Ego (2)

Thanks to the Life Grass, the adventurers Raven and Rita had fully recovered. They seemed astonished that he had used such precious medicine on them.

"You both seem to be all right now. Milsy-san, are you injured?"

They all seemed fine, but he checked just in case. He had one more Life Grass left.

"I-I'm fine."

Milsy-san held both hands out in front to show that she was all right.

"I see. Do you think you can make it back to the city? It's that way."

He could get a general idea of the city's direction from the sun's position. Since he wanted to hunt until the last possible moment, he had memorized the direction of the city relative to the sun.

"Well, yeah, I'm fine. If I'm not injured, goblins won't beat me."

Raven said this as he stood up, but he was unarmed. Apparently, he had been injured farther away from here.

Noticing he had no weapon, Raven picked up a rusty sword lying beside one of the goblin corpses. It seemed he had left his weapon behind when he was injured.

"You seem all right. Well, then."

With that, he started to leave.

"Huh? W-wait! Now that I think about it, you're the kid I saw at the Adventurers' Guild the other day."

Now that he was no longer on the verge of death, Raven finally had enough presence of mind to remember Allen.

"That's right. What is it?"

He answered with a troubled expression, as if to say, What do you want?

(Honestly, if you can get back on your own, then we're done here, right? I want to get back to hunting.)

He thought nearly an hour had been wasted. It was a precious day off, and he wanted to resume hunting.

"I-I really want to thank you."

"There's no need. Just knowing you appreciate it is enough."

Raven stopped him again, insisting that he wait.

(I've still got sixty goblins left to meet my quota. Do you even understand?)

There was no way Raven could know that.

"Is there anything I can do to repay you?"

Raven asked him over and over, refusing to give up on thanking him. Allen pondered the matter.

"Then, um, Raven-san, was it? You're an adventurer, aren't you?"

"Y-yes, I am."

He said it was obvious.

"I'm very busy today, so please tell me more about adventurers another time."

"All right."

Raven waited for him to say more.

(No, that's it. What else are you expecting?)

"Also, please don't tell anyone about me."

"Understood. Of course I won't tell anyone."

The other two nodded as well. Raven still seemed to expect something from Allen. To Raven, Allen was someone who had saved them in a crisis and used two Mullase Flowers on them, each worth several gold coins.

"That's about all I need. Oh, right. I'll take all the Magic Stones from those goblins. Ah!"

(Oh, right! The Magic Stones!)

"Hm?"

He had said he wanted the Magic Stones from the five goblins they'd defeated. That reminded him of something important.

"Is something wrong?"

"I can't use the Adventurers' Guild."

"Hm? That's right."

"I'm looking for E-rank Magic Stones."

He couldn't use the Adventurers' Guild. He had also gone to a magic item shop. While looking at the magical tools needed for adventuring, he had asked if they would sell him E-rank Magic Stones, but they said they bought them and didn't sell them.

"I see."

"So, how about all the Magic Stones from these goblins, plus 100 E-rank Magic Stones? Could we call that repayment?"

He asked Raven to gather 100 E-rank Magic Stones, whether by making a request through the Adventurers' Guild or by some other means.

"I-is that all you want?"

"Of course. Are you staying in Granvelle City?"

"Yeah, I'm staying at an inn in Granvelle City."

"I see. I'll come pick them up from your lodging on a specified date. You can leave them at the inn's front desk and tell them that someone named Allen will come to get them."

Raven said he could gather them in about a week. He seemed to wonder if that was really all Allen wanted, but accepted the deal. Allen collected the goblin Magic Stones.

"Well, then, get back to the city safely."

"Yeah. You really saved us."

"Thank you."

With that, Allen turned and sprinted away without looking back, retracing the way he had come.

He ran a considerable distance before stopping.

(That took a lot of time. Well, at least I'll get 100 E-rank Magic Stones out of it, so I can't complain. Now, what should I do? I want to get back to hunting, but first, let's sort out what just happened.)

He reviewed what had happened with the adventurers.

(First, the Life Grass. This is definitely a healing medicine. I never expected to test it under these circumstances.)

He studied the last Life Grass he had left. In his previous life, it would have looked like nothing more than a large leaf or a shiso leaf. He now knew that its effect activated when it touched a wound.

(There are two kinds of healing medicine. This one is probably a fixed-value healing type, though.)

