Chapter 23

"Because I already told you it's different."

"I'm sorry. I jumped to conclusions."

"I'm glad. If a guy was with such a cute girl, I would have gone crazy and wrung his neck like this."

I made Gants and Minutes sit in seiza in the middle of the street, and I stood in front of them with my arms crossed.

I put the ring on my right hand to avoid any more misunderstandings.

"Really, I told you before. I'm a producer. This is a ring I made."

"I'm truly sorry."

"Oh, what a shame."

Somehow, Minutes was prostrating himself, and Mami was covering her cheek and saying it with a smile.

"Hey, hey, time is passing. First, let's redistribute the potions. Then, let's confirm our positions."

Taku distributed the potions I made earlier to everyone. More for the front line. This battle against the Sandman isn't as intense as the Big Boar, but it requires caution.

The Sandman's features are slow speed and not as high attack power as the Big Boar. On the other hand, it has high physical defense. It will definitely turn into a持久战. My bow will definitely be deflected, so I won't be the one to lure it this time.

"So, the plan is simple. The guys will hold them off, and the girls will shoot magic. Yun, please cast attack enchantments on us."

"Is defense not necessary?"

"About 50% HP is the safe zone. Unlike the Big Boar, if the front line doesn't collapse, the back line won't be attacked. This time, it's a short-term battle with enhanced attack power."

That's what Taku said. Hmm. If Taku says so, it must be. But still, without enhanced magic attack power, the firepower is lacking, Taku said.

"Well, we can only go and see."

"Sure, let's be relaxed."

"Minutes, don't get too relaxed. And you've been focusing on recovery, so your magic hasn't developed much, right?"

"Still, my light level is 14, so it's fine."

That's what Kai and Minutes were talking about. What was I doing during this time? Of course, I was running around with a speed enchantment. There were lots of items in the forest. Raw gems and iron ores. Also, herbs and branches. I needed soil for the field, so I collected it from the forest. And pebbles. I didn't need them since my arrows were already upgraded to iron, but I picked them up just in case, as I didn't know what they could be used for.

We went deeper than we had before, through the western forest, and came to an open quarry-like area.

There were many stones that looked perfect for sitting.

These were MOBs. Stone Armadillos and Rock Clubs, which have high defense and slow movement. They are not very popular with warrior classes but are good prey for magic users.

Minutes and Mami were advancing while casting magic. The men in the front line were doing their job as a wall. I was casting attack enchantments.

My enchantment range, thanks to my growth, could reach about 25 meters. Within that range, I picked up items and had a good time. I found a lot of iron ore, with about five clumped together in one spot.

We progressed smoothly and reached the halfway rest point. We had encountered a few parties along the way, but they had turned back.

"So, let's take a break here to organize our inventories. After that, we'll go deeper and hunt the Sandman to finish."

That's what Taku said. Indeed, I hadn't organized my inventory in a while because I hadn't been looking for new alchemy combinations recently. I looked inside.

There were unknown items.

Goblin meat, Blue Jelly, poisonous insect carapace, acid, stone scales, stone crab meat...

Thinking about it in order, these were from goblins, slimes, centipedes, and giant centipedes. And the drops from the Stone Armadillos and Rock Clubs we defeated today.

I had over 150 iron ores. I wanted to smelt them into ingots soon.

Meat items are really hard to figure out. Are they used for cooking? Stone crabs sound edible, but goblins? Soon, we might get zombie meat.

"Hey, Taku, how do you use meat items?"

"Huh? You have alchemy and don't know?"

"Ah, yeah."

"Their uses are cooking and alchemy. However, some materials are just bad meat. In such cases, alchemy is the way to go..."

"What do you mean?"

"Bad meat only produces negative effects in alchemy. Good meat produces positive effects. Good meat is a rare drop, and to get it, you need advanced alchemy skills. Currently, it's not highly valued."

So, easily obtainable dog meat, goblin meat, and stone crab meat are bad. Stone crab meat sounds delicious, like crab shabu-shabu, but it's a scam from the looks of it.

