The well-Balanced Yamamoto-san Gets Caught up in a Death Game

Chapter 4

After raising my Stamina to 27, all my other stats also increased to 27, resulting in a perfectly balanced set of attributes with no weak points…

Balance is amazing!

Hello there. I’m Yamamoto, the lonely status comedian.

By the way, when I increased my HP and tried casting [Heal Light], I was able to recover HP normally.

It seems certain that in this game, Dullahans are indeed treated as fairies.

So now, I’m cautiously moving through the forest, using [Appraise] on everything around me without discretion.

My goal is to reach the town where I can receive the tutorial!

And with that, I’ll log out for today!

What about the status problem, you ask? I’ve given up on thinking about it because it’s just ridiculous at this point.

I’m sure I’ll end up reporting it to the administrators and getting a rollback anyway. So I’ve decided not to worry about it.

Incidentally, the reason I’m constantly using [Appraise] while moving is that there’s a [Potion Creation] skill under the [Synthesis] skill, which apparently requires [Medicinal Herbs] as an ingredient. I’m searching for those.

Yeah. I think I’m probably seeing them, but my [Appraise] level is so low that when I use it on the wild grass around me, it only shows up as [Grass?].

So, I’m sitting on the driver’s seat of the carriage, enthusiastically using [Appraise] over and over to raise my skill level.

By the way, although the carriage is moving, I’m in a stationary state, so my MP natural recovery rate is fast, and I don’t run out of MP.

Well, monsters occasionally attack, so my MP isn’t always at full, though.

Oh, by the way, my level has increased to 3 now!

Heh heh heh, you’re wondering what happened to those terrifying horned rabbits (their official name was Horn Rabbit. How literal…)?

The [Earth Magic] skill [Sandy Soil] turned out to be super useful!

When I turned the ground under the horned rabbits’ feet into sandy soil with [Sandy Soil], they clearly couldn’t charge at me anymore and their movements became sluggish. So I taught them a little lesson, you know?

Horned rabbits are nothing to me now! Hahaha!

I mean, with all my stats nearly doubling, of course I wouldn’t fall behind some small fry rabbits.

Well, my fighting style is still clumsy, though.

Even so, it feels like the brute force of high stats is justice, you know?

“I guess I’ll log out after reaching town today.”

I’ve been wandering through the forest for six hours already.

I’m getting sick and tired of this gloomy scenery. It’s questionable how quickly one can get bored of it, precisely because it’s just like reality.

I mean, I really want to see some medieval European-style townscapes already!

So, as I was driving the carriage along…

“Gyaasu!?”

I never thought I’d run over someone…

■□■

What I ran over with the carriage was… a small winged lizard?

Or maybe it’s a dragon?

Whatever it is, it’s fallen over in a stunned state, probably because it got hit by the carriage.

I see. So running something over with a carriage puts the target in a stunned state. This could be useful for a hit-and-run strategy against weak monsters.

“Well, I guess I should bury this little lizard to hide the evidence…” “Hey! What are you saying such scary things for!?”

Tch, looks like the stun effect has worn off. I shouldn’t have spent so much time observing it.

“Why are you clicking your tongue! That attitude after running me over is too much!”

“Now, now, Mr. Lizard. Calm down.” “I’m not a lizard! I’m a dragon! A Fairy Dragon, a small dragon! Cute, right?” “You’re calling yourself cute?”

Speaking of Fairy Dragons…

Wasn’t there a monster like that in a certain national RPG…?

“Anyway, you’re a player, right?” “That’s right. I, who had such a romantic encounter, am a player.” “I see. Running late with bread in your mouth, rushing around a corner, and BAM! Hit by a carriage… That’s not romantic at all! Are you mocking me?” “You’ve got a good sense of humor.” “You’re the one who made me act like this, aren’t you!?”

The tiny dragon glares at me with angry eyes.

Yeah. It pains me to admit, but it’s pretty cute.

“But man, you’ve really overdone it with your face… How much of a beauty did you make yourself?” “Why, thank you. But my face is unedited… Too bad!” “Horse carriage! Someone who’s modified their carriage that much wouldn’t leave just their face unedited!”

I see. Thinking normally, no one would put less effort into designing their own avatar.

Nice. Let’s go with that.

I actually ran out of energy after designing the weapons, armor, carriage, and coffin.

“The carriage is unedited too.” “In that case, my dragon face would be unedited too! Wait, why do I need to counter that? This is ridiculous!”

The first player I’ve encountered turns out to be quite fun. Well, I’m glad they’re not an unpleasant person. If I’d had an unpleasant encounter right away, I might have logged out and not come back for a while.

“Well, whatever. My name’s Tatsu. As you can see, I’m a monster player. What about you?” “Yamamoto. I look like a human player, but I’m actually a Dullahan. Look.”

