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Chapter 72

 

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Translator: Charlotte　Editor: Weasalopes

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I headed towards the spring.
It felt like pure magical power itself was in the water.
Through【Sense Magic】, I saw the water itself seem to have a faint glow to it.
The colours varied wildly depending on where I looked.

There were no monsters nearby.
Just like all the Area Portals I’d seen before.

I looked around for a spirit.
It would probably be at the top of the hill, most likely at the source.
It took a while to find the source of the spring.
Next to the source was a stone shrine.
A spirit was floating right above it.

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《O traveller.》

《We art the guideposts.》

《We art the signs.》

《We art the servants.》

《If thy wish is to restore this spring, thou must pass our trial.》

《Pass our trial.》

《Then the spring’s protection shall be upon you.》

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Two options appeared in front of me.
It was a little too late to turn back.
I chose the《Yes》option, starting the battle.
What kind of monster would I have to fight this time…

Something… Some kind of mist creeped out of the spring.
Huh?

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Lonely Spirit Gas Cloud　Lv.1
Event Monster　???

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Gas?
Cloud?
What a strange name…
It looked completely like a cloud.
I wondered whether physical attacks would do anything.

I prepared to cast a spell.
Then closed the distance.
Its movements were dull, and all it was capable of was slowly creep towards me on the ground.

Helix made the first move.
Helix dived into the centre of the cloud as it was slowly creeping towards me.
Its HP bar didn’t move.
In fact, Helix’s HP bar went down by 10%.
I quickly called Helix away from the monster.
How do I beat this kind of monster…?

Well, usually, magic attacks would work where physical attacks don’t.
The situation reminded me of when I fought the plant golem in the forest maze.
I used the same spell I used back then.

「Enchanted Weapon!」

I used the spell on Volff.
In the next moment, Volff broke into a run.
Volff dived straight into the cloud.
I saw the monster’s HP bar go down by a sliver.
Volff’s HP bar went down by about the same amount.
It was a way of dealing damage, but not a very effective one.

「Fire Shot!」

I easily landed a direct hit on the slow monster.
I felt like its HP bar actually went up.
My imagination?
I rubbed my eyes and realised that it really did go up.

Not spells either…?
No, it was too early to conclude that.
【Steam Magic】seemed like the magic skill closest to the monster.
In other words, I could assume that it was a mixture of a fire and water spirit.
How about this!

「Wind Cutter!」

The monster’s HP bar went down by quite a bit.
But not by as much as I hoped it would.
My MP bar would deplete before I could bring its HP bar to zero.
I started regretting having switched Summon Monsters so often.

I didn’t have any other options.
I just had to slowly grind it down.

I put some distance between me and the monster and used potions on Volff and Helix.
Then I used【Enchanted Weapon】on Zangetsu and Helix and myself.
I didn’t think I’d have to fight any attrition wars.
I had to be prepared to take some damage myself whenever I hit it.

Just touching the monster did damage to me.
What an annoying opponent.
A burning pain raced up my arm when I hit it.
But it looked like its HP bar was going down.
It looked like because of【Enchanted Weapon】, the amount of damage I took was a lot less too.
I could see that Helix was taking less damage than last time too.

Volff, Helix, and Zangetsu joined me in attacking the cloud.
I used【Dark Heal】to heal any damage they took.
I used Recovery Pills to heal myself.
It was slow, but we were making progress on its HP bar.
The question was which side would run out of resources first.

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I eventually managed to defeat it.
My MP bar was left at just 10%.
My HP bar was at half.
The situation was similar for my Summon Monsters.
What a tough fight.
The monster disappeared without leaving a single trace.
Well, it was the same for all the event monsters before it, so I wasn’t complaining.

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《O traveller.》

《We art the guideposts.》

《We art the signs.》

《We art the servants.》

《May the spring’s protection be upon you.》

《Blessed be those who have passed our trial.》

《May the spring’s blessings be upon you.》

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The magical power from the spring suddenly faded away.
No, it looked more like it scattered around the whole hill.
It was over.
I sat down in exhaustion.

