf-like quadruped dashes. Its forelegs jumped, hind legs kicked and leaped towards my direction to bite me.
Its big mouth opens and aims for my throat. The approaching pain and death before me stimulate my body’s will to live. From a braced position, I swing down with all my might.
The beast was blown away diagonally by the inflicted blow. It made an unpleasant sound of bones breaking. The tip of the cypress that was. .h.i.t has been broken when I examined it.
But it’s not the time to worry about something like that. In order to inflict a hard blow to the flinching beast, I raise a roar and strike. The screaming beast fly as the piece of broken pole shortens each time I strike. Still I did not stop waving my arms.
Until the cypress stick became useless I continued to strike, and strike, and strike.
When I notice it, the beast only raises a frail cry and no longer moves. But still, I step back without taking my eyes off from the beast and grasp the cypress pole tightly.
I let the monster grow weak, but the savage intention didn’t vanish from its eyes. If I relax my guard it will likely muster its last ounce of strength, I’m sure it will come and bite me to cut down my life.
In order to inflict the finishing blow, I decide to aim at the head. I put strength on my arms and legs and strike down. The bone breaks and the brain spills out. The black wolf-like quadruped beast finally stopped moving.
The monster disappeared when it died completely. The body fluids stuck on the cypress pole also cleanly disappeared. Even from the blows that broke bones, not one scratch is left in the cypress pole itself.
Stones with magical power were left in the spot where the monster had disappeared. The appearance of the stones that dropped there isn’t unusual. If I don’t have the new sense or intuition, I probably won’t notice it.
A grotesque feeling still remains in my hands even now. There is no regret. If you do not kill, you should be killed and eaten. I placed the small stone left by the beast in the pocket of my pants, held a torch and moved towards the end of the cave.
Status
＜Mukou Hibari：♂16＞
E：－
HP：1
MP：1
MA：－
MS：Cognition
PP：200
Items
Cypress pole Demon stone Torch×4