Translator: Eisen　Editor: Weasalopes

When I logged in, I noticed the disaster.
My MP bar.
It hasn"t recovered completely.
There was a little bit of MP still left to be recovered.
Was that because it hasn"t been too long since I last logged out?

It"s currently 5 AM.
Speaking of which, I stayed up really late last night.
It might be strange to be fully recovered like this.
Generally, if recovering your MP like this were that easy, people would log in and log out repeatedly in order to fully recover, right?
I haven"t heard of people doing that before, though.
My information gathering ability is not that good.

So, what will my next new summon be?
Actually, I haven"t thought about it at all.
Although my head is a mess, I"ll put away both the blanket and the tent.
Next is restocking on Potions, which I couldn"t do last night.
The Liquid: Water spell will provide for the necessary water.
And I raise my DEX with Physical Enchant: Aqua.

I carefully use one Healgra.s.s to create two Potions.
Both of them came out as Grade B Potions.
I also made two Recovery Pills, which both came out as Grade B+
That should be enough recovery items for the time being.

I also sorted the Grade C Potions in my inventory.
I want to use the old ones first.
First in, first out is a good foundation for inventory control.

I still wonder which new Summoned Monster to choose, but there is also the question of where to go now.
I have several options.

There is an Antman Cave to the north of this W2 Map, but the lower section"s many branches haven"t been explored yet.
It also seems to be an Ant nest.
It will be impossible not to fight with those Ants.

Before going through the Antman Cave, how about exploring the N1W2 Map?
That"s where I battled that Brown Bear.
I haven"t found the Area Portal there, so would it be a good thing to search for it?
There is another cave to the south of this W2 Map.
That area hasn"t been explored yet either, but it is thought to be connected to the S1W2 Map.
It"s also important to make sure that"s the case.

It would also be nice to go around the W3 Map and explore there.
But would it be a good thing to skip over the Map order?
That might be a risky business.

How troublesome.
How am I supposed to decide?

I"m already here, so I will go there.
Would it be worth it to fight monsters there?
Let"s go challenge a Black Bear.
I"ll go onwards to the previous map.

In that case, let"s change the lineup a little.
The priority will be mobility and exploration.
Let"s go with Volff, Zangetsu, Helix, and Obsidian.
With 4 simultaneous summons, the amount of possible combinations increases dramatically.
This is also troublesome.
I have to decide on the tenth Summon Monster.

《Your friend has sent you a message.》

《Your friend has sent you a message.》

I received messages just as I was about to leave.
There was a bit of lag between the reception of both messages, maybe because I had just logged into the game a while ago.
The messages were from Irina and Adele.

『My Summoning Magic is at Level 6. My battle potential has increased as I can now have 3 Monsters with me at the same time. I"m attaching a picture of Blackwing the Bat.』

There was a Bat in the attached screenshot.
It looks just like Jean.
Bats just lack any individuality, huh?
Irina"s Summoned Monsters are a Tiger, a Viper, a Hawk, a Horse, a Golem, and now a Bat, too.
The gap between us has gotten smaller.
With exploration and fighting, day and night, and the terrain differences, it"s not as if one could cover all these roles with only 6 Monsters.

Now, Adele"s message.

『My new partner is Tchan the Hawk! He"s so fearless!』

There is a Hawk in the attached screenshot.
He seems to be a little smaller than Helix.
To me, at least.

I can see Irina has persuaded her to stop getting only fluffy Monsters.
Well, that"s fine.
Adele"s Summoned Monsters are a Tiger, a Horse, a Wolf, a Fox, an Owl, and now a Hawk, huh?
If I don"t get serious, these two will close in on me before I know what hit me.

What should I reply?
Writing is troublesome, too.
It costs a bit of MP, but let"s use Telepathy instead.
When I cast the spell, I designate Irina as the whisper target.

『Can you hear me, Irina?』

『Huh? A whisper?』

『Oh, sorry. It"s Keith.』

『Eh?』

『It"s Telepathy, a s.p.a.cetime Magic spell.』

『Oh, I see! It"s just like a whisper, right?』

『Something like it.』

Since I hadn"t left Legias yet, I had spare time for some chatting.

