Translator: Charlotte　Editor: Weasalopes

We arrived in Legias.
The first thing we did was head for Rick"s and Yuka"s stall.
The time was 4:30 pm, still a little too early for dinner.

As soon as we arrived, Mio rushed to help out Yuka.
Reina left the contents of the wagon to Fudo and walked to the back of the stall.
They looked used to what they were doing.

I walked to the back of the stall too, where I saw a familiar face.
It was Fay.
Why was a gla.s.s worker here?

「Hey, you did pretty well.」

「Thanks, I haven"t seen you in a while, what"re you up to here?」

「I just felt like taking a walk and raising my level a bit. The workshop started feeling a little too small.」

「…Oh, an acquaintance?」

Fiona came up behind me.
We chatted for a while.
I was given a few strange looks when I mentioned that I worked at the gla.s.s workshop a few times. I decided to let it slide.

「Good evening.」

Helga and Shinohara walked into the stall.
They were probably called here by Saki.
Fiona wanted to figure out how exactly I got my new magic skills.

「Saki, with that we should all be a.s.sembled, right?」

「This is all the people I could gather for today, everyone has their own things to do, after all.」

Fiona looked around at everyone present.

「Saki may have mentioned this already, but I need your help to figure out the conditions required to learn new magic skills.」

「Of course.」

「No problem.」

「Sure.」

Fay, Helga, and Shinohara were all on board.

「Could I confirm your elemental magic skills? It might be hard for you to come out and say it, but please.」

After a brief silence, Fay was the first to speak up.

「I have【Fire Magic】and【Water Magic】. Fire is at Lv.5 and water is at Lv.4.」

「I a.s.sume you haven"t learnt any new magic skills?」

「No… I usually just use a combination of【Resist Fire】and【Physical Enchant: Aqua】.」

Next was Shinohara.

「I have【Water Magic】at Lv.5 and【Wind Magic】at Lv.4. I don"t use them very often.」

Fiona"s gaze moved to Helga.

「I have【Wind Magic】at Lv.3, 【Earth Magic】at Lv.4, and【Water Magic】at Lv.3, although I usually remove that one.」

Remove?
I wonder what that meant.

「Could I confirm yours too, Saki?」

「I just have【Water Magic】at Lv.4 and【Earth Magic】at Lv.4. I use water for my leatherworking projects and earth for when I go hunting.」

「Well, according to Keith"s observations, there"s a chance that all of you here might learn a new magic skill today.」

Everyone"s gaze turned to me.
I raised my hand.

「Sorry, could I ask a question?」

I almost added『Teacher』to that question.
Fiona had that kind of atmosphere about her.

「What does "remove" mean?」

Everybody froze.
Did I say something bad?

I received an explanation.
I was the only one who didn"t know what it meant.

To remove a skill was to intentionally make the skill unavailable.
Apparently, in the skills menu, it was also possible to put a skill into reserve, so that you didn"t have to see it pop up in your menu so often.
I saw the options『Reserve』, 『Remove』, and『Return』.
I tried them out myself.
I didn"t know that kind of function existed.

Using『Remove』on a skill made it so other skills could grow at a better rate.
I couldn"t see the point in doing that for production or support skills.
It looked like that would only make a difference for magic skills and weapon skills.
I told them about the problem I had with magic skills.
The only one of my magic skills that was properly gaining levels was【Summon Magic】.

They told me to just remove some of my elemental magic skills, but I didn"t do it.
It was just too much of a ha.s.sle.
My low-level magic skills weren"t really that big of a problem.

「Well, getting back on topic…」

I silently apologised for wasting everyone"s time.
We got back on topic.

「I"d like to form a team so we can check all the suspected extra conditions together. It"ll be Fay, Shinohara, Helga, Saki, Reina, and me.」

「I want to go too!」

「Mio, could you please take care of the stall tonight? I think three people on vanguard duty is more than enough.」

「Muu…」

Mio looked dissatisfied but she complied.

「And Keith, it"d be great if you could come with us too. There might be something we can only figure out by asking you.」

「Got it.」

「Ah, we"re going too!」

Adele raised her hand.
I wondered if she would be alright.

「You two?」

「If we"re going to the forest maze, we"ve already been there with Keith a few times.」

「We got our event t.i.tles too!」

「Our【Summon Magic】skills have levelled up recently. I think we can make ourselves useful.」

「What do you think, Keith?」

Why are you asking me that, Fiona?
They recently levelled up… In other words, they were at Lv.5.
As long as they had proper equipment, I guess they would be fine.