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《The W3 Area Portal has been opened!》
《You have gained 4 Bonus Points. You currently have a total of 8 Bonus Points.》
《Job Level Up!》
《You may learn the following Support Skill: 【Physical Reinforcement】.》
《【Summon Monster】Level Up!》
《【Wind Magic】Level Up!》
《【Speedcasting】Level Up!》
《Racial Level Up! Please put one point into a desired stat.》

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A lot of level-ups came at once.
Maybe level-ups had something to do with how difficult the fights were…?
Well, my【Summon Magic】levelled up, so I would have to think about what my next Summon Monster should be.

Oh, I had to raise another stat.
Following the pattern I set last time, I put a point into AGI.

Base Stats
DEX　16
AGI　16（↑1）
INT　20
STR　15
VIT　15
SPI　20

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《You have gained 2 Bonus Points. You currently have a total of 10 Bonus Points.》

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Another info screen appeared when I dismissed the window showing me my stats.
Another one appeared after I dismissed that one.

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

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Nice.
Volff too, huh.
The fight was worth it after all.
But it was really strange for so many level-ups to happen at once.

I saw that the stat that went up during the level-up was AGI.
I chose to put a point into DEX.

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Volff　Wolf Lv6→Lv7（↑1）
DEX　12（↑1）
AGI　26（↑1）
INT　12
STR　12
VIT　18
SPI　11

Skills:
Bite　Dash　Threaten　Listen　Sense Danger　Pursue

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《Summon Monster『Helix』Level Up!》
《Summon Monster『Helix』has learnt the skill【Air Mobility】.》
《Please add 1 point to a desired stat.》

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It was Helix’s turn.
It was the first time I had to deal with so many level-ups at once.
I didn’t think I could get so busy in a game.

The stat that went up during the level-up was INT.
I put a point into VIT.

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Helix　Hawk Lv4→Lv5（↑1）
DEX　11
AGI　22
INT　20（↑1）
STR　12
VIT　12（↑1）
SPI　12

Skills:
Peck　Flight　Far Sight　Wide Area Search　Ambush　Sense Danger　Air Mobility（New！）

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Helix got a new skill too.
【Air Mobility】, huh.
Just from the name, it sounded like a skill that would help in air-to-air combat.
Well, it any case, it was definitely a passive reinforcement skill.

Maybe it was just because the cloud itself was loaded with experience points?

The last time my Racial levelled up was before the tournament.
I knew a lot of time had passed since then, but it still felt like it was just yesterday.
I was growing at a nice pace.

I didn’t get to fight that many monsters that day.
But the cloud was definitely the most difficult out of all of them.
The amount of experience points I got made it a monster I wanted to fight again sometime though, just not at that moment.
Although since it was an event monster, I probably wouldn’t get to encounter it twice.

And finally, the skill【Physical Reinforcement】became available to learn.
It costed four Bonus Points.
The spell name reminded me of【Mental Reinforcement】… They were probably related in some way.
I felt obligated to learn the skill.
I quickly learnt and activated it.

Great.
With all the info screens taken care of, I sat down and rested for a while.
I was too exhausted to explore.
All I could do was sit down with my back to a tree.
I had a good number of potions, but I was still waiting on the cooldown timer.
I decided to wait and restore my HP before moving on.

I quickly got bored of waiting.
If I had a little more MP I could use alchemy to make more potions in the meantime, but my MP bar wasn’t looking very good.
I decided to kill some time looking at the forums.

I found a thread about spells and wrote about【Dust Magic】.
Then I moved on to a thread about new discoveries in the game.

Chaos.

There were quite a few of them, and I got lost quite quickly.
Even after I figured out that there was a specific thread for each compass direction away from Remut, I still felt confused.
I looked into a few, but I couldn’t get the gist of what they were talking about.

I realised that the threads were further divided by the map coordinates.
I started looking for somewhere I could write about the Area Portals I had found.
I quickly got tired of looking and gave up.

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I glanced over at the spring.
I saw another cloud.

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Gas Cloud　Lv.2
Steam Spirit　On Alert

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Its marker was yellow.
It reminded me a little of the Knockers and the Gnomes I saw at the earth shrine.
I realised that there were at least 10 of them crawling out of the spring.
They crawled here and there, but none of them seemed to be moving towards me.
Some of the smaller clouds floated into the air and flew above my head.

Guardians?
They definitely gave off that kind of aura.
It would probably be impossible for a monster to reach the spring without taking any damage.
I couldn’t come up with any monsters fast and agile enough.

The cooldown time elapsed and I used potions on everyone.
The time was a little before 6 pm.
There was still some light left.
Luckily, I could use【Return Home】to get back to master’s house whenever I wanted.

