Translator: Cryus Editor: Weasalopes
It"s morning.
But it"s cloudy.
It"s only 6 pm. but it"s already pretty dark.
Alright.
I"m planning to visit Legias today.
But before that, I just remembered that I can get a new monster summon.
What should I pick?
I put on my equipment and head out to the courtyard.
I summon Zangetsu and put her on standby while choosing my new monster summon.
I"ll just take a look at the list of monster summons available to me right now.
Wolf
Horse
Hawk
Owl
Wood Puppet
Bat
Wood Golem
Beast Ape
Demon
Red Fox
Tiger
Viper
Skeleton
Slime
There are no new ones available since last time.
I thought the ox would be available to me, but it doesn"t seem like it.
It"s the same with spirits.
I was kind of looking forward to using a Gas Cloud.
Only Elves can summon spirit type monsters, so I guess I should just give up on the idea.
In the end, I"ve decided to go with the Slime.
Why?
Because it"s an aerial front liner.
I want a summon monster in the rear, but it kind of works when it"s aerial.
It"s going to be a problem in cramped places like dungeons.
But since it can take advantage of other monsters" weak points, I"d say it"s fine.
「Summon Monster!」
A translucent lump has appeared.
I"ve decided on a name for the Slime.
Rig Slime Lv1（New！）
DEX 10
AGI 6
INT 5
STR 5
VIT 8
SPI 5
Skills
Dissolve Shapeshifting Viscosity Surface Tension Nullify Physical
Wow.
Its stats are way too low.
But its skills look good.
The words「Nullify Physical」are shining brilliantly.
The game is probably telling me that it"s the main selling point of the Slime.
Slimes aren"t the only ones with the same characteristics.
Slugs have that too, although they don"t exactly nullify physical attacks.
It"s the same with the Gas Clouds.
The fact that conventional weapons aren"t effective against them makes them somewhat of a threat.
But they"re slow.
They"re not very intelligent either, so they"re a little disappointing in that respect.
Well, I guess I can rely on Jericho too. He"s a good tank.
Besides, I won"t know how good it is until I try it out.
I"m planning to go south from the forest dungeon today.
Helix would be perfect for scouting during the day.
I"m summoning him.
I want to pa.s.s through the forest dungeon as quickly as possible.
I spent too much MP yesterday switching between monster summons.
I barely had any MP left after fighting the Gas Cloud yesterday, so I need to be careful.
With that in mind, I"m heading on the path to Legias.
As for what Rig is doing… Half of him is stuck onto my back.
The other half of him is stuck onto Zangetsu.
It"s not really a bother, but I"m getting the occasional weird stare from other players.
I hope they"re not under the impression that I"m getting attacked.
There"s been a lot of players around Legias since the day started.
Probably most of them are going into the forest dungeon.
It"s going to be a bother if they"re all crowded in there, but I hope it won"t be that bad.
There are even more players in the town who are giving me that strange look.
Rig looks like a giant steamed bun sitting on Zangetsu.
When you touch him, it"s actually pretty bouncy.
Looking at him closely, there"s a large bubble in his body.
Logically speaking, the bubble is probably there to lower its inner moisture and raise its viscosity.
So the thing that looks like a bubble is probably all the water in his body gathered into one spot, right?
But never mind that. It"s actually pretty nice to touch him.
It really is.
But there"s someone who clearly doesn"t share my opinion.
「Uh, are you really okay with this Slime?」
Irina is showing her disapproval of my choice while helping out with the stall.
What"s wrong with that?
Sure, he looks like a steamed bun from a distance.
But it"s okay to touch him, you know.
「Good morning, Keith. Is that your new monster summon?」
Fiona"s calling out to me while I"m taking the breakfast that Irina gave me.
I"ll answer her after I finish breakfast.
「Good morning. I thought it was an option to use a monster summon like that.」
I quickly finish the food and show her the items that I got yesterday.
There"s not a lot of it.
In fact, I"m only thinking about selling the beef and Snow Ape Bones.
「Snow Ape Bones, huh. So you managed to get there by yourself?」
「Yeah, somehow.」
「I"ve never seen this meat before.」
「Please pa.s.s it along to Mio.」
「Of course, I"ll buy it from you.」
After that, we started chatting for a while.
