Translator: Charlotte Editor: Weasalopes
Keeping the watchtower at the edge of the forest in my view, I went on the road towards Legias.
I started looking for Stray Horses the same way I did the day before.
Of course, I used【Physical Enchant: Aqua】to raise my base DEX stat.
I also used【Physical Enchant: Dark】to increase my INT stat to do more damage through magical attacks.
Now for the main part of the operation.
I used 【Physical Enchant: Earth】to raise Zangetsu"s VIT stat.
I used 【Physical Enchant: Wind】to increase Zangetsu"s mobility.
With that, we would be able to fight pretty well.
I also had Helix and Obsidian with me.
I used【Physical Enchant: Fire】on both of them to increase their STR stats.
I could count on them to do a lot of damage.
I cast a lot of spells, but I"m sure the MP would pay off.
Stray Horses were often defeated by a joint lock to immobilise them before a stab to a vital organ, but I was fighting them on horseback.
How was it different?
All I had to do was use a spell to stop it from moving.
Well, it was a very Summoner-like fighting style…
But it made me feel a little lonely.
I found Stray Horses at a nice pace.
Using【Call Monster】, three of them appeared one after another.
I took down all three of them and an info screen appeared.
《Summon Monster『Zangetsu』Level Up!》
《Please add 1 point to a desired stat.》
Zangetsu finally levelled up again.
The stat that went up during the level-up was AGI.
I decided to put a point into STR.
Summon Monster Zangetsu Horse Lv3→Lv4（↑1）
DEX 7
AGI 21（↑1）
INT 7
STR 21（↑1）
VIT 23
SPI 7
Skills:
Trample Dash Endurance Run Wild Gallop Stampede Kick
Zangetsu was getting stronger.
Very nice.
I kept looking for the next Stray Horse.
I didn"t need to attack it using spells that time.
Zangetsu rammed into it, toppling it over before trampling it.
A deadly combo.
Helix and Obsidian joined in too, and the Stray Horse"s HP bar dropped to zero in no time.
It was just a single level, but Zangetsu felt a lot stronger.
《【Earth Magic】Level Up!》
《Summon Monster 『Helix』 Level Up!》
《Please add 1 point to a desired stat.》
Helix levelled up a short time after Zangetsu did.
The stat that went up during the level-up was STR.
I chose to raise the DEX stat.
Summon Monster Helix Hawk Lv3→Lv4（↑1）
DEX 11（↑1）
AGI 22
INT 19
STR 12（↑1）
VIT 11
SPI 12
Skills:
Peck Flight Far Sight Wide Area Search Ambush Sense Danger
Nice.
I liked nice numbers, but sometimes having them too flat didn"t look nice either.
I was aiming to get a straight line of 12s.
It was already past 2 pm.
I thought about using【Call Monster】again, but…
A Stray Horse came running over anyway.
I had just finished recasting all the strengthening spells.
The timing was perfect.
I got ready for another fight.
Strange.
The monster felt strange.
I noticed soon after the fight started.
Zangetsu"s ram attack was easily deflected.
Its HP bar didn"t go down by very much at all.
It went down by less than 10%.
Zangetsu, on the other hand, took about 20% of damage.
Why?
No… Could it be…
I used【Identify】and confirmed my suspicions.
Why do the strong ones only come when I forget to【Identify】?
Rabid Horse Lv.4
Monster Enemy Target Active・Enraged
It wasn"t a Stray Horse.
It was clearly different.
And it may have just been my imagination, but I felt like I saw its HP bar start to crawl back up.
In any case, it was going to be another long fight.
My MP bar was sitting at around half due to all of the fighting I had been doing.
I was glad I used potions instead of MP to recover my HP.
I had a little more headroom with spells that way.
But I really couldn"t afford a long battle.
At some point, its HP bar had gone back to full.
I had to settle it as quickly as I could.
「Physical Enchant: Fire!」
I used a spell on Zangetsu.
It was to let Zangetsu do more damage when she rammed into the Rabid Horse.
Paying no attention to Helix and Obsidian, the Rabid Horse ran at Zangetsu.
But Zangetsu wasn"t deflected that time.
The amount of damage they took looked to be about the same… No, Zangetsu still took more damage.
I prepared to cast the next spell while I watched the Rabid Horse.
d.a.m.n it.
It didn"t leave me any openings.
At some point, our fight moved to the forest.
I prayed that the Rabid Horse would accidentally hit a tree instead of Zangetsu, and my wish came true. Sort of.
I turned to a loud noise and saw a tree on the brink of falling.
Did the Rabid Horse do that?
It took quite a bit of damage from that though.
I got on Zangetsu and ran on the road towards Legias.
The Rabid Horse ran after us.
