DAY 10

DAY 10

Could you even call this Cane Mastery anymore?

THE CAVE

 

I WOKE UP SORE and aching all over. Why did I think that a bed made with Earth Magic would be as soft as a real bed? I might as well have been sleeping on the floor. At this rate I’d end up breaking my back.

Last night when I checked my status one last time, I saw Wood Magic Lv1 listed. I figured it might work on living trees, too. Maybe I could use it to accelerate their growth. I definitely wanted to test if it could help me craft wooden furniture.

I gathered up the splintered fragments of the shattered goblin clubs and tried using Wood Magic, but I realized I didn’t know what to incant. I know it won’t work, but this is the one time it would be cool to say some florid phrase like “Spirits of the Trees, heed my commands and lend me your strength.” I tried to bend them into new shapes by doing the same thing I did to activate Packing Magic.

“Bend,” I commanded. “Bend. Whoa!”

I sounded like a fake psychic addressing a spoon, but the wood responded to my commands and dutifully bent into shape.

I had no idea what the intended purpose of this magic was, but it still worked. This might be as useful as Earth Magic.

I went right to work on making furniture. Soon enough, I had a kind of mid-century table near the middle of the room—a long, rectangular countertop with goblin clubs as the four legs; eight four-legged chairs in a modernist style around the table; a wide, round loveseat in the center; and even a big bowl-shaped chair up against the wall.

Not good enough! I completely forgot my original objective. Why did a loner like me need so many chairs, anyway? Don’t you dare say I’m lonely!

I built the bed frame by stacking beams of wood as if they were the walls of a miniature log cabin. The bed itself was made from a softer wood, planed down into flat, slightly flexible boards that I laid atop the frame. Perfect! It was a slatted bed—nothing compared to a modern mattress, but way better than sleeping on a rock, and it wasn’t like I had a mattress or springs lying around. I also made some hip shelving and placed it along the walls. Of course, I didn’t have anything to put on the shelves. I tried putting the extra goblin clubs on there, but when I did that, they looked way less hip somehow.

With just one glance, I could tell it was way cooler than my former bedroom back in the real world. Even though all this furniture was made of wood and stone, it was better than the cheap crap I had in that tiny room.

I had completely lost track of time; it was way past noon. Lunch break.

It was late, but I still wanted to explore today. When I checked my Map skill, I realized that I had thoroughly explored the forest along the river, but all the areas farther from the river were blank. I had no idea what was to the east of my cave, which made me nervous. I decided to explore in that direction.

The area was thickly overgrown, although not quite as dense as the deep forest upstream.

“There sure are a lot of goblins,” I muttered.

I could sense their presences everywhere. Fortunately, they were unaware of my cave. A few goblins at a time were no problem, but if I ran into a horde, I had little hope of winning. I had no choice but to thin them out one at a time.

In order to better my chances, I continued to level up and hone my combat skills. I had to face danger in order to survive. Using Presence Concealment and Stealth, I approached a group of goblins. There were only three in this group, none of them particularly high level.

I readied my staff. I recalled the Cane Mastery techniques that I practiced last night as I closed in. Holding my breath, still concealed, I crept up on the nearest goblin and struck it with a two-handed grip. Did I kill it?

The flanking goblins closed in and swung their clubs. Switching to a right-handed grip, I thrust the end of the staff into the chest of the goblin to my right and followed up with a broad swing that smashed the goblin on my left. Before they could react, I took a few steps back and launched a fireball at the goblin that survived my sneak attack. Then, before the arcane flames had a chance to dissipate, I leapt through them, thrusting with my staff to land a killing blow.

I sucked in air through gritted teeth. No time to rest, the one on the right still has some fight left. Finishing the battle, I jabbed that monster with the blunt end of my staff. Before the dust had a chance to settle, I concealed my presence and surveyed my surroundings. Hell yes! My practice paid dividends! Practicing was mortifying, but it was worth it.

Maybe I was too effective, because the first goblin was still spurting a fountain of blood, headless. My staff was infused with magic, and I had slashed like it was a sword, but could it really have beheaded a goblin? Was this the true meaning of “slash like a longsword?” Shinto-Muso is incredible, I thought. Obviously this is still a wooden staff, so it must be an additional effect of Magic Infusion. Did my new acquisition of Four Elements magic improve Magic Infusion, too?

