A Certain Middle Aged Man’s

VRMMO Activity Log

Arc 1
by Shiina Howahowa

Novel Updates
Translator: Word of Craft , Hon’yaku
Epub : Trollo WN/LN EPUB
 Chapter 1: The First Day

…It was faster than expected.

The day that I could experience a VRMMO has come.

My name is Tanaka Daichi, and this year I’m turning 38.

Even at this age, I still haven’t stopped gaming. My parents said that it’s
irresponsible and that I should stop.
I don’t think it’s really something to get angry about.
After all, I’m definitely someone who’s totally in love with games.

Anyways, games really are amazing.

Because even though I’m 38, when I enter a game, I can travel new lands with
all my heart or fly high in the sky.

“Why is that so amazing?” Well, there are people who say that.
But, when you start getting old, your body will inevitably grow weaker.
Whether it’s professional baseball players or Olympic athletes, the majority of
these people will retire in their mid-30s.
Although, in your teens, it’s hard to imagine that you will one day grow
weak… that’s the reality.
Even I have become an Ossan [TN: middle-aged man]… I don’t like it, but it’s
true.

Well then, that was a long introduction, but now we’ll start actually talking
about the VRMMO!
First off, the game is called [One More Free Life Online]. It’s a pretty
straightforward name, and the goal is simply to for a person to enjoy a new
life.
The day before yesterday, the open beta came to a close, and 10 minutes from
now is the scheduled official start.

The game’s contents… it’s a standard MMORPG where you level up your
skills.
There’s no base levels, so all skill levels come from your character’s
growth… so I guess it’s really a skill-type MMORPG.
You choose 10 skills at the beginning. As you get stronger, you can learn other
skills “to some extent”.
Once you reach a certain level in a skill, you earn Ex Points which you can
consume to learn a new skill… or at least, that’s what the beta testers said.
Because of that, if you just randomly choose your skills at the beginning, you
could end up being a jack of all trades, but a master of none.
And therein lies the guarantee of the MMORPG.

Defeating the demon king, such a grand quest doesn’t exist.

The game is designed purely for a person’s enjoyment of a different life.
There are monsters, crafting, and chatting, but it’s up to the player to decide
what to do.

Looks like it’s about time to begin!

I hope everyone will forgive them if the MMORPG servers crash on the first
day.

… There was no problem logging in. I guess the servers are better than I
thought.

Now then, time to make a character!

First of all, character name… well it’s simple, but “Earth” will do, since my
name means earth (TN: Daichi = ground).
At any rate that’s just a cool-sounding name that popped into my head.

The character’s outward appearance… well, let’s go with a 19-year-old.

Height, about 176cm sounds good.
Black hair and black eyes. I’m a bit picky about that. And also… there’s no
need to be too good-looking.
Beautiful women and handsome boys, I always hear about them having perfect
symmetry. So, let’s shift a couple things around a bit here.
The nose shouldn’t be too high either… (TN: high noses are considered
elegant in many cultures)
Gender is male, of course. Well, that goes without saying. Lying about your
gender is definitely a no go.

Although I, the player, am 38 years old, I haven’t grown old in my heart, so I’m
picking a young character. In a world where I can move freely as a young man,
there’s no need to bring in any of my smelly real life as an Ossan. My heart is
totally bored of my real body. Since this is a virtual world, I can let my heart
be free and feel young again.

――――――――――――――――――――

… Alright, there we go.

Ehh, I look like a generic NPC character in a console game, don’t I?
Well, I’ll just think of it as acting as a foil for the scenery. (TN: “foil” as in, he
doesn’t look particularly good, so the scenery, by juxtaposition, feels like it
looks even better than it actually does.)
I’ll leave the goal of becoming a beautiful woman or pretty boy to others. I’m
not the type of guy that wants to be the main character.

Next is skill selection, or something like that.

I think I’ll main in skills that, based on the news so far, are pretty obscure, or
rather, based on beta reviews, totally useless. That way, I can just have a
totally carefree time in the game.
You might imagine that a 38-year-old would have work to do every week.
I have today and tomorrow off, but normally I won’t be able to play more than
an hour or two a day… in other words, I’ll mostly have to play solo.
If that’s the case, I don’t really want to have any worries or concerns about
what’s happening in the game. That’s why I chose pretty useless skills.

Anyways, my skill choices were: Archery, Kicking, Sharp Eyes, Wind Magic,
Crafting, Cooking, Woodworking, Medicine, Stealth, and Physical Boost.

Those are the 10.

At a glance, they look pretty bad, huh. From the news, out of those… at least 6
are useless!
Archery, Kicking, Wind Magic, Medicine, Stealth, and Physical Boost.
The problem with Archery is aiming, since there’s no automatic targeting
system.
Furthermore, the skill doesn’t perform particularly well even if you put a lot of
effort into it.
And even worse, the damage you do is only about 75% of what you could do
with a one-handed sword.
It’s kind of a useless skill to choose, huh… for long-range attacks, magic does
the job much better.

As for Kicking… if it’s as reported by the beta testers, the skill has no Arts –
that is to say, something like a special ability.
For other skills, upon reaching level 10 you get some kind of special
technique, but for kicking, well let’s just say that there were people saying
“What the hell, I’m at level 30 in Kicking and there isn’t anything special.
What a shitty skill.”
(By the way, most skills that involve physical [Striking] get special
techniques.)
The truth of the matter is that, aside from already lacking in solo capabilities
with the bow skill, not having any close-range combat ability is pretty
dangerous for me.

Wind magic… well, at a glance it sounds like its useful, but if you look closer,
you’ll see that it’s pretty lacking. Although there’s a pretty decent buff skill that
increases your speed, everything else is lacking in both attack power and
recovery power.
It falls far behind the other elements in attack power (the elements being Fire,
Water, Wind, Earth, Light, and Dark, for a total of 6). As for recovery, wind
magic is only anywhere from 1/2 to 1/4 as good as water and light recovery
skills.

Medicine is the skill for making potions. It’s pretty useful in normal MMOs,
but…
In this game you can buy good potions in bulk from NPCs at low prices, so
making your own potions only makes you look like an idiot.
Also, since the cooldown timer for using potions is pretty low, there’s no real
point in needing to use particularly strong potions.
That’s what the beta testers all strongly agreed to.
Stealth… although being able to become hidden seems to be a great power, the
cost is just cruel.
It costs 1% of your max MP per second. If you use it for 10 seconds, the cost
increases to 2%; at 20 seconds, 4%, and so on, with the cost jumping up every
10 seconds.
And also, there’s monsters with smell, sound, and heat detection, so against
them Stealth is totally useless.

Physical Boost… it improves things like running, weapon attack speed,

crafting speed, etc, which is all nice, but…
At the end of the day, you just end up being a jack of all trades, and a master of
none. When compared to more specialized skills, it’s far weaker than
everything else.
Since it does boost a lot of things, the end result is a character who’s well-
balanced but with no particular strengths.
Well, since I just want to do a variety of things, I guess it’s a good choice for
me.

Anyways, that’s about it for character creation.

By the way, I haven’t mentioned this game to anyone I know in real life.
No, that’s not say I don’t have friends… it’s just that my friends all like to
drink.
In reality, they’re all nice people, but for someone like me who can’t drink,
being with them is sometimes like being surrounded by demons.
Why can’t I be someone who can drink endlessly without a care in the world?

It’d be nice to make a new acquaintance in the game, someone that I can enjoy
this once-in-a-lifetime playing experience with.
Although I’ll be burdened with a bow and quiver on my back, I’m prepared for
something like that. It’s just the fate of playing an MMORPG.
If there are good people out there, to be able to meet them, that would be really
fortunate, huh.

As for my playstyle… I guess I’ll try to be a Ranger.

There’s nothing like a “job” within the game, but I’ll have plenty to do between
finding treasures hidden in a forest, going hunting, cooking food to eat, making
a bow through woodworking, and collecting the cost parts for making arrows.
And I can even collect herbs in the forest to make pots. When it’s dangerous,
I’ll just use Stealth. And with all of those things, Physical Boost will be
helpful.

That’s my dream at least. My dreams have really changed as I’ve grown up, but
I’m happy with it.
Well, it’s time to login. I hope I’ll have fun enjoying my new life.

[Welcome to One More Free Life Online!]

 Chapter 2: The Crowded First Day
and the Training Grounds

TN: Whew, finally got around to finishing this chapter! A few notes:

is the currency. In the Manga (which I just started reading today),

it’s translated as Gulor. The actual reading is Gurou, which is the word
“glow” in Japanese, so I’m saying Glows rather than Gulors even though
it sounds kinda weird.
There’s a distinction between “skill level” and “personal level/ability”.
Skill level is an actual thing that makes you do more damage, access
better spells, etc. Personal level/ability is how well you can use
your skills – it’s not an actual level, it’s something you learn from
playing the game. This is made kind of clear in the part where he talks
about how he could be Lv 99 in Archery but if he couldn’t actually fire a
bow (his personal ability to use the bow) then it wouldn’t make a
difference whether he was Lv 1 or Lv 99.

Immediately after login.

[It really is amazingly crowded… well, that’s what’d you expect from the first
day.]

I muttered unconsciously.

And then, voices from the crowd.

[Looking for people to join our party to powerlevel! Need front-line fighters!]
[Recruiting members to head towards the rocky area before it gets too
crowded!]
And so on, with everyone trying to recruit teammates to level up with
(technically speaking, leveling up specific skills, since there is no overall
level).
The beta testers, who had already mastered all the tricks and subtleties in
controlling their avatars, would definitely have a huge advantage and level
their skills much faster.

Meanwhile, over here…

[New players, we’ve got good equipment here–!]

[Make sure to suit up before you head out to battle!]

Thus shouted the equipment sellers, whose voices filled the air in the open
market.
The players who had already set up their shops were probably beta testers.
As I walked through the jam-packed streets, I saw countless people trading – a
classic element of all MMOs.

But, despite all the people in this crowded area, I didn’t see anyone besides
me who had a bow on their back.
Gossip is really a powerful thing! Especially when it’s news coming from beta
testers.

And now, I encountered another thing common to all MMOs.

[Oi, the small fry with the bow, get over here.]

Yep. No matter where you go, there will always be people who look down on
you.
Well, I didn’t want anything to do with those kinds of guys… I’ll just ignore
them and pretend to be really gloomy.

[Me, huh…]

I tried my best to hide my fed-up face.

[What are ya doing with that trash weapon? Already given up on playing the
game?]
[And also, what’s with your ugly face? You totally look like a boring NPC
character. Just die already.]

The pointless insults came one after another.

Pretty unlucky of me to have to deal with such a waste of time on the first
day…

Of course, with all the people on the first day, there’d inevitably be bad-
mouthed people like this.
Anyways, the 5 guys were still ranting at me.
I wanted to say, “Gyahaha, are you guys a reincarnation of some Mohican
tribe?”. [TN: The Mohicans are a native American tribe.]
Well, whatever. They’d get bored and leave soon.

[Well, a trash like you should just stay groveling inside the town.]

And with that, the party of 5 Mohicans left. Thanks to people like them, the
idea that the bow sucked was even more widespread.

… Well, that’s convenient for me.

Since I’m probably going solo anyways, it doesn’t really matter what other
people think of my skills.
It’d be nice to make a party, honestly, but I’m sure that everyone who has heard
the notorious weakness of the bow will stay far away from me.

That being said, I wasn’t a big fan of being stared at, so I quickly got moving.
My destination was the training area. In this game, it was a Training Arena.

Although it’s pretty tedious to train, the beta testers didn’t even have the
Training Arena.
Well, due to many complaints to the administration from beta testers about not
having a good way to safely practice their swordsmanship or magic, the
Training Arena was born.
On this point, I wanted to say to the beta testers, “Good job!”
The Training Arena doesn’t really change. For ranged users (archery, of
course, as well as throwing and magic), there are randomly moving targets to
use.
For melee players (swords, axes, spears, unarmed, etc.), there are straw
targets to practice with.

It appears that you can only train skills up to Lv 5 within the Training Arena.
And as expected of a place meant for Training, it’s much slower to level up
here than it is with monsters outside.
There’s also NPCs here that teach you how to use your weapon, learn magic
incantations, etc.
Thanks to all this, even though this for first-timers, it’s pretty easy to get the
hang of the game’s combat systems.
… that is, if you listen carefully to the NPCs.

After receiving instruction from various NPCs, I prepared right away to

practice with my bow and arrow.
In the Training Arena, you get a set of training equipment, and for bows and
throwing weapons, you get infinite ammo. It’s really a very useful feature.
And so, without any thought of commemorating the occasion, I prepared to take
my first shot.

[Before I can worry about whether my shots are landing, there’s another
problem…]

Pulling back the bow string was pretty easy, but it was much harder to load the
arrow properly.
The arrow kept falling off, and I was fumbling to try to get it to stay.
To be honest, I was kind of sad that I couldn’t do something so simple

Anyways, I tried to stay positive as I practice loading an arrow, shooting, and

then loading another arrow over and over again.
Well, the result of this was that I learned that my skill could be described as
“Extremely inaccurate”.
Without any guides or indicators of your arrow’s path, it’s really hard to aim
properly.
Even with practice, the weapon still has terrible performance, so I could
finally really understand why the bow was considered a trash weapon.
After practicing about 100 shots, I managed to hit the target twice.
At least 70 shots had only feebly tumbled off of my bow thanks to my trouble
with loading arrows properly.
I would probably never be able to reach a point where I could fire quickly
without fumbling.

But, regardless, I still kept focusing on practicing, thinking about nothing but
my bow and arrow.
My skill level had reached 5 a while ago, but my personal skill was still
terrible. Even if I were at Lv 99, if I couldn’t load a bow I would still be
weak.
Load, shoot, load, shoot, load, shoot. Thanks to repetition, I finally reached a
point where I could load smoothly about 80% of the time and hit the random
targets about 60% of the time, and the arrows that I shot mostly flew straight
paths.
I think at this point I could probably fight the weakest monsters, right?

For now, I returned my bow and arrow to the NPC. Next up was wind magic
practice.
Although it’s really important to have a staff to improve range, power, and
accuracy, you can use magic incantations barehanded and still have a chance of
hitting something.
For magic mediums (TN: as in, ways to use magic), staffs are the strongest,
followed by magic books, magic hands (these are similar to gloves), and magic
rings.
For pure magicians, staffs and rings are essential, and for magic fighters,
gloves and rings are the best.
Although, apart from staffs, all of these things are quite valuable, and it was
said that they are difficult for even high level craftsmen to make. So, it’s most
practical to try to get these items from NPCs.
After borrowing a staff, I used the lowest-level magic spell.

<Air Needle!>

A few small needles made of wind appeared and struck the taget.
In this world, Wind Cutter skills are ranked fairly well, but the beginner skills
are totally useless.
You can cut some simple substances, but other attributes can do more at lower
levels, so for a beginner it feels kind of lame.
Magic costs MP, but it has a far better hit rate than the bow and arrow.
Although, maybe that’s just because I still haven’t mastered Archery.
Anyways, I reached Lv 5 in Wind Magic, returned my staff, and started training
Kicking.

Plenty of others were here, and I saw a lot of them with one-handed swords,
two-handed swords, and spears attacking the straw dummies.
For now, I began with practicing my Low Kick by watching others.
Just by kicking with no target, I was slowly leveling up my Kicking skill a bit.
As I leveled, I started practicing a Middle Kick a bit too.
In real life I would never be able to kick so high, but as expected in a game, it
was possible for me to accomplish such feats here.
If I kept practicing, I could probably kick as high as someone’s head.
Having figured out the general weaknesses in my skills, I really wanted to try
out fighting some monsters.

In about half the time it took for Archery and Wind Magic, I reached Lv 5 in
Kicking.
Physical skills are easier to level, I guess.
My Physical Boost skill had also risen to Lv 3.
So it looks like that skill gets a bit of experience from training in any other
skill.

Anyways, it’s really great that a beginner can learn things so quickly in this
game.
Next up, it’s time to level up my skills as well as my personal ability through
some combat.
Since I was having so much fun, it was already past 3 AM in the real world.
I rented a room at the town’s inn and logged out.
By paying the rent, I learned that the game’s currency is Glows.
I’m pretty slow, huh.
 Chapter 3

After leaving the training fields, I logged out, had a meal, and hopped in the
bath…
And logged on again.

Well then, before completely leave, I better check out what equips I have.

Beginner Bow
A bow suitable for beginners. It’s weak, so it’s best to get a better weapon as
quickly as possible.
Atk+2, Endurance: Unlimited

Beginner Armor
A beginner overall armor (covers top and bottom). No armor type.
Def+5, Endurance: Unlimited

So, those are the kinds of equips I have. They have unlimited endurance so you
can never lose them.
Apart from using up endurance, it’s pretty much impossible to lose equipment.

Also, there are 4 types of armor masteries to help improve your usage of
armor.
Cloth Armor, Leather Armor, Light Armor, and Heavy Armor.
Of course, you can wear armor even if you don’t have mastery for it, and you’ll
get all the stats for it, but if you have no mastery and you wear something that’s
Heavy Armor, you’ll be weighed down so much that you basically won’t be
able to move.
No matter how high your defenses are, if you can’t move then you’re dead.
In other words, the benefit of armor mastery is that you can handle heavier
armor and have more mobility while wearing armor.
Light and cloth armor often give benefits to magic power and evasion power.
And while we’re talking about other skills… I’ll also explain the [Cooking]
skill.
In this game, there’s both [Hunger] and [Thirst].
If your Hunger bar runs dry, you lose HP, and if you’re too Thirsty then you
lose MP.
Dealing with this is as simple as eating and drinking.
Thus, even I went to purchase some bread and water from an NPC.
They both cost only 5 Glows each so there’s no need to be stingy.
I mean, if you get too stingy with food you’ll literally die…
The penalty for death is a 30 point reduction in all stats and -33% durability on
all equips.
If an equip’s durability reaches 0% from this, then it’ll be destroyed.

Anyways, that’s my long explanation. I’ve arrived at the field area.

Well then, I guess it’s time to hunt!… I really am just a happy guy right now.

