Chapter 31: Organization and Verification

It’s now the night of the day we exterminated the army of Goblins.

We’re at an inn.

『Now then, shall I review my new Skills?』

Fran already left to take a bath, so I figure I should confirm my Skills to kill some time.

By the way, this inn isn’t the same one we stayed at yesterday. We moved to a slightly better inn recommended by the Guild. It has the expensive fee of 600 Gorudo per night, but there’s a large Bathhouse and the food they offer is of higher quality and quantity.

I mentioned it before, but the new Skills are like this:

Chant Shortening, Balancing Act, Retainer’s Contract, Kicking Techniques, Kicking Arts, Ghost Magic, Poison Absorption, Poison Magic, Axe Techniques, Imperturbability

Because I unfortunately can’t use Kicking Techniques, Kicking Arts, and Axe Techniques, I’ll exclude them. Also, because Imperturbability seems to have the effect of calming its user down in battle, I can’t try it here.

And so, first is Balancing Act. It grants a bonus to both jumping and balancing, it seems. I tested it out by flying about in the room, but it doesn’t have much of an effect on me. Regrettable. I think it’d be a suitable Skill for Fran.

Now for a show-stopper. It’s time for the inspection of new Magic.

First: Poison Magic. For the spells I can use, they’re Poison・Arrow and Create・Poison. Well, because it’s only Lv1 they only have the effects of a weak poison, so they don’t seem like they’ll have much of an effect against strong opponents. Even if it was used on ordinary people its effect would only be to the extent of loosening their bowels[1].

I test out Poison Absorption by sucking in some poison I created with magic, but I don’t understand it very well. It seems that it’d restore HP and MP, but because I have neither there’s no effect. Poison Absorption would be useful in environments with poisonous fogs, however. I could play an active part as a sword with air purification capabilities.

Next is Chant Shortening. Its effects are hardly visible at Lv1 — it probably shortens the chant by ~1 second, I think? Even in a drawn out battle its impact would be low. Furthermore, I have the feeling that its effect won’t be that amazing even if I raise its Skill Level.

Out of the remaining Skills, my favorite is Ghost Magic, so I’ll save it for last.

The other remaining Skill is Retainer’s Contract. It seems to make a specialized contract with Contract Magic in order to summon individuals with Summon Kin, but… Because the level of Summon Kin is low I can’t summon anything strong even if they’re contracted. I could summon weak ones, but if they’re weak then there’s no point in using it in the first place.

『Now for Ghost Magic.』

Incidentally, despite being called Ghost Magic spells at Lv1 are Create・Lesser Zombie and Locate・Undead, these two.

For the time being, I take out a Goblin’s corpse. Making a barrier using Purification Magic, blood doesn’t dirty the floor. My forethought is flawless.

『– Create・Lesser Zombie!』

「Aaaooouaaa…」

『Uwaa……』

Even though I’m the one who made it, it’s still unpleasant! Does its decomposition advance before it becomes a Zombie or something? It’s good that I don’t have a nose… I understand the feelings of Kri**in[2] well.

『Wait there.』

「Auu…」

『Did you hear my command?』

I have to pay careful attention here. All it’s doing is swaying in place, but still.

Next, I use Locate・Undead. Similar to Presence Perception, I was able to feel the presence of the Zombie.

Well, now I’ve tried out both spells, but…… What do I do with this guy, exactly?

Ah, speaking of which, what’s the status of Summon Kin? Uwa… Lesser Goblin Zombie is listed. Can’t I delete this?

『…… I’m sorry.』

「Aa–」

I gave a brief apology and cut down the Zombie. I don’t know if Zombies from Dungeons are the same, but this Zombie doesn’t have a Magic Stone.

To the Zombie who’s no longer moving, I use Purification Magic’s Turn・Undead, causing it to disappear. The Zombie also disappeared from the list of contracted beings in Summon Kin.