It looks like the Jeweler is coming late.
I"ve managed to gain some information from our chat.
Mostly about making progress in different areas in the game.
First up was the northern side.
There"s a mine and an old Dwarven cave right next to it that looks like a dungeon. They"ve explored a small portion of it.
In terms of the area map, they"re located in N2 and N1E1.
They haven"t found area portals in either of those places.
Next is the east side.
They need to travel by boat from there, and since there are few players there, progress has been stagnant.
But there was a party that went there and found an area portal yesterday.
Apparently, the party consisted of 2 Fishermen.
I think I have an idea who they are.
I saw him in the Battle Tournament.
At least, I"m pretty sure about that one.
Lastly, there"s the south side.
It seems that they"ve finally set up a camp at an area portal next to a quarry just recently.
The limestone cave dungeon that they found is pretty wide. They haven"t explored much in there yet.
It seems that there were a few parties that simply went inside to take a peek.
It wasn"t posted on the forums, but rather it was shared among a few guild members.
Fiona may seem like a trader, but taking her advice into consideration, it seems like she values information quite a lot.
She did give me a lot of information after all.
「Good morning, Fiona. Am I late?」
「Don"t worry about it, Margrid. Oh yeah, Keith, this is the Jeweler I"ve been talking about.」
「h.e.l.lo. I"m Keith, a Summoner.」
「Nice to meet you. I"m Margrid, a Jeweler.」
She looks like a magic user.
She"s dressed modestly, but she looks intelligent.
Her eyes are really wide.
「I saw the video. I don"t really know how to put this, but I"m a little worried after watching it.」
「You"re worried?」
「About what enhancements I should make with the gems.」
「Keith, show her the gem first.」
I"m taking out the Blue Spinel.
It"s been sitting in a dark corner until now.
I【Appraise】it once more.
【Material】Blue Spinel Grade C- Rarity 3 Weight 0+
An octagonal crystal formed from a translucent mineral.
Not particularly scarce or valuable, but known for its ability to aid in magic spells after enhancement.
I wonder how she"ll use it?
「It"s not really rare, but it"s a pity. It would"ve been Grade C if it were a little bigger.」
「How are you going to process it?」
「I"ll cut and polish it. But Keith"s combat style is the problem here.」
「Right. He uses rods not to aid in spellcasting, but to hit the enemy.」
I don"t know what they"re talking about.
Margrid is explaining it to me.
Gems are mainly used as an equipment to reinforce cast spells.
It"s a waste for players to carry one around as a decoration.
Usually, they"re fitted into staves, giving the user a boost to M・AP.
Bestowing magical power into gems will consume Magic Stones.
Gems are most commonly inserted into staves for the simple reason that it"s the most efficient way of doing it.
The next best would be rings.
「Like this, for example.」
Margrid is showing me her main weapon, which is a staff.
With her consent, I"m using【Appraise】on her weapon.
【Weapon: Staff】Green Elm Staff+ Grade C+ Rarity 4
AP+0 M・AP+10 Power 1 Weight 1 Durability 90
A staff made from the branches of a young elm tree.
Not very suitable for hitting due to its somewhat twisted shape.
[Custom] Reinforced with a Pink Spinel.
※Provides a buff of INT+1 when casting Fire spells.
This looks amazing.
The special effect is only limited to Fire spells, but it"s still something.
「I think you can tell after appraising it, but I don"t hit enemies using magic staves.」
Right.
My combat style is the problem here.
It"ll put it to a waste.
I"ve been using my Kaya Wood Rods to attack monsters directly.
I don"t pay attention to it normally, but they"re supposed to make my spells more powerful.
I"ve completely forgotten about it.
It"s the same with my tonfas.
On top of that, I"ve been casting spells while fighting unarmed, so I haven"t noticed at all.
In other words, even if she inserts a gem into my rod, there"s a chance it"ll fall off considering the way I use it.
It"s even more meaningless when I"m fighting barehanded.
Too bad.
「The next most popular choice would be rings, but I wouldn"t recommend that either.」
She"s right.
It"s because I rely on punches too,
I could also go with other types of accessories, but all of them would be less efficient.
And there"s another problem.
Even if it"s going to be a ring, the socket needs to be made of silver. Otherwise, it"ll be less efficient.