『What map are you on, Keith?』

『I"m at W2. I plan to head for N1W2 from here.』

『Ah, just a moment, sorry.』

It looked as if she stopped talking just to talk to someone else.
What?

『Ah, I was talking to Fiona. Where on W2 are you now?』

『I"m still at the Area Portal.』

『Where is your base?』

『It"s a place that looks like an abandoned village.』

『We"ll be going out of the Forest Village with Fiona. I think we"ll go there later today.』

『Got it.』

『Where is the Area Portal located?』

『If you go through the Skeleton"s Cave, you should be able to find it if you go straight to the west.』

Uh-oh.
The spell"s effect is about to go out.

『The spell is about to go out. See you later.』

『Okay. Got it.』

I realized something.
We haven"t had many face to face long conversations with Irina.
But this conversation was rather long, right?
How is conversation encouraged if you"re not facing someone?

Well, leaving that aside.

If she comes to honor me with those delicious meals she can prepare, she"s more than welcome.
That is my biggest expectation.
Yum.

Let"s head north of the Wind Spirit Village.
To the Antman Cave.

I wanted to rush there, but i was delayed by some Cranes and Raptors along the way.
With my current lineup, a single Crane is no longer a problem.
We could even take down two of them easily.
While we still struggle with Raptors, fighting one of them at a time is no problem.
Volff, Zangetsu and I can maneuver with great ease on the ground, and I can be more relaxed having Helix and Obsidian providing aerial support.
What if there were more than two of them at a time?
I have no doubt that this would be much easier with Rig, but it looks like we can manage somehow.

In the forest, I lead Zangetsu using Forest Walk.
Volff"s marching speed in the forest is still quick even in the forest.
Zangetsu is also rather fast-paced.
The reason why we went through the forest quickly was to avoid fighting a Wild Pheasant (Female).
Obsidian had found it as a Pa.s.sive Monster and informed me promptly.
He"s the second in rank when it comes to lead the way!

The inside of the cave worries me a little.
It would be better to replace some of the Summoned Monsters.
I recalled both Zangetsu and Helix.
I summoned Senki and Rig.
They should be enough to help deal with Antmen.

So, the Antmen battle.
Though they were just p.a.w.ns, we managed to get through three battles safely
Since I already knew how they fight, I had an easier time with them.
As long as you break their battle formations and keep fighting in close quarters, you can use anything to defeat them.
The terrain was particularly advantageous to Volff, too.

We used the walls and even the ceiling to attack the Ants" blindspots.
We can manage to do many things quickly.
It seems that Senki and Rig are getting used to fight in pairs.
Rig is mainly in charge of defense, covering Senki"s back and absorbing damage.
It"s convenient, and it seems to be enough for Senki.
Without having to worry about his back, he was literally trampling everything down.

The cave was easily cleared.
I got items such as Wax and Nectar.
I cannot feel the benefit of the Disa.s.sembly Skill yet.
But that"s okay.
I think that we were able to cut our way through at a reasonable pace.
Well done.

I think I"ll let the guys have some of the Nectar
Although Obsidian was not interested, the other three seemed to enjoy it.
In Rig"s case, a single drop of Nectar was enough to make its body shiver.
Do you like it that much?
I think you do.

At the end of the cave"s exit, there"s more forest.
I"ll leave the lineup as it is for now.

Come now, Brown Bear.
That"s what I thought.
But I would encounter a weird Monster first.

Stab b.u.t.terfly　Lv.3
Monster　Enemy Target　Active

A b.u.t.terfly, huh?
It does indeed look like one.

It would be better to say that more than beautiful, the strange pattern on its wings is rather weird.
It feels as if I"m doing the Rorschach Test.
No, more like a color blindness test.
It"s hard to look straight at it.

Huh?
That"s weird.
I can"t seem to take my eyes off from that pattern.

This is bad.

I have.

To stay.

Conscious.

