Chapter 66
October arrived, and Allen turned nine. As usual, he was outside the gate before six in the morning. He was wearing the cloak he’d bought at the armor shop the other day. The length had been adjusted perfectly.
“Oh! Young master, that’s a nice cloak you’re wearing today.”
“Thank you. I bought it just the other day.”
The gate guard spoke to him as usual. They’d known each other since last December.
(Still, maybe a cloak was the right choice. I can just throw it over my regular clothes. And it’s easy to move my hands.)
He swung his arms around, checking that nothing felt awkward when he moved.
Gong.
Gong.
The gate opened with the sound of the bell, and he took off running. Today, he was going to hunt C-rank monsters in an area three days away on foot—not the area about a day’s walk away where he’d hunted until now.
(Good, the cloak doesn’t get in the way when I run. Now, I haven’t bought a weapon. I wonder how that’ll go.)
He’d bought a cloak, but not a weapon. After the armor shop, he’d also checked out the weapon shop, but he didn’t have enough money for the sword he had his eye on. He preferred to buy what he wanted rather than settle for something a little cheaper.
Still, if his Summons, dagger, and iron ball weren’t enough, he was thinking he might have to settle and buy a weapon.
The butler had also told him, “It’ll be a year since you came to the mansion this month. It’s a little early, but starting with this month’s wages, we’ll pay you the same as an adult footman: one gold coin a month.” Including his gamekeeper wages, he was due to start earning one gold coin and fifty silver coins a month at the end of this month.
Hearing that made him realize he’d already been at the mansion for a year. Had this year’s boar hunts started yet? As time passed, he found himself thinking of his family and Krena.
As he ran, he checked the stats that had increased on October 1 again. He could look at his stats any number of times. He could eat three bowls of rice just by looking at them. If his stats went up, he could manage five.
【Name】 Allen
【Age】 9
【Job】 Summoner
【Level】 24
【Health】 553 (615) +140
【Magic】 846 (940) +200
【Attack】 298 (332) +140
【Durability】 298 (332) +20
【Agility】 560 (623) +60
【Intelligence】 855 (950) +40
【Luck】 560 (623) +200
【Skills】 Summon〈4〉, Creation〈4〉, Fusion〈4〉, Enhancement〈5〉, Expansion〈3〉, Storage, Delete, Swordsmanship〈3〉, Throwing〈3〉
【EXP】 194,810 / 600,000
・Skill Levels
【Summon】 4
【Creation】 4
【Fusion】 4
【Enhancement】 5
・Skill EXP
【Creation】 291,700 / 1,000,000
【Fusion】 281,640 / 1,000,000
【Enhancement】 200 / 10,000,000
・Available Summons
【Insect】 E F G H
【Beast】 E F G H
【Bird】 E F G
【Plant】 E F
【Stone】 E
・Holder
【Insect】 E x2
【Beast】 E x14
【Bird】 E x4
【Plant】 E x20
【Stone】
For his goblin hunts, he’d used up almost all his Magic after waking, leaving around thirty points in reserve so he could earn as much Skill EXP as possible. He probably wouldn’t need that much today, but he wanted to be fully prepared. Since he hadn’t used any Magic since waking up, he was at maximum. If today’s hunt went well, he planned to gradually use less.
His Enhancement Skill had reached level five.
Its effect was to raise the two stats receiving a Summon’s blessing by 200.
At Enhancement level four, the increase had been 100, so this was twice as much. That was another reason he’d decided to hunt C-rank monsters.
After running for several hours, he checked to see if he’d reached his destination.
(I’ve run quite a ways. Is this about right? Hawks, come out.)
'Pii!'
Four Bird E Summons appeared.
(Let’s see. There should be some round, armored ants called Armored Ants around here, or two-legged pigs called Orcs. Go look for them. You can search as far as ten kilometers away. If you don’t find any, look farther out. Make sure they’re alone.)
The four Summons chirped once and scattered.
The other day, the adventurer Raven had told him about C-rank monsters. His targets today were Armored Ants and Orcs. There were other C-rank monsters, like Death Spiders, but many were hard to deal with because they were scarce or used poison or paralysis. He’d heard that Armored Ants and Orcs were often found in groups of two or three.
