Translator: Charlotte Editor: Weasalopes
The herd of centaurs came closer.
But they weren"t running yet.
I had to watch out for their bows.
I didn"t know how much range they had.
We were still definitely out of range.
The moment I thought that, an arrow landed right in front of Zangetsu.
『The range!』
『Way too far!』
Adele and Irina weren"t prepared to shoot back.
The arrows came from an unexpected distance.
What kind of bow were they using…?
『Don"t just freeze, run!』
We quickly got moving.
We had no choice but to rely on our mobility.
I got Helix and Obsidian to fly up, and ran away with Zangetsu.
How do I deal with arrows?
We were unfortunately in a plain without any cover.
The plain sloped a little, but that was useless.
Even worse, I"d expect the centaurs to have good mobility too.
Their lower halves were horses after all.
Seeing us disperse, the centaurs split into three smaller groups.
It looked like it was one horse against two.
But I was optimistic.
I had my Summon Monsters, after all.
The two centaurs were gaining on me.
I saved the two spells I cast earlier and kept speeding up.
I knew that the centaurs behind me were about to shoot.
I cast the spells.
Two of them.
「Root Snare!」
「Root Snare!」
One got to the centaur holding a spear.
And the other hit the one with a bow.
Perfect.
The bow-wielding centaur fell over, but the centaur with a spear only lost its balance.
But it bought me time.
Enough time.
『Adele! Turn left! Aim at the fallen ones!』
『I don"t know if you know, but we"re being chased right now!』
『I"ll take care of them!』
Adele ran in my direction.
I released a spell at the bow centaur behind her.
「Wind Cutter!」
A direct hit.
It didn"t do a lot of damage.
But the centaur became unable to draw its bow.
For the time being, that would have to do.
I ducked to avoid a spear from another centaur, and quickly released another spell.
「Paralysis!」
A small marker showing indicating an abnormal status appeared along the centaur"s red marker.
As soon as I saw the marker, I ran up to the nearest bow-centaur.
As it was pulling back its next arrow, Ninetails shot a light attack it.
I slowed down and approached it.
It wasn"t looking at me.
There was another marker on top of its red marker.
Centaur Lv.4
Monster Enemy Target Confused
Huh…
Confused.
I got close to it and used my rod to pull it closer.
I placed my rod around its neck and pulled.
It started struggling wildly, but I persisted.
I was used to it.
I kept pulling and bending its head to a weird angle.
And then, a twist.
A cracking sound came from its neck.
The centaur"s HP bar went to zero.
My first kill.
I looked around to find the centaur I paralysed earlier.
It was standing still.
I approached it and wrapped my right arm around its neck.
While using my left hand to keep its head in place, I squeezed.
Its head was turned almost completely upside-down.
The centaur"s HP bar disappeared.
I looked around me.
Adele, alive and well.
Irina, alive and well.
The monsters?
Only one of the centaurs was still standing.
And even that one centaur was in a dangerous spot.
It swung its spear around, to no avail.
The two hawks and three owls completely surrounded it.
Tough luck.
Both its eyes were pecked out and its whole body was dyed a shade of red.
How cruel.
What was sad was the fact that it still had about half of its HP bar.
I stepped in and stopped its spear with my rod.
I delivered a quick hit to its wrist.
After a few more hits to its side and elbow, it finally dropped the spear.
Zangetsu turned away from the monster and delivered a firm kick.
A direct hit to its belly.
The centaur"s HP bar dropped to zero.
《Job Level Up!》
《You may learn the following Support Skill(s):【Dance】》
《【Tree Magic】Level Up!》
A job level-up… Not bad.
But【Dance】?
I"ll leave it for later.
「We managed to defeat them somehow. Thank you very much.」
「I"m just glad we didn"t take that much damage!」
Yeah.
Only Adele"s horse Machan took any damage.
Kii-chan healed up Machan.
Helix and Obsidian were supporting Irina, and it looked like they did their job well.
Well, she did also have another hawk and an owl.
Just the four birds took out two centaurs by themselves.
Well then.
I stabbed my knife into a centaur"s body.
I didn"t get anything.
But it still left behind something.
Three spears.
Three bows.
Three quivers and a dozen arrows.
It would seem like a good haul, but the spearheads were made of obsidian, and the arrowheads were just bone.
I used【Appraise】on the items.
【Weapon: Spear】Obsidian Spear Grade C- Rarity 2
AP+5 MAP+1 Power 4 Weight 3+ Durability 90
A spear with a spearhead made of obsidian rock.
Not very sharp, but can deliver amazing force.
【Weapon: Arrow】Fighting Bull Bone Arrows Grade C- Rarity 2
AP 3 Power 11 Weight 0+ Durability 30 Range +10%
Arrows made using the horns of Fighting Bulls as arrowheads.
Relatively easy to use.
They looked like normal items, and they weren"t all that powerful-looking.
But that changed when I looked at the bow.
【Weapon: Bow】Ginkgo Wood Bow+ Grade C+ Rarity 3
AP+3 Power+1 Weight 3 Durability 120 Range 80+
Required: STR = 25
A bow made of gingko wood.