The monster"s attack hit me directly.
I have a feeling that its proboscis looks like a long, sharp needle.
It seems that it flew straight towards my face.
Maybe.
That was probably the last image I saw before I resp.a.w.ned.

That was a sensation I have never felt before.
I see.
So this is what it is to die and resp.a.w.n?

What time is it?
It"s just past 9:30 AM.
And the Summoned Monsters?
I selected and used the Summon Monster spell.
There sure are nine rows on the Summons List.
I tried to summon Volff, and it seems to be no problem.
But what about my stats?
I would expect some penalties to my stats upon death.

Stats
DEX　16（-11）
AGI　16（-11）
INT　20（-14）
STR　16（-11）
VIT　15（-11）
SPI　20（-14）

This is awful.
I should put going too far aside for now.

That time when I sustained great damage from that Snow Ape is nothing compared to this.
I"m useless like this.
That cursed b.u.t.terfly.
It seems that after inflicting that status effect on me, it plunged its proboscis straight in the middle of my forehead.
There seems to be no damage on my Leather Helmet.
This helmet does not cover my head completely.
It must have struck me through a gap.

Are there any other penalties?
There doesn"t seem to be any changes to my equipment.

No, it seems that I"ve lost some money.
I haven"t seen how much I had on me, but it"s definitely less now.
Though it wasn"t half of it, I think I may have lost around 30%
So this is the Death Penalty?
c.r.a.p.

I want to take revenge for that right now, but I cannot do anything like this.　Though I still have some time left, I have no motivation to train my Production skills.
I would rather just take a nap or something.
After recalling Volff, I got into a suitable abandoned house and got ready to set up my tent.
Since my stats were so low, I couldn"t use as many Production skills to help me, as expected.
I somehow managed to set up the tent and I crawled into my blanket.
I took this opportunity to log out.

I didn"t wait too long to log back in.
It"s not as if I had anything else to do in the real world.
I like it more here, too.

I think that if you go to bed, your status abnormalities get cured, but only if you sleep without logging out.
I can"t help but feel that it would be a waste of time to do that.
That"s just one of my bad habits.

I"ve been logged out for what now, thirty minutes?
Let"s check my stats on the virtual window.

Stats
DEX　16（-10）
AGI　16（-10）
INT　20（-12）
STR　16（-10）
VIT　15（-10）
SPI　20（-12）

It"s still way far off from being totally recovered.
What should I do?
Even if I train my Production skills, the resulting products may be of not so good quality.
I guess I have no choice but to take care of choosing my new Summoned Monster.

I"ve spent far too much time staring idly at the Summons List.
This won"t do.
I try to get the list of monsters I haven"t summoned yet.

Wood Puppet
Red Fox
Tiger
Viper
Skeleton
Mist

Doing this helped me a little with my doubts, but I still think I"ll go through each summon"s description.
Boring.
It"s boring to worry too much about it.
So let"s stop worrying and get it done already.
I decided on this guy for my new Summoned Monster.

「Summon Monster!」

And with that, the tenth row of my Summoned Monster list was filled.
Its name should also be appropriate for this type of monster.
I choose this because things have turned this way.

Bunraku (文楽)　Wood Puppet Lv1（New！）
DEX　24
AGI　 8
INT　18
STR　12
VIT　12
SPI　 6

Skills
[　]　[　]　Magical Resistance [Slight]　Self-Repair [Slight]

Uh-oh.
It seems you can select some skills for it.
And here I was trying to not bother myself too much with this.

Still, among all of the available skills, only one of them was a Production skill.
Certainly, the Puppet type Summoned Monster Master has with him was not used for battle.
I also see that its DEX is rather high.

I had plenty of time to think this through, but I decided quickly so as to not bother myself too much with it.
At any rate, there were many fascinating options there.

As a result, its skillset turned out like this.

Bunraku (文楽)　Wood Puppet Lv1（New！）
DEX　24
AGI　 8
INT　18
STR　12
VIT　12
SPI　 6

Skills
Bow　Cooking　Magical Resistance [Slight]　Self-Repair [Slight]

Cooking!
Yes, cooking.
This is the most important skill for me now.
That"s cooking.

