DAY 4

DAY 4

I’ll keep sneaking around!

THE CAVE

 

I WOKE UP on the floor. First breakfast, then tracking. I went upstream—not because I was feeling up-beat. No, I was down in the dumps. I just wanted to eat something other than mushrooms. Rice, ramen…nothing fancy, anything that wasn’t mushrooms would be fine.

I used my Enemy Tracking skill from the riverside as I walked along; I was still afraid to wade too far into the river. Mushrooms, mushrooms everywhere, and not another food in sight. Goblins ahead! They were apparently more numerous upstream, but they were still total wimps. I could fight them easily.

Goblins found with presence detection! There were two of them, levels 12 and 11. With Movement Magic and Magic Infusion, I launched my attack. I struck the first one and knocked it over in one blow—but I had too much momentum! I crashed into it as I attacked, a seriously klutzy move.

Untangling myself from the first goblin, I hurried to the second. The goblin looked as shocked as I was! I powered up my stick with Magic Infusion, dodged its first attack, and whacked it. The goblin was out for the count in two hits.

I was feeling strong. I wondered about potential drawbacks to these abilities. Best not look a gift horse in the mouth. I wondered if gift horses were edible. They had to taste better than mushrooms.

I continued up the river, still using Enemy Tracking. I was desperate for something besides mushrooms. This time, I ran into three goblins, levels 14, 11, and 10. I used Movement and Magic Infusion for a quick attack, and one-shot killed the first goblin. I ended up flying past it and falling over, but at least I had some space between me and the goblins. Now a quick attack on the second goblin…yikes! It landed a counterattack on me! I just couldn’t get the hang of Movement yet, so I quickly withdrew. Now the third one was getting closer. I dodged its attack, used Movement, and dodged again before finally taking it out. A real melee.

If I can wound it, victory is mine, I reflected. Movement helps get me in close, but if I can’t control it, it’s a double-edged sword. A double-edged stick?

I had to focus on practicing Movement until I could control it. I could use Magic Infusion without concentrating on it, but Movement was still an issue. Don’t tell anyone that I went flying twice—not that there’s anyone to tell.

I had taken an unexpected amount of damage, so I rushed back to the cave. There was the damage from the goblin’s attack, the damage from crashing into the first goblin, and the damage from falling over. I was a suicide bomber. No, not even that, a literal suicide bomb. I couldn’t check my level right now, but that last goblin had taken a while. It had a bracelet of some sort, so I grabbed it. Last seen on foot, suspect is considered armed and dangerous, I thought. Suspected of…robbery? Larceny? Being a murder-hobo? I was probably guilty of at least one of those.

After getting back to the cave I ate a late lunch. I used Appraisal to check my level and found it had gone up! My intelligence was already 40, with everything else in the mid-30s. This means I should be way stronger than all those goblins, I thought. So why did the last one cause me so much trouble?

I remembered the bracelet. I took it out and checked its description.

“Magic Bracelet: Enhances power. POW +1%.”

Better than nothing, so I put it on. I wasn’t a monster, but I needed all the help I could get.

It was evening before I knew it. My stamina was fully restored, so before it got dark I went back upstream. I could check out all of my stats just before going to bed. Even though there were mostly weak goblins upstream, and not even that many, I could feel the presence of something different. I hid in the forest and crept along in silence.

Using Clairvoyance, I sensed…people. Six guys. When I got closer, I recognized my classmates. They were a group of irritating wannabe delinquent kids who liked to bully the nerds but never did anything scarier than that. Unsurprisingly, they were making a racket.

From my hiding spot in the trees, I used Appraisal. I was too far away to see anything besides their levels and jobs: Longsword Fighter level 11, Dual-Swords Fighter level 3, and Fire Mage level 2. Why such a big gap in level?

I decided to keep hidden and observe them for a bit. They were all sitting by the river, talking. I approached close enough to hear their conversation, but it was a bunch of drivel. They were debating the hotness of girls in our class. Out of the forty-two people in our class, twenty were girls, and the delinquents were going off about how awful it was that so many of them were geeks. Still, the geeks are the ones best equipped to succeed here, I thought. It sounded like the popular mean girls’ clique was on bad terms with the rest of the girls.