「No issues in terms of fighting power, I think.」

「Alright then, let"s form the『Union』.」

Everyone agreed silently.
Adele was strangely excited.

「We"re heading to the forest maze. Let"s log out for now and meet up again in an hour.」

「What about dinner?」

「Might be a little early, but let"s all eat together before we go.」

「Agreed!」

Everyone gave a hearty laugh at Adele"s shout of excitement.
Adele could really bring a smile to anyone"s face.

I prepared my equipment for the journey.
I recalled Zangetsu and Helix, leaving just Obsidian.
I could summon Jericho at the entrance to the forest maze.
For the time being, I decided to summon Goki.

「A new Summon Monster, huh…」

Irina came up behind me.
Now that I thought about it, 『Demon』became an available choice only because I used【Identify】on one of Master"s Monster Summons.
It would be a good idea to show them Goki.

「Yeah. It"s a demon, his name is Goki.」

「Go, Gokiburi?」1

「No way…」

What? No!
Adele and Irina immediately left cruel comments.
Well, at least Irina didn"t actually say it.

「The name comes from the kanji for guard and the kanji for demon, so Go-ki.」

「Huh…」

「The name doesn"t feel nice to say.」

Well, whatever.
There were more important things to tackle.
Most importantly, the issue of my eighth Summon Monster.
I called up my Summon Monster list and selected the blank line below Goki.
A different list of candidates appeared in another screen. It looked like there were no changes since I last summoned Goki.

Wolf
Horse
Hawk
Owl
Wood Puppet
Bat
Wood Golem
Beast Ape
Demon
Red Fox
Tiger
Viper
Skeleton
Slime

I didn"t know which one to summon.
But I did want another Summon Monster to take care of the vanguard.
I could summon another one of the monsters I already had, but that would be boring.
Alright. I"ve decided.

「Summon Monster!」

Something appeared in the magic circle on the ground.
Slightly bigger than me.
Strong, muscular figure, completely covered in hair.
Fangs and eyes that looked just as cruel as Goki"s.
I chose the Beast Ape.
It was just a monkey, but it had a really important aura about it.
I gave it a name.

Summon Monster
Senki　Beast Ape Lv1
DEX　9
AGI　16
INT　4
STR　24
VIT　24
SPI　4

Skills:
Punch　Kick　Throw　Block　Evade　Climb

Nice.
Stats suited to the front lines.
Kind of like Jericho, but with a higher AGI stat.
Although his STR and VIT stats still couldn"t compare.
Senki had the interesting skill【Throw】. That was a first.

I touched him a little. The muscles were amazing.

「Mu… It"s not fluffy.」

「Don"t say that Adele. We get to increase our Summon Monster choices this way, after all.」

Nicely done, Irina.
You go tell her.
All I could do was give her a wry smile.

「So, what will your new Summon Monster be?」

Looked like Irina had already summoned it.
She responded right away.

「I decided on a Wood Golem.」

「Ooh, nice.」

「I"ll switch out at the entrance to the forest maze.」

After saying that, Irina returned Rote Kaiser and summoned the tiger Calico.
With that, Irina"s Summon Monsters were a snake, a tiger, a hawk, a horse, and a golem.
Summoning a golem was probably the right call.

What about Adele?
I turned around to look at her.
She avoided my gaze.
Huh.
Did she choose another Summon Monster just based on how fluffy it was?
I knew she had a tiger, a horse, a wolf, and a fox…
Hey Adele, make sure you don"t trouble Irina, alright?

「Uuu… Guess I"ll do an owl.」

Nice. It looked like she hadn"t summoned it yet.
It would be a good idea to get a flying Summon Monster.
She recalled the horse Machan and quickly summoned it.
Adele groaned for a bit after summoning it, probably coming up with a name.
Although I could already guess what kind of name she would give it.
I bet she would name it Fuu-chan.

「I"ve decided! I"m naming this one Fuu-chan!」

Irina gave her a wry smile.
How carefree…
I wondered if she was thinking that too.

Everyone logged out in small groups and promised to come back in an hour.
I didn"t really have a need to log out.
I looked around at the wood workshops in Legias while I was waiting.
Of course, I left Senki and Goki at the stall.

