Hone To Issho No Isekai Seikatsu Chapter 17

~ Adventurer's life Day 9 (Tue) Evening ~ Comnes Town – Adventurers Guild – Lobby

"Nemo! Let me treat you! Otherwise I'm going to lose face here!"
"Hey, let's talk more about your divine protections!"

We headed over to the guild's bar to grab a drink with Mr Wolf and the others to make a toast for today.
It's pretty lively with the eight of us here.

The three that were injured were already taken to the medical ward southeast, so it seems they won't be able to come tonight.

"Really, while we were fighting those forest wolves, when I saw you and your monsters running this way I thought we were dead."
"… Where are you working? Around the rock field? Aren't you already strong enough to be in the west side?"
"That hatchet makes the guy look pretty scary huh!"

Once everyone starts drinking, I get bombarded by their ramblings all at once.
Mr Wolf still doesn't seem to be drunk yet, so I was able to ask him things about today.

"Those forest wolves you see, we thought it would've went well since we had more numbers than them. We were thinking of focusing on one of them at first, but their speed made them hard to hit and they've been attacking the weak ones of us. Before we knew it, two of us had already been taken down."

In the game, forest wolves had always been an annoying enemy to grind since they can easily gather and become exponentially more difficult with every wolf in the group, especially so since they start to use more arranged tactics.

Even in Freed, their presence is extremely troublesome as the average adventurer in Comnes aren't able to handle them.

If it was just me and my skeletons against the wolves, it would've been a very close fight.
Actually, Skeleton B couldn't even hold its weapon after being bitten on the arm, since that fight.
Even with their clumsy movement, they're pretty strong. But even then surprisingly enough, they're not as durable as I thought they'd be.

I'm getting a little uneasy facing against stronger enemies in the future.
Should I hurry and strengthen my armor too I wonder?… 

"So then… about the distribution for rewards… "
“Ah, I'll just take ⅓."
"… Is that really fine!?"

He seemed like he wanted to press on about it, but knowing that there are a number of people injured in his team, it'll be a problem if they didn't have the sufficient funds to help them.

"Even the time with the potion, you gave us plenty of help… there aren't a lot of things I can do to repay for that but… ah, that's right. I can give you some information I picked up on this place.
“I'm interested.”

Though I already have my knowledge from the game, I know better not to put too much trust in it.
Let's see, first I'll get some info on the gravel area from the west side of Comnes, as it's the place I plan to move on to next.
While listening, there were indeed some differences from the game, and I got a number of useful info on it.
However, perhaps I should probably still be careful…

Different from the game, sh.e.l.led rabbits don't come close to a large group of people. Since I'm with a smaller group, there may be other sorts of information that I would have to find out myself…

"By the way, you seem to be quite young Nemo. How many years have you been since you've become an adventurer? And how old are you?"

They've told me a number of things, so I suppose it's my turn to answer theirs.
I guess I can answer honestly here, they'd find out anyways if they just ask around.

"9th day!? … No way!"
"You're 18!? I can't believe it!"

So that is the case huh… Well, I suppose in this world my growth rate would be abnormal.

From that, Mr. Wolf left and said, "Please ask if there is anything you need".
Until the problem with the forest is complete, I'm still on the emergency request.
I plan to stay in the same place tomorrow, so if there is anything, I can work with Mr Wolf.

( … I don't really like facing against strong opponents like that again sleep deprived… I guess I'll head to bed early.)

… Will the skeleton's arm be healed the next morning I wonder.
I sure hope so…

~ Adventurer's life Day 14 (Sun) Morning ~ Comnes Town – Southeast – Beginners rock field – Outer edge

Today as well, I arrived at the beginners rock field for the emergency request.

Five days have pa.s.sed since that day when Mr. Wolf held a drinking party, but there have been no attacks from forest wolves since then. With all the peace here, I had a lot of free time.

After the usual adventurers gathered up in the guild, we head over to the rock fields again. However there's been a notice that the problem from the forest had been resolved, and that the guards will be slowly reduced from hereon.
It's good news since that means the payment wouldn't be so thinned out, including when you kill different monsters here.