『Un, rest in peace.』

From now on, let’s not use Ghost Magic recklessly. I’ll make sure your death wasn’t in vain, Goblin Zombie! Ah, wait, it was already dead.

『…… Let’s pull ourselves together and move on.』

Next I’ll check the Magic Items we looted from the Goblins.

『There’re 7. I wonder what effects they’ll have…』

Two of the items are weapons. Specifically, they’re a Knife and a Hammer, both made of steel. Neither have things like ATK ↑ Low, but the Knife looks like it’d be useful for skinning. As for the Hammer, I’ll let it sit in Dimensional Storage for a while.

One of the Magic Items is an accessory. It has the subtle effect of lowering INT while raising STR.

『STR+5, INT-8…… This is the sort of item a musclebrain would use, isn’t it?』

Fran won’t be needing it. She uses Magic, so it would really only be considered if the increase and decrease were equal.

The next three are defensive gear. There’s Iron Armor with rust prevention, Leather Armor with size adjustment, and a Helmet made out of materials from a Magic Tree with Impact Resistance.

Because their DEF attributes are so low, aren’t they simply unneeded? The gear we received from old man Gallus offers much higher performance.

The last one is an Item Bag… But it can’t be used.

『Wasn’t there something like a User Registration for these?』

I suppose it’d be similar to Equipment Registration. The Goblins had used it as an accessory case for storing stones and nuts to use Throwing with.

『Perhaps I can override the registration…… Maybe Contract Magic’ll work?』

Might as well try it out.

『–Contract!』

It was no good. It was the same feeling as when I tried to override Fran’s Slave Contract. Overwriting is possible, but Lv7 is just too low to do so.

『Hmm… To find out what’s in the bag, let’s raise the Skill~』

Such a thing will be put on hold for a while.

『The remaining money is……』

Today’s earnings come to 109 Goblin Horns, and 20 Highbreed Horns. By the way, one Highbreed Horn is 100 Gorudo.

The completion of the Herb Harvesting request also granted 100 Gorudo.

Because I handed 10,000 Gorudo to Fran, I have exactly 36,884 Gorudo stored up.

『Should I buy Mana Potions for the day after tomorrow? It doesn’t seem like it’d be a waste to do so.』

Rather, will that be enough?

『There’re still a lot of enigmatic materials stored away from Harvesting, too…』

I should sort this stuff out.

10 Poisonous Grasses, 10 Light Mushrooms, 10 Paralysis-Cure Grass, 10 Highly Poisonous Grasses, and 10 Heal Grasses. Because each Harvesting Request requires 5 of each, we can complete 10 requests. However, because we ranked up to Rank F faster than expected, we won’t be able to improve our Rank with G Rank requests anymore.

The only Harvesting request of Rank F is for 5 Highly Poisonous Grasses, so if we hand in the ones we have we’ll still need to complete the request another 18 times.

Because Dungeons are restricted by Rank, I want to raise our Rank just a bit more.

Anyways, there’re still 30 mysteriously hazardous substances. Most of them seem harmless enough, but there’re 2 Mushrooms that’re quite dangerous. They set off a large reaction to Danger Perception, and even their appearance spells danger. They’re blue umbrella-like mushrooms with white and red spots — no matter how you look at them, they’re Toadstools.

『Only these mushrooms will be kept in reserve. We should take them[3] over to Randell’s shop later.』

I’d like to collect information on Hobgoblins in advance, so tomorrow will be quite busy.

[1] 腹を下す. I thought that it might be “Upset stomach”, but it really is just as I translated it.

In my opinion, poisons like this one are still pretty convenient in certain situations.

[2] Reference to Krillin from DBZ. クリ〇ン = クリリン

[3] Not sure if this is referring to the two Mushrooms, or the other ones. あとは、ランデルの店にでも持って行ってみるか

My guess is that it’s the Toadstools that’ll be sold to Randell, with the other things going to the Guild/wherever.