I looked around the hill.
It was kind of difficult to see, but I felt like I saw something wriggling in the spring.
Multiple of them, at fixed intervals around the spring.
I didn’t feel like approaching them, but I was sure they had something to do with the Area Portal getting unlocked.

I didn’t notice any other changes.
I checked my location using my map.
The place I was at had the name “Spring of Mist”.

It was definitely an Area Portal…
It would be alright for a temporary log-out, but if I was going to sleep, I would prefer a proper shelter.
A tent, and maybe a blanket, at least.

Looked like the day’s exploration was over.
It was already night-time.
Even with【Night Vision】, it would get difficult to look around.
Besides, my HP and MP bar weren’t looking so good anyway.
I used【Return Home】.

I was suddenly in front of Master’s house.
What a useful spell.
My MP was almost at zero.
I didn’t have the freedom to do any more hunting.
I had to skip out on hunting that night.

I recalled Zangetsu and Helix.
I took Volff with me into Master’s house and headed towards the workshop in the basement.
While eating an early dinner, I thought over what had happened.
My dinner was the portable food I’d bought that morning, but it was still delicious.

I had some extra time, but no good idea on how to spend it.
I could do some production work…

But I really didn’t have any MP to spare.
I needed to use a spell to create the water needed for potion brewing, so that wasn’t an option.
I finally settled on making arrows.

I used my own materials that I kept for making my own arrows.
Obsidian Rocks and Evil Ant Stings.
And of course, the lumber I would have to make into arrow shafts.
I put all the materials on the workbench, and got to work.

Oh, I almost forgot.
I pulled out the Obsidian Arrow that the nice old man at the studio made for me as an example.
A Grade B.
My goal would be to get my arrows as close as possible to the example.

I started by cutting the lumber into thin rods.
Unfortunately, I couldn’t use【Appraise】on just the arrow shafts.
I just tried to make them to look as close as possible to the example.

Before I realised it, it was already 8.00 pm.
There was a pile of about 30 thin wooden rods on the table.
I may have gotten too focused on a single task.

Next were the feathers.
I got them from the Steppe Hawk Wings.
I took hold of the base of each feather and split the feather in two.
Looking closely, I realised they were a little curved.
I was told that using the left and right sides of the same feather for an arrow would interfere with the air flow and cause the arrow’s trajectory to curve.
I had to use two different feathers that both bent in either the clockwise or anticlockwise direction around the arrow shaft.
That would cause the arrow to rotate either clockwise or anticlockwise when released and allow it to fly straight.

Next were the arrowheads.
I fit a sharpened Obsidian Rock to a notch at the edge of the arrow shaft.
I used glue on the contact surface along with some string to fix it in place, and I was done.

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【Weapon: Arrow】Obsidian Arrow+　Grade C　Rarity 2
AP 1　Power 2　Weight 0+　Durability 30　Range -20%
Arrows made using obsidian as arrowheads.
Deals more damage due to its weight, but has a shorter range.

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I used【Appraise】on the final product. The result wasn’t bad…
I regretted selling so many of my Obsidian Rocks.
With some more practice, I bet I could reach Grade C+.
Some of my MP had regenerated, so I tried using【Quick Recreate】, but I ended up with arrows of Grade D+.
That wouldn’t do.
I didn’t have the MP to cast【Physical Enchant: Aqua】.
I didn’t want to force it.
I just had to keep going using just my hands.

I tried the same process again, this time using Evil Ant Stings.

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【Weapon: Arrow】Evil Ant Arrow+　Grade C　Rarity 2
AP 8　Power 0+　Weight 0+　Durability 30　Range +20%　Inflicts Bleeding Damage [Slight]
Arrows made using Evil Ant Stings as arrowheads.
Has a higher piercing ability and causes bleeding damage.

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Nice.
It looked like a normal arrow.
I had a relatively large number of Evil Ant Stings.
I could make as many Evil Ant Arrows as I wanted.
I made a few mistakes too bad to fix and had to throw out some of the arrows.
But besides that, everything was going just fine.

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《【Woodworking】Level Up!》

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An info screen telling me about a level-up appeared.
It was right when I ran out of arrowheads.
I may have gotten too into it.
I took out Goki’s quiver from an《Item Box》and put all the completed arrows in there.
I put the rest into my《Item Box》as they were.

