Author’s Note: There is a hint hidden somewhere in the previous episode’s description of “Chapter 4 is about ○物 ○編”.
After dinner, we talked about today’s events as we did yesterday.
“We ate more than 30 meals in one day. We spent a lot of money.”
“We’ve been to most of the stores we had planned to visit, so tomorrow we’ll start looking for the best places to eat.”
“That’s right. I’ve been to most of the well-known stores, so tomorrow I’ll start following my instincts.”
It seems that Sera and Mio have eaten their way through quite a few restaurants.
But really, Sera’s stomach is bottomless. And she is not out of shape at all. In fact, there’s no excess calories, so there’s no way she can gain weight.
ED Reminder: Sera has a special body type, where she requires a lot more food, but the more she eats the higher her physical strength becomes.
“I’m sure I can recreate at least 90%, so I’ll be adding them to my repertoire.”
“We had a lot of fish dishes since there are multiple rivers and lakes nearby. Most of the meat seemed to be imported from Estia. It all tasted the same.”
“You can tell?”
“It’s easy to be misunderstood because I’m a big eater, but I’m pretty confident in my taste buds.”
“Hmm, that’s certainly surprising.”
I’ve always had the impression that people don’t really savour their food when they just shove it in.
Speaking of which, Sera chews very fast and her hands and mouth are always moving. …I guess you could say I’m an elegant eater, in comparison?
“Actually, Sera-chan’s tongue has helped me a lot. If Sera-chan says we don’t need to eat a dish, we don’t eat it.”
“If it’s a dish with bad seasoning, there’s no need for Mio and the others to eat it. I want you to study only the dishes you want to eat.”
“Leave it to me! I will eventually make it possible for you to eat dishes from all over the world at the mansion!”
If the Advance Chamber of Commerce sets up portals around the world and learns the ingredients and cooking methods of those countries, it will be possible to truly eat dishes from around the world at the mansion. However, I don’t need Kingdom of Eludia’s.
With Mio and the others finished, it was Sakura’s turn to speak. I’ve only had the Blessing Remnant to talk about, but since were here to relax, I’ll talk about it some other time.
“The next one is me, … I’ve finally mastered a skill! It’s called ‘speed reading’!”
“That’s great!”
Sakura said before, that she wanted to learn a skill on her own. Unlike me, she has a non-zero chance of learning new skills.
Ed Reminder: One of Jin’s unique skills lets him steal skills from other people and monsters, but as a trade-off, he can’t learn skills on his own.
I was getting worried about her, since I haven’t heard from her since then, but apparently she was able to learn the skill successfully.
Sakura Kinoshita
Skills: <Speed Reading LV1 new>
“Is that an actual skill?”
“Yes, …The other skills are too hard for me to get…”
Martial arts, magic, and physical skills require a great deal of talent to learn. For Sakura, who isn’t very good at moving her body, martial arts and physical skills might be too hard. Plus, she already had most of the magic skills, so it would be difficult for her to learn any new ones.
Well, this only further shows the abnormality of Maria, who learns new skills with little effort, and Kate, who learned other magic skills on her own after I gave her just the <Water Magic>.
“And the production skills are just…”
“Oh, talented people have a negative correction to their production skills.”
The are also production-related skills. In their case however, some people get worse results than others.
Honestly, I don’t think it’s possible to get skills that you can’t benefit from. I’m sure you’ll be able to find something that works for you.
“Yes, …so I tried various techniques that I learned in our original world. This time, I had some time, so I tried out some skills related to books, and I successfully acquired the ‘speed reading’ skill…”
“So, Sakura-sama, were you able to speed read in your original world too?
“Yes, …I didn’t usually use it, …I only did when I didn’t have much time, or when there was a book I really wanted to read…”
Sakura nodded and answered Mio’s question.
How is it, that you could use this skill in your original world, but you didn’t remember it when you came to this world?
A: “If you haven’t used it since you came to this world, you won’t be able to fulfil the conditions for learning the skill.”
ED Reminder: Bits starting with ‘A:’ are interjections by Alta, Jin’s AI-type unique skill. It can communicate with Jin and his subordinates via telepathy. It also manages all of Jin’s slaves and the Advance Chamber of Commerce. Also, I’ll use italics for telepathy.