I quickly found a workshop and got them to sell some materials to me.
I forgot to buy glue and thread while I was in Remut, so I was really grateful that they could sell some to me.
The owner of the workshop was a nice old man.
As an example, he showed me how to use the glue and string to fix an Obsidian Rock and a Steppe Hawk Feather to an arrow shaft.
Grade B. Nice.
It was like he was doing a magic trick.
He gave me the finished arrow as an example.

I walked around for a bit before going back to the stall. Everyone was slowly coming back.

「We"re all here!」

「Let"s eat together before we go.」

Mio and Yuka brought out the ratatouille we"d eaten before along with some horse meat stew.
Maybe since my lunch was so simple, dinner tasted great.
So much so that I forgot to use【Appraise】on the food beforehand.
I only noticed once I was done.

「Well then, we"ll get going.」

「Take care.」

Fiona exchanged greetings with Rick and we all left Legias.
It had been a while since I last went out with other people.
And in such a big group, too.
And we were going with a clear goal in mind.
It felt a little strange.

We managed to take out all the female Wild Pheasants that attacked us on the way to the forest maze.
At the entrance, Irina summoned her Wood Golem and I summoned Jericho.
Of course, I had to recall Obsidian to do that.

「I named this one Goliath.」

I wondered if she knew where that name came from.
Well, it sounded like a really strong name either way.
Although I personally preferred the name Goki.
Maybe it was just a difference in taste.

Adele recalled the fox Kii-chan and summoned the tiger Mii-chan.
Looked like she was putting attack power first.

「We"ll lead the way.」

We split up into three groups before going.
Fiona"s party went first.
Then Adele and Irina.
And at the very back, me.

Three【Flashlight】spells lit up the corridor.
One of those three was mine.
I used【Night Vision】on Senki, Jericho, and myself, just in case.
With us moving in such a large group, I would have to be more watchful of attacks from the back.
Monsters tended to attack even while we were fighting other monsters.

【Flashlight】let us see, but there were always some blind spots.
My HP and MP were still full.
I used some spells while we were fighting the Stray Horses earlier, but I still had plenty of headroom.

I looked at Fiona and the others fight.
It was a very nice sight.
We went around all the rooms, it was necessary to access the central hall.
I was the only one who had already beaten the boss of the forest maze.
Well, it was alright to just hang out with everyone.

While we were walking, Fiona"s group at the very front encountered another group of monsters.
I quickly started watching.

「It"s running to the left, finish it off!」

「The one to the right is down! Just one more!」

「I knocked it down, take it out!」

They were cooperating pretty well.
Fay was in Fiona"s party, and apparently it was the first time he went out hunting with them.
But that still didn"t make a difference.
If I had to describe it in a word, I"d say the fight was superb.
Fiona"s leadership skills were always on point.

Fiona was in the middle, holding an axe and a shield.
Saki was to her left. She had a small sword and a shield.
To her right was Fay. He had a sword and a shield too.
Reina, Helga, and Shinohara were lined up behind them to provide support from the back.
They were all bow-users.

Reina"s and Shinohara"s equipment was visibly better than Helga"s.
In terms of magic, Reina was the best, followed by Helga, and lastly, Shinohara.
Shinohara did the most damage with his bow.
In terms of accuracy though, Reina clearly won. As expected from an elf.

The arrows could sometimes be a nice distraction, but they weren"t very effective on the monsters in the forest maze.
They were alright against the mushrooms they were fighting, but the arrows would become completely useless against Branch Golems.
Maybe that was why they brought so many Obsidian Arrows.

They quickly managed to take out a group of five mushrooms.

Adele and Irina were given some time to shine too.
While Fiona"s party was distracted, they ran into a group of four Branch Golems.
They worked quite well together.
The Wood Golem at the very front, and the two tigers to the side.
The Wood Golem was still Lv.1, but it would be more than enough to deal with simple Branch Golems.
Especially since they used【Physical Enchant: Earth】on it.

The attack power the tigers had was as amazing as ever.
The four Branch Golems were defeated in no time.
That was a nice sight.

I had an opportunity to fight some monsters too.
Although my normal strategy didn"t really change.
I had to deal with a group of six Branch Golems.

「Isn"t that a lot? Are you going to be alright?」

「He"ll be fine!」

「I think Keith will be alright.」

Fiona showed some concern, but Adele and Irina quickly told her not to worry.
Why were they speaking on my behalf…?
Well, that was alright.
I took them on the same way I always did.
Well, not really…
I had Senki with me this time.

