The Summoner is Going Chapter 76

Translator: Charlotte　Editor: Weasalopes

Goudi kept following me with a wild look on his face.
We weren't in a『Union』, much less a party.
But even if we were, honestly speaking, we weren't very compatible.
Both of our recovery and support spells had extremely short ranges.
Well, that couldn't be helped either.
At least we were splitting our experience points fairly.

I was aiming for orcs.
Alone, they weren't any issues.
But the problem was with the fact that they always appeared in groups.
The fights were tough, but I survived them somehow.

I could tell we were already pretty deep into the forest.
The trees blocked out any spot of sunlight.
I recalled Helix and summoned Jean.
I used【Night Vision】to find my way.
Goudi used【Flashlight】.

I thought about using【Night Vision】on Goudi…
But it looked like that wasn't necessary.
Oh well.
I walked deeper into the forest.

I was looking for orcs, but the first monster I encountered was a parrot.
And I didn't get the opportunity to really fight it.
The parrot was engulfed in flames and quickly went down.
I got its wings, but I still felt unsatisfied.
Where were all the orcs…?

Obsidian found an orc.
A group of them.
They weren't aware of my presence.
I watched them from behind a tree.
About… ten.
Definitely a big group.

I had Goudi with me so I couldn't go too crazy.
But I still felt this sense of excitement.
I couldn't stop the urge to fight.
When I came back to myself, I was already running at the orcs.
We were in the middle of the forest.
Their large numbers wouldn't matter as much as they would in the plains.

I tossed my rod into my《Item Box》.
I pulled the tonfas off of my back.
Yeah.
The stage was in my favour.

I kicked the first one against a tree, before running up to it and breaking its neck.
The other orcs should've been around me almost instantly, but the trees were limiting their movement.
Of course, Jean and Obsidian were also doing their part in keeping them busy.

Next.
As another orc was about to attack me with an elbow strike, I jabbed my tonfa into its mouth.
I used the other tonfa to hit it in its side, and the orc let go of its weapon.
The handle landed directly on my foot.
Ouch.
That hurt.

I was really glad I was wearing boots.
As payback, let me raise the pressure…
It looked incredibly painful.
I decided to just put it out of its misery.
I kicked it in its stomach and firmly took hold of its head when it reflexively doubled over.
And twist…

「Aakya?」

It went down leaving just that one sound.
Next one.
I was really fired up.
Anyone stronger out there?

I killed another four orcs and the fight was over.
Goudi took out two of them.
Well, that was alright.
At the very end, I saw another shadow approaching us.
An orc.

It was an orc, but…
It was a lot bigger than all the other ones.
It wasn't carrying a weapon.
But its arms were gigantic.

Its belly looked like it was going to spill onto the ground.
Obesity incarnate…
This guy?

Orc Leader　Lv. ???
Monster　Enemy Target　Active

Wow.
I couldn't even see its level.
It was definitely stronger than all the other orcs.
I was excited more than anything.

「Goryu!」

After a short shout, the monster ran at me.
But because of its short legs, it just ended up looking rather silly.
I stood still and started casting a spell.
It looked like a rolling boulder.
Its fist started moving.
But I could clearly see the fist's trajectory.

「Root Snare!」

I cast the spell right when we were at striking distance.
The monster easily fell over.
I quickly ran around it to follow up with more attacks.
I delivered a kick to its face as it was getting back up.
No reaction whatsoever.
Its HP bar only went down by a sliver.

Then how about this…
I grabbed its right leg and pulled.
Its upper body quickly collapsed again.
Its abdominal muscles were weak.
Keeping the tonfas in my hands, I grabbed its right foot and tucked it into my left armpit.
I used my right foot to push away its other leg at a painful angle.
Just like that, I started twisting its right ankle.

「Gugege! Gege! Guge! Ge!」

The monster started struggling and screaming.
But the technique I was using was a technique that hurt more the more you struggle.
Looking at it struggle and spread spit everywhere, I had to look away.

At some point, its fist randomly hit my thigh.
Hey.
It's not a good idea to anger the guy who has you in a heel hold, you know?

