Translator: Eisen　Editor: Weasalopes

Night has fallen.
Well then, what should I do?
I mean, should I go north or south?
I want to see how things are in the south.

The night sky was full of stars.
The moon is already rising from the east.
I wonder if the stars would be seen more vividly if the moon wasn"t around.

There were no monsters to be found around the village.
Up until now, that is.
At least not around the farming fields.

Although there is starlight, it is essential to enhance our vision.
I use Night Vision on both Goki and myself.
Well.
What will we find?

A Raptor came out.
However, it"s not the Raptor I saw during the daytime.
Is it a skeleton?

Skeleton Raptor Lv.2
Monster　Enemy Target　Pa.s.sive

Yeah, it looks like one of those fossils found in museums.
The difference is that this one has a big fireball-looking spirit in its chest, and two smaller ones in both its eye sockets.
So, how strong is this guy?

For the time being, I tried fighting it.
It"s a Skeleton monster, but it fights just like a normal Raptor.
No, it"s a little different, huh?

This monster is more troublesome than strong, really.
Its movements are slower than a Raptor.
It"s also not as powerful as a Raptor.
But it is difficult to inflict any damage on it.

Its body is so light that it might get blown off.
This has been the case with all Skeleton monsters so far.
The real problem is how to directly damage its spirits.
Those bones are very st.u.r.dy.

Though they received some damage, Senki and Goki managed to pull several bones out of its ribcage.
Because of that, they could destroy the spirit on its torso.
But the ones on the head were a bother.
After Senki had pinned the Skeleton Raptor with all its might, Goki used his knife to crack its skull open, though it took considerable effort.
Though we did defeat it, I admit it was quite the troublesome foe.
And yet it dropped no items.
I might have had an easier time bringing Rig to this fight.

But the next monster seems to be the worst match for Rig.
It"s a Float Eye.
What"s more, it"s 2 of them.

I knew that these guys would most certainly use skills of several elements.
Of course, the fire attribute was also there.
Senki received a full blow from a flame attack and countered in a frenzied state.
Obsidian got damaged by an AOE spell, and even after I used a potion on him, I couldn"t heal him completely.
It seems that night monsters are stronger than the ones found during the daytime.
I think that the damage we sustained was worth the trouble. They dropped a Crystal Ball.

But those guys weren"t the worst part of fighting at night.
I would say that item and MP management is the worst.
Why were there so many newly encountered monsters?

That monster seemed to be a Gas Cloud at first.
But that changed as it approached.
At first, not even Obsidian noticed its presence.
To some extent, it looked like a lump of collected mist.
I could see something like lightning running through it from time to time.
When I tried to use【Identify】on it, this came up.

Haunted Mist Lv.4
Monster　Enemy Target　Pa.s.sive

It was certainly mist.
It was just loitering around as if creeping on the ground.
In that case, I"m better off using this spell.

「Enchanted Weapon!」

I used it on myself and tried attacking it with my rod.
Yup.
It seems that it can be damaged normally.
The monster"s HP bar decreased by 30%.
Is this okay after all?

The next instant.
Several lights were lit before my eyes.
At the same time, several red triangle markers completely covered my vision.

Oh boy.
This is worse than that time with the Rock Worm swarm.

The battle started.

Fortunately, I had used Enchanted Weapon on everyone.
I didn"t realize what was so special about this monster"s body until I came in contact with its thighs.
My HP bar did not decrease.
But something else was decreasing.
It was my MP bar.

Honestly, give me a break.

Moreover, the monster that had touched me had barely any MP left before, but after touching me, its MP bar actually increased.
It drained my MP.
That"s right.
By touching me, that monster had also hurt itself a little, but I had no time to pay any attention to that.

And using the MP it drained from me, he used a spell similar to Stone Bullet.
I was at point blank range, so I received the full blow.
What"s the deal with these guys?

Though I could attack them in close quarters, but it was very difficult to continue attacking without actually touching them.
It seems that if the contact is slight enough, MP will not be drained.
But it will if contact continues for about 5 seconds.

If it"s only this few of them, it shouldn"t be much of a problem.
The good thing is that they move about rather slowly.
I should be able to do this.

Attacking it with my rod and a few kicks was effective, but it might have not been the best way to deal with this.
If you"re not careful, you might end up being in contact with them for too long.
Especially since there"s no pain to alert you that your MP is being drained.

Both Senki and Goki seem to have sustained some damage, but the battle looks like it"s going well.
At any rate, unlike me, Senki was slaughtering these monsters in just one hit.
Goki was using his shield skillfully.
Even if you hit them with a shield, it will inflict damage, so it might be useful for both attacking and defending.
Obsidian"s MP is not decreasing at all.

