Rank C Monster

October rolled around, and Allen turned nine.

As always, he was waiting in front of the city gates by six in the morning. Today, he was wearing the mantle he had just bought at the armorer's. He had asked for its length to be adjusted, so there was no worry of him tripping over it.

"Hey there, lad! Nice mantle you're wearing."

"Thank you, sir. I bought it the other day."

The guard and Allen, whose relationship went all the way back to November of the previous year, chatted the way they always did.

'This mantle really was a good choice. I like how easily I can put it on, and it keeps my hands free.'

Allen gave his arms a shake, confirming that he could move normally.

CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!

Soon the gates opened with the ringing of the bell, allowing Allen to run through. Whereas he used to hunt roughly a day's walk away, his plan today was to go three days' walk away.

'Good, the mantle's not getting in my way even when I run. Now, I didn't get to buy a new weapon, but how would this go?'

After visiting the armorer's, Allen had also dropped by a weapons store. However, the sword that caught his eye was too expensive for him at the moment. He was the kind of person who would rather wait to buy what he actually wanted instead of compromising and buying something inferior.

However, he was open to considering getting a new weapon if his Summons, short sword, and iron balls proved ineffective today.

Sebas had called him yesterday, saying, "This month marks your one-year anniversary of joining our family. It's a bit early, but we'll be raising your salary as a manservant to the normal value for an adult, one gold." Together with his salary as a huntsman, Allen now earned one gold and fifty silver every month.

Allen's first thought when hearing this was, 'It's already been a year? Time sure flies.' He had wondered if the hunting party in Krena Village had already begun this year's hunts and had thought about his family and Krena.

While running, Allen got out his grimoire to look at his stats, which had gone up again on his birthday, October 1.

He never got tired of looking at his Status. He thought he could probably just stare at it for hours and hours straight. More so when it went up.

___

Name: Allen

Age: 9

Class: Summoner

Level: 24

HP: 553 (615) + 140

MP: 846 (940) + 200

Attack: 298 (332) + 140

Endurance: 298 (332) + 20

Agility: 560 (623) + 60

Intelligence: 855 (950) + 40

Luck: 560 (623) + 200

Skills: Summoning {4}, Creation {4}, Synthesis {4}, Strengthening {5}, Expansion {3}, Storage, Deletion, Sword Mastery {3}, Throwing {3}

XP: 194,810/600,000

Skill Levels

Summoning: 4

Creation: 4

Synthesis: 4

Strengthening: 5

Skill Experience

Creation: 291,700/1,000,000

Synthesis: 281,640/1,000,000

Strengthening: 200/10,000,000

Creatable Summons

Insect: E, F, G, H

Beast: E, F, G, H

Bird: E, F, G

Grass: E, F

Stone: E

Holder

Insect: E x 2

Beast: E x 14

Bird: E x 4

Grass: E x 20

Stone:

___

Up until now, in order to maximize his Skill XP, Allen had always spent almost all his MP, leaving only around 30, in the morning before heading out to hunt goblins.

Today, however, he had not done so, leaving himself in perfect condition—after all, he had no idea what would happen. After confirming how much MP he would actually use fighting Rank C monsters, he would then gradually lower the amount he left available in the coming weeks.

Now that Strengthening had reached Lvl. 5, it buffed the Summons by +200 in the same two stats they boosted for Allen. It had been +100 in the previous level, which meant the effect had been doubled. This was one of the reasons why Allen decided to attempt challenging Rank C monsters.

***

After several hours of running later, Allen looked around to confirm whether he had reached where he wanted.

'I've been running for a while now. Is this place right? Hawkins, come on out.'

Four Bird Es appeared overhead, crying, "Piiii!" in unison.

'Umm...there should be large ants covered in round armor called armored ants, and some piglike figures walking on two legs called orcs around here.

'Search as far as ten kilometers in all four directions. If you can't find any, go further. Find me one of either kind wandering around alone by itself.' The four Summons cried out once more, then scattered.

Allen's targets for today were monsters that Raven had told him about the other day: the armored ant and the orc.