I see. So when I came to this world, the skills I developed over there didn’t show up as skills at all? And I, who can’t learn the skills on my own, can’t get them as skills. …Damn it!
I think I’ll try to teach Maria the skills I was able to use in the other world next time.
“By the way, Maria, how many skills have you acquired since we started integrating skills?”
Even if I don’t do anything, Maria is learning new skills on her own.
She immediately passed her skill points to me (via Alta), so there’s nothing left in Maria’s skills column, but even so, she acquired quite a lot of them.
“Yes, <Jiu-jitsu> <Claw Mastery> <Gauntlet Mastery> <Iron Ball Mastery> <Agriculture> <Animal Dissection> <Repair> <Capture> <Wall climbing> <Diving>. The <Fishing> and <Trawling> (EDN: previously ‘Fishery’) I got yesterday I already told you about, but if you include them, it will be 11 skills.”
“Well, that’s a lot. Keep up the good work.”
“Yes. Please leave it to me.”
The reason why I took the trouble to ask Maria through telepathy was because asking Maria, who is the number one in skill acquisition, about this topic right now would be pretty mean to Sakura. It would be like saying, “What are you, finally learning a single skill?”, or something like that.
I’ve been looking at it again, and Maria’s newly acquired martial arts skills are very impressive. There were some skills she still didn’t have, so I asked her to try to learn them, and this is how it turned out. …the whole thing looks very Japanese and ninja-like. Is there a ‘ninjutsu’ skill?
A: “Yes, there is.”
Then, it’s decided. I’ll have Maria learn ninjutsu next time. Then I can give her more advice.
“What’s the matter, Jin? You look like you’ve made up your mind on something.”
“No, it’s nothing.”
I’ll think about Maria’s ninja-training-plan later, but for now, let’s talk about Sakura’s skill.
“That said, the way you said it earlier, it sounds like you have a few other candidates?”
“The other ones didn’t work out so well, so I’d appreciate it if you don’t ask…”
“There’s still tomorrow, and it might not be something you can learn right away, so don’t be discouraged or give up.”
“You’re right. …I’ll give it a few more tries…”
When Sakura’s story was over, we’ve decided to go to bed for the day. Of course, Dora was already asleep. She’s my body pillow for today.
ED Reminder: Dora is a loli dragonewt. Jin uses her (in her dragon form) as a body pillow every other day. She can’t talk in her human form yet, so she speaks via telepathy.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The next day was the third day of free activities.
It would be nice to take my time fishing, but I wanted to catch a big one once in a while, so we decided to start fishing with bait in the afternoon.
We prepared paste bait, not worms or insects. I took a pinch of bait from the bag and kneaded it with my fingers to make it round. Once it was formed, I attached it to the hook and dropped it into the water. The hook sank into the lake with a “pop” sound.
-Boom!
What jumped out of the lake with a loud bang was a huge snake about 10 meters long.
Sea Serpent (Rare)
LV85
Skills: <Water Magic LV7> <Aquatic LV6> <Diving LV6> <Flight LV2> <Transformation LV7>
Note: A sea-dwellling monster.
I’ve caught a monster. It’s also a pretty big one.
I’m not sure what to make of it. I think it says it lives under the sea, but this is a lake, right? Other than that, it’s level is unusually high. It’s not a monster that should be living in a lake, you know?
The Sea Serpent had the fish hook firmly stuck in its mouth and was glaring at us. It seems to have clearly determined that we were the enemy. A fish hook hurts, doesn’t it?
The Sea Serpent seemed to have decided to eliminate us instead of running away and rushed towards us. As you can see from the fact that it has the <Flight> skill, it doesn’t seem to be a monster that is completely limited to underwater.
As it approached us, it jumped up from the water and attacked us. It was 10 meters long and about the size of a telegraph pole, so it must have been pretty heavy. If an ordinary person were to be hit by it, they would not be able to escape.
So I tried to dodge it for the time being. The Sea Serpent passed right by me.
I pulled on the fishing rod a little harder.
“GYOOOOON!
The Sea Serpent made its distinctive cry and lost its stance in the air. It managed to avoid crashing and was now flying through the air, dragging me along.
But the fishing rod that Branch Manager Colette prepared was very sturdy, it won’t break, even when facing a 10-meter-long monster, and the line won’t break either.
