ăGood morning. The breakfast is ready, please wake up.ă
Hmm, what is it? What is this situation? Is it a cute childhood friend living next door? Or maybe a cute little sister? No, I donât have any of theseâŠâŠ Who is it?
Opening my eyes I saw an unfamiliar high school girl. It is far more serious than an unfamiliar ceiling!
Certainly, the tent is small. With someone sleeping in it, there isnât much space left, but even so, why would you choose to hang over the person? Her face is so close!
ăYeah, good morning. Iâm already awake?? Since 30 minutes ago?ă
ăThat sounds like a big lie, are you even planning on getting up?ă
No, I canât get up in this posture, physically, and as a healthy high school boy as well.
ăWhat is for breakfast?ă
ăFried fish and mushrooms. ă
I jumped to my feet. The unknown school girl tumbled out of the tent.
ăHurryhurry, shut up! Why after headbutting me all you talk about is fish?ă
ăWho cares about such a thing! What about the fish?!ă
ăJust how much do you like fish! Or rather, such a thing, is that how you treat me?!ă
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Itâs fish. Itâs tasty.
ăEhm, why are you crying while eating?ă
ăEh, but itâs a fish! Itâs fried!ă
ăHavenât you been living right in front of the river this whole time?ă
ăI did! And every day I kept staring at fish while eating my mushrooms.ă
ăăăăâŠâŠ?ăăăă
There is something off in the conversation. It seems that the president and others were eating nothing but fish all this time, how envious! Or actually, it was all they could find.
Since they had many people with lightning magic, they could catch fish. Occasionally, the geeks would bring a deer or a boar, but generally, they would have only fish.
It seems that places with mushrooms had packs of goblins, so they couldnât collect them, making it a rare ingredient.
Crap, if I interacted with them sooner, we couldâve had a barter.
By the way, it seems that yesterday, the girls were crying while eating mushroom salad with herb dressing.
The trade is important. Though it was I who had an isolationist policy.
For some reason, the girls around gave me a fish each.
As thanks, I treated them to juice after the meal, and it turned into a huge jubilant uproar. Some girls even had teary eyes. Sweets goâŠâŠ into another stomach?
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ăSo, did you decide what you are going to do? If you are going to make this place your base, then I will do some renovations?ă
Maybe I should aim for the old imperial hotel?[1. TL Note: This one I guess https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imperial_Hotel,_Tokyo#First_Imperial_Hotel:_1890%E2%80%931922]ăYeah, after looking at the shape of the mountain where the cave is located, I think it might work out.
ăEh, no, weâd feel bad to make you do that. We didnât decide yet, but for now, we are thinking about raising our Lv and then looking for a town.ă
ăAah, which reminds me, the bitches also were heading to a town to hunt the geeks?ă
ăI already explained to you many times! We are going to apologize and thank them!ăWhy! Every time! You say hunt?! Also, itâs Oda-kun and the others! Or rather, didnât we tell you that we are not bitches?ă
Such were the objections from the bitches.
ăHaruka-kun, you arenât going to a town?ă
ăLiving there seems like a hassle? Well, I donât mind going to check it out, but living there is bităŒă
ăI think living in survival mode in the middle of a forest surrounded by monsters is more of a hassleâŠâŠ But, yeah, looking at your current living conditionsâŠâŠă
ăThe geeks said that they are going to become adventurers, but that sounds difficult as well.ă
ăFrom what we heard from Oda-kun and others, anyone can become one?ă
ăYeah, but I canât get that strong, so it might be impossible for me?ă
ăăăăâŠâŠ?ăăăă
I explained.
ăSomething must be wrong! There is no way Lv 5 without any decent skills can defeat a horde of kobolds and even the kobold leader. ă
ăWho is the Kobold Leader? A friend of Bitch Leader?ă
ăWho the hell is a friend of the kobold leader! Why would a boss of monsters be friendly to me?! And I already told you that Iâm not bitch leader! Or rather, itâs still bitch leader in the status?ă
How noisy, troublesome, and annoying, why is she always behind me?
ăAh, that reminds me, I didnât give this to you yet. Here, this, the bracelet from the kobold leader earlier.ă
A bracelet? Itâs similar to the one I have? T-these are paired bracelets?! But if I take another one while already wearing one myself, wouldnât that mean that they arenât paired anymore? All on one lonerâŠâŠ
ăEh? Itâs a bracelet of kobold leader, infused with magic power it gives SpE.ă
ăEh? Mine was PoW +1%? ă
I ask, showing her my bracelet.
