Translator: Charlotte　Editor: Weasalopes

When I logged in it was still before 5:30 am.
I had a lot of time to do whatever I wanted.
And there were a lot of things I wanted to do.
I just had to control myself and focus on one thing at a time.

I was good at focusing on a single task.
But maybe because of that, I wasn"t that good at mult.i.tasking.
It was becoming a serious issue.

I put on all my equipment and organised my inventory.
I put the broken Kaya Wood Rod on a desk.
There were several Evil Ant Stings and Evil Ant Sh.e.l.ls already on the desk.
Another issue came up.
I had to deal with not only what I could do and what I wanted to do, but also with what I had to finish.
It wasn"t like I was getting paid to do anything anyway, so I just went at my own pace.

I put some raw kaya wood into an《Item Box》.
If I got some free time later in the day, I wanted to make another spare Kaya Wood Rod.

Today"s plan?
I wanted to buy some camping gear.
I was pretty sure I could find a tent somewhere in Remut.
While I was it, I could say hi to the Guild Leader too.

Although I had a feeling that I would probably have to deal with the Guild Leader first.

I summoned my usual mobility-oriented set of Summon Monsters.
The horse Zangetsu, the hawk Helix, and the owl Obsidian.
I had a spell I wanted to try.
The【Tree Magic】spell【Forest Walk】.
I had to cross some forest to get from Master"s house to the road to Remut, after all.
Usually, Zangetsu could only pa.s.s through the forest at a walking person"s pace.

It was the perfect opportunity to test out【Forest Walk】.

The spell had a dramatic effect.
It wasn"t as fast as Zangetsu could go in the plains, but it was definitely faster than usual.
I got hit by in the face by a couple branches as a bonus.
But it was still a pretty good spell.
I made a mental note to test it out on myself next time. Although I probably still won"t be able to run as fast as Zangetsu.

Goes without saying, but the moment we reached the road, the effects of【Forest Walk】went away.
That was alright, I was just using the spell to see what it could do.
Although it still felt like a waste.

On the way to Remut I saw other parties doing some hunting.
They were starting pretty early.
There were quite a few of them.
Or maybe it was just that the total number of players had gone up.

I arrived in Remut without having to fight a single monster.
I looked for a random food stall and ate my breakfast.
I couldn"t find a place to sit though, so I sat down near an alley and finished my meal there.
It made me feel a bit restless, but there was no helping that.

The old Adventurer"s Guild building still looked lively.
Looked like the guild staff were still keeping the place alive.
I went inside and saw quest posts on the usual bulletin board.
But the number of guild staff members there was a lot smaller.
Looked like they needed some more pairs of hands to help with moving.

I approached the usual middle-aged female staff member to ask where the Guild Leader was.
She told me that the Guild Leader was always at the new building, and that he barely shows his face at the old building anymore.
I had no choice but to go to the new building.

It was technically the Adventurer"s Guild…
But there were more workmen than adventurers inside the building.
The interior wasn"t finished yet.

Yeah…
The building was unfinished, no matter how you sliced it.
The shooting range was still being used as a storage room.
More than half of the training grounds were closed down.

Speaking of the training grounds, I saw a familiar figure there.
Master.
And the Guild Leader.
I could only see their backs, but I knew it was them right away.

Master"s Red Ogre was carrying out the rocks used as temporary seating for the tournament.
What power.
The stones were fairly large, but it was carrying them as if they were regular tatami mats.
The contrast was pretty strange.

Master and the Guild Leader looked like they were discussing something.
But I knew.
They weren"t just talking to each other.
I bet they were mainly just pulling on each other"s beards.

「Good morning.」

I called out to them.
I almost burst out laughing the moment they turned around.
Contrary to my expectations, they weren"t pulling on each other"s beards.
They were scratching and pulling at each other"s mouths.
What the heck…

「Oho, Jizuji bebagagi.」

「Gagg gu gogogi.」

A hearing test?
No… A quiz?
What???

I was stumped.