My guard post is on the usual rock, monitoring the area without my skeletons.
As of late, I've been using my spare time in experimenting on throwing stones.

I've ended up making mainly two types of stones. There's the smooth ones, and the dimpled ones, both are somewhat the same size as a golf ball. In the end, the ones with dimples had a noticeable increase in power…

Since then, I've been testing it out on sh.e.l.led rabbits, or when there's none, I use the skeleton to test it out instead by having it block it.
Unless it's a direct hit on the head, there's no way for a smooth stone to deal fatal damage.

(… As far as I'm concerned anyways… )

With this skill, it's going to be much easier to level alchemist up.
Aside from Necromancer, the main problem with all my other divine protections was that I don't know of any efficient way in levelling them. But with this, there's at least a way for Alchemist.

(… Speaking of which, I wonder if I'll be hitting level 3 soon.)

Reaching to any levels multiple of 3 adds a new skill for each protection.

(Since it's 'Alchemist', it should be the acid potions and plating skill.)

Acid potions are throw-able items that deal damage over time to an enemy.
However, in the game there wasn't any need to be concerned about whether the splash would affect you or your companions, unlike here.

Plating over the armor or weapons can increase their performance.
It's only a slight increase, but it can be placed over anything, and can even resist acid too.

(… Well, I can test it out properly once this emergency request finishes.)

The day pa.s.sed by with nothing happening once again.

~ Adventurer's life Day 17 (Wed) Morning ~ Comnes Town – Weapons shop – Adonis' Blade

Finally, the emergency request is over. I can finally go and hunt now!

… It's what I thought, but I'll need to head to the weapons shop first.
Since my whole day had been spent working, and there're too many adventures crowding the shop in the evening, I wasn't able to buy there until now.
The reward from the request was actually pretty generous.
It's a shame that compared to the first wolf I defeated, the price for each wolf was considerably lower, not that it can be helped.

"Oh, you've come. I'd thought you'd come by around now."

He must've had a lot of free time, if he even knows the details of that emergency request…

"Seems you got a good pay again. What do you want this time?"
"I want to upgrade the wooden weapons and s.h.i.+elds of these two. My budget is about this much…"

In the end, my budget can only allow me to buy one set of the hatchet and kite s.h.i.+eld. Same as skeleton A, which isn't really what I wanted.

“There's some weapons I have that can meet halfway of your budget.”
“Alright. I'll leave it to you.”

From this, I was able to buy two metal maces for each.
I'll have skeletons B and C try these out.
For the remaining amount, should I spend it on s.h.i.+elds or for armor?

"What do you plan to do with the remaining amount? If possible, I hope I can do something about it.”
"… No, I'm thinking of just holding onto it for now."
"… Did these guys increase again?"
"No well, the thing is…"

It's not that they did, I just feel like it's going to happen soon.
There isn't really a problem having this guy know about my skeletons increasing… or rather, he figured that out way too quickly.

"If so, just leave it with me. If they increase, just come back here again."
"I suppose so. Well, if you would please."

With this, our party's fighting power had increased again.
Well then, time for my next problem.

~ Adventurer's life Day 17 (Wed) Afternoon ~ Comnes Town – Southeast – Beginners rock field – Outer edge

The next problem is inviting Benedetta from that time to my party.

Even in Freed, it's quite common for parties to form, along with different parties joining together for the same spot. And of course there are many times where a party would have others to partic.i.p.ate with them in difficult subjugation missions.

(… It's just that in my case…)

I'm the only one at the party, so it's quite awkward for me to invite a woman over to it.
She'd probably be wary about it, and because I'm a newbie, I have no credibility as an adventurer in this town.
It's hard to trust someone like that, especially in a work where your life could be on the line.