Sure enough, there was definitely a stab wound in the chest of the second goblin. When I thrust, I had imagined that I was holding a spear, so my staff must have pierced like one. Strange—did my staff extend itself when I swung widely? The goblin I smashed couldn’t have been in range, but I imagined a halberd swing when I attacked. Shinto-Muso Cane Style could work miracles. It can make my staff sharp as a sword and as long as a halberd! Though it’s not like I’m using the actual style, I just made something up based on what the nerds told me.

If there was a martial arts technique that could do stuff like that in the real world, it would be incredibly famous. Magic is wild! At least I think this is magic.

I also managed to easily shoot a fireball. Maybe I channeled the magic through my infused staff? But yes, it was definitely a fireball. It only flew about ten feet, so maybe it was a short-range fireball? No, just call it a regular fireball!

I thought about going back to my cave to do some tests and make sure I could still shoot a fireball. On the other hand, I already made it this far. I felt like I was asking for trouble if I spent any more time practicing alone in the cave.

My Shut-In, NEET, and Loner levels were going up. If I went back to the cave, could I even muster the willpower to leave it again? I had to move forward. Retreating and playing it safe wasn’t an option.

I pulled myself together and hunted for more enemies. I found two of them.

I cut the first one down with a kesagake—a diagonal slash—and then the second one. It’s just a stick. Sticks aren’t swords.

This thing could really kill two goblins in one fell swoop. It’s definitely a stick, though. I stabbed another one. This thing was as good as a sword! I slashed and stabbed. Is this really a stick?

The sky was beginning to darken, so I started to head back to my cave. I looked around and realized that I might have, maybe a little bit…painted the woods red with goblin blood. What an awe-inspiring scene of ruthless slaughter. This was artisanal gobbo-cide! I puffed my chest up with pride.

My level 4 stats were probably helping me wage war on goblin-kind. I was quick, and I could cut, stab, and slice with impunity. So what if I went a little overboard at the all-you-can-kill goblin buffet?

When one of the goblins blocked my attack with their club, I imagined a hammer and used Weight Magic to smash their defenses. If I wanted to fight from a distance, I only had to imagine a gun to start blasting goblins with fireballs.

With my high stats, I was easily able to take down goblins, but I would still be toast if I ran into speedy kobolds or bulky orcs.

This world isn’t just a game, I realized, the thought really sinking in. It’s like a game, but it’s actually happening. I can’t just restart from a save point if I mess up. I gathered as many spellstones and clubs as I could and put them in my Bag of Holding. Today alone I had killed thirty-two, including my last fight when I took down twenty-five in a row. Time to relax and recuperate back in the cave, I thought. Killing goblins is basically my job now. You can’t really call me a NEET anymore. Although I wasn’t getting paid, so to speak, so perhaps it still fit. Wait a second, I’m level 5 now!

Lost in thought, I made it back home. It really did feel like home now. It was easily five hundred plus square feet, worlds better than my tiny one-room apartment back in the real world. Now I had a kitchen, a bathroom, and even a toilet. With a place like this, you can’t call me a shut-in either!

Over a late dinner, I thought back on my fights that day. I didn’t have a gun, at least yet.

I thought about my grand fantasy introduction of the Shinto-Muso Cane Style. “Witness the glories of the Shinto-Muso Cane Style! Stab like a spear, swing like a halberd, slash like a longsword, shoot like a rifle, smash like a hammer! I will crush my enemies, see them driven before me! My magic is more powerful than ever before! Bwa ha ha!”

Yeah, I’ll never say that.

I practiced casting fireballs. By picturing a gun in my mind, I made the orbs of flame much smaller but longer range—they traveled about thirty feet. Soon they were able to pierce stone. I didn’t think of them as fireballs anymore; they were flame bullets.

I realized that this magic only worked as long as I had a clear mental image. That was the main factor determining whether the flame bullets stopped after hitting something, pierced through a target, or set it on fire. Could you even call this Cane Mastery anymore? I had a lot to think about. I felt like the Association for the Study and Advancement of Cane Mastery was going to file an official complaint for abusing their techniques or something. As a loner, I didn’t have to worry about that; I couldn’t have become a member even if that organization was real.