It dodged all of the attack spells I threw at it and soon, it was running alongside us, preparing another ram attack.
「Fire Heal!」
Zangetsu"s HP bar went back up to about 90%.
Zangetsu had some natural regeneration too.
Looked like I had no choice but to go for a long fight.
I reversed when we were in front of Legias, and the Rabid Horse did the same.
The Rabid Horse"s HP bar was at about half.
My MP bar was at a little over 20%.
As expected, my MP bar wasn"t doing so good.
I cast【Physical Enchant: Aqua】on myself again.
I used【Physical Enchant: Earth】and【Physical Enchant: Wind】on Zangetsu.
And finally, I used【Dark Heal】to recover Zangetsu"s HP.
I didn"t like to use that spell, but I had no choice.
I was nearing my limit.
I had to end it quickly.
But the Rabid Horse didn"t give me any opportunities.
I had no choice but to attack it and force a gap to open.
「Stone Bullet!」
I used the spell on the Rabid Horse"s head from close range.
Next, Helix and Obsidian swooped down and attacked its head and eyes.
After a moment, Zangetsu rammed into it.
The Rabid Horse finally lost its balance and went off the road, causing it to lose its footing.
It fell down with a loud noise.
But, that wouldn"t be the end.
Zangetsu quickly ran up to the collapsed Rabid Horse.
Zangetsu and Helix attacked it as it was trying to get back up.
A crucial gap opened up.
Zangetsu stomped on its exposed belly.
Those hooves could do a lot of damage.
The Rabid Horse was nearly down.
I got off Zangetsu and approached it.
I held a push dagger in each hand and stuck them both into the Rabid Horse"s throat.
I twisted my fists to do as much damage as possible.
I followed up with an elbow strike to its throat.
Followed by more normal punches.
Once I finally defeated it, a lot of info screens appeared.
《【Punch】Level Up!》
《You have acquired the【Punch】weapon arte【Elbow Strike】!》
《You have acquired the【Punch】weapon arte【Hook】!》
《A skill link has been established! You may now learn the following Magic Skill:【Lightning Magic】.》
《A skill link has been established! You may now learn the following Magic Skill:【Tree Magic】.》
《【Mental Reinforcement】Level Up!》
Wait, what?
Way too many, way too many.
Calm down…
I checked all of different the info screens.
The more information, the better.
I pulled up my stats and my skills in another window.
I copied the contents of both and pasted them in a text file.
Calm down.
I decided to take the Rabid Horse"s item drops first.
【Material】Rabid Horse Cordovan Raw Material Grade C+ Rarity 4 Weight 5
The hide of the hind part of a Rabid Horse. Very smooth and soft texture.
Characterised by a distinctive gloss, it"s a very beautiful and high-cla.s.s item.
Unfortunately, both the quality and rarity are lower than Domesticated Horse Cordovans.
【Material】Rabid Horse Meat Raw Material Grade C+ Rarity 3 Weight 2
The meat of a Rabid Horse. High quality meat with a very smooth texture, but is rather lacking in flavour.
It"s known to be very nutritious.
My troubles only increased.
I had already asked Saki to make new armour, but I managed to get even better skin only a day after.
Ah, but she told me she had other clients to work on before me…
What should I do…
Thinking about it made my head hurt.
I decided to take care of things one at a time.
First, I threw all the items into an《Item Box》.
Stay calm.
Next.
【Lightning Magic】and【Tree Magic】.
Hmm…
Of course, I decided to learn them both.
It was a little too late to worry about having too many different kinds of magic skills.
Both of them took three points to learn.
I quickly learnt and activated【Lightning Magic】.
《You have acquired the t.i.tle【Spell Archive】!》
Um…
What?
I decided to just ignore it for the time being.
I put the new info screen aside and looked at the skill acquisition screen.
I was interested in what skills were in【Lightning Magic】, but I decided to take【Tree Magic】before looking at them.
I learnt and activated【Tree Magic】.
《A skill link has been established! You may now learn the following Support Skill:【Speedcasting】.》
Please.
Please just give me a break.
The more I tried to solve my confusion, the more it grew.
I felt like I heard a dry laughing sound from somewhere.
Someone was laughing…
It was me.
【Speedcasting】appeared on the spell acquisition screen.
It took six bonus points to learn.
I only had nine bonus points left…
Before I knew it, I only had three points left.
Strange… How"d that happen.
Ah. Looked like I went and learnt the skill.
There really was no helping me.
Calm down…
You"re doing great, calm down…
Helix perched on my shoulder and Obsidian was on my left arm.
Zangetsu stood strong beside me.
Thanks. I appreciate it.
Again, just like last time, I pulled up my skills and stats.
I copied and pasted them into another text file.
That way I could view them both simultaneously.