They let go of each other and breathed heavily for a while.
It took them a long while until they finally calmed down.
Were they on the verge of choking just now?

「Oh-, Oho, h.e.l.lo, Keith.」

「M- My disciple… It"s been a while.」

Take a second to calm down, will you?

I waited for them to settle down.
I didn"t want to get them any more riled up than they already were.

「I"ll settle this later.」

「That"s my line.」

「What are you two doing…」

Someone else came up from behind me, scolding the two.
The usual middle-aged staff member.
"The man whose job is to make the Guild Leader do his job," is what Nils told me.

「Would you please stop your fighting already?」

「But…」

「Would you. Please. Stop.」

A strange pressure radiated from the staff member.
Scary.
And what was with that hypocritical courtesy.

「We"ve already finished up most of the tournament clean-up. What"re you going to make Keith do?」

「Uh- Hmm… Well… Aurnier, what do you think?」

「I do recall entrusting him to you.」

「Hmm…」

「But, I suppose it is time for you to start looking for your own goals, Keith.」

Master looked me dead in the eye as he delivered that line.
The Guild Master turned his gaze too.
I didn"t know what kind of face the staff member behind me was making, but I felt his gaze on the back of my skull.

「What do you think? Is there something you want to do?」

Master asked me a difficult question.
Well, there were a lot of things I could do.
But there was a big difference between what I could do and what I wanted to do.
For the time being, I had to give an answer.

「You"re right… For now, I think I"ll go sightseeing for a while.」

The Guild Leader"s face changed to one of satisfaction.
Master"s expression didn"t change.

「Well, that"s fine.」

「Huh…」

「This old man has a lot to deal with now… Make sure you notify the guild once you come back.」

「I will.」

「Hey… I thought you entrusted him to me?」

They started bickering again, but their movements soon stopped.
I was too scared to look back.
I wonder what kind of face the staff member behind me was making.
I couldn"t muster the courage to check.
But it must"ve been a face not too different from Master"s red ogre.
Or at least that"s what I imagined.

「Ye- Yes… You"re right… Let"s leave it at that, alright, Aurnier?」

「Hm- Hmm… Lugran, I"m leaving once I"m done with the clean-up… I"ll leave the rest to you.」

The two of them went their separate ways, keeping that strange att.i.tude.
How weak.
No, maybe it was just that the staff member was too strong.

I finally mustered up the courage to turn around.
He looked normal.
I felt a little relief at that.

「I"d love to give you some kind of quest to do, but we"re really not in any danger right now.」

「Huh…」

「Go ahead and check the bulletin board though, if you really want something to do.」

「Alright.」

Yeah.
I wanted to leave the place too.
Well, quest or no quest, I was going to head out either way.
It would also be nice to not have a deadline for something for a change.
I left the Adventurer"s Guild and started looking for camping gear.

While pulling Zangetsu behind me, I walked around Remut.
I entered the biggest store in the town, looking for a tent.
I found a few of them that looked nice, but they were all way too big.
I was just on my own, after all.

I placed an order for the smallest tent the store had.
Even then, it looked like three people could easily fit in it.
It consisted of a few fold-up supports and a fabric which could be tied to the supports using strings.
There was also some rope used to fix the tent in place.
They had spare rope on sale too.
The price wasn"t too bad.

I negotiated with the friendly female clerk for a while and ended up buying three blankets.
Margrid"s request was taking a pretty big toll on my wallet, but I somehow managed to have just enough for it.
In total, it was six units of weight.
My《Item Box》felt strangely full.
But since it was necessary equipment, I didn"t mind.

I bought some Portable Food at a nearby stall.
I would need nine pieces for three days, but I bought one extra as a spare.
Well, not really. I got the tenth one as a bonus.
There was a good chance I would have to eat nothing but Portable Food for the next few days…
Well, there was nothing I could do about that.