“It’s not necessary for Jin-sama to fight a meagre monster. I will deal with it myself.”
With that, Maria stepped forward. She was fully equipped with the ‘Sunlight Sword – Sol’ in her right hand and the ‘Moonlight Sword – Luna’ in her left.
“Wait, Maria. Don’t attack it.”
“Why? It’s a monster that attacked you, Jin-sama.”
“This one is my prey. I’m gonna catch it.”
This thing was in the lake, and it bit on my hook. So it was a one-on-one battle between me and this guy. And the Sea Serpent hasn’t given in to me yet. It’s hard to say that you’ve fished him out while he’s in the air, since he seems to have the <Flight> skill. I’m not going to say that I caught it when it came at me in the first place.
Therefore, until there’s a clear winner, I can’t let Maria interfere with us.
“…I understand. I wish you the best of luck.”
Maria immediately backed off. It’s not like my life was in danger, and since Maria was nearby, she was probably more accommodating.
If we fought head on, there was no way we would lose. However, since this was a battle of fishing, if the fishing line or the rod broke, I would lose. And I’m a pretty competitive person.
“GYUOOOOOO!”
A magic circle appeared around the Sea Serpent. It’s a blue magic circle, so it’s definitely water magic.
About 10 seconds later, <Aqua Spread>, a level 3 water magic spell, was activated.
It’s a magic that causes about ten water bombs to fly out from the magic circle. Each one is larger than the ‘Aqua Ball’, so it’s hard to avoid them in tight spaces.
However, there is enough of a difference that there is no problem with getting hit by them in the first place…
“Maria, neutralize anything that doesn’t hit me.”
I don’t like it when stray bullets go flying somewhere.
“Yes.”
The moment I said that, Maria started to move and cut through everything except the ‘Aqua Spreads’ that hit me. And…
-Don! Don! Don!
Three ‘Aqua Spreads’ hit me directly.
“GYAG YAGYA!?”
“Nope, it didn’t work.”
No damage at all. As expected, there is too much difference in status.
I wasn’t sure what to make of this, but I’m guessing that the Sea Serpent just said, “How did you not get hurt?”.
“GYO!?”
The Sea Serpent had an astonished expression on its face. There was no reason to miss the opportunity, so I pulled harder than ever.
“GYOE!?”
With it’s posture collapsed, the sea serpent crashed to the ground
“Now I can finally say ‘I’ve caught it’. By the way…”
The best way to eat it, is while it’s still fresh.
I approached the fallen Sea Serpent. It’s not like the Sea Serpent is going to just let me eat it. It’s going to get up and bite me. From my point of view, it was ‘fishing’, but from the Sea Serpent’s, it didn’t matter, and of course it would attack me even after it was caught.
But think about it, what did I say to stop Maria’s attack? I stopped her by saying, “It’s fishing”. And the fishing ended with me winning just now. In other words, there is no reason to hesitate in direct combat any more.
-Gashi.
I grabbed the head of the Sea Serpent with my left hand.
“GYUON?”
The Sea Serpent was startled again. It tried to move its head, pull and push its body, but I didn’t budge. Instead, I used the composite skill, <Fear>, toward the Sea Serpent.
-Busha-!
As an aquatic monster, it seemed to have retained a large amount of water in its body. And the incontinence? I’ve never seen anything like it before. The Sea Serpent was blowing bubbles and twitching. When I got to that point, I turned off the ‘Fear’ skill.
I knew this skill was powerful. The more my status rises, the more effective it seems to be. As a side note, I let other people use the ‘Fear’ skill, but it had no effect on me at all. I thought is was due to the mental protection of the ‘Avatar’ unique skill, but according to Alta:
A: “It would have been the same, even without the ‘Avatar’.“
That’s right. I wonder how thick my liver is.
I looked at the convulsing Sea Serpent.
What should I do? I can defeat it normally, or I can tame it because it is rare. I think about it …for a bit.
“What should I do with this monster, Jin-sama?”
“I’ll decide based on what it does when it wakes up. If it attacks, I’ll kill it. If it obeys, I’ll tame it.”
“I understand.”
“Master, what are you doing?”
