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Chapter 194 – Part 1

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Translation: Charlotte
Editor: Weasalopes

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I logged in.
The time was 5:40 AM.
If it were clear, I could’ve seen the sunrise.
But the sky was very overcast and cloudy.
What a shame…
The sea was rough and angry.
I saw some other parties hunting in the morning too.
There weren’t very many of them, though.

 

~~

I had a big tub in my tent.
There was seawater and clams in it.
I spent some time cleaning the clams off of sand.
Maybe I didn’t really have to do that, but I wanted to be sure.

What were the ingredients for breakfast?
Of course, clams and a crab.
But it really was a shame…
I would’ve loved to make a crab soup with the crab and some miso soup.
But I had no miso.
What a pity.
Well, I could leave the cooking to Bunraku.

~~

While waiting for my meal, I repaired my spear.
And then, about today’s schedule…
What to do…?
Was it time to go up the mountains again?
I knew there were more monsters there, and I had grown a lot stronger since I last visited.
I could get some revenge.
Yeah.
I decided to set a final goal for myself while I was in the east.

My goal was to stick around until I managed to get【Dive】to Lv5.
After that I could get back to the Wind Spirit Village.
If possible, I wanted to get it all done in a day.
I was mostly hunting on the beach and in the shallow waters the day before, but I wanted to train deeper into the sea.

For the time being, I summoned my aquatic team.
Rig, Gokame, Taylor, and of course, Nias.
Yeah.
I really had no other Summon Monsters to spice it up with.

~~

The clams and crab were done.
Bunraku handed me a pot of a thick stew.
I ate the stew with bread.
It was amazing.

~~

I recalled Bunraku.
I summoned Heather.
Heather wouldn’t be able to support as well from above the water, but there was nothing I could do about that.
She would be a backup of sorts.
My strategy was to use Taylor and Gokame as tanks while I used my spear to get jabs in whenever I could.

~~

With Rig protecting me, it would be a solid strategy.
I was sure the hunt would go well.
Fighting in the sea was different to what I was used to.
What about the prey?
Unlike during the night-time, there were Assault Mullets too.
They were high-level monsters.
Only Nias could keep up with them mobility-wise, but their attacks were still easy to intercept.
Gokame and Taylor didn’t care at getting hit at all.
Well, the Assault Mullets had to hit something before I could catch them.
It was tough at times, but it couldn’t be helped.

There were crabs deeper in the sea.
But there were no clams.
I didn’t know if that strategy helped in terms of gaining experience points, but I wasn’t too concerned with that anyway.
My main goal was to fight in situations where I had to dive.
But that came with its own risks.
And the crabs seemed to get higher-levelled as I got deeper.
I found one all the way to Lv.7?
Well, it was a convenient way to earn experience.
As expected, damage was starting to accumulate on Gokame and Taylor, but it was no problem.
I had enough headroom in my MP bar.

~~

I kept going on my fishing mission.
Not every swimming crab dropped items, but I could get one edible crab for every four to five crabs I killed.
Wait, no, they were still alive when I got them as items.
There was also another monster that I ran into.
Flounder fish.
They looked like large-tooth flounders
They were all taken down and collected by Nias.
I wanted to be able to do that someday…

~~

The time was approaching 11 AM.
Did I finally get my long-awaited info screen?

 

《Summon Monster『Taylor』Level Up!》
《Please add 1 point to a desired stat.》

 

Ah, no, that was a mistake.
But a level-up for Taylor, huh.
I wasn’t about to complain.

The stat that went up with the level-up was VIT.
I put another point into AGI.

Taylor　Big Crab Lv3→Lv4 (↑1）
DEX　10
AGI　8（↑1）
INT　6
STR　26
VIT　22（↑1）
SPI　6

Skills:
Pincer Strike　Aquatic　Earth Resistance　Water Resistance

But I hadn’t achieved my goal yet.
I had to quickly get back to fishing.

~~

The time was 11:20 AM.
It was then that I got another info screen.

 

《【Dive】Level Up!》
《Summon Monster『Gokame』Level Up!》
《Please add 1 point to a desired stat.》

 

I finally achieved my goal.
And Gokame levelled up too.
I also managed to break my Needlefish Spear again.

Oops.
The stat that went up with the level-up was VIT.
I put another point into DEX.

Gokame　Giant Tortoise Lv4→Lv5（↑1）
DEX　3
AGI　7（↑1）
INT　18
STR　15
VIT　24（↑1）
SPI　21

Skills:
Bite　Defend　Magic Resistance [Slight]　MP Regeneration [Slight]　Earth Attribute　[ ]（New!)

There was a new free slot.
It looked like I could select a new attribute… But which one?
The choices were fire, wind and water.
There was no hesitation.
I went with water.

