Chapter 63

Kuuuuaaaak!

Facing a giant monster charging at her with beastly roar, Idy calmly pierced the top of its head and killed it.

The monster fell before it even had a chance to struggle.

That was no ordinary attack.

The monster could not have fallen silent like that as if it was falling asleep without even having a chance to twitch unless that was the case.

Idy is growing. On top of that, she is growing fast.

Could it be that she is also affected by the Tutorial’s growth effect?

I swallowed that suspicion for now.

In the end, it was yet another question that Idy herself could not answer.

“Keruk. I think there isn’t any monsters left nearby that is worth tracking down to hunt.”

“Right. This one is probably the last one.”

For the past two weeks, other than the time spent on eating and excreting, we threw all of our time into hunting.

The result was significant because we continued hunting even after the sunset ever since we became used to hunting in the jungle.

Not only did I earn the Detection Skill that I wanted, the Mana Circuit’s operation mastery increased, and its level also increased.

Stealth Skill also leveled up by one.

Most importantly, we hunted most of monsters around the cave which we decided as our main camp.

There still were small animals, but they were absolutely not threats to us.

“What are you going to do now, Captain? Shall we go back home?”

She had been calling the cave as home.

Also, as if the place was really her own home, she carefully tidied up the place and made things like furniture.

“Okay. Let’s go back. I think I just have to focus on training for a while at home.”

“Keruk. Keruk. All right.”

Idy lead the way. She walked as she cut away gra.s.ses that were blocking her path.

She seemed very happy for some reason. It was strange, but I a.s.sumed she must be happy because we were going home to rest. I just followed her.

“You want to learn my spear techniques?”

I quietly nodded.

It was something I had been thinking about since a while ago.

I would be able to develop faster and easier with someone teaching me the art.

Not only that, she might be able to find faults in me that I have not noticed.

All of sword and hand-to-hand techniques I mastered so far were something I thought of and trained by myself.

What I achieved were worthy of being proud of. However, I knew nothing of techniques that I have not thought of or faced against.

Of all that I have met in the Tutorial, Idy possessed the most superior fighting abilities.

At the Fifth Floor’s boss room, before she lost her cool and went berserk, instead of simply using her strength and special skills to overwhelm me, she used her spear techniques to fight me.

Moreover, of all boss rooms I have seen so far, Idy was the only one that showed up by herself in a boss room.

After learning spear techniques from her, I would also like to obtain knowledge and methods on fundamental techniques about sword and hand-to-hand combat.

If the situation was like the usual, I would not have thought about spending leisurely time learning spear techniques from her because of the time limit on the Dead Summon.

However, because of the 12th Floor’s special characteristic, I had to spend time here until the round ended.

I could go beyond the nearby area and hunt the monsters there, but I don’t think that’s as important as learning spear techniques from Idy.

“Is the idea no good?”

“Keruk. Wait here for a minute.”

Idy said that and left the cave.

I panicked, but I decided to wait quietly in the cave.

Could it be that asking a lizardman to teach me fighting techniques is a serious sin or very rude thing to do?

I really want to learn the spear techniques from her while I have the chance here…

Since I have to wait for her, let’s run the Mana Circuit quietly while at it.

I sat at the cushion that Idy made, closed my eyes and focused my mind at the flow of mana.

Lately, I had been running the Mana Circuit whenever I had the time, just like how I inflicted injuries on myself to improve my pa.s.sive resistance skills.

I probably won’t have to wait long, so there won’t be enough time to activate the Focused Effort skill.

From what I have found out so far, I need to focus on one thing and train if I want to activate the Focused Effort Skill, and I have to for eight hours at least.

I could feel the skill being activated after eight hours.

It felt similar to Persistence Skill when activated, so it was easy to notice.

Also, even if I mixed in other activities such as finding the location of the prey, breathing, blinking, drinking water, listening to Idy’s advice or having conversations and others that are related to the training, it was still possible to activate the Focused Effort Skill.

My development rate increased substantially ever since I figured out how to activate the Focused Effort Skill.

It brought out incredible development efficiency once activated.

Without it, I couldn’t have acquired the Detection Skill and developed Stealth and Mana Circuit Skills further within just two weeks.

In particular, the Detection Skill was a high dimensional skill far beyond my imagination.

If I didn’t have Idy or Focused Effort Skill, it would have been difficult for me to acquire this skill by myself.

I used the Detection Skill while running Mana Circuit.

Because the Detection Skill itself was about operating mana, it was good to train both at the same time.

Training became that much more difficult, but now, I could focus even better with increased difficulty.

Thinly spread mana searched the insides of the cave. It detected a small bug that was moving around on the ceiling.

If this was any other day, I would have been satisfied with that and try feeling the outside of the cave. However, I tried something different this time.

I focused on the bug that I detected already.

I could only feel the bug’s presence so far. However, as I repeated focusing, I could feel the bug’s shape in a bit more detail.

[Battle Focus]

I increased the focus and carefully managed the operation of Mana Circuit.

Afterwards, I focused on the bug once again.

The shape of the bug felt through the mana became even clearer.

It was as if I was doing a 3D scan. I could feel its mouth, antennas, legs and sh.e.l.l in three dimensions.