[The first day… it’s as sweet as I expected!]

I sighed. The players in front of me…

[Ha! Burn and die, you!!]

[You’re my prey!!]
[You over there and here, you’re both dead! Haha!]
[Come on, bring on the next wave! These weaklings aren’t enough for me!]

The scene could only be described with the word “pandemonium”.

These guys are pretty wild, I thought as I stood there with my arms crossed,
watching.

[Well ~ It’ll be like this for the first few days.]

Said a girl’s voice from behind me.

A precious soul who would talk to the bow-encumbered me.
Finally, my first real conversation.

[Right? Everyone’s in such a frenzy.]

[Yeah it’s really like that ~~ Trying to get in a bit of hunting before night sets in
~~]

Huh? Night?

[Um, can I ask a question? Is there a day and night in this game?]

[Ah ~ ? There’s already been one night, you know ~ ?]

[I was in the training arena and then I logged out, so I didn’t know.]

[Ahhh ~ I see ~]

The girl explained that there’s a repeating cycle of 3 hours of daytime and 2
hours of nighttime.
When night falls, vision is decreased and monsters become a bit harder to deal
with.
The countermeasures are Light Magic’s Level 10 [Light], Fire Magic’s Level
15 [Torch], and Dark Magic’s Level 30 [Night Vision].
I guess I better level up my farsight skill.
It’s important for the ranger class to have farsight and night vision.

[I see, so basically it’ll be this wild until nighttime.]

[Yep, probably ~]

Well, there’s nothing I can do about it.

In that case, I better find something else to do for now.

[Thanks a lot for telling me about this!]

[No prob~! I’m Miri, wanna be friends~?]

How do I put it… she’s really carefree huh.

Well, it’s good to make new friends.

[My name’s Earth, nice to meet you.]

[Nice to meet you too ~]

After registering as friends, the girl called out [I’m heading back to town ~] as
she left.

I left the field to try to find some herbs.

Activating my farsight ability, I left the hunting people to go collect some
Unidentified Herbs.
Why are they called Unidentified Herbs? Well…

[Effect Unknown…]

So that’s why. It could be helpful or dangerous. Basically in the game you can’t
just pick up an item and know what it is unless you’re a pro identifier. [TN:
The second sentence here is ○○, I have almost no idea what it means
so I just guessed. Game lingo too hard for me :(]
After you get an item, don’t know what type of item it is.
Although, it seems pretty unlikely that there’d be dangerous herbs in a
beginning field… right?
Anyways I hope so, since I’m gonna pick herbs until nightfall.

Night. A ton of players returned back to town, selling their monster drops and
eating. I crouched down by some stairs in a corner and began identifying my
herbs.
Although you can’t tell what a herb is from first glance, if you look at it for a
while then its true identity will be revealed.
The reason is…

Medicine Lv 3.

It seeems like, by having the medicine skill, you can identify herbs. I got to
level 2 and then 3, and then realized I could recognize antidote herbs and
poisonous herbs.
It suddenly felt really stuffy, though I was holding just a single herb.

> Suffocation Plant.

> If you eat this, you’ll stop breathing immediately and die.
> This should definitely not be eaten!
> Herb Item

Wow… that’s a super dangerous herb! What were you thinking,

administrators?? I can’t be the only one who thinks this is crazy, right?

After identifying the herbs I tried making some potions.

I went to the potion shop across the street and bought an alchemy set that I
could carry.
It cost 400 Gold. You start with 1500 Gold. Since the inn charges 10 Gold a
night, I currently have 1080 Gold.
The other 10 Gold I had spent on food.
Those are necessary expenses so it can’t be helped.

I learned how to make potions.

Crush the herbs > Blend it with distilled water and add heat > Done!
Looks like it’s that simple.
Although it feels like if you mess it up then you’ve wasted a lot of time.
That’s the feeling I get from potion-making.

> Common Healing Potion.

> The basis of all healing items. Recover 11% of HP.

In this game if you make a potion successfully once then you can use up the rest
of your ingredients all together for the rest of the potions. So, I turned all my
herbs into potions.
I also made some antidote potions, although I don’t think I’ll need them yet.
My Steady Fingers skill also increased as I kept making more potions.
As for the poisonous herb and suffocation herb, I can’t use them yet.
I’m don’t meet the requirements, that’s why.

From the antidote herb, I got this item:

> Common Anti-Poison Potion

> The weakest antidote potion. Failure rate increases when dealing with
stronger poisons.

By the way, there’s a potion merchant in town.

I’ll go sell my potions to him for some money.
Actually, it looks like my potions are 1% stronger so I might keep them. I think
I’ll keep the antidote potions too, I might need them!

I’ve leveled up my medicine skill a bit, so I think it’s fine to stop here for
today…
I went to the inn and logged out, and got ready to sleep in real life too.
I bet my colleagues are gonna be out all night again.

Skills
Archery Lv 5
Kicking Lv 5
Farsight Lv 4
Wind Magic Lv 5
Crafting Lv 3
Cooking Lv 1
Woodworking Lv 1
Medicine Lv 7
Stealth Lv 1
Physical Ability Lv 5
 Chapter 4

The next day.

I eat my breakfast and after finishing my laundry I log in

Do you need to have a wife to do your housework?

The fields were pratically empty, but there were still people on it so I thought
to hunt in the afternoon was worth it or not.

During the morning I collected medicinal herbs, and after that I produce some
potions to sell.

Grinding the medicinal plants produces a pleasant sound that brings peace to
my soul.

Because of that I produce about 50% of the potions in bulk.

(TN: When author mentions morning and afternoon is refering to IRL time)

When NPC’s sell potions the prices are 6 goru per potion. Because the
production tools don’t deteriorate it is possible to make some money.

With the money I earned by producing potions I go out and buy production
tools this time for cooking and carpentry. This way I can think of producing
other products.

The work for this morning is done, so I log out and have lunch. It is very
important to eat properly.

I login and wait for dawn. (TN: Don’t forget the day-night cycle is 3h day/2h
night)
People are saying that the visibility during the night is really bad. Besides
poison monsters get excited at night.

A guy that looked like a thief wearing leather armor apperantly suffered a
triple combo from the poison, surprise attack and impatience because of low
visibility; if you don’t carry an antidote with you then you will most likely die
at night.

It seems that people that can cast Lv10 light magic can solve this problem and
go out a bit earlier, but still the majority of players still wait to get less dark.

Finally I greet the daybreak and depart to the field.

Overall, the majority of the parties are aiming for the next field. To the extent
that the first field has few people.

Either way I will be safe because I fight at long range with the bow.

I found a good place with the weakest type of monster, the horned rabbit.

As it is, this type of monster has a very small horn.

However, even though things may appear this way it is better not to make fun of
this monster.

At least, there isn’t the fear of suffering a critical hit from it.

Without worrying about it, I set up the bow.

For the time being, I attack the horned rabbit from behind, just in case.

Because one of the characteristic of the bow is that you can’t do rapid fire
(continuos attacks) the first shot is very important.

I firmly take a stance….

[Fast…] Hiyu! (TN: Hiyu = sound of something whizzing by…in this case the
arrow)
The arrow cuts the wind like a sword and keeps flying towards the horned
rabbit.

If this hits! I believed for a moment…the horned rabbit jumps up and down and
evades the arrow.

[Hmm!?]

Although I shot from the rabbit’s back he still avoided!? I lightly panic.

The horned rabbit takes the combat system and starts to run vigorously over
here.

There is still space left to shoot another arrow. I barely, once again, aim at the
rabbit. Take a stance as soon as possible…zing!

[Pigi~tsu!?]

Even though I aimed at this guy head, the aim shifted a little and I hit his foot. It
seems the accuracy lowers because I was rushing.

Even with the arrow in his foot the horned rabbit doesn’t lose any speed…

(TN: Shout sound)

I jumped as I shout. The small horn is aimed at me. If I get hit wearing this
useless equipment it’s not good.

However.

[Kick]

I presented a kick in the face of the horned rabbit by raising my foot from the
bottom like an uppercut to the face.

[Pu ,, Pugyururu Ruru … ]

I’m not a bit sad? The horned rabbit raises his voice as he falls to the ground.
When translate into Japanese, probably (TN: It’s actually in the raw: )

[Hi , Hidoi~i ~I~i …] (TN: Hidoi = cruel/heartless)

I have heard it…however there isn’t any mercy. The horned rabbit fell in the
ground but it still had some HP left. So I just kick him again like a football free
kick.
I kick it and he flew.

[Pugi~yu ~ ~ ~ ~ …]…Kashan

The HP vanishes because of the kick. Apparently the body was shattered.

It dropped two items [Horned Rabbit Meat] and [Horned Rabbit Skin]

I trained the kick instead the bow skill!

At least it solved the fight. Suddenly from behind…

[GOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAL!] A playful voice says.

While looking back immediately,

[This is not football!?] (TN: Football aka soccer) I shouted back.

I turn around and I see a two-handed sword warrior wearing heavy armor
bursting out laughing

[No, no, it looks good…Ahhahha ha ha ha!]

[I don’t understand why you’re laughing like that!]

When he calms down [I’m called Zwei], a simple self-introduction. I also

introduce myself.

[What was so interesting back there?]

The reason it seems is that when I was fighting against the horned rabbit, it was
the first time Zwei heard the sound that came out of the horned rabbit.
Moreover, it seems it was really interesting when the horned rabbit raised his
voice when he was blown away by the free kick

And at the end of the talk…

[Justice is amusing!] (TN: Apparently this is a pun…)

[Are you a comedian?] This voice echoed around.

Though Zwei’s purpose is to be amusing.

Afterwards, I plunge myself.

It is sad and grieves my mind to have to deal with such imitation of cheap
drama.

Moreover, right in the middle of the field. Someone has absolutely seen us. .

[Miss Millie told me that you are quite interesting and I came to see it]

To say that you are friends with that girl…

[I didn’t intend to make this a spectacle…] I complain back.

[Do you want to register as a friend?]

I don’t care anymore

[But I cannot be a comedian partner]

I added. Immediately I stop moving and my shoulder twitched. I start talking

with Zwei

This person is no good…I have to be aware of his skills (TN: Comedian

skills!?). We analyzed what type of practical joke makes me laugh.

I’m afraid that maybe I was hasty accepting the friend registration.

[Sooner or later, we should play as a party, what do you think?]

However, Zwei left without a proper reply.

After making sure Zwei was heading to the town, I notice incidentally.

[How time consuming it was for me to kill just one animal monster]

It is a fact that time passes after I had the conversation with Zwei, but I still
had time to go on a monster extermination.

It is a typical Japanese mistake to feel uneasy of what will happen in the future
but a [Painful headache] is an odd way to express what came to my mind. (TN:
I just butchered this paragraph! But I don’t think is important to the overall
story >.>)

Skill status:

[Bow] level 5

[Kick] level 6

[Far Sight] level 6

[Wind Magic] level 5

[Crafting] level 6

[Cooking] level 1

[Woodworking] level 1

[Medicine] level 9

[Stealth] level 1

[Physical Boost] level 8

 Chapter 5

(TN: Okay, I’m confused with the first part of this chapter but I think he has
been hunting all of those rabbits with the kick/wind needle strategy instead
with the bow…or at least until he figures it out why the arrows don’t hit the
rabbits…!)

After I exhaust my strength I had a conversation with Zwei.

Afterwards, tens of horned rabbits were hunted

I want to bring down at least several more because the number of dropped
items for both the meat and skin is 30.

It says that the drop rate is not 100% (TN: I don’t know where it says, maybe
some guide… :/)

However, only to bring down several horned rabbits is not that easy.

[All the arrows fired from the blind spots, such as, the back or the side, are
dodged.]

We could say it was by mere luck that they were jumping up and down and I
missed 2 or 3 shots, but all of the arrows miss.

[The opponent is aware of my attacks for some reason]

It is necessary to give it some thought to understand why it is like this

By the way, I also tried out [Wind Magic] by using wind needles as my first
shot.

The result was that I hit reasonably well. The magic to some extent can home
my opponent, therefore the accuracy rate compared to the bow is better.

But [The first needle shot in the blind spot is noticed and evaded]

That part was common.

Because there is homing ability, if the other party doesn’t evade, the hit rate
should be close to 100%.

And I thought [Do all monsters share the same common logic?]

I have been hunting until now, so I don’t have many arrows left, however I
don’t want to return without getting some answers.

So I align a goblin as a target that happened to be walking around.

Of course, I use [Far Sight] so it does not found me and I attack him from
behind.

Kirikirikirikiri…hiyuon! (TN: Random goblin gibberish)

Aim at the goblin’s head. Because I wasn’t exposed I pulled the bow calmly.

It was possible to shoot…depending on the behavior of the goblin (TN:

Anticipate the shot)

… Zuburi

The piercing sound reaches the ears of the living animals. It was a sound that I
never heard once when hunting horned rabbits.

Was the goblin confused by the sudden pain?

It’s holding his head.

Of course I don’t miss such a chance and shot the next arrow without reserve.

The next arrow was aimed at the body and it seems it was accurate because I
hit the body and even get the arrow stuck on the globin’s body.
However, it doesn’t pierce similar to the shoot that I aimed at head.

In other words, it seems a headshot counts as a vital point.

I shot 2 arrows at the globin and decrease the HP by about 60%.

The 2 wooden arrows hit simultaneously the goblin and then disappear.

The goblin turns here and starts running, shaking in anger.

[Wind needle!]

Instead of using the bow forcibly I choose to use magic.

I cast the magic and it hits. And now, I change my mental attitude to melee
combat in order to give the decisive blow with a kick.

[“Gyagyagya!]

As soon as the strange voice came out, a dagger that the goblin was holding
shined for a brief moment and he did a reverse slash from the lower left to the
upper right in a diagonally manner.

Because he was holding a dagger I thought he was going to stab instead. That
wrong though made me dodge slowly and I received a direct hit.

The pain kicks in and 40% of HP is blown off at once.

Nonetheless, it seems that the opponent is higher level than me.

Furthermore, the goblin was pleased to see that I was falling back because of
the pain.

The goblin attacks while having a smile on his face.

Did you think I was weak at melee range because I only used a bow and magic
before?

However, such standards don’t exist.

Unlike the first arts, I made a dull movement to simulate a stab.

The goblin relaxed his guard allowing me to kick his arm.

[Gugya!?]

It was obvious that he didn’t expect a kick! The goblin who massaged his hand
yelled out loud.

I applaud the blockhead to try to understand the difference of the movement I

did earlier in the middle of a fight .

As soon as the goblin stops moving to think about it I dealt him a blow with my
heel.

Since the arrow shot from the bow a little while ago to the head was very
effective. There is no reason to believe that a heel drop to the head would not
be effective to smash up the goblin’s head.

[Gori] a thick sound that I anticipate correctly that sounds similar to a reply
(TN: Just a goblin saying “Gori” after getting kicked in the head -.-‘ )

After I smashed up the goblin, he then grovels in the ground until he

disappears.

I put together my thoughts while I drink a potion.

At least, it hit the goblin.(TN: The arrow from the blind spot)

There wasn’t any movement to take an evasive action.

Then, why does a lower-rank rabbit avoid while it is in the same field?

Is it the race? Demi-human and animal, an unpleasant wild animal?

How would a real hunter behave? Of course is common sense to stay away
from the prey, don’t make any noise and keep away from downwind so the prey
doesn’t smell you.
What more….

… No way, bloodthirst? In other words, awareness?

In short, the horned rabbits are a beast type that possesses [Instinct], do I own
a passive skill to confront that?

So I anticipated that the bloodthirst is felt in the moment of the attack.

Did you evade the moment you felt the thirst for blood?

….It can be. If is the game designers of this game, it is possible to be like that.

The goblin only moved when he felt the pain.

However, to speak out loud the skill name to erase the presence…

It is a behavior that is easier said than done.

When the attack is directed to it, its instincts will alert them.

You need to hide every sense… it’s necessary…

Indeed it was said that I can’t use it, but is…good for Ranger occupation… Is
the [Stealth] skill usable?

Sharp monsters have [Instinct], so does the [Stealth] skill exist to deceive or to
attack such monsters?

In other words, if used as a [Defensive] skill it may allow one to escape, but if
you use it to catch the enemy off guard, is it a [Offensive] skill?

Perhaps [Archery] in itself was considered to be a waste weapon in beta test

because it wasn’t studied properly.

Short-range weapons, especially the dagger and knife are used by assassins.

But still, even after they hide their body I can still hear the sounds and smells,
when the wind blows. Therefore to beast type monster it is even easier.
Therefore, the assumption that [Stealth] was a waste skill without an effect to
run away…was wrong.

There is value to try it out.

I return to the town to replenish the wooden arrows, by getting 50 more.

[Which by the way cost 2 guro per arrow, and 15 guro is one iron]

I deposited the dropped items in the warehouse and then leave for the field
again.

After I walk just a little I easily found a horned rabbit.

Fortunately, the back of the horned rabbit is turn to me and it seems he still
didn’t notice me.

However, from here on is what is important.

…[Stealth]

I’m aware of my body presence has thinned out by saying the skill out loud.

I approach to get in bow range without making a sound.

My MP is decreasing rapidly, but it doesn’t matter now

I continue to approach and then I setup the bow calmly.

Somehow, I think even the sound of pulling the bow string is quieter than usual.

I aim firmly at the target and shoot an arrow. The moment I shoot the arrow the
[Stealth] skill is forcibly released.

The arrow goes towards the horned rabbit like before…

The difference is that now the arrow went through the horned rabbit.

[Pigiyu!?]
I understand that reaction nicely…

I prepare to shot again but…there wasn’t a need to do it.

The horned rabbit just collapsed and passed away.

In other words, it was an [Instant Death].

I was hoping to hit the target, but not to insta-kill it.

There isn’t enough power to insta-kill with a wooden arrow and a

beginner’s bow.

To understand the results of the previous battle I quickly log off, and
afterwards I logon again.

The result, it was that the [Sneak Attack], [Pinpoint Hit] and [Critical Hit]
combined made the damage multiplier higher

When I went to go look for an answer…

I succeed in the sneak attack by using [Stealth]

Pinpoint hit…It succeeds only when I attack a specific part.