I wanted to calm down a bit, so I started for Legias.
No, I could see the watchtower in the distance.
Master"s house would be closer.
I decided to just go to Master"s house instead.
I got off Zangetsu in front of Master"s house and breathed a deep sigh.
Master"s Magi Owl was perched on top of the house, looking down on me.
Obsidian quickly perched beside it.
As expected, the two owls were on good terms.
On the other hand, Helix stayed on Zangetsu"s saddle and didn"t move a muscle.
The sight kind of calmed me down.
Well.
Where was I…
I pulled up the list of【Lightning Magic】spells in a separate window.
Electrify（Lightning Magic）
Magnetic Compa.s.s（Lightning Magic）
Paralysis（Lightning Magic）
Three different spells. Just like【Ice Magic】.
Looked like there weren"t any enchant spells.
【Electrify】is a close-range lightning attack.
It does some damage, but not a lot of it.
Well, it was still at Lv.1.
【Magnetic Compa.s.s】is a skill that just tells you where north is.
It looked useful.
And the last spell, 【Paralysis】.
A spell that paralyses a target.
It does next to no damage, but it can make a target completely incapable of movement for a while.
It was a useful spell, I could do whatever what I wanted if my enemy couldn"t move.
But its range was extremely short.
It would be a gamble to cast the spell, but well worth it if it succeeded.
Next was【Tree Magic】
Branch Bind（Tree Magic）
Grow（Tree Magic）
Root Snare（Tree Magic）
Another three spells.
And no enchant spells either.
I looked at【Branch Bind】first.
A spell that causes branches to fly out from your palms and bind your target.
The range was pretty small, but I saw that it could do a good amount of damage.
Another spell used to limit your enemy"s movements.
Next, 【Grow】.
A spell that speeds up the growth of a plant. That"s it.
It was a fitting spell for【Tree Magic】…
But I felt like I wouldn"t find any use for it unless I decided to become a farmer in the future.
Last was【Root Snare】.
A spell that causes roots to burst out under your opponent and trip them.
A trap spell, huh.
Looked like something you would use in a slapstick comedy show.
I smiled a little, imagining how I could use the spell.
Although it wouldn"t be funny once I used it in an ambush.
A nice spell.
The range was good too.
Great, next.
I looked at the new t.i.tle I got but there weren"t any explanations.
As usual.
Last was the skill【Speedcasting】.
Just like the name suggested, it was a Support Skill that sped up the casting process.
The higher the level, the less time it would take to prepare a spell.
Looked useful.
It would give me a great edge.
But…
I doubted I could get many level-ups on the skill before the tournament.
I tackled the big question. Why was I getting so many new, different magic skills? And the t.i.tle? And the Support Skill【Speedcasting】?
I didn"t really know how I managed to get【Ice Magic】either.
I had a hunch that it had something to do with reaching Lv.4 on the elemental magic skills.
But something still didn"t feel right.
The timing was off.
I decided to put my thoughts down on paper.
Ice Magic = Water Magic Lv.4 + Wind Magic Lv.4 + ???
Lightning Magic = Wind Magic Lv.4 + Earth Magic Lv.4 + ???
Tree Magic + Water Magic Lv.4 + Earth Magic Lv.4 + ???
Right… It looked like there was some other condition that I didn"t know.
And I hadn"t even gotten started on the t.i.tle or【Speedcasting】.
Something was off…
I was sure there were others.
Once my【Fire Magic】reached Lv.4, I was sure I would get a repeat of this mess.
Three more?
It looked like there were still three I could get.
No, I was sure of it.
It would take me a total of nine points to learn them all.
Huh…
Well, it was a little too late to start complaining.
I went to the bas.e.m.e.nt in Master"s house.
I wanted to make myself some equipment.
Having a rod would be really useful.
The fight with the Rabid Horse earlier proved that to me.
I cut up the lumber I bought earlier into a rod-like shape.
I finished the process in about 10 minutes.
I trimmed the length.
52 inches. A usable length.
Now I just had to do some more minor modifications.
I used【Physical Enchant: Aqua】to raise my DEX stat.
My MP bar was at about 20%, but it wasn"t the time to be cheap.
I wanted to make it as smooth and easy to grip as possible.
There would be no compromises.
I used my hands to find any bad spots.
I fixed them using a file.
Oops.
The effects of【Physical Enchant: Aqua】faded. I quickly recast it.
I wanted to make sure the result was great.
When I finally finished it, this was the result.
【Weapon: Staff】Kaya Wood Rod Grade C Rarity 2
AP+2 M・AP+3 Power 2 Weight 1 Durability 80
A weapon that can be used to deal physical damage or cast spells.
It has some elasticity and won"t slip out of a hand. Easy to use.
