Translator: Charlotte

A new morning had come.
A morning full of ambition.

Something felt wrong though.
But, in another light it really didn"t.

I was planning on summoning a new monster today.
But the only thing I"ve really decided on was that it would be an owl.
I"ve come up with a couple names, but for now let"s just quickly start the game.
I was kind of curious as to Master"s recent behaviour too.

I kind of rushed the login process a bit, so I spent some time arranging the contents of my rucksack and my《Item Box》first.
There were a lot of potions that Master couldn"t deliver, so half the room was filled with bottles.
I quickly finished organising everything, and with nothing better to do, went down to the workshop below. Master wasn"t there. Even the usual Metalskin was nowhere in sight.
Looked like there really was nothing better to do, huh.
Guess I"ll finish my new monster summon.

I quickly got to it.
I pulled up the Monster Summon List and chose the fourth line from the top.
There were other candidates on the list, but without any hesitation, I confirmed the summoning of an owl.

「Summon Monster!」

In the middle of the magic circle on the ground, an owl appeared.
Maybe because I"ve grown a bit stronger, my MP bar didn"t drop as much as it did before.
But even then, it still dropped by about 20%.
When I looked closely at the owl, I noticed it had the same fierce face Helix had.
Its legs were larger and bulkier than Helix"s, and its talons were long and thick.
Looks like they win in terms of sharpness too?
Either way, those talons were some fearsome weapons.
And of course, the most special part, its eyes.
Large and pitch-black, like a bottomless pit.
I came up with a different name on the spot.

Summon Monster
Obsidian　Owl Lv1
DEX　11
AGI　16
INT　19
STR　12
VIT　10
SPI　15

Skills
Peck　Silent Flight　Far Sight　Night Vision　Ambush　Sense Danger

After I finished naming it, it quickly jumped up and flew onto my shoulder.
Its wings had a grey to white colour.
Looking at its status and comparing it to a hawk I realised it was inferior in terms of agility, but higher in terms of all the other stats.
I called up Helix and lined up their statuses.

Summon Monster
Helix　Hawk Lv2
DEX　10
AGI　22
INT　18
STR　11
VIT　10
SPI　12

Skills
Peck　Flight　Far Sight　Wide Area Search　Ambush　Sense Danger

Yeah, there"d be no point to having two of the same bird after all.
Helix in the day, and Obsidian in the night. That way they don"t become redundant. Problem solved.

After playing around a bit with Obsidian, Master, along with Metalskin, walked into the workshop.

「Ohh, A new Summon, huh」

「Yes」

「Very nice, Very nice」

He seemed a little strange yesterday, but it seemed like he was back to normal now.
Was it just my imagination?
Food was the standard, but it was still a delicious breakfast.
I suppose bear meat all the time is too much to ask for.

Anyway, about my new summon monster Obsidian.

I tried comparing owls to hawks and realised that owls were not as good at finding prey.
In exchange, moving around inside the forest became completely painless.

One time he took down a female wild pheasant without any partic.i.p.ation from my part, so I had no complaints about its offensive abilities either.
Or its【Ambush】skill, would be the proper way to say it.
While it was off guard, a single, silent attack from the back.
Being able to take out everything in a single attack would be too much to ask for I guess, but nonetheless, the damage Obsidian could dish out was pretty good.
The forest hunter was on a completely different level.

Even in the plains, Obsidian could stand on my shoulder and spot prey from all around us.
Seemed that even when it was not flying, it could still use its skills excellently.
I learnt that it could also hunt rabbits with no problem.
On horseback, I took out a Horn Rabbit with my rod and with that, my simple job was over.
I realised that my prey haul was lower than when I hunted with Helix, but it would still be enough either way.
I got indigestion from eating too much yesterday anyway.

