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chapter 32




Yukinari: “Hold on? Did I hear my name just then?”
Meguru: “Yeah, I asked him if bringing Hanebashi-kun and Hagisawa-kun along would be alright.”
Yukinari: “So that’s what you talking about with a loud voice.”
Meguru-san nods. Well that’s pretty much what I expected from the flow of the conversation. By the way, the reason she didn’t say Shigenobu’s name is because he has the blacksmith ability, which is currently favored by the battle group. There was no need to.
Meguru: “He isn’t considering everyone the way Sakaeda-kun does. Didn’t he say no if it wasn’t a girl? Also, his rejected Minagawa-san was terrible.”
Minagawa-san… I don’t know how to say this, but amongst the girls in our class, she’s one with a complex about her appearance. Meguru-san proposed she also wanted to invite her, but Ono refused. It was like he was treating Meguru-san as an idiot. In other words, it’s like he’s saying he’s only interested in cute girls… what an idiot. All he had to do was nod and bring us along to improve his standing with Meguru-san… at least, Meguru-san is that kind of person.
Well, that Minagawa-san also has some problems personality-wise… she likes talking too much to keep a secret. It’s because of that Shigenobu couldn’t invite her along with our secret hunts either. If she were invited, we’d be exposed to the battle group very quickly. I heard that she bragged about shoplifting and got put into guidance.
Now she’s as withdrawn as a teacher and doesn’t eat much. She even told me off when I tried offering her some sweets.
Shigenobu is also concerned. He said we should invite her once we’ve gotten strong enough and it’s fine for everyone to know about us.
Meguru: “Should we head to Shigenobu-kun’s place early?”
Yukinari: “I was going around seeing if anyone was feeling unwell…”
Meguru: “Ah, I already went around and checked. Everything’s fine.”
Yukinari: “I see. Let’s go back then… and wait for the time to pass?”
We will be hunting at night; we need to sleep in preparation. As such, Meguru-san and I head over to Shigenobu’s place and take a nap to help pass the time.
Taniizumi and the others return, and we are made to work till nighttime. I also go to Japan, take a bath, eat, and then head back to the other world with the crossbow and some lanterns.
Electric lanterns can illuminate a wide area, so I bought some of those. They were pretty expensive though.
By the way, is Minori-san fine? She had to restore the magic of Taniizumi and his group magic during the day and will look after us at night. She says she’s fine, but isn’t she pushing herself? Depending on how things go, we might need to stop hunting…
Minori: “Have a sa-fe trip.”
Minori-san sees us off, sitting atop of a bed in the workshop. Once she takes a nap and judges she’s fine, it’s planned that she will join us. As this is a group decision, she has no choice but to reluctantly accept.
She has to sleep for at least three hours. Furthermore, since the gate is locked at night, there isn’t any need to watch out for visitors. If anything happens, Minori-san will
act as if Shigenobu and the rest of us are sleeping. Should that fail, the plan is for Meguru-san to figure out the details and deceive them.
Meguru: “We’re off.”
Hagisawa: “Alright, let’s head out for the night battle.”
Shigenobu: “Let’s be careful not to go anywhere too dangerous. If a mamono out of our league appears, retreat immediately. Meguru-san, you’re the only one with the ability to escape, so it’ll be up to you.”
Meguru-san nods in response to Shigenobu’s words.
Yukinari: “Since I’ll be in front of Meguru-san , I prioritize her survival the most.”
In the worst case, I’ll be able to escape with a transfer. That’s why it’s better to prioritize Meguru-san’s life.
Meguru: “Yukinari-kun…”
Hagisawa: “Come on, let’s go! I’m looking forward to what kind of ability I’ll get tonight.”
With those words, Hagisawa barges into portal Meguru-san created.
Shigenobu: “Let’s go.”
Nodding at Shigenobu’s signal, we depart. Of course, we each have a lantern.
Hagisawa: “The forest at night… something about the place feels different.”
Hagisawa says that while shining his lantern. It’s a place that we’ve no doubt been to many times during the day, but now feels eerie for some reason. Since the only sources of light comes from us, my unease is amplified.
Meguru: “I’ve looked at the forest at night with clairvoyance from time to time, so it doesn’t feel too different for me…”
“Are there any big differences?”
Meguru: “I haven’t fought anything directly, so I don’t really know.”
That’s a good point. If Meguru-san saw a conflict between mamono, she’d have been able to analyze them, but it seems like there weren’t any within the range of her vision.
