Translator: DarkHeartedAlchemist　Editor: Weasalopes

How does the Golem"s HP bar look now?

Although every last one of his punches ended up hitting their mark, his HP was reduced only to 90%.
On the other hand, Jericho"s HP also went down by 90%.
How deplorable of me.
It would appear that sending him to fight that golem head on was a mistake on my part.

I strengthen him further with earth magic while simultaneously ordering him to be more on the defensive side from now on.
As for me, I unequip my Tonfas and equip myself with Snow Leopard Bagh Nakh and Gale Tiger Push Dagger.
The latter has a Wind Attribute, so it might be effective against an enemy who has an Earth Attribute.

It is indeed effective, but it looks like the damage won"t be worth anything unless it"s a Critical Hit.
The Golem is large and his movements are slow and dull, so attacking him was not a problem for me.
Acc.u.mulating enough DPS was the issue here.
Even when I managed to score a Critical Hit on him, it wasn"t as powerful as I expected it to be, doing only slightly more damage than regular attacks.

Jericho continues his attack while guarding against the blows that come his way.
Unfortunately, the enemy Golem does pretty much the same, preventing any real damage from being done to him, so me and Heather have to compensate for it.
As a result, Heather was soon on the verge of completely exhausting all of her MP, but that was to be expected.
After all, she alone took out almost 30% of the Golem"s HP.

I throw my own spells into the mix while Jericho follows after me.
The monster is clearly getting weaker.
This might just work.
We"ve slaughtered his HP bar, but he"s still alive.
Only 10% of his health remains.

Obsidian strikes the Golem"s head and Mumyo whack its feet with his hammer.
Even without any noticeable damage, it might not all be in vain, since I saw that his knees began to tremble under the weight of all our blows.
To weaken him further I focus my strikes on the inside of his thighs.
I hope at least some of them will be Critical Hits.
And finally… Jericho drives its fist into the Clay Golem"s stomach.
It takes a step back, then another, and then one more, until he finally falls to the ground.

《Summoned Monster『Obsidian』Level Up！》
《Please allocate 1 Bonus Point to increase the value of the statistic of your choosing.》

It"s finally here.
Obsidian has reached Lv 8!
All right, so what"s going to happen now?
Obsidian"s AGI has already went up during the Level Up, so I guess I"ll add that one Bonus Point into his STR.

Summoned Monster Obsidian Owl Lv 7 → Lv 8 (↑ 1)
DEX 13
AGI 21 (↑ 1)
INT 20
STR 13 (↑ 1)
VIT 12
SPI 18

Skills:
a.s.sault Silent Flight Farsight Night Eye Surprise Attack Detect Danger

《The Summoned Monster『Obsidian』has cleared the Cla.s.s Change Conditions！》

《Please carry out the Cla.s.s Change procedure outside of the Summoned Monster"s status screen.》

He reached his Cla.s.s Change even faster than Helix.
Putting that aside, I made a copy of Obsidian"s current status screen.
Now let"s see what cla.s.ses are available for him to change into.

Cla.s.s Change Options:
Great Owl
Mystic Eye

There are two options available, so let"s see how each of them will influence Obsidian"s stats.
First will be Great Owl.

Summoned Monster Obsidian Owl Lv 8 → Great Owl Lv 1 (New!)
DEX 13
AGI 21
INT 20
STR 16 (↑ 3)
VIT 15 (↑ 3)
SPI 18

Skills:
a.s.sault Silent Flight Farsight Night Eye Surprise Attack
Detect Danger a.s.sa.s.sination (New!)

【Great Owl】 Battle Position: Aerial

A large Owl. Attacks mainly using it"s sharp talons.
More aggressive than normal Owl.
Increase in size has no negative bearing on the statistics.

Okay, okay, cool. Now let"s see what Mystic Eye can bring onto the table.

Summoned Monster Obsidian Owl Lv 8 → Mystic Eye Lv 1 (New!)
DEX 13
AGI 21
INT 21 (↑ 1)
STR 13
VIT 12
SPI 19 (↑ 1)

Skills:
a.s.sault Silent Flight Farsight Night Eye Surprise Attack
Detect Danger Divine Hearing [selected Attribute] (New!)