… It's best not to think about it too much and just ask it to her directly.
The guild doesn't disclose information on adventurers request locations, so I'm going to have to look for her myself.
I didn't call out the skeletons this time since it feels like a waste, but that seems to have made me nervous. Seems like even when I'm already strong enough to handle them, I still carry that slight trauma with me.

After wandering around for a while, I finally found her right in the middle of the field.
She's wearing the usual olive colored hood and scarf while seemingly looking for herbs.
No doubt it's her… let's try calling out.

"Umm- hey, mind if I ask you something…"

After conversing for a while, she accepted it.
It was a little unexpected, but I'm glad it worked out.

We plan to meet in front of the guild tomorrow morning and head out to hunt together.
We'll head to the beginner's rock field first to see how well we can handle sh.e.l.led rabbits… It's the first time I'll be working with a party member, so I'm looking forward to it.

While keeping some possible issues in my head, I decided to hunt some rabbits at the outer edge of the rocky area for today.
I summoned skeleton A to attract one over.

It was at a moderate distance, so I threw a stone and it smashed right to its head… it's getting really easy defeating these guys.

(… First off, I'd like to raise alchemist's level.)

I'm aiming for the 'Plating' skill that's available for alchemists when reaching it to level 3.
I can strengthen the equipment of the skeletons, but but more importantly myself too, since right now my armor is practically nonexistent at the moment.
Since I already levelled it up recently, I'm gonna have to grind for quite a bit…

… However, it happened a little earlier than I thought it would.
After defeating the third rabbit, light surrounded me once again, and my body had been a.s.saulted by the usual pain.

(Ah…!? Wait hold on, I wasn't ready!) …

… After I was able to brush off the lingering pain, I wondered why I levelled up at a time like then.

For now, I'll just test out which had levelled up first.
I first threw a stone into the distance, but it doesn't seem to have changed from the usual.
Next, I try calling out another skeleton from the sh.e.l.led rabbit. But nothing came out from this either.
Then again, it could be that three skeletons would be the limit here, but the skill 'undead servant' doesn't seem to have levelled up either…

All that's left now is sculptor.
I could have just did something that would level it up unconciously.
Then again, there was that isn't there… using the sculpting skill to make stones.
I took a stone from my bag and felt it around with my hand.
… Certainly, having a major increase in firepower just by adding dimples is a little strange…

In order to confirm it, I called skeleton A to come over. I took its hatchet and also took out my hunting knife.

~ Adventurer's life Day 17 (Wed) Evening ~ Comnes Town – The Bulbul's Inn – Mess Hall

(If I were to show this skill to Adonnis, I wonder what his reaction would be?)

Before evening, I carved a simple geometric pattern design onto the hatchet and s.h.i.+elds.
… I was a little surprised how easy it was too carve even onto the hatchet's blade.
I've got to hand it to that divine protection.

But that wasn't the most surprising part.
The hatchet's power got a significant increase. Enough to easily take out a sh.e.l.led rabbit in one blow.
Also when I touched the s.h.i.+eld, it felt much less hollow than before, and the same applied for the armor too.

(… I could probably make a living on just reselling weapons on this…)

More importantly though, I wonder how much mana this all costs…

Since this is a pretty important skill, I'll call it 'Engrave' from now on.

—- Nemo Divine Protection and Skills —-
Necromancer level 2: ロBone weapon bonus; ロUndead Servant; Dark magic and resistance
Alchemist level 2: ロPotion making; ロExtraction; Metallurgy; ロThrow; ロGathering bonus
Sculptor level 3?: ロGathering bonus; ロEngraving; Create sculpture; Specialised weapon – unknown

※: ロ Confirmed skills

—- Summon Equipment —-
A: Hatchet + 3, Kite s.h.i.+eld (metal), Blood stained leather armor.
B: Mace, Shabby round s.h.i.+eld (wood) + 3
C: Mace, Shabby round s.h.i.+eld (wood) + 3

※: + X Arbitrary level of engraving

—- Equipment —-
Pig femur Bone dagger – 2 sets
Iron coated round s.h.i.+eld (metal/wood)
Barbarian robe
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