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Chapter 292 Part 3

《【Punch】 Level Up!》
《【Kick】 Level Up!》
《【Joint Lock】 Level Up!》
《【Throw】 Level Up!》
《【Evade】 Level Up!》
《【Block】 Level Up!》
《You have acquired the Title【Wrestling King】!》
《You have acquired the generic weapon arte【Fighting Spirit】!》
《【Unconscious Resistance】 Level Up!》

All of my skills related to hand-to-hand combat have leveled up at the same time.
And a strange Info screen has shown up as well.
I don’t want to think about it.
I don’t want to think about it now!

I want to sit down and rest if possible.
No, I actually want to lie down and go to sleep.
That’s how I feel right now.

What are our surroundings like?
This is too much.
They look terrible.
Heaps of corpses all around.
That’s the only way I can describe them.

But I need to hurry!
I check the surroundings with Call Monster.
What are the monsters doing right now?
I can see that the monsters are swarming around the Kim Kui Slave.
The number of Garm corpses in front of me is incalculable.
Even so, I can confirm that…
There must be even more Garms guarding the area around the Kim Kui Slave.
And there are also Obsidian Beasts, although in much less numbers than the Garms.
The Tri-horned Lizards are even fewer than those.
And it seems that there are still many Lesser Gryphons around.

To my horror, I also confirm that three Svadilfari Slaves are heading towards me.
And six Tri-horned Lizards are also heading this way.

What should I do?

Can I afford the time it’ll take me to search the monsters’ corpses for items?

No.
There’s no way I can!

Damn it!
I have to escape somehow!

I select a Spell and activate it.
There’s no way I’m outrunning these guys with Jericho and Goukame around.
Ah, I want to search them.
I want to loot their corpses for any dropped items.
But safety comes first here.
I can confirm that this decision wasn’t a mistake, but…
I also have deep feelings of regret about this situation.

「Return Home!」

My field of vision turns upside down.
The next moment, the scenery before my eyes had changed to that of the Silent Bamboo Woods.

At times like this, what kind of a face would I be making?
We had obtained some good results from this last battle.
I’ve had a lot of level ups and received a new title.
I also know that I’ve acquired a new generic Weapon Arte.

Even so, my face can’t shake off this gloomy expression that has invaded it.
I am tormented by a sense of defeat.
Even though there were a lot of lootable monster corpses, I haven’t gotten even a single Magic Stone out of them.
If only I’d been able to get at least a single piece of Gold Ore…
Not only that.
Some of the corpses of the monster I’ve defeated in this last battle I’ve actually never looted before.
So I couldn’t even confirm what can be looted from those.

And I’ve lost a certain piece of my equipment.
The Tokkosho.
At some point during the battle it simply shattered.
Yeah.
I understand.
Gear that cannot be repaired is gear that will eventually break apart and be lost forever.
I still have a spare left.
And even after that one breaks, I still have the Vajra Trident and the Jeweled Sword.

But, you know?
The fact that I’ve lost it is hard to shake.
I can’t get that thought out of my head.

We’ve also chugged down on a fair number of my Mana Potions.
Well, that in itself isn’t all that bad.
I still have some time to spare right now, so I just need to make some more empty bottles.

No more slacking.
Let’s keep doing what I have to do.
This is a chance for me to stop focusing on the bad things.
Let’s make the clouds disappear.
Is it really okay for me to stay in this slump, without clearing away these regrets?

No.
It might be irrational for Demons and Majins, but I need to vent.
It’s pretty much irrational.
But haven’t I already directed my irrational anger at monsters up until now?
Yeah.
I should reflect on this.
But as always, I have no intention of stopping.

What time is it ?
It’s 9:40 PM.
Strange.
The passing of time feels strange.
Even though it felt like only a short time had passed, this last battle had gone on for an hour and a half.
This is terrible.

The MP bars of Goukame, Modulus, and Kiyohime are on the verge of being completely depleted.
Kiyohime can quickly recover her MP bar by sucking blood, just like Telomere.
And yet her MP bar has run almost completely dry.
Despite this last battle, Kiyohime still hasn’t leveled up.
No, after winning that long-drawn battle, was it really only my Skills that got to level up?
It’s tragic.
Well, maybe her level up is just a few experience points away.
She’s earned quite a lot of them already.
Let’s look at it that way.
In particular, Goukame is Level 11.
Just like Volff before him, there’s a chance that Goukame’s next Class Change will come once he reaches Level 12.

