Chapter 15

Mio started preparing lunch, and since Reina had also returned to the workshop, I headed to the Adventurer's Guild to fetch my master.

Still, a lot has happened in such a short time.

It's troubling how many things I don't know.

Is not knowing a sin?

The rain had become a bit stronger.

There were fewer people moving about in the town, and the town itself took on a more desolate and gloomy image.

Many people covered their faces with coats or robes to avoid the rain.

The green markers of players were also becoming even less visible.

In front of the Adventurer's Guild, my master was holding the reins of his battle horse.

The item box, which would become our luggage, was being held by a guild staff member.

I hurried over and helped load the item box onto my master's battle horse.

"Sorry, I'm late."

"Don't worry, I just finished my business. It's raining today, so let's hurry."

"Yes."

We left the town.

The rain intensified, blurring the surrounding scenery.

The movement on horseback was difficult due to the mud, which dirtied the horse's body without mercy.

To alleviate the anxiety of controlling the reins, I boosted my dexterity with the Physical Enchantment Aqua.

Even so, riding was a tough situation.

Not falling off was probably just luck.

After confirming that the town's appearance had disappeared into the rain and that there was no one around, my master returned his battle horse and summoned a roc.

I also returned the crescent moon and summoned Volpe.

As usual, I climbed onto the back of the roc and headed for the herb collection site.

Above the sea of clouds, the sky was naturally blue.

And it was cold.

It was naturally cold since I was drenched in rain.

I still don't understand how my master can be so calm.

I spent the travel time reading the game information while hugging Volpe.

It seemed to be statistics on the movements of players, as Fina had mentioned.

First, there was a sheet with raw data for each player.

The player names were hidden, and some columns of data were masked to avoid personal identification.

Looking at the last row of the number of rows, it seemed that the number of players was slightly over 3,600.

The next sheet was a summary that selected basic items and counted the number and distribution of the target.

For example, the distribution by race.

Humans made up a large majority, dwarves were about 10% of the total, and elves were less than 3%.

There were also statistics by occupation and skill, and it seemed that you could specify conditions and graph the distribution by condition.

I played around with it a bit.

I looked up the players who chose the Summoner occupation.

There was only one.

It's me, right?

I arranged the occupations in order of the fewest number of players.

Surprisingly, there were other occupations with only one player besides Summoner.

When I sorted them, Summoner wasn't at the top.

It looked like this when I lined them up.

Glassworker (Glass artisan)

Summoner (Summoner)

Stonecutter (Stonecutter)

Lapidary (Jeweler)

Lumberjack (Lumberjack)

Well, the others are production jobs, I guess.

I looked at the rare choices of occupations.

Fisherman (Fisherman) 2

Brewer (Brewer) 2

Ceramic Worker (Potter) 2

Alchemist (Alchemist) 3

Bard (Bard) 4

Farmer (Farmer) 5

The bard was a bit concerning.

When I searched for help and called up the information, it seemed to be classified as a magic job.

Four out of about 3,600 players is a small number.

I felt a little affinity with them.

From the farmer onwards, the number suddenly exceeded 50.

Merchant (Merchant) 51

Fabric Farmer (Weaver) 55

Pharmacist (Pharmacist) 58

Fina's merchant, when seen this way, doesn't seem to be that many.

It's less than 2% of the total.

It's getting interesting.

I thought I'd try to narrow it down a bit from the skill acquisition status.

How about magic?

I extracted players who had learned one or more magic skills and narrowed it down by the number of magic skills acquired.

The one who had acquired the most was five, and there was only one in the entire group.

That's too many.

I have four, light, wind, earth, and water, which is a lot... but wait.

Summoning magic was also included.

It's me again!

Looking at the distribution, the majority had acquired one skill, and when combined with those who had acquired two, it exceeded 90% of the total.

It seems that, considering the efficiency of growth, it's better to narrow down the magic skills you acquire.

In my case, I acquired them one after another as things progressed without much thought.

This is the result.

But I don't regret it.

Hmm.

That's fine, I guess.

I think this data can be used in various ways to understand the tendencies of players.

I don't really care how it's used, but I was interested in the data itself.

I felt that I could grasp the intentions of many players in the numbers.

That's all, though.

I thought I'd try to extract some data by skill, but we arrived at the collection site, so I decided to stop.

I'll do this later when I have some free time.

Where did we land?