And boar meat. Big Boars are delicious. I want to try them.

"Anyway, cooking is a low-level skill, and low-level cooking doesn't taste good, so the only use for meat is to sell it."

"That's a waste. Then, I'll try cooking..."

"“No way!”"

Gants and Kai joined our conversation.

"That's not cooking. It's a weapon of mass destruction."

"Yeah, it's a game where your taste buds are destroyed."

They seemed to have a story in mind. Gants hugged his knees and shivered, and Kai looked into the distance.

"Well, in the beta version, there's a legend where a silver-haired female character served her cooking to players in town, and the terrible taste, poison, paralysis, and curse bad statuses made cooking a despised skill.

After that, it became popular to greet people with cooking skills with 'Are you trying to poison us?' and no one took it."

That's not a despised skill; it's harassment.

"That legend is called the 'White Lover's Home Cooking Legend'!"

"No, something's off."

"Well, there are other legends like the 'Blue Guide Legend,' but..."

"It's confusing."

I started to think I needed to reconsider my understanding of [OSO].

"Well, we've rested enough. Let's move on. We'll hunt according to the plan."

Beyond the rest point was an even larger quarry. The rock formations on both sides were steep, and in the distance, there were Sandmen with blob-like bodies, indented eyes and noses, and hands that constantly flowed with sand.

There weren't many, but to avoid them, we had to run through quickly. Further back was the boss. If we ran through carelessly, we would be stopped by the boss, and a large number of Sandmen would chase us from behind.

As we approached, Minutes and Mami cast their spells. The three front-line members surrounded the Sandmen and attacked with swords and fists. I cast attack enchantments on the three.

From what I could see, physical attacks, especially slashing and striking, were not very effective against Sandmen. However, when Gants twisted the Sandman's sand fingers in the opposite direction, it clearly showed signs of pain. How can you twist the joints of fingers made of sand...

Even with physical attack enchantments, the damage was not significant, and the battle relied on the back line.

Minutes cast attack spells, but the attacks stopped due to MP depletion, and there were many issues.

"MP depletion is still a problem. While the Big Boar and Blade Lizard are suited for short-term battles, this is a long-term battle. Magic users need at least level 25 magic power. Should we prepare for a long battle and switch Minutes back to a healer?"

"That sounds good. We'll level up steadily. If golems are too difficult, we can try again later."

"Hey, Taku? You said you'd call for more people if it looked tough. Are you not going to call anyone?"

Ah, that talk. He drew out his words. Everyone's gaze was sharp. Why?

"The party limit is six people. If more than six people hunt a single MOB, there's a penalty."

Apparently, it's called a "cooperation penalty" when fighting, as opposed to a "death penalty" when you die. The penalty increases with the number of participants: decreased skill level growth, decreased item drop rate, decreased stats, increased enemy MOB stats, and random bad statuses. It's extremely harsh.

If you link an MOB to someone else and use MPK, the person who did it gets the penalty, but the person involved does not. The AI is impressive these days.

"So, I can only call one more person. But everyone hates it."

"Of course. We can defeat the Sandman, so it feels like we're not trusted. You should have said this clearly when you came to my house!"

"Because you usually solo, I thought you wouldn't know about this, so I said it to get you to agree!"

"Even so, you should say what you need to say! And an apology?"

"I'm sorry."

"If you trick me again to drag me out, I won't let it go easily."

You need to be more responsible in such matters. I felt the gazes on my back.

"Coming to my house" and "childhood friend, tsundere" or something. I heard something but didn't comment.

"Alright, let's finish the Sandman hunt! I can't attack, so I'll cast enchantments like crazy!"

My flustered appearance seemed to boost the mood, but the players focused once the battle started.

I tried to contribute to the battle by being creative with my enchantments.

With everyone's levels rising and the efficient Sandman-hunting enchantments, we grew to the point where we could defeat them before MP depletion.

Tomorrow, we will finally face the golem and head to the third town (the second town for me).

Revised - Complete