Critical hit…when it hits the other party’s weak point. But this rarely leads to
instant death.

However, if there are opponents with higher rank this will not happen.

[Attention!] This help is only disclosed to players that succeed once.

This was the explanation that appeared.

Wait…doesn’t this sound like a Ranger?

If you are playing as a party against a higher level opponents you need to have
a nice basic foundation if not it will be completely up to fate.
It is necessary to use the bow as much as possible to increase in power.

Because I’m solo playing whether the bow is useless is connected directly to
my lifeline.

I only have to rest down for a few minutes to recover MP and afterwards I can
challenge it next.

[That way…is possible]

I muttered.

When I combine a waste skill with a said scrap weapon then the result is great.
If you like card games then this combo would be your favorite.

And, only I can used it because of the bad reputation this skills have with the
other players.

Of course it’s not a cheat because it’s a mechanic of the game.

Because the versatility is low, I’m not OP, but the best result is still when you
hit the vital points.

While being satisfied enough with the results I return back to the town.

Another reason is because it was getting dark, but, also next I want to stay
inside the town.

Skill status:

:
[Bow] Level 10

[Kick] Level 9

[Far Sight] Level 8

[Wind Magic] Level 7

[Crafting] Level 6

[Cooking] Level 1

[Woodworking] Level 1

[Medicine] Level 9

[Stealth] Level 3

[Physical Boost] Level 10

ExP 2 (TN: Maybe the ExP points needed to “buy” new skills)
Critical return is critical (TN: )

At last we come to look like a Ranger?

Even though, the skills I use are seen as garbage if you know how to use them
properly then you’ll have unexpected strength.
 Chapter 6

Author Note: It is not possible to win because the living beings to be alive
need more than weapons

With the arrival of the night in the game, a lot of players return to the town.
Because the light situation is still not stable, as of yet.
Perhaps this is the timing to go and rest.

The monsters that attack do it with killing intent and things get quite scary
because of that.
With that in mind, I take a rest.
There will be many people who will go replenish their potions and food.
Well, I’m a little different in that aspect.
While I think so, I eat the bread sold by the NPC’s.

Bread

Bread to satisfy hunger. Necessary to prevent death by starvation.

Cooking evaluation: 3.

To be honest it is not delicious.

Even though there is not a problem, but…

[I want to eat delicious food even inside the game!]

The desire (for good food) increases.

The beta group proceeds ahead to level up than majority of the other players
who started on the official release.
I have notice quite a few people whose main occupation is crafting are casual
players.
I seem to be able to get advice from the beta players that are playing as
crafters.

But it appears [Cooking] didn’t acquire that many players.

Many players think that eating anything is ok, even the NPC bread that is
extremely unappetizing.
It doesn’t mean in reality that they are wrong…
If I was playing any other game I would probably feel the same.
However, this world has an accurate sense of taste.
If that is the case, then I believe there is a need to exist delicious meals.

If someone remodel [For example, curry] that Japanese love, with ingredients
such as horned rabbit meat.

I decided the field of study I will develop next. [Cooking] skill is level 1.

There is no way to be able to cook elaborate dishes.

Let’s first think for the time being.
That said seasoning is needed.
I go to a certain cooking ingredient shop next to a NPC food store and buy the
seasonings.

Salt
The most basic but also important seasoning.
Pepper
In the trading days it would cost its weight in gold.
It complements the taste of meat dishes.
Herbs
The fragrance brings peace and calm.
You may use it for cooking but it’s also possible to eat directly and has good
results.
I restored automatically three points of MP when I eat seasonings.

The direction I’m going with cooking for now is to make grilled steak.

I went to an alley and start to develop a beginner set meal, because if I cook in
the Main Street I would only became an obstacle for the people passing by.
I take out a frying pan, a mobile cooker and a mobile table.
To be collected this small, as one would expect of a game. (TN: Reference to
inventory…I think!)
I mix the horned rabbit meat with oil to get familiarized with it.
I grilled moderately until I hear a good sound, afterwards I sprinkle evenly
with salt and pepper.
I move the meat to a plate so that I can see the color.
I don’t have any problem at all in carrying it in my inventory.

Rabbit steak

Simply grilled horned rabbit meat.

Cooking evaluation: 2

2! NPC bread is more delicious than this…

For now let’s eat to understand, I hope…without thinking I eat.

The result….it’s hard.

It tastes like meat but it is so hard that it will never taste any good.
Moreover, it stinks a little too.
The taste of the salt and the pepper is not good either…I’m convinced about
the evaluation of 2.

Ok, I have to break the hard section, the muscle…

Then how should I manage the muscle, I wonder…
I take the cooking knife and lightly cut the meat before grilling it. On the cuts
that I made on the meat I put some salt and pepper, I think that will improve the
taste.
To eliminate the smell let’s use some herbs.

By the way the cooking set contains a pot, a knife, a chopping board, a frying
pan, a gas burner (portable cooking stove) and 6 tables.

The result of grilling another time…

Rabbit herb steak

Horned rabbit meat where herbs were used to erase the smell. The smell
disappears, and it was processed so the meat became softer.

Cooking evaluation: 5

Rate of 5…it seems the idea is not wrong.

I immediately try it….the meat is soft and the herb smell is pleasant.
Salt and pepper also worked moderately well, I can be satisfied. However,
product evaluation goes up to 10. In other words I’m still half way.
The [Cooking] skill is still low, so it may not be possible to raise the
evaluation up to 10.
Fortunately, there is still enough material to test various things.
After thinking about some ideas for around 30 minutes I try them, and then eat
the dishes.
I repeat this process countless times until I completed the rabbit steak.

Warm water herbs rabbit steak

Horned rabbit meat grilled after being boiled.

The smell is erased because the herbs were put in the water used to boil the
meat.
I balance the softness and the taste of the meat that you can’t even think that it
was horned rabbit meat.
 Cooking evaluation: 7

And evaluation of 7 arrived.

Even though boiling the meat for afterwards grilling it may be weird but by
following my guts I achieve a correct answer in respect on how to cook the
horned rabbit meat.
Probably I didn’t have a cooking evaluation of 10 because my [cooking] skill
is hopelessly low.
However the result for my effort is the steak right in front of my eyes, the
delicious smell is unbelievable and all this comes from the meat of the weakest
type of monster.
A satisfying dish was made.
After slowly tasting it, the only thing left to do is eat. So Itadakima…

[Wait a minute!]

We…?! (TN: surprised? ……)

When I look around at my surroundings I wonder why there are so many

players gathering around me…
When I was absorbed in the cooking trial and errors I didn’t noticed
anything…
Their eyes were glaring, I was secretly terrified.

[What is going on?] I barely expressed my opinion.

However, the players there appear that didn’t even see me.

The horned rabbit meat that I cooked and was about to eat was being stared at!
(TN…meeeeeat! *drool*)

And, their eyes talked.

[[[[[[[[[I want to eat!]]]]]]]]

I felt the danger and quietly I started to put my cooking set in my inventory.
I also stored the rabbit steak.

[He is leaving….]

I hurriedly tried to flee after someone said that. While knowing that resistance
was useless.And….it really was useless to resist.

I don’t want to speak too much about what happen next.

I’m told that when I was trying to grill the steak through trial and error, it
seems that the sound of grilling and the fragrant smell of meat attracted the
appetite of lots of players that were in the Main Street.
And then the players started to deviate from the Main Street until they found me
grilling meat using my [cooking] skills.

Needless to say that I’m incredulous on how many people are staring at me
silently.

[Don’t disturb him until he completes the dish, then we eat]

I who was desperate trying out new ways of cooking the steak didn’t realize
the good smell of meat scattering and I got caught in the encirclement.

Using human-wave tactics [There is no more meat]

[We were waiting until now for you to complete] When I’m going to escape
[Wait!] Someone says.

There is no escape, I sadly ha to keep grilling more horned rabbit meat until
everyone was satisfied.
Thanks for that it was really late at night, and let me add that the next day was a
painful workday.

Skill situation:

[Bow] Level 10
[Kick] Level 9
[Far Sight] Level 8
[Wind Magic] Level 7
[Crafting] Level 9
[Cooking] Level 14
[Woodworking] Level 1
[Medicine] Level 9
[Stealth] Level 3
[Physical Boost] Level 11

ExP3
And, to say this is a cooking story
When it is a Japanese, in any kind of world, they always want to make
delicious meal

(TN: Curiosity: meal in Japanese has the character that means rice)
 Chapter 7

A few days have passed since the last steak grilling hell.

[Right clear, left clear…advance forward…]

Why I’m walking so carefully after log in, you may ask?

[Yes, the chef is secured!] Along with the voice my shoulder is firmly secured.
I turn around and see that it’s not just one person, there are several.

[GYAAAAAAAA!] I scream like when I’m watching horror movies.

The surrounding people [Ah. You are caught…you are caught] and I consent.

This is what my daily life…became.

The start of all this was last grilling steak event.

“After humans ascend they don’t want to go down.”

I don’t know who said that remark, but people who have eat my warm water
herb rabbit steak at least once, afterwards they don’t want anything else, to the
point that the orders are so many that I want to run away.

The people ordering say

[After eating NPC’s dry bread…] (TN: Basically complain about how could
they have been eating bread for so long)

And I still have more problems piling up.

It first happened after [Cooking] skill reached level 15. It made so the cooking
evaluation reached 8.

And apperantly when I reach cooking evaluation 8 the rabbit steak started
to give a status of [strengthening buff].

Though I said like it’s a problem but no, it is a very good thing.

Further adding to that, most players that are battling in the front lines are
making the combat system there main one. So, basically they only use their ExP
points for skills useful in battles like attack and support skills.

And to make a second character there are additional fees, that means that to
take cooking in the second character is troublesome.

The combination of the above reasons resulted in a huge amount of orders for
my food.

Desperately, I tried to overcharged the price [The steaks now are 100 goru
each] That is 20 times more the price of NPC bread…

Nevertheless, there was not even an attempt in negotiating the price.

Err…still…thanks!

Vanguard players weapon skills somehow have reached level 30, meaning they
need to advance in a specialization.

Until now they had the [Sword] skill and they can specialize the [Sword] skill
to [One handed sword, two-handed sword, one-handed ax, dual ax] (TN: raw
don’t mention two handed ax, I don’t know if it’s a typo or not…
)

However, it turns out that by using stronger arts, the decrease of the hunger
meter becames more intense!

Naturally, they eat bread because one dies if they don’t eat anything. However,
one bread is not enough to stop the intense decrease of the hunger meter
because of the use of these arts during the battle.
Magician system has skills to improve the regeneration of MP, but if you’re not
a magician type player then the only method to increase the hunger meter is by
eating.

Especially, warriors that use physical arts, such as sword art, or hand-to-hand
fighting art the decrease of their hunger meter is intense making them buy a lot
of bread compared to the little consumption from magic arts.

Even though bread is cheap, it’s troublesome to be eating all the time.

That is until the appearance of the horned rabbit meat steak!

Though the taste is also one of the points, but what attracted most of
the attention was the amount of hunger recovered from it.

The rabbit steak has hunger saturation a dozen times higher than the bread.
Also, because the cooking evaluation is 8 you get a small strength buff for a
long time and you could get it for more time as long as the cooking evaluation
went up.

It is then more profitable to eat the meat steak even though it costs 100 goru,
which is 20 times more the price you pay for the bread.

For me 100 goru is decent money, but for the front players it is just some small
change.

If I get caught once, I only log out until about 23.30 because I stay earnestly
cooking all day long. Of course there is no escape.

[Cooking skill]? Already exceeded level 20 long ago. A ranger line of work
should be to be a chef.

I spend all my time cooking while repressing my feelings that I’m troubled
with.

When I’m not found I sew and raise my [Woodworking] skill.

Woodworkers usually make shields and staffs. I can’t do anything else but
make my own bow because no other woodworker makes bows.
I cut a tree and gather feathers from the bird’s nest that was in the tree, then I
make wooden arrows, that way I raise up my [Woodworking] skill after that I
prepare materials for the base of the bow.

But I still am very busy with cooking.

Skills are unlikely to rise in the first field trough combat.

It is time to go to the next field.

I want to change my initial useless weapon and armor.

The bow I made by myself…the armor I will buy it from other craftsman
player.

Because I have been cooking like crazy I increased my funds by a lot.

I make up my mind to order something good.

Since the repertoire with only the rabbit steak is too boring/cheap?, I go to the
food stores and I buy carrots, onions, green peppers and cabbages. I use the
Dread Wolf meat I bought from other players and I produce stir-fried
vegetables with meat. (Gives a small increase to INT)

Further, I produce a pseudo-herbal tea that tastes a bit bitter by crushing finely
some herbs and mixing in plain water because drinking only water is not that
great. (it gives an additional 5%MP recovery, small natural MP recovery)

Because the repertoire now has food in it that benefits the magician system.
The magician type players who knew this also request more cooking from me.

In addition, the MP recovery potion has yet to appear on the market, so the
orders for it don’t stop.

Like that, I go away more and more from my original purpose…

Because if I get caught it is cooking hell, do I even sense any danger?

I cannot but smile wryly in my abilities rising.

While it is nice to buy my own skill, but the amount is quite severe.
Because my play time is all spend cooking, I’m desperate.

Even if I become in such a desperate state, resistance is useless.

I return home from work, take a bath and afterwards eat a meal.

It is time to log in and try out some human wave tactics, a naturally reverse
game of tag occurs that cannot be laughed at.

Of course I receive friend and guild invites, but I decline all of them…

The few friends I have, Millie and Zwei, would support me every time I would
get caught…

Really why did this happen….

I was greatly perplexed when I discover an explanatory note on the bulletin

board for the chef location saying that he was in a small road near a food
ingredient store.

Skill status:

[Bow] Level 11

[Kick] Level 12

[Far Sight] Level 8

[Wind Magic] Level 9

[Crafting] Level 15

[Cooking] Level 23

[Woodworking] Level 4

[Medicine] Level 9

[Stealth] Level 7
[Psychical Boost] Level 14

ExP 5

A talk doesn’t easily get worse.

When it becomes slow paced.

 Chapter 8

The day when I could do something more than cooking arrived…while I watch
over the cooking I did some woodwork.

When the [Cooking] skill reached level 20 I learned a new sub-skill [Cooking
Acceleration]

The skill has an effect that shortens greatly the time it takes to cook something,
be it grilling or boiling it.

However. It is useless to demonstrate the concentration that I develop in the

cooking hell if I relax and don’t show consistency.

I finished the order of dishes at a high speed, while maintaining quality. That is
the true meaning of concentrate in the work.

Whatever, finally I can begin to do some woodwork. The goal of course is to

make the best bow possible.

It’s truly reckless to go to the next field with a beginner bow with attack power
of 2.

Since the material is already prepared, I start production at once. First of all,
the simplest way of making a bow is by cutting planks and producing a bow.

Because the [Woodworking] skill is still low the composite bow is rather
weak.

It is foolish to think something good would come out of it with the present skill
level…

I began to cut out the shape of the bow, I do some small trimming to create a
grip so it’s easier to handle and the bow doesn’t slip from the hands….I set up
the bowstring and it’s complete.

In reality I don’t know the manufacture method to make a bow.

Anyway it was completed. The performance…

Beginner Woodworker’s Bow

ATK +4

Bow made by someone that is training in the arts of woodwork. Inadequate to

use against goblin.

Production evaluation: 3

Its performance is at least better than the beginner’s bow.

For the first time making a bow it’s damn good.

Even with low [Woodworking] skills, the [Crafting] skill is rather high,
because it allows a rather high degree of correction making it a very effective
skill.

To raise the [Woodworking] skill I start to mass-produce.

Afterwards I will be able to make good use of the materials but for now not
really.

Then I remember the time when I started cooking [I fiddle around with the
fabrication process…].

I not only grill but also boil using herbs, as a result of messing around, I
reached a good result.

Then, will it also work for woodwork?

It is fun to produce things by trial and error. I try to improve the bow by using 1
type of plank that bends easily and then 2 more planks but of a more rigid type.

I place all the planks in the shape of a bow and put the hard wood planks in the
right and left. (TN: hard wood/ soft wood/ hard wood)

Does the bow performance get better if both wood characteristics complement
each other?

I thought so.

I shape three planks in form of a bow and then overlap them.

I attach the three planks so it doesn’t fall apart, in addition, I made a latch
below the central section. (TN: not an archery expert, but I think is where the
arrow lays in the bow…)

I shave the surface in a curved manner, thinking that I would get a better
balance.

After handling the bow numerous times to make sure everything is ok I put the
bowstring.

I confirm many times the strength and balance of the bow because it would not
be funny if in the middle of the battle the bow dismantles….

Because I used different types of wood the bow is white in the central area
while black in its borders. Like that, the bow was completed.

The result was that until now was the best bow I produced.

Prototype composite wood bow

ATK +12

The bow was born from the idea of combining more the one type of wood in
one single bow. Even though the performance is good, the maintenance of the
 bow is difficult.

Production evaluation: 5

I improved greatly from a beginner’s bow with ATK+2.

For the time being, I decided to go with this.

Because two kinds of wood were used I understand the explanation that will
be hard to maintain such bow.

Even if it is a difficult bow to maintain I still have no doubts about its

performance.

Now that the weapon is done, what is left to get is the armor gear.

I went to consult the craftsman player about the armor gear.

Mostly because armor craftsman create armor gear with a weapon holder for
the majority of weapon. When I reach (the shop) I found one player with a boy
type appearance.

In a signboard [Sell armor, Buy materials]

When I was thinking if this craftsman was alone, someone call out to me…

[Please come in, Chef-san!]

It was my first time meeting him but already he is calling me chef.

Trying to not get depressed, I told him that I was looking for armor.

[What do you want? What mastery you have?]

[I want to discuss that point. Because I don’t have leather or cloth mastery] I
convey honestly that I don’t have any type of mastery.

It can’t be helped to show ones true hands…

[Well, we only have leather armor. It seems you aren’t from magician system?]
He concluded easily

I already had many conversations like these one up until now.

