The Summoner Is Going Chapter 109

Translator: Charlotte　Editor: Weasalopes

After I finished filling empty potion bottles, I got to work on some Ancient Stones.
Click, click.
Tap, tap.
The process was pretty fun and a good time-waster.

And knowing that something was inside was fun too.
Although I was a little concerned about not being able to get the stone I got from my first try anymore.

The first two Ancient Stones both gave me Amber.
It looked like that was the most common stone to come out of these.
The next item I got was this one:

【Material】Red Quartz　Grade C+　Rarity 3　Weight 0+
A red quartz. Also known as Rose Quartz.
With a high transparency and particle size, it is often used to aid in magic sealing.

It looked like the Purple Quartz I got some time ago.
Of course, I kept it on me.
Next.
I forgot about my surroundings as I continued working.

I finished all of the Ancient Stones I had on me.
The time was 6 pm.
Maybe I got too much into it.
Well, I was glad I got some items out of it.
My MP bar was at just over 60%.
I was using spells the whole time, and my MP recovery wasn't that good yet.

There were three gemstones I got that looked rather interesting.
They were all clearly of different quality, but I was just looking at the gemstones themselves.

【Material】Morganite　Grade B-　Rarity 2　Weight 0+
A pink beryl.
With a high transparency and particle size, it is often used to aid in spellcasting.

【Material】Blue Spinel　Grade C+　Rarity 3　Weight 0+
A translucent mineral that forms octahedral crystals.
Not a very rare mineral, but it is known to aid in spellcasting after some processing.

【Material】Tsavorite　Grade C+　Rarity 3　Weight 0+
A green garnet, slightly more valuable than the red garnet.
With a high transparency, it is often used in spellcasting, making it very expensive.

All that was left was the Amber.
Well, they were pretty.

It was already well into the evening, so I recalled Helix and summoned Bunraku.
I had some bread and ratatouille, but it wouldn't be enough for a meal.
Yeah.
It was time for some sirloin.

I handed the ingredients and the tools to Bunraku, who immediately started cooking.
I didn't have to wait too long for the food to be served.

【Food】Fighting Bull Sirloin Steak　Satiety +25%　Grade B-　Weight 0+
A simple steak made of Fighting Bull Sirloin.
Only seasoned with salt and pepper.

Wow!
Yes!
This is it!

Oh!!!
It's so good!
I want a beer!

Why do fun times pa.s.s by so quickly?
I do not know.

After clean-up, I recalled Bunraku.
It was night-time.
I needed the proper Summon Monsters for the occasion.
Hmm…
I had to prioritise strength.
I summoned Volff.
I didn't know what would happen at night.
Well, whatever might happen, Volff would probably be good at handling it.
Now.
Let's head out.

I checked the map.
The place I was in had the name『Guardian Tree』.
It was probably referring to the tree in the middle. It was a good name.

But the tree was different from when I last saw it.
It was clearly growing.
It was now taller than Senki.

There was also something different about the tree's surroundings.
Fairies?

Fairy　Lv.4
Half-Fairy　On Alert

Its marker was yellow.
Just like the Knockers at the shrine or the clouds at the spring.
They weren't any threat, and they were just acting as the guardians of the Area Portal.
Well.
All my preparations were complete.
I headed out into the forest right as the sun began to set.

Where was I going?
East.
I heard something strange was happening on the border with the N1W1 map, so I wanted to check it out.

As expected, Volff was good at mobility.
Not to mention Obsidian.
Me, Senki, and Goki were making up for it using【Forest Walk】.
My plan was to go as far as I could, and then return using【Return Home】to the village.

When it became night the monsters' behaviour patterns clearly changed.
First, all the b.u.t.terflies disappeared.
No, they were still there, but…
They were all hiding in the treetops. I confirmed it using【Call Monster】.
At first, I tried climbing a tree, but after seeing a b.u.t.terfly with its wings folded up, I gave up on the idea.
I left it alone.
Repeatedly battling sleeping monsters was too much of a ha.s.sle.

But there was something else.
Another monster was on another branch.
It was…

Stab Crawler　Lv.5
Monster　Enemy Target　Pa.s.sive

It was pa.s.sive. I ignored it.
I'd never seen one of those during the day…
I wondered if it was one of those monsters that hide in the trees during the day.
Guessing from its name, I'd expect it to have some kind of relationship to the Stab b.u.t.terfly.

I didn't see any turtles.
No, it was a monster that tended to appear near the river banks anyway, so that was to be expected.
I didn't really mind it.

Brown Bears walked about in small groups.
Many of them were pa.s.sive.
They didn't become active, even when I stared them in the eye.