I twisted its ankle harder.
I heard the knee joint and the hip joint crack.
At the same time, I could feel the muscles and tendons in its foot stretch to their maximum extent.
A ripping sound reached my ear.

I took a break from pushing its other leg to kick it in its crotch.
As soon as my foot separated from it, I put it back on its left leg.
It was to prevent its whole body from rotating together with its twisted right ankle.
I stomped hard on its left leg and kept it in place.
I put my entire body weight on it.

I heard it was called the "Stepover Toe Hold".
Originally, the technique involved locking the enemy's head, but I had two tonfas in my hands.
Instead, I beat down on it with the tonfas.
At least, that was my intention.

Its torso was too long for me to reach its head.
But at least I could use my tonfas to grab its ankle.
I grabbed it and pulled while twisting.
A crunching sound invaded my ears.

I let go of its leg for one moment to kick it in its crotch one more time.
The monster was foaming at its mouth and struggling on the ground.
It was honestly kind of gross.

It flailed its arms wildly, scratching at the ground beneath it.
When it grabbed onto a tree, it ripped the bark clean off.
I couldn't ignore its strength.
I couldn't get careless.

「Paralysis!」

While maintaining a safe distance, I used a spell on it.
It didn't get affected by the status effect the first time, but it worked the second time.
It finally stopped struggling.
Goki walked up to the monster as it was staring straight at the sky.
I had a good idea of what Goki had in mind.
I gave him permission.

Goki quickly stuck a hatchet into the monster's throat.
No, I feel like "smashed" would be a better word.
The monster was covered in a pool of blood.

Goudi got a gemstone from one of the two orcs he killed.
Iolite.
I didn't get any from the eight orcs I defeated.

What misfortune.
Were the GMs cursing me?

I got an item from the Orc Leader at least.

【Material】Tsavorite　Grade C+　Rarity 3　Weight 0+
A green garnet gemstone. Rarer and more expensive than red garnet stones.
The more transparent the stone, the greater its positive effects when used in casting spells.

It looked a lot better than what Goudi had.
I got a Magic Stone while I was at it too.
How kind of the GMs to include the two items in a set.
I didn't know what to think of them anymore.

「Wow! That's amazing!」

「Huh… You think so?」

Goudi looked more excited than me.
Well, I suppose the item drops made the fight a little bit worth it.

I used【Magnetic Compass】and the map to figure out I needed to head further west.
It looked like it was just orcs and parrots in the forest.
But I didn't want to jump to any conclusions.
I didn't know what it was going to be like at night-time.

Night-time…
When I thought about it, I realised that I didn't know what night-time was like in all the places I had visited.
Well, I suppose I could assume the monsters would just get more difficult to fight.
Although I didn't know for sure.
I was definitely interested in checking the places out at night, but I didn't know if I was going to be able to do so.
Not because I thought the monsters were going to be too difficult, but because I didn't have any camping gear.
I made a mental note to buy some when I next get an opportunity to go to Remut.

Hmm?
Speaking of Remut…
I felt like I was missing something.

Ah, that's right.
The Guild Leader asked me to come and show myself.
Maybe to help with moving?
Well, there was only one way to find out…

After that I encountered two more groups of orcs.
Each group had more than 10 orcs in it.
They were weak on their own, so that was the only way they really stood a chance.
It was a reasonable strategy.

But I still had no problems defeating them.
The real issue was with the items they dropped.
Goudi got another Iolite gemstone.
I got nothing.

I left the forest behind me and stepped out into a field.
There were pockets of trees here and there.
The place was actually quite hilly, but it was still manageable for Zangetsu.
I confirmed my position on my map.
We were on the edge of S1W1.
Maybe I should just call it a day…

The time was a little after 1:30.
It was still a little early, but I decided to return for the day.

「Let's call it a day. Is that alright?」

「Yeah.」

I saw some relief in Goudi's face.
Yeah, you would get worried after a while, following some random guy around.
Especially considering the fact that we just met.

Goudi sent me a party request.
I accepted it and selected【Return Home】from my spell list.

「Return Home!」

In the next moment, the scenery before us disappeared.
It wouldn't be the last time. I had made up my mind to come visit again.
There were still quite a few places I had to explore.

