Tamer 33
BGM: Wuthering Waves - Unwritten In The Stars
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Chapter 33: The True Value of Skill
TL : Cnine
ED/PF :
Part 1
「Ah, good evening.」
「Sup, lad.」
「Gimme a buyback on these magic stones.」
I placed fifty Goblin magic stones on the counter, feeling a small sense of pride.
「Mate, that’s bloody impressive. Not a single day off, I hear? I take breaks and I’m knackered.」
「Just a coincidence.」
「Coincidence, eh? Right. And how on earth did you end up dating that receptionist? She hardly ever shows any interest in adventurers, does she?」
Eh?
If the buyback clerk knows, does that mean Sana has been talking about us dating at her workplace?
「Don’t look so surprised. You can see the reception desk a bit from the buyback counter. If you’re snuggling up there, it’s pretty obvious.」
So we had been seen. Well, there was nothing to be embarrassed about.
「Man, I’m jealous you got her to do an M-split… wait, did you already have her do it?」
「Yep. Yesterday.」
Sana shouted “Hee-hee-hey! Come on, come on!!” while doing the M-split sitting pose, which made me panic more than her.
Totally forgot my parent were hanging around at home during that chaos, didn’t I?
Mom even goes, “Sana, are you a returnee? Keep it down a notch if you’re playing games, okay?” Yeah, thanks, Mom, feeling totally mortified here.
「Well, make sure she doesn’t get away. I know how hard you've been working every day. Your efforts must have paid off. Ah—by the way, 50 goblin magic stones today make 4,000 yen.」
「Thank you.」
What a good man. From now on, I’ll call him Purchase Uncle instead of the Dude of the puchase counter.
◇◇◇
After coming home and eating dinner, I looked into monster evolution a little.
Since I wanted to evolve monsters into specific forms, I decided to search for information on how raising them affects what they evolve into…
「There’s nothing on the Nightmare Goblin… or the Saint Demon. Not a single scrap.」
At this rate, I couldn’t set a strategy for the next evolution. Guess I’ll have to proceed by trial and error.
Wasting time desperately searching for non-existent info would be inefficient, so for now I’ll focus on researching their skills.
Especially since just recently, I learned the rather iffy Monster Summon skill. It was only natural to investigate if there was any other use for it.
But...
「Why there's no info about the fricking Monster Summoning skill?」
So, either nobody’s got this skill, or someone’s hiding the info. But let’s be real—I’ve never heard of a level-200+ monster tamer. Maybe nobody actually has the Monster Summoning skill. Huh.
Speaking of Monster Summon Goblin, this skill summons goblins.
I wanted to see if the annoying rule that limits this skill to summoning only one monster per dungeon could be lifted…
「GYAN!?」
「Wait… What are you doing here?」
Right in my room, standing there like it owned the place, was the Nightmare Goblin—ugly as ever, proudly staring back at me.
Seriously, what on earth was this thing even doing here?
Honestly, monsters weren’t even supposed to step outside the dungeon—but here they are, running wild like there’s no law at all.
Were they really willing to break the rules just for a few grains of ri--- Wait a second… Could it be because I thought “Monster Summon Goblin”?
If that’s true, then this skill wasn’t some trashy gimmick. No… This might actually be a god-tier skill, working even outside the dungeon.
「GYAN!?」
「Gyan」
And now… Another one had appeared out of nowhere.
Could it really activate just because I thought about it?
At the very least, it should ask if it can activate before being used. What the hell are the skill summoned without even asking for my permission?
Well, there was nothing I could do about the ones that had already been summoned.
For now, I opened the window of my room and gave orders to the Nightmare Goblins.
「Oi, you lot! See that house across the street? Go and plant a nightmare in the mind of the lady in that window. And make sure she doesn’t catch on, understood?」
「Gyan」
「Gyagyah!」
Watching them leap from my window and cling to the opposite house’s windows, I realised that monsters, like explorers, weaken outside the dungeon—but they were still usable.
It was 12:40 a.m., and the house across the street was dark. Nobody’s awake to notice.
Even in their weakened state, the Nightmare Goblins should manage this without being spotted.
The lady across the street never closes her curtains.
Which means, theoretically, the Nightmare Goblins’ skill could work perfectly through the windowpane.
The reason I’m doing this was because every time I open my window, I end up making eye contact with the lady across the street, which was extremely annoying.
She’s probably gathering gossip for a neighbourhood chat or something.
I’ve heard she loves rumours as much as anyone, but being watched as if under surveillance really puts me in a foul mood.
Thanks to her, I now have to keep my curtains closed all the time.
On top of that, I’ve even heard rumours going around that she’s been calling me a bottom-tier explorer, so this was a perfectly justified retaliation.
「Huh? That was fast. You done already?」
「Gyagyah!」
「Gyan」
Their MP had definitely dropped. But that alone didn’t prove the skill actually worked. From my end, there was no way to check.
If the nightmare skill failed, then this whole thing would just be me wasting MP on monster summoning.
That simply would not do.
Intentional or not, I’d summoned them. And since I had, I needed to squeeze some value out of these Nightmare Goblins, or the efficiency would be awful.
「I’ll leave the window open. Don’t get caught, and keep stacking it as many times as you can. You lot don’t use MP normally anyway, so feel free to burn through all of it.」
「Gyan」
「Gyagyah!」
The nightmare skill only costs about 15 MP per use. With their total MP, that means they can trigger it over 90 times. Even if the activation rate is terrible, sheer repetition should make it work right?
Well, fine. That was enough for tonight. I’ll go to sleep.
Please, let the nightmare skill actually work…
◇◇◇
6:00 a.m. A shrill scream from the house opposite jolted me awake.
「That’s beyond inconsiderate. What on earth is that old woman thinking she's do---」
Ah. I see now.
「She might’ve had a nightmare.」
So yeah. The Nightmare skill totally worked.
I sit up in bed and what do I see? Two Nightmare Goblins squatting on my floor, peeling lint off my carpet like they’re being paid by the gram.
Looks like these idiots didn’t go back on their own.
Once summoned, they remained... Forever.
「…You’ve got to be kidding me. Put the lint in the bin.」
「Gyan」
「Gyagyah!」
On a whim, I checked their status. Both Nightmare Goblins had raised their Nightmare skill to level 4.
Feeling rather pleased with myself, I handed them a couple of rice crackers. They immediately burst into joyful hopping like children on sugar.
As a monster tamer of my level, I occasionally reward truly exceptional performance with slightly damp, borderline-stale rice crackers.
Out of curiosity, I checked my own status. My MP had completely refilled, no problems at all.
「Guess this job’s getting added to the to-do list.」
I’d thought Nightmare Goblins were only good as pack mules, but it turns out they had hidden potential. Quite useful, actually.
From tonight onwards, I’ll summon them every evening and grind their Nightmare skill.
If I could fully recover after sleeping even with fifteen of them summoned, then not doing it would be a waste.
If the Nightmare Goblins’ skill levels go up, I get to learn the MP recovery time when using MP outside the dungeon, and I could deal mental damage to the neighbour across the street, then that’s killing three birds with one stone.
If I keep showing her nightmares every night, she wouldn’t have time for gossip at all. At that point, it might even be four birds with one stone.
Eventually, I’d casually ask her, as if it was idle chit-chat, exactly what kind of nightmares she’d been having and pry into every last detail.
Ah, I should also schedule the occasional nightmare day off. Letting her rest now and then will make this skill grinding sustainable in the long run.
Besides, being woken up every morning by her loud screaming was kind of annoying, so days off work in my favour too.
She was an infuriating old woman from across the street, but I think I might be starting to like her for the first time.