In other words, it"ll be expensive since silver is used.
Just in case, I"m showing my rods and tonfas to Margrid.
With a single glance, she immediately says no.
「They"re too thin. The durability will decrease if the socket is weak, you know?」
I see.
I"m starting to hate my own fighting style a little.
「I"ll pay any amount within reason. I don"t care if it"s less effective either. Are there any other types of accessories you can make?」
「I can. This will take some time to explain, if that"s fine with you.」
It"s lecture time.
Fiona and I are listening.
Apparently, it"s necessary information for Fiona to use in negotiations.
Rings are the most common accessories out there.
The material fees aren"t expensive, although the grade depends on the cut and polish of the gems, and even more so by the quality of the socket.
It"s easy to add MP recovery speed as a buff.
In my case, I usually go with punching monsters, so that"s a no go.
Next in line is circlets.
They"re a good choice when the gems are too big for rings.
They"re inferior to rings in terms of efficiency, but they"re easier to craft and more stable in terms of grade.
But using silver chains as sockets tend to make it pricier.
MP reduction is one of the easier effects to add to this one.
It"s not a good option for me either, since I use headb.u.t.ts sometimes.
Earrings.
They"re also an easy option for small gems.
But she doesn"t really recommend it for me.
It"s easy to get caught onto stuff when exploring, which means I might get hurt.
The easy choice is magic resistance.
It doesn"t really click with me.
Bracelets and anklets are next.
They"re mainly used as defensive equipment. Reinforcing them with gems is pretty rare.
But for bracelets, the easy one would be an increase in hit rate, and an increase in AGI for anklets.
I"m kind of interested in these effects.
But they"ll get in the way of my equipment.
I"ll pa.s.s.
Chokers.
They"re also used as defensive equipment, so it"s almost as rare to see them reinforced with gems.
Status abnormality resistance is the way to go for this one.
It"s not something I"m used to wearing, so it may bother me a little.
I"ll put this one on hold.
The last one is necklaces.
This is the most complicated one.
I"ll definitely need a silver chain for this one, so it"ll be about as expensive as a circlet.
There are people who use multiple gems for circlets.
You could even add them later if you wanted to.
As for the effects…
Margrid doesn"t seem to know too much about it.
「Well, it"s not like any type of accessory is limited to an effect. But you shouldn"t expect too much.」
Margrid has finally finished her lecture.
She"s had some experience in using Blue Spinels with accessories, but they didn"t seem to add any special effects.
After listening to her exposition, I"m a little hesitant.
Necklaces would probably be the most practical option for me.
I could just wear it under my armor.
And it probably wouldn"t get in the way in combat.
I"m a little hesitant about the other options.
「Could you make a necklace for me?」
「Huh?」
「The other types of accessories probably wouldn"t be a good fit for my combat style.」
「Even if it"s not cost-effective?」
「That"s fine with me.」
「Understood. Let"s talk about the details and the cost, then.」
I asked her about the average price, which is about half of the amount of money I have right now.
That"s including the material fees for the silver chain and socket, plus the processing cost.
There"s a reason why she"s asking for a lower price.
It"s because of the gems.
I"ll be giving her all of the gems I currently own.
「I can add more enhancements with all these gems. What would you like?」
「I"ll leave it up to you.」
「Is that really fine?」
She"s looking at me with even wider eyes than usual.
It"s the first time I"m seeing some kind of emotion from her.
I can tell that her interest has been piqued, and she"s expecting something from me.
「Yes. I"ll provide the fees for the additional enhancements too.」
「Wait, how about we decide on that after we see the results?」
「Well, I guess that would be the most reasonable option.」
Fiona"s entering the conversation as part of negotiations.
She"s a Merchant, after all.
「Margrid, how long will it take to finish it? Weren"t we going hunting today?」
「Oh, that"s right. Let"s cancel the trip to the forest dungeon.」
「I thought you would say that.」
「I think I"ll be able to finish it in two days. I need to make the socket and chain, after all.」
「That"s fast.」
「Not really. I need to make it octagonal to fit the Blue Spinel.」
「By the way, are you able to make the socket and chain too?」
「I have the Blacksmithing skill, so it"s not a problem for me.」
Margrid is already examining the Blue Spinel.
She looks like she"s really enjoying herself.