Dora was coming our way. It seems that she was asleep until now. When she woke up, I wasn’t there, so she came to look for me. As a side note, the sleeping Dora was being supported by the ‘Wings of the Immortal – Nosferatu’. No respect for Legendary class items…
ED Reminder: Jin’s <Flight>-granting cloak. Being a dragonewt, Dora can fly on her own, so I’m guessing she used it as a levitating hammock
“Hmm? I’ve caught this guy. I was just about to decide whether I should tame it, or turn it into a kabayaki”
“Kabayaki it is!”
“Sorry, it’s not a majority vote, it depends on how it will act once it wakes up.”
“A shame…”
Dora looked a little sad. This made me think that just going with kabayaki would also be okay, but I don’t like going back on decisions I’ve already made. I’m sorry, Dora.
After a while, the Sea Serpent woke up. Well, technically, it was still pretending to be asleep…
It’s like he was surprised that he’s still alive and kept pretending to be asleep, hoping that I might let him off the hook.
“I give life for obedience and death for hostility.”
I confront him with that one sentence. It doesn’t matter if you understand the words or not. I’m just telling you that I’m aware of what’s happening.
The Sea Serpent shuddered, got up and began to rub its head on the ground. No matter how you look at it, there’s no will left to fight.
“Kabayaki…”
Dora mumbled sadly as she realized that the kabayaki wasn’t gonna happen.
“GYAU!?”
The Great Sea Serpent in rapt submission looked around. Dora speaks through telekinesis, so it couldn’t hare her, but it seems to have gotten some chills.
I couldn’t go on like this, so I just hit it with my ‘Monster Taming’ skill.
>The Sea Serpent was tamed.
>Please give the Sea Serpent a name.
Naturally, the Sea Serpent seemed to accept the taming without resistance.
Now, before we decide on a name, let’s take a look at it’s status. Since it had nothing to do with fishing, I only took a peek at its basic description before, but now that it’s under my control, I’m curious about the details. I’m sure it’s nothing detrimental, since Alta would have said something otherwise.
Name: –
Gender: Female
Age: 694 years old
Race: Sea Serpent (Rare)
Skills: <Water Magic LV7> <Aquatic LV6> <Diving LV6> <Flight LV2> <Transformation LV7>
Title: Jin’s follower
Wow, she’s a female? And she’s quite old, isn’t she? That’s the Nushi of the Lake (provisional).
By the way, I’ve been wondering for a while now, what is this ‘Transformation’ skill?
A: “It’s a skill that allows you to change into other forms. It’s like Dora switching between her human form and her dragon form.”
Two questions. First, why does Dora not have this ‘Transformation’ skill? Second, how is it different from Tamo-san’s ‘Mimic’ skill?
A: “The answer to the first question is unknown. So far, the only monster that can take a human form and doesn’t need the ‘transformation’ skill is the dragonewt.“
If anything, was the dragonewt more special?
A: “The answer to the second question is: whether or not there is an original form. ‘Mimic’ is just imitating another object, while ‘Transformation’ is a change of form, so it is still your own form.“
Does that mean that after releasing ‘Transformation’ one returns to their original form? It does seem quite similar to how Dora’s transformation works.
“Hey, what can you change into?”
For the time being, I decided to ask her through telekinesis.
“GYAU?”
The Sea Serpent looked around.
“Try to speak to me in your mind.”
When I said that, the Sea Serpent stopped moving and closed its eyes.
“Ah, uh, uh, can you hear me?”
“Oh, I can hear you. It’s the Sea Serpent, isn’t it?”
“Yes, sir.”
She has a strange way of speaking, but her voice is clear and beautiful. I guess she has something in common with another subordinate of mine, Fiyu, who’s a musician in Estia.
“You understand that you’ve become my subordinate, don’t you?”
“Uuu… ‘sob'”
The Sea Serpent shrank a bit… It’s kind of cute.
“I know that you can change your form”
“!”
“I’ll ask you one more time. What can you change into?”
There won’t be a third time.
“Yes, yes. I can become a snake, a sea snake, a mermaid, and a human.”
There’s a surprisingly wide variety. I expected this since you mentioned Dora Lange, but it looks like she can become human too.
“Can you talk in your human form?”
“Yes, I can talk.”
“Then, take your human form.”
“I understand.”
