Translator: Charlotte
It was quite a terrible experience.
I don"t think anyone would blame me for being fed up with Wild Dogs.
I decided to head to Legias, and headed towards the forest. Honestly it was mainly to change hunting grounds.
While heading west, I randomly hunted Horn Rabbits and Wild Dogs.
Now I won"t have to deal with the superior forms of the Wild Dog anymore.
I"d like to avoid fighting those strong monsters.
In exchange, I was attacked by a Steppe Hawk.
It was a surprise attack, but Helix managed to intercept it.
Many thanks.
Walking along the path in the forest felt very relaxing.
Maybe since there were a lot of players, there were a lot less monsters around too.
While walking at a regular pace and randomly hunting monsters, I arrived in Legias.
I arrived right in time for dinner.
Let"s look for Mio"s stall.
I was used to seeing Mio"s stall, but I saw it had grown a bit, with three new stands inside.
The new stands were selling all sorts of things. Probably Fiona"s work.
「Oh! Keith. It"s been a while」
「Yeah, good evening, it"s nice to see you」
Fiona, Mio, Rick, and Yuka were there, but Reina and Saki were nowhere in sight.
「Reina is off hunting, and Saki is in a workshop she borrowed, working on your request.」
「I see, is that so?」
「Yeah! I have a lot to tell you about but before that, let"s eat!」
After saying that, Mio handed me some sort of wooden bowl.
Again?
Her cooking was delicious, but I was curious as to what she had to tell me.
【Foodstuff】Blitz Thigh Meat Soup Satiety +20% Grade B- Rarity 3 Weight 1
A Soup dish made out of the boiled and simmered thigh meat of a Blitz.
Tastes a little like vegetable soup, with the taste of red meat mixed in.
It was actually really delicious.
It had a high grade, and it felt good in my stomach too.
I bet it would taste amazing with bread.
「Hey, you got bread?」
「Of course!」
With the bread it really felt like a full meal, even though I was going to order something else.
Well, that was alright.
But another dish was waiting for me.
【Foodstuff】b.l.o.o.d.y Burdock Root Kinpira Satiety+10% Grade B- Rarity 2 Weight 0+
Kinpira made out of b.l.o.o.d.y Burdock. The taste of sesame and dashi make it very savoury.
Recommended for people who want to raise their fibre intake.
A completely ordinary j.a.panese dish.
「You have anything sellable on you today?」
「Sorry, Rick. My haul"s been pretty low lately.」
I pulled out some Wild Rabbit Meat, which was immediately s.n.a.t.c.hed away by Mio.
She left all the calculations to Rick.
How cold-blooded.
「Let me guess, was it Wild Dog hunting? I saw your post on the forums.」
「Yeah.」
「Nice find, it really was a blind spot for all of us. Since Wild Dogs drop nothing 100% of the time, we"ve gone and underestimated them.」
「I just happened to get a quest to kill nothing but Wild Dogs.」
「But your post really did big waves in the community, you know. You should"ve seen the players looking for Magic Stones flood into the plains.」
「Yeah, I guess it did, and you"re right, there were barely any Wild Dogs left.」
「Well, that"s to be expected.」
At that point, someone barged in through the door.
I didn"t get the chance to talk about the Wild Dog Mutant.
「Hey! I"m back!」
「Yo! Reina!」
As bright as usual.
Behind her was Shinohara, with a wry smile on his face.
There was another girl player too. I didn"t recognise her face.
In her hand was a short spear.
「Go on, introduce yourself.」
「Ah, of course. I"m a Weaver. My name is Len-Len」
「My name is Keith. I"m a Summoner」
We gave each other a light bow.
I was reminded of the Player"s Guild that Fiona told me about. They really didn"t care what job you had as long as it was in production, huh?
A Weaver… In other words, a fabrics craftsman.
「Saki"s not here yet?」
「Hasn"t Saki gone and holed herself up in that workshop she borrowed? You probably won"t see her today.」
「If that"s the case, I guess we"ll go hunting without Saki tonight.」
「I"m taking care of the store.」
「Weren"t you on store duty yesterday, Mio? You"re going hunting today. Leave the shop to Yuka and Rick.」
「Muu…」
Looked like Mio wasn"t used to the dark.
I"m sure that was all.
Or maybe she was scared of Evil Ants gathering around her.
That kind of attack would affect not only your HP bar, but yourself too, on a base, instinctive level.
Mio turned around, and started arguing with Yuka in her usual tone.
I wish you wouldn"t argue so loudly.
Use your whisper function please.
「By the way, Fiona, you know what a t.i.tle is?」
She made a sort of surprised face.
I wonder if I just asked her something weird.
「I"ve never heard of it. It wasn"t in the beta.」
「Really?」
Well, if we both didn"t know, the least I could do was tell her what little I did know.
I told her about how the 160th Wild Dog in a row that I defeated was a Wild Dog Mutant.
And how I gained the t.i.tle『Livestock Protector』afterwards.