Shigenobu(?): “Let’s not be careless. We’ve never been here like this before, so I want to confirm whether we can fight or not.”
Meguru(?): “Right, also Minori-san isn’t here, so we should withdraw immediately if anything happens.”
Hagisawa: “Looks like there’s no time limit. No choice but to go all out with our guts.”
Hagisawa is eager to get experience points due to just needing a bit more to get an expansion. It feels like he’s getting a bit ahead of himself.
Yukinari: “Yeah, we need to do our best to keep from interfering with Minori-san’s rest… let’s go.”
Everyone nods at my words.
Hagisawa: “Of course. Now, are we going?”
“Hagisawa should try to collect herbs with strange effects to see if they can be used to aid in recovery.”
Hagisawa: “Naturally. That’s why I’ll focus on gathering rather than fighting.”
Hagisawa hasn’t changed after all. With that, we proceed to battle at night with a lantern in our hands.
Yukinari: “It feels like there are a lot of nocturnal mamono?”
I mutter that after fighting Ocher Cats, Blue Acid Owls, Holy Green Frogs, and Pumpkin Bats. They’re definitely stronger than the dainty mamono we fight during the day. Or rather, the Pumpkin Bats seem like they should appear on Halloween from their name alone. I also feel like bats are a pretty good matchup.
Well, the battle themselves weren’t that tough. Our Lvs are getting pretty high too. Furthermore, against the Pumpkin Bat and the Blue Acid Owl, the crossbow was… useless. Even though Minori-san had channeled magic power in it, the arrows didn’t cause any fatal wounds. By checking its status, it’s clear that its power hasn’t risen to that level. It’s all thanks to the bow that Shigenobu had made just in case.
Incidentally, Shigenobu produced the arrows with his blacksmithing ability. Since he can make a bow, it’s naturally that he can make arrows too. Except, since arrows are consumable items, it’s not very valued by the battle group.
Hagisawa(?): “If you think about it, this is world with statuses like an RPG. It would be great if we could get easy victories by using firearms.”
Maybe I could take my passport and buy a gun abroad? Although I am thinking about something like that, taking these results into consideration, it doesn’t look like it would be possible to become peerless with firearms. It doesn’t seem like we would be able to gun down enemies recklessly even if we did get one. Well, a gun might perform better than a bow…
Shignobu(?): “Our Lv or some other factor might be what calculates the attack power. The kitchen knife is more powerful due to classifying as an iron weapon… probably.”
“Even though the bow and arrows are great, the ones from Japan might be easier to use.”
Those might be better in regards to rapid fire or field of view, but… if you think about it, in RPGs or other net games, you don’t really hear about guns being revolutionary in strength. In the first place, it’s like using fire magic from far away.
Thinking back, Shigenobu made the arrows for a reason. The accompanying arrows were too modern. Them being found would be too dangerous. Even away from the base… if one day Taniizumi and the others change directions and head towards where we’re raising our Lv, they might possibly find them. In that case, a possible explanation would be that arrows of this world are used by people or intelligent mamono. That’s why Shigenobu made them. In the first place, the accompanying arrows don’t have that much killing power anyway.
So, in conclusion, getting stronger with the crossbow isn’t possible, but there are other reasons. If we’re talking about the cats, frogs, owls, and bats, they’re all different sizes. Even if an arrow hits them, the damage might be too small to be fatal. As such, slashing them with a sword to stop them from moving is faster. The fantasy of mowing down enemies with guns lasts but an instant before shattering.
Yukinari “Oh?”
I reach Lv 10.
Lv up!
Ability expansion! Visual transfer is now possible!
Visual transfer? What’s this? Will my expansion ability always end up having to do with transferring?
Cheat sheet
Yukinari Hanebashi:
1) Teleport objects /Self to Earth
2) Point/yen conversion. (Tells others it’s a shopping catalogue)
3) Visual transfer
Kitchen knife, boxing gloves, wallaby coin
Meguru Hiyama:
1) Teleportation
2) Clairvoyance
3) Material transfer (uses pillars of light)
Metal turtle sword
Minori Himeno: Has a polite/formal way of speaking
1) Healing/recover mana
2) Charge with mana
Crowbar??
Shigenbou Sakaede
1) Black smith
2) Mining Correction
Hammer??
Dai Hagisawa
1) Craft things
2) Identify
Hammer??