CH 23

At long last the update finished, so I immediately log in.

Eh? What about work? Of course I’ve properly done it?

Even my overtime was properly done.

It’s because the maintenance finished at 9:00 at night.

By the way, they said the maintenance took 45 hours.

It was so long that the forums went ballistic over it … does it matter that much?

… well then, I’ve safely logged in. I immediately check for a System Mail.

My goal is the [Fairy Contract Crystal].

This System Mail should have been sent to all players.

It’s an Item you have to have with you for contracting with a Fairy.

—

Fairy Contract Crystal

With this you can contract with a Fairy. The Fairies you can easily contract with will change depending on location.

However, a successful contract is not guaranteed.

Event Item     Expires at the end of the event

—

I immediately head out to the forest.

For me there wasn’t a choice other than a Wind Fairy.

By the way, here’s a rough write-up of all the Fairy types …

Fire     High attack power, specializes in increasing physical attacks.

Water  Low attack power, specializes in healing and magic defenses.

Wind   Medium attack power, specializes in increasing agility and speed.

Earth   Med-High attack power, specializes in increasing physical defenses.

Light   High attack power, Heals and does especially high damage against certain opponents.

Dark   High attack power, has powerful abilities to put Bad Statuses on opponents.

That’s what they’ve announced. But man, the Light and Dark you can’t aim to contract with are strong.

Well, it’s got nothing to do with a guy who’s got bad luck with gachya1-like situations.

Also, looks like there’s a possibility for the Fairies to use magic.

Of course it’s limited to the Fairy’s attributes.

If you want to handle multiple attributes… having a Fairy healer would increase your limits.

Surpass the world that was impossible to aim for.

Anyway, let’s make a contract.

Because I’m a ranger … so I say, but enough with that already.

It’s ‘cause I use a bow so the relationship to wind seems to be inseparable, and since wind magic doesn’t have any major explosions, my field of view won’t be blocked.

I carefully confirm there are no monsters around with [Farsight].

I take a deep breath and take out the [Fairy Contract Crystal]

“<Fairy Contracting Ceremony>”

I announced.

The crystal immediately responded to my voice, slowly floated into the air, and began to rotate.

Red, blue, green, yellow, white, black, the crystal continued to steadily glow those colors in that order … all of a sudden the crystal turned transparent.

And then that crystal that’s become transparent stopped rotating … and shattered.

Only the bottom half of the Fairy Contract Crystal remains.

“… eh?”

That foolish voice spilled out of my mouth. Don’t tell me this is-.

—

Broken Fairy Contract Crystal

Your attempt to contact a Fairy has failed, and the important Fairy Crystal has broken, losing its abilities.

This crystal will never be able to fulfill a contract with a Fairy.

Event Item    Expires at the end of the event

Cannot be thrown away

—

What… did you say …!?

0.015% … to think I’d pulled it … and to think I can’t even toss it before the event ends …

“Curse you, you scheming developers!”

Please don’t blame me for screaming.

With this incident, any relationship I had to a Fairy has been completely cut off.

I have no strength, I can only sit in protest.

I don’t know how many minutes had passed since I sat, but after a time I stood up and, taking a deep breath, I somehow recover my mood.

With the shattered Fairy Contract Crystal clutched in my hand, I slowly realized there was nothing I could do but give up.

When you’re at work and they’re asking the impossible but you have no choice but to endure the situation; that’s the kind of mood I’m in. This world, in its own way, has gotten serious.

After recovering my spirits, next let’s take a look at the Skills.

Officially there should be new Skills. I haven’t planned to take any, but for now I’ll check it out to see what there is.

Taking a quick glance, there aren’t too many new Skills I’d take.

[Fairy Language], [Bo staff], [Whip], [Thief] … that’s about it.

[Fairy Language] is probably to help you communicate with your Fairy.

That reason has been annihilated for me.

[Bo Staff] and [Whip] are new weapon categories. Bo staff aside, I’m interested in the whip.

Should I consider taking it? But it’s not like my EXP is limitless.

It’s a dilemma: If I recklessly take it, I don’t want to just pile up Skills, and in addition to [Bow] and [Kick] I’d also like to have another that can slash.

That said, I could seal an opponent’s movements by entangling it with a whip and then shoot it with the bow, and there’s a possibility of combining it with [Kick] to perform a Knockdown.

This could be a fun category for attacking opponents’ weak points.

The last is [Thief] but … it’s not the “stealing” thief but the “exploration” thief.

Trap sense, trap disable, danger perception, thief step, it’s the thief that’s crucial for dungeon exploration.

I’ve always been particularly concerned about being able to sense danger.

With [Farsight] I can see and avoid dangers that are a ways off, and if I learn danger perception I wonder if I could even sense concealed monsters?

That kind of early-detection combo could make accurate predictions.

Also the thief step is also good; it most likely suppresses the sound of the footsteps you make.

This is a Skill I definitely want to take.

I check the EXP needed to learn it, and it’s …

[Thief] acquisition requires 8 EXP

What sits there is that cruel number. 8!?

Of all the Skills I’ve looked at until now, this amount required blows a ton of EXP.

Up until now the highest were the crafting types at 5 EXP.

It blows a lot of EXP but … in another light this is also the only one you can consider useful.

Like that, even with a walkthrough, I bet if I entered a dungeon the amount of times I’ve respawned will increase.

For me, having danger perception makes it unquestionably a valuable skill.

I should take it.

That’s how it went.

Immediately being rejected by Fairies was the absolute worst way to start, but despite that I can raise the [Whip] and [Thief] skills while waiting for the second half of the event; I stand up while switching my focus.

First I’ll head back and get a whip; buying the first one from an NPC should be enough for now … I’m not expecting it to bring explosive firepower.

And so, with me without a Fairy, the event starts.

SKILLS

[Hunting Bow]Lv18   [Kick]Lv46   [Farsight]Lv31   [Wind Magic]Lv32

[Craftsmanship]Lv38

[Cooking]Lv38   [Stealth]Lv27   [Physical Ability Boost]Lv48

[Thief]Lv1   [Whip]Lv1

Reserved Skill(s)

[Blacksmithing]Lv20   [Woodworking]Lv19   [Alchemy]Lv32

EXP 3

A statement isn’t sufficient to respond to the spirit of contract failure.

Since it would only become a spoiler.

A hint: this is the “First Half” desu.