《【Horsemanship】Level Up!》
《【Precise Manipulation】Level Up!》

Right before arriving in Remut, I leveled up some skills.
Hmm…
【Precise Manipulation】was supposed to be a skill for controlling the reins of a horse better, but I wonder if it would really make a difference?
Especially when I"m already using【Physical Enchant: Aqua】 to raise my DEX.
My【Horsemanship】skill went up too. I wonder if I would I get better at fighting on horseback, if I combined all of these.
I"ll test it out later.

As usual, I stopped by the adventurer"s guild to drop off a potion delivery.
But today"s atmosphere was a little different from yesterday.
There was a very no-nonsense att.i.tude and the usually very upfront and energetic staff members looked stressed out.
Something happen?
I couldn"t see the guild leader anywhere.

「Let"s check your quest, Keith」

「Yes please」

I got my quest status checked by the usual middle-aged staff member.
The potion delivery request asked for at least 60 bottles, and I had 87.
I had more than required in case some failed the quality check, but it seemed that all my potions pa.s.sed.

As usual, the calculations were done very quickly, and I received the money in a small bag.
I checked the contents. 26 100 Dyn coins and one 10 Dyn coin.
2610 Dyns meant that each potion sold for 30 Dyn…

That"s more than last time.
I wonder how much they"re selling them for to the players…

《Quest Clear!》
《5 Bonus Points and 4 Extra Rating Points awarded! You now have 18 Points!》

「About the next quest…」

「I"ll accept it」

「No that"s not it, we"re incredibly sorry, but we don"t have any more potion quests for you」

「Huh?」

「You see… We"re out of empty bottles」

I didn"t expect that.

「I mean, there are bottles, but we would have to buy them off of Remut"s pharmacy…」

「Hmm… Are finances that tight?」

「Yes, they are. Although we have requested a production increase from the gla.s.smaker」

「I wonder if they"ll make it on time」

「I"m sure they will. Our deepest apologies to you too, Mr. Aurnier」

Master b.u.t.ted in on our conversation.
The staff member was being nothing but apologetic.
Even though from our standpoint, it"s not like potion making was Master"s main way of making a living.
Suppose potion making was Master"s livelihood, this would indeed be quite the disaster.

「Don"t worry about it, it"s not your fault. What isn"t there, isn"t there. There"s nothing we can do.」

I looked over at Master"s face. I couldn"t figure out what he was thinking.
It was kind of scary.

「Keith… Don"t worry about me for today and enjoy yourself. Just make sure you return for dinner」

「Yes, Master. Should I do some collecting today?」

「Hmm… It"s not like we have any bottles」

Fair point.
Seems even Master won"t make any unreasonable demands.
Thinking about it made me both happy and sad in a way. A complicated feeling.
Anyway, I wonder what I should do for the rest of today.
There"s still some time until noon, so I won"t need to worry about food.

When I left my room, the door to the guild leader"s room opened at the same time. Lugran stepped out and looked at me.
A quick nod as a greeting and we pa.s.sed each other.
I wonder if something happened in that room… Somehow just imagining it gave me a bad feeling.
I should stop thinking about it.

Next to the entrance of the guild, a request notice board was put up on the wall. I walked up to it and looked at the available quests.
On a simple piece of parchment paper an easy-looking request was written and pasted on the board.
But when I examined the request on a virtual window, I discovered something rather difficult.
I lumped the quests together and using a sorting system displayed them all in another window.
There were all kinds of quests there, so I had to search around before I found anything nice.
I had enough money to live on for a while.
And it didn"t look like there are any requests for urgent help.
No quests where I could particularly use and train my skills either.
And no quests that were particularly interesting too…
But there was one quest that caught my eye.

I took the parchment off the wall and headed to the counter.

「Would you like to accept this quest?」

While holding on to Zangetsu"s reins, I walked toward the place the guild staff told me to go.
The destination was a street in an older-looking block of the city. Definitely older than the Adventurer"s Guild.
When I got there, I was surrounded by the hustle and bustle of the place.
So it was a craftsman"s street.
Blacksmiths, stonemasons, carpenters, and many other kinds of workmen were working livelily in their workshops lined along the street.
I knocked on the door of one of those houses.
It was the gla.s.smaker"s workshop.