「What other enhancements are you going to make, exactly?」
「I"m going to engrave the socket and chain. It"ll improve the magical potency, although the degree depends on the patterns.」
Oh?
I didn"t know you could do that.
Now I"m looking forward to it even more.
「Oh, right. Is it alright if I add you as a friend? I"ll let you know once I"ve finished the necklace.」
「Sure.」
I get a little nervous every time I"m about to get a girl"s contact information.
Stop smiling, dammit.
It"s probably just on reflex.
I received the payment for the meat and bones from Fiona.
I used the money to buy 3 sets of Portable Food and 2 sets of grilled skewers and bread, which I had for breakfast just now.
For all the exploring that I"ve been doing, I don"t have the Cooking skill at all.
I can"t cook either.
I only know how to make awful tasting food.
It"s kind of pathetic, but it"s the truth.
I"m heading towards the forest dungeon from Legias.
I"ve caught sight of a few parties along the way.
I guess the forest dungeon is a good place to gain EXP.
Since there are only Branch Golems and 2 types of mushrooms, it"s easy to come up with strategies against them.
It"s been good experience for me, anyway.
It probably won"t take too long before there are more parties coming into the forest dungeon.
Since we"re deeper in the forest, it"s getting difficult for Zangetsu to move. I"m switching her out for Senki.
「Goo-geh.」
He"s voicing his opinion of Rig, my new Slime.
Helix is resting on my shoulder.
Since Rig is slow, I"ll have to put him on Senki.
Rig is sitting on Senki"s shoulder.
Within the next second, he"s started to shapeshift, and is now stretched out across Senki"s back.
Senki is letting Rig cling to his back.
Looks like Rig has finally settled down.
He"s spread out across Senki"s back, all the way to the neck.
It looks just like he"s wearing some kind of provisional armor.
Are they really okay?
Well, I guess it"s fine to leave them to their own devices.
We"re entering the forest dungeon.
This place is already crowded with other parties around here.
It"s not a problem in the halls.
It"s the pa.s.sageways that are the problem.
With some difficulty, we"ve made our way through and entered the cave in the south.
Since we haven"t fought until now, I still haven"t seen how Rig does in battle.
There are goblins in this cave.
I guess they"ll make good opponents when it comes to observing my monster summons fight them.
We"ve encountered a few goblins.
There are 7 of them.
I wanted to reduce their numbers before watching Rig fight them.
But Senki almost wiped them out in one fell swoop.
Wait wait wait wait.
I haven"t even defeated one of the goblins yet!
I stop Senki from fighting and call Rig to fight the goblins instead.
Senki is holding one of the goblins by the head.
Rig is crawling down Senki"s arm onto the goblin.
The goblin is starting to groan in pain.
Rig is wrapping himself around the goblin.
His body is supposed to be translucent, but for some reason I can clearly see the goblin"s face contorted in pain.
After about a minute, the fight is over.
The corpse of the goblin is all dry and scruffy.
Its flesh is festering all over.
It looks like Rig ate and digested the goblin alive.
Obviously, Rig didn"t take any damage at all.
It"s a nightmare.
Wouldn"t he be invincible against enemies that only use physical attacks?
I guess it only applies if the enemy is a living being.
I, for one, wouldn"t want to fight a Slime without using magic.
After slaughtering 2 more groups of goblins, we ended up on the other side of the cave.
The only item drops were pebbles.
Too bad.
Obviously, I didn"t pick them up.
It looks like I just have bad luck when it comes to goblins.
We"ve exited the cave.
On the area map, we"re in S1W1.
A little more than half of the area is volcanic, while the rest is more like woodlands.
It"s going to be difficult to traverse the volcanic areas on horseback.
And the forests are rather dense too.
I"ll head south as far as I can on steady ground, without changing my monster summons.
I cast the Magnetic Compa.s.s spell and confirm my bearings.
I"m leaving the area map on continuous display too.
It"s not like I"m walking in a straight line through a wasteland.
I really don"t want to get lost.
My first encounter in the volcanic area is some kind of bug.
It looks kind of like a moving rock.
The【Identify】results show me that I"m not wrong.
Rock Worm Lv.1
Monster Enemy Target Active
The problem is their numbers.
Just how many are there?
I"m starting to see red spots from all the red markers.