We arrived in front of Master's home.
It was a scene I was used to, but that wasn't the case for Goudi.

「Woah, we're really close to Legias.」

Looked like he was looking at his map.
He was still in shock at the fact that the spell actually worked.
He had a wild expression on his face.

「Yeah. It'll take you about an hour or so to walk to Legias from here. Think you can do it?」

「I'll be fine. It's still daytime after all.」

Huh…
There's Stray Horses around, you sure about that?
Well, he said he'd be alright, so I suppose I could leave it to him.
Goudi's name disappeared from my party member list.
Yeah, that was reasonable.

「Thank you so much. You've been a lot of help.」

Goudi thanked me with a two-handed handshake.
I instinctively used two hands too.
I felt something hard in my right hand.

「Consider this a token of my appreciation.」

A gemstone was left in my hand.
Iolite.
It felt like way too much…

「Sorry, I'm running rather short on time, so I'm going to get going now.」

Leaving me with just one sentence, Goudi disappeared into the forest.
I wonder why he was in such a hurry.
Could it be he was just shy?

In any case, I lost my chance to refuse his excessive token of gratitude.
Chasing him would be too much effort.
Oh well.

Hmm… Now what?
I was running rather low on potions, so I went into Master's house to brew some more.
There was something I always had in mind during my trip.
The potion cooldown time.

I wanted to make sure the potions were as high-quality as possible, so I could use them more often.
I could use【Quick Recreate】if I had to make a lot of potions quickly, but at that moment, quality was more important than quantity.
I only had to make 10 bottles.
I had to make each bottle count.

I immediately headed for the workshop in the basement to start the brewing process.
First, I used【Physical Enchant: Aqua】to raise my DEX stat.
I crushed some Healgrass using【Grind】.
I carefully made enough for two bottles.

【Recovery Item】Potion　HP+13% Regeneration　Grade B　Rarity 1　Weight 1
An ordinary potion. Restores a small amount of HP.
Leaves a bitter aftertaste when you drink it.
※Cannot be used repeatedly. Item cooldown is 5 minutes.

The highest-quality potion yet.
But knowing that there was still a Grade A above what I had just made, I realised there was still a lot of work to do.
Something was missing…
What can I do…?
Something was preventing me from getting that Grade A.

I repeated the process another four times.
All of them resulted in Grade B potions.
Not a single Grade B+ potion.
"It'll come eventually," is what I thought at first, but it looked like it wasn't going to be that easy.

【Recovery Item】Potion　HP+14% Regeneration　Grade B　Rarity 1　Weight 1
An ordinary potion. Restores a small amount of HP.
Leaves a bitter aftertaste when you drink it.
※Cannot be used repeatedly. Item cooldown is 5 minutes.

Some of the potions had small differences.
It didn't look like anything I would have to worry about.
Looked like it was just a coincidence.
I didn't bother going too much into a 1% difference in HP restored.

《【Water Magic】Level Up!》

After using【Physical Enchant: Aqua】for the third time, 【Water Magic】levelled up.
I felt like I had been enjoying an abnormally high number of level-ups lately.
Well, considering the amount of time I spent online, I suppose it was to be expected.

Oops.
I got a little distracted.
I used the solid material left on the filter to make two recovery pills.
They were both Grade B+.
I didn't break any records.
Oh well.

I replaced all the potions I consumed during my trip.
I thought about making some more arrows, but then I realised something.
I hadn't checked out the new【Ice Magic】and【Tree Magic】spells yet.
There were six in total.

Resist Ice（Ice Magic）
Skating（Ice Magic）
Freeze Blast（Ice Magic）

Resist Plant（Tree Magic）
Forest Walk（Tree Magic）
Branch Arrow（Tree Magic）

Well, I had a good idea of what the resist spells did, but the other spells looked pretty interesting.
I read the explanations of the resist spells just to be sure, and I was right. They were simple resist spells.

But【Skating】…?
Apparently, it's a spell that allows the user to glide over not just ice, but any smooth surface.
I suppose it was just a skill used to control frictional force.
But I couldn't come up with any cases where I'd have to cross ice surfaces.

