episode_0088

There are four main ways to level up.

One is to go to a hunting ground guaranteed by the system. The hunting ground, which can be accessed anywhere and at any time by simply logging in, is even safe because it even supports resurrection.

The second is to attack cracks that usually appear in places where people live. Since cracks are managed by magical girls, who are outsourced personnel of the system, it is necessary to go through the magical girls, but there is no need to do so.

This is because there are related companies. Many magical girls caught by public authorities are runaway teenagers, and there are extenuating circumstances, so some are sent home after receiving counseling and education. Among private companies, there were many cases in which human resources with the authority to manage cracks were secured after visiting such families and attempting to negotiate with the parents. By going through such legal companies, you can target cracks without going through the illegal group called Magical Girls.

However, compared to hunting grounds, cracks had many disadvantages. There is no resurrection, and the mobs become intelligent and try to kill the explorers. At best, once you finish targeting the cracks, you may find yourself caught up in a battle for human resources between companies and magical girl organizations.

Although it has many shortcomings, cracks were still preferred over hunting grounds for leveling up. As the level goes up, mobs appear that make you want to catch them with skills, but everything can be solved with a gun. In hunting grounds, there is a high possibility of illegal firearms import and export through system distribution, so the system blocks firearms, but cracks where this is not possible are an exception.

The remaining two methods are paying to use the company’s level-up service, and surviving the goblin invasion and hunting down the goblins hiding in the mountains or remote places.

The best way to level up is, of course, through the system’s online hunting grounds. Since it also has resurrection, it is the safest and easiest to access.

But Do Yu-geon insisted on attacking the crack. The mobs that appear in the system’s hunting grounds tend to show standardized patterns, so there is a need to bring difficulties upon oneself in order to improve one’s skills. It is said that in order to faithfully build basic skills, it is more important to strengthen the substance rather than the surface level.

Can’t I just raise my level and be satisfied and then go to college? I’m already worried about finding a job, so I’m trying to do something else. My grades are going well, but I’m doing something unreasonable.

High school students are bound to wander. It’s uneasy to watch.

It still is.

When the werewolf howled, healthy tree branches were shattered and thrown away by the shock wave. A snowstorm spread rapidly.

“Come at me!”

When Do Yu-geon provoked, the werewolf rushed at him. With each step, the ground shattered and marks were left behind. Do Yu-Geon dodged the attack by leaning his body. The missed attack hit the ground.

As the ground broke and his posture was disturbed, Do Yu-geon struck with his sword in a twisted posture. The sword energy flashed, and the sword strike aimed at the neck cut off the arm instead.

The werewolf that lost its arm did not panic and moved its head to aim at its side with its sharp teeth. As if Do Yu-geon had already expected it, he turned his body in a disheveled posture and kicked the werewolf.

With a popping sound of impact, the werewolf flew away, smashing the trees. The falling snow obscured my vision.

Although Do Yu-geon fights well and has healing magic, the anxiety from the viewer does not go away. If you do that and accidentally get your head bitten, it’s over.

A howl was heard beyond the vision obscured by snow. Do Yu-geon stood guard and raised his sword. A werewolf came out through the snow fog. The direction was this way, not Doyugeon.

ah?

As Do Yu-geon jumped into the middle of the path and swung his sword, the werewolf twisted its body in the air, using its remaining arm as a sacrifice, and flew straight ahead.

Then, it hit a magic barrier in the air and slipped.

Surprised. I’m surprised.

The werewolf also looked a bit confused, perhaps confused by the unexpected situation. This place must have seemed so easy. Is it because I am short? It’s easy. If a person whose hobby is to stay in the corner of the room seems to have a slow reaction time, it is acceptable.

I summoned the magic book that was on the bookshelf in the corner of the room. The grimoire that passed through the space-time magic circle landed in both hands. The werewolf probably thought it was using magic and tried to bite the magic barrier. If you use difficult magic, your defense will be disturbed, so it seems like you’re trying to rush in at once. Well, that’s not true.

I filled the magic book with magic and struck the werewolf that was baring its teeth. Magical power exploded and golden powder flew out. I don’t know the principle, but it’s good because blood doesn’t splatter. The werewolf whose upper body was shattered died and became experience points.

Good. After all, wizards have to use grimoires. I returned the grimoire back to the bookshelf in the corner of the room.

“It’s good to catch them, but too often they only target me.”

“If there is a wizard, it is natural to target the wizard first, but…”

Without speaking, the guy racked his brains and seemed to be thinking of ways to prevent mobs from coming this way. Well, it’s a forward position, so if you keep getting breached, your pride will be hurt.

