Translator: Charlotte　Editor: Weasalopes

I used【Dowsing】when I reached the river before the cave.
There were a lot of monsters the last time I was there, but not that time.
Oh well.

Well, whatever.
I headed into the cave.
I decided to try not going into any of the branches and just going through the main cave once.
I could tackle the branches after that.

I recalled Zangetsu and Helix, and summoned Jean and Senki.
I could only have four Summon Monsters at a time.
I wondered when that number would go up to five.
That would be very nice.

I followed the cave"s main path.
But an Orc was blocking the way.
It looked a little strange.

Orc Soldier　Lv.2
Monster　Enemy Target　Active
Battle position: Ground

Well, looking at its outer appearance, it was just a bulkier Orc.
But it was definitely not as strong as the Orc Leader.
It was easily smashed by Senki.

I was hoping to get a gemstone from the Orc…
But I didn"t get anything.
Even the other Orc Soldiers that came after didn"t have anything.
There were quite a few of them, I was hoping to get at least one Iolite stone.

The time was 10 am.
Something felt off.
But the cave itself was clearly still the same.

Kobolds suddenly came from deeper in the cave.
Ah, yeah, that came up at the meeting too, I guess.

Kobold　Lv.6
Monster　Enemy Target　Active
Battle Position: Ground

A Kobold, huh.
It was easy to make a comparison, since I had just fought an Orc.
Personally, Kobolds were a little more difficult to deal with.
But that meant that it was also more worth fighting.
I couldn"t underestimate its shoddy-looking knife.
But it wasn"t an issue after I broke the Kobold"s arm.

Senki"s strategy didn"t change.
He rampaged all the same.

《【Evade】Level Up!》
《A Skill Link has been established! You may learn the Weapon Arte: 【Counter】》

Nice.
Wait, 【Counter】?
I wonder where that kind of skill would be useful…
I almost never had the chance to use any Weapon Artes.
I had a feeling I wouldn"t start using them any time soon.

There weren"t a lot of them, but I got a good number of plum blossoms.
I felt like I had enough of them already, but alright.

The exit came into view.
I was already in S1W2.
The Tower of Condemnation was probably to the southeast.
It was still far away.
Well, my plan was to return to the village anyway.
I just looked at the Area Portal to give myself a sense of distance.

Well then.
I saw seven branches on the way to the exit.
The first branch was the branch I went into first.
Six left.
I decided to go into the branch closest to the exit.

When I entered the branch of the cave, I discovered something strange.
The branch led into a wide hall.
Well, it was a pattern I"d seen before.
The problem was…
Even though there were no monsters in sight, Obsidian, Jean and Ninetails were clearly on alert.
The reason was on the ceiling.
Bats?

Gremlin　Lv.5
Monster　Enemy Target　Active
Battle Position: Air

It was a monster I"d never seen before.
Although I didn"t know whether that meant they were strong or weak.
The real problem was with their numbers.
The ceiling was dyed red with red markers.

Not again…

I had heard about that kind of phenomenon before, they called it a Monster House.
It was a common occurrence for first-timers.
But even then, I didn"t expect there to be that many monsters…

I chose a spell and prepared to cast it.
At the same time, I used my rod to block all the monsters falling down on me.
Ninetails climbed on Senki"s back.

Jean took initiative and flew into the air.
Obsidian did the same.
Monsters feel down like rain around the hall.
Obsidian"s work.
But what was surprising was that the monsters were actually pretty good at dodging attacks.
Although the ones that were hit were usually instantly taken out.

I swept my rod in front of me, and just that was enough to take out one of them.
Huh…
What a strange monster.

They weren"t very suited to Senki.
Although just by rampaging, Senki could still get a few of them once every few punches.
The other punches just hit air.
Well, they were flying about at a high speed, and their body size was smaller than goblins.
It made for a good match, though.

「Storm Wave!」

I didn"t know how many monsters there were…
But I took out all of them.
All of them.
They were extremely weak.

I knew that【Storm Wave】had a very wide area of effect.
That was why I chose that spell to begin with.
But I didn"t expect it to take out all of them.
Were【Wind Magic】spells good against flying monsters?
Well, it was something that required further experimentation.

Well then.
I wonder what I could get from them…

Pebbles.
More pebbles.
All of them had pebbles!

I kept going, hoping to get something different.
I did, but all I got was Amber.
Hmm…
Strange.

There were four small rooms connected to the hall.
None of them were sealed by magic.
But there was nothing inside any of the rooms.
Unfortunate.

