CH 38

Since I’ve already had Grampa Silver’s warning, I’ve greatly reduced the time I spend in town.

Since PvP is done just about everywhere throughout the town.

Though it won’t do to be careless, while in combat sending a PvP request is considered sabotage so even that guy called Grad won’t be able to do it.

… With that, when I have to go into Nexia I have to be on my greatest alert or else.

I’ve got to be patient until the event ends; it’s just a little more it seems.

Since I can’t be in town then it should be fine if I go hunting, right? With that, it’s been a while, but time to have fun going hunting.

Since everyone is largely getting involved with the PvP frenzy there are a lot of vacant hunting areas.

I head towards the hunting areas while lightly playing with all the Fairies.

There’s quite a few that like riding on top of my head, na …

There’s basically no weight; even if 100 of them rode on top there’d be no problem.

Am I a luggage rack … if I think too hard about it I’ll lose.

Now then, this time my great prey is … Bear, that is, Bear-san de aru.

Formerly it was an opponent I had to fight together in a party with Zwei and co, but right now I’ll challenge it; somehow or other I’ll be able to defeat it if I strike first with a sneak-attack.

My supply of Bear meat is beginning to run low, and I’d like to have the pelt made into a cloak.

The defense power of the Werewolf Leather Set I’m using now is still on the high side, but even so it pales in comparison to Light Armor and Heavy Armor, and even that Light Armor and Heavy is fragile to attacks from behind.

Actually, there’s the feeling that in reality even though armor boasts high defensive abilities from the front it’s only so-so in the back.

No matter what it seems that the back’s defenses tend to be lower.

For covering that up I’d like to debut a cloak made of thick pelts.

Aside from traditional courtesy, the other reason kings would chose to wear cloaks wasn’t just to reveal their majesty, it was to protect against a sudden strike to the back.

Consequently the fluttery thin cloaks won’t fulfill the role; it has to be that kind of thick mantle.

I absolutely don’t want an accessory made just for looks.

Capitalizing on “One More’s” gaming characteristics, there’s a lot of different designs that the armor crafters will include just for elevating fashion.

Even so, as long as the defense capabilities are properly there it’s a pointless story.

There are lots of player who pay attention to their appearance (of course both men and women) and a cloak is a place you can use to greatly assert your individuality.

There’s good money to be made for the armor crafter mina-sans yo- there’s that rumor going around.

―――――――――

Maa, in other words I’m Bear hunting.

This is really like fishing spots abandoned for lack of seabream, since there’s almost no other opponents wanting to hunt.

Even the Fairies started to indicate that they wanted to let go soon since I was going to hunt.

The Fairies who indicated that soon came to leave.

Accidentally shooting the Fairies with a bow is something I really don’t want to do na.

Now then, as expected I’m making full use of <Stealth> and <Thief Step> to not be noticed.

Leisurely checking that there no other Bears simply prowling around, it’s hunting time.

Set up the bow, draw the arrow to the limit … <Hawk Shot …>, and aiming between the eyebrows, shoot!

With the X-Bow, the forced compared to the past time has overall increased and mercilessly stuck the Bear between the brows, biting deep.

Raising a large roar with the feelings of furious rage accompanying its dash towards me was the Bear.

Certainly its body-frame is massive, and with the fast speed too it is quite intimidating.

But, the distance it needs to reach here is too far, na.

There’s more than enough time to shoot a <Mirror Arrow> … at the declaration of the Art, shadow clones of myself appeared to the right and left and I set my aim; the target is the face, and if it hits, the eye.

I let the bear close the distance only a little, to avoid its convulsions …. and release the 3 arrows.

Dosu dosu zujya-! … all 3 hit the mark, and one of the clone arrows went and pierced through the eye.

The clone arrow that struck the weak point soon disappeared, but the damage has of course properly been done … though there’s about a 20% subtraction correction.

With all the attacks done so far, it’s no wonder that the Bear’s movements have slowed.

To be on the safe side I fire a Wind Cutter at the eye opposite to the one the arrow stabbed.

Certainly the opponent that has its eyesight reduced will have its aiming ability reduced.

Though it appears to be cruel, in my armor if the Bear’s claws scratch me once that’s 30% down in an instant; if it was the neck or head that was hit … it’s most likely instant death.

By no means do I have any sort of margin for error. Soundly weaken it to soundly take it out.

That is indispensable; if you get too full of yourself, even just for a moment, at that time you’ll roll into a messy situation.

On top of that I use the whip and <Restrain> the Bear’s forepaws; with this it won’t be able to use its claws to make an attack for a while.

I must give the finishing blow before <Restrain> comes apart.

Because the arrow stabbed between the eyebrows will disappear, before it disappears, with the Blade Shoes equipped I purposefully use a kick to push the arrow through.

Like that, the points on the bottom of the foot called spikes are embedded with the kick, and if there was anyone around to hear it, they’d probably here a [GASU-!] sound.

However, with just this attack alone, it’s not enough to give the final blow since the Bear’s kind of a toughie.

Since the stereotype of a guy with a huge body having great physical strength is pretty close to reality, it can’t be helped.

However, as expected of the attack, the Bear has crouched down; now all that’s left is really the final blow.

Using <High Jump> I jump directly above the Bear.

Then, aiming at the crouching Bear’s head, with a vertical drop I stabbed with a flying kick.

With this the Bear’s HP was smashed into oblivion.

As expected, it wasn’t like the time before when we fought the Wild Bear; by only taking one more hit to beat it, it can be considered a job well done and so I take a break.

I’m certainly breathing harder, and I’m conscious that my heartbeat is moving faster.

It really was close, huh. Choosing to go solo, you’ll always be accompanied with this fear.

I’ve resigned myself to it; I say I’ve resigned myself to it but that fear won’t reduce any. Since I’m fragile there’s no helping that.

Even so this is how I do things. Doing things this way is good.

After that, I fought several more creatures. Several times I didn’t evade and took the attacks.

One blow reduces my HP about 30%, and there was 1 time that made away with 70%; I seriously broke into a cold sweat then.

If I were to join a party there’s no mistake I’d be in the rear guard; like this, if I was to face the monster in the front, it would be a poor decision in actual party combat so it can’t be helped.

… Prejudice against the bow is still deeply engrained; as usual, if a party wants to recruit someone for ranged attacks it’s the tendency to go with magic. With all the Arts I know up til now combined it’s by no means weak, but getting a chance to show it off in front of people is …

While I’m thinking about that I withdraw; I’ve taken down several animals and needlessly continuing to hunt and getting a Death Penalty would be a foolish story to have, and with this one time of hunting you can’t say that gathering the pelts for the cloak is not close to being finished.

Just going back and forth a few more times is enough.

On the way back, I relaxedly played with Fairies while I returned.

SKILLS

[Hunting Bow]Lv41 ↑3UP

[Kicking Assault]Lv9 ↑4UP

[Farsight]Lv46 ↑1UP

[Wind Magic]Lv46 ↑3UP

[Craftsmanship]Lv43

[Cooking]Lv48

[Stealth]Lv35 ↑3UP

[Physical Ability Reinforcement]Lv12 ↑2UP

[Thief]Lv31 ↑1UP

[Whip]Lv32 ↑2UP

Reserved Skills

[Blacksmithing]Lv25

[Woodworking]Lv24

[Alchemy]Lv35

ExP　16

A/N: It’s been a while since we’ve seen a battle, and the skills even LvUP-ed.

I’ve also tried adding the numbers showing how much a skill increased.