The Summoner Is Going

Translator: Charlotte　Editor: Weasalopes

「Meditate!」「Bless!」

I used my usual martial art skills for added safety, and prepared to cast a spell.
I looked at the monsters.
They were slowly approaching me.
They were slow, but still definitely faster than Jericho.
What should I do…

I put Jericho, Senki, and Obsidian in charge of one of the Knockers.
I took on the other one myself.
I wanted to deal with them as quickly as I could.

「Physical Enchant: Earth!」

I strengthened Jericho.
I selected and prepared to cast the next spell while I walked towards the monster.
I let go of my rod.
I was already in close range after all.
I pulled out my tonfas.
I wondered what would happen if I attacked it.
Well, I just had to do it to find out.

「Physical Enchant: Fire!」

I increased my STR stat and hit the monster in the chest.
The Knocker was about to do a full pickaxe swing.
I managed to knock it off balance and stop that plan dead in its tracks.
I pulled back to put myself out of the range of its pickaxes.
But seeing the Knocker off balance, I decided to follow up with several hits to its body and a kick.
Its body felt solid, but its HP bar didn"t go down by much.

It was pretty much what I expected.
My goal wasn"t to do damage. My plan was to distract it and prevent it from pulling off any attacks.
I quickly hit one of its elbows, trying to get it to drop one of its pickaxes.
It didn"t drop what it was holding.

I tried again, this time from a different angle.
I thought it would work…
But it still didn"t drop the pickaxe.
In a last-ditch effort, I pulled down its elbow joint and hit it with a knee-strike.
Looked like after that attack, it finally let go of the pickaxe.

As soon as my attack connected, it started wildly swinging its other pickaxe.
It wasn"t something I wanted to get hit by.
But because of that, I found a golden opportunity.

「Delay!」

I used an【Ice Magic】spell, hoping to inflict a status effect.
I checked its marker.
It looked like it worked. There was no way the full swings it liked to go for could hit me anymore.
I attacked its side with my tonfa at a painful-looking angle, but it didn"t respond at all.
No…
My opponent probably just couldn"t feel pain.
Its HP bar was going still going down.

I slipped around to the side away from the arm carrying its only pickaxe, and kicked the back of its knees.
As it was losing its balance, I grabbed and pulled its left foot.
It fell belly-first onto the ground.

Perfect.

I let go of the tonfa and placed it around its neck.
While holding its torso down with my knees, I pulled on the tonfa as hard as I could.
It was a perfect choking position, but it still felt strange…
It didn"t look like a monster that needed air to begin with.

I looked at its HP bar.
It was going down at a steady rate, so I must"ve been doing something right.
The monster was strong.
I felt my grip start to loosen.
I called over Senki.
My plan was to get him to attack while I focused on holding it down.

Senki came over.
He looked excited.
The Knocker was barely resisting, but Senki still enjoyed himself beating down on it anyway.
With Senki"s help, the monster was quickly defeated.
I looked over at the other one.

The other knocker didn"t have anything in its hands.
It was having a very one-sided boxing match with Jericho.
Jericho had some damage on him, but he still had plenty of headroom.
Obsidian came down from the sky from time to time to deliver a single attack before returning.
It didn"t look like they were having any trouble.
I got Senki to join them.
With that, our victory was certain.

Senki gave one last punch and finished it off.
The Knockers" bodies disappeared as soon as they hit the ground.
Even their pickaxes disappeared.
I didn"t get to collect any item drops.

《【Ice Magic】Level Up!》
《Summon Monster『Senki』Level Up!》
《Please put 1 point into a desired stat.》

Nice. A relatively quick level-up.
Well, Senki was still at Lv.1, so it was to be expected.
I saw that his AGI stat went up during the level-up.
I didn"t expect that…
I decided to put a point into DEX.
Of course, it was just to make the line of numbers look prettier.