Do Yu-geon tries to come up with a solution, but it doesn’t seem to be possible. Their combat sense and sense of cooperation are different, and the mobs they are dealing with break Do Yu-geon’s response and attack him, which is also a lack of experience.

In fact, the real cause is different. If we evaluate it as a bystander in the battle, the cause lies with us. That’s because when Do Yoo-geon is fighting, he just watches indifferently to see if he gets hurt or not. If you feel like a mob is targeting you, it’s natural to move your position or make preparations to look tough, but you’re not doing that.

That’s because being targeted is a very good situation. When Do Yoo-geon goes out to hunt him, it seems sensible to kill him by using magic first, but if a mob rushes at him, there is nothing he can do. It is true that it is more dangerous than firing magic from afar, but it is much safer than Doyugun, which requires swinging a sword right in front of your nose.

Do Yu-geon didn’t seem to know that this was the problem, perhaps because he couldn’t see the entire composition clearly because he was fighting from the front.

“There’s nothing to worry about. This is just a problem because you are in the front and I am in the back. You don’t have any aggro skills, and it’s not a large-scale battle, so if you rush to the rear, of course you’ll get through.”

He repeated the plausible words he had said many times. No. When I think about it, it’s not that plausible. Isn’t this the correct answer? I think the thoughts I just had were wrong. In the first place, the formation of a two-person party is a mess, so of course the wizard is bound to bear the burden. This doesn’t mean that this side’s neglect is the cause.

“I guess so.”

Do Yu-geon was disappointed. Have you finally been persuaded? After all, repetition is important to people.

“That’s right. If you focus on the inevitable, your productivity will be hindered. It’s not that you’re lacking, but this is reality and the rule. If you’re really upset, why not throw away the sword and use a gun? If you shoot from a distance, this won’t happen.”

I’m not interested in political issues, so I don’t know when it started, but thanks to the relaxation of laws related to private military companies and guns, it’s not that difficult to get a gun. Using guns to attack cracks is becoming a trend. If I were to guess when the bill was passed, it would probably have been around the time when my father stopped coming home, pretending to be busy consolidating his existing crack-related businesses and research institutes.

“No. It’s correct to use a sword.”

The guy shook his head.

“I think there will come a time in the future when swords will become more important than guns. Because guns will become useless due to magical variables.”

It doesn’t work.

What this means is that the guidance of the system itself is focused on cold weapons, such as saying that you cannot bring guns to the system’s hunting grounds or that there are no firearm-related objects in skills and occupations. The argument is that a pessimistic situation is coming in which cold weapons must be active.

Well, maybe an EMP will explode all over the world. It is not an important fact that major facilities have EMP measures in place thanks to nuclear bomb preparations or that major guns are not electronic products in the first place.

According to Do Yoo-geon, the theory of superiority of cold weapons is a claim that is quietly supported on the Internet. That’s the way it is with the internet.

Although it is a rational inference made by giving meaning to the system, absurd stories such as conspiracy theories tend to start based on rational inference. Drawing a false conclusion after objective data and rational reasoning is usually called a conspiracy theory.

The premise is wrong from the beginning. The assumption is that the system exists for the benefit of humans, and since the use of cold weapons is being encouraged, the conclusion that there will come a situation where cold weapons will be used is absurd.

If you look at the self-proclaimed system administrator Schrödinger’s joke, you won’t hear anything like this. What you do is like rolling around in someone else’s bed or creating a subcultural entity called a magical girl and seeing it in real life. How can this be for the good of humanity? Also, what about the item gacha? You can never make this claim if you are in a position where you are waiting for 9 D-class item pieces to appear in numbers. There are many smart people in the world, so there must be many people who make this rebuttal.

Do Yoo-geon is also very intelligent, so he must be thinking about this. Still, the reason he uses a sword is because he seems to have a talent for it, so it would be a shame to throw it away. This is a typical result of confirmation bias.

I could hear a werewolf howling in the distance. Rather than being a simple shout, it was a cry that seemed to be filled with meaning. The leisurely hunting is over. When I concentrated my mind and felt the magic power, werewolves were gathering at the center of the sound. Snow footprints gathered in one place.

Do Yu-geon also turned around as if he had sensed the scent. It seems like the intention is to cut off a few entities that join, as they have done several times.

“Wait a minute. I’m cold.”

He grabbed the hem of his clothes and stopped him.

It’s summer outside, but it’s winter inside the crack. Laplace, who came as a crack manager, prepared me some outerwear, so I put them on, but I feel so eerie and just want to go home. I’ve been holding back until now because Do Yoo-geon is excited that the opponent is a werewolf, but I want to end the hunting here.

“Is it very cold?”

“huh.”

It’s not very cold. If it was really cold, I would have been thinking about how to take care of Laplace, who only had enough clothes to wear.