An item with a beautiful texture.
It didn"t look as good as the one Reina made me.
Its durability value was rather low too.
Huh. I didn"t expect such variation in what were essentially just sticks.
I decided to note down the process so I could use【Quick Recreate】to make another one.
Next.
I took out a pouch of Healgra.s.s from a shelf in the workshop.
I combined the contents with the Healgra.s.s I picked up throughout the day.
With all of the Healgra.s.s, I refilled all of my potions and made two Recovery Pills.
Great.
The results were great.
I managed to calm down by a lot.
I brought out a pot of rosin from the shelf.
Master did tell me to use the house as I pleased.
If you don"t mind, I"ll make use of this…
I had an idea for what to do with the two Kaya Wood Drumsticks and the sc.r.a.p wood from cutting a new rod.
I used the same method I was taught for the chair a.s.semblies.
The end result would be something you would call a tonfa.
Why?
A tonfa"s essence was in countering other weapons.
A very simple weapon too, all I had to do was grip the handle.
It wouldn"t apply in all cases, but I was planning on having a weapon that just generally made my normal fist attacks stronger.
Despite its strange shape, the tonfa was actually a surprisingly effective weapon in warfare.
Exported out of j.a.pan, it then gained popularity as police and self-defence equipment.
It was especially effective at suppressing riots.
So much so that it was banned as a dangerous weapon in the United States.
The tonfa was more dangerous than even guns, apparently.
I was sure a lot of people thought that.
Oops.
I got side-tracked.
I quickly got to work, making sure that I wouldn"t decrease the strength of the wood.
Simply drilling a hole and using some adhesive would be dangerous.
I used a wedge to fill in the extra and reinforce the joint instead.
I quickly finished the process.
I decided to record it too.
As a precaution, I left it alone for a while to let the wood relax.
I would have loved to have something to fix it and apply tension…
But as long as I didn"t use the weapon right away, that would be fine.
I decided to make another Kaya Wood Rod.
It was just to act as a reserve. I put the final product in an《Item Box》.
Leaving the materials in a corner of the room, I walked up to the second floor of the house and put the tonfa in my room.
Great.
Woodworking was really useful.
Not just useful, it was really fun, too.
It"d be nice if I could make my own arrows for Goki.
I took out my new Kaya Wood Rod and went out to hunt.
It was about 5 pm.
It was a little early, but I headed for Legias to eat dinner.
And to talk to Saki about the new Rabid Horse Hide.
Let"s get going.
Protagonist Keith
Race Human Male Racial Lv7
Job Summoner Lv6
Bonus Points Remaining: 3
Skill Sets:
Staff Lv6 Punch Lv4（↑1） Kick Lv4 Joint Lock Lv4 Throw Lv3 Evade Lv3 Block Lv3 Summon Magic Lv7
Light Magic Lv3 Wind Magic Lv4 Earth Magic Lv4（↑1） Water Magic Lv4 Fire Magic Lv3 Dark Magic Lv3 Ice Magic Lv1 Lightning Magic Lv1（New!） Tree Magic Lv1（New!）
Alchemy Lv4 Pharmacy Lv3 Gla.s.smaking Lv3 Woodworking Lv3
Cooperation Lv6 Appraise Lv5 Identify Lv6 Discern Lv1 Cold Resistance Lv3 Grab Lv5 Horsemanship Lv5 Precise Manipulation Lv6 Jump Lv1 Heat Resistance Lv3 Climb Lv3 Dual Wield Lv2 Mental Reinforcement Lv2（↑1）
Speedcasting Lv1（New!）
Equipment:
Kaya Wood Rod x2（New!） Snow Leopard Push Dagger x3 Wild Rabbit Breastplate+ Series Snow Ape Armguard Wild Horse Boots+ Snow Ape Leather Helmet Rucksack Item Box x2
Items:
Survival Knife Woodworking Set（New!）
t.i.tles:
Old Summoner"s Pupil
Guardian of the Forest
Man of the Middle Path
Spell Archive（New!）
Monster Summons:
Volff Wolf Lv5（Asleep）
Zangetsu Horse Lv3→Lv4（↑1）
DEX 7
AGI 21（↑1）
INT 7
STR 21（↑1）
VIT 23
SPI 7
Skills:
Trample Dash Endurance Run Wild Gallop Stampede Kick
Helix Hawk Lv3→Lv4（↑1）
DEX 11（↑1）
AGI 22
INT 19
STR 12（↑1）
VIT 11
SPI 12
Skills:
Peck Flight Far Sight Wide Area Search Ambush Sense Danger
Obsidian Owl Lv4
Jean Bat Lv4（Asleep）
Jericho Wood Golem Lv3（Asleep）
Goki Demon Lv1（Asleep）