「Excuse me, I"m from the adventurer"s guild. I"m here to complete this quest」

I spoke to the middle aged gla.s.smaker. He was a very tall and muscular man.
The yellow marker showed that he was an NPC.
He really gave off a warrior vibe. Could easily pa.s.s for a Fighter.

「Oh! I"d love to welcome you, but even for beginners, I talk business. Is that alright?」

「Yes」

「That so? Alright hand me the paper」

I gave him the referral I got from the adventurer"s guild.
The gla.s.smaker glanced at the sheet once, then looked up to examine me all over.

「Hmm… Well, It"ll work out somehow. First let"s test your mettle」

I suppose it"s alright to be quick about things, but he seemed like one to dodge formalities.
I wonder how that personality translated to gla.s.smaking.
Inside the workshop, I saw some men and women were there, working on their own things. They didn"t get distracted by the stranger entering the room.
Wait.
Looked like there was one other player.
He had a green marker and was the only one to stop his work and look at me.
When I met his look, he quickly avoided my gaze and got back to work.
In any case, having another player here put me at ease.

「There"s a post in the back where you can tie and park your horse. Do me a favour and don"t let the horse in the workshop」

「Ok」

Oh well.
I"ll have Zangetsu and Obsidian wait for a bit.
They"ll protect each other and if anything happens, they"ll tell me so it"ll be alright.

I tied Zangetsu to the post and entered the workshop.
It seems the gla.s.smaker I talked to earlier was the veteran here.
When the head wasn"t here, he would be in charge. That kind of responsibility.
I used【Identify】on him.

Gla.s.smaker Nils　Lv.???
Gla.s.swork master

Ooh, looked like quite an impressive job.
A level above Gla.s.sworker?

「Well why don"t you show me what you can do. Try and imitate this」

While saying that, Nils pulled out a thin gla.s.s pipe.
He was wearing working gloves on both hands.
He moved to the bellows and used them to push air into a something that looked like a brazier
He pushed the rocks surrounding the flame closer together.
The fire became more concentrated and flared up like a banner.

And into the flame he casually stuck the centre of the gla.s.s pipe to heat.
After a while the heated bit of the pipe began to glow red.
And…
Separate and extend both hands.
The centre of the gla.s.s pipe became thinner and longer.
And after it"s elongated a bit, remove from the fire.
The gla.s.s pipe quickly cooled down. He used a file and broke the weakened centre, splitting the pipe into two.
In the end, he ended up with two pipes with sharpened tips. Kind of like two gla.s.s pencils.
If you stuck a balloon on the blunt side, it would look like a dropper.
A little longer and it looked like you could use it as a pipette.

「You saw that?」

「Yes」

「I"ll show you one more time. Then you try」

After saying that, Nils repeated the process once again.
I realised it was very hands-on and accurate work. You really needed to have good control of your hands for this.
A pretty tough hurdle.

In a whispering voice, I used【Physical Enchant: Aqua】.
I also raised my base DEX stat.
I checked my stats and saw that it went up by two points.
Well, it"s better than nothing.

「Great, now you try」

「Alright」

"Just a matter of watching and learning," I reminded myself, and in general tried to replicate his technique.
I ended up with a similar shape I guess, but it was obviously bent.
Just in case, I"ll【Appraise】it.

【Tool】Dropper (Small)　Grade D　Rarity 1
Used to separate small amounts of liquids into drops.
No gradations are engraved yet. The vacuum bulb is also missing.

Grade D.
A failure no matter how you slice it.

「Oh, managed to get the shape on your first try!」

「Huh…」

「Well, let me check it out. Do another one」

This time I tried doing it slower and more accurately.
It still ended up a little bent though.
But still alright if you compare it to my first piece.
Using 【Appraise】on it gave me a Grade D+.
Unfortunate.