Great.
Now what?
Some time had passed since I got to work, and my MP was already at 10%.
I had enough MP to make potions…
But I also wanted to summon a new Summon Monster…

I decided on potions.
I used a spell to create some water and made potions using the Healgrass I had picked up on my travels.
I didn’t feel like going through the process, so I just used【Quick Recreate】twice to create two batches of potions. They were all Grade C+.

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《【Pharmacy】Level Up!》

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Nice.
It had been a while since I last made a potion.
I had recovery magic, so I didn’t have to do it as often anymore.
I finally got the opportunity to refill my potion supply.
And I got a level-up while I was at it too.
I thought I might forget how to do it after a while, but it looked like I could still do it.

Next…
The strange stone I got from that slug.
I read the short explanation, telling me that I would have to use it in powder form.
I could use the alchemy skill【Grind】for that.
I put the stone on top of some filter paper.
I put my hands over the stone and used【Grind】.

The stone became a fine powder.
It looked like the leftovers of a dried potion.
I used【Appraise】on it.

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【Recovery Item】Strange Powder　Grade C　Rarity 2　Weight 0+
A general antidote. Especially effective on poison that works by lowering physical strength. Tasteless.
※Can be used repetitively. Decreases AGI and INT for 10 minutes.

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《【Alchemy】Level Up!》

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I was glad for the antidote, but the level-up was nice too.
I would love to go for some slug hunting in the future.
While they were annoying enemies, the general antidote might make the fights worth it.

It was already getting late.
I started arranging my inventory and cleaning up.
I had finished all my Healgrass on hand, so I took some from Master’s stock.
I took some Paingrass while I was at it.
Paingrass made for a simple meal when boiled.
I was terrible at cooking, so it would be a useful thing to have with me.

I went to the second floor, recalled Volff, and took off all my equipment before getting into bed.
I found a lot of Area Portals that day. The options for where I could log out from would probably only increase in the future.
While thinking of that, I logged out.

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Protagonist　Keith
Race　Human　Male　Racial Lv9（↑1）
Job　Summoner Lv8（↑1）
Bonus Points Remaining: 6

Skill Sets:
Staff Lv7　Punch Lv4　Kick Lv4　Joint Lock Lv4　Throw Lv4　Evade Lv4　Block Lv4　Summon Magic Lv9（↑1）　Spacetime Magic Lv1
Light Magic Lv4　Wind Magic Lv5（↑1）　Earth Magic Lv4　Water Magic Lv4　Fire Magic Lv4　Dark Magic Lv4　Ice Magic Lv2　Lightning Magic Lv2　Tree Magic Lv2　Dust Magic Lv1　Lava Magic Lv1　Steam Magic Lv1
Alchemy Lv5（↑1）　Pharmacy Lv4（↑1）　Glassmaking Lv3　Woodworking Lv4（↑1）
Synergy Lv6　Appraise Lv6　Identify Lv6　Discern Lv2　Cold Resistance Lv3　Grab Lv6　Horsemanship Lv6　Precise Manipulation Lv6　Jump Lv3　Heat Resistance Lv3　Climb Lv3　Dual Wield Lv3
Physical Reinforcement Lv1（New！）　Mental Reinforcement Lv3　Speedcasting Lv4（↑1）

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

Titles:
Old Summoner’s Pupil
Guardian of the Forest
Man of the Middle Path
Spell Archive

Base Stats:
DEX　16
AGI　16（↑1）
INT　20
STR　15
VIT　15
SPI　20

Monster Summons:
Volff　Wolf Lv6→Lv7（↑1）
DEX　12（↑1）
AGI　26（↑1）
INT　12
STR　12
VIT　18
SPI　11
Skills:
Bite　Dash　Threaten　Listen　Sense Danger　Pursue

Zangetsu　Horse Lv5
Helix　Hawk Lv4→Lv5（↑1）
DEX　11
AGI　22
INT　20（↑1）
STR　12
VIT　12（↑1）
SPI　12

Skills:
Peck　Flight　Far Sight　Wide Area Search　Ambush　Sense Danger　Air Mobility（New！）
Obsidian　Owl Lv4
Jean　Bat Lv4
Jericho Wood Golem Lv3
Goki　Demon Lv3
Senki　Beast Ape Lv2

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