Translator: Charlotte

Potion brewing.
It was something I definitely wanted to do before I logged off today, but I also wanted to keep potion quality in mind.
Quality was the name of the game.
But before that, an experiment.

I pulled up my alchemy list in another window.
I really liked【Quick Recreate】, but maybe because of that, I hadn"t been using all the other alchemy skills.
It was the perfect opportunity to try out some new skills.
There wasn"t much time left in the day, but I still wanted to try them out anyway.

Well, before any of that.
I checked the potion brewing recipe.

1. Grind Healgra.s.s in a mortar
2. Mix with water
3. Use a filter paper to extract the solid material
4. Boil the filtrate for about five minutes
5. Let cool to room temperature
6. Pour the liquid into a guild-specified bottle.

Since I was trying to make better potions, I decided to first use the standard method, just with the better ingredients I picked up earlier and see how that would go.
I used five pieces of Healgra.s.s and made enough for 10 bottles.
Most of them were Grade C, but there was one potion with a Grade C+.

Now that I had my control, I could freely test out any alchemy skill I liked.

First off, 【Grind】.
The first step was grinding Healgra.s.s in a mortar.
I tried using【Grind】instead.
I placed the Healgra.s.s in a mortar and placed my hand over the pile. I used【Grind】.
My MP went down by a little, and the five pieces of Healgra.s.s turned into a fine powder.

Great, the next step was…
Dissolve the powder in water. I scooped the powder into a jar of water.

Then filter.
I put my hands over the solution and used【Filter】.
A powdery substance started acc.u.mulating on top of my hands.
Woah, I almost dropped some of it back into the jar.
I decided to keep the used powder.

I did the rest without using any alchemy skills.
Well…
Almost all the potions were Grade C+.
And one of the potions reached a Grade B-.

Oh! A very nice result.
I got a little too excited and tried again with 10 pieces of Healgra.s.s.
This time I used【Physical Enchant: Aqua】to boost my DEX stat too.
I wanted to see what would happen if I used both magic and alchemy.

No change.
When I thought about it again, I realised most of the steps I would a.s.sociate with the DEX stat were replaced by alchemy skills. There was no point in boosting my DEX stat anymore.
That was pretty dumb.

Anyway, with that, I prepared enough potions for the next day.

I guess that was a really silly mistake, but let"s move on.
Let"s try and make a Recovery Pill.

【Recovery Item】Recovery Pill　Regenerate [Slight]　Grade B+　Rarity 3+　Weight 0+
Pills that recover HP continually over time. Lasts for 10 minutes.
Has the same effect as the Regenerate spell.
※Cannot be used repeatedly. Item cooldown is 20 minutes.

I somehow managed to make one of pretty good quality.
I thought about what might have caused it.
The grade B+, that is.
I had【Physical Enchant: Aqua】on, but I didn"t think it would have that big of an effect on the product…

Hmm…
Some more tests were necessary.

But I decided to leave that for later.
Onto the topic of the Player Killers.
It was already pretty late, but I decided to send a warning to Adele and Irina.
It didn"t have to be a long message.
I included the screenshot of the【Identify】result too.
Although he would probably put on his disguise again once he resp.a.w.ned.

After sending the message, I checked out the forums.
I quickly found a thread t.i.tled, "PK encounter reports".
For some reason everyone was posting anonymously.

Hmm?
Ah, that made sense.
It was probably to make sure the Player Killers you reported wouldn"t come back to hunt you down.
Although in my case, they knew where I lived and I killed one of them too. I didn"t really have any need for subtlety.
It wasn"t a very lively thread to begin with, there weren"t many responses to the PK reports.
No, there weren"t that many PK reports to begin with.
But the few posts that were there seemed to followed some sort of format. I wrote down my experiences following the format.

I arranged my inventory in preparation for the next day and went to my room on the second floor.
I recalled Volff and the others and took off all of my equipment before slipping into my bed.
I had a busy day ahead of me. I was going to return to Remut.
I had one last thought about how I would finally get to use Zangetsu and Helix again, before logging out.

When I logged in, the view outside my window was pitch black.
Strange.
I looked out the window.
It was raining.
Terrible timing for rain.

