High-Speed Leveling; The Use Of 【Alchemy】 And 【Synthesis】 (2)

Hey, Shun here!

I've always loved to see my level go up every time I look at my status. Thus, grinding became ingrained in my body, kind of like a habit for me every time I play a game.

It's tedious, I know, but it could also be fun as well. Coming up with strategies to make the hunt more and more efficient is one of the things I like to do when I grind.

In almost every RPG games, efficiency is always the key. Everyone should strive to devote themselves to Holy Efficiency.

Eh? What? Holy Pay to Win is more OP?

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(Shun's POV)

It unexpectedly took longer than I expected to travel while killing the rabbits and other herbivores who are quietly resting on the plains. They are all innocent, peace-loving creatures, but I murdered them with my own hands.

Eh, surprisingly, it doesn't seem to affect me too much. I mean, Myu and Sei-nee seems to be fine with killing these cute and adorable creatures as well. I don't know if that could count as a reference though.

After a while of hunting, I noticed that my attack oriented Senses are no longer leveling up so I switched to grinding my other Senses like [Recovery Magic], [Speed Increase], [Magic Talent], [Magic Power], and [Enchant].

Since I have nothing to do, I ran around the plains to increase the experience of my [Speed Increase] Sense while aggroing the monsters and letting them attack me — before casting a heal on myself — to level up my [Recovery Magic] Sense too. While I'm at it, I am also simultaneously casting [Enchant] to either increase my SPEED or DEFENSE.

Using [Enchant] alone makes the two mandatory magic related Senses — [Magic Power] and [Magic Talent]— and [Enchant] itself to level up, shooting three birds with one stone. With the addition of using [Recovery Magic], these Senses' levels shot through the roof like an unstoppable rocket.

"Hmm… It seems like the mana cost of casting these enchants are multiplicative instead of additive when I cast it simultaneously…"

Speaking of [Enchant], buffs and enchantments were classic RPG basics — commonly called 'buffs' — they were a magic-type Sense that raises the affected player's status, either by applying it to others or to themselves. At the time, I wanted to have a good grasp at what effects does my Senses have.

I only needed to be aware of the target and recite the magical skill's name that was in the skill list. The first time I tried it out, only was almost all my MP used, the effect was nearly insignificant.

It's duration was short and lasted only for 60 seconds, it was questionable whether it can be used in combat. However, if the MP consumption is large, then the growth of [Magic Power] will be equally big.

Since it's part of the process of getting to know my Sense Build, I tried out other enchantments.

In conclusion, I could only enchant myself with Speed, Strength, and Defense. Maybe the effects of the enchantments will become more noticeable as it levels up so I'll use it every time it's off-cooldown.

As an aside, these enchantments make me emit different colored auras each time I cast it. It is yellow of SPEED, red for ATK, and blue for DEF.

Also, I discovered something after subjecting my own body to speed increase and defence increase enchantments, resulting in the quick depletion of my mana. Basically, if I sit down to rest, the MP recovery is slightly faster than when I stand.

I don't know in what logic does this mechanics work but I guess I could roll with it. Finding logic within something that clearly have some magical inner workings is just a waste of time.

After I was satisfied with my [Speed Increase] and [Recovery Magic's] levels, I sat down and didn't move, as I continued to cast enchantments on myself for a few minutes. This resulted into the [Magic Talent] and [Magic Power's] increase in levels.

While I remained in a sitting position, I briefly checked my status.

My Senses were like this:

Possessed Sense Points(SP): 0

[Bow Lv6](↑ 6)

[Physical Attack Increase Lv5](↑5)

[Speed Increase Lv4](↑4)

[Vital Points Knowledge Lv5](↑5)

[Synthesis Lv1](-)

[Alchemy Lv1](-)

[Enchant Lv4](↑4)

[Recovery Lv3](↑3)

[Magic Talent Lv4](↑4)

[Magic Power Lv5](↑5)

The result of the hunt was that I've grown, a lot. Those β players who knows what they're doing should have a Sense that are around level 5.

That meant my level is really quite high for someone who never experienced the β.

That aside. After I recovered most of my MP by sitting down, I started to walk on the plains leisurely.

"Oh, lucky! There's an item on the ground." While I was going around letting myself be attacked before killing the monsters and casting [Recovery Magic] onto myself, I stumbled upon an item lying on the ground.

If you're curious, I haven't used any [Beginner's Potion]. They didn't see much use during my hunt as I still have all 30 of them.

Was I wrong for buying them? I thought as I picked up the item that was lying on the ground.

「You acquired 2x Crow Feathers」

✽✽[Crow Feather]✽✽

Item Type: Crafting Item

Description:

A dropped item from low mob class bird type monsters. It could also be found in abundance at some locations, especially nearby forested areas. Can be used as a crafting material.

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Don't ask me why a clearly different species of bird drops a crow's feather. It's magic.

That's when, *pon*, a chat invite came. People who knew my mail address could start a chat with me as long as they were registered in this game.