This pattern, huh.
At this rate I would have to fight a monster soon.
The game wouldn't let me just move around without fighting anything.
It was designed that way.

We kept going without any interruptions, but Obsidian and Volff suddenly both went on alert.
A monster?

I was right.
A group of monsters.
And probably the biggest group of I'd ever seen in the area.
I used【Identify】on one of them.

Byte Rat　Lv.4
Monster　Enemy Target　Escaping

Huh?
Escaping?

It definitely looked like they were running away.
They were running from something.
I felt the pressing need to run too.

When I saw what they were running from, I realised that I wasn't going to be able to run from it.
I had a feeling I'd seen it before.
No, it definitely looked like some kind of animal.
When I used【Identify】on it, I got a really bad feeling.

Fire Wheel　Lv.6
Phantom　Enemy Target　Active

A cat?
It definitely looked like one.
It was clearly some kind of ghost.
A phantom.
A big one at that!

It ran to attack Volff.
Volff intercepted it.
It looked kind of like a cat vs. dog fight, but not at the same time.
The cat was gigantic, after all.
Volff couldn't deal with it on his own.
Everyone got moving.
I chose a spell and approached the monster.

Something was strange.
Volff's MP bar.
At some point, Volff's MP bar had fallen to 90%.
Volff's HP bar wasn't looking so good either.

Senki tackled the monster.
A direct hit, but it quickly hit back.
20% of Senki's MP bar went down.
Senki's HP bar was looking alright, though.

It was then that I realised it attacked the MP bar, just like the Haunted Mist.
And on top of that, its attacks did damage to the HP bar too.
How annoying.

One of Goki's arrows came flying at the monster.
An opportunity.

「Gravity Bullet!」

I ran up to it before releasing the spell.
The monster was blown away, but it still didn't show any weaknesses.
On the contrary, it looked like it just shot something at me.
I didn't know what it was.
I was a little confused.
My HP bar suddenly decreased.
It fell to about 90%.
No status abnormality.

Just a moment later, the monster appeared in front of me.
It was only when it was up close that I realised just how big it actually was.
I couldn't avoid it.
It was only by luck that I didn't get killed right then and there.
I ducked, and closely dodged the monster's jaws.
I kicked it in its chest.
It didn't do too much damage to the monster, but I managed to get it away from me.
An overhead throw.

But I was dealing with a monster.
A cat, on top of that.
At least it looked like a cat.

It did a beautiful flip in the air, and landed on its feet.
I released the next spell.
I didn't have any time to think.

「Steam Shot!」

A direct hit into its open jaws.
The burning steam made it go wild.
Senki jumped on it as it was distracted.
Senki wrapped its arm around its neck and pulled.
But it wasn't enough.
The cat was just too heavy.

「Paralysis.」

I didn't expect it to do much, but it worked.
It was resisted, but I managed to get it to sit still for a few seconds.
A few seconds is all that Senki needed.

Obsidian took the opportunity to attack one of the monster's red eyes.
The other eye was struck by Goki's arrow a moment later.
The scream the monster let out sounded almost sad.

Oops.
The fight wasn't over yet.

I let go of my rod and put my Snow Leopard Bagh Nakh into my right fist.
A push dagger in my left fist.
I started casting a spell too.
I attacked its forelegs.
After a few stabs, an abnormal status marker appeared on the monster.
The AGI debuff effect was working.
I let go of the next spell.

「Branch Bind!」

A tree branch wrapped around the monster's front legs.
With Senki holding its head in place, the monster's movements were eventually completely immobilised.
Volff, Goki, and Obsidian focused all their attacks on the monster's head.
I tore at the monster's abdomen with my blades.

「Gravity Bullet!」

The monster's giant body jumped a little.
It did some damage, but it wasn't enough. Its HP bar was still at 40%.
But it didn't really have a way of fighting back anymore.
All we had to do was keep attacking.
Senki faithfully kept the monster in place.
The monster did look like it could explode any second.
I trusted that Senki could take care of it, but even Senki couldn't snap its neck.
It took him everything just to keep the monster from escaping.

There was nothing we could do.
The finishing blow came from Obsidian. A direct hit between its eyes, and the fight was over.

《【s.p.a.cetime Magic】Level Up!》
《You have acquired the【s.p.a.cetime Magic】spell【Clairvoyance】!》
《You have acquired the【s.p.a.cetime Magic】spell【Dimension Mirror】!》
《You have acquired the【s.p.a.cetime Magic】spell【Instant Portal】!》
《【Mental Reinforcement】Level Up!》

Some more strange spells, huh.
But after just fighting that cat monster, I didn't feel like it was safe enough for me to look at my stats yet.
First, I needed to get to a point where it was safe to focus on something else.
Volff and Senki took quite a bit of damage.
Their MP bars were at less than half.
Let's not use【Dark Heal】…
I used【Fire Heal】instead.
Even with that, I had my worries with Senki's HP bar.
I gave him a potion on top of my heal spell.
I didn't know my MP bar was going to get cut down so much so early.
What a monster…
Scary.