Senki　Beast Ape Lv1→Lv2（↑1）
DEX　10（↑1）
AGI　17（↑1）
INT　4
STR　24
VIT　24
SPI　4

Skills:
Punch　Kick　Throw　Block　Evade　Climb

As soon as I closed the info screen, the event continued.

《O Traveller.》

《We art the guideposts.》

《Thou hast pa.s.sed our test.》

《We shall be thy helpers.》

《Fear not.》

《Do not be afraid.》

《Blessed are those who have courage.》

《Blessings upon thee.》

Spirits like the one above the altar started appearing all throughout the building.
Looked like a subst.i.tute for lighting.
It was still a little dim, but definitely better than nothing.
I didn"t know why, but the air felt a little fresher.
I could see that the stone floor was broken in some places, exposing the dirt underneath.
Although as long as I had a blanket, I felt like I could still get some sleep.

《The N1W1 Area Portal has been opened!》
《You have gained 3 Bonus Points. You currently have a total of 10 Bonus Points.》

What?
Area Portal?
Can someone please tell me what that means?

《You have received two pieces of information from the GMs. Do you wish to read them?》

And an announcement, too.
I looked around me. It didn"t look like I was going to get ambushed while I was reading.

《Announcement: Area Portal Opening》

《Announcement: New Map》

Huh…
Looked like it had something to do with what I just did.
I decided to keep reading.

I expanded the first piece of news.

《The N1W1 Area Portal has been opened. New information regarding Area Portals has been added to the help menu.》

Huh?
I kept reading.

《Sealed Area Portals may exist in other maps too, so please do your best to find them!》

"may exist", huh…
In other words, they might also not exist…

I"d heard of Area Portals before.
They were areas where it was possible for a player to log in and log out.
For example, Master"s house would count as an Area Portal.
Of course, the inns in Legias and Remut too.

In other words, it would be possible for me to log out in the building?
I tested it out just to confirm it.
A window saying《Are you sure you want to log out?》appeared in front of me, with the options《Yes》and《No》below.
Definitely looked like it was possible…
But the time was still before noon.
I chose the《No》option.

I opened the second piece of news.

《A new wide-area map has been implemented. A new entry has been made in the help menu on how to access it, so please refer to that.》

This again…
"Look at the help menu"
"Read the manual"
Whatever, it wasn"t really a bad thing.

I followed the link in the message, and it led to the help menu and how to access the new area.
At the same time, a map of the new area appeared in a virtual window in front of me.
The map was divided into squares, with coordinates printed on the sides.
By focusing my gaze, I could zoom in and out of those squares.
The map didn"t show me any places I hadn"t actually visited yet.

In a corner of the window, the words 0 Area were circled in red.
Focusing on that, the map changed to a map of the plains around Remut.
I could scroll down to something called the S1 Area.
"S" probably stood for south.

I scrolled back and then to the right, showing a map of the E1 Area and the two port towns.
Above the 0 Area was the N1 Area, showing the mountains and the miner camps.
And to the left of the 0 Area was the W1 Area, showing Legias and the forest.
I could even see Master"s house.

The map was labelled like a cartesian plane, with Remut in the centre.
The very west of the western forest led to a new map called W2.
Most of the area was greyed out.
The same went for the S1W1 Area.
Looked like I couldn"t see on the map what I hadn"t seen with my own eyes.

What about the N1W1 map…?
I could only see the building I was in.
I saw a label underneath. "Shrine of the Earth Spirit"
It felt really big for a shrine.

The building was in the lower right corner of the map.
There was still a lot of ground to cover.
I hadn"t encountered any Snow Leopards or Blitzes yet, after all.
What I was interested in was the left side of the map.
It was pure mountains.

I decided to leave that for later.

I used recovery spells to heal Jericho.
I used potions and recovery spells to heal Senki.
Obsidian was alright with just potions.
I used exclusively【Fire Heal】.
My【Fire Magic】just wouldn"t level up for some reason.