I moved on to【Forest Walk】.
A spell used to walk around in the forest?
It was the most bizarre spell I'd ever seen.
Reading its explanation once again, all I could gain was that the spell was supposed to let me traverse obstacles in the forest with greater ease.
Although I had no idea what that meant either. Looked like I just had to use it to find out.
Evaluation pending.

The other two spells were normal attack spells.
Although the range on【Branch Arrow】was a little higher.
It still wasn't anything compared to【Wind Cutter】though.
I had a problem.
I had way too many attack spells.
I realised that when I filtered out my spell list to only show attack spells.
I had a feeling I was going to drown in spells pretty soon.

While I was at it, I spent some time organising my spell list.
An idea flashed through my head when I saw the list of spells I had.

I got the idea when I saw the【Dust Magic】spell【Aging】.
A spell that speeds up the speed of a reaction.
But I'd only thought of it as a spell that sped up the aging process.

Thinking about it from another angle, it could work to dry things too.
I could use it to easily ferment vegetables and the like.

And that wasn't all…
I could try using the redox spells on the vegetables.
Or freeze them…
Maybe burn them into ash?

The more I thought about it, the more interesting ideas came to mind.
But there was one issue I wanted to tackle… Potions.

Start with Healgrass.
Grind into a powder.
Dissolve in water.
I'm sure the temperature of the water had something to do with it too.

What else could I do…

Could I directly drain the water from the Healgrass?
It's technically possible.
I saw【Extract】in the list of alchemy skills.
The short explanation was: "Allows the user to obtain a specific substance from a mixture."
It seemed possible.

Or maybe I could make the water content in the grass acidic or alkaline?
All of it seemed possible.
I saw the skills【Acidify】and【Basify】in my pharmacy skill list.
I had the spells【Acid Touch】and【Reduction Touch】too.

Another one of my pharmacy skills was【Inactivation】.
A skill that prevents a specific chemical, usually the active ingredient, from reacting.
Maybe I could use it to prevent the Healgrass from breaking down at high temperatures…?

The【Dust Magic】spell【Aging】was pretty interesting.
I had a feeling it was just going to cause the Healgrass to break down, but there was only one way to be sure.

I realised that with so many combinations of spells and skills, it would take forever for me to experiment and find the best method.
Testing all the conditions one by one was out of the question at first.

I decide to try and do them all at once.
It would make it easier for me to see the results of each condition too.
But I had no idea how I would set up such an experiment.

Thinking about it was troublesome too, so in the end of the day, I decided to just take care of all the scenarios one by one.
I had time, after all.
I could also use【Quick Recreate】to save time if I had to.
I wrote down all the scenarios and picked a random one to start with.

I had plenty of time to spare. Let's get to work.

I may have gotten too much into it.
When I came to myself it was already past 10 pm.
I totally forgot about dinner.
I was hungry and my body felt strange.

Status
DEX　16（-2）
AGI　16（-2）
INT　20（-3）
STR　15（-2）
VIT　15（-2）
SPI　20（-3）

Just as I expected.
I knew something was strange.
I was sure it was only temporary, but my stats went down.
I messed up.

I wolfed down some Portable Food and some water to fill my stomach.
But my stats didn't go back right away.
I really did go too far that time…
I decided to call it a day.

Speaking of going too far… It's honestly a bit of an embarrassing story.
I got off track. A lot.

I first used【Pyrokinesis】to turn the Healgrass into a sort of ash, before dissolving it in water.
I did everything the usual way after that.
Unsurprisingly, the result was a failure.

I felt like I had missing something…
I wasn't crazy, believe me.
I just heard somewhere that the root word of the word "alkali" was "plant ash".

I found a jar in a random shelf and transferred the contents of the pot into it.
The damage was pretty minimal.
I just had to wash the pot several times.

That was dangerous.

But all that really did was move the problem from the pot and into a jar.
I used the pharmacy skill【Filter】to remove the solid material from the jar.
Then I used the alchemy skill【Extract】to remove the water from the solution.
When I did that, I saw a solid material appear in the jar.

A white powder?
Huh…
I used【Appraise】on it.

【Recovery Item】Immune Powder　Grade B-　Rarity 2　Weight 0+
Powdered disinfectant. Can be spread on the ground to control plagues.

