Translator: Eisen Editor: Weasalopes
When I logged in the next morning, it was very dark outside.
I can"t see any stars in the sky.
The time is 5 AM.
I"d be glad if it was only cloudy.
But it appears that there"s a light rain.
There"s a gloomy atmosphere hanging in the air.
I"m not really that fond of rain.
It seems that some sort of event will start today, but I haven"t decided whether or not to partic.i.p.ate.
It"s a matter of priorities.
After I put on my equipment, I left the house and summoned my monsters.
The lineup is Volff, Zangetsu, Helix, and Obsidian.
I heard that there are many PKs around the outskirts of Legias.
This lineup is made with ease of movement in mind, but I think it"s very useful for looking for enemies.
It"s really convenient.
And yet I was feeling nervous for some reason.
Even if you decide to beat them at their own game, it"s meaningless if you"re not alert!
I wouldn"t want to be hit by a surprise attack.
I put on my raincoat and mount Zangetsu.
We moved slowly as I searched for Obsidian Stone with the Earth Magic spell, Dowsing.
By the time I got to the main road, I had already picked up two pieces.
It"s simple.
It"s a simple but important thing to do.
It seems to be useful for far more than just being a material for arrowheads.
As I reached the main road, I could see some players.
Of course, many parties are on the move.
I also encountered a party in the middle of a hunt where they were encircling around a Stray Horse.
Naturally, there are parties that have just started playing this game.
This game seems to be gradually becoming more diverse.
That"s pretty good.
Because seeing the same scenery every time can be boring.
《Your friend has sent you a message.》
Just as I entered the village of Legias, a message arrived.
It"s from Lambda.
『I"m currently tracking a PK party. I might be a little late. I"ll get in touch as soon as I finish.』
Oh?
So dedicated this early in the morning.
It"s a pretty good thing that there"s prey for him.
I just replied that he shouldn"t worry, and to continue hunting carefully.
In my case, I don"t have to worry about time so much.
I can"t see as many stalls as usual, probably because of the light rain.
The ones by the street are there, as usual.
There are many places that are displaying coats in antic.i.p.ation of the rain.
They all have things resembling plastic umbrellas, too.
The same is true for the stall where Rick does his business.
He has coats displayed, sorted by size.
This is probably how all merchants think.
It"s like a contest where they have to find out how to differentiate from each other.
In Rick"s case, they were displayed along with a set of equipment on something that looked like a mannequin.
They really stand out.
It makes them very appealing.
I bought breakfast at Yuko"s stall.
While I was at it, I also bought lunch and dinner.
After all, the food here is delicious.
「Good morning.」
Margrid and Len-Len were behind the stall"s desk.
Right.
I have asked each of them to make items for me.
I might get an update on their progress.
「Oh, h.e.l.lo, Keith.」
「Good morning, Keith.」
Rick also came to the desk as he noticed me.
However, I don"t have much left to sell to him.
The only things I could sell are the Vivid Feathers and the Iolites.
I could also sell my Baryte, but it won"t fetch a big price.
Oh!
I"ll ask Margrid if I can further strengthen it with Iolite.
「Could this be strengthened with Iolite?」
「It"s probably impossible.」
Really?
What a shame.
But there seems to be good news, too.
A Tsavorite and Blue Spinel were set before my eyes.
They were inlaid in a silver base.
Let"s【Appraise】them.
【Material】Tsavorite + Grade C+ Rarity 3 Weight 0+
A green garnet. Slightly more precious than red garnets.
The more transparent ones are popular for their magical properties and tend to be more expensive.
It has been polished and shaped into an oval polygon and inlaid to a silver base.
[Custom] The amulet pattern『Diamond』has been engraved into the silver base.
【Material】Blue Spinel+ Grade C Rarity 3 Weight 0+
A translucent mineral that is crystallized in octahedra.
It has been shaped into an octahedron and inlaid to a silver base.
[Custom] The amulet pattern『Grid』has been engraved into the silver base.
Oh?
What does the difference in the patterns mean?
「It has been processed for the silver base, but the best shape I could do for the stone is a rhombus, like a diamond. I don"t know what effects it will have, though.」
「Can I try attaching it to the necklace?」
「Of course. That"s why I"ve brought it here.」
I took my leather armor off, then my silver necklace.
