Translator: Kurehas.h.i.+ Aiko

Editor: ryunakama

Chapter 15: It Is Frustrating When The Work You Put Your Time Into Is Not Efficient Enough

· Stone
Plain and ordinary stone gravel .
Although it has little to no utility as a crafting material, it can be used for other processes .

· Grey Iron Ore
It can be processed into various materials, however, without any special effects to them .
Because it won’t l.u.s.ter even when polished, it is not applicable as the ornament of any sort .

· Silver Iron Ore
Piece of silver ore .
When used in item creation, it can boost the equipment’s magic power .
It is silver, but it is also Iron Ore .

· Swamp Fossil Rock
A fossil rock that was most probably a part of some swamp monster .
Advertis.e.m.e.ntFossils like that may contain the memories of the creatures that inhabited the swamps many years ago .
But whether or not the memory itself proves to be of value depends solely on one’s own luck……

It was truly s.h.i.+tty (like in most of the s.h.i.+tty games) that I had to swing my pickaxe for such a long time to start getting results, but when I started to get them they were turning out to be totally worth it .

In particular, one of the fossil stones that dropped out of a certain ore vein seemed to have a rather rare aura to it .

Also, it seems that when you mine for ores and materials at certain gathering points, those points seem to become empty after a certain amount of items drop from them . Something like that happened to the stone pillar I was mining earlier, because it simply collapsed into a pile of rubble after giving me some items .

「Now then, whatever should I do……?」

Oh well, might as well go back to town and try to craft me a weapon out of the ore that I have gathered . It would be a good idea to find out just what kind of items can be made out of the materials that were currently in my possession . And if I don’t have enough items, I can just take a new pickaxe and go ore-hunting again . Who knows, maybe I could craft a really solid weapon out of the things I have on me?

There are still plenty of pillars in the swamp for me to break down .

Really now, it was truly helpful that our high school started the summer vacation period earlier than most of the other schools . Since summer is the season when you can get many things done inside the game world . It was also a given that ShanFro’s sales would skyrocket during the summer vacation period and that there would be a whole new wave of players coming to start their own adventure here .

Once that happens, the new players are going to flood the beginner areas and as a result all of the resources would dry up in an instant . And while there seemed to be some countermeasures to prevent the players from having to wait for the gathering points to resp.a.w.n, getting caught up in a situation like that…… Yeah, it wasn’t that appealing of a scenario to me .

「Say, I went to gather up some ore, but can I make anything out of this?」

「Let’s see here…… Hoo, it seems that you’ve managed to collect quite a lot of things indeed . I think you’ll be able to craft a decent amount of items out of these materials . 」

If you go through the swamp and collect a certain amount of materials, you would be able to craft some new items for yourself . But since the beginning players were more or less content with the starting items they received there wouldn’t be that many people out there gathering, which was making mining a little bit less stressful .

「Fumu, fumu……」

Out of all of the new items that became available to me, two in particular were of interest .

· Swamp Dagger
10 000 mani

· Dual Sawblades
16 000 mani

「Hmm, since my funds are pretty much limited at this moment, I guess I’ll just buy two Swamp Daggers . 」

I also sell some unwanted items from my inventory and just like that I managed to ama.s.s the necessary amount of money needed to complete the purchase . If I wanted more money later, I could always go hunting or gathering materials throughout the swamp .

「Hm? Say, Mister, are you dual wielding your weapons?」

「He? Umm, yeah, I guess . 」

「Ahh, it’s been a while since I was able to create some weapons meant for dual wielding!! Hahahaha!!」

Really? I thought that the dual wielding players wouldn’t be that uncommon in this game?

Anyways, I pa.s.s the materials and the money to the clerk, thus completing the transaction .

The weapons should be ready around nightfall . And so I have some free time on my hands for the time being .

「Whatever should I do now……?」

Oh well, might as well go and grind some levels .

I went back to the marshlands . I decided that and level up for a bit to kill some time until nightfall .

And since I wanted to earn me some money, I decided to hunt for the Mud Frogs .

But even though it was just a game, one needed to stay vigilant at all times, otherwise an untimely death would be quick to greet you .

When I looked up into the sky I saw a creature descending towards me at high speed . Was that a bird? Or maybe a plane? …… No, it was just a vulture-like monster, looking about ready to pick a fight with me .

「Thanks . Since you are coming to me, you’re sparing me the trouble of aggroing you myself . 」

Once the vulture was low enough it tried to attack my head with its sharp talons, but I managed to dodge its attack and retaliate with an attack of my own, striking its leg with my Goblin Hatchet .

「Gyaaaeeehhh!?!?」

「Geh!? It didn’t one shot it!?」

I scream in surprise and the vulture screeches in pain . The damage I dealt to it was a blow damage, but it only managed to shorten its HP bar by around one third . Was the Goblin Hatchet ineffective against monsters like that or was it simply that its legs were especially st.u.r.dy? …… Whatever .

「Oryaah!!!」

Even though this Hatchet was brand new, its durability was draining fast against the vulture’s body . I wanted to say that I was surprised, but…… During my hunt of the Mud Frogs I was going through my Hatchet collection like it was n.o.body’s business, so the only thing I could do here was to lay waste at the monster while I still had the chance .

「Head! Wings! Torso! Legs again!」

Guh, I was slowly chipping its HP away, but for a mere monster it was especially resilient . Does this mean that Mud Frogs are the limit for the Goblin Hatchet? It surely was a little bit surreal to try to kill a flying monster with stone tools, but finally the vulture falls to the ground and explodes in the geyser of polygons, leaving only its wings behind .

「Now, that took some time to be done with…… Hmm? Wings?」

I check out what was left out of that vulture .

· Bandit Vulture
A piece of Bandit Vulture containing its feathers .
Aside from the proof of defeating the Bandit Vulture, this item holds no value whatsoever .
It is a mere testimony of one’s struggles in order to obtain it .

「It’s totally worthless!!!」

Seeing the effort I put into the fight being laughed at, I screamed at the top of my lungs .

As a matter of fact, it is impossible to keep monsters immobilized for a prolonged period of time via skill usage or magic .

However, since critical strikes can cause a knockback effect that lasts for about one second, most small fry monsters can be perpetually stun-locked if you manage to keep on landing critical strikes on them . In theory, dual wielding can make that effect even easier, or any weapon with high critical hit chance . Keep slas.h.i.+ng away at monsters to see for yourselves .

As a matter of fact, some of the monsters with high enough level are capable of using a special attack once their HP has been depleted to a certain level .