I tried something else.
I used the alchemy skill【Analyse】.

Powdered Mixture　Alkaline　Slow Reaction Ongoing

Looked like something was happening.
But what?
My knowledge of chemistry was rusty.
I knew some basic salts like Sodium Hydroxide or Potassium Hydroxide could absorb water from the air and dissolve themselves…
But it didn't look like that was happening.

I looked around the internet for a while, trying to figure out what was going on.
Potassium Carbonate? Sodium Carbonate?
I knew Potassium Carbonate tended to remove Carbon Dioxide from the atmosphere…
Ahh…
My memory was too hazy.
Rather than "rusty", I'd opt for the word "collapsed" to describe my knowledge of chemistry.

I tried using【Extract】on it to separate whatever was reacting, but it didn't work.
It made sense. I had to identify something to extract for it to work.
That was unfortunate.

It would be cool if I could separate the components of the powder…
Sodium Carbonate could be used in cooking, for example.

While I was fiddling with it, the powder exploded.
Maybe I went too far with all the different skills…

I tried the【Steam Magic】spells【Acid Touch】and【Reduction Touch】.
Spells used to force an object into an acidic or basic state.
But when I repeated the experiment and turned the solution acidic and basic, there was nothing left when I used【Extract】.

Huh…
I felt like I was being scammed.

Well, that's magic for you.

I worked on the Healgrass after that.
I tried draining the water from the Healgrass before grinding it.
I used a pharmacy skill to dry the Healgrass.

After burning it, I got some more Grade B Immune Powder.
Woah.
Things were getting interesting…

And with that, I completely lost track of my initial goal of making potions.
And that's how I ended up with a stat reduction for the rest of the night.
That was bad…
I completely lost track of time.

I realised I forgot about my broken Kaya wood rod too.
But I had another one in reserve so I didn't have to worry about it just yet.
I left it for the next day.
While I was at it, I could make some reserve tonfas too.

After cleaning up the workshop I recalled all my Summon Monsters.
I went up to the second floor and got into bed before logging out.
Personally, I thought it was a pretty fun day.

Protagonist　Keith
Race　Human　Male　Racial Lv9
Job　Summoner Lv8
Bonus Points Remaining: 9

Skill Sets:
Staff Lv7　Punch Lv5　Kick Lv5　Joint Lock Lv4　Throw Lv4　Evade Lv5　Block Lv4　Summon Magic Lv9　Spacetime Magic Lv2
Light Magic Lv4　Wind Magic Lv5　Earth Magic Lv5　Water Magic Lv5（↑1）　Fire Magic Lv4　Dark Magic Lv4　Ice Magic Lv3　Lightning Magic Lv2　Tree Magic Lv3　Dust Magic Lv2　Lava Magic Lv2　Steam Magic Lv2
Alchemy Lv5　Pharmacy Lv4　Glassmaking Lv3　Woodworking Lv4
Cooperation Lv6　Appraise Lv6　Identify Lv6　Discern Lv2　Cold Resistance Lv3　Grab Lv6　Horsemanship Lv6　Precise Manipulation Lv6　Jump Lv3　Heat Resistance Lv4　Climb Lv3　Dual Wield Lv4
Physical Reinforcement Lv2　Mental Reinforcement Lv4　Speedcasting Lv4

Equipment:
Kaya Wood Rod x1　Kaya Wood Tonfa x2　Snow Leopard Push Dagger x3　Wild Horse Leather Armour+　Snow Ape Armguard　Wild Horse Boots+　Snow Ape Leather Helmet　Rabid Horse Belt+　Rucksack　Item Box x2

Items:
Survival Knife　Woodworking Set

Titles:
Old Summoner's Pupil
Guardian of the Forest
Man of the Middle Path
Spell Archive

Monster Summons:
Volff　Wolf Lv7
Zangetsu　Horse Lv5
Helix　Hawk Lv5
Obsidian　Owl Lv4
Jean　Bat Lv4
Jericho Wood Golem Lv3
Goki　Demon Lv3
Senki　Beast Ape Lv3
Rig　Slime Lv3

Chapter end

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