[I agree. I don’t want cloth armor because it would be a hindrance to use the
bow…]. The mainstream for cloth system is mostly robes.

Though of course there are clothes, too, but for now they aren’t considered
armor but an avatar item (TN: Appearance item)

There are many players who use them habitually as plain clothes in the
downtown.

[You mean…you are the archer that got entangled with those bad players in the
first day…]

[It’s me “Maaarioo”… (TN: nothing to see here keep moving >.>) But since
then I didn’t meet them anymore so I’m relief for that.]

That accusation is troublesome, but I’m’ going to avoid useless interrogation.

As long they don’t obstruct with bad-mouthing.
There isn’t a reason to strike the brats one-by-one… (TN: This paragraph just
killed my brain…but it’s not important for the overall story!)

[Anyway, I want you to estimate the cost of a good set of leather armor, is it
good?] To achieve my purpose I start slowly trying to negotiate.

[Then how about this…I just finished making some werewolf leather. It is
considerably strong and it doesn’t need any mastery because it’s not that heavy,
at least that is what I recommend]

Werewolf is a monster that is quit ahead. There are people who already are
killing it and selling it here to produce armor.

Even if it’s a superior armor I still can use it, but…

[Lowest price? Of course we are talking about a complete set here…] I have
86000 goru on me. I didn’t keep cooking only for show…although I had to
purchase some seasonings and ingredients, I, who still has not left the first
field, has a lot of money.

[There isn’t that much leather circulating around here, so for a full set it will
be 68000 goru, please!] Well, it would be normal for prices to be higher if the
leather doesn’t circulate. But I don’t need to be stingy with the armor which is
going to protect my life.

[Ok, I will buy a full set for the price you are asking]

[Then that concludes the business talk, thank you!]

Thus equipped with a new weapon and new armor I was ready to aim for the
next field.

By the way, the stats of the armor are the following:

Werewolf Leather Set

Head DEF: +5

Body DEF: + 15

Pants DEF: + 13

Arm DEF: +8

Leg DEF: +6

When the full set is equipped there is a small ATK rise

Skill status:

[Archery] Level 11

[Kick] Level 12
[Far Sight] Level 8

[Wind Magic] Level 9

[Crafting] Level 17

[Cooking] Level 25

[Woodworking] Level 9

[Medicine] Level 9

[Stealth] Level 7

[Physical Boost] Level 15

ExP 5
 Chapter 9

I’m now at the area where trees grow sparsely across the meadow.

Is this a rough distinction for the second field?

Going further ahead the number of trees increases until it forms a forest,
beyond that it seems it’s the third field.

Now now, to be impatient isn’t good. I will be able to slowly hunt in this area
because there are few people.

It is sad, but cooking has been firmly established in the usual place, but…

I placed a vending machine to sell the dishes for me.

Steak – 300 goru

Stir-fried vegetables with meat – 250 goru

Pseudo-herbal tea – 400 goru

And for those who say that potion production is useless, I made a brand new
potion.

Here is the performance:

Uncommon Healing Potion (Grape Flavor)

 Potion recovers 18% of the maximum HP

In addition, because it has grape juice added to it, it will also recover the
thirst meter.

Creation quality: 6

It’s a product that can be used both as a drink as well as a potion.

How long will it take until [Medicine] skill stops being called useless…?

Kukkukku~(TN: giggling sound)

It makes me remember the luxury beverage that follows the food… (TN: Didn’t
catch the meaning of this phrase…)

The price is 30 goru. Still, it’s 3 times more expensive than other potions on
the market. It feels expensive because the consumption of potions is much
quicker than food.

But I will try to resist to this temptation…

Anyway.

At first I confirm the number and kind of monster with [Far Sight] skill.

It became much easier to see beyond 10 and it just looked like I was using a
telescope. (TN: The author doesn’t mention a measuring unit………
)

In that way I confirmed it; Wolf, Spider and 3 types of Worms.

At least I’m wearing the werewolf leather set armor that I purchased. Although
I shouldn’t just rely on it but instead try to think in evading.

In addition, all three kinds of monster might have high level perception ability.
Moreover, I also have information that the spider has poison, so I want to stay
away from close range combat as far as possible.

Besides I want to ascertain the opponent ability for battle.

In other words, I hide by using [Stealth] and sneak attack with the bow.

For that, I acquire a range extension skill named [Hawk Shot] so the bow range
is more than 10 making then maximum use of the bow’s long range.

After seeing the opponent’s movement, I consider to fight using [Kick] and
[Wind Arts].

I take my fellow prototype composite bow and activate [Stealth]. My presence

thins out.

I reached the shooting position without making any noise and aim at the Wolf’s
back of the head.

Even though the target is small…I just need to concentrate…

[Hawk Shot] I whisper silently.

I do not shout because it is supposed to be a sneak attack.

There isn’t any need to be as flashy as Hideo is.

The only necessary thing is to quietly gouge an opponent’s weaknesses. That is

all.

To kill calmly, is simply my ideal.

Of course if I learn flashy arts even if I hate it’s a different matter, but now is
not the time to think about it.

[Hawk Shot] gives the effect to the arrow the moment it has been shot. The
arrow approaches the back of the head of the Wolf, and pierces it…Nice aim!

[Gyaun!?] The wolf is surprised by the arrow and then starts to panic.
The pinpoint hit if succeed has a visual indicator.

I don’t miss this chance and go on a rampage. I shot the second, third arrow to
the Wolf’s body and only at my forth shot did is body scatter.

I engaged well the enemy by increasing my firepower by strengthening the bow

and use sneak attack tactics by using [Stealth] skill.

I fight with enough margins for error, but…

By only using this tactic, I can only level up the [Bow], [Stealth] and [Physical
Boost] skills.

After having level up the [Bow] and [Physical Boost] to some extent I started
to use the [Wind Art] and [Kick] skill in battle.

Of course, mainly on Wolves…

The spider spits venom and the worm is like a huge green caterpillar.

I don’t want to approach too much…I don’t approve the body fluids…they are
purple!

Still, it was worth enduring and fighting. The [Wind Art] skill exceeds level 10
and [Wind Cutter] is acquired. It’s much more powerful compared to [Wind
needle].

Though the MP consumption is more intense, I have the pseudo-herbal tea that I
created.

There is not a problem at all if occasionally I drink it between each battle.

It’s just not possible to fight constantly like you do in a party.

In other words, it means I spend more time in recovering.

The [Kick] skill improved when the level exceed 15. I didn’t learn a new skill
but improved the footwork.
When I’m holding the bow I can evade by using [Kick], also actions that use
the [Foot], such as, walk or run, are much smoother. (TN: In the raw the word
foot is in brackets….so I decided to let it be…)

Thanks to that, it’s easier to evade, and also to combine the evasion with a
counter afterwards.

I move my body either right or left to some extent, and avoid the wolf and
worm that are rushing me.

Evade ~ Hello wide open side! Without reservation I knee that side.

The worm seems to have a weak spot on the side, and I sometimes knee strike
it.

It writhes…(TN: Definition “Writhe”: to make twisting bodily movements, as

in pain or struggle)

If I use [Wind Cutter] now I will split it in two with a single stroke.

There it is, I put an end to this gross thing…I have to get used to it until I find a
solution…

And with that kill, I get a skill level up.

After that, I change field and started to gather some medicinal herbs.

Besides the normal herbs that I gather I also can gather the ones sold in stores.
Even if it is cheap to buy them in large quantities I still keep collecting herbs to
later cook with them. Because I was having fun while collecting the herbs I
ended up collecting more than I expected.

….though about 2 suffocation weed were mixed in…I must try to feed it to a
monster.

To see how they get caught in agony… (TN: Wooo….welcome to the dark
side!)

I wanted to secure some wood, but because I was already out of space I will
do it another time.

I think I will come grab it later, because it seems that this wood would make a
good bow.

I check if there were more valuable trees in there.

After gathering different material, I go back because the number of arrows had
decreased a lot.

I get lighter by selling the leather at an armor craftsman and after I went to the
vending machine to check the sales.

It was sold out. The dishes and potions.

A memo was left behind and I read it…

[Juice is sooooo good!]

[Please stock more, it’s not enough…]

[It’s easy to drink, make it so it’s manufacture exclusively]

If you buy from a NPC there would exist so many reaction like this…
Although I don’t want to say [According to the calculation] but apparently one
possible route to make money is to spend time and effort developing
products….I chuckled to myself.

To think that I just kept it stock for a few days…

Afterwards, the demand for food and potions skyrocket again.

But this time around there was no need to hunt me down for the cooking hell.

Moreover, there was a system attack against players.

Skill status:

[Bow] Level 16
[Kick] Level 15

[Far Sight] Level 12

[Wind Magic] Level 11

[Crafting] Level 23

[Cooking] Level 30

[Woodworking] Level 9

[Medicine] Level 18

[Stealth] Level 10

[Physical Boost] Level 18

ExP 11
 Chapter 10

To whoever is reading this…!

By no means, you must ever be arrogant.

If you are able to read this, then you must also be an adventurer.

That being the case, you may have suitable abilities.

However, You must not be arrogant.

Even though you have great combat capability, but who made the weapons
you are equipped with?

Who made protective gear, such as, robes and armor?

Also, the food when you are hungry? And the potions when you are hurt?

It is necessary to never forget… It is necessary to never forget (TN: It’s not a

typo, in the raw it actually is written twice)

The weapons and tools that support your strength are made by others.

Those who insist that just because you pay with money or bring materials out,
you can take the manufacture process as granted, if so you are deeply
mistaken.

Certainly money might be a reliable compensation for the value of things.

But there are things that can’t be paid by money alone.

 After all, it does not matter how much strong you are because it is not
possible to live without others’ help.

I didn’t notice till I ceased to breathe.

Therefore, I leave this will as a warning to adventures that will come after
this.

You must not be arrogant.

It does not matter how strong or how rich you became, you should never
despise sympathy, if not you will end like me, miserably in some dark gloomy
cave.

The Will from nameless adventurer found in the depths of the first found
dungeon….

That day, the moment I logged in I didn’t believe the sight that came into my
eyes.

A lot of people with powerful equipment that you don’t see every day settled
on downtown demanding to buy.

[Please sell potions~!]

[I buy the potions surplus for 30 goru each!]

[Please sell potions, if you don’t it’s not possible to fight!]

And so forth, and so on…in the end they are just saying [I want to buy potions]

But why is it? The play guide on the website said that you can purchase as
many potions as you like from NPC….it seems that [Apothecary] skill is not
useless?

I start to gather information

First I open my friends list. Millie and Zwei are online but…it’s better to hear
about what is happening from Zwei

Millie uses the magician system….(TN: Millie has no need for potions I would
assume…or is just an excuse because MC is shy with girls…)

I start up a [Private Conversation] with Zwei by sending him a whisper on the

friends list chat.

[Zwei, is Earth, can we talk a little now?]

[Oh Earth? You finally came!]

Why did he say finally…I urged him to talk

[Why is everyone in downtown asking to sell potions?]

[The simple answer? NPC’s started to say that they are suddenly sold out of
potions]

[What! Then I can assume that is the reason for everyone in front of me being
so impatient to buy as many potions as they can!]

[It is quite so, the sudden sellout declaration caused a pandemonium]

Jeez, this became difficult.

Needless to say, an unexpected hit could be recovered with basic light or

water magic, but you need direct contact with the magician

Health potions can instantly be used at any time by the vanguard…it is also
indispensable for the rearguard.

The sudden declaration [Isn’t available anymore because is sold out] was fatal
for the front players who were strategy guiding.

Everyone is unreasonable demanding…the feat to evade all attacks.

There is also, rash remarks for players who want to fight as a tank.
…Though the tank type player are the ones who would receive most benefits
from recovery magic.

[For the next while things are going to be tough]

[Earth, what a carefree thing to say, you are the one in the most danger!]

[Oh, is that right?]

[Before didn’t you sell Potion juice? I’m expecting a request spree.]

[Actually, I already have a ridiculous amount of request mails for me to sell]

[I have no choice but to sell in a usual spot, to see if things calm down for the
time being]

I understood that is unavoidable…however I have no choice but make up my

mind and decide…

Because players saw in the playing guide on the website that [Apothecary]
skill is useless and trusted that information, they didn’t take the skill.

[Earth, for the time being I will head to the spot]

[Do you think someone is going to act violently during the sales?]

[You’re correct. See you later]

Whisper was cut…it can’t be helped, anyhow should I take the normal path to
get raw materials….

I go towards the place where I produce while being aware that it gets more
difficult to do so.

Because I reached level 30 on [Cooking] skill I purchase the intermediate

cooking set.

A steamer and grill machine were added.

I buy everything I wanted, and soon I return to the habitual path.

And…I was shoved around as soon as they found me…

[Oh, finally the cook arrived!]

[Cook produces more potions!]

[Money is not an issue, quickly please!]

Everyone is in a chaotic state because they are not able to buy potions but in
the middle of the confusion and uproar I shout and attract attention.

[There are too many people, so I have to set a purchase limit!]

Though I don’t understand how many people there are, but the confusion will
only increase with a bigger number of people.

Since it’s a time of disaster, in other words, in the current situation I don’t have
a choice but put a limit.

[Five potion per person! I want you to think severely and then consent!]

Because the materials I have on hands aren’t that many…and also players
without [Apothecary] skill can’t find medicinal herbs in the first place.

I would understand if someone said that I was monopolizing but apparently no

one complained about it.

Everything is settled with this talk and I start to produce till I run out of raw
materials.

Everyone is standing on a line to purchase properly because Zwei arrived

quickly.

Heck…Zwei is a guild master.

Therefore instructions are given out fast. Is case to say that experience means a
lot!
I arrange the poisons by myself by freely using batch production.

Even though I use the fruits. Because the influence of [Apothecary] skill is
higher than [Cooking] skill it enables batch production.

Because of the level increase of [Cooking] skill the cooking evaluation in

batch production is never lower than six.

If it is like this, dissatisfaction because quality issues will not appear.

As for the price, I ask for 40 goru.

Previously, 30 goru was a trial price, if I sell it cheap at the current state,
things could become troublesome.

Still to be able to buy potions with effects higher than NPC, because it has fruit
taste making it easy to drink and also is able to recover the thirsty meter There
was no one dissatisfied.

I can’t possibly cook all day long today.

Anyway, it is necessary to produce potions to increase the supply to meet the

demand even if only a little.

Still, I prepare as many meals as possible while producing potions in batches

together, that way is much better, because the procedure is much smoother.
(TN: Didn’t understand perfectly this paragraph)

Although the raw materials for potions decrease at a crazy pace…

[Sorry, we hit here limit….the medicinal herbs just ended now] I cannot help
but declare that I sold out.

I made my best but now with no material it’s hopeless.

After selling out I have to go gather herbs.

When I was thinking in using the remaining time to think about it, it finally
happened…
The appearance of violent players that Zwei felt uneasy about.

I was forcibly interrupted form thinking, because he opened his mouth and
started shouting

[Hey, hand me over all the potions. We need to use them]

I unexpectedly see the players who spoke in an ugly way….

In the first day, there was a party of five Mohawk players swearing at me
because of the bow.

Skill status:

[Bow] Level 16

[Kick] Level 15

[Far Sight] Level 12

[Wind Magic] Level 11

[Crafting] Level 28

[Cooking] Level 31

[Woodworking] Level 9

[Medicine] Level 23

[Stealth] Level 10

[Physical Boost] Level 18

ExP 11
 Chapter 11

[I don’t have any products to sell to you, the way back home is that way.]

I reply to the Mohawk party, or perhaps I should say there are no exceptions.

The reason is because I would make a fool out of the players who have been
waiting in line so far to buy.

[Oh!? To say such a thing to us in spite of being a small fry!]

This fellow is a complete [fool], there is no way to save him.

[I don’t know how you measure your wisdom, but I’m not selling]

To lose here is unpleasant especially if you lived for 38 years.

Moreover probably these guys are in their mid-teens, in MMO games there are
countless people who make childish actions

I don’t RP (Role Play) either.

[Bastard, good resolution, I wonder if you are ready to die!?]

A terrible small fry wants to rebel…I should teach him a lesson.

[You will understand the meaning if you look behind you!]

The Mohawk party raises his voice while turning is head [What? Was
something behind?] …there was only killing intent there.

Did he finally notice…the fool!

There is no way that they aren’t angry for being cut in after waiting so long in
the line

[What bastard…growing excited]

A lot of people who are here now are people who play in the front lines
using the combat system.

Gazes filled with bloodthirst (Furthermore several people started to hold their
weapons).

Did they finally understood how their speech and behavior were indeed
foolish?

[Such a small fry, is not worth protecting!? Well then prepare to steal!]

… … I take back what I just said, it seems he still didn’t understand.

Certainly there was no meaning for a manufacturer to be strong and combat-

oriented.

It is only natural, that my abilities are not assigned/designed to combat

compared to the fighting group.

However, outside of combat I’m particularly strong.

I produce good weapons and armor similiar to armorers (craftsman who

craft/repair armor). (TN: I think is properly translated but I don’t remember
him making any armor….

The craftsmen with [Medicine] system have the choice to produce emergency
health potions.

The cook “heals” the hunger, making possible to continue fighting.

I produce various accessories, armor differ on ability depending on the

craftsman. (TN:
…)
As more people play the game, the behavior of neglecting and ignoring the
manufacture players is not approved.

Anyhow, once the manufacture jobs stops tool production then it will be
impossible to buy tools therefore making a heavy losses.

And if that happens., it is likely to turn in a matter of life or death in such a

game.

The connection with manufacture players has to be strong. If the talk of vicious
players spreads as regular information, it’ll be impossible to sell weapons,
armors or tools at all.

And, the weapons and armor that NPC’s sell have the quality drop rather
quickly.
Making it, unreasonable to only expect to get equipment from item drops.

The killing method, a good example is to swing the sword at everything.(TN:

I’m tired…this chapter is taking pieces of my soul)

The Mohawk party doesn’t notice at all. They deal with matters quickly and
carelessly and they think that by threatening me I will sell.

