"Hey. You walk in front of me."
"Gyach!"
The goblin, having been tamed, started moving ahead of me.
Huh... It seems more accustomed to exploring than I am. For a lowly creature.
At any rate, I'm glad it follows orders. If it fights alongside me, I should be fine even if we encounter two goblins.
Worst case, I can use it as a decoy and run away myself.
I thought Monster Tamer was a mediocre class, but maybe it's not so bad. You simply get more numbers, so you could say it suits me, since I'm trying to operate solo.
If I formed a party with two humans, the experience points of 2 would be split into 1 each.
However, when a Monster Tamer fights with a tamed monster, if they earn 2 experience points, both the Tamer and the monster receive 2 each.
That means I don't have to split the earnings, so no complaints.
Thinking about it again, the Monster Tamer seems like a strong class if you keep adding more monsters, but compared to frontline or other backline classes, the Tamer's own combat power tends to be low, so it's apparently considered a wash.
Well, the general opinion is that if you're solo, it's more efficient to charge ahead as a frontline class. And that's probably true.
"Gyagyagya! Gyach!"
"I have no idea what you're saying."
"Gyach!"
The goblin walking in front of me started making a racket.
What is it? Is it trying to show off how lowly it is?
"It's okay. I fully understand that you're a lowly creature. You don't have to put yourself down so hard."
"Gyagyagya!"
Something's off. It doesn't seem like it's trying to show off being lowly.
Is it hungry? Does it need to poop? None of those feel right. Will I be able to understand once its level is higher?
Even if I can give orders to a monster, not being able to understand what it says is another drawback of the Monster Tamer.
Not that I care what a lowly creature has to say.
"What is it? Did you find an enemy?"
But there's no enemy in sight.
"Gyach! Gyach!"
"Behind me!?"
A goblin that wasn't my ally had crept up right behind me.
I swung my wooden sword reflexively and it easily hit the enemy goblin. I must have hit it on the head, because it went down in one blow.
Blood's streaming from its head, so it looks painful. Actually, I got experience points, so it's probably dead.
"That was seriously close."
By the way, the goblin gave 6 experience points.
"Sorry about that. I thought you were just showing off how lowly you are."
"Gyagyach!"
I haven't the faintest idea what it's saying.
"Surprise attacks are scary on this floor. Let's go back to the first floor."
"Gyach."
I decided to level up on the first floor.
If I get hit by a surprise attack here and get injured, my exploration speed will drop. I can't afford hospital bills before I even level up or earn money.
I could place the goblin behind me, but I don't want such a gross creature walking behind me.
---
I spent some time hunting slimes on the first floor.
When I defeated the seventh slime of the day, I heard a ping sound in my head.
"Status."
Status
Name: Sakura Kikyo
Class: Monster Tamer
Lv: 2
HP: 14 (Up 2)
MP: 19 (Up 4)
SP: 1
Skills
Monster Taming 1
Tamed Monsters
Goblin Lv2
Experience to Next Level: 30
Just as expected of a backline class. HP only increased by 2. They say a frontline class would get an increase of 4 or 5.
I'm sure my strength and defense, which don't appear in the stats, have gone up too, but it's hard to tell since they aren't shown numerically. Still, my wooden sword feels a bit lighter, so I think my strength has increased.
And then there's the SP stat.
This is a Skill Point, used to raise the level of skills you have. I could put it into a strong skill if I had one, but I only have Monster Taming.
If I put it into this, I can tame more monsters, so it simply increases the number of monsters I can use and makes activities easier.
"I'll go ahead and raise Monster Taming."
I put the SP into Monster Taming 1 and made it Monster Taming 2.
Now I can use more monsters. Also, my goblin's level had gone up without me noticing.
When I checked the monster's status, it seemed it had the same amount of experience as me at the time we met, so we leveled up together.
It's lucky for me since it directly adds to my power, so I'll take it as a win.
"Next, I'll catch a slime."
If I prioritized strength, I'd probably choose goblins, but exploring surrounded by goblins is tough.
Because they stink.
Goblins are a representative monster that's easy to catch and reasonably mobile.
A beginner Monster Tamer can tame them without too much trouble, and they're fairly useful. However, they also rank number one on the list of monsters tamers don't want to use.
The reason, in short, is because they stink.
"Hey. Can't you do something about that smell?"
"Gyagyach."
"I see."
I don't understand.
I really don't feel like I can connect with this thing. Probably because it's unspeakably ugly. Well, it's not actually human anyway.
After this, I added a slime to my party and continued leveling up on the first floor, raising my own level to 3.
Even so, it feels great to directly experience your stats increasing. Leveling up is more fun than I expected, and I feel like I could get hooked on it.
I don't even care about money anymore. I just want to keep leveling up and live a fun, interesting life with my boosted stats.
For now, I'll put the SP into Monster Taming 2... and there.
"Alright, it's getting late. I'll call it a day for exploring."
Status
Name: Sakura Kikyo
Class: Monster Tamer
Lv: 3
HP: 17 (Up 3)
MP: 22 (Up 3)
SP: 0
Skills
Monster Taming 3
Tamed Monsters
Goblin Lv3, Slime Lv2
Experience to Next Level: 40
---
"I'd like to sell these."
"Okay. That's 22 slime magic stones and 1 goblin magic stone, for a total of 1,180 yen."
So cheap. Way too cheap. So a slime magic stone is 50 yen and a goblin magic stone is 80 yen?
No wonder people quit right away, saying you can't make money.
They say it takes a fair number of days before dungeon exploring becomes profitable.
Especially for backline classes, since partying up is essential, after splitting the money they earn, they apparently make less than a part-time job until they reach intermediate level.
"It's fine since this is your first time, but from next time please use the buyout counter."
"Ah, okay."
The lady at the reception desk might really not be interested in me.
Even though this is the depopulated Aomori Dungeon with barely a soul around, she still says stuff like that. Well, maybe it's just the rules.
She might not be interested, but I'll at least show off my results.
"I made it to level 3 today."
"Congratulations."
Her reaction was more ordinary than I expected.
Maybe leveling up at my pace isn't that rare. In that case, my attempt to show off probably looked to her like a boring comedian bombing.
"Was that not a big deal?"
"I think it's fast for a solo Monster Tamer."
"What about a frontline class?"
"Average."
Average.
"Average for a frontline class..."
That means even though I'm a backline class, I'm working about as hard as a frontline class.
I'll keep working hard tomorrow to impress her... No, never mind. I'm about to work hard in Aomori Dungeon, and I can't stand the thought of annoying the reception lady.