I sat down and made myself comfortable.
It was a little early, but I pulled out the portable food I bought that morning.
After only eating half of it, I was already full.

I realised something while I was eating.
Something was moving around on the walls.

Huh?
It didn"t look like another Knocker…
I used【Identify】on it, and it turned out to actually be a Knocker.

Knocker　Lv.2
Earth Spirit　Working

It wasn"t an enemy target…
I saw smaller things moving around on the ground too.

Gnome　Lv.1
Earth Spirit　Working

Huh…
It looked like they were working on something.
The Gnomes looked like little dwarves.
There were two Knockers, and about 20 Gnomes scurrying about.
Their markers weren"t the normal red monsters had, but yellow, the same colour NPCs had.
I looked over to see what they were doing.

The two Knockers were pulling stone plates off of the floor.
As soon as they were off, the Gnomes would scurry in and start digging into the exposed dirt.
It looked like they could use spells. I could tell because my【Sense Magic】skill was still in effect.
It was a beautiful sight.
【Sense Magic】caused various coloured lights to appear as they were going about their business.

I left them alone and took some time to arrange my inventory.
They were paying no attention to me.
They looked like they were hard at work at repairing the building.
How could I disturb a kind group of little people working together in such harmony…?
While thinking of that, I left the altar and left the building

Now, where should I go…
I confirmed that I could log in and log out in the shrine, so I had a lot more freedom with how far I could go.
Further away…
These Area Portals were crucial if I wanted to keep going and explore even more remote areas.
I decided to keep exploring.
The shrine was alright as a place to log in and log out, but I wanted a better base.

The issue was whether I should go west or south.
The W2 Area, or the S1W1 Area?
Well, for the time being, I needed Zangetsu.

I recalled Jericho and Senki and summoned Zangetsu and Helix.
I went back to my initial composition.
Oh yeah…
Now that I thought about it, I saw what the situation was like to the west, and remembered that it was mostly plains and hills.
It would be easier to move around. I headed westward.

I got on Zangetsu and headed west. I could probably reach the mountain north of the forest maze quite soon, and then return to the forest maze that way.
Zangetsu was as fast as ever.
The wind felt great.

《【Horsemanship】Level Up!》

A level-up appeared as I was enjoying the cool air.
I hadn"t encountered any monsters in a while.
That was alright too, once in a while.
The view was amazing.
I was in a great mood.

When I reached the base of the mountain, I had to get off of Zangetsu.
I recalled Zangetsu and summoned Goki.
I would have an easier time climbing that way.
I kept going along the mountain ridge and ran into a split in the road.
One probably led back to the forest maze, while the other led to the peak of the mountain.
Something was looking at us from in between the two roads.
A monster.

Snow Leopard　Lv.5
Monster　Enemy Target　Pa.s.sive

I used【Identify】on it.
Its fur looked beautiful.

Should I fight it…?
No… I was on a mountain ridge and I didn"t want to risk falling.
On top of that, there were two of them.

I stopped without thinking about it, but the monsters didn"t look like they were going to attack me.
They kept staring.
It took all of my effort to tell Goki not to do anything crazy.

The Snow Leopards lost interest and kept climbing up the mountain ridge.

I subconsciously breathed out a ma.s.sive sigh of relief.
For the time being, I wanted to put movement first.
But that was a sign that we were in Snow Leopard territory.
I would probably have to fight Blitzes in the near future.

Snow Leopards and Blitzes were difficult enemies, but their item drops made it all worth it.
And if I ambushed them, the fights would become pretty manageable.

The mountain ridge kept going at an upward angle.
It felt like proper mountain climbing.
I didn"t have the proper clothing, and the cold was really getting to me.
I had the skill【Cold Resistance】, but I hadn"t raised it by a lot.
I didn"t have any mountain-climbing equipment either.