Author’s Note: There is a hint hidden somewhere in the previous episode’s description of “Chapter 4 is about ○物 ○編”.
After dinner, we talked about today’s events as we did yesterday.
“We ate more than 30 meals in one day. We spent a lot of money.”
“We’ve been to most of the stores we had planned to visit, so tomorrow we’ll start looking for the best places to eat.”
“That’s right. I’ve been to most of the well-known stores, so tomorrow I’ll start following my instincts.”
It seems that Sera and Mio have eaten their way through quite a few restaurants.
But really, Sera’s stomach is bottomless. And she is not out of shape at all. In fact, there’s no excess calories, so there’s no way she can gain weight.
ED Reminder: Sera has a special body type, where she requires a lot more food, but the more she eats the higher her physical strength becomes.
“I’m sure I can recreate at least 90%, so I’ll be adding them to my repertoire.”
“We had a lot of fish dishes since there are multiple rivers and lakes nearby. Most of the meat seemed to be imported from Estia. It all tasted the same.”
“You can tell?”
“It’s easy to be misunderstood because I’m a big eater, but I’m pretty confident in my taste buds.”
“Hmm, that’s certainly surprising.”
I’ve always had the impression that people don’t really savour their food when they just shove it in.
Speaking of which, Sera chews very fast and her hands and mouth are always moving. …I guess you could say I’m an elegant eater, in comparison?
“Actually, Sera-chan’s tongue has helped me a lot. If Sera-chan says we don’t need to eat a dish, we don’t eat it.”
“If it’s a dish with bad seasoning, there’s no need for Mio and the others to eat it. I want you to study only the dishes you want to eat.”
“Leave it to me! I will eventually make it possible for you to eat dishes from all over the world at the mansion!”
If the Advance Chamber of Commerce sets up portals around the world and learns the ingredients and cooking methods of those countries, it will be possible to truly eat dishes from around the world at the mansion. However, I don’t need Kingdom of Eludia’s.
With Mio and the others finished, it was Sakura’s turn to speak. I’ve only had the Blessing Remnant to talk about, but since were here to relax, I’ll talk about it some other time.
“The next one is me, … I’ve finally mastered a skill! It’s called ‘speed reading’!”
“That’s great!”
Sakura said before, that she wanted to learn a skill on her own. Unlike me, she has a non-zero chance of learning new skills.
Ed Reminder: One of Jin’s unique skills lets him steal skills from other people and monsters, but as a trade-off, he can’t learn skills on his own.
I was getting worried about her, since I haven’t heard from her since then, but apparently she was able to learn the skill successfully.
Sakura Kinoshita
Skills: <Speed Reading LV1 new>
“Is that an actual skill?”
“Yes, …The other skills are too hard for me to get…”
Martial arts, magic, and physical skills require a great deal of talent to learn. For Sakura, who isn’t very good at moving her body, martial arts and physical skills might be too hard. Plus, she already had most of the magic skills, so it would be difficult for her to learn any new ones.
Well, this only further shows the abnormality of Maria, who learns new skills with little effort, and Kate, who learned other magic skills on her own after I gave her just the <Water Magic>.
“And the production skills are just…”
“Oh, talented people have a negative correction to their production skills.”
The are also production-related skills. In their case however, some people get worse results than others.
Honestly, I don’t think it’s possible to get skills that you can’t benefit from. I’m sure you’ll be able to find something that works for you.
“Yes, …so I tried various techniques that I learned in our original world. This time, I had some time, so I tried out some skills related to books, and I successfully acquired the ‘speed reading’ skill…”
“So, Sakura-sama, were you able to speed read in your original world too?
“Yes, …I didn’t usually use it, …I only did when I didn’t have much time, or when there was a book I really wanted to read…”
Sakura nodded and answered Mio’s question.
How is it, that you could use this skill in your original world, but you didn’t remember it when you came to this world?
A: “If you haven’t used it since you came to this world, you won’t be able to fulfil the conditions for learning the skill.”
ED Reminder: Bits starting with ‘A:’ are interjections by Alta, Jin’s AI-type unique skill. It can communicate with Jin and his subordinates via telepathy. It also manages all of Jin’s slaves and the Advance Chamber of Commerce. Also, I’ll use italics for telepathy.