【Mystic Eye】Summoned Monster Battle Position: Aerial
Owl holding magical powers. Mainly attacks with it"s sharp beak and claws, capable of using special skills utilizing the [selected Attribute].
Level-headed forest hunter.

UwU what"s this, do I get to specify the attribute for the special skills?
Nono, waitwaitwait.
Maybe this Mystic Eye cla.s.s can be further upgraded into Magi Owl later down the road?

Now the big question would be: do I want more physical attack or someone who can provide magical support?
Ahh, screw it, let"s make him into a Mystic Eye.
Now I have to choose an attribute I want to give him. I can choose from Dark, Light, Fire, Wind, Earth and Water.

Hmm… Hmmmmmmmmm……
Now this is a difficult decision to make.

We can rule out Wind since Heather already has it.
Dark is next. Same as the above, but with Mumyo.
Light can also be kicked to the curb since Ninetails got it not that long ago.

We are down to 3 choices: Fire, Earth and Water.

I carefully a.n.a.lyzed the battle with that Clay Golem in my head decided to go along with water.
I lose nothing by choosing that option, and it might be useful to have further down the road.
Now let"s check Obsidian"s status again.

Summoned Monster Obsidian Owl Lv 8 → Mystic Eye Lv 1 (New!)
DEX 13
AGI 21
INT 21 (↑ 1)
STR 13
VIT 12
SPI 19 (↑ 1)

Skills:
a.s.sault Silent Flight Farsight Night Eye Surprise Attack
Detect Danger Divine Hearing Water Attribute (New!)

All right.
After the Cla.s.s Change was done Obsidian"s appearance became slightly more whitish.
As I thought, it looks like the next time he"ll be able to change his cla.s.s he"s going to turn into a Magi Owl.
Also, there was no change to his size, but he does look more… dignified now. At least that was the kind of impression I was getting. He was emanating that specific kind of elegant beauty, if that makes any sense at all.
Now that that"s done, I can proceed to looting the Clay Golem"s corpse of its goodies.
The said goodies consisted of an Ancient Stone.
Disappointing.
Feeling dissatisfied with the item that dropped after such an intense battle I made my way down the stairs.

Below, there was a gentle slope, and there were no signs of any monsters nearby.
I hurried ahead with a newly healed Jericho acting as my shield.

Once again the path was winding.
It would be dangerous if we were to encounter more of those Floating Bombs here.
At least that"s what I thought, but it turned out that what was waiting here was something else entirely.

Demon Centipede Lv 3
Youkai Target Subjugation Active

Whatever it is, it does not look like a simple monster.
It"s a youkai.
No, more like a demon.
No, scratch that, it definitely looks like a giant pest!
And a disgusting one to boot!

As soon as I saw it, Jericho started running straight towards it.
It spewed some kind of acid-looking liquid from its mouth, but Jericho ignored it completely.
He just run to its side, grabbed it by the torso and slammed it against the cave"s wall with all his might.
Although it was damaged by the wall-slam, it was not enough to kill it of course.
This guy.
Could it be that its chitin armor makes it resistant to physical damage?

Heather still has about 20% of her MP left.
It would be better to let her sit that one out and recover first.
Along with Mumyo I went to attack the Centipede"s backside.
I have to see for myself how hard this guy"s sh.e.l.l actually is.

At first it looked like Mumyo"s earth-infused attack did nothing to it, but after checking it"s HP bar, the damage has indeed been done.
It seem"s like the force of the impact sent the damage through the sh.e.l.l and into the body beneath it.
Knowing this, how should I proceed?
By punching the sh*t out of it of course!
At least that"s what I would like to do, but unfortunately none of my weapons had the kind of penetration power needed to pierce through such a hard sh.e.l.l.
So instead of that I use a spell.

Since I felt repulsed by the creepy movement of its many legs I wanted to do something that would stop them from moving.
And thankfully I did just that!
I clenched my fists with Snow Leopard Bagh Nakh and Snow Leopard Push Dagger.

Jericho was a huge help here, holding this guy"s torso down with one of his hands.
Yet despite that, some of the legs still continued to move.
Just having to look at that was enough to make my entire body feel weak and tremble.