I would"ve loved to have an ice axe, climbing shoes, climbing pitons, or just a carabiner and rope.
Wait…
I had rope, but I couldn"t think of anything as a subst.i.tute for the other equipment.
Well, I"ll figure it out when I run into the issue.

The ridge started going at a downwards angle, towards another ivy-filled forest.
I realised something then.
Going down was a lot more difficult than going up.
Well, to be honest, both of them were difficult.

Goki looked completely fine.
He dexterously used all four limbs and comfortably descended.
He could go twice as fast as I could.
Helix and Obsidian, being birds, of course had no issues whatsoever.
It felt a little frustrating.

No, I had to have something to remedy my situation…
Spells?
No, I had to use my head.
It was the one thing I had over my Summon Monsters in that situation.

I looked over my spell list and found【Levitation】.
It had a 10-minute limit, but it should be useful…
Well, there was nothing to do but to try it out.

「Levitation!」

I suddenly felt a lot lighter, and my feet floated a little above the ground.
I tried jumping and going higher, but it was essentially a normal jump. I felt myself fall for a moment before I felt my feet touch the ground again.
A moment later, I started floating again.

I tried jumping forward.
Maybe it was because of the spell, but I felt like I could jump a lot further than I usually could
I could go down a lot faster by just jumping forward.
It was easy.
But I was surprised to see Goki easily follow along.

Right when I was thinking that it was strange that we hadn"t encountered any monsters, we were ambushed.
Specifically, Goki was ambushed.
Goki dodged the attack by a hair.
A slug?
A frog?

The answer was none of the above.

Tree Viper　Lv.2
Monster　Enemy Target　Active

It was a snake.
Slugs, frogs, and now a snake?
It felt like the admins were just adding monsters randomly.

The monster looked about as big as Irina"s Summon Monster Toggle.
The question was how it strong it was.
There was only one way to find out.

Protagonist　Keith
Race　Human　Male　Racial Lv8
Job　Summoner Lv7
Bonus Points Remaining: 10

Skill Sets:
Staff Lv6　Punch Lv4　Kick Lv4　Joint Lock Lv4　Throw Lv4　Evade Lv4　Block Lv4　Summon Magic Lv8　s.p.a.cetime Magic Lv1
Light Magic Lv4　Wind Magic Lv4　Earth Magic Lv4　Water Magic Lv4　Fire Magic Lv3　Dark Magic Lv4　Ice Magic Lv2（↑1）　Lightning Magic Lv2　Tree Magic Lv2
Alchemy Lv4　Pharmacy Lv3　Gla.s.smaking Lv3　Woodworking Lv3
Synergy Lv6　Appraise Lv6　Identify Lv6　Discern Lv2　Cold Resistance Lv3　Grab Lv6　Horsemanship Lv6（↑1）　Precise Manipulation Lv6　Jump Lv3　Heat Resistance Lv3　Climb Lv3　Dual Wield Lv3　Mental Reinforcement Lv3
Speedcasting Lv2

Equipment:
Kaya Wood Rod x2　Kaya Wood Tonfa x2　Snow Leopard Push Dagger x3　Wild Horse Leather Armour+　Snow Ape Armguard　Wild Horse Boots+　Snow Ape Leather Helmet　Rabid Horse Belt+　Rucksack　Item Box x2

Items:
Survival Knife　Woodworking Set

t.i.tles:
Old Summoner"s Pupil
Guardian of the Forest
Man of the Middle Path
Spell Archive

Monster Summons:
Volff　Wolf Lv6
Zangetsu　Horse Lv4
Helix　Hawk Lv4
Obsidian　Owl Lv4
Jean　Bat Lv4
Jericho Wood Golem Lv3
Goki　Demon Lv3
Senki　Beast Ape Lv1→Lv2（↑1）
DEX　10（↑1）
AGI　17（↑1）
INT　4
STR　24
VIT　24
SPI　4

Skills:
Punch　Kick　Throw　Block　Evade　Climb