Let’s stay positive.
Yeah, that’s the way.

My own MP bar had taken quite a beating.
I have less than 30% left.
However, that shouldn’t be a problem as long as I make my Production work within the confines of the area portal.
Let’s stop today’s hunt here.
There’s no need for me to overdo it.

Well then.
I settle down on the outskirts of the Silent Bamboo Woods.
Using the Magic Cloth, I repair Modulus and Kiyohime’s equipment.
Then I recall Jericho, Goukame, Modulus, and Kiyohime.
What about Goki?
Shall we have a little sparring session?
Of course.
I also want to try my new generic Arte.

I summon Bunraku to have it set up our tent.
Once it’s done, I’ll have it excavate Ancient Stone Pillars.

What about my remaining three summon slots?
Since it’s nighttime, let’s summon our undead.
Telomere, Abyss, and Yukiwa.
We’re going to get some sparring done.
Telomere will have a handicapped match versus both Abyss and Yukiwa.
Of course, Telomere’s not allowed to use her flashy special ability.
Let alone Yukiwa, it could end up blowing away even Abyss, so it’s only natural.

And I’ll be fighting Goki.
But before that, let’s finish repairing my gear, as well as Goki’s.
We can’t have our gear break apart in the middle of our fight.
I’m using a wooden sword.
Not the Ebony Bokken, though.
Instead it’s the last of the wooden swords that I had already made.
Let’s use it until it breaks.
Once I run out of these wooden swords, I should be able to use Quick Recreate to make more.

So, shall we begin?
Sweating my frustrations away does sound like a nice plan.

《Summoned Monster 【Yukiwa】 Level Up!》
《Please add 1 point to a stat of your choice.》

Its series of handicapped matches against Telomere resulted in a complete defeat.
Even so, it managed to level up despite being defeated multiple times.
Well, I’m already used to seeing that happen, so there are no surprises there.

Yukiwa’s INT has increased automatically upon leveling up.
I’ll choose DEX as its second stat increase.

Yukiwa　Mist Lv2 → Lv3 (↑1)
　DEX　3 (↑1)
　AGI　4
　INT　19 (↑1)
　STR　1
　VIT　3
　SPI　18
　
　Skills
　Flight　Shapeshift　Physical Attack Permeability　MP Absorption [Slight]　Dark Attribute
　Water Attribute

Still a long way to go.
Should we keep going?

At any rate, Goki won our first match.
I don’t believe this.
Even though he won cleanly, I can’t believe it!
　

《【Dagger】 Level Up!》

Hmm?
It leveled up quite fast, didn’t it?
I’m not complaining, of course.

By the way, how does the new Fighting Spirit skill feel?
How is it different from True Practiced Spirit?
I couldn’t make a comparison between the two.
After all, True Practiced Spirit is no longer an option.
Hmm.
The reason why True Practiced Spirit is not there anymore is obvious.
It must have been replaced by the superior Fighting Spirit.

What about the brief description of these martial Artes?
According to them, the effect of Fighting Spirit lasts longer than that of Practiced Spirit.
And it seems that it grants a higher resistance against status ailments.

However, it’s no True Practiced Spirit.
I don’t understand how these things work!
Well, I guess it’s fine.
It certainly seems like a straight upgrade from True Practiced Spirit.

Stats
　DEX　20 (+5)
　AGI　20 (+5)
　INT　32 (+7)
　STR　20 (+5)
　VIT　20 (+5)
　SPI　32 (+7)

Now that I think about it.
This is just with the Fighting Spirit buff alone!
In terms of numbers, it seems to be somewhere around a 20% increase across the board, huh?
That’s what it looks like.
Intuitively, it seems that this is equivalent to a straight upgrade to the boost that True Practiced Spirit used to give.
However, using this in a sparring session would be too advantageous to me.
It wouldn’t be fair if I didn’t also boost Goki’s stats with my strengthening spells as much as possible.

This isn’t something I’d need to worry about using during normal hunts.
I have to be careful during battles.
If a fight doesn’t feel like a real match, then what’s the point?
Just earning experience points isn’t interesting enough.