Archery Skills

「A bow?」

「Yeah, it will probably become difficult for Kizuna-kun, who is not very good at fighting, to fight together with Shouko-kun and Tsumugi-kun inside the dungeon. So it might not be a bad idea to learn archery in order to focus on support, what do you think?」

A bow, huh… Now that I think about it, I remember hunting was included in the pioneering work.

It might not be a bad idea to go hunting with the Peckles.

If I learn things like traps at the same time, I can secure food sources other than fishing.

I don’t want to become stronger by defeating monsters, but rather secure meat by hunting with pitfalls and traps.

Dismantling will also come in handy then… Yeah, it might be good.

「Learning magic is also an option, but which do you think is better? In that case, I’ll make you a weapon for magic.」

「Hmm…」

As for magic… there are quite a few prerequisites for skill acquisition, so there’s no room to allocate points to hobbies like fishing.

In other words, it’s heavy on skills and energy.

In that sense, archery and the like might be better.

Traps seem interesting, and I’m also interested in basket fishing.

Both fishing and traps seem to be involved.

While I was working on Fishing Mastery, the acquisition conditions became visible.

「If I have to choose between magic or archery, I’ll go with archery.」

There are few magic users, so learning it wouldn’t be bad, but then it would put even more pressure on my skills.

If I were to seriously commit to it, that would be fine, but as a hobbyist, I don’t need it.

「Huh? I can learn archery skill.」

But I’ve never used a bow before, have I?

Is it derived from something?

「You used a ballista together with Sheryl when fighting on the ship, right? Maybe the experience from that?」

「Ah, I see.」

If it also improves the effects of the ballista, that wouldn’t be bad.

Well, I’ll go ahead and learn it.

So I allocated some points to the archery skill.

「I just need to draw the bowstring and release the arrow, right?」

I’ve never held a real bow before.

That said, just like with Fishing Mastery, learning it will probably apply accuracy bonuses and such.

「That seems to be the case. I think Kizuna-kun will be able to use it well. The key is to be aware of shooting from a relatively safe place. In this game, there’s no friendly fire, so you can just keep shooting as long as you have arrows.」

Ah, I see, no need to worry about hitting Shouko or Tsumugi.

「There’s no damage, but there is a slight knockback effect, so keep it moderate.」

「With that in mind, we’ll take it slowly.」

And so, we decided to go to the dungeon for resource gathering.

And while we were at it, level up, or rather, earn energy.

Sheryl ended up joining us.

With Shouko and Tsumugi’s guidance, we started from the 80th floor underground.

I feel a little tense, considering I used to wander around the 2nd and 30th floors.

「While the monsters may look the same, their strength is on a completely different level, so please be careful.」

「That said, there’s not that much difference compared to around the 60th floor.」

「Yes, yes.」

「Onii-chan just needs to support us from the back with arrows.」

「Got it!」

And so, as Shouko and Tsumugi fought the groups of monsters, I provided support fire from a distance with my arrows.

As usual, Sheryl was keeping a safe distance, stabbing with her harpoon.

Or rather… Shouko and Tsumugi seem to be quite accustomed to combat in the dungeon, mowing down the emerging monsters one after another.

I can really feel the difference in combat sense between them and me in our reactions.

As I repeated the process of shooting from the safest spot possible with my arrows, my Bow Mastery proficiency increased, so I allocated some points to it.

Thinking I could just lower the level if it became unnecessary, I raised it, and the damage I could deal gradually increased, making the bow feel lighter.

With the energy Shouko and Tsumugi earned, I was able to accumulate enough to equip the Inferior Ancient Dress, so I put it on.

「Woah, that gothic design looks great on you!」

「You know Tsumugi, I don’t really feel happy when you say a dress suits me.」

「Oh come on, you’re actually happy about it, aren’t you?」

…Annoying.

A real-life little sister really is a formidable foe.

Why did I add her to the party in the first place?

No, didn’t she stow away on her own?

Well, whatever. It’s all in the past.

I’m the one who called her to this island after all.

But that doesn’t mean I won’t talk back.

「I’d be fine with something more like overalls or a country-style outfit. I’m an angler, after all.」

「Ehh! That’s a waste!」

Noisy!

That said… Shouko was right, I did reach my energy limit, and the Energy Limit Break skill appeared.

For now, I’ll acquire it up to level II since I can allocate points to it.

Skill-wise it can’t be helped, but it consumed quite a lot of mana.

「Kizuna-san, it suits you.」

「…Yeah.」

Shouko and Sheryl complimented how I looked after changing.

I don’t really care too much about appearances though.

Hmm… It does seem to apply a fishing bonus.

It says Fishing Power +50.

I’m not sure how much of an effect that is, but I should test it out by fishing later.

「I wonder what kind of performance this equipment has?」

It’s about five times better than the equipment Shouko gave me before.

「Then why don’t you get hit by a monster once and see? You got hit earlier too, right?」

「Ah… it was quite painful.」

I’m shooting from a safe spot with my bow, but I still get hit sometimes.

No matter what, this is below the 80th floor underground, so one hit from a monster is painful.

It will incur some damage, but I have to be prepared for that if I want to know how much the damage is reduced.

So I decided to intentionally take an attack from a monster that came out.

Like before, I took the charge from a Citrus Jelly.

Pechi…

「…」

The damage was so low!?

I pummeled it with the Cerberus Slaughter and finished it off.

I managed to force a positive outcome through sheer force!

「Woah!」

「Amazing! It didn’t hurt at all! I can trample small fry!」

「I can see the performance is high, but Kizuna-san…」

「Onii-chan, there’s a thing called manner of speaking, you know.」

「Shouko, why don’t you try wearing this and fighting? Wouldn’t it be more efficient if the enemies became small fry? I’ll use Shouko’s equipment!」

「Well, that’s a tempting offer, but please use it, Kizuna-san. I have a decent amount of defense myself.」

「Rather, it’s strange why Onii-chan continued to use old armor for so long, even though he’s a gamer to a certain extent.」

Ku…

For spirits, damage calculations are complex thanks to separate accessories like Stone of Mediation!

And the equipment Shouko gave me was already quite good, that’s part of the reason too.

Rather than constantly upgrading piece by piece, it’s better to upgrade all at once so you can really feel the increase in power!

I did properly reinforce my equipment in the first wave, didn’t I!

「You were managing during the ship battles too… It’s true that our equipment from back then is becoming unreliable at this level of difficulty.」

「The downside of suddenly reaching this high level, huh? Well, if we can manage, that’s good. In that sense, spirits do have an advantage.」

「…I suppose.」

「Well, in that case, if we don’t have to be conscious of protecting Kizuna-san, we can move further forward and attack more as well.」

「But Onii-chan, you can’t just stand there defenseless against a boss, or it’ll really hurt, you know.」

「I know!」

And so, we delved deeper into the dungeon.

Eventually, we arrived at the 100th floor underground.

There’s some sort of heavy-looking door here.

「The boss is beyond this point.」

「Since this is an instant dungeon, we can just re-enter if we die and revive, right?」

「Yes.」

「By the way, what kind of boss is there? I can’t really tell from Tsumugi’s equipment.」

The scythe made of what looks like obsidian material is kind of catching my eye.

Judging from her performance so far, it seems to have quite a bit of attack power, but…

「It’s a Dragon Zombie, Onii-chan. It’s pretty big, so even Onii-chan should be able to hit it from a distance.」