Translator: Charlotte
After filling our stomachs, the girls said they wanted to go shopping for a while. I ended up having to wait on my own.
Meanwhile, I guess I"ll check out the explanation of all my martial art skills.
I listed all the skills. It looked like this:
Meditate (Staff)
Bless (Staff)
Straight Punch (Punch)
Leg Sweep (Kick)
Sweeping Parry (Block / Staff)
Parry (Block / Punch)
Back-step (Evade)
It was a refreshing sight, compared to my magic spell list.
When I saw the skills【Leg Sweep】and【Straight Punch】, I realised that I had never really used them as "skills".
I"d just been using them naturally. It honestly felt kind of strange, calling a normal punch a "skill".
【Sweeping Parry】and【Parry】were essentially the same skill. The only difference was whether or not you were using a rod to parry the attack.
【Back-step】was for putting distance between yourself and your opponent.
It was pretty easy to understand.
I was interested in the martial art skills the Doppelganger used.
I had made the mistake of overlooking some skills.
First off,【Meditate】.
Meditate?
Apparently, it was a skill that that reduced the chance of an abnormal status occurring when taking large damage. The status itself would also be weakened.
I wonder where I would get to use this one.
I don"t know, maybe just as a sort of insurance for when I fight a strong monster.
Now for【Bless】.
A blessing?
The name didn"t give me any hint as to how it worked.
Apparently it was a skill used to increase the chance of a critical hit, as well as to decrease the chance of fumbling.
A pretty plain skill.
It was a pretty plain skill, but I guess it could be useful in a long fight.
And it looked like I could use it on other players too.
If I used them both at the same time, I suppose they would be pretty useful.
Well, they"re staff skills.
I guess they were alright, if I thought of them as free bonuses.
「Sorry we made you wait」
「We finished shopping」
「It"s alright. Let"s go」
I rushed ahead without asking what they bought.
When we left the town, we got on horseback and raced towards Legias.
The weather was nice.
It was a nice day to go out horse-riding.
As we went along the highway, we didn"t encounter many monsters.
We put getting to Legias as quickly as possible first.
I activated【Dowsing】, and picked up some Obsidian Rocks on the way though.
Aren"t horses nice?
Horse-riding wasn"t very easy, but I was really grateful for the amount of time I could save by riding Zangetsu instead of walking.
The forest grew gradually closer, and soon we pa.s.sed the watchtower and entered the forest.
The atmosphere changed a bit once we entered.
A kind of suffocating atmosphere, generated by the surrounding thicket.
But we were used to it. We pa.s.sed other parties heading for Legias, and after a while, finally arrived.
While it was unfortunate, we didn"t get to encounter any Stray Horses.
We weren"t planning on hunting Stray Horses, but it was still a shame.
It was an annoying enemy to defeat, but its skin was a very attractive reward.
「Excuse me…」
「「h.e.l.lo!」」
When we arrived at Mio"s stall, it was already past lunch time, so there weren"t that many customers.
Fiona"s stall was also pretty lonely.
「Hey! Have you eaten lunch?」
「We ate lunch in Remut」
「I wish we could"ve eaten earlier though…」
Adele and Irina were getting along well with Mio.
That"s nice.
Today, Fiona, Saki, and Reina were in charge.
They were all smiling.
Not just smiling, they were all smiling at me.
Did I do something wrong?
「Thank you for your service」
「Thanks a lot!」
Huh?
What"re you talking about?
I tilted my head in confusion, and Fiona gave me an explanation.
「A lot of players in production jobs are getting t.i.tles now. Apparently it looks like you can get t.i.tles by doing specific quests」
「I got the t.i.tle『Hunter of the Sacred Grove』yesterday」
「I got『Leather Craftsman』」
「And I got the t.i.tle『Village Peddler』just a few hours ago」
Huh. There were quite a few variations in the t.i.tles.
My t.i.tles were pretty to-the-point and lame, but there were really cool t.i.tles like『Hunter of the Sacred Grove』too.
Honestly speaking, I was jealous.
「And that"s why we"re going to Remut tomorrow! We"re aiming to find the spirit you were talking about!」
「That"s alright, right? Mio?」
「Muu… Don"t leave me here!」
「Do your best today and focus on cooking instead. I"m sure it"ll pay off」
Hmm…
Looked like Mio didn"t have a t.i.tle yet.