He was diving into the monsters one by one by flying low at high speeds.
It seems that they had no opportunity to strike back.
Right now, he"s the most reliable force on this battle.
And the most useless one is me.

I didn"t check the clock.
I"m ashamed of myself for not paying attention to such things.
I didn"t know how much time I had spent on the battle.
10 minutes? 15 minutes?
Something like that.
Although we had defeated them all, it was far from satisfying.

《【Staff】 Level Up!》
《【Light Magic】 Level Up!》
《【Dark Magic】 Level Up!》
《Job Level Up!》
《You may learn the following Support Skill(s):【Acrobatics】》
《Summon Monster 『Senki』 Level Up!》
《Please add 1 point to a desired stat.》

Senki has also leveled up, so I think the battle was worth the effort.
The stat that was raised automatically was AGI.
I selected INT as the other stat to raise.

Monster Summon　Senki　Beast Ape Lv3→Lv4 (↑1)
DEX　10
AGI　18 (↑1)
INT　 5 (↑1)
STR　25
VIT　25
SPI　 4

Skills
Punch　Kick　Throw Object　Block　Evade　Climb

I should be happy about this.
But I am not pleased with having all that MP drained away from me.
There were two Magic Stones amongst the monsters" remains.
But I am still not happy.

I"m the only one taking HP damage here.
I healed myself completely with one potion.
MP is a problem, however, Obsidian took no damage.
Senki"s MP bar is down by 30%, while Goki"s down by about 10%
My MP bar is down to about half.

This won"t do.
This calls for some introspection.

Should I buff my stats with Enchant spells?
What should I do?
Let"s do some thinking.

The next monster we encountered was also a Haunted Mist.
This one was Active from the start.
I thought it was only one, but when I tried battling it, there were suddenly 10 of them.
That"s quite an unfair trap.
Once again, I used Enchanted Weapon on everyone.
I also used Physical Enchant: Wind on me to increase my AGI.

Well then.
How will it go?
Rather than increasing my AGI, It might have been better to have some breathing room.
My MP bar was cut in half, but I was able to fight the monsters without having my MP drained by them.
I think this plan might work.
It"s important to have a broader view.
It"s very difficult to feel their presence.

What to do about Senki and Goki?
Goki is still doing all right.
Senki fights bare-handed like he"s not aware he"s getting carried away to the point of ignoring pain.
I can"t seem to find a good countermeasure for that.

I guess I could change my lineup.
Obsidian"s fighting style has proven to be very effective.
I recall Senki and summon Jean the Bat.
With this lineup I might struggle against Skeleton Raptors.
I will have no choice but to provide cover in that case.

「Gehg!」

Goki let out a howl, apparently sad to see him go.
It"s okay, you can always see Senki again.

At first, I had planned to leave this village.
However, going away too much from this Wind Spirit Village, which is an Area Portal, is not a good plan.
Even if it"s a series of battles at night, we will be able to deal with them sooner or later.
I hope.

I headed towards the village and tried going around it.
After 2 laps, I wasn"t attacked by monsters.
I am encountering them, however.
Float Eyes, Skeleton Raptors, and Haunted Mists.

Active Monsters are approaching, however, they become Pa.s.sive halfway.
Does it mean that they can"t come close to the village at all?
In that case, I will be able to pick which battles to fight.
I may be able to use this to my advantage.

I challenge a shining Haunted Mist to battle.
The scariest thing about this monster is that I don"t know how many of them I"ll be fighting against until the battle has already started.
There were many of those around the one that was shining.
I can use Enchanted Weapon on all of us though, which is kind of an advantage.
However, I cannot shake off the fact that I don"t completely understand these monsters" capabilities.
I don"t understand Jean"s Echolocation, either.
This is very troublesome.

However, I"m glad that we"re doing so much better with this lineup.
It"s convenient because both Obsidian and Jean are damaging the monsters by flying around and bashing against them.
Goki and I deliver the finishing blows.
It"s really efficient.

《Summon Monster 『Jean』 Level Up!》
《Please add 1 point to a desired stat.》

After defeating the third swarm of Haunted Mists, Jean had finally leveled up.
On that last battle, I made Jean partic.i.p.ate more actively than the rest.

Jean"s VIT has increased automatically upon leveling up.
I chose STR as its second stat increase.

Monster Summon　Jean　Bat Lv4→Lv5 (↑1)
DEX　15
AGI　18
INT　12
STR　10 (↑1)
VIT　11 (↑1)
SPI　11

Skills
Bite　Flight　Echolocation　Evade　Ambush　Suck Blood

Those numbers are still far from great.
Should we grind some more on this map?