After placing on the desk, Margrid removed the silver base in an instant.
Then she placed the Tsavorite in the center.
And after that, she set the two Blue Spinels, one to each side of the Tsavorite.
「I can have two more Iolites added by tomorrow morning. I wonder how it will turn out.」
The white silver necklace handed to me seemed to have a different glow than before.
Let"s【Appraise】it.
【Equipment: Necklace】Silver Necklace + Grade C+ Rarity 3
M・AP+10 Weight 1 Durability 120
A necklace made with a silver ball chain. Its silver chain is quite durable.
Reinforced with magic.
[Custom] Empowered by a Tsavorite fitted into a silver base and attached to this necklace.
Empowered by a Blue Spinel fitted into a silver base and attached to this necklace.
※Slightly reduces MP consumption, also slightly increases resistance to abnormal status effects.
《[Appraise] Level Up!》
Oh!
Decreasing MP consumption is always appreciated.
Of course, the increase in M・AP feels quite good.
What"s more,【Appraise】leveled up as well, huh?
Yes, this is much appreciated.
「Your cold-resistant clothes will be ready by today at noon, but would it be okay to receive them tomorrow morning?」
「Yes, thank you so much.」
「Okay then, tomorrow morning will be the unveiling. It should be fun!」
「All right.」
How will it be?
I"m looking forward to it.
「Well then, can I take these off your hands?」
Rick looks at the items on his desk.
I think he"s already doing mental calculations.
「Ah, I"ll take those two Iolites if that"s all right with you.」
「I thought you"d say that.」
Rick hands the Iolites over to Margrid.
Well, I think it"s reasonable.
It won"t have a major impact on my profits, though.
After all, even though I had few items to sell, I did earn a fair amount.
Yay for expensive items.
But I"m planning to go to another map today.
After I left the stall, I stood at the entrance of the village, hesitant about what to do.
Is Lambda still running after PKs?
I"m no good at waiting.
Should I kill some time by hunting in the forest?
Let"s head to the Forest Maze.
There are other parties coming and going in a hurry.
I don"t think many PKs will be targetting players in a situation like this.
If they are seen, it might get rough for them.
As I wander around a place considerably far away from the shortest route, I"m randomly hunting down some Wild Pheasant (Female).
There are no signs of other players around.
However…
Volff stopped and started to worry about the surroundings.
Obsidian, who"s flying through the trees, seems to be feeling something as well.
Helix was resting calmly on my left shoulder.
But his eyes were locked onto a spot.
The direction is left and ahead of me.
There seem to be signs of people by the shadows of the trees and shrubs.
There also seems to be an animal trail that is wide enough for people to go through.
Obsidian went to check the situation without making a sound.
Someone is clearly lurking.
But Volff seems to be paying attention to other directions as well.
Is he worried about a scent?
It seems that we might be dealing with more than one person here.
Wait.
Are we surrounded?
It seems that there are many people.
At the same time, there were indications of fighting all around me.
In three places, to be precise.
Volff seemed to be wanting to make a move, but he"s holding back.
What is happening?
It looks like the whole scene can be seen from Obsidian"s position.
Players are fighting each other.
【Identify】does not work through Obsidian"s eyes.
I might have no choice but to get closer if I want to get a better look.
There was a one-on-one duel to my right, but one of them dropped dead to the ground.
The victor heads off to another place.
Obsidian is very convenient.
I approached the dead body and used【Identify】on it. It was a PK.
Kuruma Lv.8
Thief Dead Counterattack Allowed
Looks like I was just barely in time for【Identify】to work.
The body begins to disappear before my eyes.
Naturally, I don"t recognize his face.
Several signs of conflict arise and disappear.
Definitely another battle.
Through Obsidian"s eyes, I could see some players falling dead to the ground.
Soon enough, there were no signs of battle.
One by one, six players appeared in front of me.
All of them were wearing matching leather helmets, so I couldn"t see their faces very well.
No.
One of them removed their helmet and showed their face.
Oh.
A beautiful lady, aren"t you?