[Huh. Stupid is stupid and because that is the case, I believe there is
no salvation for this fools] I mutter so that the my real thoughts would be heard
on purpose.

There were indeed many players who nodded.

[Bastard…don’t get carried away…]

The man who seemed to be the leader of the Mohawk party threatens in anger.

And the displayed character is…(TN: ……)

[From Ward: Challenge to a duel, do you accept?]

Well met. This guy, I want to put an end to this on my own.

Among manufacture jobs, at the present time I’m able to cook and produce
potions, a man’s duel….(TN: a bit random this paragraph I feel…)

[It seems good, if you don’t understand with words and actions, then there is
only one option left, to kill…]

I reply by pressing the YES button. Watching the potential situation

[Oi, you probably do not need to accept anything!?] Zwei raises his voice.
Well, normally it’s not necessary to accept.

These guys decided to pick a fight against the manufacture players at this
occasion is a complete defeat….however.

[I wonder if it is a good memory to take to the afterlife.] I answered

The duel takes place right there by transfering us to a somewhat special

space. So that the surrounding people could watch the conclusion we
enable spectator mode.

Everyone who was watching though that I would lose.

The opponent is a two-handed sword warrior with complete protection

from heavy armor.

I’m just a bow user and a production player using leather armor.

It’s clear as day, for both me and him.

However whatever the circumstances may be I will cause an upset.

Ward already intends to completely win and smirked.

….It’s very convenient, he is relaxing his guard.

Even if he is using heavy armor there are still a few gaps…it’s a good
opportunity to pierce that weak point (TN: the gap between the armor). For that
let’s have him get off guard..
5…4…3….

Duel countdown starts.

We are 10m apart from each other, considering my arts, there will be no time to
pull the bow.

2…1…GO!

There was no time to pull the bow.

Ward rushes out and shortens the distance, he unleashes the long sword arts.

He slashes down while lunging forward so that way he combines the weight of
the long sword. Because I don’t know about long sword arts, I don’t know the
name of the art.

(TN: skill= arts= system?? From now on, System is a generic term for a group
of skills and skills can unleash arts…

Example: Magician System -> Wind Magic Skill -> Wind Needle Arts….no
more confusion I hope :D)

Though I don’t know, it’s enough to understand that the attack will be coming in
a straight line.

In short, there is no difference at all from a Wolf rushing.

I evaded by moving only half a step aside!

However, according to the surrounding people that were watching I will be

unable to strike back.

I feel like I heard a voice saying [Ah…] or [No use…]

The voice the next moment though changed to one of astonishment [Huh!?]

The offensive power and performance of long sword arts are certainly
good. However, if you avoid them it will expose a gap.
Ward who didn’t think of that suddenly attacked using the arts, a bold
move. But a stupid one…

Though his skill level seems to be higher than mine….it takes time to lift the
sword after being swung down and it piercing the ground.

…this moment is priceless to me!

I upper kicked Ward’s jaw just like I do with the horned rabbits.

…… This doesn’t do much damage… but there’s a bonus

damage for this action. (TN: thanks to Kisato for the translation of this
sentence…only a slight change to fit better)

A sure thing is to expose the neck, the neck is one of the weak points.

By kicking the jaw, Ward bended back exposing a gap….taking advantage of

that moment I distance myself while withdrawing I do a half rotation and I pull
the bow.

The purpose of rotating is to pull the bow quicker by using centrifugal force.

And I shoot an arrow at Ward’s neck before he balances himself out.

[Doshu…] The sound made by flesh being pierced with a pinpoint hit.

And that arrow will be stuck for a certain period of time.

Because the difference in level is huge, I can’t hesitate and hold back, it’s a
harsh scene but I have to do it.

[I, I…lesson….] It looks like it is difficult to talk with and arrow trough the
neck (TN: I’m not gonna even… *Facepalm*)

There is no danger of a magic projectile either.

To take the arrow that was stuck in the neck you would use both hands.There is
no logic reason, it is simply an instinct type of action.
….But that is synonymous to expose a fatal gap.

[Guhii…!?]

The arrow stands against Ward’s face. It is needless to say that I shoot an
arrow.
There are indeed a lot of weak points on the human body such as the face,
head, neck, heart, between the eyebrows, solar plexus…

Because of the heavy armor is not possible to aim at the heart or the solar
plexus.

To give a dirty blow has no use and to attack on the back will be impossible
too.

It is seriously useless to give a boxing blow from behind on the neck at the
present time because I’m still not able to do a rabbit punch.

Tough I say just to make sure, but a rabbit punch in modern boxing is a foul
technique. It is because it’s an attack method that might really kill the player.

(TN: Ok after researching aka flipping the table again… –

> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rabbit_punch )

Well, Ward suffers when his face got pierced with an arrow, it seems he still
has approximately 40%HP left. (TN:

Because this is a duel there are actually no casualties.

Therefore, without reservation I shot another arrow to this guy’s face.

[Guaa!?]

Ward suffers loudly. The arrow that was stuck to the neck despawns in the
meantime. With this there is only 5% left.

I aim at the arrow that was stuck on the face, and then start running and jump
kick it.

The jump kick hits the arrow and sticks the arrow even more to Ward’s face.
Ward shatters.

You WIN

The character feelings didn’t remain dull…(TN: psshh…butcher master…

here! But let’s be honest the phrase is not that important to the main story…)

And then, I return to the original world from the Duel area.

The Mohawk party was terrified, they thought it was going to be an easy win
against such a small fry. However they were defeated without even dealing one
blow against me, a bow user.

Until now, they still didn’t believe what happened and got scared.

It was already troublesome that this incident took so much time so I only issued
a word

[Quickly get out of my sight and don’t show your face anymore]

The Mohawk party left in a big hurry.

They are already finished because the unfavorable criticism spreads in an

instant.

Beside that they provoked a manufacture to a duel and still lost, they are
a laughingstock. That is the main reason that they will not be able to recover.

Still towards the people around rustling…

[I apologize for the time I took, at once let’s resume selling potion. Afterwards,
I have to go around and collect medicinal herbs] Immediately the surrounding
people started moving after hearing my voice.

Afterwards, I went to gather medicinal herbs and for the rest of the day I made
potions.
Somehow it was possible to sell potions to everyone who came to buy.

Thanks to that I felt relieved and log out.

… It is a digression but as for the five members of Mohawk party, since the
day of the duel, they have been completely ignored by the manufacture players.

They can’t even get repairs, to buy equipment, tools or potions is only foolish
thinking of their part. Only possible conclusion, they retire from the world
literally (TN: Rage quit! xD)

Skill status:

[Bow] Level 17

[Kick] Level 16

[Far Sight] Level 12

[Wind Magic] Level 11

[Crafting] Level 28

[Cooking] Level 31

[Woodworking] Level 9

[Medicine] Level 26

[Stealth] Level 10

[Physical Boost] Level 20

ExP 11
 Chapter 12

Several days passed since that duel.

The game world only changed a little.

The [Medicine] Skill is no longer an obscure skill.

To be more precise it has been decided that it will receive a proper evaluation.

To begin with, it was considered an obscure skill on the assumption that it was
possible to buy cheaply from NPC in large quantities.

With this fact alone, it was enough to review the [Medicine] skill.

And, it only makes sense that after getting reviewed that the skill is much more
acquired.

The number of players who came visit me to learn how to do the first stage of
medicine has increased

A lot of players that came for consultation were from the front groups

To a certain extent, I choose to destroy the perfect medicine appearance so that

I could supply potions to party members and also guild members

My answer to this, collection of drugs, appraisal, creating the first potion.

This flow was carried out while teaching and showing some demonstrations.

The reality is that I alone am unable to create potions for all users.

My expectations for the near future was to set up a shop to sell the lower grade
potion to make a living

Simple story, the potion update will increase the cooldown time, making lower
grade potion useless…to say it all is bound to be a severe development.

It is necessary to increase people’s [Medicine] skill in order to one day the

overall potion quality you see being supplied is of good quality…

(In addition, the cooldown time is the time it takes to re-use an item, if the time
has not passed then you cannot use the same item. So when the cooldown time
is extended, in the case of potions the restorative power will be reduced, it
becomes impossible to endure (TN: a battle I assume) if a potion with high
amount of recovery is not drunk)

The amount of players in possession of [medicine] skill increases steadily, the

supply begins to match the potion demand creating a stable situation and the
entire confusion due to potion shortage began to calm down.

In a sense, the potion shortage event that you handled is similar to a grand
quest.

For the players who treated [Medicine] skill like trash (TN: I so wanna to put
other “adjective” xD) it became a bitter memory.

Meanwhile, I…

Even though I want to play solo and chose the obscure skill [Bow] and [Kick]
to be left alone, but because of that duel I had not expect to be evaluated

It turns out that a certain player intended to expose the Mohawk party crimes
and took a video of that commotion.

To that extent, that much is still good, the video contains every action made
from the start of the duel to its conclusion, although the character name was
hidden, the video itself was posted in the official Homepage, on the video
forum. (TN: Took some liberties on this paragraph)

At the present time the standard tactic that players use is a heavy armour for
tight defence and a long sword blow to slaughter
As for the video which shows that with obscure skills like kick and the bow
and arrow is possible to knock down and destroy the opponent, it made a
considerable impact in the combat job players.

There is no players who use the bow at the present besides myself and the
players who used the bow in the beta.

[To hit an arrow like that is not possible to do so often!]

[What is the reason to win with such an obscure weapon…?] (TN: Practice
and patience you must have my young padawan)

[That was a special case, I experience myself and its unreasonable]

[You better not consider that to be normal…the cook is that strong]

[I keep saying this to people who see this, the bow is absurd] (TN: pfff…bitch
pls you would get one shot by Earth)

The evaluation has been gone like this.

Though it was possible because the opponent skill level was low.

If the other party player that is attacking is not careless and does not relax his
guard, I should be able to barely win….if a weak point stands out.

Bow user player -> that guy with the hidden name isn’t the rule …there is
no meaning to digress (TN: Lol, I went to grab a snack a then start looking at
the phrase and understood the meaning -.-‘ )

Well while leaving such a story has a bonus, this world has regains composure.

I also arrange a constant amount of dishes and potion juice for the stall and go
out to hunt. (TN: Apparently, the vending machine was ransack and now he has
a stall…)

It is necessary to keep hunting wolf firmly for the development of new dishes.
Wood is also necessary to strengthen the bow, medicinal herbs and herbs are
collected.

It is a good thing that I have a goal now…and I go out hunt again.

Well, to be frank there is pent-up anger accumulated during the potion shortage
event because it was never possible to hunt.

Because I am irresponsible, and I want to raise more bow skills too.

Growth seems faster if you play as a party, I do not have any choice but use the
necessary raw materials steadily to make a living.

It cannot be helped to make mistakes if you are greedy and in a hurry.

I persuade myself and scatter the impatient feelings.

The road to be a Ranger is a long one. ~

Skill status:

[Bow] Level 17

[Kick] Level 16

[Far Sight] Level 12

[Wind Arts] Level 11

[Crafting] Level 29

[Cooking] Level 33

[Woodworking] Level 9

[Medicine] Level 28

[Stealth] Level 10
[Physical Boost] Level 20

ExP 11
Chapter 13: First Time in a Party

I have been focusing for a while on training the [Wind Magic] and [Kick].

Training the [Kick] with [Wind Magic] increases its effectiveness, because I
want to train how to use the quick foot. (TN: I think he wants to merge [Wind
Magic] with [Kick] so I can use is quick foot = move faster)

How to use the feet is particular important.

Martial arts that use punches like boxing are limited, however the foundation to
hit a punch are the feet.

Therefore, it’s important to run with weight … because it will increase one’s
legs strength and also increase the stamina.

It is also useful to the [Bow].

Rather than change to a weapon such as daggers when the opponent

approaches, I can quickly sprint away and create some distance, so that way I
can shot an arrow again, that is why I choose the [Kick]. (TN: Basically he
will use [Kick] on the ground to create some distance from is opponent)

By no means, did I think that the system would correct my feet for stability
when I’m moving and setting up the bow.

It is even possible to shot an arrow when the posture is slightly off balance.
The power decreases but the combat versatility rose. Leading to an
improvement of survival capability.
And when the [Wind Magic] skill level rose up to 15, I learned a new magic
but I also receive a Chat Whisper from Zwei.

[Earth, do you want to try play once with us in a Party?] It was an invitation.

Will I not stand in the way because I’m a bow user? I listen for the time being.

[The other members also gave their consent, the way you won is different] He
says while laughing. It was set for the day after tomorrow.

[…I’m expecting good food!] he leaves the message as the whisper gets cut
off.

He implicitly said that his intention is to extort food from me … it will be

good, if that is the direction this is going.

Oh, it’s so, I can go create a new potion.

Because a lot of people have no doubt about me. (TN: Find this pair of phrases
out of place…
…)

Party play day

I saw that there were already five players at the meeting place.
Ara? I’m also 5 minutes earlier, but…

Although I didn’t said because I never played in a party, but a party formation
has a limit of 6 players.

In addition, to unite together as a party is normally used when a big boss

appears.

[Yo, Earth, you are early, too!] Zwei calls out

[To be late is unpleasant….with the exception of you and Millie it’s the first
time meeting the other members.] I greet the members including Zwei.

When you think about it, a self-introduction is needed…

[Now everyone knows Earth-san~] Millie said immediately. Millie’s actions

were quick but her speech was calm.

I remember hearing from Zwei that I should be careful not to anger them if not
is going to be hell.

[Well then, I’m Nora I specialize in close combat using daggers] A short hair
woman self-introduced. Is she the type to attack by trouble or is the
assassination type that is good for surprise attacks. (TN: 2 types of plays used
by dagger users –the first ones uses confusion/distraction the latter uses stealth
…)

When I think so.

[Hey, Earth, be careful] Zwei purposely sends me a whisper even though he is
right next to me.

[Don’t mention her figure! Becomes a hell besides Millie!] Zwei says
seriously scared…

I mean, eee…, in any case it is easy to understand.

Her figure…she is flat as a board

Her height is about 170cm…I cannot say anything more for her honour.

[Next is me, I’m called Reiji () with a look at my equipment you can see
that I’m a tank that uses one-handed axe]The man with a good build self-
introduced. He was wearing heavy armour and carrying a heater shield as well
as a slightly oversized one handed axe on his back.

Withstanding, I find really impressive the one-shot heavy hand axe style to
plow through enemies. If he masters that style, he’ll become very reliable.
(TN: Some trouble translate this phrase…)

[The last one is me, I’m the swordsman that uses a bastard sword, Kazamine]
(TN: Better name translation )

Finally, carrying a bastard sword on his back, and using a light-armour with
some metal pieces, the swordsman self-introduces.

A bastard sword has a longer handle so that is possible to use it with one or
two-hands.

However, in reality [Too heavy as one-handed sword, too light as two-handed

sword] don’t except a very good valuation on defective merchandise.

However, that may not be the case inside of the game.

I usually handle as a one-handed sword, but if there is a chance for a heavy

blow I use both hands…in a sense, it may handle close to a [Sword].

A good name, the player waits the insertion of the sword.

The possible choices will be dependent upon the update.

[I appreciate the self-introduction. However, 4 front players and 1 bow user.

Isn’t the balance bad?] I said what I felt honestly

[Oh, it’s okay, Millie is a multiple attribute magician (mage), also I train in
water magic making recovery my forte]

Nora said. Magic soldier…or perhaps I should say magic assassin? I don’t
know a clever way of talking, but I will be able to support while near them.

Such an unusual type….such an interesting person is welcome.

[That being the case…what is the hunt target (prey) we’ll be looking for?]

Reiji answered that.

[Oh, the outcome of talking with Zwei is, having a dependable bow user with
long-range to rely on, we are supposed to challenge the Wild Bear] (TN: There
was one word I didn’t know how to translate ….the best translation I found
was gril trout but that is just absurd….)

Wild bear…..I’ve heard that besides its big frame, it’s also fast, a troublesome
monster.

Originally a bear is not a sluggish creature. It needs muscular strength to

maintain its body weight, also its intelligence is very high.

Well in fact, it’s threatening enough that attacks as a monster. It’s when it’s a
game, we fight like we care about

[Is everyone good? Then let’s move] Zwei gathers up and starts moving.

It has been decided, I will set foot upon a completely unknown area. It would
be reckless to do it alone, but this time I’m playing in a party. There will be no
problems if I watch out properly for monsters with [Far Sight] skill.

Idle talk unfolds with the cook about their expectation for the meal, while the
travel to the hunting grounds. By using his [Far Sight] skill and reporting the
whereabouts of the monsters it was possible to avoid some encounters with
extra enemies. The [Far Sight] skill varies. (TN: This last sentence didn’t
make much sense…probably mistranslation)

And finally they arrive at the habitat of the wild bear. The [Far Sight] skill
identifies the wild bear and I inform the party members.

[The [Far Sight] Skill is really convenient, even just doing this much, there is
worth to it] Words of Kazamine

We don’t want to make a situation in that the monster surprise attacks us.
Because it is not strange for a party to collapse when such thing happens.
Therefore, it’s important to use the [Far Sight] skill as a spotter role more
carefully than when I play solo. This behaviour also seems appropriate for a
ranger.

[You cast a support magic, while I wait for the MP to recover] Zwei says,
Millie and Nora go over and apply support magic.

I wonder why the water magic is good even though she is a dagger user. Even
only casting support magic once is good enough, because its effects last for
about 30 minutes, so I wait for the MP to recover. There are no problems at all.
We started hunting after Millie and Nora gave their okay.

Skill Status:

[Bow] Level 20

[Kick] Level 24

[Far sight] Level 14

[Wind Magic] Level 15

[Crafting] Level 29

[Cooking] Level 34

[Woodworking] Level 9
[Medicine] Level 30

[Stealth] Level 12

[Physical Boost] Level 25

ExP 13
 Chapter 14: First Time in a Party

“Well, I’ll go fishing, so excuse me a sec.”

So saying, I separate myself from the party and enter a grassy area.
In this case “fishing” means pulling a monster to a safe area in order to fight
without trouble.
It’s a sensible method.

Entering the grassy area is also for [Stealth].