I was expecting it to drop something pretty good but when I got to the body, it was already gone.
Huh?
No way…
Because it's a phantom?

Nah…
That would be insane…

I'll just call it bad luck.

I decided to do some general checks.
Looking at the map, I saw that we hadn't advanced too far into the east yet.
The time was still 7 pm.
My MP was at about 40%.
I could probably fight it one more time if I had to.
I would have more of an idea as to how to fight it, and thereby hopefully not use up as much MP.

I decided to keep going for a little while longer.

I decided to change up my Summon Monsters.
I had to prioritise alertness.
I recalled Goki and summoned Jean.
Let's keep moving.

Summoning Jean was a good decision.
With Jean in the group I was caught off guard a lot less.
Detecting the packs of rats and avoiding them was easier too.

The Fire Wheels were pretty difficult.
They tended to appear from nowhere.
But Volff and Obsidian already memorised its signature, and were able to sense it from further away.
The distance made a big difference.
I used【Call Monster】to confirm it.
I could definitely sense some Fire Wheels, but they tended to disappear and reappear at random.
Well, it was a phantom.
How annoying…

In any case, the further I went, the higher the risk of me encountering it.
What would I do if I had to fight it again?
I trusted Volff to keep watch and ran into the forest.
I simulated a fight against a Fire Wheel in my head.

The situation I encountered threw all that preparation out the window.
I headed east, but a pack of rats was blocking my way.
Jean sensed the rats moving about.
Volff and Obsidian did too, just by the noise they were making.
Five different packs.
It made it impossible for me to keep going without encountering them.

But did I really have to fight them?
I could just run through the centre and hope to lose them after a while.
As long as I was sure there weren't any other players, running away wasn't a bad option.
It was how we defeated a good number of Fighting Bulls.

I couldn't help but worry.
I had to fight it someday.
I headed straight eastward.
As told to us by【Magnetic Compa.s.s】.
We picked up speed the further we went.
I was the least mobile in our group.
I used【Physical Enchant: Wind】to make up for it.

C'mon…

No, actually I'm about to get away, so I wouldn't mind it either way.

Byte Rats were a lot smaller than I thought.
They were pretty big for a rat, but compared to the monster I had to deal with earlier, they weren't so bad.
About half as tall as Volff?
But in numbers they had the strength to move mountains.
Scary.

The head of the pack came at me.
I kept running using both【Forest Walk】and【Physical Enchant: Wind】.
I had a plan.
I used a spell that I had already prepared earlier.

「Fire Wall!」

The pack of rats ran straight into the wall of fire.
Several red markers disappeared almost instantly.
Very effective.

But they figured out a way pretty quickly.
Most of the rats simply ran around the wall and kept chasing after me.
Ooh clever.

But it wasn't the time to be impressed.
I used my next spell.

「Aqua Slash!」

The blade of water pressure blew some rats away, and cut some rats in half.
But quite a few of them still had enough strength to continue the chase.
Ooh amazing.
I quickly chose my next spell.

Obsidian picked off the rats that were getting too close for comfort.
Nice.

「Storm Wave!」

This time the rats were blown in all directions.
Ah… What a wide range.
With the wind blowing in between the branches, all the rats chasing after me were no more.
At least that's what I thought. The truth was that only about half of them were actually killed by the spell.
Because the range was so big, I suppose it led to an attenuation in the spell's strength.
Well, I managed to buy some time with it.

「Gravel Blast!」

I gave them another hit of the【Earth Magic】spell. It took care of almost all the other rats.
The last 10 rats I fought hand-to-hand.
Alone they weren't that frightening.

Even after slaughtering that many of them, I didn't level up.
Well, I kind of expected.
But I had another issue at hand.
There was of course the issue of whether I could get anything at all from the rats, but the main issue was that they were scattered all over the place.
I walked over to the nearest body and stuck my knife into it.
Nothing.
I kept trying.

After not getting anything from the tenth rat, I decided to give up.
I decided to put more effort to mobility.
I wouldn't have enough MP to go through another big fight.
It was about time for me to think about heading back.

Further east.
I could use【Return Home】to get back after the next fight.
I decided on that strategy.
It was already 9 pm.
It should have been enough for anyone, but I didn't feel satisfied by the fights.
I wonder what was missing?
Yes, there wasn't enough hand-to-hand combat.
I had a lot of opportunities to use spells.
Because of that, my MP bar wasn't looking so good.

