CH 27

[Physical Ability Boost] has now reached LV50.

Because of that I spent 3 EXP Points to progress the Skill.

It’s now called [Physical Ability Reinforcement], and what’s changed is that there are two Arts I’ve learned… 1 passive and 1 active each.

By the way, a “passive” is an Art that you don’t have to use in order to have the effect, while an “active” you must use it yourself or the effect won’t be there.

Of the two Arts I obtained from [Physical Ability Reinforcement], the passive is <Steady Balance>.

It’s a passive that allows you to maintain your sense of balance.

With this you can be largely unaffected by most terrains with bad footing.

You’ll even be able to stand properly on ground with swamp-like conditions.

The other one is the active skill <High Jump>.

It lets you jump like a red hat wearing plumber. At the moment it’s about 3 meters.

It’s a powerful Art with a 20 second cool down that lets you take control of the space above your opponent.

This, together with the passive <Steady Balance>, will finally allow me to perform a stunt like some hero somewhere and use my bow while airborne in the middle of a jump.

Of course I don’t have any airborne bow Arts that I can use, but I think there’s a possibility of getting them by raising [Physical Ability Reinforcement].

Learning these two Arts expanded the battlefield greatly.

If this combo is spread, the opinion that the bow is weak may begin to die down.

But I’d like to hide it for a little longer.

It’d be dull if I spread it right away for it to be copied en masse.

In order to confirm that my movements got significantly better after getting my hands on [Physical Ability Reinforcement], I decide to charge forward to my first dungeon.

The goal is increasing Skill Levels. [Hunting Bow], [Wind Magic], [Kick], and [Thief], preferably.

I’ve arrived in front of the dungeon … the first dungeon is located in the forest; it feels exactly like a cave-type dungeon.

I use [Thief] skill’s <Thief Step> & <Danger Perception> and enter the dungeon.

It’s pitch-black, but thanks to [Farsight] I have <Night Vision> so it’s no problem.

… this is it; this is what I’ve been looking for.

As I step-by-step proceed into the Dungeon, memories from the past came back to me.

I couldn’t have been more than 10-years-old at the time.

It’s a memory from when I had just happened to find a cave-ish place and walked around in it.

That place was fun; it’s not like there was anything special in it, but it was a place I’d never been before, and there was a feeling of both fear and excitement mixed in with the darkness.

Doing nothing but walking around like that inside was incredibly fun.

And then, about 10 years later, I happened to drop by the same place once.

When I saw it I understood … it wasn’t really a cave, more like a shallow tunnel dug through.

Once I understood it, the fascination and excitement was no longer there; just a sense of nostalgia.

And that’s all 10 years in the past. That place has now been leveled for a residential area.

That place, for my adventures, at that time; it no longer exists.

Since I’ve suddenly become a bit lonely, I stop reminiscing.

I mean, of course, in the middle of a game, I’m looking for a fun adventure.

I’ve been waiting a long time; it has to be the world on the other side of the screen.

I’ve been unable to immerse myself in the feelings from that time … the feelings of adventure from when I was little.

But, but! Right now, isn’t an adventure reflected in front of my eyes?

In a dark cave, where you don’t know how far in it goes; there’s going to be monsters, and there might even be treasure chests.

It’s this world that lets have in an avatar in the middle of all this.

Visibility is limited to only my field of vision due to [Farsight], I’m aware of a dungeon spider monster lurking near, the sound of my footsteps are softly sound in my ears… it’s the feeling from that time, it’s coming back.

Isn’t this the best?! I’ve been purposely avoiding all the dungeon information on the info sites just for this payoff.

It can only be an adventure if you don’t know about anything. If you go in knowing how to defeat all the monsters and where all the treasure chests are, it just turns into work.

If you’re just after earnings, well, fine, but that kind of thing isn’t what I want right now.

Even if I’m going in with the goal of raising my Skills, there’s no point if I hate being in a dungeon;

Right now just having fun going on an adventure is fine.

Step by step I proceed with <Thief Step> … I’m going in solo.

If the monsters get the first attack in I’ll die straight away.

The monsters in the dungeon are particularly strong, so I have to take special care to fight a different way.

I bet if I try to do them in too fast, the situation might get turned around and land me with a death penalty.

There’s more than enough lone Dungeon Spiders all over the place; I’ve shot through them with [Hunting Bow], sliced them up with [Wind Magic]’s <Wind Cutter>, and at time’s I’ll use [Whip]’s <Restrain> to pull one closer and trample it with [Kick].

From the amount of Dungeon Spiders you can tell they’re this area’s lowest trash mob, but even so they take 4 hits to defeat; as expected, dungeon monsters are tough.

I’m using <Danger Perception> constantly because if they suddenly come at me I’m done for.

Thanks to this excessive, more than usual use, the Skill Level is climbing at a terrifying speed.

Also, truthfully speaking, if I approached this with [Kick] alone, this time it would probably be pretty tight, and since this dungeon has a ceiling I’ve also necessarily sealed <High Jump>; I’ve come to understand the Greatness of [Whip]’s <Restrain> Art.

After sealing the movements, I can recklessly use [Kick] to finish something off.

I can’t just run away in a dungeon … I don’t know how many surprise attacks I’d get due to Link.

Aside from the Dungeon Spiders this dungeon also has Lesser Lizards and Dark Wolves.

When I see the shadow of something other than a spider with [Night Vision] I hide myself in a hurry and use <Danger Perception> to confirm its name and nature.

It would be reckless to challenge it since a Dungeon Spider takes everything I have to defeat.

It should be avoided … Just in case I use [Stealth] to leave the place.

There’s no point to dying because right now I’m having a good time doing lots of exploring and raising my skill levels.

Fortunately, looks like this time it didn’t notice me; I should calm down a bit more.

There’s the presences of Fairies here in this dark world too.

As expected they’re mainly Dark Fairies; there’s also Earth Fairies to a degree.

They’re not noisily coming over; they probably don’t have the spare time.

I don’t have any attention to spare from being vigilant… although the Fairies might hate it I can’t afford to have them coming over to play like usual anyway.

The ones that come to the crystal soon head off.

… but then, it happened after I’d walked for a while.

There’s a strange place where lots of Dark Fairies are hovering about together.

Drawing closer and using <Danger Perception> once to the front I determine there’s no sign of a monster.

It’s probably not just a wall …?   Is there a Secret Door?

Acting on that thought I carefully inspected the place where the Fairies are hovering; from floor to wall I couldn’t find anything like a trigger or door.

Is this just the Fairies being whimsical?   If that’s the reason, there are an awful lot of them gathered here.

There’s that “something’s here” feel … but it’s getting towards that time where it would be bad if I don’t start heading out of the dungeon.

I consult the dungeon that I have mapped in my brain for the return trip as I continue forward.

By the time I broke out of the dungeon, it had become night outside.

At night, there are lots of nasty monsters like those you’d know from haikai poems1.

If I don’t hurry back to town this could get bad.

I rush through while keeping an eye out with [Farsight] and amply using the [Thief] skill to move quietly.

Somehow or other I was able to get back to town safely and logged out.

Dungeon exploration is challenging; let’s seclude myself in it and work hard at it.

SKILLS

[Hunting Bow]Lv27   [Kick]Lv49   [Farsight]Lv39   [Wind Magic]Lv36

[Craftsmanship]Lv39

[Cooking]Lv40   [Stealth]Lv27   [Physical Ability Reinforcement]Lv7

[Thief]Lv19   [Whip]Lv21

Reserved Skill(s)

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

EXP 8

So basically it’s dungeon time.