Gokame　Giant Tortoise Lv4→Lv5（↑1）
DEX　3
AGI　7（↑1）
INT　18
STR　15
VIT　24（↑1）
SPI　21

Skills:
Bite　Defend　Magic Resistance [Slight]　MP Regeneration [Slight]　Earth Attribute　Water Attribute（New!）

~~

Good.
I returned to the beach to have an early lunch.
But I really managed to get myself a lot of crabs.
What to do…?
Should I sell them in the Wind Spirit Village?
I was definitely going to have some left over…
For the time being, I drained the blood out of the Flounders.
There was no reason to just let the fish rot and go to waste.

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I went back to the beach and set up an Instant Portal.
I recalled Gokame, and summoned Bunraku.
It was time for lunch.
I recalled Taylor and summoned Helix.

I used【Quick Recreate】to fix my Needlefish Spear.
I had a lot of spare Needlefish Jaws, after all.
How many times did I already have to do that…?
Well, the crabs had hard shells after all.

It was amazing to even have a weapon that could pierce through its shells.
It didn’t have much destructive power though.
That wouldn’t stop me from using it though.
The Needlefish Spear wasn’t so good against heavy-weight class monsters, but it was excellent against high-defence monsters.
It was light and easy to handle too.

~~

I quickly finished the meal Bunraku made me.
I recalled Bunraku.
I summoned Zangetsu.
I equipped Zangetsu with armour and a helmet.
It was finally time to return to land, huh?
I exited the portal and used【Return Home】.

Yeah.
I was already looking forward to the next time I could come to the sea again.
There were still a lot of places to explore.

~~

When I next opened my eyes, I was in a plains.
In front of me was the Wind Spirit Village.
I felt a strange sense of nostalgia.
Before heading to the mountains, I wanted to buy some supplies from the village.
I would love to get some more vegetables from Hannes.

~~

「Keith, I’d love an explanation?」

Was there an issue?
No, it looked like Fiona was just teasing me.
Her tone sounded bright.
Saki was trying her best to keep from laughing.
What’s so funny?

「Well, not a big deal, but… How about you go look yourself in a mirror.」

「Huh?」

Heather was on my head.
She was as light as a feather, so I didn’t really mind.
Oh!
She kind of looked like my daughter.

「You managed to get yourself a wife and children, huh… Kind of heart-warming, actually.」

Margrid laughed heartily.
Around me were, of course, my other Summon Monsters.
Helix and Rig on Zangetsu’s saddle.
Heather on my head.
And next to me was Nias.

「You totally look like a young couple with kids…」

「I can’t deny it.」

「S- sorry, I can’t anymore!」

Looked like Saki finally gave up trying to not laugh.
She fell down and a strange noise resembling laughter entered my ears.
Oh dear…
Reina and Mio were off hunting, but they were going to return quite soon.
I wasn’t going to be more of a laughing stock.
I had to take care of all my business and get going.

It was a pity, but I couldn’t find Hannes anywhere.
But I still got a good amount of vegetables anyway.
The seafood I had on me sold for a good price too.
Well, we were pretty far inland, so it made sense from a logistical standpoint.
「Can I take a screenshot? I would love to show some people.」

「It’s not good to be a gossiper, you know?」

「Well, walking around looking like that, it’s just a matter of time before you turn into a meme again anyway.」
Oh no.
I knew Margrid was right.
There weren’t a lot of other parties at the beach, but there were a few there…
I was too careless.
But it was too late.

「Yeah, it feels like we’re pretty late to the party…」

「Well, you look good so who cares?」

Was that the main problem?
Thinking about it in that way kind of made me even more upset.

~~

I got on Zangetsu.
Nias got on behind me.
I got Rig to change into the shape of a saddle for Nias, and I placed a cushion behind myself and Nias too.
Heather was sitting in front of me.
And Helix stopped on my shoulder.

Zangetsu looked fine, but was that really the case?
I was starting to get a little worried.

「It’s a shame we don’t have any empty cans…」

「We’re not newlyweds, you know?」

「Why not! You can always play pretend?」

Urgh.
I can’t say that such delusions didn’t enter my mind while I was hunting at the shore.
But I absolutely could not say that.

I thought about recalling Heather and Nias, but I stopped because I had a feeling they were going to make fun of me even more.
Maybe it would’ve been better to go for different Summon Monsters…

「There’s a lot more centaurs around here. Be careful.」

「And Flower Spirits too. I think you’ll be fine though.」

「Flower spirit?」

「You should check out the forums once in a while…」

「Camellia Flower Spirits are roaming around here. Don’t let them put you to sleep.」

Sleep?
It sounded pretty troublesome.
Fiona sent over the data.
They tended to ride the centaurs too, apparently.
I would have to fight both at the same time!?

「Alright, I’ll get going then.」

「All the best, till death do you part!」

Margrid’s faint laugh in the distance was kind of haunting.
I was probably going to get made fun of for quite a while…
Maybe I just had to stop fighting it.

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