I left Remut and headed towards the western forest.
I was grateful for Zangetsu.
I wanted to try going into the forest maze with Zangetsu and【Forest Walk】.
Summoning and recalling monsters so often was a waste of MP.
I"ll deal with the issue of the skeleton cave when I get to it.

I met a Striped Racc.o.o.n on the road, and in the forest, I met a female Wild Pheasant too. After pausing for a second to rob its nest, I continued onwards to the forest maze.
【Forest Walk】made moving in the forest a lot more comfortable.
I felt like I arrived in Legias a lot sooner than I usually did.

I met a few other parties in the forest maze.
Some of them were resting in the peaceful rooms.
They were probably farming experience points.
Do your best, guys.

I wanted to take out some monsters on the way, but I only met one group of three mushrooms.
The shiitake I got from them would make for a great meal later.
I was pretty happy with the results.

When I arrived at the skeleton cave, I was expecting a difficult fight, but I was wrong.
Zangetsu was strong.
Zangetsu"s attacks had a kind of force I just couldn"t replicate.
Crushing the skeletons whole was easy for Zangetsu.
The fights ended in mere moments.
I didn"t get any opportunities to contribute.

When we arrived at W2, I switched out Obsidian for Rig.
I knew there were two kinds of monsters:
Cranes and raptors.
Maybe there were other monsters, but the two of them only had physical attacks.
Following that logic, wouldn"t Rig be invincible?
Well, at least it would be a lot safer with Rig.

Rig moved behind me on Zangetsu"s back to take care of the rear guard.
Great.
Let"s go.

The last time I visited W2, I didn"t meet any monsters until I reached the abandoned village.
But sooner than I expected, I ran into a raptor.
Looked like the monster population was doing well.

A raptor…
I was glad I only had to deal with one.
It was faster than Zangetsu without any support spells.

I tried my best to dodge the monster"s attacks while Helix attacked it from above.
As it was distracted, I turned around and charged at it.
Taking a head-on charge attack from Zangetsu, the raptor flew off.
At that moment, Rig jumped off of Zangetsu…
Huh?
I couldn"t believe what I was seeing at first.

But yes, Rig did jump.
While shaking like a piece of jelly, Rig flew at the raptor.

The moment Rig touched the raptor, Rig changed shape and enveloped the raptor"s head.
The change was almost instantaneous. It looked like flowing water.
The monster shook its head, trying to get Rig off, but it was useless.
Eventually, it dropped to the ground and started rolling around, but that also didn"t have any effect.

Somehow the monster got back up.
But it was too late. Zangetsu was already charging at it.
The process repeated several times.

When the monster"s HP bar was at 30%, something strange happened.
Its HP bar suddenly disappeared.
Huh?

Looking at the monster"s corpse, I saw Rig slowly crawl out of its mouth.
What the heck…
What did you do in there?
If I had to guess, I"d say Rig melted the Raptor"s internal organs from within.
But wouldn"t the Raptor"s stomach acid be dangerous to deal with for Rig?
Oh well, all"s well that ends well.

In any case, Rig could be really scary at times.
Rig had low stats and terrible mobility, but depending on the situation Rig could do a lot of damage.
I didn"t have to use a single spell.
What good fortune.

Now.
I pulled out my knife to collect any item drops.
I didn"t get anything last time, so I was kind of curious as to what I might get.

I didn"t get anything.
Please, I"m begging you, give me something.

I headed further west.
By the time I reached the wind spirit village, I defeated three more raptors and two cranes.
Thanks to Rig, I managed to defeat all of the raptors without taking any damage.
The cranes were actually more difficult.
But at least they dropped their beaks after I defeated them.
What was happening?

I got Helix to fly up and check out the surroundings. There weren"t any monsters near the village.
I didn"t sense any monsters inside the village either.
Some of the buildings looked liveable, but it was still a little too early to log out.
I still had plenty of time to explore.

Hmm.
Should I head north…? Or south…?
I only saw a bit of S1W2 the day before.
I wanted to check if anything had changed.

The first monster I met after leaving the village was a Raptor.
An easy victory?
No.
There were two of them that time.

