Translator: Charlotte　Editor: Weasalopes

I was lucky my Sense Magic was still active.
That way I could see that those two monsters were literally oozing out magic.
This might be more dangerous that I initially thought.
Both of them were wearing no armor, proudly displaying the mountains of muscles that were their bodies, and they only had simple waist cloths around their waists.

For now I simply observed them, considering which spells I should bring to the fray against them.
Gozu seemed to be slightly taller and slimmer than Jericho.
Essentially he looked like a j.a.panese version of a famous Greek beast, Minotaur.
And he was holding a forked spear in his hands.

「Enchanted Weapon!」

I cast my first spell on Obsidian.
He immediately jumps at the two monsters.
Hmm?
Am I seeing things, or is Heather riding on top of Obsidian"s back?
Let"s see how it goes for now.
Thinking that, I"m preparing my next spell.

The second enemy, Mezu.
He was even taller than Gozu.
He wasn"t as buff as him, but that didn"t change the fact that he was just as dangerous.
His weapon of choice was a Khakkhara (Buddhist Ringed Staff), which emitted an irritating ringing sound with his every move.

「Enchanted Weapon!」

This time I cast my spell on Mumyo.
Next one!
Gozu was quite slow, but Mezu will reach us soon.
Will I be able to make it in time?
I don"t have much of a choice here, I have to make it!

「Enchanted Weapon!」
This time Jericho was the target of my spell.
He and Obsidian charge forward to engage the enemy.
Are they going to make it?

It would appear so.
Jericho took Mezu"s staff head on while Mumyo slams his hammer onto one of his knees.
Jericho"s HP bar shrunk slightly, but it was nothing to be worried about just yet.
On the contrary, it looks like Mumyo"s attack dealt a total of 10% of Mezu"s HP as damage.
It"s going to be gradual, but we can do it this way.
We might be able to pull it off like that.

「Enchanted Weapon!」

I cast a spell on myself and also charge forward.
Now…
Who should I vent out my anger on!?

My first impression of both of them?
That they are strong.
I cannot deny that the prospect of fighting such strong opponents made me quite excited.
Maybe I"ll even have to struggle a bit to defeat them?

Despite being attacked by Obsidian, Gozu continued his advance towards me. And while he was doing that, he still managed to throw his forked spear towards Mumyo, but that didn"t do any major damage to him!
I guess I should have expected that since I have a lot of experience with fighting against skeletons.
When it came to Skeletons, projectiles of any kind were essentially useless against them, most probably because their bodies were extremely light.

Leaving the fight with Gozu to Jericho And Obsidian, I headed towards Mezu. I understood that he was bad news just from witnessing him being evenly matched against someone of Jericho"s caliber.
Power-wise I wouldn"t be any match for him.
Not against a monster like that.
I feel like just one of his attacks would be enough to break all the bones in my body and snap my neck like a match.

「Paralyze, Defense Fall!」

I tried to paralyze him with a lightning spell and reduce the value of his defense.
But it looks like both of my attempts failed miserably.
Was it because my enemy was of the Youkai type?

Shifting my full attention towards Mezu, I ran straight at him as fast as I could.
And tried to low-tackle him.
I crashed into his leg as he swung his staff and send a gust of wind just inches above my head!
That looked almost as if he tried to defend himself.
Side-stepping as to not get hit I launched a series of attacks towards his crotch, sides and armpits, all of them being the most obvious vital points on the human body.
Let"s see how you like that!?

He is frustratingly tough, I"ll give him that.
As expected of a Youkai.
Oh well, his HP bar went down by a substantial amount so I guess it wasn"t all that bad.

He then raised his staff high into the air and swung it down at me, delivering an earth-shattering blow to the ground.
I avoided that by swiftly maneuvering my body.
Maintaining my battle stance with my tonfwielding hands crossed in front of me I wait until his kick pa.s.ses me so I can deliver a powerful blow to one of his now-exposed arms. The hit landed beautifully.
If he was a normal human being, his arm would have been broken now.
That attack that I just did, when executed flawlessly it is capable of shattering any bone into pieces as if they were made of gla.s.s, but now is not the time to confirm whether it had the same effect on him or not!

Not giving him even a moment of rest, I kicked him in the knee while simultaneously striking him in the torso with my right tonfa.
My whole body weight has been put into those attacks.
I hope it"s going to be enough.
But alas, Mezu managed to take all of them head on and got me with his bite attack.
It hurt more than I thought it would, but I gritted my teeth and endured it.

With my feet planted firmly in the ground, I delivered an uppercut straight to Mezu"s throat, forcing him to take a few steps back.
But that wasn"t the end of my offense, as I jumped up and buried my weapons deep in his chest, only to grab him by the neck and force him to crash into the ground face first next!
How do like that, huh? My own variation of the Koshi Guruma judo throw!

That combination ought to do some real damage to this guy!
Looking at the HP bar above this guy"s head, it was now down to half of its maximum value.
No way, he still has half of his HP left?!
I don"t even know if I should be amazed or appalled.

But I have to admit that some part of me… was happy that my opponent was that tough.