I tried to feel the bug’s shape in even greater detail.

I noticed each of minuscule hair on the bug’s legs, extremely small hair that could not be seen by a human being’s naked eyes.

Puk…

With that sound, I suddenly got nose bleed.

Could I go further?

As soon as I thought that, my head felt dizzy and the Battle Focus was canceled.

It wasn’t that I was at the limit on my ability to focus. It seemed that I was still lacking in my ability to manage mana.

My head is pulsating.

It feels stiff around my eyes, and these parts hurt every time my heart beats.

I had experienced the symptoms many times while I trained in Mana Circuit, so I didn’t panic. Instead, I pressed on temples on my head and ignored the pain.

“Keruk! Captain! Come outside!”

Idy called me from outside of the cave.

Her voice sounded bright.

Is she going to teach me spear techniques?

I quickly wiped off the nose bleed and came outside. Idy handed me a staff that looked like she carved it out of a piece of wood.

Unlike my concern, Idy seemed quite excited.

It seemed she was very happy to teach me spear techniques.

“Keruk. For now, use this. I made it quickly.”

It looked like she had been looking around to find a suitable piece of wood and made this.

It didn’t have an edge at the tip, so it couldn’t be called a spear but a staff.

Still, let’s call it a practice spear.

Also,

“From now on, I think I should call you Idyaemong.”

“Keruk. What does it mean? Is it something good?”

“Of course, it is something good. It means you are incredibly talented.”

“Keruk Keruk.”

As if she was embarra.s.sed, she turned her head to the side and acted happy.

As I expected, Idy was exceptionally good at teaching something to another.

From the basic, step by step, she explained in detail. Because of this, I could understand with ease the basic theories of the techniques and their applications.

[You acquired Basic Spear Technique Lv.6]

[You acquired Mid-level Hand-to-Hand Combat Technique Lv.2]

[You acquire Mid-level Swordsmanship Lv.4]

As expected, although I was mostly learning spear techniques, the training resulted in progress on hand-to-hand combat and swordsmanship.

In particular, the explanations about steps that Idy gave me as I learned spear techniques were very helpful.

The theory was very different from what I learned during middle school at a Kendo cla.s.s. However, because I had the body of a super human and used skills that defied common sense now, Idy’s methods were the right answer.

“Keruk. As I thought, you are amazing, Captain.”

“Geez. Come on.”

“You would have been perfect if it wasn’t for you occasionally showing underhanded and dirty side. Keruk.”

Hey, do you have any idea how important being underhanded and dirty are to a professional gamer?

When it comes to a duel, wrecking the opponent’s mental is half way to the victory.

“Keruk. I thought this when I heard this the last time, but so called professional gamer is really not something I would want to be.”

How could you say that in front of one, you rascal?

“Although this place is the Tutorial stage that helps the challenger’s growth and you also have the power skill called Focused Effort, your growth rate is still very fast. This can only be explained by your talent. You are incredible. Keruk.”

“Come on. I know. I am pretty d.a.m.n talented.”

Having heard what I said, Idy twitched her nose lightly and said,

“Keruk. Besides being underhanded, I found another fault in you, Captain.”

“What is it?”

“You are a bit of an arrogant jerk”

I know that.

I heard that a lot in my life.

While being in the 12th Floor’s stage, skills related to fighting were not the only ones I acquired.

I also earned something completely unexpected.

It was when I was at front of the cave and roasting the meat that Idy procured.

[You acquired Entry-Level Cooking Lv.1]

Um… What is this?

Could it be that thing?

In a fantasy game, the skill for unrivaled production professionals that occasionally make appearances?

Could I be able to obtain high level cooking skills, blow up my stats by eating the meals I cooked and have a whole bunch of enhancement effects on my attributes and pa.s.sive resistances, becoming unsurpa.s.sed?

“Keruk, although this will be obvious, there are no such ridiculous effects included in the cooking skill.”

Idy said as she brought the salad she put on the dish she made by carving a piece of wood.

“If there are foods that can have that kind of effect, then that would probably be the effect from the ingredients, not the skill of the cook.”

… That’s probably right.

I worked up my appet.i.te and looked at the table where the dinner was ready.

There were salad, a stew of unknown origin, roasted meat and unidentified vegetable mix. Also, lastly, there was the salted smoked meat.

They were too substantial to be called a dinner inside a stage of h.e.l.l Difficulty.

On top of that, I had no idea what the ingredients were, let alone where Idy got them.

An even more important problem was that all of these foods were delicious, seriously delicious.

Other than the cake that I occasionally ate with Kiri Kiri, I always had been taking care of meals with meat jerkies. Perhaps that’s why.

Every time I ate meals prepared by Idy, I was overwhelmed by bliss.

Like that, I diligently focused on training, ate delicious food, and occasionally went out for a walk with Idy to hunt and patrol to spend the rest of the days.

The frustration I felt when I first entered the 12th Floor was now completely gone.

The life here is far smoother and more fun than being in the waiting room. The development is also going well. This is the best?

[Round 14, Day 27, 00:00]

[The day of the great harmony will commence.]

[The day of the great harmony will continue for 24 hours. Remaining time: 23:59]

[Please enter. Time remaining until forced summon: 5 hours]