Volume 1 - CH 15

I came across the end of the sandy beach.

According to my map, I could get back to the large tree I used as my base by heading southwards from here. Conveniently, the path was empty on my map.

Should I go back now? The sun was high in the sky, so it should be around lunch time. I still had plenty of time till sunset, so I went a bit further north to fill in more of the map.

After I went a bit further north, I heard a thump beneath the earth. I hid under a tree right away and observed the situation.

It was a bear, roughly two metres tall. According to appraisal it was a monster known as a honey bear. A honey bear huh… Just how strong is it? I wonder if I can take it on as I am now. For now, I have the slashing technique from bestowal magic.

I tried it out on some sahuagins I fought on the way here, and Its power was pretty impressive. It was particularly effective when I used it on my opponent’s legs, robbing them of their movement. If it’s impossible, then I’ll run.

If I use earth magic effectively then It shouldn’t be hard to get away. I want to proactively hunt new monsters. As soon as the honey bear turned its back to me, I charged my sword with magic.

As I swung my sword, a slash shot out from the shade of the tree at the rear left leg of the honey bear. The honey bear seemed to notice it. As soon as it turned its head back to look, the slash hit the honey bear’s leg. Blood spurted out from it. The honey bear seemed to be enraged as it let out a roar.

The force of the sound beat my skin. I couldn’t afford to be frightened by this. I prepared myself before I started the fight. I launched more slashes as I retreated, aiming at the honey bear’s right leg.

The honey bear approached me in defiance. Shoot, this guy is stronger than I thought. In terms of ability, would they be above me?

I was surprised that my slashes didn’t connect as much as I thought they would. I used the surrounding trees to maintain the distance between us. Once I landed the fifth slash on it, the honey bear went down on its knees. Alright! Just as I planned. As I increased the distance between us, I charged my sword with more magic and swung it downwards.

Right then, the honey bear grabbed a nearby tree. “Hey, hey! Are you kidding me!”

“Roar!” The honey bear pulled the tree out by the roots. That tree’s as thick as a grown man! Without minding that at all, the honey bear threw the tree my way. With it flying straight at me, I responded with earth magic.

The tree thrown by the honey bear slammed against a wall of earth. It only blocked it for a moment. But in the first place I wasn’t expecting to be able to block it. I was just buying time to be able to get out of the way. I jumped to the side but was barely hit in the waist.

Ouch, I tumbled for a moment before getting back up and fired off some more slashes while running.

…This is pretty bad! I drank a potion as I retreated in order to deal with my wounds. But the honey bear was also weakened. Compared to the start of the fight, it was following me at a much slower speed now.

I thought I would be able to maintain a cool distance, but this was tough. Against and opponent like this I’d really like to have a more powerful skill to use, or some kind of poison technique to target it’s weakness.

Make some distance, launch a slashing attack. As I repeated those actions over and over again, the honey bear gradually became unable to move and dropped to its knees.

Alright, all I need to do now is kill it. I kept my distance and finished off the honey bear with continuous slashing attacks. Don’t think I’m playing dirty.

I approached the dead honey bear and used my dismantling knife to cut its body up. It seems that I can synthesise the claw of a honey bear with iron magic ore to make a honey bear sword. I don’t plan on making one right away, but I should probably go ahead and collect the materials for it now.

I don’t really want to stay in this spot for long. This area is probably honey bear territory. It would be hard for me to fight them continuously as I am now. I cut off the portion of meat I would need from it. Since I used up my potion, I found a nearby medicinal herb to replenish my stock.

With that I’m all ready for the next fight. I moved on while looking at my map. Then I checked to gacha window for my current points.

It seems I got… 200 points from that. I only got 200 from something that strong… I really hope 200 isn’t the maximum number of points I can get. It would be nothing short of depressing if that were the case. I should find monsters that I can actually take on, so I don’t have to force myself to fight powerful monsters. That might make my training more efficient.

“Haa, crap. That was really strong…” I think I’ve started talking to myself more recently. Of course, I’ve got to do this so I don’t forget how to speak while I’m by myself, but also, I’m lonely. I monologue to fool myself, even if it’s only a little.

I moved through the forest for a bit. I didn’t see many honey bears around, but I did come across two of them. Of course, I don’t have to motivation to take them on right now, so I just held my breath and hid from them.

Like that I made my way from the east to the encircling north area, so I could cover more area on the map. I left a memo on the map anywhere I spotted a honey bear. The overall area that I could find honey bears was small.

There might be more of those monsters in the northern area of the forest. That would be pretty annoying.

Well, I’ll have to think of countermeasures against honey bears later on. I’ve got to fill my stomach for now. I set up a campfire right away so I could eat the honey bear meat right away.

I set up the fire and roasted the meat like usual. Ah, it’s a waste that some of the juices are dripping off. I want to eat it. I want to eat it now…

To start with I tried it plain, without putting any salt on it.

What is this!? It’s way too good! The meat is sweet and melts in my mouth! It has a deliciousness that’s also different from the other meats I’ve had!

Next, I ate it with a bit of added salt… Oh, this is great. The way the salt mixes with the meat juices gives it a moving flavor.

This is good enough to get me addicted to honey bear meat. I’m hoping todays gacha will help give me a way to hunt for this safely.

I’d hunted enough sahuagins and poison bees today, so I had enough points for todays gacha. Today is the 24th of April. There’s one week remaining. Hopefully, I can raise the level of all the special skills to three.

With that in mind, I opened the gacha window.