These six bullies were up to no good. The leader was Katsuyama, the longsword fighter. He was going on about the nasty stuff he wanted to do with the girls. But which one taught them about using skills in this world? Hmm…probably Tanaka.

They hatched a plan to ambush some of the girls, but it sounded like our Class Rep would be there. She’d definitely see through their plan and stop them. She had been dealing with them since first grade, after all.

Huh? The six guys clearly haven’t noticed me, but I feel like there’s something else here. I snuck away from the group, but I couldn’t find anyone else. Well, there’s no point in getting involved, so I’ll just head back.

At least I knew that all my classmates were upstream, so I could avoid them. Meeting up with them would defeat the point of leading a loner life.

I made it back to the cave before it got dark, beating two goblins along the way. I couldn’t tell if the magic bracelet and the +1% power had an effect, but I had gotten better at concealing myself and easily snuck up on them. It was good practice. Then, as I continued to sneak my way back, I encountered a rabbit—the first animal I had seen! Does that mean I can only find animals while hidden? I caught the rabbit, and it appeared in my inventory alongside the mushrooms. It would be my first proper dinner in ages.

I cooked and devoured the rabbit. It was delicious. How many days had I gone without fresh meat? Of course, I still had mushrooms on the side, but they were tolerable as a side dish. Mushrooms had been cast as the main character too often lately. What’s worse, they were doing solo performances.

Now should I practice magic or make some furniture? I needed to keep experimenting. I tried using Packing Magic on the cave earth, whacking it with my stick, extending it. Making it denser, denting it, raising it up, making it into a shape. I ended up having so much fun playing around that I lost track of time. It was late at night.

I pulled up my stats.

 

NAME: Haruka

RACE: Human

LV: 03

JOB: —

HP: 35

MP: 4/32

VIT: 37

POW: 35

SPE: 38

DEX: 38

RES: 36

INT: 40

LUK: MAX (Above Limit)

SP: 18

COMBAT SKILLS: Cane Mastery Lv2, Evasion Lv2, Foresight Lv2, Magic Infusion Lv2

MAGIC: Heat Lv2, Movement Lv1, Packing Lv1, Weight Lv1, Fire Lv1, Earth Lv1

SKILLS: General Health Lv1, Sensitivity Lv2, Calisthenics Lv2, Walking Lv2, Servitude Lv1, Appraisal Lv3, Clairvoyance Lv1, Presence Detection Lv2, Enemy Tracking Lv2, Magic Manipulation Lv1, Presence Concealment Lv1, Stealth Lv1

TITLES: Shut-In Lv2, NEET Lv1, Loner Lv2

ABILITIES: Corporate Proactiveness Lv1, Master of None Lv1, Blockhead Lv1

EQUIPMENT: Wooden Stick?, Clothes Set?, Leather Glove?, Leather Boots?, Cloak?, Contact Lenses?, Ring of the Destitute, Bag of Holding, Monster Bracelet Power +1%

 

My Shut-In and Loner levels had gone up. Was that because I didn’t try to interact with my classmates? Because I’d been having plenty of fun by myself? If my NEET level had gone up too I might have started screaming. Those were some savage titles.

And Earth Magic? I must’ve gotten that when I was trying to use Packing Magic on the cave floor—but did that really count as Earth Magic? I guess if cooking mushrooms was enough to earn me Fire Magic, packing some dirt would be enough for Earth Magic. Magic was a piece of cake in this world.

Being careful when I was sneaking around seemed to be fruitful. Presence Concealment and Stealth were great skills to have. Now I could sneak up on and take out goblins no problem, like a pro assassin! Well, I was unemployed by definition, but still, I felt like a professional. I’ll keep sneaking around tomorrow and get those levels up, I thought.

I feel like I’m living an honest, stable life here. There’s nothing flashy like in a novel. No one would ever be like “I’ll sneak more tomorrow!” in a real fantasy story.

But that’s just what I was going to do! Probably! Definitely!