Translator: Eisen Editor: Weasalopes
Nothing seems to have changed inside the Forest Maze.
That"s a relief.
I"ve just summoned Mumyo.
Though he has a strong regeneration ability, I don"t want to put too much pressure on him.
That"s why we"re going to find some monsters to fight instead of waiting to be ambushed.
We"ll look for Fungi and Branch Golems.
If I fight as I usually do, it should be all right even with Mumyo around.
Skeletons fight in a disinterested way.
Just like Jericho and Bunraku, he does not show any emotions.
I thought that we would struggle with the monsters in the Forest Maze, but it looks like we can manage.
I"m glad.
After all, it doesn"t matter if he receives some damage.
He"s visibly recovering while in battle.
It"s different than with Jericho.
I don"t think I"ll need to use any recovery spells on him.
I"m also happy that I gave him an Enraged Pickaxe to use as a weapon.
It seems to be particularly effective in damaging Branch Golems.
Of course, when fighting in close quarters, there are many chances for counterattacks.
But since Skeletons bodies" are so light, they don"t receive that much damage when sent flying.
We should be careful about attacks from above, though!
He was forced to squat under his shield after catching such a blow from a Branch Golem.
That attack took about forty percent of Mumyo"s HP bar.
It looks like he did end up receiving some damage.
Well, nothing is perfect.
But basically, the hunt is going well.
There seem to be a little more monsters here than before.
We can take care of them rather quickly.
We go around the pathways of the Forest Maze over and over again.
As it gets darker and darker, we gradually encounter fewer parties hunting here.
And that leaves even more monsters for us.
《【Dark Magic】Level Up!》
《You have acquired the【Dark Magic】spell【Dark Field】!》
《You have acquired the【Dark Magic】spell【Dark Explosion】!》
Dark Magic levels up, probably because I"ve been using Night Vision so much.
Dark Field is a spell that envelops a defined area in darkness.
Dark Explosion is an AOE spell.
These Dark Magic spells seem to be used by targeting defined areas in the field, instead of targeting the monsters themselves.
And they seem to be unaffected by resistances.
They seem pretty useful.
We continue fighting just like that.
We can fight several series of battles here without using a single spell.
My MP Bar takes quite some time to recover, but it"s come all the way up to sixty percent.
It"s now 7:00 PM
We still have some time left.
I need to kill some time while my MP recovers.
So I"m following the cleared routes of this Forest Maze one more time.
It"s going well, but some concerns are emerging along the way.
It"s the number of Branch Golem wood logs we"re getting.
They have a Weight of 2 a piece!
I still have room for them.
But as we pick up the pace of our hunting here, my《Item Boxes》will be full in no time.
I"d better burn Branch Golems with Pyrokinesis instead.
That should make this a little better.
《【Fire Magic】Level Up!》
《You have acquired the【Fire Magic】spell【Fire Wall】!》
《You have acquired the【Fire Magic】spell【Fire Storm】!》
I don"t know how many of them it took, but I burned down many Branch golems, and that made my Fire Magic skill level up.
I learned yet another wall spell, and another AOE spell.
My Magic skills are growing steadily, too.
I was a little worried, so I originally added levels to all of the available Magic skills.
I obtained a total of 14 types of Magic skills.
The sum of each of those skills" levels is 71.
I obtained the Spell Archive t.i.tle when the sum of all my Magic skills" levels reached 30.
Could it be that there"s another t.i.tle for reaching a higher milestone?
I expected that to be the case.
But it wasn"t at a total level of 70, huh?
It might be at 80 then.
That"s going to take a while.
《Summon Monster 『Mumyo』 Level Up!》
《Please add 1 point to a desired stat.》
The info screen appears just as we bring down a group of four Rush Fungi in the central pa.s.sageway.
Even though I"ve just summoned him, Mumyo has already leveled up.
That"s because we"ve been hunting at a really good pace.
His AGI has increased automatically upon leveling up.
I"ll choose STR as his second stat increase.
Mumyo Skeleton Lv1→Lv2（↑1）
DEX 14
AGI 15（↑1）
INT 11
STR 11（↑1）
VIT 10
SPI 11
Skills
Hammer Buckler Block Physical Resistance [Slight] Self-Repair [Medium] Dark Attribute
Not bad.
His stats don"t seem like much now, but it looks like they may get much better in the future.