Just in case, I sent her pictures of the Wild Dog Leader, Wild Dog Boss, and Wild Dog Mutant.
「It might be something that triggers once you"ve completed a certain field, or chapter or something!」
「But Reina, I don"t think that kind of trigger exists in the outskirts of Remut.」
「But this really is a breakthrough, Fiona!」
「I don"t know if it"s a trigger or whatever, but I do think a method for gaining a t.i.tle would be interesting, no, good news.」
「You want to head on over to Remut?」
「I"m kind of underprepared at the moment… And with everyone hunting Wild Dogs now, I doubt we can activate the trigger again anytime soon.」
Fiona made a difficult face, and started trying to persuade Reina.
「In fact, I think this is the best time for us to take on quests on our own.」
「What are you basing that on?」
「Intuition.」
「Muu…」
Reina, and Mio too, stopped trying to argue after that.
Was there something special about Fiona"s intuition?
「Either way, with Wild Dog hunting being so popular lately, don"t a.s.sume it"s possible for us to get a spot. I think it"s best to avoid them for now.」
「I know… It"s kind of frustrating, though.」
「We as those in production jobs aren"t really built for efficiently defeating monsters」
Looked pretty hard, being the peacemaker of the group.
You have to deal with all the hard work of decision-making, and if it goes wrong it"ll all be your fault.
The leader type. I really admired that.
「Well, let"s leave that for later. Hey Keith, how strong were they?」
「Before you answer that, you didn"t write down anything about the Wild Dog Mutant in the forums. I think it would be a good idea to write a post about that.」
Ah, now that you mention it.
I wrote about the Wild Dog Leader and Boss, but I didn"t mention anything about the Wild Dog Mutant.
I pulled up the forums.
But my post was buried in the thread I posted in, and I couldn"t find it.
I looked through a few other threads, but the situation was similar.
A little too quick, no?
I chose the latest relevant thread and randomly posted there.
「I hope this"ll be alright.」
「Yeah!」
「Yeah, it was definitely strong. But probably something you can leave to the Guide Team.」
「So what are you going to do from now on, Keith?」
「Huh? Some random hunting once night falls, I guess?」
「No, that"s not what I was talking about, although you could probably easily join the Guide Team. It was a pretty dumb question.」
Ah, so that"s what she was talking about.
Hmm… I"m not really interested.
As long as there"s another quest waiting for me tomorrow, I"d like to keep my schedule free.
That"s why I"ll pa.s.s on joining the Guide Team.
「I haven"t thought about it all」
「What a waste!」
Well leaving that aside, I just wanted to take it easy.
Players and NPCs looking for dinner started to walk in.
As to not disrupt business, I got up to quickly leave the place.
「Well, give my regards to Saki, please.」
「I"ll give her some words of encouragement for your armour.」
I"ll be counting on you to do that.
I was definitely looking forward to the finished product.
My surroundings have already gone dark.
I recalled Zangetsu and Helix, and switched them out with Volff and Obsidian.
The process took out half of my MP bar, but there was nothing I could do about that. If you thought about it in terms of the combat power I would gain, it was worth it.
I wonder where I should go hunting.
From Master"s house, I decided to head north into the forest.
Around where you would usually see a lot of b.l.o.o.d.y Woods.
I used the light magic spell【Flashlight】of course, but I also used the earth magic spell【Dowsing】.
I had a feeling that rather than at day, it was at night when conditions for gathering obsidian rocks were the best.
Well to be honest, I just felt like it.
I also gathered any Healgra.s.s I came across.
Of course, I hunted Evil Ants.
It was pretty easy work, twisting and pulling their necks.
But if you were to fail even once, you would quickly get surrounded.
Can"t get careless.
I noticed that there were a lot of bats that night.
Thanks to Obsidian, they weren"t an issue, but just knowing that you could get attacked at any moment was really stressful.
But I did have fun occasionally.
Every time I encountered a b.l.o.o.d.y Wood.
They were tough enemies, but they were the perfect enemy to test out new fighting methods on.
Lately I"ve been testing out a few different throws. Today I"ll start with punches and kicks.
I tried to make defeating them as interesting as possible.
But the attacks weren"t so efficient.
The thin roots and branches its body was made out of could absorb impact pretty well.
Those roots and branches would scatter by the force of being slammed onto the ground, but it looked like punches and kicks wouldn"t have the same effect.
I"ll come up with new ways and test them out.
Test? Ah, I messed up, I forgot I was hunting.
From my experiments I learnt a few things about b.l.o.o.d.y Woods.
You could defeat a b.l.o.o.d.y Wood a lot quicker if you used attacks that involved pulling, or stripping off the roots that its body was made out of.
They were quite resistant to magic.
【Wind Cutter】and【Water Needle】had little effect.
I bet fire attacks would be effective on this kind of monster.
I saw a player burn a b.l.o.o.d.y Wood once in this forest.
It was a very showy way of defeating it too.
But not something I was into. I was more into a hand-to-hand fight.