Due to his size I can"t mount him like any other human-sized enemy.
But that won"t stop me from straddling his neck!
Without wasting any more time I hit him in the throat again and again and again and again.
The moment he tried to bite me again, I threw my hand forward and cast a spell.

「Steam Shot!」

And a blazing-hot cloud of steam was fired right into the monster"s gaping mouth.
How much damage did it do?!
Just this one spell reduced Mezu"s HP to as little as 20 %!
How?
How come it got reduced so much from a spell while all my physical attacks did so little?
Well, it doesn"t matter now.
There"s no need to finish him with another spell.
A barrage of blows from my Tonfas will be enough to put an end to this!

While I"m at it, how"s the battle with Gozu going?
Like a sumo match, apparently.
Him and Jericho were locked in place, each trying to overpower the other.
Gozu has lost his weapon, which was now lying on the ground some distance away from him.

Using their position to his advantage, Obsidian kept attacking Gozu"s exposed head.

His HP was decreasing slowly but steadily.
Meanwhile, Mumyo was focusing on his waist, but Gozu was gradually recovering from all the damage he inflicted onto him.
It was clear that my summons were being overwhelmed.
And Gozu"s HP bar was still 80% full!
With this current pace we won"t be able to bring him down at all!

「Physical Enchant Fire!」

I tried to increase Jericho"s strength by enchanting him with fire.
The difference in the raw physical strength of those two was far too apparent.
But just now, Jericho"s hands began to tighten around his opponent"s fists, breaking the stalemate between them.
Jericho was using another skill related to sumo wrestling.
Sabaori (Forward Force Down).
It"s basically similar to the Bear Hug technique, only the emphasis is placed on the upper body as you add more strength to your arms and try to push your opponent to the floor.
I heard it hurts quite a bit the longer the one tries to resist.
But I guess Youkai don"t feel any pain, seeing as he remained in place even as his HP was rapidly dropping.
Looks like my intervention won"t be necessary here after all.

『【Staff】 level Up! You have acquired a Staff Skill 【Spell Vibration】.』
『【Synergy】level up! You have acquired a Synergy skill 【Link】. 【Multi-Target】has been added to the list of weapon skills that can be acquired.』
『Skill Link has been established. 【Whip】has been added to the list of weapon skills that can be acquired.』
『【Fire Magic】 level up!』
『【Discovery】level up!』
『【Lava Magic】level up!』
『Summoned Monster Heather level Up. Please allocate 1 point to increase the value of the statistic of your choosing.』

Ugh, all this info coming one after the other is making my head hurt.
Uh-huh, Heather has leveled up. Gotta check her stats quickly.
The status menu showed that Heather"s agility has increased.
As for that one bonus point, I decided to put it into Vitality. You can never have too much of that after all.

Heather, Fairy Lv1 → Lv2 (↑ 1):
Dexterity 6
Agility 19 (↑ 1)
Intelligence 20
Strength 1
Vitality 2 (↑ 1)
Spirit 22

Skills:
Levitation, Magic Resistance 「Medium」 , MP Recovery Up 「Small」, Wind Infusion

As expected of a fairy, her vitality is still somewhat poor.
Her being magic oriented also won"t do much in terms of bolstering my group"s physical prowess, but for the time being this should be enough. The most important thing is that she should be able to keep herself alive during battle at least. Or is it just my wishful thinking?

With that, both monsters have been defeated, but there was no information whatsoever. Their weapons just disappeared, and none of them dropped anything at all.
What kind of bulls*it trap was this?!
Well technically those two were strong opponents I was craving so much, stronger than that disappointment of an Orc Leader at least, but come on!

I think I"m going to stay here for a while longer.
No new enemies appear.
There are no more Youkai either.
As far as I"m concerned, it"s safe here.

Looking at the time, it is now 11:30 AM.
A good time to have lunch.
From my backpack I take two pieces of dried meat and some naan that I prepared in the morning before heading out on this journey.
Delicious.
Truly delicious.
The meat is slightly seasoned and tastes great on its own, but when eaten in combination with naan it was like a whole new level of flavor, but I think that it was not ripe enough for my tastes. I"ll be sure to do better next time.

Ah, that"s right!
I can ripen the meat on my own! Let"s do that, right here, right now!
I selected an appropriate spell and executed it.

『The following item can be aged for a maximum of 35 days. Are you sure you want to use time acceleration magic on a following item?』
『Yes』 『No』

It looks like when leveled up, number of days can increase by quite a lot .
Let"s go with the maximum number of days possible.

「Aging!」

All right, let"s see how this bad boy tastes now.
OOOOOOHHHHHH!
The taste has deepened quite a bit!
This is soooo good now!
I should have done that sooner!

I want to eat more of it, but eating all of my provisions in one go wouldn"t be a wise move at all.
It"ll have to wait until diner then.

Jericho is still on standby and is recovering his HP.
It seems that going back to full health will take him some time.
He should be completely healed by dawn.
That"s fast.