I got all the cooking skill I could wish for!
Well, not exactly me, by myself.

So, it"s going to be this Wood Puppet.
Its DEX is outsandingly high.
INT is also very high.
Of course, it"s skills are not really intended for battle, as it would be very bothersome to raise those with these stats.
I should let it help me with my Production skills.

But I want to try him out.
And its Cooking skill.
Right now, we are a bit lacking in ingredients.
Still, we"re good.
Let"s have him try.

Our ingredients are just a Brown Bear Paw and some Paingra.s.s.
The rest is water and Portable Food.
Oops.
There are no spices.

This is messed up.
However, he tried its best and somehow was able to pull something off.
The finished product was like this.

【Food Item】Braised Brown Bear Paw　Satiety +10%　Grade D+　Rarity 2　Weight 1
A dish made with Brown Bear Paw and Paingra.s.s.
Portable Food was used for seasoning.

It"s okay that its grade is low.
This is enough.
The seasoning was a bit thin, but I didn"t care too much.
Its Satiety also seems to match with the added extra Portable Food.

After finishing my meal, I once again had free time on my hands.
My stats are not back to normal yet, so I decided I"d go back to sleep.
I instructed Bunraku to tidy up inside the abandoned house.
When he"s done, he"s just to stay in standby.
Is this it, then?

Right now it"s just past 11 AM.
Let"s check my stats again.

Stats
DEX　16（-8）
AGI　16（-8）
INT　20（-10）
STR　16（-8）
VIT　15（-8）
SPI　20（-10）

Still not good.

I"ll also check the description for the Lightning Magic skills I got yesterday.

Resist Thunder（Lightning Magic）
Magnetic Force（Lightning Magic）
Thunder Arrow（Lightning Magic）

But as expected, they were too general and quickly bored me.
I knew that all Resist spells have the same description.
As for the other two, I could imagine what they do by looking at their names.
And they were just as imagined.
A spell that pulls metals such as iron towards the user with magnetic force.
And a single-target Lighting based attack spell.
I"m in no condition to be trying these spells out now.
Boring!
Getting this Death Penalty is really boring!

I had no choice that to spend my spare time checking the forums.
I have no energy to be posting anything, though.
I end up killing time using external links to stock up on news from the real world.
How dignifiying.
But I guess things like these are okay, too.

Protagonist　Keith
Race　Human　Male　Racial Lv10
Job　Summoner Lv9
Bonus Points Remaining 8

Skill Sets
Staff Lv8　Punch Lv5　Kick Lv5　Joint Lock Lv5　Throw Lv4　Evade Lv5　Block Lv4　Summon Magic Lv10　s.p.a.cetime Magic Lv2
Light Magic Lv5　Wind Magic Lv5　Earth Magic Lv5　Water Magic Lv5
Fire Magic Lv4　Dark Magic Lv5　Ice Magic Lv3　Lightning Magic Lv3
Tree Magic Lv3　Dust Magic Lv2　Melting Magic Lv2　Miracle 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　Horsemanship Lv6　Precise Manipulation Lv7　Jump Lv3
Heat Resistant Lv4　Climb Lv3　Dual Wield Lv4　Disa.s.sembly Lv1
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 Pupil
Guardian of the Forest
Man of the Middle Path
Spell Archive

Stats
DEX　16（-8）
AGI　16（-8）
INT　20（-10）
STR　16（-8）
VIT　15（-8）
SPI　20（-10）

Monster Summons:
Volff　Wolf Lv7
Zangetsu　Horse Lv5
Helix　Hawk Lv5
Obsidian　Owl Lv5
Jean　Bat Lv5
Jericho　Wood Golem Lv3
Goki　Demon Lv4
Senki　Beast Ape Lv4
Rig　Slime Lv3
Bunraku　Wood Puppet Lv1（New！）
DEX　24
AGI　 8
INT　18
STR　12
VIT　12
SPI　 6

Skills
Bow　Cooking　Magical Resistance [Slight]　Self-Repair [Slight]