I see. So when I came to this world, the skills I developed over there didn’t show up as skills at all? And I, who can’t learn the skills on my own, can’t get them as skills. …Damn it!
I think I’ll try to teach Maria the skills I was able to use in the other world next time.
“By the way, Maria, how many skills have you acquired since we started integrating skills?”
Even if I don’t do anything, Maria is learning new skills on her own.
She immediately passed her skill points to me (via Alta), so there’s nothing left in Maria’s skills column, but even so, she acquired quite a lot of them.
“Yes, <Jiu-jitsu> <Claw Mastery> <Gauntlet Mastery> <Iron Ball Mastery> <Agriculture> <Animal Dissection> <Repair> <Capture> <Wall climbing> <Diving>. The <Fishing> and <Trawling> (EDN: previously ‘Fishery’) I got yesterday I already told you about, but if you include them, it will be 11 skills.”
“Well, that’s a lot. Keep up the good work.”
“Yes. Please leave it to me.”
The reason why I took the trouble to ask Maria through telepathy was because asking Maria, who is the number one in skill acquisition, about this topic right now would be pretty mean to Sakura. It would be like saying, “What are you, finally learning a single skill?”, or something like that.
I’ve been looking at it again, and Maria’s newly acquired martial arts skills are very impressive. There were some skills she still didn’t have, so I asked her to try to learn them, and this is how it turned out. …the whole thing looks very Japanese and ninja-like. Is there a ‘ninjutsu’ skill?
A: “Yes, there is.”
Then, it’s decided. I’ll have Maria learn ninjutsu next time. Then I can give her more advice.
“What’s the matter, Jin? You look like you’ve made up your mind on something.”
“No, it’s nothing.”
I’ll think about Maria’s ninja-training-plan later, but for now, let’s talk about Sakura’s skill.
“That said, the way you said it earlier, it sounds like you have a few other candidates?”
“The other ones didn’t work out so well, so I’d appreciate it if you don’t ask…”
“There’s still tomorrow, and it might not be something you can learn right away, so don’t be discouraged or give up.”
“You’re right. …I’ll give it a few more tries…”
When Sakura’s story was over, we’ve decided to go to bed for the day. Of course, Dora was already asleep. She’s my body pillow for today.
ED Reminder: Dora is a loli dragonewt. Jin uses her (in her dragon form) as a body pillow every other day. She can’t talk in her human form yet, so she speaks via telepathy.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The next day was the third day of free activities.
It would be nice to take my time fishing, but I wanted to catch a big one once in a while, so we decided to start fishing with bait in the afternoon.
We prepared paste bait, not worms or insects. I took a pinch of bait from the bag and kneaded it with my fingers to make it round. Once it was formed, I attached it to the hook and dropped it into the water. The hook sank into the lake with a “pop” sound.
-Boom!
What jumped out of the lake with a loud bang was a huge snake about 10 meters long.
Sea Serpent (Rare)
LV85
Skills: <Water Magic LV7> <Aquatic LV6> <Diving LV6> <Flight LV2> <Transformation LV7>
Note: A sea-dwellling monster.
I’ve caught a monster. It’s also a pretty big one.
I’m not sure what to make of it. I think it says it lives under the sea, but this is a lake, right? Other than that, it’s level is unusually high. It’s not a monster that should be living in a lake, you know?
The Sea Serpent had the fish hook firmly stuck in its mouth and was glaring at us. It seems to have clearly determined that we were the enemy. A fish hook hurts, doesn’t it?
The Sea Serpent seemed to have decided to eliminate us instead of running away and rushed towards us. As you can see from the fact that it has the <Flight> skill, it doesn’t seem to be a monster that is completely limited to underwater.
As it approached us, it jumped up from the water and attacked us. It was 10 meters long and about the size of a telegraph pole, so it must have been pretty heavy. If an ordinary person were to be hit by it, they would not be able to escape.
So I tried to dodge it for the time being. The Sea Serpent passed right by me.
I pulled on the fishing rod a little harder.
“GYOOOOON!
The Sea Serpent made its distinctive cry and lost its stance in the air. It managed to avoid crashing and was now flying through the air, dragging me along.
But the fishing rod that Branch Manager Colette prepared was very sturdy, it won’t break, even when facing a 10-meter-long monster, and the line won’t break either.