One of the rooms led to what looked like the continuation of the branch.
I kept going.

I soon ran into more Gremlins.
Just two of them.
I didn"t even get a chance.
Obsidian and Jean took care of them by themselves.

As long as there weren"t a lot of them, they weren"t that big of a threat.
In terms of difficulty, I"d say they were tougher than goblins, but easier than Kobolds.
Comparable to Orcs?
It was a flying monster, but it wasn"t tough at all.
They were actually not suited to Senki.
Just like Jericho, huh.
A lot of my Summon Monsters were weak against large numbers.

The next room?
The next room did not exist.
I ran into a trap.
The way back was blocked by rocks, and I realised that the way forward went in a loop.

I used【Sense Magic】to try and find a hidden exit.
There were unexpectedly two hidden exits.
One leading away from where I came, and one heading back.
Hmm…
I decided to go into the exit heading outwards.
I wanted to explore as much as I could, to see if there was a pattern to what was happening.

I used【Unlock】to go through the hidden exit and entered a small room.
It felt cramped.
It was just big enough for all my Summon Monsters to enter, but it was too cramped to do any actual fighting.
It was about as big as a one-room apartment?

But there was something else that I couldn"t overlook.
A treasure chest.
I used【Sense Magic】, and it was clearly enchanted in some way.
When I tried to open it, Ninetails had a strange reaction.
Ninetails was clearly against me opening the chest.
Ninetails grabbed my attention by biting on my ear.
Hey!
Don"t poke your tongue into my ear!
My ear felt a little cold after that.

I proceeded more carefully.
It seemed like there were some things even Obsidian and Jean couldn"t detect.
I looked at the ceiling.
It didn"t look any different.
The same went for the walls.
The floor?
I felt something strange when I looked at the floor.

I quickly left the room to compare, and sure enough, the stone bricks used for the floor were different.
The floor in the room with the chest was made up of stone which looked a lot finer.

A pitfall?
It didn"t look like there was anything in the ceiling.
Nothing in the walls, either.

Looked like the chest was the only deciding factor.
The atmosphere was heavy.
Even Senki didn"t move a muscle.

I should probably think of the room as a trap…
I left it for later.

I used【Unlock】and headed into the other hidden exit.
It quickly led to a hall.
It was a lot bigger than the small room from earlier, but I still couldn"t see any exits except for the one I just came through.
But there were monsters.
More Gozu and Mezu.

Gozu　Lv.3
Phantom　Enemy Target　Active
Battle Position: Land　Fire Attribute

Mezu　Lv.3
Phantom　Enemy Target　Active
Battle Position: Land　Fire Attribute

What?
Monsters with attributes?

I left the Gozu to my Summon Monsters.
I went straight for the Mezu.
Of course, I had no intention of ramming into it.
I just wanted to use my spells in close range.

The Mezu swung its staff down.
I dodged it by a hair.
That was dangerous…
It was the fastest Mezu I had ever encountered.

I took the opportunity to grab it by its head and throw it onto the ground.
An overhead throw.
Of course, I didn"t expect that to be the end of the fight.

I used a spell while the Mezu was still on the ground.

「Branch Bind!」

It tried to get back up, but the branches quickly caused it to fall.
I followed up with more attacks.
But the branches were getting in the way of me trying to mount it.
How dumb of me…

I changed up my strategy.
I twisted the Mezu"s wrist holding the staff.
It didn"t sound like it was in any pain.
I kept going.
It wouldn"t feel any pain anyway.
After taking a deep breath, I broke its wrist.
The branches made the task a lot easier.
I could feel its power from the branches.

But there was still more.
I aimed at its exposed neck.
But because I couldn"t mount it, my options were limited.
And judging from how strong it felt, just using my arm wouldn"t be an option either.
I used my legs instead.

My form was that of rear naked choke.
Although I was aiming for more of a rear triangle choke.
But it didn"t matter.
The biggest problem was its unbroken left hand.
The branches were doing their work, but I didn"t know for how much longer.
I hurried to settle the fight.

I beat down on the head in front of me.
Of course, I also took the opportunity to cast some spells.

「Lower DEF!」

The moment I casted the spell, I started preparing to cast the next one.
I kept using my fists to hit it.
The rate at which its HP bar went down was definitely increasing.
But even then, its HP bar was still at about 70%.

