Translator: Charlotte
《Your friend has sent you a message.》
It was from Saki.
She was in Remut, apparently.
『I finished the two pairs of boots and I think I can finish the saddle by today. We"re going hunting for the Event Monster tonight!』
Adele"s and Irina"s names were on the carbon copy list.
I peeked over at them. They were probably reading the same message.
Ah, I almost forgot.
I looked at the attached appraisal results for the boots.
【Armour: Boots】 Wild Horse Boots+ Grade C+ Rarity 3
AP+1 Def+3 Weight 1 Durability 110
Boots made from Wild Horse Hide. The skin is soft, and the design is made with easy movement in mind.
The soles are rough to increase friction and allow easy movement.
[Custom] The boots are reinforced with Evil Ant Sh.e.l.ls to aid in defence.
Ooh.
They were both called Wild Horse Boots+, but my boots had different stats.
Looked like these boots were made specifically for protection. The AP+1 was just a bonus.
You wouldn"t be able to tell they were made from leather at first glance, but they still looked cool nonetheless.
Well, I didn"t really have any confidence in judging what did or didn"t look good, but it looked well-made, to say the least.
「Hey Adele, Irina, have you seen the message?」
「Yes」
「I"m looking forward to it!」
「Looks like with this, we have our schedule planned for tomorrow」
「We"re going to Remut!」
「We are going to go to Remut right, Keith?」
「Of course」
After that, the two of them continued helping out with cooking in a good mood.
I killed some time talking to Rick, Shinohara, and Fudo.
I learnt something new there.
Len-Len loved fluffy things on a pretty extreme level too.
Why were fluffy things so popular?
You could tell he loved all of them, but he looked like he liked Volff the best.
Unlike Adele. To her, everyone was equally loveable.
Even those in charge of the store started partic.i.p.ating in the petting zoo.
The streets outside were bathed in an orange light.
Before I knew it, I had spent a couple hours talking.
My MP bar was at around 60%.
Maybe since I was just relaxing in a chair, my MP recovery rate was a lot higher.
It was about time for customers to arrive.
We would have to clear out before business really started.
「Adele, Irina, you two can stay here if you want」
「Huh?」
「But…」
「We"ll meet up in this stall tomorrow, before we go to Remut」
「Is that really alright?」
Yuka was a bit hesitant.
They were helping out already anyway, might as well keep going to the end.
Me?
I"m someone who can make even simple eggs taste gross.
I would be more useful away from the stall, hunting in the forest.
「Ah, don"t worry about it! Just use these two to your heart"s desire」
「「Whaaat!?」」
「I"ll be sure to compensate them」
「Thanks」
I exited through the back of the stall, together with Volff and Jean.
I wanted to test out something.
I headed towards the forest.
When I left Legias I summoned Obsidian.
My MP dropped to a little under half, but it was worth it.
It was already night-time.
I used【Night Vision】on myself and entered the forest.
I headed towards Master"s house.
I picked up any Healgra.s.s I saw on the way.
While I was at it, I used【Dowsing】to look for Obsidian Rocks too.
I expected a lot of potion use.
I had recovery magic, but the forest was getting more dangerous.
What I absolutely wanted to do within today was make some more potions.
I looked for the best Healgra.s.s. I wanted make sure I could uniformly get potions of Grade C.
It"s easy to get surrounded in the forest.
But that wasn"t all.
The cooldown time was lower with higher grade potions too.
Even if I wouldn"t be using them, I would still be grateful for that feeling of rea.s.surance.
One other thing.
We were definitely going to explore what lay beyond the forest maze. For that, there was one very difficult hurdle I had to overcome.
I had to climb the ivy.
There was no way I could fight and climb at the same time.
No, I wasn"t so confident in the climbing bit either.
I had an idea on how to fix that.
The forest gave me a few hints.
There were nests in the treetops.
Wild pheasant nests.
I planned on honing my tree-climbing skills by collecting Wild Pheasant eggs.
Well, these were trees, not giant ivies, but they were similar enough.
I saw a mountain then too, so I would have to practice proper mountain climbing too.
Ouch.
I had to try and fail a couple times.
I didn"t have any tree-climbing skills, and none of my current skills looked useful.
But I knew one way of making a tree-climbing skill available.
Just doing it.
《You may learn the following Support Skill(s):【Climb】》
After tackling my seventh tree, and stealing my 10th Wild Pheasant egg, an info screen appeared.
【Climb】, huh.
I looked at the skill description. It took two bonus points to learn.
Two points just to climb a tree…
I felt like I was being ripped off, but I had a lot of extra bonus points. Had to use them somehow.
I learnt and activated the skill.
Obsidian and I looked around for another Wild Pheasant nest to attack.