If there’s any clear line of sight, [Stealth] can’t display its abilities.
Since this also applies to party members, it’s necessary to enter the grass to
gain cover against them.

A Wild Bear wanders carelessly in this direction.

I take careful aim at him with [Farsight].

“<Stealth > … …<Hawk Shot>.”

The Stealth-Hawk Shot combo is a long-ranged surprise attack.

Thanks to [Stealth]’s concealment the Wild Bear won’t figure out the arrow’s
coming until he’s hit with it.

Dosu~! The arrow hits, dealing damage and getting his attention.
With an angry look on his face he charges in my direction.
Now it’s time to rally the party,

“Hit confirmed, he’s coming!”

I alert the entire party.

Reiji the tank quickly activates an Art.
It’s the Provocation Art <Taunt>.
It attracts Hate to yourself to protect your allies, making you an effective tank.

By the way, what is Hate?

You can call it anger or hostility, it’s a monster’s [Attack Target Priority], a
hidden parameter used to decide who to attack first.
Normally the first targeted are mages with high attack power and priests that
can heal.

But, those types are done in quickly due to their low defenses.
That’s why tanks, vanguards with high defenses built to endure, protect the
easy targets by making Hate gain a priority.
Like that, they manipulate Hate with their abilities, Or “Hate Control”.

Control can be done with the Provocation Arts.

Taking the hostility of your opponents onto yourself is one method of control.

By the way, the single Tackle from the Wild Bear reduced Reiji’s HP about
25%.
Following it’s running blow, there’s the momentum too.
It’s a dangerous attack.
The mage Millie, and of course I myself, would have been insta-killed with
that one attack.
Millie cast a Light Magic spell immediately.

“<Light Heal>!”

With the heal, Reiji’s HP bounced back to nearly 100%.

The Fighting Reiji continues to attract the Wild Bear’s attention while the other
members cooperated to bring it down.

“Right, let’s get this started! <Backstab>!”

Nora’s first strike is an attack that deals lots of damage by aiming from
behind, <Backstab>.
The dagger’s property allows you to attack from the sides or behind,
emphasizing surprise attacks.
There are many skills to increase the damage dealt.
… that said, it doesn’t seem to do much to the Wild Bear.
The opponent’s a bit above her, so the damage is reduced.

Zwei and Kazamine first survey the situation while attacking normally,
reserving their Arts.
They are waiting for a decisive chance to use them.

Because I have a bow, despite the distance I don’t hold back and just attack.
Since the fur on the torso is thick, I won’t be able to make a decisive blow;
So thinking I aim for the center of the face.
A regular bear is vulnerable around there, so a Wild Bear might be also…
but shooting right now would be too soon. If I aim for that spot, I’d probably
rack up a ton of Hate and throw the party formation into chaos.
But man is it ineffective or what … my arrows barely do anything.

“We’re good so I’m shooting~ <Fire Lance>!”

Millie’s Fire Magic attack, huh.

Among the 6 types of magic, Fire does the most damage and in the flashiest
manner.
For example, the famous RPG <Fire Ball>.
The one Millie launched just now, <Fire Lance>, is a magic that deals
particularly large damage.
As evidence, that one shot dropped the Wild Bear’s HP 10%.
That hard-hitting spell can’t be rapid-fired, but in a party that’s not a big
problem.
While the vanguards deal flurries of continuous damage, the mages are fine
doing large amounts of damage in one shot.

“Heyhey, keep me company some more! <Taunt>!”

As the Wild Bear’s attention turns to the big-damage dealer, Millie, Reiji the
tank activates his Provocation Arts.
The Wild Bear swings his claws down.
But initial target aside, at the spot that attack hit, holding his shield tightly
while fulfilling his role, Reiji the tank’s hp … didn’t drop 5%.
As soon as his HP fell, Millie’s <Light Heal> and Nora’s <Aqua
Cure> Recovery Magics completely healed him to the max.
Well, the way this battle’s been going, looks like the Wild Bear’s pretty tough
to beat.
Even when Zwei and Kazamine used Slashing Arts, they haven’t been able to
turn the tide.

“My Mp’s running kinda low … for it to be this tough wasn’t in the plan.”

Nora throws out the warning bells. If we let this drag out anymore it’ll be
dangerous.
Looks like Millie doesn’t have much left either.
The party’s screwed if the two who can use recovery magic run out of MP.

“Cheh! Did we underestimate it!?”

Zwei swore at the Wild Bear.

Unfortunately the Wild Bear still has over 30% HP left.
If we keep going like this it’ll be bad.

Time for a gamble. Sink or swim…

I need to decide now, and resolve myself to it

After 38 years of life, it’s weird but when things go wrong, instead of getting
flustered I’ve become able to trust my own decisions.

Bears are vulnerable in only in one spot, but that spot does exist … between its
eyes.
Wild Bears might have the same weakness.
If it shaved off any of the remaining 30% HP, it didn’t deplete even a fraction
of the gauge, but the arrow remains embedded there.
It was completely by accident, but with that there’s a chance.
If we’re going to take a gamble, we should pound into that spot.

But right now, no one’s able to see me!

<Stealth> …

There’s only one chance, but if it’s not decided here there’s no chance for the
party to win.
Pulling the bow to its fullest … wait for the Wild Bear to come over and show
its vulnerable point … there!

“Go!”

The arrow, with every bit of power I could put behind it, pierces the Wild
Bear.

SKILLS

[Bow]Lv23 [Kick]Lv24 [Farsight]Lv18 [Wind

Magic]Lv15 [Craftsmanship]Lv29
[Cooking]Lv34 [Woodworking]Lv9 [Alchemy]Lv30 [Stealth]Lv16
[Physical Ability Boost]Lv28

EXP 13

Maybe it’s time for me to raise other skills.

This isn’t even a boss and it’s taking so much time to defeat (sweatdrop).
 Chapter 15: First Time in a Party

I watch the arrow that I just released at full-power.

Even though it was probably a few seconds at the most it felt like forever.
And the result it …

Dosu~! …

It’s a hit but, but this is…

“It’s too shallow!”

Just like my yell suggests, there was a miscalculation.

It certainly hit the Wild Bear between the eyes, and even seems to cause him
agony since he’s furiously shaking his head, there’s no mistake there, but the
high-damage we needed wasn’t dealt.
The situation hasn’t improved in the slightest.

Despite that, at least the weak point of the Wild Bear that’s been stopped in its
tracks has been exposed.
Zwei and Kazamine, Nora, and of course Reiji charge in for the attack at full
power.

But it’s kinda sad, the image I had of myself dealing decisive damage didn’t
happen.
Well since Millie’s <Fire Lance> wasn’t enough to beat it…
But with the amount of damage we’ve done between that “decisive” arrow ‘til
now, it doesn’t seem long before we can deal the final blow.
Our bear opponent might start doing crazy things now in desperation.
Thinking that, I play my final card to decide it here.

“<Wind Booster>!”
This magic is learned at leveling to [Wind Magic]Lv15.
It’s been known as a stat increasing Buff Magic since Beta.
At cast it greatly increases your speed for 10 seconds.
The reuse cooldown is a long 2 minutes, making it pretty difficult to time well.

In Beta it seems it was used for fleeing, to gain large distances for tactical
maneuvers or Death Penalty avoidance.
Right now there are still lots of players who take this [Wind Magic] just for
<Wind Booster>.
There’s strength in being able to increase your mobility.

So why did I increase my speed? Of course it’s not to run away.

It’s to replicate the stunt in the previous duel.
In other words, “kick the arrow so it pierces through completely”.
Actually, for an archer in the rearguard to enter the frontlines is the height of
idiocy,but I’ve resigned myself to it.
Willingness aside, the Wild Bear opponent is too tall for me to reach with my
normal speed.
Without the Buff Magic it would really be too hard.

The party’s vanguards are attacking where the arrow is, probably trying to
drive it deeper in.
Especially Zwei and Reiji, who have been using the blunt parts of their
weapons.
Though the desperate attack does some damage, to ask the vanguards for
anything more would be harsh.

Millie is trying to time a <Fire Lance>, betting the rest of her little MP left on
it.
At the moment the only person with anything left to spare is me.

I dash out and close the distance in an instant, taking up a position out of the
vanguard’s way.
From here I’ll wait for a good chance to aim for the Wild Bear’s head.
<Wind Booster>’s effect is over in 5 … 4 … hurry, hurry!!
And then that moment came…

“Eat this!!”
It’s an over-used phrase, but it’s necessary to put the fighting spirit into that last
step.
If I miss I fall prey to the Wild Bear’s claws.
Those claws would be instant death, ripping through the face and stomach.
There’s no way I’m strong, my battle tactics are a special brand of fumbling
through and barely succeeding.
Compared to anyone else in the party I’m much weaker.

Reducing my fears with <Wind Booster>’s acceleration, I jump at full strength,

aiming at the arrow stuck between the Wild Bear’s eyes.

It’s a pretty graphic result.

I feel the sensation of tearing through the flesh.
I’ve put everything I have into making this one attack reach the Wild Bear.

“Goaaaaaaaaaar!?”

Even though he didn’t shriek when the heavily damaging <Fire Lance> hit him,
the Wild Bear let out a wail now.
After my flying kick, I land awkwardly and then back off in a hurry to check the
result.
The arrow was driven so deep it disappeared.
I barely made it with the timing … but victory is in sight!
The Wild Bear has about one <Fire Lance>’s worth of HP left.
With the combined damage of kicking the arrow in and the 4 vanguards’
desperate attacks, the remaining 30% HP has been reduced to only 5% left.

“Millie, end it!”

Zwei commanded. Millie’s response is …

“<Fire Lance>!”

With this last attack of Millie’s, the Wild Bear toppled to the ground, and
shattered.

“Finally, we finally beat it.”

Reiji sighed. No wonder. Of course he’s drained, the tank had to frantically
endure this entire time.

“That was seriously too close. Zwei, aren’t we way too under level?”

Nora grumbled. Yeah, I think so too.

“My bad, didn’t think it was this strong …”

Zwei apologizes frankly.

“For now let’s eat something, and take a break.”

So saying, I use [Farsight] to confirm the safety of our surroundings and then
call everyone to come eat.
Actually, I also want to hear their opinions my latest creation.
Now that we’ve decided to take a break I bring out my the new dish.

“It’s a new recipe, but I’d like you to try it.

They’re barbequed Wolf meat skewers.”

Pieces of wolf meat are pierced through with a skewer, and onions are
alternate between then.
The meat has three stages . The first is a simple salt and pepper seasoning, the
second is a mixed herb seasoning, the third uses lemon juice in the flavoring.
The details are like this:

Grilled Wolf Skewers

A dish of Wolf meat, skewered and grilled.

Using herbs and lemon juice, a refreshingly light taste is created.

Quality 8 SPD Minor Increase (long lasting)

I’m looking for comments on how I well I barbequed the grilled skewers.
I was just testing out a new grill when I made them.

“Fumu, this is quite delicious.”

“For me, I love meat so this is great! I can’t get fat in here.”
“It looks unrefined, but it’s actually well-made, hm?”

From top to bottom are Reiji, Nora, and Kazamine’s critiques.

Decent reviews all around. Like this it’s probably good enough to sell.
By the way Millie is too busy eating to join in.
But not stopping is probably a sign that I can assume it’s not bad.
As for Zwei, he has …

“Why do I get NPC Bread!?”

Because I was waiting for that exact reaction.

Just messing with him a little.
Of course I’m going to give him a grilled skewer now? Going any further with
the bullying is not within in my interests.

Right after all that, as we all agreed a Wild Bear is too tough we hunted
several regular Bears, a rank below the Wild Bears, until it was time to return
to Town and disband.

Reiji, Nora, and Kazamine were added to my Friend List,

And that is how my first time in a party ended.

SKILLS

[Bow]Lv29 [Kick]Lv25 [Farsight]Lv23 [Wind Magic]Lv17

[Craftsmanship]Lv29
[Cooking]Lv34 [Woodworking]Lv9 [Alchemy]Lv30 [Stealth]Lv19
[Physical Ability Boost]Lv31

EXP

The tale of my first party has drawn to an end.

Now it’s time to talk about crafting.

—
 Chapter 16: Extra - How Recipes
Work.

That day it started with one statement.

“Lately haven’t the number of people taking [Cooking] increased? I’d like to
learn some dishes myself, but you gotta pay to get Recipes, right?”

That was Nora’s one statement.

Reiji and Nora, who came to buy food from me, let that statement out while
stuffing their cheeks.
I put on a stern expression.

“Aaa~… buying Recipes is just about impossible, they aren’t really sold.
The reason is kinda long. This isn’t just my policy, it’s how all the crafters
have been dealing with it.

That was my explanation, but…

“Now I’m interested. Mind going into the details?”

Reiji said, curious.

Since it really IS a long explanation I gave them White-Peach flavored Potion
Juice before I began.

……

There’s an unspoken agreement among the current Crafting Skill players about
not selling Recipes.
There are two reasons for it, and the first is a story about the money involved.
The time and money to develop one Recipe is pretty hefty.
As an example, let’s say a Recipe is a completed 50 piece Jigsaw puzzle.
The thing is, you have 10,000 pieces to look through.
That’s the kind of process it is.

Since that’s the kind of process it is, a LOT of funding is absolutely necessary
to find the correct 50 pieces.
This is the same for all Crafting Skills.
Even I’ve sunk a lot of money into creating new dishes, but if it weren’t for this
long explanation of mine no one would be able to tell.

Also, in regards to profit, Horned Rabbit with Water Herbs is terrific, but
since the meat is tough you need Salt at 10Glow, Mixed Spice at 20Glow,
Herb at 10Glow; it takes at least this much money.
In addition if it’s not a 7 or higher quality and it’s not cheap, there’s no way
you can rake in the sales.
Right now I can gather Herbs to cover what I make, but for the times when the
demand is too much I have to buy it from the NPC.

The net profit I’m making at this point is reduced to about 60Glow for every
new dish I come up with, and even the profit disappears into further research
and development for improvements.
If you want to make money, just going hunting is much more profitable.
The only way I could afford the Werewolf Leather Set I have equipped now
was to stop spending money on Recipe research until I somehow got
86,000Glow.

Now, this down-and-dirty behind the scenes coverage of the reason why
Recipes aren’t being sold had two parts. This second one is much deeper.

There’s a huge possibility that there’s a hidden stat to go along with Crafting
Skill Level.

This isn’t just my belief. When a large group of Crafters came together to
discuss Recipes, I heard a story about a Weaponsmith.

That Weaponsmith was pretty skilled. The Great Swords he sold were
consistently an 8 in Quality.
The world of Quality difference is cruel.
Let’s say a Quality 5 Great Sword has an attack power of 100.
At Quality 6 it’s 110, at Quality 7 it jumps to 130.
At Quality 8 it’s 160, incomparable to the others. (For Cooking it’s the taste
that improves.)
Because of that, lots of swordsmen would look to get their weapons from that
Weaponsmith.
After all, strong equipment will protect you and you can hunt more efficiently
to earn money quicker.

There was a player who saw his thriving business.

That player thought that if he could get his hands on that Great Sword Recipe,
there was easy money to be made.

So, with a large amount of money he bought the Recipe from the Weaponsmith.

After that he gathered all the materials required and hammered iron like mad,
mass-producing Great Swords according to the Recipe
Of course his [Weaponsmithing] level skyrocketed in no time.

Now then, if they were Quality 7 or 8 Great Swords there wouldn’t be a

problem.
Instead, it didn’t matter how many swords he made or how much his skill level
increased;
no matter how much he hammered away, he never got anything other than
Quality 5 Great Swords.

That player was convinced that the Weaponsmith cheated him with a fake
Recipe.
It seems he stormed in and demanded that his money be returned.

It became a huge fight and, seeing no end to it, they decided that the
Weaponsmith who developed the Recipe would make it according the Recipe
he had written while in front of several Crafter witnesses.
In front of both the witnesses and the player who had bought the Recipe, he
made one Great Sword.
Immediately after he finished, the Great Sword was handed over to the
witnesses.
This was to ensure that the sword the Weaponsmith made wasn’t switched for
another.

The result was a Great Sword with a Quality of a stunning value of 9.

Just like the Recipe, with the same materials and the same forging methods, a
gem of a sword came into being right before their eyes.
This was definite proof that the Weaponsmith who sold the Recipe committed
no fraud.

From these results, as far as Crafting Skill level is concerned it only lets you
make the item.
To improve the Quality there’s gotta be a hidden stat…
That was the rumor that was quickly spread.

More importantly, this suggests that there’s more than one way to make
something.

As more people take [Cooking] there may be more and more players who will
make Horned Rabbit meat dishes, but with stuffed cabbage, soup, grilled
skewers, stewed dishes – there are actually tons of variations to try.
They may take different flavors, they may take different forms, but all of them
are products that have been perfected.

In the game, actually there’s not just 1 possibility for a Recipe.

For weapons, for armor, there are many different ways to make them, and all of
those ways are “correct”.
It’s definitely a tough task to find 50 pieces that fit together from 10,000.
‘Cause there’s a ton of “right answers”

So, going back to that Weaponsmith’s story and that Great Sword he made,
another weaponsmith’s forging method and Recipe are, for the most part,
different.
Even if the materials used are the same, there are many ways to make
something, and all the ways are different.
And all the ways are “correct”, see?
However you look at it, between finished items of the same Quality, neither is
inferior.
All the Crafters who had gathered decided that this was, without a doubt, how
things worked.
They concluded that a Recipe is the crystallization of a person’s hard work and
ingenuity.
When imitating that person’s Recipe, it’s impossible to reach the original’s
Quality.

For that reason, selling a Recipe to someone could actually prevent their
growth as Crafter.
To avoid that, it was decided not to sell Recipes.
This explanation and the one on the Info Site is long, but there’ve been people
who don’t believe us and try to call us out, saying, “Crafters are making this up
to keep others out of the profits.”

……
“So, with that really long explanation, that’s why I don’t teach other people my
Recipes.
I’ll teach the basics, though. From there it’s best if you go and work your own
puzzle to completion.”