The Mezu"s left arm broke free.
It used it to start ripping off the branches on its torso.
Woah.
Smart…

All the branches were removed in no time.
The Mezu tried to turn to throw me off.
I knew that I couldn"t keep it down by force.
I let go of my it.
The Mezu quickly turned its head to bite at me.
I dodged and too the opportunity to properly carry out a triangle choke.

But that didn"t prevent it from attacking me with its arms.
I also had to prevent it from biting me.
I did that by pushing against its neck with my right hand.
No problem.
I looked over at the Mezu"s left hand.
I used my left hand to keep its left elbow joint in place.
I also took the opportunity to get in some light attacks on its elbow.
Welcome to pinp.r.i.c.ks h.e.l.l.
At that point, all I had to do was keep up the pressure.

After I took out the Mezu, I stood up to look for the Gozu.
My Summon Monsters were still working on taking it down.
It looked like a one-sided battle, but the Gozu was definitely a force to be reckoned with.
Obsidian launched water attacks at it, and was doing quite a bit of damage.
But there was something strange about the Gozu.
Its HP bar was slowly recovering.
Not again…

Senki used his speed to his advantage.
The Gozu wasn"t a monster to tackle using brute force.
Jericho"s five-minute clash with it last time told me that much.
Damage was slowly acc.u.mulating on the Gozu.
I looked behind me to find Ninetails.
Ninetails was doing work from the back lines as usual.

「Physical Enchant: Fire!」

I strengthened Senki and jumped in to join the fight.
The Gozu"s HP bar was at 60%.
The battle wasn"t over yet.
But the fight was pretty much already decided.
Its HP bar started falling at a higher rate until it finally reached zero.

《【Throw】Level Up!》
《【Joint Lock】Level Up!》
《【Spell Effect Amplification】Level Up!》
《【Spell Range Expansion】Level Up!》
《Summon Monster『Jean』Level Up!》
《Please add 1 point into a desired stat.》

Finally…
It was about time.
I had been fighting some tough enemies recently.

The stat that increased with Jean"s level was AGI.
I decided to put another point into VIT.

Summon Monster　Jean　Bat Lv7→Lv8 (↑1)
DEX　15
AGI　20 (↑1)
INT　12
STR　12
VIT　12 (↑1)
SPI　12
Skills:
Bite　Flight　Echolocation　Evade　Ambush　Suck Blood

《Summon Monster『Jean』has cleared the Cla.s.s Change conditions!》
《To access the Cla.s.s Change menu, please go to the stats screen.》

Here we go.
I wonder what my options would be.

No, wait.
I decided to use【Instant Portal】and catch a short break first.
It wasn"t even 11 am yet, but it would be good to get a meal.
Just a few minutes.

Alright.
As always, I thought about having Bunraku make lunch for me
I recalled Ninetails and summoned Bunraku.
I handed over some vegetables, flour, and a pot of water, along with some meat.

Great.
Jean got a Cla.s.s Change before Helix.
Although I did have a lot more opportunities to use Jean, especially in the dark cave.
There was nothing I could do about that.

I took a screenshot of Jean"s stats before opening the Cla.s.s Change menu.
Now, what were the candidates?

Cla.s.s Change Candidates:
Poison Bat
Black Bat

Both names sounded pretty scary.
Before making any decisions, as always, I checked the two possibilities.
First was Poison Bat.

Summon Monster　Jean　Bat Lv8→Poison Bat Lv1 (New!)
DEX　15
AGI　21 (↑1)
INT　12
STR　13 (↑1)
VIT　13 (↑1)
SPI　12
Skills:
Bite　Flight　Echolocation　Evade　Ambush　Suck Blood　Poison (New!)

【Poison Bat】Summon Monster　Battle Position: Air
A venomous bat. Its main attack method is its bite.
A relatively aggressive monster. When it bites a target, it sucks the target"s blood and injects a venom.
Its venom only works on living things, but since it isn"t magic, it is not affected by magical resistance.

Well it was more or less what I expected.
Poison, huh…
Apparently, while it only works on living things, it works outside the realm of magic.
Scary…
Next.

Summon Monster　Jean　Bat Lv8→Black Bat Lv1 (New!)
DEX　16 (↑1)
AGI　20
INT　14 (↑2)
STR　12
VIT　12
SPI　14 (↑2)
Skills:
Bite　Flight　Echolocation　Evade　Ambush　Suck Blood　Dark Attribute (New!)

【Black Bat】Summon Monster　Battle Position: Air
A jet-black bat. Its main methods of attack are its bite and dark elemental Special Skills.
It is extremely well suited to fighting at night, and can make good use of its dark attribute.