A cursed bow, made from a tree cursed by a family of horse-riders.
[Custom] Strengthened with cursed ivy. Increases DEX [slight] when the user is desperate.
Cursed?
Huh?
《【Appraise】Level Up!》
【Appraise】levelled up.
By the way, should I still be holding on to this bow?
After thinking about it some more, I decided to let go.
「That bow is cursed apparently.」
「Huh?"」
「Woah!」
「Do you see anything weird with me?」
I checked my own status.
No problems.
But I didn"t believe it at first.
I got them to check me too.
「You"re OK!」
「It doesn"t look like there"s anything wrong…」
Hmm…
Did I resist the curse?
Either way, it was a dangerous item.
「What should we do?」
Irina looked at me with a troubled face.
「Burn it?」
Adele"s answer was straight to the point.
It didn"t feel right to leave such a dangerous item lying around.
Good idea, Adele.
「Yeah. Let"s burn it. I"ll leave it to you, Adele.」
「Roger!」
I checked the other bows and they were cursed too.
I burnt them using【Pyrokinesis】.
Smoke floated into the air, and the bow quickly broke down.
It had a high Durability value, but it turned out to be quite brittle.
I burnt another bow in a similar fashion.
It broke down just as quickly.
When I returned, Adele was already done burning the bow.
Fragile.
So fragile…
The more I thought about it, the less it made sense.
Weren"t Ginkgo trees especially fire-resistant?
We took the Fighting Bull Bone Arrows and split it between the three of us.
I was the only one who took a spear.
I removed the spearhead and used【Appraise】on it.
【Material】Obsidian Stone Grade C+ Rarity 1 Weight 1+
A black mineral with a sharp edge.
Often used as stone tools for their sharpness.
The usual Obsidian Stones were Weight 0+, so it must"ve been a somewhat good item.
Well, I was probably going to turn it into something else anyway.
「Let"s go.」
「「OK!」」
We only encountered two different types of monsters in W3.
Was that really all?
I felt like there had to be more.
The Fountain of Mist didn"t look any different.
There were a lot of Gas Clouds.
Yellow markers floated around before me.
Some kind of defensive action?
It made the fountain look like a fortress.
「Is this really an Area Portal?」
「Weird!」
「It may look bad, but I don"t think you need to mind them.」
I walked up to the nearest Gas Cloud and touched it.
It didn"t feel like anything.
I didn"t take any damage.
It was just like putting my hand in mist.
The time was just past 10 am.
It was still too early for lunch.
「You want to log out for a while?」
「I"m fine.」
「I don"t need a break!」
How energetic.
I felt like sitting down and having a sip of water though.
Please understand.
「Did you open this Area Portal, Keith?」
「I wonder if it was just because of me…」
「Fountain of Mist, huh.」
Adele was playing at the edge of the fountain.
She was poking a Gas Cloud.
How energetic…
「Sorry to keep you waiting, let"s keep hunting.」
「Can we still go further west?」
「I"d love to try!」
「I"d expect the monsters to get harder, but that"d be alright. Let"s make sure we can get back to eat by 11.」
Seeing new things was the essence of being an adventurer.
At least that"s how I felt.
I"m sure they felt the same way.
We headed west.
I sent the five birds to survey the area ahead of us for monsters.
I wanted to avoid dangerous-looking groups of monsters.
We only fought the occasional small herd of Fighting Bulls.
Meat was too good to pa.s.s up.
But I was surprised to find a monster that escaped Helix"s gaze.
It was a small group of monsters, hiding in the tall gra.s.s an in the trees.
It reminded me of the fact that I still had to be alert.
We ran into a monster under the shade of a tree.
Steppe Lion（Male） Lv.6
Monster Enemy Target Pa.s.sive
Woah.
It was sleeping.
And alone, on top of that.
It was the embodiment of laziness.
I wanted to take it out, but Adele was against it.
"Don"t disturb it while it"s sleeping!" is what she told me.
Although I was sure her real feelings were different.
Well, just looking at the lion put a smile to my face.
But looking at it also reminded me of the tiger I faced in S1W2.
I couldn"t get careless, even if it looked like it was alone.
I looked around me and saw three shadows in the bushes.
Steppe Lion（Female） Lv.2
Monster Enemy Target Pa.s.sive
The three of them were relatively low-level, but they had strength in numbers.
We pa.s.sed by them. It looked like they wouldn"t attack unless attacked first.
Although I was sure I would have to fight one of them eventually.
Worst case scenario, I could still escape with Zangetsu.
I thought of that too.
I got my Summon Monsters to spread out a bit.
Only Obsidian stayed on my shoulder.
I would need a pair of alert eyes on the ground.
I realised that my surroundings were gradually changing.
It was getting less green.
There was something that piqued my interest about the monsters Helix found.
At times there were very big groups.
About 50 at a time.
Not Fighting Bulls, but centaurs.
They were moving pretty slowly, so there wasn"t any danger of running into them, but just imagining having to fight them sent shivers up my spine.