Let"s continue hunting.
Our pace is not bad at all.
In fact, we"re doing fairly well.

That"s actually a bad habit.
It"s getting close to 11 PM here.
My MP bar was down to only 20%.
I think we should call it a night soon.

One more, though.
Just one more fight.
I want to fight one last time tonight.

This was just the occasion for this kind of monster to show up.

Holy Wraith　Lv.???
Monster　Enemy Target　Active

This monster is clearly different than the rest.
Its pattern seems to be obvious from the start of the battle.
I should be careful.

I can"t tell it apart from a Haunted Mist.
Looking closely, it seems that its glowing pattern is slightly different.
It also seems a bit bigger as a whole.
I"d be relieved if it just was only one of them.

Obsidian and Jean are continuously dealing damage to it, but its HP bar hasn"t even decreased by half.
It was draining both Goki"s and my own MP as it received damage.
No, it seems that it had some MP from the start, as well.
It attacked both Goki and me with flames.
Then, it also showered Obsidian and Jean with lightning.

c.r.a.p.
How dare it turn out like this?

Although I could see fairly well with Night Vision, I used Flashlight just to confirm its appearance.
What does this mean?
Is it trying to escape?
It looks faster than Haunted Mists, but still far slower than us.
Should I try to hit him again before it escapes?

Like a mist, my attack went straight through its body as if there was nothing there.
It only received damage when my rod pa.s.sed through its transparent body.
How weird.

The monster tried to attack me by extending its body like a tentacle and attempting to wrap itself around me.
It"s troublesome to see through it.
It was definitely trying to flee from the light, but it still didn"t stop attacking.
What a troublesome guy.

After 5 minutes of pursuit, we finally took it down.
I think it was a considerably tough opponent.
My HP bar was already in trouble.
And I could not afford to spend any more MP.
Oh well, it"s too bad that I didn"t use【Identify】on it before.

《[Lightning Magic] Level Up!》
《You have acquired the【Lightning Magic】spell【Resist Thunder】!》
《You have acquired the【Lightning Magic】spell【Magnetic Force】!》
《You have acquired the【Lightning Magic】spell【Thunder Arrow】!》
《[Summon Magic] Level Up!》
《You may now summon a maximum of 4 monsters at once.》
《Racial Level Up! Please a.s.sign 1 point to a desired stat.》

I leveled up.
Did this monster have the same Gas Cloud pattern?
It looked like a monster that would drop some good items.
But I got nothing at all.

I take a look at my stats, which appeared on a virtual window.
I decided to add a point to my STR.
I waste no time doing so.

Base Stats
DEX　16
AGI　16
INT　20
STR　16 (↑1)
VIT　15
SPI　20

《You have gained 2 Bonus Points. You currently have a total of 11 Bonus Points.》

All right.
It was a tough fight, but I got great results.
But I have to be careful for now.
I"ll use a Potion as I return to the village.
Things might go badly if I were to encounter a monster as battered I am.
I decided to cancel the Flashlight spell and hurry out of here.

I ended up not encountering any more monsters on my way back to the village.
No, I fought a single Float Eye, not too far from the edge of the village.
I guess one could say I was lucky.

I can finally take a break.

I got a lot of things done today.
There were many things I wanted to put in order, though.

First of all, securing a bed.
Also securing an overhead light source with Flashlight.
I chose an abandoned house that could endure the wind and set up a tent there.
The ceiling was completely opened up.
Well, at least I don"t have to worry about it falling off on me.
I used ropes tied to stones for support.
And I took out a blanket out of the 《Item Box》.

I want to log out now, but first I"ll check my inventory.
My potions on hand are down to half now.
Of course, I still have empty bottles and some Healgra.s.s, so I can make more here.
But my MP is way too low.
I only have about 10% left.
Even if I could make some high quality potions, it"s not going to be enough.
I"ll hold that thought.

Let"s check this instead.
It seems that I can now learn the Support Skill 【Acrobatics】.
According to the info, it allows for acrobatic movements.
All right.
I can"t move my finger.

I thought about moving on to the next one, but another one from the list caught my attention.
It was【Disa.s.sembly】.
Has it been there for a long time?
No, it may have become available upon leveling up.
I don"t think I paid too much attention to it then.

Oh, this is nice.
It seems that this skill helps with tearing things apart.
What?
I had overlooked such a useful thing!
Am I blind or what?

I immediately got it, and activated it.
It cost me 3 Bonus Points, but I don"t mind.
I want to try it out.
Let"s try to slip through the GM"s snare and get an item.