He seems pretty balanced for now, though.
We arrive in the central hall.
Then I go through the pa.s.sage that leads to the Plant Golem, where I got my Guardian of the Forest t.i.tle.
There doesn"t seem to be anything like an event.
Well, it"s not as if the events were so simple, like doing something for the second time, or during the second week of the month.
I came to this room hoping to find a monster, but there"s nothing here, so let"s return.
Wait, where did the exit go?
It"s gone!?
This is bad.
The exit seems to be blocked.
It looks as if the surrounding ivy had entwined and formed a solid wall.
What about the other entrances to this room?
There should be eight openings leading here.
As I thought, all of them are blocked as well.
Let"s check those ivy walls.
Naturally, the ivy is so entangled that I cannot see outside of the room.
Hitting it with my rod does nothing.
What about a knife?
I try to hack away at the ivy, but it grows back so fast that I"m making no progress at all.
Hey!
What"s up with that?
Then I have no choice but to burn it away.
I try setting it ablaze with Pyrokinesis.
The fire spreads rapidly.
But the flames went out just as quickly as they came.。
Then, a loud noise began to resound in the hall.
Wait.
Did I just fall into a trap?
I see something crawling out of the wall of ivy.
It"s an insect I know well.
Green body.
A head that looks like an inverted triangle.
And then, something that makes it impossible for it to be confused with any other insect: a sharp sickle at the end of each of its forearms.
It"s a mantis.
But it is as big as a human!
Bloodsucking Mantis Lv.3
Monster Enemy Target Active
Its name gives me the chills.
This is bad!
I can"t do anything about the blocked exit now.
I"ll have to fight.
Jericho takes the lead and approaches the monster.
The mantis lowers its body in a defensive posture, and shows no signs of moving.
No.
It"s definitely slowly approaching us as well.
But I can use this to my advantage.
It"s giving me time to prepare a spell.
「Physical Enchant: Earth!」
Let"s further increase Jericho"s defense.
After all, this is a monster I"ve never seen before.
I can"t be too careful.
I"m keeping close to the monster while matching Jericho"s walking speed.
I position myself to Jericho"s right side.
Mumyo is standing at his left side.
Bunraku is at the rear guard, and Jean is standing by in the air.
We decided on the timing for our a.s.sault.
Bunraku"s bow attack will be our signal.
Just a little more…!
But the monster moves first.
In the blink of an eye, it rushes onto Jericho and puts itself at his range.
It"s fast!
「Thermal Expansion!」
An explosive sound echoes everywhere as the spell hits the monster.
Is it because of the effect of the thermal expansion generated around the monster?
But I don"t have time to worry about that.
I need to fire my next spell.
「Branch Arrow!」
Tree branches rain incessantly on the monster as if they were arrows.
They hit the mark on the mantis.
It seems that it was trying to attack Jericho, but my spell prevented it.
Jean attacks the mantis from behind.
Then an arrow released by Bunraku pierced through the monster"s abdomen.
The monster"s HP bar is down to half.
Huh?
He seemed a lot stronger than that…
No, this is the first time I see a monster like this.
I need to proceed with caution.
Jericho swings down with a punch.
The mantis had left a big opening, so he receives the full blow of the attack.
But as one would expect, he retaliates by using his sickles.
I stab the monster"s abdomen with the pointy edge of my rod.
Mumyo also attacks the abdomen with his pickaxe.
Jericho grabs the mantis by the head with his left hand, and slams it to the ground just like that.
Slowly…
But surely…
The monster dies.
Jericho shows no sign of emotion, but he"s very reliable in battle.
He doesn"t seem to act intentionally, though.
He steps on the monster"s body, and rips off its head, just like that.
What?
Who taught him that?
Or should I say, when did anyone teach him that?
It"s strange…
Just as I begin to loot the mantis for items, I notice something odd.
There"s something behind Bunraku.
It"s a group of seven mantises approaching us.
Adding seven monsters at once is a little extreme, isn"t it?
Oh!
They might gang up on Bunraku.
I have to hurry!
He"s at range, so I can save him.
I have enough time to use a single spell.
Jean could go first and set up a diversion.
On the other hand, having Jericho act as a wall may take too much time.
Which option should I choose?
Let"s use what I"ve learned from the tournament.