But that wasn"t the only threat.
Another threat came from the sky.
The monster was lazily gliding in the air.
Avoiding it was impossible, and so we had no choice but to fight it.
Although I was hoping it was too lazy to come down and attack us.
It folded its wings and quickly dropped down on us.
Carrion Feeder Lv.4
Monster Enemy Target Active
It was a bird.
A very ugly one, at that.
A thick and long beak.
It dived down on where my head was just a moment ago.
I already had a spell selected and ready to go.
But I didn"t release it right away.
I waited for it to rise back into the sky.
「Wind Cutter!」
Right as it was slowly getting back into the air, I released the spell.
Obsidian followed up with a quick attack to its head.
Helix dived down like a bomb and tore at the monster"s wings.
It quickly fell to the ground.
I ran over to check if it was down.
It still had about half of its HP bar left.
Tough monster.
I noticed that it tended to fly away when provoked.
As long as I could keep it on the ground, it would be an easy fight.
What an amazing beak.
Adele"s arrow was completely deflected by it.
As soon as I got close, it would use it to stab at me.
And even when Helix got behind it, it would turn its head and swing its beak.
『Leave it to us!』
『We"ll take care of it!』
The two of them put some distance between them and the monster and started shooting arrows.
Its HP bar slowly went down.
The two foxes also shot out light attacks whenever they could.
What did I do?
I resigned myself to supporting with spells.
I used spells to keep it down on the ground whenever it was about to fly away.
「Thunder Arrow!」
A direct hit.
It did some damage, but the paralysis effect didn"t trigger.
I kept moving so I wouldn"t get in the arrows or the Summon Monsters" way.
The monster flapped its wings again, ready to fly away.
I quickly shot a【Force Bullet】at it.
It was good enough to keep it grounded.
We just had to wait and exhaust it.
When the fight was over, I went to look at the body.
The more I looked at it, the uglier it became.
And it was big too.
Black wings, no feathers above its neck, and skin the colour of rotten flesh.
A thick, straight beak.
I tried punching it. It was hard too.
I had high expectations when I plunged my knife into it.
But it didn"t drop anything.
Do your work, 【Disa.s.sembly】!
「By the way, do you two have【Disa.s.sembly】?」
「Yeah!」
「It"s still at Lv.3.」
Woah.
I was still at a higher level?
I felt somewhat relieved.
And ashamed too at the fact that I still couldn"t get anything.
Oh well.
The time was about 11 am.
About time to head back to the Fountain of Mist.
「Let"s start heading back. We can hunt some more after we"ve had lunch.」
「OK!」
「Got it.」
We turned our horses and headed east.
We could do some more Fighting Bull hunting later…
I"d love to do some more exploring in W3.
Protagonist Keith
Race Human Male Racial Lv12
Job Summoner Lv12（↑1）
Bonus Points Remaining: 14
Skill Sets:
Staff Lv10 Punch Lv6 Kick Lv7 Joint Lock Lv6 Throw Lv6 Evade Lv7 Block Lv6 Summon Magic Lv12 s.p.a.cetime Magic Lv5
Light Magic Lv6 Wind Magic Lv7 Earth Magic Lv6 Water Magic Lv6 Fire Magic Lv6 Dark Magic Lv6 Ice Magic Lv4 Lightning Magic Lv4 Tree Magic Lv5（↑1） Dust Magic Lv4 Lava Magic Lv4 Steam Magic Lv4
Alchemy Lv6 Pharmacy Lv5 Gla.s.smaking Lv3 Woodworking Lv4
Synergy Lv9 Appraise Lv9（↑1） Identify Lv9 Discern Lv3 Cold Resistance Lv5 Grab Lv7 Horsemanship Lv7 Precise Manipulation Lv9 Jump Lv4 Heat Resistance Lv4 Climb Lv4 Dual Wield Lv6 Disa.s.sembly Lv4
Physical Reinforcement Lv4 Mental Reinforcement Lv5 Speedcasting Lv6
Equipment:
Kaya Wood Rod x1 Kaya Wood Tonfa x2 Enraged Pickaxe+ x2 Silver Necklace+ Snow Leopard Push Dagger x1 Gale Tiger Push Dagger x2 Snow Leopard Bagh Nakh x1（New!）
Wild Horse Leather Armour+ Snow Ape Armguard Wild Horse Boots+ Snow Ape Leather Helmet Rabid Horse Belt+ Rucksack Item Box x2
Items:
Survival Knife Woodworking Set
t.i.tles:
Old Summoner"s Pupil
Guardian of the Forest
Man of the Middle Path
Spell Archive
Monster Summons:
Volff Grey Wolf Lv2
Zangetsu Horse Lv7
Helix Hawk Lv6
Obsidian Owl Lv6
Jean Bat Lv6
Jericho Wood Golem Lv5
Goki Demon Lv5
Senki Beast Ape Lv6
Rig Slime Lv4
Bunraku Wood Puppet Lv4
Mumyo Skeleton Lv3
Ninetails Red Fox Lv2
Companions:
Adele and Irina