Translator: P411

Editor: PalenMisha

Read at Watashi wa Sugoi Desu!

Chapter 25: Job Rank Up

I was now in Kyle-san’s father’s study.

I had been thoroughly rereading all the books that I read in a hurry before.

Now that I had read them again, I found quite a lot of interesting things written in the books. 

What I learned from the contents was that the agricultural type recipes also worked on animals. This meant that it also worked on human bodies. There was a lot of dangerous stuff here that shouldn’t be made known to the public.

Even the herbicide that dried and killed the herbs, was called [Life Withering Agent] and this item could completely dry up a human body. In fact, there was also an agent that could preserve cut flowers in the real world which was called [Preserve Agent]. The same kind of item also existed here and this item could temporarily stop the decrease in HP caused by bleeding when a person was on the verge of death. But, if the cause of the bleeding was not properly treated, HP would begin decreasing again, and he or she would suffer from terrible pain. This could be the worst nightmare for the person. All of this important information was handwritten in Kyle-san’s grandfather’s notebook and was really dangerous.

By the way, my body that had grown up suddenly went back to normal after 36 hours of game time. It seemed the effect duration depended on the drug’s rank of “medium” or “large”. After I learned of this, I secretly tried to count the days backwards to match with Vidello-san’s day off. 

Today also, Vidello-san was full of spirit, standing at the gate, greeting everyone who came to the city. 

It was the fourth day in a row that I had confined myself in this study. Since I wasn’t pressed for time, I was just reading all these books leisurely. Yesterday was Vidello-san’s off-duty day, so I asked the other gatekeeper about him, but he told me,

“Vidello was called by a superior today, so he’s not here.”

I was quite dejected, so I headed to Kyle-san’s farm instead. When Kyle-san saw the state I was in, he burst into laughter. 

“Ah, so you’re really in love with him. Oh well, do your best. But I can’t do anything but watch so~ Buwa-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!!!”

No, no, you were not just watching me, but you were enjoying this whole situation. That hearty laughter at the end made me a little depressed. 

As I pouted my lips in disappointment, Kyle-san laughed at me again. Ah, damn!

And just like that, I ended up reading books alone in this study. Reading books was fun! Learning something new was fun! It was really fun! It was still fun even if I was alone!

Even if I shouted or sulked a little, I still reached for a new book. Then, I heard a loud laugh from outside so I guessed my muttering was clearly overheard. I knew it! The window in the study was directly connected to the field! I knew I shouldn’t have said those thoughtless things. Ok, let’s stay silent and focus on work! 

While reading through all the books and glancing at my skill and recipe columns, I was able to comprehend that the recipe name will appear in gray letters in the recipe column after I had read a book containing that recipe. If I learned of the recipe contents and was able to collect all the materials, the letters would change from gray to white, informing me that I could readily make this recipe.  

In addition, I was able to learn a bunch of recipes, and now that I looked at it closely, there was something like [Flower Pharmacist] added to my job column. When I looked at its explanation, there was the description, [Higher Rank Pharmacist: One who has learned flower recipes above a certain level and, using that knowledge, will be able to do quests related to the farm]. I guessed I received this title after I got the pesticide quest and shut myself in the study to search for the pesticide recipe. 

I immediately changed my main job to [Flower Pharmacist] and set my side job to [Alchemist].

According to Kyle-san, [Flower Pharmacist] would be treated as an insider in farm-related things and it wouldn’t become a crime even if I sold items related to agriculture. I was relieved, but there was still an exception. It was fine if it was an NPC store like Crash’s, but if I sold or used these items on other people or players, I would be punished. I didn’t want to get arrested, so I decided to keep silent about this. If I get arrested, I wouldn’t be able to freely enter the city anymore and I could be caught by none other than Vidello-san so I would end up crying endlessly. 

Vidello-san was faithful to his duties so he would easily catch me. But I liked this kind of dutiful Vidello-san too. Yep, I would definitely keep this a secret. I would never show these recipes I learned here to anyone other than Kyle-san. Yep, absolutely!

One thing after another, I was able to get the speed reading skill and by the fifth day, I was able to finish reading all the books. I got a lot of recipes, but what I couldn’t make definitely outweighed what I could. Many of the materials were quite difficult to collect. Half of the materials were pharmacy-related items and the other half were mostly related to alchemy. The alchemy-related materials couldn’t be collected by anyone other than me and it was absolutely impossible for me to defeat monsters that Yuuta alone couldn’t defeat. But if the time called for it, I would request Yuuta bring me along as a party member. I couldn’t bring Vidello-san with me in collecting difficult materials because I was afraid of losing him. 

Besides, there are other things I wanted to do with Vidello-san during his off-days. I was already at that age where I wanted to do a lot of naughty things with him. 

I couldn’t wait anymore for Vidello-san’s off-day so when I passed through the gate while he was on duty, I whispered a few words to him. Then, he also whispered in my ears, “Me too,” so my face became scarlet the moment I heard his whisper. He was such an expert in love. I really like you❣️

After that, it seemed like luck was on my side as I managed to get 2 rare materials while I was searching in the forest. This must be Vidello-san’s blessing.¹

---

Today, I went out of the city in search of materials. 