I was so focused on grappling that I ended up ignoring Volff and Obsidian.
Oops.
I came back to my senses and continued hunting.
I continued hunting Evil Ants and Hunter Bats.
Volff and Obsidian, having to face ants, looked like they were venting their anger.
Sorry.
Sorry for not letting you play around in a while.
I"ll stay with you until it gets late today to make it up to you.
When the day turned to night, something I"d never seen before happened.
Something I had been looking forward to for a long time.
Monster Summon Volff Wolf Lv3→Lv4（↑1）
DEX 10（↑1）
AGI 25
INT 12
STR 12（↑1）
VIT 16
SPI 10
Skills:
Bite Dash Threaten Listen Sense Danger
Even after midnight, I continued hunting. It was then that I noticed something strange.
It wasn"t a change in the monsters.
But, it seemed like their levels had increased.
They felt strangely stronger.
There were Evil Ants at Lv.5. I got quite a shock when I discovered that.
As their level increased, taking them down became increasingly difficult too.
Especially since they would call their friends, which would be Lv.3 or Lv.4. It was the perfect image to describe the word "annoying".
Looked like the deeper into the night you went, the more dangerous the monsters would become.
I hunted while moving around and before I knew it, I ended up back near Master"s house.
I shouldn"t get carried away. Let"s stop here and go home.
I hadn"t used the bed on the second floor for only one day, but it still felt strangely nostalgic.
I recalled Volff and Obsidian, and logged out.
I"ve stayed in-game for a very long time… But I don"t regret a second.
I logged in early today too.
In fact, it hadn"t even been four hours since I logged out.
I was an addict, no matter how you sliced it.
Well, not like I was making some sort of mistake.
I organised the results of last night"s hunt into my two《Item Boxes》. Then I stuffed them into my Rucksack.
All my potion bottles were still full. I didn"t use them last night since I knew recovery magic.
Maybe it"s about time for the potion shortage issue to see some relief.
There should be many players now who can use recovery magic.
If someone like me could, anyone could.
Like usual, I summoned Zangetsu and Helix and headed towards Remut.
On the boundary line between the plains and the forest was a watchtower. I gave it a sideways glance as I rode into the plains.
Some parties were still continuing their hunt.
They looked a little strange.
Could it be, that they"ve been hunting through the whole night?
Could it be?
Nah.
I killed any Horn Rabbits and Wild Dogs that attacked me, and from time to time I picked up an obsidian rock off the ground on my way to Remut.
The view, painted in the rising sun, was magnificent. The wind on my face felt amazing.
When I finished off another Horn Rabbit, a message came.
《Racial Level Up! Please add 1 point to a desired stat.》
My stats were displayed on a virtual window in front of me.
I"ve already decided on which stat I would raise a long time ago. I chose the INT stat.
Base stats
DEX 15
AGI 15
INT 19（↑1）
STR 15
VIT 15
SPI 19
Yeah.
That"s beautiful. Very nice.
They were just numbers on a screen, but I still felt a sort of beauty radiate off of them.
I"ll bring up my INT or my SPI to 20 next time.
《2 Bonus Points awarded! You now have 20 Points!》
I"ve acc.u.mulated quite a few Bonus Points.
Looking at that number made me want to learn a new skill.
Something related to a weapon.
I"ll pa.s.s on Magic Skills. I"ve got plenty of those already.
It was really fun, thinking about what skill I should get.
Well, I don"t have to do it now. I"ll learn new skills when I need them.
Although that is what I"ve been doing.
Protagonist Keith
Race Human Male Racial Lv5（↑1）
Job Summoner Lv3
Bonus Points Remaining 20
Skill Sets:
Staff Lv3 Punch Lv2 Kick Lv2 Joint Lock Lv3 Throw Lv2 Evade Lv2 Block Lv2 Summon Magic Lv4
Light Magic Lv2 Wind Magic Lv3 Earth Magic Lv2 Water Magic Lv3 Alchemy Lv3 Pharmacy Lv2 Gla.s.smaking Lv2
Cooperation Lv4 Appraise Lv4 Identify Lv4 Cold Resistance Lv2 Grab Lv3 Horsemanship Lv3 Precise Manipulation Lv3 Jump Lv1 Heat Resistance Lv2
Equipment:
Kaya Wood Rod Wild Rabbit Breastplate+ Series Snow Ape Armguard Cloth Shoes Rucksack Item Box x2
Items:
Survival Knife
t.i.tles:
Old Summoner"s Temporary Pupil
Livestock Protector
Stats:
DEX 15
AGI 15
INT 19（↑1）
STR 15
VIT 15
SPI 19
Monster Summons:
Volff Wolf Lv4（↑1）
DEX 10（↑1）
AGI 25
INT 12
STR 12（↑1）
VIT 16
SPI 10
Skills:
Bite Dash Threaten Listen Sense Danger
Zangetsu Horse Lv3
Helix Hawk Lv2
Obsidian Owl Lv2