For the time being, I sent Adele and Irina a message.
I told Fiona and Saki I was still going to meet them in Remut.

Time to get going.
When I went down the stairs, I ran into Metalskin cleaning.
I gave him a bow of greeting. He politely returned it.
The way he bowed down, even the angle was perfect.
He was trained in manners too.
It was kind of scary.

Even in the rain, the horse Zangetsu was perfect for getting around.
But the same wasn"t true for the hawk Helix.
I was thinking about if I should summon another Summon Monster. After thinking about it for a while, I summoned the owl Obsidian.
The reasoning was simple. I didn"t summon him in the forest maze.

Preparations complete.
I put on a raincoat and got on Zangetsu.

The raincoat felt a little fluffy on the sides.
I lied, it wasn"t the raincoat. It was just Helix and Obsidian, perching on my shoulders trying to dodge the rain.
Asking them to fly in the rain was too much to ask.

I arrived in Legias.
What a terrible journey.
Legias was a village I would usually just pa.s.s through on the way to Remut, but this time I was grateful for any respite from the rain.
The rain was that strong.

All the monsters we encountered were pa.s.sive.
I even managed to encounter a pa.s.sive Stray Horse.
I ignored it for once.
There was a good chance Zangetsu might get seriously hurt if I took it on.

I felt a lot more refreshed once I arrived at Yuka"s stall.
For one, I now had a tent above my head.
The rain made a droning noise on the tarpaulin.

「Good morning. What an unfortunate weather」

「Good morning. Yeah, this stall"s a lifesaver」

I exchanged greetings with Yuka.
Maybe to take advantage of the rain, Fudo and Rick were changing the items on sale.
Although it didn"t look like it would make a difference, it"s not like anyone was coming anyway.

「Am I being a bother?」

「No, not at all. I"m sure the rain will let up soon」

「Is business going to be okay?」

「Looks like we won"t be doing any teppanyaki dishes today… But we still have stew at least」

She handed me some kind of dish.
Ratatouille?
Olive oil was a pretty popular ingredient in this world, so I was pretty surprised to get a dish that didn"t use it.
I ate it along with two pieces of lightly baked baguette.
Oh…
That was delicious.
It was only after I finished eating that I realised I forgot to use【Appraise】on it.
Well, what"s important is that it was delicious.

Looked like Fudo and Rick were actually cleaning up.
After loading all the merchandise onto a wagon, they joined us for breakfast.
I killed some time talking to them. In the middle of our conversation, three figures entered through the back of the stall. They were all wearing raincoats.
They were Adele, Irina, and Len-Len.

「「「Good morning」」」

We exchanged greetings with the three of them.
While they were eating their breakfast, I figured it was the perfect opportunity to confirm something.

「Hey, even if the rain doesn"t let up we"re still going to Remut, alright?」

「Ah…」

「But the rain…」

The two of them put on melancholic expressions.
Hey, it could be worse, you could be the owners of a stall that became completely deserted because of the rain.
Adventurers are beings that go out to hunt no matter the weather.

「Keith, about your PK encounter.」

「Yeah?」

「I saw your post. Apparently, they were there in the beta phase too, so I wasn"t really surprised. I thought it was more-or-less a matter of time, really」

「Really? How were they during the beta phase?」

「I encountered them thrice during the beta. I managed to get away only twice, the other time I was seriously had」

「What happened? Did you lose anything?」

「Ah, you don"t know? Well, Fiona did tell me to teach you, so…」

「That"d be great」

Hey.
Looked like it was time to humble myself and learn.

I sat down and received a little lecture from everyone.
Adele and Irina joined in too. They learnt so quickly, I was starting to forget who was the older one among us.

In the short time we had, I grasped the following points pretty well:

1. Upon a successful PK, the killer can take items and a random amount of money from the victim.

2. The number of items the killer can steal is based on their level, as well as how successful the PK act is.

3. It"s just a rumour, but apparently there is a skill that allows you to steal a specific item from a player too.

4. The skill【Safeguard】lowers the chance of items being stolen.

5. In the beta phase, all players killed by PK characters had【Safeguard】added to their available support skills.

6. If a PK attempt fails, the PK character will lose items and money.

7. PK attempt failure usually results in death. You can release PK characters, but killing them is standard procedure.

8. There was a time during the beta phase when revenge hunts against PK characters were common. While that"s not so common anymore, the developers" att.i.tude towards PK is still one of non-intervention.

