Itai no wa Iya nanode Bōgyo-Ryoku ni Kyokufuri Shitai to Omoimasu Chapter 33
Defense Specialization and the Contents of the Eggs
「Ohh!」
「They hatched!」
The two smiled happily.
Hatched from the dark green egg was a turtle that was a bit smaller than the egg.
Its body was the same dark green color as the egg and moved leisurely.
Hatched from the purple egg was a fox with snow-white fur.
The fox stretched a few times as if to check how its body felt, and then it began to watch its own magic, its purple flames floating softly in the air.
「Oooh… a fox out of an egg… I didn’t expect that.」
「It’s a monster, so maybe that doesn’t matter.」
As the two talked, the turtle approached Maple and the fox approached Sally.
The two nervously patted the monsters and the two critters narrowed their eyes in pleasure.
Along with that, the eggs began to glow faintly.
The glow grew stronger and stronger, and then the two eggs turned into a purple ring and a green ring, same as their colors.
The two reached out and picked them up.
「The item is called… 【Bridge of Bonds】. Equipping this allows you to fight alongside some monsters… or so it says! …Well, I don’t know if I can take this one off now.」
Sally had just explained the ring’s most important ability. Maple also checked that ability herself.
【Bridge of Bonds】
While equipped, it enables you to fight alongside some monsters.
You can only fight alongside one monster for each ring.
When the monster dies, it goes into a sleep state in the ring and cannot be summoned for one day.
Seeing as they wouldn’t disappear immediately upon death, the two were relieved.
If the specification had been like that, just sending them into battle would have been a no-no.
「Mmm… a ring, huh. My accessory slots are full, so I’ll take off 【Ring of the Forest Queen Bee】. I can recover my HP with 【Meditation】 too.」
The two put their rings on and the two critters rubbed their bodies against them happily.
「Ahaha, that tickles!」
「Mmm… the fluff…」
And so the two were playing around, when Sally noticed something.
「You can see this little one’s status, woah.」
It must have been the ring’s effect, because there was another status under their own status displays.
The two checked what was there.
No Name
Lv1
HP 250/250
MP 30/30
【STR 30】
【VIT 150】
【AGI 15】
【DEX 10】
【INT 20】
Skills
【Bite】
No Name
Lv1
HP 80/80
MP 120/120
【STR 10】
【VIT 15】
【AGI 70】
【DEX 75】
【INT 90】
Skills
【Fox Fire】
The top one was the turtle’s status and the bottom one was the fox’s.
Since they were monster’s offspring, they had quite the status even though they had just been born.
「No name means… we’ll have to give them names!」
「Oh, yeah, I guess you’re right.」
The two carefully thought about the names.
While they were thinking, the monsters were playing around with each other.
The monsters seemed to be getting along well with each other.
「Alright, I’ve decided.」
「Yup, me too!」
The two came up with the names and approached their own monsters.
The two crouched down and looked into their monsters’ eyes.
「Turtle-san’s name will be Syrup! Hee-hee-hee… together with me, it’s Maple Syrup!」
Maple was elated for no apparent reason.
The turtle must have liked the name, because it rubbed its body against her again.
One person and one critter were happily playing with each other.
「Then… how about Oboro? That no good?」
Sally said, asking the fox.
The fox seemed to be satisfied, and it jumped up nimbly and clung to Sally’s neck, wrapping itself around it.
Sally’s neck was fluffy, with a muffler and the fox there.
Amidst such a peaceful atmosphere.
Maple suddenly shouted.
A blue screen with a status display was floating in front of her.
「T-that’s!? M-maybe…」
「Hm? What’s wrong?」
Sally approached and looked at the screen curiously.
「Eh!? Ah, d-don’t look!」
「Hmm… ah, I see…」
Sally was only able to see the screen for about five seconds, but she could understand what Maple was thinking.
What Maple had open was Syrup’s status, and since she was staring at that one point in particular, Sally, observant as she is, could see what Maple didn’t want to be seen.
「Maple… how could you have an AGI lower than a turtle?」
「Uggh!!」
Syrup had 【AGI 15】, and Maple had 【AGI 0】.
「The Tortoise and the Maple, huh…」
「That sounds too much like the Tortoise and the Hare! If we compete, I’ll win all the same! My legs are longer!」
「Then… do you want to try?」
「Eh… I think I’ll pass for now… Ahahaha…」
If she were to lose, she might not be able to recover.
If that happened, she would drop min-maxing defense and increase the 【AGI】 in her status.
Maple felt that way.
She thought there was no point in going to the trouble of doing such a thing.
To say that it was only a mere escape would be an end in itself.
「Maybe their status reflects that of those who raised them to some extent? Maple and Syrup both have a defense specialization, and Oboro has great agility as well.」
「It could be.」
The two looked at the statuses of the two critters some more.
「They can’t be equipped with anything but… it looks like they can level up, huh?」
「Will they get stat points if they level up? Or will their stats grow on their own?」
They didn’t know any information in that area because it wasn’t mentioned in the rings’ descriptions.
「Do you want to try to level them up for now?」
「Ummm… I would hate for them to get hurt…」
Sally said as she touched the fox that had moved from her neck to her head.
「Then how about I go and catch some monsters?」
「Good idea… I guess. Let’s level them up with that for the time being.」
Maple told Syrup to wait for her and gave it a pat on the head and then went out of the crevice to catch monsters.
Ten minutes later.
Maple came back with bats in both of her hands.
The bats seemed unable to move, probably paralyzed.
Maple put them on the ground.
「Err… Syrup! 【Bite】!」
「Oboro! 【Fox Fire】!」
Syrup chewed through the bats’ bodies.
Oboro burned the bats with purple flames.
Red effects lit up the rift, and the bats turned into light and disappeared.
「Ah… his level hasn’t gone up.」
「Same here.」
「Maybe… these little ones are children of some pretty strong monsters. So maybe that’s why they need a lot of experience points.」
Defeating the bats would certainly raise the level for a level 1 player.
「Maybe they need more?」
「Could you do me a favor? I don’t have the skills to catch them…」
「Yup! That’s exactly what it means to be the right person in the right place! But if anything happens while I’m away, I entrust Syrup to you, okay?」
「I’ll do all I can to protect it!」
Hearing Sally’s reply, Maple headed out again.
Maple returned twenty minutes later.
She came back holding a total of eight bats.
「How should I put it, it’s just like being a parent bird.」
「It’s not that different from what they do, after all.」
*Wump-wump* she dropped the bats on the ground.
Syrup and Oboro defeated four of them each, and both critters reached level 2.
Syrup
Lv2
HP 300/300
MP 30/30
【STR 35】
【VIT 180】
【AGI 15】
【DEX 10】
【INT 20】
Skills
【Bite】 【Carapace Defense】
Oboro
Lv2
HP 85/85
MP 130/130
【STR 15】
【VIT 15】
【AGI 85】
【DEX 80】
【INT 95】
Skill
【Fox Fire】 【Fire Pillar】
「It seems like their statuses grow by themselves.」
「I guess so. I mean, they’ve grown a lot.」
A few times after that, Maple went out hunting for the two critters who had a lot of potential.
However, their levels didn’t increase because there weren’t many monsters nearby.