“Let’s finish it quickly and get out there. I think it’s going to be a disaster this time too, so there’s no point in holding back with anticipation.”

“It’s already too early to be sure….”

“That’s your wish.”

Item drawing is a system that exists, but is there any way to find good items just by hunting?

We’ve roughly given permission, so let’s get ready to go. When I felt the magic again, dozens of werewolves gathered were divided into three groups and were coming towards me. Seeing that they are moving at different speeds in different directions, it looks like they are planning to surround and attack them at the same time.

I don’t know how to specify the location. Since it’s a dog, does it have a sense of smell? Since they were slow to realize that they were being hunted one by one, it could have been another way. Or, the boss mob, Werewolf, had an excellent sense of smell and knew the situation, but it could have been left unattended because it thought it would be resolved in a clumsy manner, and now that the situation is getting worse, it could be taking action.

I concentrated my mind and thought of magic. What we will use this time is Lizardman’s special earth magic.

He created magic and interfered with the shape of the earth. The wide-spread magic affected the ground with a radius of approximately several hundred meters.

Then, when I looked around, it was an unchanging winter forest. On the outside, there seems to be nothing wrong. Since the magic itself is used after installation, a trigger must be activated.

I’ll write about it when it gets closer.

As I was proud of the result, Do Yu-geon sneakily approached me and opened his arms to embrace me. I looked up to see something, but the guy avoided my gaze.

“……I heard it’s cold.”

Yes.

I did say that.

After waiting for a while, the werewolves were running across the magical land and approaching at an appropriate distance. Following the wizard’s custom, he raised one hand and snapped his fingers. It was just something to make me feel good and it had no special meaning to the magic itself, so I tried to use the magic with a snapping sound, but the sound I wanted didn’t come out, only the sound of my fingers grazing.

Hmm.

I stopped the spell I was trying to activate and snapped my fingers again. There was only a rustling sound.

This doesn’t work… … .

There was laughter from above my head.

What are you laughing at? In protest, he moved and tapped his head and activated his magic. A large area of land turned into a deep swamp, swallowing up the winter forest. The trees that had been blocking the view fell to the ground, and a group of werewolves became visible. It kicked the sinking tree and revealed its fangs. The teeth were scary, but soon they were submerged in the swamp and were struggling. It is the sorrow of animals that cannot fly.

A werewolf came running, stepping on the head of the sinking werewolf. It seems to be a boss mob with silver fur and an unusual size. As he was spurred by his overwhelmingly large muscles, the swamp exploded with a shock wave, blocking his view. Even so, if you can’t fly, it’s over… … .

The swamp that floated in the air was gathered together with magic and squeezed around the werewolf. The werewolf spun around and howled as it tore through the magic. The collected mud was blown away by the shock wave.

Although control was weak due to distance and method issues, it was disconcerting that the magic was released. Still, the intended goal was achieved.

The werewolf flew not far before losing momentum and beginning to fall. I thought it was the end, but it wasn’t. As the werewolf grabbed the space with one hand, the space became distorted.

The muscles in my arms that held onto the space swelled and seemed to gain strength, and then I came rushing in. They are cheating.

Do Yu-geon pulled out his sword and tried to loosen the arms that were hugging him. Where are you going? He grabbed the loose arm and wrapped it again.

“I heard it’s cold.”

Gathered magical power. The magic power concentrated on a small point was rotated using the repulsion between magic powers. To put it roughly, it’s a magic bullet.

Werewolves rushed in and struck the magic barrier. There was a loud noise and the wind blew.

I fired my finger gun at a target that stopped just fine. As the magic bullet flew, the werewolf twisted its head and bit the magic bullet. The space was distorted by the force of the teeth and the magic bullet collapsed. Then, the compressed magic exploded and the werewolf’s head exploded.

The headless body stumbled for a moment and grabbed the magic barrier. The entire wall was affected and twisted, distorting my vision. The body that was clenching the barrier soon collapsed, perhaps with the last of its strength. Gold powder flew.

Yes… … .

I was a bit surprised.

If you lose your head, shouldn’t you die right away? It would be possible to double the magic barrier or create a new one, but this behavior leaves me speechless.

My head was stroked. I raised my head and looked up to see concern in my eyes. I think he stayed still because he was scared of the scary situation where he moved without his head.

Do Yu-geon ignored it and opened the dropped treasure chest with magic. It was opened easily, whether it was a Mimic or not. When I lifted it upside down and shook it, only the air was blown out.

“That’s a disaster. Look, it’s exactly as I said.”

“That’s right. It’s a shame.”

Is there anything to regret? In order to receive the 2nd job change quest anyway, you have to do a lot more crack raiding. As I imagine the future, I feel a sense of motivation that I never had before.