I detach my head with a pop, and Tatsu-san jumps back about three meters in surprise.

“Whoa!? That scared me! What’s that! You’re not human at all!” “I just wanted to say that I’m also a monster player.”

I reattach my head to my neck with a pop and twist it to secure it.

Now my head won’t come off easily!

“Oh, so you’re a monster player too. …Well, that’s troublesome.” “Troublesome? Why?” “According to my prediction, there’s a town up ahead.”

Yeah, that’s my prediction too.

I mean, there’s been an arrow pointing the way in the corner of my vision this whole time.

“And if that town turns out to be a human settlement, there’s a high chance that non-humans like us won’t be allowed in.” “That would be troublesome.”

To engage in production activities, you need tools for alchemy, blacksmithing, and such. Not being able to enter a town to buy these small but essential tools would be critical.

“Well, Yama-chan might be able to enter since you look human-like.” “Yama-chan?” “It’s a nickname. Player names can be hard to pronounce, so I give people nicknames that are easier for me to say.” “I see.”

That’s true, there are often names online that are so elaborate you don’t know how to read them.

“Anyway, if the town ahead is a human town, I was thinking we’d need to be accompanied by a human player to vouch for us to get in.” “I wonder if there are any human players around?” “Who knows. I’m not sure. You’re the first player I’ve met, Yama-chan. I haven’t seen any others yet. …But you might be able to go in. What do you want to do? Want to try?”

Well, it’s not like we’ll be picked on for a fight just for trying to enter the town. If it doesn’t work, we’ll probably be turned away or at least given an explanation.

Besides, it doesn’t make sense for the tutorial arrow to point to a place we can’t enter.

So, I think we might be worrying too much, and there might just be a monster town normally.

“Isn’t there a possibility that it’s just a normal monster town?”

“Yeah, we can’t rule out that possibility.” “Then why don’t we just go and see before we decide?” “That’s true. We won’t get anywhere just speculating…” “Well, since we’re heading to the same place, want to go together?” “In the carriage that ran me over…?”

Those eyes look like they have something to say.

But I completely ignore it.

For now, I’ll emphasize the convenience.

“It’s comfortable~ Players are in a stationary state, so natural recovery speed increases, and we can run over monsters.” “That’s how I almost ended up respawning… Well, fine. In that case, I’ll take you up on that offer. Honestly, my HP is in the red zone and I’m struggling.”

Is this an unexpected proof of the usefulness of the hit-and-run attack?

“What’s with that smug face… I should warn you though. My stats are paper-thin, okay? You’d better not count the carriage as a weapon!”

By the way, when HP drops to critical in one hit, you get stunned as a bonus.

Oh. So it wasn’t a special effect of the carriage’s hit-and-run attack…

Feeling a bit deflated, I helped Tatsu-san onto the driver’s seat and hurried towards the town.

■□■

“You know, I may not look it, but I was an alpha tester.”

While riding in the carriage, fighting monsters, and chatting with Tatsu-san, he suddenly came out with this confession.

I had been sensing deep knowledge and experience in how he said things like “I chose monster races because they can evolve,” and in his flawless way of fighting monsters. It seems he had experience playing the game during its development stage.

“It was just a part-time job though. The kind where you find bugs and report them to the developers.” “Ah, so that’s why you seem so familiar with fighting monsters.”

Normally, I’d think it would be difficult to move around when suddenly becoming a quadrupedal creature. Moreover, Fairy Dragons are almost always flying, so you’d need to focus all your energy on controlling your posture in the air. And then accurately attacking monsters’ weak points while dodging their moves by predicting their actions – that should be impossible for a beginner who’s just started.

“Yeah, that’s right. Though I ended up quitting partway through.” “Why’s that?” “There were just too many bugs… No matter how many I reported, it never ended…”

I have way too many suspicions about this…

“Well, it was tough back then, but the fact that they managed to release the game means they must have reduced the critical bugs somewhat. Looking back now, it’s a good memory.”

Come to think of it, I feel like I read in an online article that this game didn’t publicly recruit beta testers.

At that time, I had just accepted it after seeing comments about non-disclosure agreements, an amazing development team, or a group of professional test players. But now, it sounds quite suspicious.

Well, online games do improve while they’re being operated, and the realism and freedom of this game are far beyond any VRMMORPG I’ve experienced before. So hopefully, they’ll improve things while players are focused on those aspects.

“By the way, is it true that this game reproduces taste as well?” “You bet it does. The fancy food that nobles eat is delicious on a whole new level of taste!” “Wow, I’d love to try it…”

Maybe I should even consider taking the [Cooking] skill and cooking for myself?