There"s got to be 50 of them at the very least.
Did Helix not spot them at all?
Well, I guess they would look like rocks from a birds" eye view.
They really do look like huge, round stones.
Their height slightly exceeds my knee length.
Senki is charging into battle.
I"m charging in alongside him.
He"s punching one of the worms next to him.
Now he"s grabbing the monster and throwing it onto the ground.
It looks like the monster has died from that body slam.
Its HP has been depleted.
Huh?
Are they really that weak?
I tried kicking one of the golems next to me, but it remains unperturbed.
I"m the one in pain.
And it"s my HP that has been reduced.
I tried grabbing it just like Senki did.
It"s heavy.
There"s no way I can carry it.
「Physical Enchant: Earth!」
My VIT has increased from that spell.
How is the monster reacting?
Just when I thought it was slow, it suddenly jumped at me.
It"s grabbing onto my shoulders.
Ouch.
It did quite some damage.
It"s landed on the ground.
Helix is attacking it with his beak.
But its HP has barely decreased.
This is bad.
These monsters are heavy and tough, just like real stone golems.
And there"s so many of them.
It"s going to be tough on Senki if he"s the only one fighting them.
What about Rig?
Before I realized it, he"s already crawled on the ground and is a.s.saulting one of the worms.
No, wait. He"s getting attacked.
But the monster"s attacks don"t seem to affect Rig at all.
The monster is the one getting its HP reduced.
It looks like he"s good to go.
「Stone Bullet!」
I"m trying offensive spells.
It"s a direct hit, and its HP has dropped straight to zero.
Hmm.
I manage to cast my next spell while dodging the monsters that are jumping at me.
I"ve finished casting the spell.
Is it just me, or was the casting time reduced?
「Force Bullet!」
It"s the offensive spell I had since the beginning of the game.
How did it go?
It"s a direct hit, and the monster"s HP has dropped to zero.
Oh, wow.
These monsters are extreme, to say the least.
I call Helix to me while casting my next spell.
「Enchanted Weapon!」
I used the spell to strengthen Helix"s attacks.
This should make things better.
Helix immediately turns to attack the closest monster.
It"s dead after a single peck.
They really are weak against magic.
If that"s the case, we should be able to fight our way through.
I"m casting my next spell while defending myself against their attacks.
「Enchanted Weapon!」
I"m hitting the monsters with my rod and kicking them.
It looks like I can defeat them either way.
I can do this.
But the situation has taken a turn for the worse.
They"re increasing in number.
I"m sure about that.
They"re the same as the Evil Ants.
This is going to be a long battle.
When I started the battle, I remembered the times when I fought the Evil Ants.
It would come to an end eventually.
I believed that, and kept fighting.
I used Enchanted Weapon on everyone besides Rig.
After that, I continued fighting while casting Force Bullet occasionally.
Since they seemed to dwindle in number, I was beginning to relax.
I would win eventually.
I was sure about it.
In any case, it was satisfying to watch Senki fight.
The monsters were literally getting knocked into the air.
There were times when Senki beat them to death, but at other times, he grabbed them and flung them away.
It looks like it"s one of his favorite moves now.
He didn"t seem to mind the damage that he took either.
I started paying attention to my surroundings when I could afford to do so.
Rig was defeating the monsters slowly but surely.
I was surprised when I saw their rocky skin festering.
Helix was simply attacking them from midair.
But he was doing it carefully.
He waited until they landed onto the ground before attacking.
Thanks to that, he barely took any damage.
I used Fire Heal on Senki during the fight.
When it came to the last monster, I finished it off with a Force Bullet.
《【Kick】Level Up!》
《【Evade】Level Up!》
《【Time Magic】Level Up!》
《【Physical Fortification】Level Up!》
《Monster Summon【Senki】Level Up!》
《Please add 1 point to a desired stat.》
Good.
I used a lot of skills there.
Senki already has 1 point added to STR.
I decided to add 1 point to VIT.
Senki Beast Ape Lv2→Lv3（↑1）
DEX 10
AGI 17
INT 4
STR 25（↑1）
VIT 25（↑1）
SPI 4
Skills
Punch Kick Throw Object Block Evade Climb
His stats made him suitable for the front lines from the beginning, but he"s starting to look more like one now.