He’d set quite a few conditions, so he waited for more than thirty minutes.
(Maybe it’s rare to find one alone. They’re not coming back. They should be moving faster thanks to Enhancement, though.)
As he was thinking that, one of the Bird E Summons returned. It seemed to have found an Armored Ant. It was ten kilometers away.
Allen ran toward it. A monster stood there, about three meters tall, with an ant’s head and a body like a pill bug’s.
(Its body’s protected by rounded armor. This isn’t what I expected. Is only its head ant-like? I’d be in trouble if those mandibles caught me. Was that what took out Raven-san?)
It had a pair of vicious-looking mandibles. Its body looked as if it were wearing an upside-down salad bowl. It seemed incredibly sturdy.
(Now, how should I take it down? Maybe its unarmored head is its weak point. For now, I’ll sic all the Tamas on it. Tamas, come out!)
At Allen’s command, fourteen Beast E Summons with the appearance of saber-toothed tigers appeared around the lone Armored Ant. They surrounded it and used their special skill, Scratch.
(The armor’s barely scratched. Its head’s pretty hard, too. The attacks aren’t getting through.)
Allen watched the battle between the Armored Ant and the Beast E Summons from the shade of a tree. The Beast E Summons couldn’t penetrate the armor—or even the unarmored part of its head. The sound of claws scraping against something hard echoed through the area.
The Armored Ant wasn’t just standing there and taking the attacks, either. It caught the Beast E Summons in its mandibles, which were over a meter long. The Beast E Summons couldn’t withstand its attacks, and one after another, their numbers dwindled.
Each time one went down, he spent a Magic Stone and Magic to summon another Beast E Summon.
(Hmm, this isn’t working. I’ll change tactics. Ageha, come out! Use your powder!)
He decided he wouldn’t be able to defeat it like this. Leaving the Beast E Summons where they were, he summoned two Insect E Summons shaped like butterflies over a meter long. It took two E-rank Summons to debuff a C-rank monster.
The Insect E Summons beat their wings, scattering yellow powder. The powder swirled around the Armored Ant’s head, and it stopped moving. Its head drooped. It seemed to have fallen asleep.
(Whoa! It works on C-rank monsters, too! They’re really useful.)
He approached the sleeping, motionless Armored Ant. Its mandibles looked extremely dangerous, so he avoided them and inspected its body.
(Hmm, there are scratches from Tama.)
He checked the effect of the Beast E Summons’ attacks. There were plenty of claw marks on its rounded body. The Beast E Summons had managed to leave their mark, but the monster seemed even tougher than he’d expected.
(All right, I’ll kill it before it wakes up.)
Allen grabbed the very bottom edge of the armor, shaped like an upside-down bowl, where it almost touched the ground.
“Hngh!”
He grunted with exertion as he used all his strength to flip the Armored Ant over.
(It’s really heavy. But for an insect, maybe it’s light for its size. I heard the armor wasn’t all that heavy.)
The adventurer Raven had told him that Armored Ant armor was extremely valuable and used to make adventurers’ armor. It was very durable, but light.
Keeping his balance, Allen climbed onto the edge of the overturned armor while the Armored Ant was still asleep. The inside looked like an ordinary ant. Six legs grew from its thorax, and it had a thick abdomen. It was unmistakably an ant.
He jumped onto its thorax and drove his dagger with all his strength into the joint between its thorax and head. He figured that had to be its softest spot.
(It’s hard! The sword Dogora gave me is going to chip. Was my weapon too weak? Wait, it woke up!)
He thrust his dagger vertically into the softest part of the joint. The impact jolted his hand. A dagger worth fifty silver coins didn’t seem strong enough to wound the Armored Ant.
The Armored Ant woke from the attack and thrashed about. Allen kept striking the joint with his dagger anyway, taking care not to get hit by its spiny legs.
After stabbing at it for ten minutes, his dagger sank into the joint. He drove it in deep. The Armored Ant thrashed even harder, but its legs began to move more slowly.
Another five minutes passed.
'You defeated one Armored Ant. You acquired 3,000 EXP.'
(I killed it, but damn, this thing’s impossible. It took way too long!)
Allen fumed at the Armored Ant he’d finally defeated. Taking one down had required an unreasonable amount of effort for the reward.