“It’s not necessary for Jin-sama to fight a meagre monster. I will deal with it myself.”
With that, Maria stepped forward. She was fully equipped with the ‘Sunlight Sword – Sol’ in her right hand and the ‘Moonlight Sword – Luna’ in her left.
“Wait, Maria. Don’t attack it.”
“Why? It’s a monster that attacked you, Jin-sama.”
“This one is my prey. I’m gonna catch it.”
This thing was in the lake, and it bit on my hook. So it was a one-on-one battle between me and this guy. And the Sea Serpent hasn’t given in to me yet. It’s hard to say that you’ve fished him out while he’s in the air, since he seems to have the <Flight> skill. I’m not going to say that I caught it when it came at me in the first place.
Therefore, until there’s a clear winner, I can’t let Maria interfere with us.
“…I understand. I wish you the best of luck.”
Maria immediately backed off. It’s not like my life was in danger, and since Maria was nearby, she was probably more accommodating.
If we fought head on, there was no way we would lose. However, since this was a battle of fishing, if the fishing line or the rod broke, I would lose. And I’m a pretty competitive person.
“GYUOOOOOO!”
A magic circle appeared around the Sea Serpent. It’s a blue magic circle, so it’s definitely water magic.
About 10 seconds later, <Aqua Spread>, a level 3 water magic spell, was activated.
It’s a magic that causes about ten water bombs to fly out from the magic circle. Each one is larger than the ‘Aqua Ball’, so it’s hard to avoid them in tight spaces.
However, there is enough of a difference that there is no problem with getting hit by them in the first place…
“Maria, neutralize anything that doesn’t hit me.”
I don’t like it when stray bullets go flying somewhere.
“Yes.”
The moment I said that, Maria started to move and cut through everything except the ‘Aqua Spreads’ that hit me. And…
-Don! Don! Don!
Three ‘Aqua Spreads’ hit me directly.
“GYAG YAGYA!?”
“Nope, it didn’t work.”
No damage at all. As expected, there is too much difference in status.
I wasn’t sure what to make of this, but I’m guessing that the Sea Serpent just said, “How did you not get hurt?”.
“GYO!?”
The Sea Serpent had an astonished expression on its face. There was no reason to miss the opportunity, so I pulled harder than ever.
“GYOE!?”
With it’s posture collapsed, the sea serpent crashed to the ground
“Now I can finally say ‘I’ve caught it’. By the way…”
The best way to eat it, is while it’s still fresh.
I approached the fallen Sea Serpent. It’s not like the Sea Serpent is going to just let me eat it. It’s going to get up and bite me. From my point of view, it was ‘fishing’, but from the Sea Serpent’s, it didn’t matter, and of course it would attack me even after it was caught.
But think about it, what did I say to stop Maria’s attack? I stopped her by saying, “It’s fishing”. And the fishing ended with me winning just now. In other words, there is no reason to hesitate in direct combat any more.
-Gashi.
I grabbed the head of the Sea Serpent with my left hand.
“GYUON?”
The Sea Serpent was startled again. It tried to move its head, pull and push its body, but I didn’t budge. Instead, I used the composite skill, <Fear>, toward the Sea Serpent.
-Busha-!
As an aquatic monster, it seemed to have retained a large amount of water in its body. And the incontinence? I’ve never seen anything like it before. The Sea Serpent was blowing bubbles and twitching. When I got to that point, I turned off the ‘Fear’ skill.
I knew this skill was powerful. The more my status rises, the more effective it seems to be. As a side note, I let other people use the ‘Fear’ skill, but it had no effect on me at all. I thought is was due to the mental protection of the ‘Avatar’ unique skill, but according to Alta:
A: “It would have been the same, even without the ‘Avatar’.“
That’s right. I wonder how thick my liver is.
I looked at the convulsing Sea Serpent.
What should I do? I can defeat it normally, or I can tame it because it is rare. I think about it …for a bit.
“What should I do with this monster, Jin-sama?”
“I’ll decide based on what it does when it wakes up. If it attacks, I’ll kill it. If it obeys, I’ll tame it.”
“I understand.”
“Master, what are you doing?”