No, it"s not that.
Something… something was seriously wrong here.
How strange.
Why is my HP going down even though I"m not taking any direct damage?
And what is this marker I have on me?
That small one overlapping with my normal green one?

It showed that I was afflicted by a status effect.
When I focused my eyes on it, it showed that it was poison!
I hurriedly took out an antidote and gulped it down. Shortly after, my health stopped decreasing.
Instead of that, some of my stat values received negative modifiers.
My AGI and INT stats, they were now both -2.
Was that the poison"s after-effect?

I changed my tactic for this fight.
Instead of my melee weapons I equipped my Staff and plunged it into the gaps between the parts of the Centipede"s body.
But if they are poisonous as well I should be careful not to overdo it.
Mumyo seemed to be unaffected by the poison. Small wonder, since Skeletons were naturally immune to status effects such as bleeding or poison.
Jericho seemed to be unaffected as well.
I should have noticed it sooner, since he was the first one to engage him and didn"t have his HP dropping gradually from the beginning of the encounter.
It"s useless against Golems as well.
Great job, Jericho.
But just to be on the safe side I ordered Obsidian to step away from him.

I also pulled away from the battle, leaving the Demon Centipede to fight only with Jericho and Mumyo.
From now on I"ll focus on observing him.
He wraps the entirety of its long body around Jericho in an attempt to crush him.
He is really, really long.
It"s pincers gnaw at Mumyo, who continues to attack him regardless of that. He receives damage from that, but it"s so little that there"s nothing to worry about. As expected of a Skeleton.

Little by little, the Demon"s HP dwindles down.

Everything was decided when Jericho stepped on another part of its body, tearing it in half.
Let"s see how Jericho is doing.
I am glad to report that everything"s fine with him.
As for the centipede, it quickly fades away.
Leaving nothing behind him of course.
I think it"s a common trait for all Youkai-type enemies.
Or I am just plain unlucky.

* * *
Protagonist Keith Race Human Male, Lv 13
Cla.s.s: Summoner, Lv 12
Remaining Bonus Points: 6

Skillset:
Staff Lv 11 (↑1) Strike Lv 7 Kick Lv 8 (↑1) Joint Lock Lv 7 Throw Lv 7 Avoidance Lv 7 Defense Lv 7 Summoning Magic Lv 13 s.p.a.ce-Time Magic Lv 6
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 Lv 5 Dust Magic Lv 5 Infusion Magic Lv 5 Lava Magic Lv 5 Alchemy Lv 6 Pharmacy Lv 5 Gla.s.smaking Lv 3 Woodworking Lv 4
Synergy Lv 10 Appraise Lv 9 Identify Lv 9 Observation Lv 3 Cold Resistance Lv 5 Grab Lv 7 Horsemanship Lv 7　 Precise Manipulation Lv 9　Jump Lv 4 Heat
Resistance Lv 4 Climb Lv 4 Dual Wield Lv 7 Dismantling Lv 5
Body Reinforcement Lv 5 Mental Reinforcement Lv 6 Speedcasting Lv 7
Magic Effect Expansion Lv 3 Magic Range Expansion Lv 3

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:
Volff, Gray Wolf Lv 2,
Zangetsu, White Horse Lv 1,
Helix, Hawk Lv 7
Obsidian, Owl Lv 8 → Mystic Eye Lv 1 (New!)
DEX 13
AGI 21
INT 21 (↑ 1)
STR 13
VIT 12
SPI 19 (↑ 1)

Skills:
a.s.sault Silent Flight Farsight Night Eye Surprise Attack
Detect Danger Divine Hearing Water Attribute (New!)

Jean, Bat Lv 7
Jericho, Wood Golem Lv 5 → Lv 6 (↑ 1)
DEX 5
AGI 5
INT 5
STR 35 (↑ 1)
VIT 35 (↑ 1)
SPI 4

Skills:
Strike Kick Magical Resistance 「Slight」 Self-Recovery 「Slight」 Defense

Goki, Demon Lv 6
Senki, Beast Ape Lv 6
Rig, Slime Lv 5
Bunraku, Wooden Puppet Lv 4
Mumyo, Skeleton Lv 4
Ninetails, Red Fox Lv 3
Heather, Fairy Lv 2