9. PK is a crime in town and village areas, and surrounding NPCs will become hostile if you are caught attempting PK in those areas.

Oh dear.
What a scary list.

「Did you see what I posted in the forums?」

「Yes, that was a good idea, I think. We"ll all be safer the more information we have.」

「Hmm, you think so? You think they"ll retaliate though?」

「Well, it"s not out of the question… But again, there aren"t any real places safe from PK.」

「So it"s not something worth excessively worrying about, huh.」

「Of course, the risk is a lot lower when you have friends with you.」

Adele"s tone was serious.
Yeah.
It was kind of given that you would go solo if you were a Summoner.
I got a little more nervous.

But from my experience, most Summon Monsters had some sort of ability to detect danger.
It would give me an edge over them should I ever encounter them again.

I paid for my breakfast and left the stall.
Maybe because of the rain, Adele and Irina only summoned one Summon Monster each.
The horse Machan and the snake Toggle.
Well, as long as we could stay moving, that would be fine.
While she was equipping the saddle, Adele repeatedly looked up at the sky and the gloomy weather.

I felt a little bit wary.
But it wasn"t all bad.
At least we wouldn"t get attacked by monsters as often.

Although, as an adventurer, ideally you should be complaining about missing experience points from losing the chance to kill some monsters.
Something to think about.

As expected, due to the heavy rain, we weren"t attacked by any monsters.
Without any interruptions, we arrived in Remut.
The number of parties we ran into on the way was a lot lower too.
Well, it was raining pretty heavily.

There wasn"t a lot of pedestrian traffic in Remut.
It may have been because of the weather, but Remut had a sort of gloomy atmosphere to it.
Well, that wasn"t really important. I had to look for Fiona"s stall.

It was unexpectedly crowded in her stall.
From their markers, I could tell they were mostly NPCs, but there were a few players too.
The NPCs were mostly looking for chicken or mutton.
The players were mostly looking for arrows.
I felt like she would sell anything that could sell.

Mio"s stall was looking pretty good too.
Even though it was raining.
A lot of players were looking for Striped Wild Rabbit Meat dishes.
Especially those meatball skewers.
The ones that had a strengthening effect.
That was probably what the players were looking for.
I saw some players store the skewers for later.

「「Yo!」」

「Yo!」

Mio"s greeting style was infecting Adele and Irina.
Although I"d take that over Reina"s greetings any day.

「You want breakfast?」

「We ate breakfast at Yuka"s place.」

「Muu…」

I gave her a puzzled look. Weren"t they in the same Player"s Guild?
Well, it didn"t look like compet.i.tion. Looked like she just wanted to show off a bit.

「Oh, I"ve been waiting for you.」

「Thanks, I"ve come to pick up the goods.」

Saki put the boots on a table.
She pulled out a saddle too.

【Equipment: Saddle】Wild Horse Saddle　Grade C+　Rarity 3　Weight 3　Durability 120
A saddle made from Wild Horse Hide. The skin is soft and comfortable for riding. The padding can be easily exchanged.
※The【Horsemanship】skill gains +1 Judgement. Advantages of being on horseback increase. Disadvantages of being on horseback decrease.

I used【Appraise】on it. Looked like it was just like the one I got earlier.
The boots were just like the ones in the message too.

I equipped it on Zangetsu.
I wouldn"t get to use it right away, but I was looking forward to it.

Adele and Irina tried on the boots too.

「How are they?」

「They feel nice.」

「Woah!」

Adele let out a sound of wonder while she jumped up and down in the boots.
Well, she had been looking forward to those for a long time.

「Leather armour will take a little longer I"m afraid. Around one more day.」

「I"m looking forward to it!」

「That"s great.」

「Ah, throw in leather helmets too, alright?」

「「Huh?」」

「It won"t be that much of a bother to put it on right? It"s good to be safe」

「But…」

「Sure, I think I measured you guys" head sizes too last time」

Hey.
Nicely done, Saki.