And now that the explanation is over, the two who were listening while
drinking Potion Juice…

“Hee… so there was a story like that, huh~ … so that Info Site’s article wasn’t
just a bunch of people trying to monopolize the Recipes.”

That’s what Nora muttered absentmindedly.

“Weell, it can’t be helped that you took it that way but … the truth is the truth,
ya know?”

There’s always people who don’t believe the truth even in real life.
Well, I don’t want to bring real life into the game world.
With just age as a factor there’s a lot of things you can’t do, things impossible
for you and things decided for you, for example.
That’s not really fun, and a little sad, right?
Try it just to try it, if it doesn’t work then look around for another way.
That’s the way I like to game.
There’s no Skill Writeup in this extra.
This is the feel of how this world’s Crafting and Recipes work.
 Chapter 17:The Time When I Need
a New Combat Potential has Come

“owowow … what a failure …”

The guy lying face-down at the Respawn Point right at the beginning is Earth.
There’s no other way to say it … he’s been Revived1 (lit: Force Returned). Of
course all in tatters.
How did this happen?

He’d gone to the wooded area in Area 4 to hunt Dread Wolfs for ingredients …
when a strong greed hit him.

Right, right. If it’s like this, won’t I be fine?

That’s what he thought, and just like that he charged into the forest of Area 5.
In Area 5 he spotted a Big Bee, the #1 weakest monster, shot an arrow … and
missed because the Big Bee randomly moved out of the way.
(It really was random, because Big Bees aren’t programmed with combat
capabilities.)
If the arrow had just fallen when the Big Bee “dodged” it would have been
fine.

But after the miss the arrow continued on its trajectory and proceeded to
whack a Rock Ant, a monster with Link, right in the head.

By the way, “Link” refers to a special trait that some monsters have.
When a monster with Link is attacked, its friends in the area become
immediately aware and come mobbing in all at once.

“Are you kidding!?”

Earth’s face froze. Hitting a Link monster by mistake is the worst mistake to
make.

By the way, the sound the arrow made when it whacked the Rock Ant on the
head was, Clang! After making that light sound it bounced off. It did absolutely
no damage whatsoever.
But it did more than enough when it came to letting the Rock Ants know they
were being attacked …
Immediately, they came rushing in to swarm Earth.
In this situation it would be bad to run away; because of the Link trait it will
turn into a Train.

Sorry for all the explanations, but “Train” is what they call it when you pull a
ton of monsters and keep pulling them along as you run2.
The string of monsters trailing behind gives the impression of a train, which is
why they call it “Train”.

Since the arrow bounced off, bow attacks have no meaning.

In the first place attacking a rock with piece of wood is just asking for it to be
bounced back.
Out of necessity Earth fought back with [Wind Magic]’s <Wind Cutter> and
[Kick], but the Rock Ant lived up to the name “Rock”. <Wind Cutter> couldn’t
cut through it and, against that hardness, [Kick] attacks just rebounded the
damage onto himself.

While drinking a potion, Earth struggled to find a way to combat that hardness.
The result was that Earth met a very unreasonable end.
Thanks to the Rock Ant’s Link, another Rock Ant used the Rock Ants’ special
Art, <Stun Tackle> and attacked him from behind.

So an archer with low defense, drinking a potion, and somehow fighting an

unfavorable battle while completely surrounded by who knows how many
opponents,
What will happen if he’s suddenly stunned, lying there unable to move, for a
few seconds?
He gets sent back to Town with a Death Penalty, of course.
And that’s the reason the Earth at the beginning of this story was lying there in
tatters.
Forced to reflect on how he splendidly got beaten to a pulp and returned to
Town, Earth moved on with dampened spirits.
During the Death Penalty’s 30 minutes he repaired his bow and armor.
Afterwards he went around browsing the street stalls.
But …

“There really aren’t any stalls selling bow stuff…”

After all this time, of course there have been players who’ve taken an interest
in [Bow].
However, after trying swords or magic a bow can’t compare with its
firepower and inferior inaccuracy.
Also there’s no Homing Assist, adding another degree of difficulty.

This isn’t like moving a character on a screen in older style games, but using
your own body to move.
For someone watching from within the VRMMO, [Bow] users hang out in the
back but aren’t able to hit anything.
This impression of staying in the back and not doing anything has created a
situation where players who take [Bow] are shunned.
If you’re able to overcome that … you can properly participate in combat, but
then nobody wants to have a [Bow] user in the party, so players give up
improving [Bow].
It’s a vicious cycle.

So of course stalls dealing in [Bow] related goods haven’t appeared.

Forget not being able to sell anything, you’d just plain lose money.
What Earth is looking for is other peoples’ [Bow] related goods, hoping for a
flash of inspiration for new [Bow] related crafting methods.
But of course it’s not going to be that easy.

Now the Death Penalty’s 30 minutes have ended.

Earth is clutching a Smith Hammer in his hand.

There’s some bright person somewhere who gets it.

That’s right, Earth took the skill [Blacksmithing].

Though it’s been said many times, compared to a wooden arrow 2Glow, an
iron arrow is 15Glow.
In his current financial state, if he switched to iron arrows Earth would go
bankrupt.
But right now a wooden arrow just isn’t cutting it anymore.

Like with the Wild Bear just recently; though he’d hit the weak point the shot
was too shallow.
Improving his arrows has become an urgent matter.
In this world, if you can’t buy it then make it
Using 5 EXP points is a pretty big decision to make, but right now it’s
necessary to open the way to the future so he decided to take the plunge.

If we take out the bow’s Sneak Attack Criticals3 , Earth’s combat capabilities
will fall by 60%.
If we’re talking strictly firepower, then it’s the tough to use [Wind Magic],
Though [Kick] is versatile, this experience when a portion of the attack was
reflected revealed its weakness.
Looking at his abilities, Earth has now reconfirmed that no matter what he goes
with, his combat potential is too weak.

To do a simple weapons’ power balance, let’s say the longsword is 100.

Then:

Two-handed axe is 120, staff (for magic) is 110, spear is 90,

one-handed axe and grimoire is 80
One-handed sword is 75, dagger and magic-hand is 60, bow is 50,
and magic ring is 30.

On top of that, an axe is especially effective for attacks on monsters with hard
shells.
They’re heavy, so people with half-assed STR (physical prowess) would find
an axe hard to use.

Players who can use a one-handed axe on top of, like Reiji, being equipped
with heavy armor and a shield are truly rare.
Those kinds of players are known for almost never failing to defeat a monster
and for being nearly indomitable.
Of course, the player’s ability is also a factor.
In any case, for the bow, which is among the lower damage dealers, to come
out ahead, the sneak attack criticals are absolutely necessary.
But if the all-important arrows can’t penetrate, then that method is worthless.
That’s why, he must remodel the arrow. First and foremost, wooden arrow’s
initial arrowhead must be further developed.
The goal is an arrowhead made with a weight and sharpness to pierce the
opponent.

For mining ore, a Blacksmith player taught him the basics.

Afterwards he made ingots intently.
For the sake of experimenting with the arrowhead’s shape he made a huge
amount of ingots so he wouldn’t run out in the middle of development.

That day Earth single-mindedly made ingots, raising his skill quite a bit as he
continued until logout.
Actually he wanted to keep going a little more, but the effect it would have on
real-life work would be bad.
Suppressing the burning dissatisfaction of leaving things unfinished, he went to
bed.

SKILLS
[Bow]Lv30 [Kick]Lv27 [Farsight]Lv25 [Wind Magic]Lv18
[Craftsmanship]Lv30
[Cooking]Lv34 [Woodworking]Lv11 [Blacksmithing]Lv8 [Stealth]Lv20
[Physical Ability Boost]Lv33

Reserved Skill(s)
[Alchemy]Lv30

EXP 14

And with that, the [Blacksmithing] skill was obtained.

With this he’ll be able to make some equipment made of iron.
 Chapter 18: The Sharp Arrow and
the Heavy Arrow

It’s now been several days.

Ever since then I’ve been at the hot forge, single-mindedly crafting.
As a result, [Blacksmithing] exceeded Lv10 and,
I’m no longer considered a beginner blacksmith.

In order to get used to [Blacksmithing] I made knives and short swords until I
lost count, despite not being able to use them … … and immediately sold them
to an NPC hot off the forge.
The experience from making knives and simple swords are necessary for
making cutting edges, but it’s not possible to make money this way.
That reason is left for another day.

Now then, on to the arrowheads that are the number one reason behind this
whole operation.
First up is the sharp arrowhead for piercing.
I think I should make it in the shape of the conventional, basic arrowhead.

But, I really do need some special types of arrows for different purposes.
Changing the arrowhead’s point, for example.
If I run into some opponent like a golem where piercing and stabbing is
difficult, only having arrows made for piercing through will definitely turn it
into a bad situation.
In the case of the recent Rock Ant’s hardness, rather than trying to pierce
through, a bash or shock impact would be a much better way to deal damage.

Mulling that over, I think of another type.

It should have some weight, and instead of a tip it should have a flat, level face
imitating a mace.
I wonder if trying to make an arrowhead for bashing will be interesting at all.
After all, anything made of hard iron hitting at high speed is bound to smash its
target.

Since the feudal era, ordinary stones have been used for throwing, to rain
down upon the rank-and-file soldiers.
There have been cases of helmet-wearing warriors killed that way.
For a thrown stone to be so effective, the effect of a shot of hard iron fired at
high speed from a bow would completely smash its target.

With that in mind, it’d be best to make two types of iron.

I’ll make the basic iron for the arrowhead for piercing, and for the bashing
arrowhead I’ll make dull iron.1

Around here is where you’d want to bring up steel, but that requires a more
difficult purification technique.
I can’t make it consistently and it won’t give me any extra enhancements, so
this time I’ll give up.
Right now my priority is making a large amount of iron.

Dull iron has the properties of lead.

It’s too weak to make the tip of a cutting tool, which is why it’s important to
practice how to handle iron.
It’s also very heavy. If you made heavy armor out of dull iron you wouldn’t be
able to move.
For those reasons, it’s an iron not normally used with [Blacksmithing] skill.
However this time I’ll choose to go against that and use it.
Conveniently, that weight is just what I wanted.

To start, the first one I make is the regular, pointed tip, piercing arrowhead.
I made several prototypes for testing, but I definitely had to compromise
because of my current blacksmithing ability.
The simple, 3-sided pyramid shaped small barb was made to be similar to the
popular arrow style.
That arrowhead shape I’m aiming for is, comparatively, too traditional, but
well, it’s fine.
I carefully mass produce them according to the Recipe.
For the penetration power, I carefully use the methods I learned while making
knife blades.
And after a time, it’s complete.

—
Iron Arrowhead

Attaching this to a wooden arrow will give it the capabilities of an iron arrow.

Adds Atk +6

It is useless if not attached to a wooden arrow. Quality 6

—
Like this the wooden arrows have been made close to Atk +7 iron arrows, it
can be called a success.
This will greatly raise my fire power.
With the small increase in weight, it’ll be a problem if I don’t improve the bow
soon too.

I’ve successfully completed the item for my current goal, so now, like the time
with the potion, I mass produced arrowheads until I run out of iron.
After mass producing the arrowheads, next is making the Recipe for how to
attach it to the wooden arrows.

And after that, again there’s a mass production, this time of iron arrows.
Despite the effort to make the first one, once the created Recipe is complete,
like this I will be able to replenish my consumables quickly.

After making plenty of iron arrows, next is working with dull iron.
I begin to make a mace-styled arrow.
Here I use a 5-sided counterweight-shape as the model.
For people who know about kusarigama (chain and sickle)2a weapons, they’d
understand it’s “that”2b, more or less.
Since it’s for an arrow, the form is made quite a bit smaller.
Because of the dull iron’s weight, if it’s any bigger the heaviness would
increase and it wouldn’t fly well.

I energetically hammer the form into shape.

Since I can make the counterweight’s shape, it might be possible to make a
kusarigama …
Let’s challenge it for fun to level up [Blacksmithing] later.

For arrow use, the height is about the length of a pinky toe.
Since I used dull iron the weight I want is definitely there.
Thinking about how it’ll fire from a bow and the balance, this size is just
barely within the limits.
If it doesn’t fly there’s no point to it at all.
Should I try getting my revenge on the Rock Ants with this arrow now?
A new [Bow] Arts to shoot would also serve…

—
Heavy-Bludgeoning Arrowhead

Attaching this to a wooden arrow will allow you to use it as a heavy

bludgeoning arrow.

Adds Atk +8

It is useless if it’s not attached to a wooden arrow. Quality 6

Special effects: Reduced Range , Effective against special enemies

—
“Reduced range” and “Effective against special enemies” came out.
I seem to have made the item I was hoping to.
Now I’ll just need to test shoot it to confirm how much the range decreased.
And attach it to the wooden arrow to make the Heavy Bludgeoning Arrow
Recipe.
And then mass produce.

For now, my goal is achieved with this, huh.

It’s getting to a time where not logging out would be bad …

Here is the welcomed conclusion for arrowhead production.

Next is necessary production for [Kick] supporting equipment.
Looks like I won’t be leaving this hot forge anytime soon.
SKILLS

[Bow]Lv30 [Kick]Lv27 [Farsight]Lv25 [Wind Magic]Lv18

[Craftsmanship]Lv33
[Cooking]Lv34 [Woodworking]Lv12 [Alchemy]Lv30 [Blacksmithing]Lv12
[Physical Ability Boost]Lv34
Reserved Skill(s)
[Stealth]Lv20

EXP 15
Heavy-Bludgeoning (Jyuupoku) is a constructed term.
With a weight, killing through beating … it’s the way to fight with a mace, isn’t
it?
 Chapter 19: Preparing Tricks for
Shoes

Now that I’ve finished the arrowheads, it’s time to move on to [Blacksmithing]
work part 2.
The next goal is to make additional equipment that attaches to the Werewolf
Leather Boots.
It will be equipment that will specifically enhance [Kick].
Like when I attacked the Rock Ants, there are bad situations where the damage
can be rebounded, though there might not be that many opponents like that from
here on.
Furthermore, for [Kick] attacks that don’t use supporting weapons, the
offensive power will definitely drop no matter what.
I’d like to address these two problems…

“If I can make some kind of weapon equipment that looks neat for my feet,
wouldn’t that be great.”

I say that, but before we get into the aesthetics I need to try and make some
fixtures so that I can actually attach the equipment to the Leather boots.

Now then, since it’s like that … as an example, Spike Shoes and Ski Boots
seem to fall within my ideas.

Spikes are anti-slip metal fixtures that are largely durable.

While kicking something with a large amount of spikes, the parts you kicked
will be covered in holes.
For now, I’ll ignore the thought that it’s gruesome.

Ski boots are shoes that can soften impact. It will deliver only the intended
striking damage, suppressing any reflected damage from a kick ….
I really need to think of how to attach shoes to shoes.

Also, attaching several blades to the sides of the shoes can give me a choice on
whether to kick or slice, depending on the type of kick.
With that kind of thing it’s also possible to improve the offensive power.
I practiced making cutting edges to death with the short sword and knife that I
can’t use.
Afterwards it’s time to try and remodel it some.

And so I drew several blueprints.

If the weight is too heavy it’s “No Good”.
Killing the mobility would be a fatal blunder for the fragile me.

While going, “good, good”, I’ve decided on the form.

The result is 7 spikes on the bottom of the foot and a blade left and right on the
side of each foot.
If I add anything else, aside from having to figure out how to attach it, the
weight it would add would push it into the “No way, no how, just give up”
level, so I’ll leave it as is.
This time’s prototype will be for investigating for improvements based on
ways to reinforce fighting in the recent battle.

I decided that the layout of the 7 spikes is 3 in the front, 1 in the middle, and 3
at the heel.
The spikes are for increasing [Kick]’s offensive power, but since they’ll work
as anti-slip measures it’s better to have them placed evenly to ensure a steady
balance.

For the blades that will go on the left and right side of my feet, I tried to use the
kukri knife1 and janbiya1.2 dagger as references to the shape of the blade … but
this…I’m struggling.
If the bend’s too extreme it can’t be attached easily; if it’s too straight it won’t
cover the front of the foot.
While drawing a pretty moderate curve on the side, I make it so it arcs in front
of the foot;
If the blade wasn’t such a “different” shape I wouldn’t be able to make it work.
I hear a blacksmith player crafter nearby say “That, how are you supposed to
use it?”
It’s really too different after all.

Actually, when I finally finished making the shape of the two blades my usual
logout time had passed … I logged out in a hurry and forced myself to go to
bed.
… I manage to avoid being late.

As such, after returning home from work, I finished eating and took a bath
before logging back in.
Today I want to build up an outer shell to attach things to the shoes.
There’s no way you can attach spikes or blades directly to shoes even in the
game, so I’m making a kind of pseudo shoe that covers the outside of the shoe
so that it can act as the attachment.

Taking the basic pattern from the Leather Boots, I made it a bit bigger.
It will be designed to cling to the Leather Boots tightly.
After roughly taking the form, from here I’ll reduce it little by little.
I’ll keep at it until it’s a perfect fit.

… just the outline of the shell took 30 minutes.

At this time I seriously thought that I want more Real degrees of dexterity.
Only the skill for excessively wielding the hammer is going up without effort.

It’s not too stout, nor did it add too much weight.
Quite the opposite actually, it’s too thin, resulting in a loss of durability.
To determine the best balance between the thickness and durability of the outer
shell, for the iron part I will use trial-and-error to figure out the thickness.
Adjustment by adjustment piled up, and pretty soon 1 hour has gone and
vanished.

Finally the outer shell is complete, and it’s time to see how well it attaches.
… I try walking, kicking, and lunging forward, and I don’t feel like there’s any
extreme increase in weight.
Here the blades and spikes aren’t attached …
A little bit of training will probably be necessary to get used to it then.

At any rate, the endurance level is also cleared, so finally I can attach the
blades and spikes.
The blades are set right and left, respectively, for each shell, from there a
number of fixtures are set around them to attach them securely.

For the spikes I’ve made some inset holes in the shell for attachment.
I put them in, and also use small fixtures are used to ensure stability.
I push and pull on them to check if they’re firm.
It’s necessary to confirm that carefully, since it’s a part that’s likely to be
abused.