He"s truly masculine.
There"s one more info popup.
《Monster Summon【Rig】Level Up!》
《Please add 1 point to a desired stat.》
He leveled up too.
I wouldn"t say that he killed a lot of monsters, but I guess it was enough for him to level up since his level was low anyway.
His DEX has already increased.
I"m adding a point to INT.
Rig Slime Lv1→Lv2（↑1）
DEX 11（↑1）
AGI 6
INT 6（↑1）
STR 5
VIT 8
SPI 5
Skills
Dissolve Shapeshift Viscosity Surface Tension Nullify Physical
I guess that"s about it.
I use one more Fire Heal spell to fully heal Senki.
My HP was reduced quite a bit during the fight, but using a potion recovered it to about 90%.
For some reason, my Time Magic leveled up even though I didn"t use it at all.
I guess it"s because it was one of my Set Skills, and I used Force Bullet so many times during the fight that the distributed EXP caused it to level up.
Seriously, how many times did I use it?
Also, I think that my Speedcasting skill helped my spellcasting speed a lot.
I used almost half of my MP.
But I got so much in return.
Oops.
I almost forgot to get the item drops.
Maybe I should count how many monsters we killed while I"m at it.
It took me almost half an hour to get all the item drops.
And the outcome?
Undesirable.
Too many pebbles.
After reaching the 100th monster, I gave up on counting.
And some of them left me with nothing.
But still, it looks like I got something.
This is it.
【Material】Barite Raw Material Grade C Rarity 2 Weight 0+
A white crystal commonly found in volcanic regions.
Most often used as medicine by Pharmacists.
Barite, huh.
I"m pretty sure the chemical name for it was barium sulfate, right?
I guess it"s not uncommon to find it in volcanic regions.
Still, I can"t believe this was the only item I got for all my efforts.
I guess I"m really unlucky when it comes to Rock Worms and Goblins.
Protagonist Keith
Race Human Male Racial Lv9
Job Summoner Lv8
Bonus Points Remaining 6
Skill Sets
Staff Lv7 Punch Lv4 Kick Lv5（↑1）Joint Lock Lv4 Throw Lv4
Evade Lv5（↑1）Block Lv4 Summon Magic Lv9 Time Magic Lv2（↑1）
Light Magic Lv4 Wind Magic Lv5 Earth Magic Lv4 Water Magic Lv4
Fire Magic Lv4 Dark Magic Lv4 Ice Magic Lv2 Lightning Magic Lv2
Tree Magic Lv2 Dust Magic Lv1 Lava Magic Lv1 Steam Magic Lv1
Alchemy Lv5 Pharmacy Lv4 Gla.s.smaking Lv3 Woodworking Lv4
Cooperation Lv6 Appraise Lv6 Identify Lv6 Discern Lv2 Cold Resistance Lv3
Grab Lv6 Horsemanship Lv6 Precise Manipulation Lv6 Jump Lv3
Heat Resistance Lv3 Climb Lv3 Dual Wield Lv3
Physical Fortification Lv2（↑1）Mental Fortification Lv3 Speedcasting Lv4
Equipment Kaya Wood Rod ×2 Kaya Wood Tonfas ×2 Snow Leopard Push Daggers ×3
Wild Horse Leather Armor+ Snow Ape Armguard Wild Horse Boots+
Snow Ape Leather Helmet Wild Horse Belt+ Rucksack Item Box ×2
Items Survival Knife Woodworking Toolkit
t.i.tles Old Summoner"s Pupil, Guardian of the Forest, Man of the Middle Path
Spell Archive
Monster Summons
Volff Wolf Lv7
Zangetsu Horse Lv5
Helix Hawk Lv5
Obsidian Owl Lv4
Jean Bat Lv4
Jericho Wood Golem Lv3
Goki Demon Lv3
Senki Beast Ape Lv2→Lv3（↑1）
DEX 10
AGI 17
INT 4
STR 25（↑1）
VIT 25（↑1）
SPI 4
Skills
Punch Kick Throw Object Block Evade Climb
Rig Slime Lv1→Lv2（↑1）
DEX 11（↑1）
AGI 6
INT 6（↑1）
STR 5
VIT 8
SPI 5
Skills
Dissolve Shapeshift Viscosity Surface Tension Nullify Physical