I didn"t notice any major changes when I climbed the next tree.
The only thing I noticed was that it became easier for me to support myself with just one hand.
Maybe my DEX stat had something to do with it…
And if stats had something to do with it, then I would expect my STR stat to be a factor too.
Anyway, besides that.
I was training by climbing trees, knocking down the mother pheasant, and stealing the eggs. I"ve mentioned it before, but I tend to end up looking like the bad guy.
It wasn"t a very healthy activity, mentally.
There were other things I still wanted to do. I headed towards Master"s house.
A strange feeling attacked me. The atmosphere seemed to get a bit heavier.
I didn"t notice it at first, but Volff, Jean, and Obsidian took on alert stances.
It got worse the closer we got to Master"s house.
Master"s house came into view. On top of the house"s gate, Master"s Magi Owl was standing as still as a statue.
It was clearly keeping watch for something.
I got Obsidian to look around from the top of my head.
Looked like there were some spots he found suspicious.
Volff reacted to something too.
A smell.
Something was hiding around here.
It was definitely not an Evil Ant.
Volff tended to pounce on the source right away whenever he smelled an Evil Ant.
In any case, this place was dangerous.
I ran to Master"s house.
Volff and Jean followed me.
Obsidian flew past me to join Magi Owl on top of the gate.
A sudden chill ran up my spine.
No, not just my back, my whole body felt frozen.
Volff bit on my sleeve on pulled me onto the ground.
A moment later, something flew past above me.
I heard a thud in front of me.
Sounded like whatever it was. .h.i.t the door of the house.
I looked at the door. There were two arrows.
Volff saved my life. The arrows were painted pitch black.
Two arrows?
There were two archers, huh.
「Aaah-oooooh!!」
Volff let out the loudest howl yet.
I felt a little intimidated myself.
The three shadows approaching us stopped at the same time.
After a moment, something approached me from the closest of the three shadows
A spear.
The spearhead reflected the moonlight into my eyes.
I moved my head in the last moment and dodged the spear.
I grabbed the spear with my left hand.
Shifting my body, I put my right foot on the spear shaft and put my body weight on it as I stood back up.
The shadow let go of the spear.
I followed up with a kick.
As the hooded figure backed up to dodge it, its face appeared.
It was wearing a mask.
There weren"t any markers above its head.
I tried to use【Identify】, but it didn"t work.
A monster?
No, all the monsters I"d met so far had markers on top of their heads.
A thought came to mind.
A Player Killer?
Was I a PK target?
The three shadows turned around and started running away, but Volff caught up to the closest one of them and bit on one of their feet, causing one to fall over.
I quickly caught up to them and used my body weight to restrain the fallen person, while I strangled them from behind.
I turned the body around.
I bet they wouldn"t shoot arrows at me if I had one of their friends as a human shield.
Keeping my left hand on the neck, I used my right hand to rip off the mask.
A green marker appeared above the head.
I used【Identify】.
Sasame Lv.5
Fighter In Battle Counterattack Allowed
《A PK attempt has been confirmed. You may now retaliate in self-defence》
Huh.
I didn"t know that kind of system existed.
I didn"t know what PK was like, after all.
「Huh. You"re one of those PK guys, yeah?」
Of course, I didn"t expect an answer.
I was strangling him, after all.
「Don"t worry about it, getting strangled feels like going up to heaven」
He fainted a few moments later.
The strength went out of his body.
I looked around for the other shadows.
I only saw one other player. How many PKers were hiding?
For some reason, he didn"t have his mask on. I quickly used【Identify】.
Taro Lv.5
Sorcerer In Battle Counterattack Allowed
I checked his HP bar too. It was pretty close to zero.
He was being attacked by Volff and Jean.
My condolences.
I had a sense they hadn"t all left yet.
I looked around some more, and suddenly saw a flash in the woods, along with a loud boom.
The forest went back to silence.
It was probably just a lightning attack from Master"s Magi Owl.
I saw Obsidian fly around the forest with Magi Owl.
Two of them were still running away.
When they found them, Obsidian ambushed them to keep them still until Magi Owl finished them off with a lightning attack.
The shadows were taken out one by one.
Even if they were technically murderers, they were still people.
Magi Owl"s way of taking care of them was pretty overkill.
In the end, I only managed to capture one alive.
The rest of the bodies faded away into thin air.
No, they all dropped something.
100 Dyn silver coins, potions.
I saw a knife too.
And four of those black arrows.
【Weapon: Arrow】Evil Ant Arrow+ Grade C+ Rarity 2
AP 8 Power 0+ Weight 0+ Durability 30 Range+20% Causes slight bleeding damage
Arrows made using Evil Ant Stings as arrowheads.