It would be fun to cook with unknown ingredients and enjoy discovering what they taste like.

“Well, having taste reproduced isn’t all good things. If there’s a high end, there’s also a low end.” “Low end… Don’t tell me, Tatsu-san, you’ve tasted the low end…?” “Unfortunately, it was part of the test items… It was so bad it could make you lose your sense of taste, so be careful…” “I hope being careful is enough, but… If it’s an ingredient I’ve never seen before, I might eat it out of curiosity…”

Chatting away with Tatsu-san about this and that, we wandered through the forest.

Well, my carriage is pretty big, you know.

When you try to choose a path that doesn’t destroy the forest, you end up taking quite a detour.

Even so, in less than two hours, we could see impressive castle walls that would make your neck hurt from looking up at them.

“Tatsu-san, I think this isn’t a human town?” “Those walls look too ominous. I bet it’s a monster town, don’t you think?”

The ones doing entry checks at the gate are armored skeletons too.

No matter how you look at it, it’s not a human town.

“Ah, I should put away the carriage soon.” “You can still use carriages in town, you know?” “No, this carriage has some complicated conditions.”

So, we went back near the forest, and I ran over a plump, poisonous-looking frog with the carriage.

The frog flipped over and seemed to enter a stunned state.

“I pronounce your death sentence!”

▶You have pronounced a death sentence on the Poisonous Pseudo-Salamander.

It clearly looks like a frog, but its name is Pseudo-Salamander. Maybe there are monsters that actually look like real salamanders too.

“Take this, [Fireball]!”

And so, I quickly blasted magic at the immobilized Pseudo-Salamander.

I could attack directly, but the town is right in front of us, and I need to use magic to level up my skills!

The fireball launched with my incantation hits the Pseudo-Salamander and continues to burn its body. It seems that there’s also ongoing flame damage.

“Oh? Yama-chan uses magic too?”

Tatsu-san, being a small Fairy Dragon, mainly uses magical attacks rather than physical ones.

Moreover, since he’s specialized in magic-related stats, his magical damage seems higher than mine.

Well, I can’t see the exact numbers, but I judged this based on his flashier damage effects compared to mine.

He might even have a unique skill related to magic.

“If you’re using attack magic, it’s better to get [Dark Magic] too. There are spells in [Dark Magic] that can lower the enemy’s magic defense.” “Ah, yeah. I do have [Dark Magic].” “Oh, you’re well-prepared. That’s good.”

Actually, I got it automatically, but I won’t mention that.

The Pseudo-Salamander, writhing from the ongoing flame damage, finally stops moving. Hunt complete.

▶Death sentence successfully executed.

▶Gained 12 experience points. ▶Gained 10 reward stones.

▶[Balance] has been activated. 　Adjusting the balance of acquired items.

▶Additionally gained 2 reward stones.

Yeah. The death sentence was successful, so the summoned carriage disappeared.

“What? The carriage disappeared!?” “It’s that kind of skill.” “What a strange skill…”

Well, the conditions are weird, but this skill is convenient in its own way.

“Shall we head to town then?” “Yeah. First, I want to update my equipment after we receive the tutorial.” “Is there equipment that fits Tatsu-san’s body…?” “Well, it’ll probably have to be custom-made…” “In that case, should I make it for you?” “Huh? Yama-chan, can you make equipment?” “I’m aiming to be a production class, so I’ve taken skills like [Blacksmithing].” “For someone aiming to be a production class, you’ve taken two types of magic too? If you don’t use your SP carefully, you’ll regret it later, you know?” “Of course. Actually, I wasn’t planning on joining a party, so becoming a jack-of-all-trades was unavoidable.”

At this point, it’s less about being a jack-of-all-trades and more about becoming an all-rounder, isn’t it?

It’s all because of that Unique Skill called [Balance]!

“Well, it’s not good to nitpick about other people’s builds, so I won’t say any more… Also, I’m planning to get leather equipment, so your [Blacksmithing] skill won’t work, right? You’ll probably need skills like [Sewing] or [Leatherworking].”

Ah. I was thinking about making metal armor and swords for myself (a Dullahan), so I hadn’t considered leather armor.

But considering things like wrapping leather around handles, maybe I should get [Leatherworking] too?

I wish there was someone knowledgeable about production who could advise me…

“Well, even if I ask you for equipment, it’ll be after we gather materials. For now, I’ll just make do with something cheap.” “Sorry if I was being pushy.” “It’s fine. Production class aspirants are rare, so it’s good to have a connection with you, Yama-chan.”

Is the production class really that rare?

Well, maybe it’s quite unusual to be a production class on the monster side.

Normally, people would choose production classes on the human side, I guess.

Could this possibly be a niche industry…?