This time I needed monster materials. I was trying to collect materials for farming recipes that I hadn’t made yet.

What I wanted were the quills of a porcupine monster. That monster was definitely here in this forest. I had imagined it as a cute, thorny monster.

When I actually encountered it, its round eyes with the thorny, cute appearance were still there, but it was HUGE. 

It was so huge that I had to look up to see its face. It had big and round eyes, but its eyes were the same size as my head, so it was cute but at the same time, it wasn’t cute at all. 

And I had to take its quills… Could I even defeat this thing?! I only had my items and a sword. 

Its threatening voice was also adorable! But-but those fangs were not adorable at all!!

I was desperately dodging its considerably fast biting attacks. Then, I took out my blindness potion from my bag. 

I waited for the time when he was about to bite me and threw the bottle at him!

-POW-!²

The monster suddenly turned its whole body into a round ball to defend against the attack. 

Ehhhhhh?! Was the monster immune to this item?!

I was finished…

But I couldn’t die here, so I drew my sword, but I didn’t think I’d be able to cut through those quills with my strength….!

When I cut the monster in desperation, it turned out that the quills could be cut through with my weak sword.

“Alright!”³

I renewed my spirit, held the sword with both hands, and faced the porcupine-like monster. 

“Kyuuuuu!” 

As the monster threatened me with a cute voice, I swung my sword at him.

The quill was cut with a slash. A portion of its quills was cut off and it had a bald spot now, but there was no visible injury on the bald area. 

Huh, its HP hadn’t decreased at all. It seemed my sword couldn’t reach the skin and could only cut the quills.

With a distant look, I continued attacking the monster. But, it skilfully curled into a ball to guard against my attack. But the defensive quills were gradually decreasing. Now, I was starting to feel like a shepherd. 

Now, its back was finally exposed. As I was panting hard, I noticed it was about time for my stamina to run out. I didn’t think I had enough stamina to fight a long battle. I had been attacking him for some time now but his HP wasn’t decreasing at all. This giant porcupine!  

Well, I knew I was just cutting its quills! But it shouldn’t be able to guard anymore, so I threw my blindness potion at it again.

“Kyuuuuuuuuuuuu! KyuUuuuuuu!”

“I’m glad, it’s working now!”

After hearing the porcupine-like monster crying with a loud voice, curling up, and holding its face with its short legs, I breathed out a sigh of relief.⁴

And then, I raised my sword. 

I held the sword with both hands and slashed down its side with all my might. At that moment, a loud scream came out from the monster. 

The next thing I knew, all the remaining quills on its body became like sharp spikes and were released in all directions. 

Of course, it was also released in my direction.

“Uh!”

The thick, thorn-like quills grazed my foot, pierced my arm, and pierced my flank. 

“Damn!”

I could only swing the sword with one hand, but the porcupine monster, crying and rolling, was covering its eyes without being able to fight back and fell victim to my attacks. 

Without its defense, I was able to reduce its HP with my attacks. I somehow managed to safely defeat the monster without dying. 

Then, I looked into my inventory while being pierced by the thorns….. It wasn’t there. The [Porcupine’s Quills] item that I wanted wasn’t there. Moreover, I was hit with a weak poison. Uwah… I was probably in a weak poisoned state now.

If it was a weak poison, I wouldn’t lose HP while walking, but I wouldn’t be able to recover my HP normally like recovering while walking, passing time, or taking a rest, so it was quite painful. 

I poured a High-Potion on my foot and tried to remove the quill in my arm. But with only one hand’s strength, the thorn didn’t move at all. It might be because it had pierced through from the front to the back. The arm that was pierced had no strength, so I couldn’t make an effort to remove the thorn on my flank. 

It was a relief that there was no bleeding from the pierced sites, but it was quite painful when I moved or even just looked at it. 

I didn’t get the materials I wanted and even got hurt so I was in a miserable state. 

I tried to recover my HP by drinking a potion. If I poured the potion at the pierced site, the wound would close, adhering together with the quill, so it would be quite troublesome to remove it later. Yuuta once did that and he had to gouge out his wound by himself in the end… It was quite painful just imagining it. 

“Anyway, let’s go back for now…”

For now, I was still inside the forest. Even if I stayed still here, I would just be attacked by monsters that would pop out and it would be the end for me. 

When I got back to the city, I would ask someone to pull this out. I didn’t have any sensation left in my hand.

As I began to walk slowly, I heard the rustling of grass nearby.

Surprised by this turn of events, I looked in the direction the sound was coming from. 

I didn’t see a red mark when I used the search function so I didn’t think it was an enemy or a monster. 

I stopped moving and stayed alert. 

“Uwa.. looks painful. Are you alright? Should I pull it out? Can you heal it?”

Then, a player who was wearing a robe like me suddenly appeared, pushing his way through the grass.