Chapter 9

The Books are Apparently Useless

「Let’s check the bestiary first.」

I opened the book titled 『Monsters in the Vicinity of Elia』 and scanned the table of contents. The monsters were categorized by rank which definitely made things easier to understand.

I started from the F-ranked monsters since those were probably the ones I’d fight the most at the moment.

『Kick Rabbit』, 『Snap Rat』, 『Sand Mole』―.

There were dozens of monsters written on the F rank column, but none of them I have seen in BBO. I’ve memorized the names of all the monsters in BBO, so these were probably ones that didn’t exist in the game.

I leafed through the pages one by one, checking for monsters’ characteristics and what to look out for when fighting them. Patiently gathering data like this is a must when you plan to take on an opponent you haven’t fought before.

But it’s not like you can’t fight a monster you have no information on. Back in BBO, we didn’t have info on newly added fields, so we had to find a way to clear the area ourselves while fighting along the way.

I gradually went through the book; from E rank to D rank. At this point, I haven’t found a single monster native to BBO.

The monsters I knew in BBO showed up from rank C. There was the『Wolf』, 『Scorpion』, 『Blood-sucking Bat』.

They were all low-level mobs in the game. These are considered rank C monsters here? Is this some kind of a joke?

I checked the B rank section and at long last, found an actual decent monster.

『Rage Wolf』.

It may look like it’s just a bigger version of a Wolf, but it’s a lot faster and more powerful than a normal one. If you killed one in BBO, that meant you weren’t a beginner anymore.

Still… this thing is ranked B? Does this mean most adventurers in this world are rank A? I flipped the page to the rank A section, but it was blank. Perhaps that meant there weren’t any ranked A monsters in the town’s vicinity.

It looked like all the monsters in the area were weak. I still can’t let my guard down, but it’s certainly better than coming across swarms of strong monsters.

I moved on to the next book, 『Adventurer’s Combat Manual ~From Basics to Advanced~』―a very typical title for a manual.

The basics section of the book talked about weapon maintenance and how to scavenge materials―the basic of the basics―so I just skimmed through the pages. The beginner level section also contained basic matters like how to swing a weapon, the Skills each job class can use, and very rudimentary enemy scouting so once again I just skimmed through them since I already knew this stuff.

The intermediate level section was still about basic things: positioning against a single opponent, when to use a Skill, and how to explore dungeons. I skipped these. The advanced level section was about positioning when against multiple enemies and how to maneuver yourself against an attack from someone hostile. Once again, basic stuff, so I can just skip… wait, what?

As I skipped the stuff I already knew about, I finished the advanced level section too. Where’s the part about fighting one-on-one, critical hits, or even anticipating movements?

I flipped to the next page. Well, the last page actually. At last, something about critical hits. It was written as more like an extra piece of information.

『Miracle Strike』

When your swordsmanship skills increase, the power of your attack skyrockets in rare cases. This is called a Miracle Strike. There have been attempts to replicate this phenomenon, but none have been successful.

There’s no way to do it deliberately, but it is said that high-level adventurers have won battles instantly the moment it activated. One theory suggests that the world’s strongest adventurer, Gillart, could use the Miracle Strike twenty percent of the time.

A twenty percent critical hit rate and he’s the world’s strongest? More like he just graduated from being a beginner.

Then I realized a possibility. It was so natural to me already that I even did it unconsciously, but perhaps the people of this world don’t know the trick to landing a critical hit.

The trick to a critical hit was to relax your hand just slightly the moment your sword hit the enemy. In BBO, it was extremely common knowledge that it was even included in the official tutorial for beginners.

It made sense that the critical hit rate would drop to only twenty percent if you didn’t know the trick. If they didn’t even know such basic knowledge, that would mean the inhabitants of this world are unaware about the basics of basic when it comes to combat. That’s pretty much the same as being totally ignorant.

I’m sure this world doesn’t have the custom of writing down highly advanced knowledge on books. That’s why adventurers don’t read them. Yeah, I’m sure that’s it.

In that case, maybe I can’t trust the bestiary as well. I just have to be extremely cautious around monsters when I go out of the town.

「How are the books?」

As I was sitting there, dumbfounded, the receptionist addressed me. I couldn’t possibly tell her “They were all extremely basic stuff, it was pretty much useless.”

「They were helpful. Thanks.」

「That’s good to hear.」she said. I handed her the books back.

In any case, my first goal is to change job classes. I ended up making a brief detour, but I should start looking for ways to get to the royal capital.