ăSo you defeated the goblin leaderâŠâŠ Goblin Leaderâs raises PoW, Kobold Leaderâs SpE.ă
ăGoblin Leader? Is that another friend of Bitch Leader?ă
ăWHY! ARE YOU TRYING! TO MAKE ALL OF THEM INTO MY FRIENDS?! And didnât I already tell you that you are wrong?! Just a moment ago! Is there some kind of leader committee out there? Am I going to get called to monster assembly? No, I mean, Iâm not BITCH LEADER! HOW! MANY! TIMES! Do I have to repeat this before you understand?!ă
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Hm, I guess even monsters wouldnât want to call someone this noisy. And I guess kobolds also would find it too scary to meet a terrifying mass murderer.
ăYou are this strong, and only level 5? Why? Even with cheats, we couldnât defeat them? How come a Lv 5 can beat them?ă
ăAttacking them until they die usually does the trick?ă
ăYeah, I guess it would apply in most cases. Though you wouldnât normally call this a solution.ă
Everyone, why are you looking at me like this? I-Is this the rumored popularity phase?! No, those flat gazes must mean something else? Is something amiss? What other method to defeat a monster aside from beating it until its death could exist?
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ăThen, Iâll show an example, watch closely.ă
With those words, Vice President B-san raised her right hand, then, a ball of lightning formed above it. And then, the jiggle!
ăWait right there! Just like that! Donât move!ă
ăEh? What?! Why?!ă
I use packing magic to wrap the ball of lightning created by Vice President B. Okay, can I move it?
Slowly moving the ball of lightning, I bring it to the river, and then, throw, aiming for fish. It hit! Fishes are floating up to the surface!
ăI got it! Both fish and lightning magic.ă
Immediately checking the status I confirmed that I got Lightning Magic from the first try.
ăEeeh! What?! How? Why, my magic?ă
Vice President B is confused. And also jiggling. A lot. Donât ask me what exactly!
ăUhhh? Haruka-kun? What did you do? And also, where are you looking?ă
The eyes of the president, who was looking from the side, are scary. The last part was especially packed with bloodthirst.
ăImnotlookingatanything? Iâm just studying lightning magic? Itâs true?ă
ăNot only are you monotone, but you even turned it into a question? Anyway, what was that just now?ă
ăAh, I wrapped it with Packing Magic. Packing something and moving it around, gives the magic of that attribute.ă
ăGives magicâŠâŠ Isnât that a pretty huge cheat by itself?! Even moving it around is amazing by itself?ă
ăNo, I think itâs an effect from Jack of All Trades, and I think just picking skills wonât affect the level.ă
ăPicking up magic so easily is amazing enough. And also, that thing is anti-magic!ă
ăAnti-magic?ă
ăYes, it can meddle with the magic cast by an opponent, right? Anti-magic that allows you to throw the opponentâs magic right at them. Even just averting a spell is amazing.ă
I see, I never gave it a thought since gobs and kobolds arenât using magic, but I see, if I can package an opponentâs magic, it can indeed work as anti-magic.
ăI think using it as an anti-magic measure might be impossible? It takes time to pack something.ă
But what if I do this? Wrapping myself it can become ăAnti Magic Layeră, at the moment, I can do it instantly. I wonder if I will learn anti-magic someday?
But, I have something more important on my hands right now! Fish!
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Practicing lightning magic at home by myself, working on the construction of the basement by using circles. Iâm yet to confirm if I leveled up and have plenty of reason to confine myself indoors. As well as plenty of intentions to do so.
Even though Iâm such a hikikomori, Iâm outside, a neet, and yet Iâm helping with raising levels, a loner, and yet Iâm being a guard and a mushroom-gathering guide for 20 high school girls.
Moving in a crowd, mercilessly clubbing to death.
I move forwards, cutting off legs and hands that held clubs, while high school girls behind me take turns, delivering finishing blowsâŠâŠ Itâs my first time going out with girls. On top of that, in the forest. What kind of a brutal picnic is this!
Gob, Gob, mushroom, mushroom, gob, gob, mushroom, mushroom, behind me, finish, finish, pick it up, pick it up, finish, finish, pick it up, pick it up, finish, finish, pick it up, pick it up, somehow, this is not like the picnic with girls that I was dreaming about!
ăHey, hey, Haruka-kun, How come you can cut goblins with a wooden stick?ă
ăAh, this? The geeks told me about this when I said that I have nothing aside from Cane Arts.ăThrusting, a spear, sweeping a naginata, slashing, a long sword, a staff is a flexible weapon for any situationăit seems? Or something like that?ă
ăSomething like thatâŠâŠ I donât think it actually means that it should cut? Probably.ă