Ooh, a dark attribute monster.
Hmm…
It was a difficult choice.

For the time being, I took a screenshot of both screens.
I did have Mumyo as a dark attribute monster…
But Mumyo couldn"t use magic.
And Special Skills were different for each Summon Monster anyway…

I went with the【Black Bat】.
That "Ruler of the Dark" feeling felt nice.

After the cla.s.s change, Jean definitely looked a lot blacker.
No change in size, though.
But it still looked different.
It looked a lot more… brutal?

Bunraku finished cooking lunch.
It was bread and beef skewers and soup.
I quickly filled my stomach and left the cleanup to Bunraku.

I had some free time.
I took the time to read the report that Fiona told me to look at.

Oops.
I got a little too much into it.
I was half-skimming through it, but there were a few interesting bits here and there.
I appeared a lot more than I liked in the report.

Well, whatever.
I recalled Bunraku and summoned Ninetails.
I was honestly looking forward to fighting more Gozu and Mezu again, but…
n.o.body came.
There were no monsters in the hall.
I was a little disappointed at that.

When I left the portal 【Flashlight】was about to run out.
When I recast it an info screen appeared.

《【Light Magic】Level Up!》

I didn"t bother using【Light Magic】that often, but I appreciated the level-up.
My magic skills were growing nicely.
Although【Summon Magic】and【s.p.a.cetime Magic】were exceptions to the general trend, for some reason.

Speaking of which, my magic skills level total went from 90 to 91.
It was Spell Archive at 30, and Spell Glossary at 80.
Following the pattern, the next change would come at… 130?
I felt like that had to be it.
I still had a long way to go.
What lay ahead of me?
I had no idea.

Although not knowing what lay ahead was kind of fun in its own right.

Protagonist　Keith
Race　Human　Male　Racial Lv13
Job　Summoner Lv13
Bonus Points Remaining: 10

Skill Sets:
Staff Lv11　Punch Lv8　Kick Lv8　Joint Lock Lv8 (↑1) 　Throw Lv8 (↑1) 　Evade Lv8 (↑1) 　Block Lv8　 Summon Magic Lv13　s.p.a.cetime Magic Lv6
Light Magic Lv7 (↑1) 　Wind Magic Lv7　Earth Magic Lv7　Water Magic Lv7　Fire Magic Lv7　　Dark Magic Lv7　Ice Magic Lv5　Lightning Magic Lv5　Tree Magic Lv5　Dust Magic Lv5　Lava Magic Lv5　Steam Magic Lv5
Alchemy Lv6　Pharmacy Lv5　Gla.s.smaking Lv3　Woodworking Lv4
Synergy Lv10　Appraise Lv9　Identify Lv10　Discern Lv3　Cold Resistance Lv5　Grab Lv7　Horsemanship Lv7　Precise Manipulation Lv9　Jump Lv4　Heat Resistance Lv4　Climb Lv4　Dual Wield Lv6　Disa.s.sembly Lv6
Physical Reinforcement Lv5　Mental Reinforcement Lv6　Speedcasting Lv8　Spell Effect Amplification Lv4 (↑1) 　Spell Range Amplification Lv4 (↑1)

Equipment:
Kaya Wood Rod x1　Kaya Wood Tonfa x2　Enraged Pickaxe+ x2　Silver Necklace+　 Snow Leopard Push Dagger x1　Gale Tiger Push Dagger x2　Snow Leopard Bagh Nakh x1
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

t.i.tles:
Old Summoner"s Pupil
Guardian of the Forest
Man of the Middle Path
Spell Glossary

Monster Summons:
Volff　Grey Wolf Lv2
Zangetsu　White Horse Lv1
Helix　Hawk Lv7
Obsidian　Mystic Owl Lv1
Jean　Bat Lv8→Black Bat Lv1 (New!)
DEX　16 (↑1)
AGI　20
INT　14 (↑2)
STR　12
VIT　12
SPI　14 (↑2)
Skills:
Bite　Flight　Echolocation　Evade　Ambush　Suck Blood　Dark Attribute (New!)

Jericho　Wood Golem Lv6
Goki　Demon Lv6
Senki　Beast Ape Lv6
Rig　Slime Lv5
Bunraku　Wood Puppet Lv4
Mumyo　Skeleton Lv5
Ninetails　Red Fox Lv3
Heather　Fairy Lv3