Translation: DarkHeartedAlchemist
Editor: Weasalopes

I could hear the voices of the players who were observing me.

Were they cheers or moans?

I don"t know, and I don"t care, to be honest.

All I could focus on was the Power Water in front of my eyes.

How can I use this? The same as the sumo wrestlers do before a match?

Even if it"s the size of a wooden bucket?

No, of course not.

It would be too obvious if it was so easy to use.

Among the people gathered here, there are also the ones who have no problems with talking to me.

Was that a praise?

Well, whatever.

Exactly.

The crowd in the Gallery around us is breaking up, and more and more people are going towards the Relay Portal.

It was understandable since it is almost lunchtime now.

I made my way towards it myself after I placed Power Water into my 《Item Box》.

But before that, another battle was waiting ahead.

It was a Lion-dog – Gyo & Lion-dog – Un-Gyo duo.

There are ten players fighting them, most likely two parties of five who made an alliance with each other.

Shouldn"t they be fighting each other for the right to fight them?

No, the battle is probably so hard that they had no other choice.

There is a Gallery here as well.

Taking a little detour, I head towards the entrance where the statue of a Deva King is located.

Adele and Irina are coming with me as well since we"re supposed to eat together.

Interestingly enough, they showed little to no interest in this fight.

It"s like there was something else distracting them.

Hou…

I understand why Adele would want to go with a lion.

So Irina decided on a fairy, huh?

That will give us quite a lot of support options to choose from. Not bad.

As for Adele, I think I can probably guess what the name of her summoned lion is going to be.

When we arrive at the Relay Portal, each of us takes their desk and chair out.

I call Jericho back and summon Bunraku in his stead.

And then proceed to cook us a nice meal using the procured ingredients together with the utensils lined on the table.

Adele calls Kii-chan back.

And then she calls a new monster forth with a spell.

Lion / Li-chan  Lv1

Monster Summons  On standby

Battle Position: ground.

I knew it was going to be something like that.

And that Adele is going to snuggle up to it from the get go, as she is doing right now.

It looks like Li-chan"s appearance is a male lion"s cub.

How can I say that? Because he has a miniscule amount of hair around his head and neck.

Given time, they will probably grow to be one magnificent mane.

Irina also calls Goliath back and proceeds to summon a fairy.

Fairy / Myure   Lv1

Monster Summons  On standby

Battle Position: air

Fumu. It seems like she made a good choice.

Adele on the other hand probably didn"t even hear my question since she"s so occupied with snuggling to Li-chan that she does not seem to notice what is happening around her.

Ah well, I"ll let her do what she wants for now.

With this, our party now has one Lion, three tigers, two fairies and one wolf in its ranks, making a nice diversity.

Like that, we should be good to go for now, and the two of them seem to be satisfied with their choices.

While we were chatting about the new Monster Summons, the dinner was ready for us to eat.

It"s a diced thigh meat steak and it"s outrageously delicious!

So delicious in fact that I might even give one to Tigris, although I"m not sure if he prefers his meat to be cooked or raw.

In the end however, I was forced to feed the meat to all of the beast-type monsters who were present due to their intense stares.

That pressure was something else entirely.

Adele and Irina log out through the Relay Portal.

Now then, seeing as I am finally alone again…

… let"s go back to hunting for materials!

Let"s change the battle formation up a little.

I called Bunraku back and summoned Senki.

Next I summoned Jericho again. Looks like he can use Soil Liquefication one more time. This might come in handy.

Should I make any more changes?

I leave Rig just as he was, since he can act as my living armor.

Regrettably, he cannot coat Senki and Tigris at the same time.

Hence, let"s call Tigris back and summon Volff.

As for my target for today, let"s aim for Gozu and Mezu.

There were two points in the mining area where those two sp.a.w.ned.

Looks like one of those points has already been cleared for today, but that"s okay, there"s still one more point to check.

Gozu   Lv5

Youkai  Target Subjugation Active

Battle Position: ground  Light Attribute

Mezu   Lv5

Youkai  Target Subjugation Active

Battle Position: ground Dark Attribute

As usual, I prepare myself for battle by strengthening my Monster Summons.

Oh, that"s right!

Should I test out how exactly does the Power Water work? It might have some curious effects.

Status:

DEX 17

AGI 17

INT 24

STR 16 (+3)

VIT 16

SPI 24

Just an ordinary Power Water, nothing special about it. But what if I use Physical Enchant: Fire?