Now let"s see here…
To kill some time, I look through the recent system messages.
What exactly is this 【Vibration】spell from the Staff Martial Arts skill tree?
It seems to be the skill that inhibit the casting of spells.
The duration of the effect is fairly short, but it looks like it can have quite a broad range of applications.
Looks like it can even be used on the magic used by my summons, but not on the martial arts themselves.
I"ll have to take it on a test drive sometime in the near future.

And what about 【Multi-target】and 【Whip】?
I wonder what that first skill does, exactly.
It appeared after my 【Synergy】level increased, so it probably has something to do with it.
But there are no special conditions that come to my mind.
Maybe the requirement for obtaining it was simply to raise the 【Synergy】level to 10?

It says here that【Multi-target】is a skill that allows to lock on to a maximum of three targets at once.
However, it is a skill specific to Staffs only. Other than that, it does not look like it comes with any general pa.s.sive benefits. And it costs a whopping 9 bonus points to unlock it!
Let"s ignore it for now.
Putting my points into 【Staffs】themselves to increase their damage seems like a much better idea.

And as for the 【Whip】, it looks like this is an independent weapon skill.
Unlocking it costs nine bonus points to unlock it as well!
Ahahahahaha, ignore.

Both of these skills cost way too much bonus points!

The cost is too high and there seems to be no merits to gain from using new weapons now, so I don"t think I"m going to invest anything in either of those skills for now.

Well that seems to be about it.
My belly is filled, and Jericho recovered enough of his HP to move forward without any worries.
With that in mind, let"s move ahead.

With the effects of Sense Magic still active, I observe the exit from the hall under the light of the flashlight.
I do not feel any magic at all.

The door opened normally, and beyond them was the same scenery as when I first came in there.
No sign of any monsters or demons whatsoever.
Obsidian does not detect anything abnormal either.
Good.
Forward march then!

Honestly, I was a little disappointed that no demons have appeared.
Is there really not a single one left here?
Mine and Heather"s MP bars have recovered already, so a demon is welcome to appear anytime!

And finally, it came to me.
Not an Orc.
Not a Kobold.
It was something much better.

Floating Bomb LV 2
Demon, Target Subjugation Activated

This monster was a subspecies of the Floating Eye.
Feathered wings were growing out of its enormous eyeball.
But it was red. It"s eye was the color of crimson blood.

Now then, just how entertaining will you prove to be?

Main Character: Keith Race: Human Male, LV 13
Cla.s.s: Summoner, LV12
Remaining Bonus Points: 6

Skillset:
Staff LV 11 (↑1) Strike LV 7 Kick LV7 Joint Lock LV 7 Throw LV7 Avoidance LV 7 Defense LV 7 Summoning Magic LV 13 s.p.a.ce-Time Magic LV6 Light Magic LV 6 Wind Magic LV 7 Earth Magic LV 7 Water Magic LV 7
Fire Magic LV 7(↑1) Dark Magic LV 6 Ice Magic LV 5 Thunder Magic LV 5 Tree Magic Lv5 Dust Magic Lv5 Infusion Magic Lv5 (↑ 1) Lava Magic LV 5(↑1)
Alchemy Lv6 Pharmacy Lv5 Gla.s.smaking Lv3 Woodworking Lv4 Synergy Lv10(↑1)
Appraise Lv9 Identify Lv9 Observation Lv3 Cold Resistance Lv5 Grab Lv 7 Horsemanship Lv 7 Precise Manipulation Lv 9 Jump Lv 4 Heat Resistance Lv 4 Climb Lv 4 Dual Wield Lv 7(↑1) Dismantling Lv5 Body Reinforcement Lv5 Mental Reinforcement Lv 6 Speedcasting Lv 7 Magic Effect Expansion Lv3
Magic Range Expansion Lv3

Equipment:
Kaya"s Rod × 1, Kaya"s Tonfa × 2, Pickaxe of Anger+ × 2, White Silver necklace+, Snow Crab"s Hidden Claw × 1, White Tiger Hidden Claw × 2, Snow Crab"s Backpack × 1, Wild Horse Leather Armor+, Snow Monkey Armguard, Wild Horse Boots+, Snow Monkey Leather Armor, Rampage Belt+, Item Box × 2

Items in Possession:
Peeling Knife, Complete Set of Woodworking Tools

t.i.tles:
Old Summoner"s Pupil, Guardian of the Forest, Man of the Middle Path, Spell Archive
Summoned Monsters:
Volf, Gray Wolf Lv2,
Zangetsu, White Horse Lv1,
Helix, Hawk Lv 7
Obsidian, Owl Lv7
Jean, Bat Lv 7
Jericho, Wood Golem Lv5
Goki, Demon Lv 6
Senki, Beast Ape Lv 6
Rig, Slime Lv5
Bunraku, Wooden Puppet Lv4
Nolight, Skeleton Lv4
Ninetails, Red Fox Lv3
Heather, Fairy Lv1 → Lv2 (↑ 1)
Dexterity 6
Agility 19 (↑ 1)
Intelligence 20
Strength value 1
Vitality 2 (↑ 1)
Mental power 22

Skills:
Levitation, Magic Resistance 「Medium」, MP Recovery Up 「Small」, Infuse Wind