Chapter 121
"Ogre hunting, here we go!!"
Securing the spirit stones and delivering them to the duke would complete the request.
The round trip to Norridge was done by carriage, so it took considerable time for transportation. On top of that, since we were tired, we rested for about three days before resuming our activities, so we were fully recharged.
Since we were promised access to a dungeon area, we decided to eliminate this halfway level situation and made our way once again to the Ogre spawning point.
"Claudia, please keep watch of our surroundings.""Leave it to me. Fight without worry. I'll deal with anyone who tries to interfere with your battle."
This time, we didn't have to worry about being ambushed.
With our guardian Claudia keeping watch around us, we wouldn't have to worry about our leveling being suddenly interrupted like what happened with Ares.
That said, all of us, including me, were just a little away from the level cap, so it wouldn't take too much time.
"Alright, Amina, you're up.""Leave it to me!!"
The procedure was the same as before—first, everyone equipped the Training Bracelets. Then, the Ogres lured by Amina's song would be taken down.
That was all there was to it, but the difference between last time and this time was...
"It really makes a difference when your stats are better, doesn't it?""Yes, if each of us takes on one Ogre individually, we can easily handle a whole group of them."
...that we had gotten stronger.
Before, we had to work together to take down a single Ogre due to strength issues, but now each of us could handle one alone.
The only thing to watch out for was finishing them off too quickly, which would prevent us from meeting the consecutive kill condition.
In other words, we could kill them in one hit if we wanted to, but doing so would make it impossible to fulfill one of the conditions.
Therefore, we had to avoid killing the Ogre we were fighting until the next one arrived in the consecutive kill timing area.
"Well, that's what it means to get stronger."
Even with that in mind, we could hunt them with ease.
As soon as the next Ogre arrived, I lopped off the head of the one in front of me with my scythe, stepped past the disintegrating corpse, and stabbed the legs of the next Ogre with my spear to stop its charge.
"Yeah, it was tough at first, but it's so different now."
The time between engagements was about fifteen to twenty seconds.
From there, it was just a matter of chipping away at them while keeping them from acting.
Nell used her halberd skillfully, tripping an Ogre and then smashing its face with the butt of her weapon.
As the dazed Ogre struggled to stand, she readied her stance, prepared to finish it off in one hit when the next one arrived.
"Liberta, this should be the last of my Class 2 leveling."
Ingrid, in a way, had been the most efficient at hunting Ogres, and as a result, she was the first among us to reach the Class 2 level cap.
By tripping multiple Ogres, attacking them while they were down, and then tripping them again when they tried to get up, she had maintained a stock of targets and achieved consecutive kills.
With a graceful sheathing motion, the Ogres around her turned to ash and vanished.
"I'm almost done too.""I'm finished!!"
Differences in efficiency meant I was the last one left, but even so, the Class 2 leveling was completed without any interruptions in a short amount of time.
"How about you, Amina?""All done!!"
Once Amina stopped singing, the Ogres stopped coming out of the forest.
After confirming that the spawns had completely stopped, I relaxed my stance and checked with Amina, who had been singing in the back. She waved at me with a big smile—meaning she had confirmed her stats and successfully maxed out her Class 2 level without issue.
"That was surprisingly quick, wasn't it?""Yes, we still have some time before the transfer. What should we do?"
We had only had a little bit left to level up anyway.
Assigning stat points was over in an instant.
'Liberta – Class 2 / Level 100 Base Stats: VIT 240 / MAG 160 BP 0 EXBP 0 Skills: 4 / Skill Slots: 7 Spear Mastery – Class 10 / Level 100 Magic Edge – Class 10 / Level 100 Scythe Mastery – Class 10 / Level 100 Stealth – Class 7 / Level 15'
That should be fine, I thought, when I suddenly felt a little worried about Amina.
She was bad with numbers. Nell and I had been teaching her, but she still didn’t seem to gain any confidence. Wondering if she’d be okay, I sensed movement beside me and turned to see...
"Hehe, can you check this for me?"
...her looking up at me hesitantly, holding out her status screen with a troubled expression. It was good that she asked to make sure she didn’t make any mistakes.
"Want me to help?""N-no! I can’t rely on you forever, Liberta! Just watch! ...But stop me if I’m about to mess up, okay?""Got it."
On top of that, she was making an effort to do it herself. The day she’d overcome her fear of numbers might not be so far off.
"Um, so VIT is like this, and MAG is..."
Ratio calculations were tricky for people who weren’t good at them. Once you got the hang of it, it wasn’t so hard, but forcing someone to do it would just kill their motivation.
Every time she glanced at me for confirmation, I nodded, and when she seemed about to make a mistake, I gently corrected her.
"I did it!!""See? You can do it when you try."
Without thinking, I patted her head. It was an instinctive reaction—praising a kid who’d put in the effort.
"Hehehe..."
Wait, was this sexual harassment? She looked happy, but I should probably stop. Just as I was about to pull my hand away—
"N-no, keep going!"
Amina grabbed my right hand with both of hers and pressed it back onto her head. Well, if she didn’t mind, I guess it was fine.
I figured I’d keep going until she was satisfied and took the opportunity to check her stats.
'Amina – Class 2 / Level 100 Base Stats: VIT 160 / MAG 240 BP 0 EXBP 0 Skills: 5 / Skill Slots: 7 Staff Mastery – Class 10 / Level 100 Alchemy – Class 10 / Level 100 Singing – Class 10 / Level 100 Song of Acclaim – Class 10 / Level 100 Song of Tailwind – Class 10 / Level 100'
If she had Spirit Magic here, she could’ve contracted with a few spirits back then, and if we’d had them control Angler, it would’ve opened up more strategic options. But...