Status:

DEX 17

AGI 17

INT 24

STR 16 (+6)

VIT 16

SPI 24

Oho, what"s this? So how about using all physical enhancements?

Status:

DEX 17(+3)

AGI 17(+3)

INT 24(+4)

STR 16 (+6)

VIT 16(+3)

SPI 24(+4)

Yes, it still stacks! What are the stat boosts now?!

Status:

DEX 17(+6)

AGI 17(+6)

INT 24(+9)

STR 16 (+10)

VIT 16(+7)

SPI 24(+9)

This is simply amazing! I"ve never thought that the effects of Power Water can stack like that! This is crazy, That"s borderline cheating!

But apparently the stacking effect has a time limit.

In that case, I"ll just have to wrap this battle up quickly.

And I can"t forget to relocate the 【Dismantle】skill to backup.

The battle was over in a flash.

It was my undisputed victory, but it was so fast that it almost doesn"t feel like one.

Everyone is getting cla.s.s changes at the very least so that"s good.

Regrettably, there was no new info of any kind.

According to the meeting, there were no strong enemies further behind in the tunnel.

That means I won"t get lost.

The only branching path was the one leading to the Tower of Condemnation which was guarded by Gozu and Mezu type enemies.

However, for some reason the number of players just keeps increasing.

Especially around the Relay Portal.

Are there any new galleries here?

There was also quite a lot of parties focused on capturing the surrounding territory.

I pa.s.sed one such party by when I was heading towards the branching pathway.

As I went further, I expected to encounter Goblins and Slimes, but there was nothing there.

Not a single one.

I entered a branch pathway. According to Volff"s nose, no player has travelled here recently, which means there should still be Gozu"s and Mezu"s in here.

Well then, here I go.

Gozu   Lv6

Youkai  Target Subjugation Pa.s.sive

Battle Position: ground  Light Attribute

Mezu   Lv6

Youkai  Target Subjugation Pa.s.sive

Battle Position: ground Dark Attribute

As I thought, all of the members of my current formations are changing cla.s.ses.

That is why our fighting capabilities are high and we have no problem with exploration.

It also helps that they were initially pa.s.sive.

I think so as I join the fight.

Honestly speaking, these guys are quite strong.

I don"t have that many chances to attack with my tonfas as I have to focus mainly on defenses.

If I lose my concentration for even a second, it can mean getting myself hit directly.

The process is slower than I would have liked, but other than that I have no difficulties with fighting them.

I should be reaching the place with the Deva King soon.

Also, that Gozu and Mezu I obliterated earlier dropped nothing after their defeat.

As for my next cla.s.s to choose, I wonder if I should choose Deva King myself.

Even though normal mobs are nowhere to be found, I"ve already encountered the next Gozu & Mezu pair almost immediately after the previous encounter.

Nooo, it must be just my imagination.

Gozu   Lv7

Youkai  Target Subjugation Pa.s.sive

Battle Position: ground  Light Attribute

Mezu   Lv7

Youkai  Target Subjugation Pa.s.sive

Battle Position: ground Dark Attribute

I will do my best this time.

They are probably on the same level as the Deva King.

Yeah, they are indeed strong.

But unlike the Deva King, their weapons durability is not so great.

Even more so when I sent Goki and Senki to fight them.

Senki sound more like a wild beast while Goki is more m.u.f.fled and reserved with its battle cries.

The fight is becoming more dreadful by the minute.

Unlike our enemies, we all seem to have a great time.

Rig is also a good addition to the party here.

Usually his job is to defend the others with his slime body, but throughout this fight he seemed to have paralyzed Gozu several times already.

As soon as his body hits the ground Senki jumps towards him and beats the everlasting c.r.a.p out of him.

He also adds a kick to the mix from time to time.

Goki continued to deliver his slashes without stopping.

While the enemies are being held down Volff and Jean move in to attack them on their own.

Even they seem to be more powerful that the two Youkai we are facing now.

Looks like I can just watch the fireworks without worrying.

And speaking of myself.

I was actually quite busy watching Gozu getting literally slaughtered while I was performing a professional wrestling move on Mezu"s legs.

A Reverse Indian Leglock.

But contrary to last time this Mezu"s physical const.i.tution was much better, so after some struggling and losing a part of his HP bar he actually managed to set himself free and stand back up.