Has a higher piercing ability and causes bleeding damage.
[Custom] The entire arrow is painted black to make it harder for targets to dodge.
Purposely made for a.s.sa.s.sination.
Evil Ant arrows were definitely the right choice, with their piercing ability.
The range was pretty good too. Looked like they used hawk feathers.
Well, what do we have here.
I knelt down to look at the unconscious player I strangled.
It was surprisingly difficult for me to keep Volff away from them.
I finally managed to calm Volff down, but he stayed in his alert position, ready to pounce at any time.
Wolf instinct was pretty amazing.
I took a look at their equipment.
Leather armour, the kind an adventurer would usually wear.
The only strange item they had on them was the mask.
Ah, and some sort of throwing knife?
【Weapon: Knife】Needlefish Throwing Knife+ Grade C+ Rarity 3
AP 12 Power 0+ Weight 0+ Durability 10 Range 10 Causes slight bleeding damage
A knife made from the jaw bone of a needlefish. Mainly used for throwing.
Has a high piercing ability and causes bleeding damage.
Wow, they actually had something really useful-looking on them.
Ah, I want it…
I decided not to take it. It would be like a policeman robbing a thief they caught.
Now, onto what I should do with this guy…
How much could I even do to an unconscious player?
I turned his face left and right.
His cheeks felt a little strange.
I pulled down his jaw and saw cotton inside his mouth.
Huh?
A disguise?
I reached for his hair. It was a wig.
I pulled it off, revealing a shaved head.
Was there a skill for disguising?
Looking at him now, he is definitely a male.
I wonder if it would still count as self-defence if I finished him off.
Sashan Lv.6
a.s.sasin Unconscious Counterattack Allowed
Hmm?
The result was different the other time I used【Identify】on him.
He really was using a disguise, even under the mask.
This would be his true ident.i.ty, right?
I took a screenshot of the result and saved it.
If I just left him there he would probably just get swarmed by Evil Ants.
I felt like that would be too cruel, even for an a.s.sa.s.sin. I decided to just put him to sleep mercifully right then and there.
I lifted up his upper body.
I got behind his back and wrapped an arm around his neck.
Using my body weight, I twisted and broke his neck.
His HP bar immediately dropped to zero, and the green marker slowly faded away.
My condolences.
He didn"t drop any items.
He only dropped four silver coins.
I felt a little like I had just let go of a golden opportunity.
《You may learn the following Support Skill(s):【Discern】》
Hey, nice.
A useful-looking skill became available.
The skill costed four bonus points to learn.
There was no hesitation.
It would help a lot in dealing with all the disguises and all the hiding.
I quickly learnt and activated the skill.
I was actually kind of looking forward to fighting them again.
I wouldn"t have to rely on Volff and my other Summon Monsters so much either.
Magi Owl and Obsidian returned to perching on top of the gate.
They were both owls after all. It was nice seeing them get along.
I went past them and entered Master"s house.
Of course, I was still a bit uneasy.
Worst case scenario, they were targeting me knowing where I was going to be.
I was wondering if there were players inside the house already, waiting for me.
It wasn"t completely out of the question.
Well, there were no places 100% safe against PK, but I couldn"t come up with a place safer than Master"s house.
I stopped worrying about it.
Death in-game didn"t mean death in real life, after all.
I had to prepare for the next day too.
I hurried to the bas.e.m.e.nt. There were more important things to worry about.
Protagonist Keith
Race Human Male Racial Lv6
Job Summoner Lv5
Bonus Points Remaining: 16
Skill Sets:
Staff Lv4 Punch Lv3 Kick Lv3 Joint Lock Lv3 Throw Lv3 Evade Lv3 Block Lv3 Summon Magic Lv6
Light Magic Lv3 Wind Magic Lv4 Earth Magic Lv3 Water Magic Lv3 Fire Magic Lv2 Dark Magic Lv2
Alchemy Lv3 Pharmacy Lv3 Gla.s.smaking Lv3
Cooperation Lv5 Appraise Lv5 Identify Lv5 Discern Lv1（New!）Cold Resistance Lv2 Grab Lv4 Horsemanship Lv4 Precise Manipulation Lv4 Jump Lv1 Heat Resistance Lv3 Climb Lv1（New!）
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
Guardian of the Forest
Man of the Middle Path
Monster Summons:
Volff Wolf Lv5
Zangetsu Horse Lv3（Asleep）
Helix Hawk Lv3（Asleep）
Obsidian Owl Lv3（Asleep）
Jean Bat Lv3
Jericho Wood Golem Lv2（Asleep）
Companions:
Adele, Mii-chan and U-chan Yuka"s Helper
Irina, Calico and Toggle Yuka"s Helper