"Who is it? Oh, it's Takumi huh…" Yep, the chat's host was Takumi.

『Yo, did you log in?』

"Yeah, what is it? I'm busy with something right now."

『How about we meet up? We need to register each other on our friend lists. By the way, my name's Taku here."』

"All right. Tell me the location. I don't have anything urgent so I'll go." As I waited for Takumi, I continued to cast enchant, the level went up by one.

『Got it. I'll be waiting in the plaza at the town's outskirts.』

"The plaza on the town's outskirts? Alright, it's quite near my location. I'll head there now…"

On my way to the town, I came across a few items like a Pebble, some Furs from the hunted rabbits, Crow Feathers, and some Tree Branches. I'll use them in my experiments regarding [Synthesis] and [Alchemy] later.

Thankfully, I'm already quite near the town's outskirts when Takumi called me so there wasn't any issue for me to reach it relatively quickly with the help of [Enchant].

When I arrived at the plaza, I immediately looked around for my friend. It didn't take long for me to find him as he didn't change his appearance that much.

"Yo, Taku. It should be the first time for us to meet in a VR Game right?"

"Yo! Yeah, it is. You never really played VR Games since you're too busy with your training and stuff."

"It's a part of my daily habit after all… Anyway, how's your Senses going? Reached level 10 in any of them yet?"

"I haven't. I'm waiting for my party to assemble. How about you? I know you're a real cheat character when it comes to games. I wonder what you could do in a VR Game like this one…"

"Well, I'm past level five. Two of my Senses are already level six. In fact, I'm going to the hunting grounds near the woods to fight goblins and level up my Senses further. Hopefully, I'll get to level ten before dinner."

"*whistle*… You're really a monster. One would think you're the β player among us and not Myu-chan, me, or Sei-neesan."

"Well, I can't have my little sister surpass me in levels. I have something called an older brother's dignity to protect, after all."

I glanced around my surroundings, only to see a sea of players meeting up and creating their own raiding parties. Well, since I have misshapen Senses, I'd rather go solo for now.

"So? Where, exactly, are you going after this?"

"I'll go to the east again to collect items in the forest. Since I have [Synthesis] and [Alchemy] I can both process it to level up and then sell it, neat right?"

"Yep, that's quite neat… All right, let's register ourselves as friends. Let's party up in our spare time, I want to see how good you are in this VR Game after all."

"Ou. Then, I'll be heading out!"

"Ah, I expect a lot from you."

"Haha, I'll do my best to meet your expectations then."

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I sat down on a tree log on the outskirts of the forest nearby the city and tried a lot of things. I looked at every nook and cranny of the forest so I got a whole bunch of items in my [Inventory].

The first thing I tried was the [Alchemy] Sense. The feature of this Sense was—Matter Conversion. However, in actual fact it was far from its name and was treated as a trashy Sense.

To try it, I took out the items I obtained from Herbivores, Gallstones, Furs and about one hundred Bones.

When I opened the menu I've found the [Matter Conversion] skill. After selecting [Matter Conversion], I moved on and selected Gallstones from the target list.

The consumed amount the screen displayed is 'Gallstones x10'. It meant that this item would be consumed in the process of Matter Conversion. I started it without hesitation.

The result of item conversion was a Medicine Stone, only one.

"Should I retort to this? The Gallstones became a Chinese medicine? Okay, it's a game so I guess I'll allow it… For now…" As expected of a fantasy themed game. So illogical.

After my initial try, I did a few more experiments with the remaining items. Converting ten Furs resulted with one Large Fur.

As for Bones, I could make a choice between 'consuming ten Bones to make one Big Bone' and 'turning one Bone into two Bone Powders'.

"Why am I able to change target item for Bones? Did my Sense level increase?"

I thought my level has increased and confirmed the status, but the level remained on 1.

"The number of items consumed changed. In case of ten Bone Powders—"

First I changed Bone into Bone Powder, and then I subjected the said Bone Powders into [Alchemy] once again. It resulted with turning back to Bone.

After studying I found that there were two types of results from [Alchemy's] Matter Conversion. It was dividing the Matter into higher and lower level. To produce a higher level Matter like large Fur or Medicine Stone, you needed 10 items of lower level to make one.

And for a Bone to become a Lower Matter there was a doubling conversion rate.

"I want to use Higher Matter Conversion to my potions but I only have a few of them. Maybe next time…"

After using my [Alchemy] Sense for a while, it managed to level up by 2. No, well, I gained a lot of items from those murdered rabbits so I guess it would be more of a surprise if it didn't level up.

"Now that that's out of the way, let's try out my [Synthesis] Sense."

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※~To be continued~※

Author's Remarks:

※ Writing games really is quite hard but I'm thankful to my past self for choosing this particular light novel that doesn't involve too much stat things and such. This is why I really liked the concept of the novel. Unfortunately, it's a Gender Bender.