No, that"s not it.
Gou Lv.8
Bounty Hunter Alert
Bounty Hunter?
Are there bounty hunters in this game?
I don"t know how much is real and how far things are concealed through the use of【Camouflage】.
I"m also not sure if my【Discern】will work here.
At least, the "combat allowed" sign hasn"t appeared yet.
I should be careful not to do anything to aggravate the situation here.
「Sorry for bothering you.」
The beautiful lady said that and bowed her head.
I reflexively returned the bow.
Moreover, there isn"t one member of this party who is unhurt.
Some of them have almost no HP Bar left.
So these are the results of that struggle, huh?
Slowly and without making any sound, the six of them disappear before my eyes.
Were there any other PKKs here apart from Lambda?
Maybe.
Volff advances first without dropping his guard.
I fear that there might be some more PKs lurking, so I try searching the shadows of the nearby trees.
We found a rope placed in an unnatural position
It looks like some kind of trap.
Following the rope, there was some sort of device attached to four nearby tree branches.
It was a net.
The net was spread on the ground as if it was half-buried into the ground.
Its range seems to be around five square meters.
Checking the range of the net, I tried cutting the rope with a knife.
The net on the ground sprang upwards.
It"s a simple trap.
Judging from my earlier position, the roots of these trees where the PK players were lurking is where the trap extended to.
What made me understand these signs was the fact that it looked as if it was guiding you somewhere.
But what"s this, a pest control?
Is such a device necessary?
I suppose ropes and nets can be useful for something.
But what"s with this treat?
This is now something I"ve found, but it was originally a trap set by a PK.
Should I return this?
I don"t really have that kind of social obligation towards that dead PK, though.
I"ll gladly accept this, then.
《Your friend has sent you a message.》
Oh?
Is Lambda done hunting down PKs as well?
『I"m done cleaning up. I"ll be returning to Legias soon.』
Hmm.
It"s going to be bad if we miss each other"s messages.
Let"s get real-time confirmation.
It"s better if I use Telepathy.
『Can you hear me? This is Keith.』
『Huh?』
『I"m also outside of Legias. Where are you now?』
『Huh? Oh, I"m in the middle section of the Forest Maze. In the central room.』
『I see. Well then, stay there and level up then. I"m on my way there.』
I turned off Telepathy as soon as I was done saying what I had to say.
I don"t think it should take me too long to get there.
I hurried on ahead by using Forest Walk while riding Zangetsu.
The middle section of the Forest Maze.
In the central room, Lambda was fighting against a Branch Golem.
He"s totally playing with it.
Since he"s a quick fighter, that"s just the right thing to do.
It shouldn"t take too long now, right?
「Sorry to keep you waiting.」
He"s a refreshing and fine young man today as well.
You can see that even if he has that leather helmet on.
「Did that Branch Golem take you too long?」
「More or less.」
Branch Golems are tough, but I feel they are good opponents to practice against.
They are not really well suited to practice rear naked chokes, though.
That"s because they don"t breathe.
「So, how did the PK hunting go?」
「Those who were in this Forest Maze have been annihilated. I have brought down two of them using rear naked chokes.」
Ooh.
You could say that"s a pretty good record.
「I have also obtained information from some of those guys. The rear naked choke is really convenient. 」
That"s important.
Getting information is important.
According to Lambda, the【Torture】skill is very effective.
If you set your Pain Settings to 100%, your pain won"t get any higher.
But with the【Torture】skill, it seems that you"ll feel pain for a longer period of time.
Did you use it?
You did it as an experiment, huh?
You probably did.
Things like actual verification are for the diligent types, not the slouches like me.
While I"m here, I"ll also talk about today"s plan.
The destination is the N1W1 Map.
There, we will continue from where we left off yesterday.
So I"m really sorry, Snow Apes.
In addition, I"m going to tell him about my earlier encounter with the PKK team.
He seems to be lost in thought.
No, he seems to be gathering information for some reason.
「It seems that there are currently six teams hunting PKs, and they have Bounty Hunters at their cores.」
According to Lambda"s intel, two of these teams are apparently active around the outskirts of Legias.
That"s great info!