This is bad…
I'd prefer it if all the monsters were stayed pa.s.sive.
Would any monster to close-range combat attack me?

Here it comes.
It's here.
Why is it here? I ignored that question for the time being.
It was a monster I actually didn't want to fight.

Snow Leopard　Lv.7
Monster　Enemy Target　Active

I'll make this guy my prey.
It was high-level, but whatever.

I underestimated it.
Snow Leopard, sorry.
It was actually pretty strong.

As soon as the fight started, I took a hit to my thigh.
【Physical Enchant: Wind】ran out too.
My attacks. .h.i.t the air over and over again.
In a panic, I cast【Physical Enchant: Wind】again, which let me get a bit of an edge.
I managed to consistently land my kicks.
If I had to guess where it came from, I would say from higher up the mountain.

I was grateful for the Snow Ape Armguard on my left arm.
The Snow Leopard bit down on it once.
But even with the armguard it still hurt quite a bit!

I stabbed my Gale Tiger Push Dagger into the Snow Leopard's throat.
The fight ended with that.
It was enough to end the fight.
A whistling sound came out from the wound as the Snow Leopard struggled to breathe.
After a short while, the sound stopped.
The Snow Leopard was no more.

I managed to defeat it, but took quite a bit of damage in the process.
It hurt a lot.
Having my pain settings at 100% wasn't good at all.

I got a claw and the skin of the Snow Leopard.
Looking at the map, I realised I was still quite a while from N1W1.
But there was nothing I could do.
By the time I recovered enough HP to be in a safe position, I only had 20% of my MP bar left.
I decided on it earlier.

「Return Home!」

I teleported to the Village of the Wind Spirit.
I arrived a lot sooner than I usually would.

I arrived at the village.
It was nighttime, so I didn't sense any other people.
Seemed like a lot of the players had already logged out.
The small number of players left were doing some hunting.

I picked a random spot and set up a tent before recalling all my Summon Monsters.
I took off all my equipment and snuggled into my sleeping bag.
Huh?
I felt like I was forgetting something.

Oh well.
I couldn't be bothered to remember.
I put it off my mind.

It wasn't even 9:30 pm yet.
It was a little earlier than usual, but I decided to log out.

Protagonist　Keith
Race　Human　Male　Racial Lv12
Job　Summoner Lv12
Bonus Points Remaining: 4

Skill Sets:
Staff Lv10　Punch Lv7　Kick Lv7　Joint Lock Lv7　Throw Lv7　Evade Lv7　Block Lv7　 Summon Magic Lv12　s.p.a.cetime Magic Lv6 (↑1)
Light Magic Lv6　Wind Magic Lv7　Earth Magic Lv7　Water Magic Lv7　Fire Magic Lv6　　Dark Magic Lv6　Ice Magic Lv5　Lightning Magic Lv5　Tree Magic Lv5　Dust Magic Lv4　Lava Magic Lv4　Steam Magic Lv4
Alchemy Lv6　Pharmacy Lv5　Gla.s.smaking Lv3　Woodworking Lv4
Synergy Lv9　Appraise Lv9　Identify Lv9　Discern Lv3　Cold Resistance Lv5　Grab Lv7　Horsemanship Lv7　Precise Manipulation Lv9　Jump Lv4　Heat Resistance Lv4　Climb Lv4　Dual Wield Lv6 (↑1) 　Disa.s.sembly Lv5
Physical Reinforcement Lv5　Mental Reinforcement Lv6 (↑1) 　Speedcasting Lv7　Spell Effect Amplification Lv2　Spell Range Amplification Lv2

Equipment:
Kaya Wood Rod × 1　Kaya Wood Tonfa × 2　Enraged Pickaxe+ × 2　Silver Necklace+　 Snow Leopard Push Dagger × 1　Gale Tiger Push Dagger × 2　Snow Leopard Bagh Nakh × 1 (New!)
Wild Horse Leather Armour+　Snow Ape Armguard　Wild Horse Boots+　Snow Ape Leather Helmet　Rabid Horse Belt+　Rucksack　Item Box × 2

Items:
Survival Knife　Woodworking Set

t.i.tles:
Old Summoner's Pupil
Guardian of the Forest
Man of the Middle Path
Spell Glossary

Monster Summons:
Volff　Grey Wolf Lv2
Zangetsu　White Horse Lv7
Helix　Hawk Lv7
Obsidian　Owl Lv7
Jean　Bat Lv7
Jericho　Wood Golem Lv5
Goki　Demon Lv6
Senki　Beast Ape Lv6
Rig　Slime Lv5
Bunraku　Wood Puppet Lv4
Mumyo　Skeleton Lv4
Ninetails　Red Fox Lv3