Dora was coming our way. It seems that she was asleep until now. When she woke up, I wasn’t there, so she came to look for me. As a side note, the sleeping Dora was being supported by the ‘Wings of the Immortal – Nosferatu’. No respect for Legendary class items…
ED Reminder: Jin’s <Flight>-granting cloak. Being a dragonewt, Dora can fly on her own, so I’m guessing she used it as a levitating hammock
“Hmm? I’ve caught this guy. I was just about to decide whether I should tame it, or turn it into a kabayaki”
“Kabayaki it is!”
“Sorry, it’s not a majority vote, it depends on how it will act once it wakes up.”
“A shame…”
Dora looked a little sad. This made me think that just going with kabayaki would also be okay, but I don’t like going back on decisions I’ve already made. I’m sorry, Dora.
After a while, the Sea Serpent woke up. Well, technically, it was still pretending to be asleep…
It’s like he was surprised that he’s still alive and kept pretending to be asleep, hoping that I might let him off the hook.
“I give life for obedience and death for hostility.”
I confront him with that one sentence. It doesn’t matter if you understand the words or not. I’m just telling you that I’m aware of what’s happening.
The Sea Serpent shuddered, got up and began to rub its head on the ground. No matter how you look at it, there’s no will left to fight.
“Kabayaki…”
Dora mumbled sadly as she realized that the kabayaki wasn’t gonna happen.
“GYAU!?”
The Great Sea Serpent in rapt submission looked around. Dora speaks through telekinesis, so it couldn’t hare her, but it seems to have gotten some chills.
I couldn’t go on like this, so I just hit it with my ‘Monster Taming’ skill.
>The Sea Serpent was tamed.
>Please give the Sea Serpent a name.
Naturally, the Sea Serpent seemed to accept the taming without resistance.
Now, before we decide on a name, let’s take a look at it’s status. Since it had nothing to do with fishing, I only took a peek at its basic description before, but now that it’s under my control, I’m curious about the details. I’m sure it’s nothing detrimental, since Alta would have said something otherwise.
Name: –
Gender: Female
Age: 694 years old
Race: Sea Serpent (Rare)
Skills: <Water Magic LV7> <Aquatic LV6> <Diving LV6> <Flight LV2> <Transformation LV7>
Title: Jin’s follower
Wow, she’s a female? And she’s quite old, isn’t she? That’s the Nushi of the Lake (provisional).
By the way, I’ve been wondering for a while now, what is this ‘Transformation’ skill?
A: “It’s a skill that allows you to change into other forms. It’s like Dora switching between her human form and her dragon form.”
Two questions. First, why does Dora not have this ‘Transformation’ skill? Second, how is it different from Tamo-san’s ‘Mimic’ skill?
A: “The answer to the first question is unknown. So far, the only monster that can take a human form and doesn’t need the ‘transformation’ skill is the dragonewt.“
If anything, was the dragonewt more special?
A: “The answer to the second question is: whether or not there is an original form. ‘Mimic’ is just imitating another object, while ‘Transformation’ is a change of form, so it is still your own form.“
Does that mean that after releasing ‘Transformation’ one returns to their original form? It does seem quite similar to how Dora’s transformation works.
“Hey, what can you change into?”
For the time being, I decided to ask her through telekinesis.
“GYAU?”
The Sea Serpent looked around.
“Try to speak to me in your mind.”
When I said that, the Sea Serpent stopped moving and closed its eyes.
“Ah, uh, uh, can you hear me?”
“Oh, I can hear you. It’s the Sea Serpent, isn’t it?”
“Yes, sir.”
She has a strange way of speaking, but her voice is clear and beautiful. I guess she has something in common with another subordinate of mine, Fiyu, who’s a musician in Estia.
“You understand that you’ve become my subordinate, don’t you?”
“Uuu… ‘sob'”
The Sea Serpent shrank a bit… It’s kind of cute.
“I know that you can change your form”
“!”
“I’ll ask you one more time. What can you change into?”
There won’t be a third time.
“Yes, yes. I can become a snake, a sea snake, a mermaid, and a human.”
There’s a surprisingly wide variety. I expected this since you mentioned Dora Lange, but it looks like she can become human too.
“Can you talk in your human form?”
“Yes, I can talk.”
“Then, take your human form.”
“I understand.”