Was she getting impatient?
「You"re right… I"ll do my best for tonight!」
「That"s the spirit」
「First of all, horse meat!」
Oh.
I"d never seen her cook horse meat before.
「I"d love to try some horse meat sashimi…」
「That would defeat the purpose of cooking!」
Well, she had a point.
Oh yeah, that"s right.
I sold all the Wild Rabbit Meat but I still had all the Striped Wild Rabbit Meat on me.
I still had all the Wild Rabbit Skins too.
And I hadn"t even brought up the subject of Adele"s and Irina"s armour.
「Oh, Saki. How are the boots doing?」
「It"s close to done. I can get it to you tomorrow」
「Were there any issues?」
「None, but I think there will be. I"m going to Remut tomorrow, so it"d be great if you could come pick it up in the morning」
「That"s great, I can do that. Also, I wanted to make some additional requests」
「Oh, that"s nice. I"ll extend the delivery date and meet you in Remut then. Is that alright?」
「Yeah, that"s fine」
I took out all the items I"ve acc.u.mulated so far.
I had a lot of Wild Rabbit Skins.
There were a few Striped Wild Rabbit Skins, and some Striped Wild Rabbit Meat too.
I gave her the leftover Wild Horse Hide.
This"ll be enough material I think.
「I"d like to ask for two things. The first is another saddle, and the second is armour for the girls. Will this be enough material?」
「This"ll be way more than enough. You want the saddle to be just like the one I made you earlier?」
「Yeah」
「Then I"ll use the rabbit skins for Adele"s and Irina"s armour」
「Thanks a lot. I"ll be counting on you」
「Thanks. Hey Fiona, I"d like to get half of the commission price beforehand, could you calculate that please?」
「Roger that」
「There will definitely be a surplus of Wild Rabbit Skins, and I"d love to buy them. Let"s just let the skin price and the commission price cancel out when I hand you the final product」
「That"s alright. I"ll leave it to you」
「Shall we get to measuring then?」
Saki captured Adele and Irina and dragged them off to the back of the stall.
I suppose you couldn"t measure a girls sizes with other people watching.
Looked like Saki ended up interrupting Mio"s cooking discussion. I could hear Mio protesting, but she was ignored by the others.
Saki was really amazing.
「Mio! There"s Striped Wild Rabbit Meat!」
「Gimme!」
Speaking of Striped Wild Rabbit Meat, I remember eating steaks of the stuff.
It wasn"t that strong, but it had a strengthening effect on your skills.
It was a pretty amazing ingredient.
「Well, I guess we"ll buy it from you right now」
「Alright」
I took Fiona"s first offer price and quickly finished the deal.
Mio immediately got started on the Striped Wild Rabbit Meats.
Good work on good materials meant a lot of experience, after all.
Fay mentioned that too.
Ah.
She completely forgot about the horse meat on the table.
「I guess I"ll go with skewered meatb.a.l.l.s? I want to improve in that field…」
「Mio, what about horse meat? You want to try it while it"s here?」
「Muu… I"m not so good with horse meat yet… I guess I will do horse meat sashimi」
「I agree, you should do that」
Yeah.
If it"s horse meat you have to go with sashimi. The dish of kings.
It was a very nice decision.
I bet it would taste even better with sweet, thick, rich soy sauce… With grated ginger mixed in there too…
Grated garlic would be fine too, I guess, but I liked grated ginger the best.
Wasabi was the devil.
「Don"t expect any condiments OK?」
「At least give us sweet ginger soy sauce please」
「Ha? Keith you"re from Kyushu?」
Reina was right on the money.
Yeah, I"m from Kyushu. What about it?
I"m as pure of a Kyushu guy as it gets.
「Your palate is so weird!」
「Huh? What did you say!?」
An incoherent, pointless argument started between me and Reina.
I regretted it.
「So, what about the horse meat?」
「Olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt, and black pepper… Oh and also parsley or basil. That would be perfect」
「What"s that dish called again… Carpaccio?」
「I don"t have the materials for it though」
「Why don"t you just go for horse meat sashimi then? With fish sauce and condiments please」
「Muu…」
Mio put on a dissatisfied face, being forced to compromise.
But yeah, horse meat sashimi would be nice.