「Stone Wall!」
A solid earthen wall rises in front of the mantises.
And Bunraku is standing atop of that wall.
Will this help avert this situation?
The mantises try to go around the wall.
Three of the mantises start climbing the wall in order to reach Bunraku.
The other four are heading towards me.
Hey!
Don"t come here all at once like that!
「Storm Wave!」
I"m using a Wind Magic AOE spell.
All seven mantises seem to have been damaged by it, probably because of its broad range.
One of the mantises that were climbing the wall was blown off and fell to the ground.
Did it die?
The spell was also successful in breaking the stance of the four mantises that were drawing near me.
But still they try to attack.
I catch a sickle aimed at me from the side with my rod.
I"m glad I stepped forward to stop that attack before it got me.
That mantis left itself wide open.
Its abdomen is exposed.
I kick it with the tip of my boot, and I feel something squishy being smashed.
Did I just hit an internal organ?
The monster"s HP instantly goes down to zero, and it dies.
I was able to defeat it easily by just using my rod!
Wow.
The abdomen seems to be a weak spot.
Jericho appears from the other side of the wall.
He has a mantis grabbed by the head, which he then proceeds to smash to the ground.
Again, he holds its body with his other hand and rips its head off with great force.
Hey!
That"s scary!
Naturally, while he"s doing that, he"s still being attacked by the other mantises, but he doesn"t seem to be receiving much damage from the attacks.
The mantises seem to try to bite at Jericho, but it has no effect.
Jericho is tough indeed!
There"s nothing to worry about.
I guess I could leave it all to Jericho from here, but let"s provide cover for his "disa.s.sembly operation".
Before I knew it, Mumyo was standing next to me, too.
You don"t have to overdoit, you know?
We have an earthen wall, with Bunraku on top of it, then Jericho, Mumyo and I, and Jean on the air.
The remaining mantises are completely surrounded.
I will just take it easy and focus on attacking them with my rod.
I"ll be just helping Mumyo after all.
We managed to overcome our initial inferiority in numbers and turned the tables around.
The rest is left to Jericho.
He destroys the mantises slowly but surely.
It has taken us some time, but the mantises have been annihilated.
《[Dust Magic] Level Up!》
《[Speedcasting] Level Up!》
The level up info screen appears as soon as we finish slaughtering the mantises.
For some reason, this whole deal feels as if it was some kind of an event, but it"s likely over now.
I"ll use my Survival Knife to loot the mantises" corpses.
They drop no items…?
Hey, what"s up with that?
And the entrances to this area are still blocked by those ivy walls.
What"s going on?
When I helplessly go to the middle of the room, I find a spirit.
But it looked different than any spirit I"ve ever seen before.
This one is quite big.
《I am a guardian. I have advice for you.》
Huh?
The atmosphere here looks different now.
《Don"t get close to the absolute truth.》
The spirit begins to shrink after saying that.
It returns to the size of a regular spirit.
《We placed seals here too, long ago.》
《Those who followed us might have placed seals in various places.》
《Challenge us. That is your destiny.》
Huh?
Those sentences don"t seem to be related to each other much.
What"s going on?
《Mini Event『Trial of the Protector』cleared!》》
《You have gained 2 Bonus Points. You currently have a total of 12 Bonus Points.》
So it was an event after all, huh?
Though some of it felt a bit forced.
So I can earn Bonus Points like this, too?
Okay, then.
Let"s check the entrances first.
Everything around here seems normal.
The ivy walls around the eight entrances to this hall have all disappeared.
Let"s make sure I can exit properly.
It also seems that monsters have started to appear normally in the hall.
I can see some Branch Golems around here.
Looks like everything is back to normal.
Wait, let"s check the stats screen.
Something about my t.i.tles is weird.
The Guardian of the Forest t.i.tle is gone.
In its place, I have now another t.i.tle: Protector of the Forest.
It looks like it was written over the old one
It"s probably because of that event I just cleared.
It"s now 9:00 PM.
I still have some time left.
Let"s stick around for a little more and check things out.
After reaching the entrance to the Forest Maze, I decide to follow the cleared route one more time and do explore the maze one more time.
But there was nothing that looked like an event during my third lap inside the maze.
Was this a fool"s errand?
No, let"s look at it from a different perspective.
We took down a considerable amount of Branch Golems, Fungi, and Rush Fungi.