「Oh! I"ve got something for you guys.」

I almost forgot.
I took out all the pheasant eggs and lined them up on the table.

「Very nice.」

「Hmm…」

「I"ve heard the pheasants only make their nests pretty deep in the forest… So you"ve gone that far…」

「Well, yeah.」

「Is it just me or does this feel like the beginning of some sort of big plan, a conspiracy perhaps?」

「It"s just a coincidence, you shouldn"t overthink it.」

「And you encountered PK players on the way back, too.」

「That was probably a coincidence too.」

I wasn"t aiming for pheasant eggs.
I just happened to get them while I was training my tree-climbing.

「Sorry to keep you waiting.」

Fiona left customer service to Reina and went over to talk to me.
Looked like she was happy about something.

「Last night we all somehow managed to clear the spirit event.」

「Congratulations!」

「But the monsters we fought were different.」

「Really?」

「Although the t.i.tles we got were similar. Mio and me got the t.i.tle『Agent of Order』」

「Hey, that"s nice. I got 『Man of the Middle Path』」I replied.

「Reina and Saki got『Man of Order』」

「A lot of variation, huh」

「Following the logic, there would be t.i.tles like『Man of Freedom』or『Agent of Freedom』too」

「Yeah」

「Middle Path… Where"s that come from? I"ve never heard of that.」

Is that so…
A weather vane, always controlled by the surrounding wind.
A bat, freely flying through the night. 1
It may have been a bit noncommittal of me, and I wasn"t saying that was a good thing. But I just thought that the middle ground was the more comfortable option.
There were just a lot of good points on both sides, after all.

「Oh! About that dangerous-sounding mushroom you got. They weren"t so sure, but I got some information」

「They weren"t sure? What do you mean?」

「According to a Pharmacist I talked to, it"s an item for MP recovery」

Is that so…
The gears in my head started turning. Mana potions were pretty expensive.
And the only place you could get them was at the Adventurer"s Guild too.
And when I say "pretty expensive", I mean really expensive. It was a lot cheaper to just spend a night at an inn to recover your MP.

「Does that mean we can make our own mana potions out of this?」

「If you figure out a way to cultivate it, I guess.」

「I just hope the Adventurer"s Guild won"t come after me if I do that.」

「Yeah, but definitely something to think about.」

「By the way, how"d the pharmacists get these mushrooms in the first place?」

「They said you could only get those from the port town, and even then they were extremely rare.」

Is that so…
A strange atmosphere surrounded us. It had a sort of smell to it…
The smell of crime?

「Pharmacists have a pretty close-knit web. Some of them are probably growing these in secret.」

「Is that so? Are these Magic Mushrooms in their field of expertise?」

「100%.」

「Ah. I feel like I"ve gone and gotten myself involved in something dangerous.」

「You can say that again. I"ve heard rumours from some Alchemists and Pharmacists that they"ve been used as poison too.」

「Huh. I feel like a dangerous criminal now, holding a dangerous mushroom.」

It was a believable rumour.
Medicine and poison were two sides of the same coin in a sense, after all.
This was something on an entirely different level than the gra.s.s I"d been collecting near Master"s house.

Well, not really.
There was Paingra.s.s.
And some parts of Healgra.s.s, if isolated, could be poisonous.
In short, it all depended on what your goal was. All these plants and fungi were just tools.

「Anyway, we"re all going to Legias the day after tomorrow. Moving in groups is important with all these PK characters running loose.」

「Well, they"ve been running loose since the first day though.」

「Hey Fiona, I"m alright with it, but Reina looks like she wants to get going as soon as possible.」

「Saki doesn"t want to rush the leather armour, Mio. And I"m waiting for a package from the port towns too.」

「A package? In this weather?」

「Who knows? It might arrive today.」

「Well, progressing in the game isn"t production job territory anyway. Reina can wait a bit I guess.」

Ah, speak of the devil.

「My shift is over! I"m done! Switch!」

「Don"t worry about it Fiona, I"ll do it」

Saki switched places with Reina. She called out to me the moment she sat down.