When I asked him, he told me that there is a special forum for PKK teams.
What"s with that?
Then that means that there will be a special forum for PKs too, right?
We came out of the Forest Maze"s north side.
Before our eyes, there"s a cliff completely covered in ivy vines.
「Can you go through here?」
「Of course.」
I recalled Zangetsu and summoned Rig.
I have great expectations for this choice.
I hope it works well.
《[Climb] Level Up!》
【Climb】leveled up as I climbed the ivy roots.
Right.
I have the【Climb】skill, huh.
Lambda climbs faster than me.
Volff is also climbing quite well.
Even Rig is faster than me.
He slips into the s.p.a.ces between the ivy vines and moves upwards.
Certainly, he was theorizing about how to match a snake"s movement.
His movements also seem to benefit from the terrain.
「I"m thinking about getting the Climb skill」
「Are you sure?」
「I am. Here goes!」
Lambda learned the【Climb】skill.
There are other uses, such as performing an ambush from the top of a tree in the forest.
It may also be convenient for tracking PKs.
Until we were done climbing the vines, I let the Summoned Monsters take on all of the snakes, frogs, and slugs that came our way.
The results were great.
However, in the slugs" case, since Rig absorbed most of them into its body, I did not get any items from those battles.
As for the frogs, they didn"t care much for Rig, however, they were poorly matched against Helix and Obsidian.
We arrived at a branch road, one of the branches led to the mountains, and the other one was a route to the plateau.
As expected, it was getting cold here.
「Are you okay with this cold?」
「It"s a bit tough.」
「Haven"t you learned【Cold Resistance】yet?」
「That"s right.」
Well, no need to hurry.
The plateau is cold enough.
If you continue to endure the cold, the【Cold Resistance】skill will be available for you to learn it before you know it.
First of all, let"s aim for the Area Portal of this Map.
After I"ve rested my back for a moment, I"d like to continue yesterday"s training.
Protagonist Keith
Race Human Male Racial Lv10
Job Summoner Lv10
Bonus Points Remaining 8
Skill Sets
Staff Lv8 Punch Lv5 Kick Lv6 Joint Lock Lv5 Throw Lv5 Evade Lv6 Block Lv5 Summon Magic Lv10 s.p.a.cetime Magic Lv3
Light Magic Lv5 Wind Magic Lv6 Earth Magic Lv5 Water Magic Lv5
Fire Magic Lv5 Dark Magic Lv5 Ice Magic Lv3 Lightning Magic Lv3
Tree Magic Lv3 Dust Magic Lv3 Lava Magic Lv3 Steam Magic Lv3
Alchemy Lv5 Pharmacy Lv5 Gla.s.smaking Lv3 Woodworking Lv4
Cooperation Lv8 Appraise Lv7（↑1） Identify Lv7 Discern Lv3 Cold Resistance Lv3
Grab Lv6 Horsemanship Lv6 Precise Manipulation Lv8（↑1） Jump Lv3
Heat Resistant Lv4 Climb Lv4（↑1） Dual Wield Lv5 Disa.s.sembly Lv3
Physical Reinforcement Lv3 Mental Reinforcement Lv4 Speedcasting Lv5
Equipment Kaya Wood Rod x 1 Kaya Wood Tonfa x 2 Enraged Pickaxe + x 2 Silver Necklace + Snow Leopard Push Dagger x 1 Gale Tiger Push Dagger x 2
Wild Horse Leather Armor + Snow Ape Armguard Wild Horse Boots +
Snow Ape Leather Helmet Rampage Belt + Rucksack Item Box x 2
Items:
Survival Knife, Woodworking Tools
t.i.tles:
Old Summoner"s Temporary Pupil
Guardian of the Forest
Man of the Middle Path
Spell Archive
Monster Summons:
Volff Grey Wolf Lv1
Zangetsu Horse Lv5
Helix Hawk Lv5
Obsidian Owl Lv5
Jean Bat Lv5
Jericho Wood Golem Lv4
Goki Demon Lv4
Senki Beast Ape Lv5
Rig Slime Lv4
Bunraku Wood Puppet Lv3
Companions:
Lambda (Real name: Omega)
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