Even then, since I had Rig, the fight wasn"t that difficult.
I left one to Rig and used【Physical Enchant: Earth】to fight the second one myself.
I took some damage but that wasn"t an issue.
I drank one potion and completely refilled my HP bar.
That was when I first got an item from a raptor.

【Material】Ancient Stone　Grade C　Rarity 3　Weight 2
A stone from ancient times. Something is sealed inside it.

Sealed?
What a strange item…
It looked like just a normal stone though.
It didn"t look like I could do anything with it just yet.
I threw it into an《Item Box》.
I kept going.

I ran into a narrow river.
A cliff was on the other side.
The scene continued as far as my eyes could reach.
I would have to climb the cliff to proceed.

Climb…?
I didn"t have any confidence I could do it.
But luckily, there were a few hints as to what my next course of action should be.
Holes.
There were big holes in the cliff face. Caves.
But I didn"t know which cave led south, and I didn"t feel like exploring all of them.

I headed upstream.
Eastward.
The scenery changed to a rocky mountain.
It looked like it would be tough to traverse.

I gave up and headed downstream to check out what lay westward.
I kept going, hunting raptors on the way.
They were alone, so the fights were easy.
But I didn"t get any items from them.

《【Identify】Level Up!》

I made a point of using【Identify】on each monster before fighting it.
I finally got it to level up.
With all the Rock Worms the day before, I kind of lost the will to use【Identify】on each and every monster.
I was glad I got back into the habit. The small things stack up.

I kept heading downstream.
The river started getting wider.
I saw more caves in the cliff on the other side of the river.
But I didn"t feel like exploring the caves.
I kept walking westward, and before I knew it, I was already in W3.
While I was at it, I wanted to at least check out what lay to the north.

I turned away from the river and started north. That"s when Helix found something.
A monster was in my way.
It looked like some kind of bird?
It was flying low to the ground.
I stood alert as I sensed it approaching.

When it came into sight, there was only way I could describe it.
An eyeball.
An eyeball with bat-like wings coming out of its sides.
It was definitely a monster.

But it wasn"t like anything I had seen before.
It had a strange pressure radiating off of it.
Oops. Almost forgot.
I used【Identify】on it.

Floating Eye　Lv.1
Monster　Enemy Target　Active

A floating eye…
It was kind of difficult to judge what kind of monster it was just from its appearance.
Hmm… Now what?

Protagonist　Keith
Race　Human　Male　Racial Lv9
Job　Summoner Lv8
Bonus Points Remaining: 9

Skill Sets:
Staff Lv7　Punch Lv5　Kick Lv5　Joint Lock Lv4　Throw Lv4　Evade Lv5　Block Lv4　Summon Magic Lv9　s.p.a.cetime Magic Lv2
Light Magic Lv4　Wind Magic Lv5　Earth Magic Lv5　Water Magic Lv5　Fire Magic Lv4　Dark Magic Lv4　Ice Magic Lv3　Lightning Magic Lv2　Tree Magic Lv3　Dust Magic Lv2　Lava Magic Lv2　Steam Magic Lv2
Alchemy Lv5　Pharmacy Lv4　Gla.s.smaking Lv3　Woodworking Lv4
Cooperation Lv6　Appraise Lv6　Identify Lv7（↑1）　Discern Lv2　Cold Resistance Lv3　Grab Lv6　Horsemanship Lv6　Precise Manipulation Lv6　Jump Lv3　Heat Resistance Lv4　Climb Lv3　Dual Wield Lv4　
Physical Reinforcement Lv2　Mental Reinforcement Lv4　Speedcasting Lv4

Equipment:
Kaya Wood Rod x1　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 Lv7
Zangetsu　Horse Lv5
Helix　Hawk Lv5
Obsidian　Owl Lv4
Jean　Bat Lv4
Jericho Wood Golem Lv3
Goki　Demon Lv3
Senki　Beast Ape Lv3
Rig　Slime Lv3