「I"m imagining the flashy battle you must"ve had with the PK characters!」

「Flashy?」

「It"s the lifeblood of this game! It"s what makes this game fun!」

Huh… Well, I guess you could think about it that way.

「Well, you made it out alive, that"s what"s important. But personally…」

Fiona had a glint in her eye. It sent shivers up my spine.
She continued her sentence in a low voice.

「…I really don"t want to go through that PK hunting experience ever again, after what happened to me last time…」

「Fi- Fiona! Don"t say things like that!」

「I"m joking.」

「It didn"t sound like a joke!」

Yeah.
It didn"t sound like a joke at all.

「But anyway, if you like fighting them so much, there were quite a few PK character kill requests in the beta phase, although looks like that"s fallen out of fashion.」

「Maybe there were some system changes since then!」

「Well for now, it doesn"t look like that"s the case.」

「In the first place, it"s not like PK is something that happens every day, we"re going to be fine.」

「Letting your guard down is bad you know, Mio.」

Fiona whispered to Mio in a threatening tone. She was as scary as ever.
Mio looked actually scared.

「Let"s change the topic, it"s not a very pleasant topic.」

「Ye- Yeah let"s do that!」

「Well Keith, should we take care of the calculations?」

Saki switched with Reina again.
Reina moved to take care of business.
Adele and Irina happened to be there, so she started talking to them.
It sounded pretty intense.
Reina was mainly talking to Adele, but Irina also provided some well-timed input from time to time too.
I wonder what they were talking about.

「Thanks as always. Saki can get some nice levels with this too.」

「Likewise.」

I stood up to stretch after we settled everything.
Adele and Reina were still talking.
I met Irina"s eye and signaled her to meet me outside with Adele.

「You have something to do at the Adventurer"s Guild?」

「Well, sort of.」

I replied with a non-answer and parked Zangetsu outside the guild.
There was some shelter from the rain, but some rain would still drip onto Zangetsu.
Sorry, endure it for a while, okay?

I took Adele and Irina with me to the guild, but the place seemed pretty deserted.
There"s no way the place was closed because of rain, right?

I walked up to a counter and saw the usual middle-aged male guild staff. I asked him to put me through to the Guild Leader.

「Ah, right now? Looks like he"s got visitors at the moment」

「That"s alright then, should I come back in a while?」

「No, no, this is a great opportunity. I"ll take you to the Guild Leader"s room, I was thinking of finishing this too.」

「Ha?」

I had no idea what he was talking about.
But his face was dead serious.

Urged on by him, I arrived in front of the Guild Leader"s room.
The staff member knocked on the door, and without waiting for a response, pushed the door open.

I could faintly pick up the sound of some sort of conversation.

Protagonist　Keith
Race　Human　Male　Racial Lv6
Job　Summoner Lv5
Bonus Points Remaining: 16

Skill Sets:
Staff Lv4　Punch Lv3　Kick Lv3　Joint Lock Lv3　Throw Lv3　Evade Lv3　Block Lv3　Summon Magic Lv6
Light Magic Lv3　Wind Magic Lv4　Earth Magic Lv3　Water Magic Lv3　Fire Magic Lv2　Dark Magic Lv2
Alchemy Lv3　Pharmacy Lv3　Gla.s.smaking Lv3
Cooperation Lv5　Appraise Lv5　Identify Lv5　Discern Lv1　Cold Resistance Lv2　Grab Lv4　Horsemanship Lv4　Precise Manipulation Lv4　Jump Lv1　Heat Resistance Lv3　Climb Lv1

Equipment:
Kaya Wood Rod　Wild Rabbit Breastplate+ Series　Snow Ape Armguard　Wild Horse Boots+　Snow Ape Leather Helmet　Rucksack　Item Box x2

Items:
Survival Knife

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

Monster Summons:
Volff　Wolf Lv5
Zangetsu　Horse Lv3（Asleep）
Helix　Hawk Lv3
Obsidian　Owl Lv3
Jean　Bat Lv3（Asleep）
Jericho　Wood Golem Lv2（Asleep）

Companions:
Adele and Machan
Irina and Toggle