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Chapter 27

Death-Beckoning Cooking... ah, it got awkward all of a sudden.

The name is so straightforward.

It’s almost as if the creators of the world were warning Arleaf, saying, “Stay away from cooking.”

But at least she’s aware of how bad she is at it, so we should forgive her.

Well... I get a power-up from her cooking, so I can’t really say anything.

“The reverend from the church told us that there must be balance. For the beneficial talents she is granted, she must also be blessed with these negative traits.”

Arleaf, much like me, lives with a heavy burden.

She’s an angel to everyone around her so she doesn’t show it...

“Cohgray! Come on, now! Cheer her up and tell her that you’ll take care of it all. Tell her that you want to eat her cooking everyday!”

Shut the hell up, Pops! If you want to eat it that bad, then eat it yourself.

Arleaf’s mom grins at us while petting Muu on the head.

Can you, like, please stop your husband?

“Uhh, umm... you can remain as a Chemist if you’d like?”

To be honest, even with Arleaf as a party member, we’re not gonna do anything that much different.

Well, I mean, Arleaf is proficient in magic...

“But...”

“We’re not planning to go anywhere that dangerous anyway. How about you try it out then think of what class you want to be?”

There’s an advanced version of Chemist, right, Veno?

‘I have only heard talk of it, but I believe that Scholar and Alchemist are possibilities. Perhaps the girl’s father has chosen the Alchemist path.’

“You could also set your sights on advancing from a Chemist while you’re with me.”

“... I understand. Then while I adventure with you, I shall give thought into what I want to be.”

After hearing me out, Arleaf changes her mind and agrees with me.

I finished the pleasant lunch and got ready to leave the apothecary they call home.

“Alrighty, Cohgray, I’m leaving Arleaf in your hands.”

Arleaf’s dad, the happy drunk he is, sends me off from the counter of the apothecary and waves goodbye.

You bastard. I’ll get you back.

“Do you have any plans for afterwards, Yukihisa? If you are going to go out, please let me know.”

“I think I’m gonna go hunt in the swamp, though I didn’t take any quests.”

“In that case, I shall accompany you. I would love to see you in battle and I could also point out anything we could purchase off you.”

“Okay, let’s go afterwards then.”

“Mu!”

With that, we decided to head to the swamp to hunt.

“If you’d like, why don’t you live with us?”

Arleaf’s parents suggest with a smirk on their faces.

“Pardon me, but may I ask you to consider how Arleaf feels?”

Not only would I be a bother to them, I’d feel like they’d bother me too. They’d probably do something like bringing me to a double bed with “LOVE” stitched across the pillows.

I mean, as much as I’d love to go out with a cutie like Arleaf, I should respect how she feels.

We’ve only known each other for a few days as well.

We should at least start with a date, and progress from there.

‘Thou art prone to be bothered by the littlest things. Instead, why not just take her in one fell swoop?’

What the hell? Veno, you’re really pissing me off.

Rather, when everybody around Arleaf are pushing her so hard to get hitched, it might be even harder for her to do anything.

Think about it.

She’s always getting teased by her parents, so Arleaf gets embarrassed about stuff like this.

“... let us level up so that we may be independent one day.”

“... right.”

We leave the village early to get away from the awkwardness.

As we get close the swamp, Arleaf puts on her gas mask for safety.

“Come to think of it, we haven’t fought any monsters together before, have we, Yukihisa?”

“Now that you mention it, yeah, you’re right.”

“Mu!”

Showing off his enthusiasm, Muu takes a couple of practice-swings with his axe.

Cut it out. That’s dangerous.

“First, let’s form a party... how should our formation be?”

‘I shall show thee how to send an invitation. First, open thy status screen. Like how thou would check the status of Muu, send the girl a request to form a party.’

I do as Veno tells me to and send Arleaf the request.

As soon as I do that, she received the invitation and accepted it. It now shows that we’re in a party now.

Let’s see... I can easily see her health and mana now.

I think that’s from being in the same party.

“We’ll just stand in a regular formation, so I can watch over you. What do you think?”

“You’re right... I can’t be getting in the way of you or Muu either.”

Then Muu will take the front, I’ll get the rear, and Arleaf will be on standby close to me.

“Mu!”

“Oh? Something’s here? Lucky us.”

A pack of Terracotta Poison Zombie Dogs notices us and rushes on over.

Poison isn’t very effective against them, so I’d avoid them if I can. But since Arleaf’s here to watch us, we’ve got no choice but to fight.