I think it's the mountains we came to yesterday and the day before, but the weather is bad and the visibility is poor.

The roc doesn't seem to mind such things, and when we got off, it flew off somewhere.

It's probably going to hunt some formidable monster again.

I observed my master's movements with a slight tension.

I can't be careless, as something like yesterday might happen again.

"Don't be so tense. I have something to talk about first."

My master summoned two automatons and handed them burlap bags.

Huh?

There are more burlap bags coming out of the item box today.

"Keith, your fighting style is interesting to watch. But there are some flaws."

"Yes."

I nodded honestly.

I kind of understand, somehow.

"It's effective against opponents who look like humans, but monsters aren't just apes."

"..."

That's right.

I knew that.

I realized it after I acquired the [Joint Lock] skill.

But I'll take it if I acquire [Striking] and [Kicking].

That's what a man, a fighting creature, does.

"Today, let's try a different monster."

Master.

I think that's not the right approach.

I would like to ask you to add a little restraint.

"Well, it seems you've also updated your equipment, so I won't prepare an opponent you can't fight at all. Get ready."

Thank you, Master.

You're smiling.

What are you expecting!

The automatons went to collect the wound-sealing grass without paying attention to me.

Wolf and Helix are just watching.

You guys are lucky, you just get to watch.

The monster my master summoned with the Call Monster spell looked like a deer.

No, it's not a deer. The shape of the horns is different. It's a goat.

The two horns on its head are small and thick, and slightly curved.

The horns are not facing forward, but if the goat lowered its head and charged, what role would those horns play?

Just imagining it hurts.

I performed [Identification] and took a screenshot as usual.

Blitz Level 3

Monster Target Active

What is this thing?

I have a bad feeling about this.

I selected the Physical Enchantment Wind from the list of enchantment spells I had opened in advance.

Before the spell casting was complete, a change occurred in the monster.

For a moment, lightning ran between the horns.

I see.

The word Blitz came to mind.

In German, Blitzkrieg means lightning war.

The name comes from speed.

It's literally a lightning strike.

I avoided the goat's first charge.

I thought I had barely avoided it, but my body felt heavy for a moment.

I felt pain and numbness in my fingertips.

It was a similar sensation to when I had a nerve conduction test at the hospital.

I must have been hit by lightning.

I can't feel it because my senses are off, but my HP bar is down by about 30%.

That's bad.

The Physical Enchantment Wind spell seems to have fumbled before it was completed. That's a pain.

I selected and executed the Mental Enchantment Light from the spell list.

I held the rod near the end and faced the goat.

It's like a regular stance in kendo.

I lowered the tip of the rod and shifted to a stance to guard my feet.

"Mental Enchantment Light!"

This was the only defense I could think of against lightning.

I don't know how effective it will be, but only God knows.

The goat lowered its head and charged again.

Just as I was about to raise the tip of the rod, the goat jumped.

No, it leaped.

My attack missed, and I couldn't immediately grasp the goat's position.

Don't look up.

Since human eyes are on the sides, moving the gaze up and down creates a large opening.

The monster will surely attack from behind.

Sure enough, the monster was behind me.

And I realized I had been hit by a second lightning strike.

I felt numbness again.

My HP bar was also down.

But it didn't decrease as much as the first hit.

It seems the Mental Enchantment Light was effective.

Still, my HP bar was already down by about 40%.

This is bad.

I lost my composure in no time.

I selected and executed the Physical Enchantment Wind.

In the meantime, I observed the goat.

Strangely, the goat kept its distance from me.

Is it toying with me?

No.

Something is wrong.

I moved my body to check the numbness.

Can I still move?

I continued to observe the goat.

What is the source of the discomfort?

It's that the follow-up attack didn't come.

Is it waiting now?

Of course, it's probably trying to finish me off with another lightning strike.

Is this thing unable to use lightning in quick succession?

This time, I'll take the initiative.

I held the middle of the rod with my right hand.

I took a half-step forward with my left foot and shifted to a half-body stance.

The rod was in a position where the goat couldn't see it.

"Physical Enchantment Wind!"

By timing the dash, I was able to accelerate even more.

I was able to get closer than the goat expected.

The shortened distance, probably just a step.

That was enough.

The goat didn't show any signs of attacking.

It moved back to put some distance between us.

I reversed my half-body stance.

I grabbed the tip of the rod with my left hand and used my right hand to increase the power of the 'reverse swing'.

Of course, there