Switching from tonfa"s back to my cane and we resumed our battle.

Now let"s try id this another grapple move will work better on this guy.

Now I tried a grab where Mezu"s ankle is being squeezed tightly against his torso.

It would be nice if I could simultaneously do some additional damage to his head but unfortunately I cannot reach it from where I"m standing.

I wanted to perform a Stepover Hold with Facelock on him, but it"s impossible after all.

So instead I just kept on hitting him with my cane.

It was a pretty brutal spectacle.

But such a development was not a bad thing.

Mezu"s HP was decreasing at a satisfying pace and I could watch my monster"s fight without having to flex my back too much.

Sure, this approach takes a little bit more time to get things done than usual, but it"s a strategy that I can use from now on.

《Due to the recent victory in battle your【Light Magic】skill has leveled up!》

《Due to the recent victory in battle your【Dark Magic】has leveled up!》

Nice.

But once again hare was no drops from the slain monsters.

All right, it seems like I"ve been to all the places where Gozu and Mezu were sp.a.w.ning for today.

So what happens now?

Should I make another round to see if more Gozus and Mezus sp.a.w.ned anywhere?

Or maybe I should change my cla.s.s?

Either way is fine with me.

But it would certainly be interesting if I could have a fight with an actual Deva King.

I wonder what kind of drops would I get for slaying him.

Let"s find that out tomorrow.

When I came back from the branching path, I saw the Tower of Condemnation before my eyes.

The time is now around 4:00 PM, too early to have dinner.

The place was almost entirely empty, probably because there was not that many Float Bombs around.

I did quite a lot of travelling today, actually.

Let"s change my team for a bit now.

I call Jean back and summon Obsidian.

Goki and Rig are also going back.

I summon Tigris and Creep instead.

My aim for now is to farm materials from a bee-like enemy, the Crest Bee.

It"s needles, to be exact.

I still have a decent amount of them as part of my stock, but lately it"s been decreasing rapidly, so I need to replenish it.

I thought they were going to fight in large flocks, but that turned out to be a wrong a.s.sumption on my part.

I mean it was capable of using Call Monster to summon backup for itself, but it was only one at a time.

Disappointing, but there"s no helping it now.

Let"s aim for their nest.

I can tell where it is from the direction the backup bees are coming from.

For the time being I tried to clear up the swarm that was protecting the nest and the area around it.

It"s been a long time since I did something like this.

I don"t know when will be the next time I"ll be able to do something like this again so I"d better get as much out of it as I can.

I can also create some arrows to kill time later.

Oh, and speaking of killing time, I also have some ancient stones with me.

Lately I"ve been kinda forgetting about a lot of items in my possession, huh?

I pa.s.sed the time until it was 6 PM.

During that time I managed to attack and clear out about 4 Crest Bee"s nests.

I managed to secure a satisfying number of needles out of it, so I should be able to sell some for a nice profit and keep the rest for myself.

All right, now that that"s done, let us proceed to the Tower of Condemnation!

When I approached the tower, I called Goki and Senki back and summoned Bunraku.

Using my usual desk, chair and ingredients and began to cook.

So, what should I do for the remainder of the day?

It would be nice if I could hunt some more Haunted Mist around the Wind Spirit Village.

Or maybe I could move on to the next stage.

Maybe I should try to hunt around this tower for a while?

Hmm…

That does not look like a bad idea.

The dish Bunraku created this time was a fresh pasta.

It tasted great as always.

Speaking of which, Bunraku and Mumyo seemed to have leveled up.

But hunting the Haunted Mist with just bow and arrow might not be the smartest idea.

I need to find a place where I could level up in peace.

I arrive at the Wind Spirit Village after using the Return Home spell.

I call Bunraku back and summon Mumyo.

We ran into some difficulties, so I called Volff back and summoned Ninetails.

For now, Mumyo will act as a backup.

I must also account for the possibility of being attacked by a Floating Eye.

Some Skeleton Raptors attacked us, but Tigris and Creep were strong enough to dispatch them without any difficulties.

Ooops, I almost forgot to turn the 【Dismantle】skill off.

As usual, I began my hunt in the west.

Unexpectedly, we ran into some Skeleton Raptors there.

Creep played a vital part in dispatching them.

He dives into their eye sockets and destroys them from the inside by bursting out of their chests.

Do I find that surprising?