There were plenty of other Rank C monsters—such as the death spider—but they were much harder to find, being significantly rarer, and much more troublesome to kill, as they used special abilities like poison and paralyzing agents.

Armored ants and orcs supposedly often roamed in groups of two to three. Allen's instruction, however, was to look for ones that were by themselves. This seemed to be a rather strict requirement, seeing as how no Hawkins was back even after thirty minutes.

'I guess it really is hard to find ones that are alone. I've been waiting quite a while, even though the Bird Es should be much faster than before thanks to Strengthening.'

Eventually, as Allen was in the middle of his thoughts, one Hawkins finally came back. It had apparently discovered an armored ant ten kilometers away.

Allen then ran in the direction it indicated until he found a three-meter-tall monster with what looked like the head of an ant and the body of a pillbug.

'I had expected it to be protected by a round shell—I guess "armor" would be a more fitting name?—but this was not what I had imagined. The only ant-like part is its head? I should definitely avoid the pincers. So this is the kind of monster Raven was talking about in his story.'

Whereas the pincers on the monster's jaw did indeed look very vicious, its body looked like a very sturdy salad bowl flipped over.

'Now, how am I supposed to kill this thing? Its head is the only part not protected by its armor. Well, let's start off siccing all my Tamas on it. Tamas, go!'

In response to Allen's command, fourteen saber-toothed cats appeared, surrounded the armored ant, then spammed their Ability, Claw.

'They're barely even scratching the armor. None of the attacks are getting through the head either, which means it must also be pretty tough.' Allen analyzed the fight from behind a tree.

Apparently the Tamas could not harm even the monster's sole unprotected part. The sound of claws scratching hard surfaces filled the air.

The armored ant was hardly just taking all the attacks idly. It snapped its pincers, which were more than a meter each in length, to counterattack. The Beast Es could not withstand these attacks and gradually dwindled in number.

Every time that happened, Allen used his magic stones and MP to create a new one and called it out, but he soon determined this strategy to be ineffective.

'All right, I gotta take another approach. Agehas, come out! Use Scale Powder.'

Leaving the Beast Es to continue their attack, Allen added two Insect Es to the fight—he needed two for their Ability to be effective on a Rank C monster.

These one-meter-tall butterflies flapped their wings, covering the armored ant's head with their yellow powder.

The effect was immediate, as the head drooped and became motionless. The monster had fallen asleep.

'Nice, so it works on Rank C monsters too! Insect E's Ability really is useful.'

Allen walked up to the armored ant—giving the pincers a wide berth—and circled it to get a comprehensive look.

'Hmm, there are a ton of scratches left by the Tamas' attacks, but it's all just surface level.'

The conclusion that Allen arrived at after careful examination was that Tama really was inappropriate for killing armored ants.

'Well, let's kill this monster before it wakes up.'

Allen reached down low, right where the armor barely scraped the ground. Then, with a "Hngh!" he flipped the armored ant onto its back.

'That was heavy, but not as much as I'd imagined. Since this is an insect, I bet it's all empty inside. Makes sense that armor made out of this is light.'

According to Raven, the armor of an armored ant, due to being extremely sturdy and light, was very highly prized and used in many adventurers' armor.

Allen carefully climbed over the side of the overturned shell, making sure he did not lose his balance. It turned out the rest of the monster's body inside the shell looked like that of a normal ant, just writ large. There were six legs growing from its torso and it had a short and stout abdomen.

Without further ado, Allen scrambled to the torso and brought his sword down on the joint where the monster's head and torso were connected, figuring this was the softest part of its body. To his surprise, however, all the strength that he plunged down with bounced right back up. A short sword worth fifty silver was apparently insufficient for harming the body of an armored ant.

'Damn, that's tough! If I keep this up, I'll chip this sword that Dogora gave me. It's just not sturdy nor sharp enou— Ah, it woke up!'

The ant seemed to have woken up from Allen's attack. It started flailing its barbed legs furiously. Allen continued cutting away at the joint he thought was a weak point while taking care that none of the legs got him.

More than ten minutes later, the short sword finally stabbed deep and the monster's previously frenzied flailing slowed down until it stopped altogether.