Back when Allen had been Kenichi, he had played all sorts of games. Every game had a number representing a character's life—HP, life points, or any number of other names—and when it hit zero, the character died. Healing medicine restored that amount.

There are two kinds of healing medicine.

• Restores a percentage of maximum HP

• Restores a fixed amount

For example, a healing medicine that restored 30% of the HP of a character with 1,000 HP would restore 300 HP.

Meanwhile, a healing medicine that restored a fixed 500 HP would restore 500, regardless of the character's maximum HP.

He compared Rodan's condition with Raven's. Even after the Mullase Flower was used, Rodan had taken more than a month to start walking. Raven, on the other hand, had regained consciousness and stood up to pick up his sword right after using it.

(If I had to guess, the Mullase Flower heals by percentage, while the Life Grass restores a fixed amount.)

If Life Grass healed by percentage, it would restore 100% of a person's HP. That would be far too powerful. It was only an E-rank healing medicine. It made more sense that Raven's maximum HP was low enough for it to heal him completely.

He quickly analyzed the healing medicine.

(Well, that's about it. Next, the Grimoire...)

'You defeated one Goblin. You acquired 160 EXP.'

'You defeated one Goblin. You acquired 160 EXP.'

'You defeated one Goblin. You acquired 160 EXP.'

Logs showing the EXP for the three goblins he had defeated appeared on the cover of his Grimoire.

(I'm getting 80% of the EXP I would have gotten for defeating them by myself.)

(There were four of us there: me and the three adventurers. Only Rita-san and I fought, and I still got 80%?)

He checked how the EXP had been distributed.

(I see. So it's confirmed that the EXP isn't split evenly among everyone. Maybe when multiple people defeat something, the EXP is calculated as 80% or something like that.)

In some games, large groups hunted together. If EXP was divided by the number of people, everyone would get very little, so some games instead distributed a fixed percentage—60% or 80% of what a player would get for defeating an enemy alone.

(A Boar was worth 400 EXP. If that was 80%, the actual amount must've been 500. Surely a C-rank Boar isn't worth 2.5 times as much EXP as a goblin. So maybe the actual amount was 1,000?)

Allen's estimate of EXP distribution

• When two to four people defeat an enemy, each gets 80% of the EXP they'd get alone

• When twenty to forty people defeat an enemy, each gets 40% of the EXP they'd get alone

(Well, that seems about right.)

He recorded his analysis of the Life Grass and EXP distribution in the Grimoire.

(All right, enough of that. The real issue is my Summons. Hawk, come out.)

One Bird E Summon appeared. The area here wasn't as difficult to see through as a forest or grove, so he usually summoned Bird E Summons high in the air. He only summoned Beast E Summons during combat and while collecting Magic Stones. He avoided walking around with Summons out as much as possible, so the adventurers wouldn't see them.

Instead of summoning it overhead, he summoned the Bird E Summon on the ground in front of him.

"Why did you ignore my instructions?"

When Allen spoke, the Bird E Summon hung its head apologetically.

"What instructions did I give you? I said there had to be at least five goblins, no other adventurers along the route, and that they had to be within three kilometers, didn't I?"

The Summon bowed its head even more apologetically.

"Did you feel sorry for them? Did you want to help those adventurers?"

The Summon gave a slight nod.

Seeing that, Allen found himself at a loss for words—not just for a moment, but for quite a while.

"I see. You do, don't you? You have a will of your own?"

The Summon tilted its head as if to ask what he meant.

"You don't understand that much, huh? But... I see. You were a Summon with a will of your own."

Allen had always thought of Summons as things that moved mechanically when given orders. They could only perform set actions, and simply obeyed commands. They were beings that a Summoner used effectively based on their stats and special abilities.

But that wasn't the case. A Bird-type Summon with high Intelligence had put its own will ahead of its Summoner's instructions. Then it had led Allen to the injured adventurers, who were on the verge of death.

Summons had wills of their own and formed their own intentions.

(So this is a Summon created by a god.)

The Summons had been created by the Creator God. If the god had the power to create people and worlds, creating Summons with wills of their own must have been easy.

"Hawk, I'm not blaming you."

He patted the Bird E Summon on the head. Its dejected expression instantly changed to a happy one.

"All right. From now on, I'll change my instructions, so make sure you follow them."

'Pii!'

Hawk, the Bird E Summon, spread its wings and gave a loud cry. Allen heard it as saying, "Understood."