「Well it looks alright, get started on your next one」

Wait a minute, wasn"t that evaluation a little too quick?
I have no self-confidence, and no skills. Was that really alright?

「Don"t make that face. Skill comes with experience」

Yeah.
I have that policy too but aren"t you going too quickly on the evaluation process?

Inside a workshop, there"s a trait that"s pretty easy to recognise.
The heat.
With forges here and there it"s really unavoidable.
I tried to take off as much of my equipment as I could.
I was shirtless too.
And next to the workbenches were bottles, pots, and cups filled with water.
The workmen had to stay hydrated.
Some of them had plates of salt too, which they would lick from time to time.
They said it"s because if they didn"t, the loss of minerals in their sweat would affect their health.

Of course, everyone was sweating like there was no tomorrow, but you could see how everyone was making sure not to get it on the gla.s.s.
But the heat was stifling, and I had no confidence that I could maintain my common sense.
This is bad… I didn"t expect gla.s.smaking to be this extreme.

I wondered if there was some kind of countermeasure I had against the heat.
I had an idea in mind. One support skill.
I already had【Cold Resistance】as a support skill.
Following that logic, there should be a skill called【Heat Resistance】somewhere right?
I pulled up a list of the skills I could learn and hey presto, it was there.
【Heat Resistance】. Required two points to learn.
I quickly learnt and activated it.

A lot more comfortable.
Can"t really describe it, but that"s the kind of feeling I had.

Nils quickly showed me how to create potion bottles.
As an example, he did the process three times.
And then it was time for practice.

The process was more or less as follows:

1. Melt some wood ash, natural trona, and quartz together to form molten gla.s.s.
2. Pour a suitable amount of molten gla.s.s into a mould.
3. Blow into a long, thin, straw-shaped metal tube to create the shape.
4. After it"s cooled down a bit, break the shape off and let cool.

That"s it.
That"s all, nothing more than that.
But still very difficult.

I put out five ranging from Grade D- to D. All of them had dents.
But Nils was very kind to me.
"They"re not useless," he said.
At some point the【Gla.s.smaking】skill became available to learn.
I quickly learnt and activated it.
It cost me five bonus points but I didn"t regret it one bit.

Another try.
At some point the effect faded so I used【Physical Enchant: Aqua】again and got to it.
I did my best, now to see the results…
Grade D+
Hmm… Still a few depressions here and there.

「Hey, you"re improving at quite a rate!」

I"m being consoled too.
This NPC really liked to encourage his underlings, huh.

Protagonist　Keith
Race　Human　Male　Racial Lv4
Job　Summoner Lv3
Bonus Points Remaining 11

Skill Sets:
Staff Lv3　Punch Lv2　Kick Lv2　Joint Lock Lv2　Throw Lv1　Evade Lv2　Block Lv2　Summon Magic Lv4
Light Magic Lv2　Wind Magic Lv2　Earth Magic Lv2　Water Magic Lv2　Alchemy Lv3　Pharmacy Lv2　Gla.s.smaking Lv1（New! ）
Cooperation Lv3　Appraise Lv3　Identify Lv3　Cold Resistance Lv2　Grab Lv2　Horsemanship Lv2（↑1）　Precise Manipulation Lv2（↑1）　Jump Lv1　Heat Resistance Lv1（New! ）

Equipment:
Beginner"s Rod　Wild Rabbit Breastplate+ Series　Snow Ape Armguard　Cloth Shoes Rucksack　Item Box x2

Items:
Survival Knife

Monster Summons:
Volff　Wolf Lv3 (Asleep)
Zangetsu　Horse Lv2
Helix　Hawk Lv2 (Asleep)
Obsidian　Owl Lv1（New! ）

DEX　11
AGI　16
INT　19
STR　12
VIT　10
SPI　15