「I finished the measurements. Even if I"m only going to be using Wild Rabbit Skins I"ll still have a little left over」
「Is that so?」
「I"ve got some business in Remut, so I can get it to you in… three days?」
「OK」
I was relying on Saki for a lot of things.
I wasn"t in a position to say no.
「Well then, I"ll be going to the forest now, together with Adele and Irina」
「「Yep! See you guys!」」
I wanted to try out something new today.
I was excited, so we went a little quicker than usual.
I was set on going deep into the forest, so I decided to change all of my Summon Monsters.
I recalled Zangetsu and Helix, and replaced them with the wolf Volff, and the bat Jean.
Adele switched into the tiger Mii-chan, and Irina switched into the snake Toggle.
I saw their MP bars drop by quite a bit, but that couldn"t be helped.
It would be MP well spent.
We kept moving west.
We encountered monsters on the way, but they presented no major issues.
The only monsters we were wary of were the male Wild Pheasants.
We kept on moving, taking care to not disturb other parties.
We soon arrived at our destination.
The green corridor.
This time, a spirit was floating above our heads from the very beginning.
But this time, it disappeared without any reaction.
I wonder if that meant anything.
「Here again?」
「That"s right. But I have a feeling I might be able to pa.s.s through today」
「Huh?」
I took a deep breath and took a few steps forward.
I reached the place where the spirit was, but there was no change.
I went further.
Still no change.
No, Adele and Irina weren"t behind me anymore.
I tried to use the whisper function in a hurry, but I couldn"t use it.
Looked like the『Union』connection was broken.
I quickly returned through the corridor. Adele and Irina were waiting for me at the entrance.
「You suddenly disappeared!」
「Looks like we can"t enter, just like earlier」
「Is that so…」
No good, huh.
Looked like the『Union』link would get automatically broken.
Still a little early to give up. I wanted to try something else.
「If a『Union』link won"t work, do you guys want to try it as a party?」
「Huh?」
「Is that alright?」
「Let"s try it. I"ll ask to join your party」
I recalled Jean and sent a party join request to Adele.
Adele accepted, and our names were listed together on a virtual window.
Out of courtesy, I did my best to not look at their stats and skills.
「Let"s try again」
Looked like everything was going alright.
Apparently just one party member needed the t.i.tle.
We all made it through.
I left the party and requested a『Union』again.
I resummoned Jean.
Now, onto the question of whether or not we should go forward.
「From here on, we"ll be stepping foot in completely new territory. You guys alright with that?」
「Let"s go!」
「Of course」
「We"ll probably meet new and stronger monsters. We"ll have no prior information to guide us either…」
「「Let"s just go」」
Well, there was no harm in making sure.
I got that feeling a lot too, the feeling of wanting to move forward just because you could.
That feeling couldn"t be helped.
「Great. I"ll take the lead」
「Alright!」
「I"ll take care of the rear」
I took the first step into a completely unknown place.
I wonder what was waiting for us… Only one way to find out.
Protagonist Keith
Race Human Male Racial Lv5
Job Summoner Lv4
Bonus Points Remaining 20
Skill Sets:
Staff Lv4 Punch Lv3 Kick Lv3 Joint Lock Lv3 Throw Lv3 Evade Lv3 Block Lv2 Summon Magic Lv5
Light Magic Lv2 Wind Magic Lv3 Earth Magic Lv3 Water Magic Lv3 Fire Magic Lv2 Dark Magic Lv1
Alchemy Lv3 Pharmacy Lv3 Gla.s.smaking Lv3
Cooperation Lv5 Appraise Lv5 Identify Lv5 Cold Resistance Lv2 Grab Lv4 Horsemanship Lv4 Precise Manipulation Lv3 Jump Lv1 Heat Resistance Lv3
Equipment:
Kaya Wood Rod Wild Rabbit Breastplate+ Series Snow Ape Armguard Wild Horse Boots+ Snow Ape Leather Helmet Rucksack Item Box x2
Items:
Survival Knife
t.i.tles:
Old Summoner"s Temporary Pupil
Livestock Protector
Man of the Middle Path
Monster Summons:
Volff Wolf Lv4
Zangetsu Horse Lv3（Asleep）
Helix Hawk Lv3（Asleep）
Obsidian Owl Lv3（Asleep）
Jean Bat Lv1
Companions:
Adele and Mii-chan
Irina and Toggle