We obtained a lot of charcoal and mushroom drops.
I"ll have to go sell these things tomorrow morning.
It"s well past 11:00 PM now.
I was thinking about a good place to finish my hunting for the day, but I didn"t have the chance to do that.
That chance has now come, right before the date changes.
The info screen appears after we finish beating down six Branch Golems.
I think the fourth week is about to finish, too.
《Job Level Up!》
《You may learn the following Support Skill(s):【Song】》
《Summon Monster 『Jericho』 Level Up!》
《Please add 1 point to a desired stat.》
I didn"t intend for Jericho to level up.
His STR has increased automatically upon leveling up.
I"ll choose VIT as his second stat increase.
I want to make sure his STR and VIT are balanced.
Jericho Wood Golem Lv4→Lv5（↑1）
DEX 5
AGI 5
INT 5
STR 34（↑1）
VIT 34（↑1）
SPI 4
Skills
Punch Kick Magical Resistance [Slight] Self-Repair [Slight] Block
Those two stats are tremendously high!
I think that, like Volff, Jericho could be changing his cla.s.s soon.
In Jericho"s case, will he become a Stone Golem, like the one that protects Master"s house?
It"s scary to think that you can actually summon one of those things.
Could it be that there"s another cla.s.s in between?
The same goes for the other Monster Summons.
I"m excited to think about how will they grow when they change their cla.s.ses too.
And there"s one more thing I"m interested about.
I changed Volff"s cla.s.s to Gray Wolf, but what would have happened if I had made a different choice?
There might be another cla.s.s change in the near future.
I feel that I"ll later regret it If I don"t cover for all these factors while collecting them all.
But a summoner is limited by its Summon Magic level.
First, I think would like dedicate myself to summoning a Tiger, a Fox, and so on, and put my collection in order.
Oops.
I"ve been lost in thought for too long! Did the date change yet?
「Return Home!」
I teleport myself back instantly with that spell.
I"ll sort my items for the rest of the day, and logout once it becomes tomorrow.
Oh.
It"s already tomorrow inside the game.
Protagonist Keith
Race Human Male Racial Lv11
Job Summoner Lv11（↑1）
Bonus Points Remaining 12
Skill Sets
Staff Lv9 Punch Lv6 Kick Lv6 Joint Lock Lv5 Throw Lv5
Evade Lv6 Block Lv6 Summon Magic Lv11 s.p.a.cetime Magic Lv4
Light Magic Lv5 Wind Magic Lv6 Earth Magic Lv6 Water Magic Lv6
Fire Magic Lv6（↑1）Dark Magic Lv6（↑1）Ice Magic Lv4 Lightning Magic Lv4
Tree Magic Lv4 Dust Magic Lv4（↑1）Lava Magic Lv3 Steam Magic Lv3
Alchemy Lv6 Pharmacy Lv5 Gla.s.smaking Lv3 Woodworking Lv4
Synergy Lv8 Appraise Lv7 Identify Lv7 Discern Lv3 Cold Resistance Lv4
Grab Lv6 Horsemanship Lv7 Precise Manipulation Lv8 Jump Lv3
Heat Resistant Lv4 Climb Lv4 Dual Wield Lv5 Disa.s.sembly Lv3
Physical Reinforcement Lv3 Mental Reinforcement Lv4 Speedcasting Lv6（↑1）
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
Protector of the Forest（New！）
Man of the Middle Path
Spell Archive
Monster Summons:
Volff Grey Wolf Lv1
Zangetsu Horse Lv6
Helix Hawk Lv6
Obsidian Owl Lv6
Jean Bat Lv5
Jericho Wood Golem Lv4→Lv5（↑1）
DEX 5
AGI 5
INT 5
STR 34（↑1）
VIT 34（↑1）
SPI 4
Skills
Punch Kick Magical Resistance [Slight] Self-Repair [Slight] Block
Goki Demon Lv4
Senki Beast Ape Lv5
Rig Slime Lv4
Bunraku Wood Puppet Lv3
Mumyo Skeleton Lv1→Lv2（↑1）
DEX 14
AGI 15（↑1）
INT 11
STR 11（↑1）
VIT 10
SPI 11
Skills
Hammer Buckler Block Physical Resistance [Slight] Self-Repair [Medium] Dark Attribute