The next day, I decided to venture a little bit into the woods together with Ash. I had learned a lot of new skills so maybe I started to get a little carried away with my confidence. 

I was picking various plants I had never seen before and putting them into the carrier when I…

GIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

There it was, in the forest. A cockatrice.

Please don’t call me pathetic but I immediately held Ash in my arms and ran away as fast as I could back to the direction I came to. In the middle of running for my life, I glanced sideways for a moment and saw a fire breathing dog fighting against a monster that looked like a wolf-headed kobold. 

Scary. The forest is scary. The forest is scary.

I went back to my house and went into the futon with Ash still nestled in my arms. I hid inside the futon, trembling out of fear. Ash then let out a soft whine to try to comfort me. 

15:00

I was finally free from my state of panic and I realized that the most important thing was defense. I would never willingly fight against that kind of monster but when push came to shove, the most important thing was HP and then defense power, including resistance against various things. 

With a bottle of paruna detoxification potion, I mustered my courage and then licked the fine powder made from crushing the dried cockatrice’s eyes, or the ‘petrification powder’. 

BRRR…. CLACKCLACKCLACKCLACK

My skin started to froth and petrified. I could feel my body temperature dropping rapidly. 

HIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!!!

I immediately drank the paruna detoxification potion and collapsed on the spot. 

I was laying on the floor for about 1 hour. Ash kept on licking my face, worried about me. I drank another bottle of paruna detoxification potion again before I finally felt better. I stroked Ash’s head, who was still looking up at me worriedly. 

『Individual Name: Keigo Okuda has acquired Petrification Resistance level 2.』

17:00

The next thing in my mind was that fire breathing dog monster. Without any doubt, I was sure I’d be burned to a crisp if I got attacked by that fire. 

I crushed the merman’s scale and femto stone, mixed them together and used a whetstone to add “fire resistance(+)” to all my equipment like my armor, gauntlet and greave.

20:00

CLANK CLANK

After eating dinner, I was thinking if I should drink alcohol or not when the naruko rang. I took my bow and my sword and headed outside, surveilling my surroundings. 

And there it was. A pitch black dog monster with fiery red eyes about 3 meters big was staring into my direction ominously, threatening me with its gaze alone. Most probably, this was the same monster I had seen earlier. 

GRRRRRRRROARRRR!

The enemy began to ignite his fire in his throat. 

I immediately held my shield up and activated ‘fortress’. 

BBOBOBOBOBO! BWAHHHH!!

The enemy launched its fire breath attack and hit me directly. A puff of smoke was floating to the sky but I still stood on my ground. My whole body was stinging in pain. 

I prepared my bow, shooting donur poison arrow at the enemy with ‘charge arrow’ and somehow, my arrow was able to hit its leg. The enemy began to twitch, the attack was a success. Then I charged forward with my sword ready. I activated ‘bash’ and cut my enemy’s head off. 

『Individual Name: Keigo Okuda has went from level 10 to level 11. 

HP: 22→24

MP: 12→13

Vitality: 15→17

Strength: 21→23

Intelligence: 74→75

Dexterity: 25→27

Speed: 21→23

Acquired Flame Resistance level 1 and Fortress level 3.』

I fumbled to look for a small bottle of dual potion(medium) that I had kept inside my mantle’s pocket and fell onto the ground with a thud.

30 minutes or so must’ve passed. I somehow was able to move again and appraised the monster. 

【Hellhound: A fire breathing dog type monster. Agile. Its weak point is the monster will become stiff after unleashing its flame attack.】

If it was not for the stiffness it had after that flame attack and my fire resistant equipment, things would’ve been much more dangerous. Most probably, I wouldn’t be able to hit him with a normal arrow either due to its agility. 

I fixed the sound alarm again and loaded the hellhound into the wagon for me to bring to the guild later. 

Exhausted, I immediately fell back to sleep the moment I touched my futon.