I used【Physical Enchant: Earth】on Jericho and Senki.
I gave Goki some Obsidian Arrows.
I had more than enough MP to use some spells.

Next.
I used【Root Snare】to knock down the closest Branch Golem.
At the same time, Senki moved in to attack.
He couldn"t stick to just one monster, and just hit whatever was closest to him.
The first monster I knocked over wasn"t dead yet.
I dropped my rod and…
Throw.

I did the same to the next monster.
And the next.
I made sure that none of them could get back up.
At some point, Jericho would step on the ones on the ground and that would be that.

I got the opportunity to watch Senki fight.
In terms of power and defence, Jericho was clearly superior.
But Senki had speed in exchange.
He was probably faster than me.
Our AGI stats weren"t so different, but Senki could leap from Branch Golem to Branch Golem, beating down on them all the while.
He could destroy them with just his fists.
Even though Branch Golems were really st.u.r.dy.

I defeated the last one with a throw.
I wondered how many times I had to throw them around.
Well, it made for good practice.

《【Tree Magic】Level Up!》

Ooh.
I levelled up one of my new magic skills.
I definitely used it the most often.
But not that much more often than【Ice Magic】or【Lightning Magic】.
It probably meant that【Ice Magic】and【Lightning Magic】would level up soon.

After we took all the item drops we sat down to take a break.
Fiona looked at me with a strange expression.

「Hey, Keith. I want to confirm something…」

「What"s up?」

Looked like she wanted to ask me something.

「Are you really a summoner?」

「Looks like it.」

How many times had I been asked that question already…
Yeah, I"m pretty sure I"m a summoner, so what?
Actually, don"t you see the Summon Monsters around me?

「Hey, I told you Keith would do fine!」

「It"s something we"ve gotten used to…」

Adele and Irina gave their own comments.
I felt like Irina"s comment had a negative connotation to it though.

「I"ve heard about how you fight, but it"s stranger than I imagined…」

「You"re weird!」

「Definitely strange…」

Everyone was being especially cruel to me.
I just defeated them normally.
I even used some spells like a proper mage.
What was wrong with how I fought them?

「No, I"ve always been doing it like this…」

There was nothing I could do but say that weak line.
Please stop.
I"m not a circus attraction, why are you looking at me like that.
My heart can"t take this kind of treatment.
Please understand.

Well, in the end of the day, it was just some idle chatter.
In typical Fiona fashion, she returned the topic to the issue at hand.

「Ah, let"s get back on track.」

「Alright. What do we do now?」

「Hmm… Let"s try using multiple elemental spells at the same time to fight the monsters.」

Exactly.
I suspected that was probably the trigger we were looking for.

Protagonist　Keith
Race　Human　Male　Racial Lv8
Job　Summoner Lv7
Bonus Points Remaining: 11

Skill Sets:
Staff Lv6　Punch Lv4　Kick Lv4　Joint Lock Lv4　Throw Lv4　Evade Lv4　Block Lv4　Summon Magic Lv8
Light Magic Lv3　Wind Magic Lv4　Earth Magic Lv4　Water Magic Lv4　Fire Magic Lv3　Dark Magic Lv3　Ice Magic Lv1　Lightning Magic Lv1　Tree Magic Lv2（↑1）
Alchemy Lv4　Pharmacy Lv3　Gla.s.smaking Lv3　Woodworking Lv3
Cooperation Lv6　Appraise Lv6　Identify Lv6　Discern Lv2　Cold Resistance Lv3　Grab Lv5　Horsemanship Lv5　Precise Manipulation Lv6　Jump Lv2　Heat Resistance Lv3　Climb Lv3　Dual Wield Lv3　Mental Reinforcement Lv3
Speedcasting Lv2

Equipment:
Kaya Wood Rod x2　Kaya Wood Tonfa x2　Snow Leopard Push Dagger x3　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 Archive

Monster Summons:
Volff　Wolf Lv6
Zangetsu　Horse Lv4
Helix　Hawk Lv4
Obsidian　Owl Lv4
Jean　Bat Lv4
Jericho Wood Golem Lv3
Goki　Demon Lv2
Senki　Beast Ape Lv1
DEX　9
AGI　16
INT　4
STR　24
VIT　24
SPI　4

Skills:
Punch　Kick　Throw　Block　Evade　Climb