She didn’t have Spirit Magic.
Maybe it was because the connection between people and spirits was weak in this world, but Spirit Magic skill scrolls were hard to come by. Summoning Magic was the same—nonexistent.
I’d asked Lotus if the Duke’s household had any, but they said they were out of stock.
They might be available on the western continent, but we had no way to get there right now.
For strengthening Amina, the options were either enhancing her golem or focusing on song-related skills. Ideally, we’d also explore spirit-based avenues.
"Ah.""Hm? What is it?""Oh, right, that was a thing.""What was?"
My hand, which had been stroking Amina’s head, froze mid-motion as I let out a weird noise, making her look at me curiously.
"Yeah, a way for Amina to get Spirit Magic. That’s right, I completely forgot."
Spirit Magic, to put it bluntly, was a must-have skill for unpopular builds.
Because of that, the proportion of players who used it was small, and few people explored it. Relatively speaking, there wasn’t much information available either.
I’d looked into it when I considered using Spirit Magic myself, but since I didn’t main it, I’d completely forgotten.
"A way to learn Spirit Magic? But didn’t you say before that it was impossible for now because we couldn’t get the scroll?""Yeah, I gave up because the methods to obtain the scroll were pretty high-difficulty, but there is a way to get Spirit Magic. It’s just a bit of a hassle."
And since the process was lengthy, it was troublesome. But if going through it meant Amina could get stronger, wasn’t it worth it?
"Actually, we might as well do it for Ingrid and Nell too while we’re at it.""Liberta, it’s no good if you’re the only one who understands what’s going on.""Ah, right, sorry."
The method I was thinking of wasn’t just for Amina—it could also be applied to me, Nell, Ingrid, and even Claudia under certain circumstances.
"Mind if I interrupt your little moment? Liberta, how long are you going to keep your hand on Amina’s head?"
While I was getting lost in my thoughts, Nell, who had been nearby but ignored, shot me a glare, clearly displeased.
"Ah, sorry.""Eh? Already?""Yes, already!"
Realizing that keeping my hand on a girl’s hair for too long was inappropriate, I tried to pull away, but Amina pouted, and Nell also looked unhappy—though for different reasons.
"How about you let Nell have a turn when we get back, Liberta?""W-well, if Liberta wants to, I wouldn’t mind..."
As if to resolve Nell’s dissatisfaction—or perhaps in the name of fairness—Ingrid made the suggestion, causing Nell’s tail to stiffen before she blushed and glanced between me and the others.
Yeah, I wasn’t a dense protagonist, so I could kind of understand the sentiment. But given that my mental age was that of an old man, it’d be a problem if they expected me to reciprocate those feelings before they matured a bit more.
Mainly, there was this thing called "ethics" that seemed utterly useless in this world, but having it or not made a big difference mentally.
Right now, I felt like an uncle being clung to by his niece. My appearance was that of a child, and my physical age matched, but my mind was heavily influenced by my body...
"Sure! Then I’ll do it when we get back!!""O-okay!"
But I knew that showing hesitation or reluctance here would be bad. This was just like drying a kid’s hair after a bath—no big deal.
There shouldn’t be any problems.
"Then I’ll take you up on that as well.""...Sure!"
When Ingrid joined in, I responded with a smile and a thumbs-up. It was a way of thanking her.
She was the one who handled cooking and cleaning for us, after all. I had to show my gratitude somehow!
"It’s fine to express your gratitude, Liberta, but didn’t you remember something important earlier?""Ah, right."
We’d gotten sidetracked. Claudia reminded me with a wry smile. This was a good chance—I’d ask her while I was at it.
"Claudia, since we’re on the topic, do you have a Title?""I do. My Title is 'Ironclad,' granted by the gods as a result of my training.""Thanks."
What I’d remembered was the Title system.
When I first arrived in this world, I’d gotten a brief explanation. If you leveled up using mochi, you’d get the Title "Weakling."
The Weakling Title had no benefits—only penalties like level reduction and stat decreases.
In contrast, Claudia’s "Ironclad" Title simply increased defense and stamina, greatly enhancing sustained combat ability.
Effect-wise, it boosted maximum defense by 15%, stamina by 10%, and recovery by 5%.
"Anyway, now that we’ve finished Class 2 leveling, I think we should get Titles before classing up and choosing jobs.""That’s related to Spirit Magic?""It is. I’ll explain later."
Titles were divine gifts—bestowed upon both players and NPCs, one per person, as long as they met the conditions. They provided various benefits.
Once assigned, you couldn’t equip another without going through a removal process, which was a bit of a hassle. The number of Titles wasn’t infinite, but there were a vast amount.
"First, let’s start with getting my Title. This is actually a good place for it."
Among them, some Titles were more popular with players.
There were standard Titles for combat-oriented merchants like Nell, Amina, and Ingrid, essential ones for songstresses, and of course, ones that paired well with support-type maids.
"You say that so casually, as if getting a Title is easy. Telling you that is like teaching a god how to preach.""I’m not saying it’ll be instant, but it should only take an hour or two at most."
And there was also a Title that worked well with my "Headhunter Assassin" build.
"Those guys over there are perfect for becoming a 'good ogre.'""Wait a minute. I’ve never heard of Ogres appearing there. You’re not planning to go all the way to the deepest part, are you?""No, just about twenty minutes in, where the Ogre groups are."
To obtain it, you needed something to play the role of the "oni"—creatures with keen senses of smell and hearing, numerous enough to swarm, and aggressive enough to charge recklessly at enemies. Ogres were not only great for leveling but also perfectly suited for the Title I wanted.
"Oni" and "Ogre" meant the same thing, but in this case, there was a slight difference.
What I needed was something to play the role of the "oni"—not actual Ogres.