Well, we’ve leveled up recently and Muu can handle these dogs on its own anyway.

“Muuuuuu!”

Muu activates War Cry, buffing his own attack, and takes a slash with his axe.

“Woof!”

A cloud of dust kicks up in the middle of the pack and a few dogs get mowed down by Muu’s charge.

I think I can take one of them down with each shot.

“Alright! Time for me to shine as well!”

I fix my posture, steady my aim, and launch two bolts. They struck the legs of two zombie dogs, pinning both to the ground.

I feel like I’m more focused than normal, my shots hitting truer than before.

“Mu!”

Muu takes advantage of the situation and instantly goes for the death blow on the two dogs.

“Bow wow!”

The remaining zombie dog, taking advantage of moment, charges at me. Before he can close the gap, I shake the crossbow up and down, reloading it, and used Poison Enchantment for Slow Poison–tipped bolts.

Thud, thud, thud. I fired three times in rapid succession with all three bolts finding their target.

With it slowed right down, Muu storms the zombie dog and finishes it off.

Wiping them out felt relatively easy.

Oh? I check the experience points gained to find nearly double what I normally get.

Arleaf’s Poison Cooking sure is amazing.

‘The bonus experience gain certainly makes thee earn more. When any living creature is slain, not all of its quintessence can be absorbed. With the bonus, thou art able to receive more of it.’

Veno goes into detail.

In games, you’d find items that boost your experience gain, so I guess it’s like that in this world as well.

‘There are accessories that aid in this way but are very expensive. It is also not a permanent bonus but instead a consumable. To recreate the same effect so simply is quite shocking.’

That’s Arleaf’s cooking for you.

I check how long the food buff lasts.

“Just about done, I think.”

As soon as I say that, Arleaf seems to have noticed something.

“Oh, I hear the wings of Spray Green Mosquitos beating. Be careful.”

“Ah, we’ll be fine. Cover your mouth so that you don’t breathe this stuff in.”

Spray Green Mosquitos either wait for their enemies to drop their guards then fly in, or they like to swarm their opponents. But whatever they want to do, they’re just small fry to us now.

As soon as the Spray Green Mosquitos buzz close, Muu scatters his spores.

Immediately after the Spray Green Mosquitos breathe in the spores, they weakly flutter around and drop dread.

We’ve gotten stronger, eh? At least that’s how I feel.

“That’s how we roll. What do you think?”

We’ve always fought in this formation.

If either of us get injured, we wait for the other person to heal up then continue fighting.

I’ll jump in a pool; Muu uses Self-Regeneration.

That’s one of our strong points—we can always fight at peak conditions.

“Just as I have been told, Muu is the vanguard and Yukihisa is the rearguard... but less so of a mage and more of a ranger.”

“The truth is that I don’t actually know how to cure poison with magic...”

Not that Veno didn’t explain it to me before, but bluntly speaking, if I don’t have the Sense, I should just give up on learning magic.

And it’s also not that I enjoy not knowing magic. I think it’d be helpful to our survival.

Veno did say with a specialty class like mine, I might have a chance later.

“With this formation...”

Arleaf starts to think hard and mumbles to herself.

She’s really serious about trying to be helpful to me.

“I had been thinking that I could heal you and Muu in battle, but since you two are both skilled in self-recovery... on the other hand, if I learn some offensive magic spells...”

‘Well, with such a small party, it would be rather dangerous if anything serious happened to thee or Muu. I understand the problem the girl has.’

“If you could fend off the enemy so that they do not draw too close, another option is for me to join Muu in the frontlines.”

I start imagining how Arleaf would fight with a knife.

Assassin style, perhaps.

“Ah, you don’t have to think so hard over it. You could just stay in the back with me.”

“I’m not too sure.”

“You could take care of harvesting, compounding, and selling if you’d like.”

I mean, since you’re a Chemist and all. It wouldn’t be right to force yourself to serve me.

“I don’t like it. It’s not as if that would be a bad idea just to advance my job... but to be a Physician like my mother...”

‘By the way, Physician is advanced from Chemist or Priest.’

That’s useful to know, but right now Arleaf’s troubled by what role she should play in our party.

‘Here are some more options to think about. Though Chemists do not have much combat prowess, they can learn Rod Sense for fighting with staff-type weapons, though that is close-quarters again. With her Medical Sense, a possibility is to throw concocted potions and poisons from the rear.’

If I were to try to explain that to Arleaf, she’d be even more bothered.

What, is her class a master of none?

‘Thou cannot compare a non-combative class to a specialist one.’