A little, but within expected boundaries.

It"s great that there are still so many things capable of surprising me here in this world.

It looks that the haul form today"s hunt will be plentiful, since there are quite a lot of Haunted Mists here today.

I will be taking all of your drops now!

And there is even a Holy Wraith among them!

Good thing that I still have my Rod of Torture with me.

Before the date changed, we managed to kill 3 of them.

It is now past 11:30 PM

The system announcement appeared just I finished taking care of the last swarm of enemies.

《Due to the victory in the recent battle the Monster Summons『Ninetails』has leveled up!》

《Please distribute one bonus point to increase the statistic of your choosing. 》

I made it just in time.

Let"s wrap the hunting up for today.

Ninetails"s VIT has already been raised, so I"ll just add one more point to STR.

Ninetails Red Fox Lv5 → Lv6 (↑ 1)

DEX 10

AGI 20

INT 20

STR 10 (↑ 1)

VIT 10 (↑ 1)

SPI 20

Skills:

Biting Evasion Evacuation Sense Danger MP Recovery Up [slight] light attribute

Ohh, that"s pretty sweet.

It was kinda an accident but it"s good that his VIT value is rising.

This is a good result.

But I cannot forget that I have another match tomorrow.

What should my strategy for it be?

Well, no use fretting about it now. Whatever happens, happens, I guess.

Honestly, I"m afraid I might lose on purpose.

It would be nice if we could have ourselves a normal fight.

No matter what happens, I will fight normally to the bitter end.

Normally, like always.

Protagonist　Keith

Race　Human　Male　Racial Lv15

Job　Grand Summoner Lv1

Bonus Points Remaining 24

Skills

Staff Lv12 Punch Lv9　Kick Lv9　Joint Lock Lv9　Throw Lv9　Evade Lv9　Block Lv9　Summon Magic Lv15　s.p.a.cetime Magic Lv8 Light Magic Lv9 (↑1) 　Wind Magic Lv9　Earth Magic Lv9　Water Magic Lv9 Fire Magic Lv9　Dark Magic Lv9 (↑1) 　Ice Magic Lv7　Lightning Magic Lv7 Tree Magic Lv7 　Dust Magic Lv7　Lava Magic Lv7　Steam Magic Lv7 Alchemy Lv6　Pharmacy Lv5　Gla.s.smaking Lv3　Woodworking Lv6 Synergy Lv11　Appraise Lv11　Identify Lv11　Discern Lv3　Cold Resistance Lv5 Grab Lv9　Horsemanship Lv9 Precise Manipulation Lv11　Jump Lv5 Heat Resistant Lv6　Climb 5　Dual Wield Lv9　Disa.s.sembly Lv7 Physical Reinforcement Lv7　Mental Reinforcement Lv8　　Speedcasting Lv9 Magic Effect Expansion Lv6 Magic Range Expansion Lv6

Equipment　 Staff of Torture ×2　Tonfa of Torture ×2　Capture Rod of Torture ×1  Enraged Pickaxe ×2 Silver Necklace+ ×1 Snow Leopard"s Bagh Nakh ×1 Plains Lion"s Bagh Nakh ×1 Battle Bull"s Leather Armor+ Bracelet of Torture ×1 Rampaging Horse Belt+  Backpack ×1 Item Box ×2

Items:

Survival Knife, Woodworking Tools

t.i.tles:

Old Summoner"s Pupil

Guardian of the Forest

Man of the Middle Path

Spell Archive

Hand to Hand Combat Instructor

Monster Summons:

Volff　Grey Wolf Lv3

Zangetsu　White Horse Lv2

Helix　Fighting Falcon Lv2

Obsidian　Mystic Eye Lv2

Jean　Black Bat Lv2

Jericho　Mud Golem Lv1

Goki　Rakshasa Lv1

Senki　Lesser Ogre Lv1

Rig　Yellow Pudding Lv1

Bunraku　Wood Puppet Lv5

Mumyo　Skeleton Lv6

Ninetails Red Fox Lv5→Lv6 (↑1)

DEX 10

AGI 20

INT 20

STR  10 (↑ 1)

VIT 10 (↑ 1)

SPI 20

Skills:

Biting Evasion Evacuation Sense Danger MP Recovery Up [slight] light attribute

Heather Fairy Lv5

Tigris Tiger Lv4

Creep Viper Lv3