Oh, there"s also another big change.
I can now have 4 Monster Summons with me at a time.
The party sure is growing strong.
What"s more, I can get a new Monster Summon too.

I returned to the Area Portal and started getting very excited.
Well, I was able to get back safely.
To be honest, I"m dead tired, but today was a really good day.
Well then, what should I summon?

Actually, I will do the actual summoning tomorrow. But it will be fun just to go through the summoning candidates.
Looking at the tenth row, the Monster Summon selection menu looks like this.

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

Huh?
Mist?
What?

Let"s look at the explanation.

【Mist】Monster Summon　Battle Position: Ground
A mist monster. It is theorized that it is actually a lost soul.
It mainly attacks by using skills of several elements.
It floats above the ground, but it cannot fly.
It weighs almost nothing, and is unaffected by most physical attacks.
Extremely weak against light. It suffers from penalties to its abilities under direct sunlight.

So it"s like this, huh?
It seems to be a monster very similar to a Slime.
Maybe this summon became available after using【Identify】on that Haunted Mist?

All right.
Should this be my new Monster Summon?
It"s very interesting.
It seems to be meant strictly for the night.
In that case, it might be a good addition to the party.

No, wait.
I should consider my current situation.
The number of simultaneous summons is increasing.
I should consider what monster is going to be most effective for our party based on my exploration and battles so far.
Also I have other monsters I haven"t summoned yet: the Doll, Tiger, Viper, Fox, and Skeleton.
So I have other monsters that I would like to try out first before the Mist.

Sorry.
Later then.
Well then, is there anything else that needs to be taken care of?

I took out my equipment and threw it into the 《Item Box》.
Then I recalled all of my Monster Summons.

Which reminds me.
I read on a chat that having 5% left of your MP bar is considered a critical zone.
I have no courage to continue like this.
I"m going to go ahead and log out here.
I"ll leave Potion production for tomorrow morning.

I dive into the blanket.
It"s not as cozy as the bed over at Master"s house.
Well, it"s good enough, though.
As my eyes close, I immediately log out.

Protagonist　Keith
Race　Human　Male　Racial Lv10 (↑1)
Job　Summoner Lv9 (↑1)
Bonus Points Remaining 8

Skill Sets
Staff Lv8 (↑1)　Punch Lv5　Kick Lv5　Joint Lock Lv5　Throw Lv4　Evade Lv5　Block Lv4　Summon Magic Lv10 (↑1)　s.p.a.cetime Magic Lv2
Light Magic Lv5 (↑1)　Wind Magic Lv5　Earth Magic Lv5　Water Magic Lv5
Fire Magic Lv4　Dark Magic Lv5 (↑1)　Ice Magic Lv3　Lightning Magic Lv3 (↑1)
Tree Magic Lv3　Dust Magic Lv2　Lava Magic Lv2　Steam Magic Lv2
Alchemy Lv5　Pharmacy Lv4　Gla.s.smaking Lv3　Woodworking Lv4
Synergy Lv7　Appraise Lv6　Identify Lv7　Discern Lv2　Cold Resistance Lv3
Grab Lv6　Horsemaking Lv6　Precise Manipulation Lv7　Jump Lv3
Heat Resistant Lv4　Climb Lv3　Dual Wield Lv4　Disa.s.sembly Lv1 (New!)
Physical Reinforcement Lv2　Mental Reinforcement Lv4　Speedcasting Lv4

Equipment　Kaya Wood Rod x 1　Kaya Wood Tonfa x 2　Snow Leopard Push Dagger x 3
Wild Horse Leather Armor +　Snow Ape Armguard　Wild Horse Boots +
Snow Ape Leather Helmet　Rampage Belt +　Rucksack　Item Box x 2

Items:
Survival Knife, Woodworking Tools

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

Stats
DEX　16
AGI　16
INT　20
STR　16 (↑1)
VIT　15
SPI　20

Monster Summons:
Volff　Wolf Lv7
Zangetsu　Horse Lv5
Helix　Hawk Lv5
Obsidian　Owl Lv5
Jean　Bat Lv4→Lv5 (↑1)
DEX　15
AGI　18
INT　12
STR　10 (↑1)
VIT　11 (↑1)
SPI　11
Skills
Bite　Flight　Echolocation　Evade　Ambush　Suck Blood
Jericho　Wood Golem Lv3
Goki　Demon Lv4
Senki　Beast Ape Lv3→Lv4 (↑1)
DEX　10
AGI　18 (↑1)
INT　 5 (↑1)
STR　25
VIT　25
SPI　 4
Skills
Punch　Kick　Throw Object　Block　Evade　Climb
Rig　Slime Lv3