I put it on after celebrating the attachment’s completed form.

Ah, as I expected the weight’s increased some …to master this I’ll go to the
Dread Wolf area and raise a blood festival2 by kicking up a storm.
Though it might not be enough get the feeling just by going to break it in.

Leg Blade Prototype

Adds ATK+12 Adds DEF+2

Raises [Kick]’s offensive power when attached to Leather and Light Armor
shoes.
An iron attachment, it is useless if it’s not attached to shoes.
Also, it is unable to be used if [Kick] has not yet reached LV15.

Quality 5 Reduces [Kick]’s reflected damage Increased weight

Hee~h, so you can attach it to Light Armor shoes.

It might be good to make it and see if I can sell it to people who’ve taken
[Kick].
If I use it myself, there might be people who’ll see it and take interest, and
maybe even come over to ask about it.

“Is that the finished piece?”

That’s a blacksmith player who raised his voice.

“For now, but you know … now I’ll have to test them out to find all the
problems.”

That’s how I responded. There’s still a long way to go until I really complete
them.
That said, it’s definitely an increase in combat capabilities … for me right
now, it’s more than enough.

“A supporting weapon for [Kick], that’s another weird thing you’ve made.”

He said that while laughing, but you can tell it’s not the jeering sort of laugh.

“It’s more interesting this way, right? Just taking the first sword’s swing is
different for everyone.
That this ‘weird weapon’ also exists somewhere is nice, isn’t it?”

That’s how I responded.

From around me, “Yeah, it IS more interesting that way,” were the responses.
For people into [Blacksmithing], there are those who like making the rare,
unusually good weapons, and there are also players who carefully craft their
work, to each their own.
There’s also a kind of blacksmith that makes weapons for showing off that
tickle the ‘chuuni’3 heart.
It’s a ‘since I’ve completed it in victory, please come take a look!’ kind of
item.

The players in the forge have suddenly increased, and “Good work” and the
likes were said.
Of course I have the Leg Blade Prototype attached to my shoes.
In reality this type of footwear would be a danger to my surroundings, but this
is a game.
It seems like if I don’t have the intent to attack, the slashing effect won’t come
out.
It’s a weird trait, but it’s convenient.

At long last, the arrowhead and shoe combat improvements are done; the next
day I’ll move onto the bow’s remodeling.
Heaving a large sigh, I log out.
SKILLS

[Bow]Lv30 [Kick]Lv27 [Farsight]Lv25 [Wind Magic]Lv18

[Craftsmanship]Lv33
[Cooking]Lv34 [Woodworking]Lv12 [Alchemy]Lv30 [Blacksmithing]Lv18
[Physical Ability Boost]Lv34

Reserved Skill(s)
[Stealth]Lv20

EXP 15

Now the shoes have violent looking blades and spikes.

If this wasn’t a game, it’d be an unjustifiable attachment (heh).
 Chapter 20: And Now, it’s a Bow,
but Let’s Charge Down the Path of
Ridiculous Equipment.

“Here, the bowstrings are done!”

I received the 30 bowstrings I’d asked a tailor crafter for.

With this I can try and challenge making a new bow 15 times. Why would 30
bowstrings only give 15 tries?
That’s because the new bow concept I have uses 2 bowstrings.
It’s easy to say that, but I’m going to have to surpass the boundaries of reality
to make it work.

“By the way, those are some nasty looking shoes, nee. Are you going to go all
slasher1 on your opponents?”

The tailor oneesan2 asked, interested.

“Aaa, these shoes wouldn’t be able to do that.

If you wanted to play slasher, swinging a sword around and using [Sword]
skills would be infinitely faster.
Instead of killing by slashing, it’s more like these are for ‘whittling down’ my
opponent’s health.”

In the first place, the movements between swordsmanship and kicking are too
different.
Really, holding a sword would be way better if I was going to go with slashing
as my main.
They’re called “Blade Shoes”, but in reality it’s a weapon that shaves off
damage by aiming for places on the opponent where their defenses are thin,
and on humanoids their neck or fingertips.

It would be hard to cut through an opponent while only having a blade that
measures about 3cm.
There’s no rule that says you can’t name it “Blade” if it can’t completely
cleave through an opponent.
And whittling away at the opponent little by little, digging in a bit and gouging;
they’re splendid battle strategies.
Since there aren’t any Arts for [Kick], this kind of thinking is indispensable.

“You also made such a dangerous thing, nee, even though you’re a chef.”

“It was driven by necessity so it couldn’t be helped”, with that explanation as

my parting farewell, I hurry to the woodworking station.
It’s true that if I used these shoes and went after a PVP opponent’s neck, in
“Real” it would become a horror situation you wouldn’t want to see, wouldn’t
it; I’m thinking that kind of stupid thing.

Now then, finally it’s the time to craft the main weapon, the bow … I’d like to
say that, but before that my [Bow] skill reached LV30 and I have to choose a
specialty.
There are three choices: [Short Bow], [Hunting Bow], [Long Bow].

[Short Bow] has a short induction time to give characteristic of rapid-firing,

and it’s easy to handle.
In exchange, the range and offensive power will fall no matter what.

[Long Bow] is the exact opposite with a long induction time, and the bow is
bigger so it’s a pain to maneuver.
In exchange the range and offensive power of each shot is perfect, exactly
suitable for becoming a sniper.

The two I just gave are simplified explanations, since I’ve rejected both.
With the [Short Bow]’s handling, the ability to make tight maneuvers is
attractive, but the range reduction is enough to make me ‘gaku~’ fall to the
ground so I mark it off the choices.
This has to be for people who can handle acrobatic fighting at short-range.
[Long Bow] is even more “Nope”. Because of the maneuverability needed
with [Kick], [Long Bow]’s large size will just get in the way.
Also, the long induction time just isn’t suited for my solo play.
It’s more for people who often join parties, and taken by people who choose to
specialize as a sniper.

Since it’s like that, other than the [Hunting Bow] that’s not too much bigger or
with too different of a range
than the [Bow] right now, there’s no other option.
From the beginning, the choice couldn’t be too different.
For the most part, [Hunting Bow] isn’t any different from the current [Bow].
The good and bad points are pretty balanced.
Of course since the skill is a tier higher, there are increased benefits like better
offensive power.

It takes 3 EXP to change [Bow]LV30 to [Hunting Bow]LV1.

I’ve finally specialized, long after everyone else’s combat specialization.

Now let’s regroup and go back to bow production.

I want to make a bow that would absolutely never exist in “Real”, where the
bow and the bowstrings will stretch into an “X” shape.
Also, thinking about drawing the bow, the right bowstring would be nearly
vertical while the left bowstring would slant so a perfect “X” shaped bow
isn’t possible.
Thinking about the draw angle when you pull 2 bowstrings at the same time, to
take advantage of the design, there’s no way the shape won’t become a little
distorted.
Why would I try to make such a bow?

Because trying to make something that would never exist in “Real” is

interesting.
This kind of enhancing beyond practicality is a kind of romance.
Because it’s a game, something like this is allowed.

Since I’ve already drawn up the blueprints I’m furiously whittling the form.
A pretty firm and sturdy piece of wood will be positioned at the center to
become the pillar of the bow.
For the wood that will draw the left and right bowstrings I use wood with
more elasticity.

Learning from the previous connected-double-bow attempt, I positioned a

stabilizing coupling joint made of wood together with the bow arms and
clamped them together.
At any rate, in order to make the shape for this pretty weird bow, just having a
connection of brute force is definitely not enough.
In particular, if I’m not careful when I slant the left bow in front of the right
bow, the base, it won’t become an “X”.

The strength is insufficient when I make it according the blueprint, so I went

back to the forge to make a reinforcement.
After amending the blueprint, I try to make the bow’s shape again.
I repeated this for several days.
This bow is such a completely different type of bow, so the crafting isn’t going
quite well and the materials are steadily decreasing.
Even so, the process of making this new type of shape, succeeding little bit by
little bit, is fun.
And then, after a lot, it’s finally complete!

Because the bow’s grip is the foundation, and for making the “X”, just wood
won’t cover it, so I made an iron grip a bit thicker than the wood.
With that, I can achieve the “X” shaped bow, and attach the straight bows at the
foundation point together.
And so the difficulty in the grip is somehow or other cleared.
I determined that the left bow should slant at about a 30 degree angle.
The right one was stabilized at about a 10 degree slant.

The bowarms’ tips are also reinforced with iron, increasing the strength.
The previous time with the composite bow I didn’t have [Blacksmithing] so I
couldn’t do it, but doing this increases the durability by a lot.

Both of the bowstrings are drawn back together. And then released.
It takes more strength to draw than the previous bow, but it’s a good reaction.
Compared to the previous skill LV, my abilities seem to have gone up and I can
suitably handle this bow without any problems.

In the end, the wood I’d gathered from the forest area has just about all
disappeared.
Doing this near-impossible plan was all for the sake of drawing closer to the
dream, running down the path of “romance”.
For that, there’s a meaning; there’s merit to it.

X-Styled Composite Hunting Bow

A bow aiming to increase offensive power by adding 2 bows together in an

“X”.
That an arrow can be fired from this strange shape can only be called a marvel.
The handling’s difficulty is greatly increased; a beginner with bows will
absolutely not be able to use it.

ATK+32 Quality6

The Prototype Composite Bow I’ve been using had an attack strength of +12,
so this one is a drastic jump. It’s a powerhouse.
I’ve performed maintenance on the Prototype Composite Bow repeatedly, but
still its lifespan has now drawn to a close.
Unconsciously I muttered, “Good work, I’ve been in your care.”

Even though it’s just a piece of data found inside a game, even so it’s my buddy
that’s worked hard up ‘til now, so it’s fine to say a word for it.
I have some attachment to it. Even if it’s in the virtual world, I brought it into
being with my own hands, so I can say it definitely existed here.

SKILLS

[Hunting Bow]Lv1 [Kick]Lv27 [Farsight]Lv25 [Wind Magic]Lv18

[Craftsmanship]Lv36
[Cooking]Lv34 [Woodworking]Lv18 [Alchemy]Lv30 [Blacksmithing]Lv19
[Physical Ability Boost]Lv35

Reserved Skill(s)
[Stealth]Lv20

EXP 12

And so, from hereon my main weapon is this really unreasonable bow.
A bow with a shape using 3 bows all attached in the middle part and branching
out wouldn’t even be look like a bow.
* I have a tendency to go in this direction.
The middle one would be the foundation of the bow, and the other two would
make an “X” for the “X” bow.
Since I can have a bow that would never exist in real-life, this so-called
impossibility would be interesting so I’d love to see it.
 Chapter 21: Test Shooting and
Revenge

Somehow or other, I’ve finally made a bow, arrows, and kicking support-
attachments that will increase my attack power a tier.
Now it’s finally the time to test it all out on a monster opponent.

Of course before I head out to the field I refill the food vending machine that
has completely run out; it’s been empty several days now.

That aside, the first thing to do is test-shoot the Iron Arrows and Heavy-
Bludgeoning Arrows at a tree.
The Iron Arrow’s range doesn’t seem to have changed, but the Heavy-
Bludgeoning Arrow seems to have lost about 20% of the distance … it’s a
distance that’s barely acceptable.
It seems I was able to keep it within 75% of the Iron Arrow’s effective range

I test out how the Blade Shoes handle with [Kick] against a large amount of
Dread Wolves that I pulled as my opponents.
Every once in a while I threw in some [Wind Magic] use.
Since the blade is so short there’s no way I can inflect a severe gash, but even
so when I aim the blade and kick towards the throat and tips of the paws, there
is clearly a small amount of additional damage.

The spikes on the bottom of the shoes … that is to say, the portion of the short,
sturdy stakes made of iron that’s easy to kick with has left the Dread Wolf’s
face a sorry mess after getting stabbed with the spikes.
It seems it’s a success, since the Dread Wolf’s HP most definitely dropped.
Compared to the blade, the … small “Pile Bunkers” on the bottom of the shoes
can tear through easily and it’s much more damaging.
Looks like the blade part’s going to need some improvements…
I should do that sometime in the near future; gotta mine more iron.

Now that I’m thankful this game doesn’t produce too much gore after the gory
kicking part, at long last it’s time for my revenge against the Rock Ants.
It’s a blessing that the blood that spurts out is very small.
(It’s to the extent that Worms and the like only shed a little bit of purple blood.)
In old games the monsters’ bodies would be like they were undergoing surgery.
Compared to that, this modern gore is more than enough.

I head into the forest area, looking for the Rock Ants that had beaten me to a
pulp before.
I’m using [Farsight] to carefully check the layout of the monsters.

Like I said before, these Rock Ant’s have Link, and from the next explanation
you’ll understand exactly how nasty Link is.
Initially, Link’s area of effect isn’t really that large, but add another Ant and
Link’s area increase 2xs. It has that kind of ridiculous trait.
And so, if you have 3 monsters with Link … it wouldn’t be weird to have Rock
Ants swarming in front-back, left-right, from 360 degrees all around.
This kind of OP target tracking awareness’s strong point is, it’s also
impossible to run from since Link’s area of effect will expand and you’ll be
surrounded and then beaten up.

The advice is, take it out in one hit before you get noticed.
If that’s impossible, then avoid them … that’s how it is.

The forest has wood and lots of herbs, so there are a lot of players who come
for gathering.
Pulling a train in the middle of all that would be a huge nuisance for them.
With just one shot, it’d be impossible to avoid getting everyone all caught up in
it.
That’s why it’s crucial for me to check the area carefully with [Farsight].

After searching about, one lone Rock Ant spaced out and wandering around
found!
I check all around to make sure there aren’t any other Rock Ants about.
Finally, the time for me to try out how the X Bow and the Heavy-Bludgeoning
Arrow perform has come.
With [Stealth] hiding my presence, I draw closer into shooting range.
Once I entered the shooting range, I launch the <Arrow Twister> that I learned
at [Bow]LV30.
It’s a piercing ability that increases the attack power by 1.2xs using high-speed
rotations.
The mace-like Heavy-Bludgeoning Arrow probably won’t get that piercing
ability part, but I’ll gratefully welcome the attack power increase from the
rotations alone.

“<Arrow Twister>…”

Though I’m in [Stealth] I announce my attack in a low voice while firing the
arrow.
Previously the Wooden Arrow was easily repelled, but this time’s arrow is a
completely different beast.
Take this dangit, and now I’ll wait and see the results of the arrow.

The Heavy-Bludgeoning Arrow I fired with high-speed rotations was shot at

the rock-like armor
Of the Rock Ant’s head, and with a “DOGON!” the Heavy-Bludgeoning iron
head hits, rendering its armored shell useless and, with a loud, echoing sound,
shattered it into pieces.
But that Rock Ant who took the hit, just when I thought the armored shell
cracked, in an instant it ‘s splendidly shattered, revealing the bare head portion
inside.

I immediately ready an Iron Arrow. It seems the Rock Ant is dazed from the
shock, since its movements are clearly much slower.
I can’t ignore the possibility that the loud, echoing sound will draw in other
monsters.
I should hurry up and finish this while its movements are slowed.

The Iron Arrow pierced the Rock Ant’s head that no longer had anything
protecting it.
Just when I’m thinking that the Rock Ant is writhing, it was easily defeated.
The opponent that I couldn’t defeat with my previous gear no matter how long I
took, I’ve easily defeated it; that’s the current reality.
I check my surroundings with [Farsight] just to be sure.
Attracted to the sound a few Rock Ants have come a bit closer.
I calmly reactivate [Stealth] and walked slowly away from the spot, then
released [Stealth] and checked the situation.

… Looks like Link wasn’t activated; they’re purely here just because of the
sound and leave soon after.
I let out a small sigh of relief.
Still, the result was everything I wanted, but I hadn’t thought of the loud sound
it would make.
I wonder if the loud sound was a result of some trait of <Arrow Twister>?

Soon after, to confirm the <Arrow Twister>’s reaction on the a Rock Ant, I
launched another attack.

“[Stealth] … [Twin Fang Arrow]…”

This time I’m using <Twin Fang Arrow> that I acquired immediately after
taking the [Hunting Bow] specialty.
It uses 2 arrows, one above and one below, on a trajectory that looks like two
fangs biting down1, truly an Arts that can only exist in a game.
The loosed fangs bit into the Rock Ant’s head-armor with a dull “Dogo,
dogon” sound.
Compared to the <Arrow Twister> from before this was quiet enough.
After that, a single Iron Arrow was enough to take the Rock Ant out.

Afterwards I found a few more lone Rock Ants wandering around, so I used
<Twin Fang Arrow> to break open the head, then used [Kick] and [Wind
Magic] to attack afterward to see how it’d go.

Like last time, the reflected damage and the [Wind Magic]’s armor ability were
both bad, so I ditch the wind armor and kick normally, using [Wind Magic] to
add to damage, defeating it much faster.
Seems like breaking the head open exposes a weakness, or going for the
opponent’s liver.

Now that I can defeat it, it’s turned into quite the delicious opponent.
My skill levels keep steadily going up and up.
The skill’s used in combat have leveled well.
By leveling, it looks likes I can find more definite ways to expose weaknesses.
Also, looks like the armored shell drops would make good Light Armor
materials.
I’ll take it to an armor crafter and try to figure out the market price for it.

Now I’ve more than enough satisfied my grudge from the previous beating.
In one day I’ve earned the largest haul I’ve had in a long time.

SKILLS
[Hunting Bow]Lv8 [Kick]Lv33 [Farsight]Lv25 [Wind Magic]Lv24
[Craftsmanship]Lv36
[Cooking]Lv36 [Woodworking]Lv18 [Alchemy]Lv30 [Stealth]Lv24
[Physical Ability Boost]Lv40

Reserved Skill(s)
[Blacksmithing]Lv19

EXP 14

The spikes on the bottom of the shoes aren’t thin needles, but short, fat stakes.
That’s why there’s only 7 on the bottom of the feet.
I didn’t write it previously after the crafting so that I could write it here.
I’ll take your criticisms, but I have no regrets!