Author’s corner: HELLO HELLO! ANOTHER RELEASE WITHIN ONE WEEK OF THE PREVIOUS ONE! WAIT, WHAT? A MAIN CHAPTER YOU SAY?

ANYWAY, I decided to try and give myself a pseudo-schedule for my release. I won’t give any promises about following it, but I’ll at least try my best. For now, the idea is that I’ll work on IO every weekend, while during the week I’ll work on one of my two other stories in an alternating fashion. Any free time I get I’ll spend writing whatever I feel like. This way I can keep releases fairly regular, while still having time for myself.

ALSO, on a bit less serious note. DEADPOOL! I watched the movie. That probably explains why the hell there seems to be a bit more 4th walls break here than usual. Also, the Promised TL;DR is kinda imbued in the story, so count that on a promise kept.

ALSO(2), On the whole skill thingy, yeah. Some answers were downright amazing and will be added to the story later on. Mainly the mounting skills that so many mentioned, however, the two skills, while not exactly the same as many people said, you can guess who got it right or not. Spoiler : For fairness sake, let’s do this. The ones who got the first skill correct were: Penna02 (Uggh…) For saying it was a Sword Defensive skill, though the correct answer would be a counter AND Necrotechnician with the Ignore pain, which was very close for what the skill actually do.

ALSO(3), At last, after so long, they finally make their introduction in the story! Who they are? You all shall seeeee!

Have a good read!

-------

I fell on my back in relief as I saw the numbers going up thanks to the damned mummy’s massive healing spells. While I wondered what such numbers could do for his mana, I didn’t care one bit, because if he had been half a second later, I would have lost all my hard earned experience.

“Yiipee! You did it!” Crys said while throwing the pom-poms up and catching then back in a cheer.

Feeling as a wave of pride flowing through me for accomplishing something so absurd once again, so I couldn’t help but do something that one of my spiritual masters always taught me. Smile and wave, smile and wave.

Doing exactly that, exactly how it’s becoming for a celebrity, I couldn’t help but want to appease to my fans.

“That said, you should avoid saying that too much.” I said while turning to Crys. “You risk getting thrown into a desolated desert planet where I’ll need to rescue you using a super-advanced tank based on a space-fighter technology.”

Seeing as she stared at me confused for a moment, she finally frowned slightly before shaking her head with a wry smile. What? Didn’t get the joke? Don’t mind it. I made sure to not make it too obvious.

“Was that a Star fox joke?” Ozzur asked confused.

“CYGNASDAMMIT! I WANTED TO LEAVE THE READERS CONFUSED!” I shouted angrily towards the mummy, who simply nodded to himself before going back to note down something in his notebook.

“Scoop ScoOUCH!” Good Lily. I’ll make sure to actually be a little more serious from now on when teaching you.

Turning back to see the cave, I noticed how Aura had already gone ahead and fixed the leaking magma by freezing it. With her ice being a few times stronger than what my throwing knives could be, she managed to stop it for good, letting the magma solidify after some time of holding it back.

Deciding to give her a petting once everything is done, I decided that it was about time to check my spoils of war. Grinning as I focused on the symbol that marked the results of the battle, I quickly started skimming over them while nodding satisfied at what appeared. First, I recovered the level I lost due to my deaths, and was left only a couple percents away from going to the next level.

That said, I half expected that already, so I wasn’t all that surprised. In exchange, what came next left me very, VERY happy.

Congratulations! You have defeated Sulfuric Impaler Matriarch (Young) while in the presence of Aura.Chronicles of the Frozen Battlefield have earned the following upgrade:

STR +4 AGI +5 TGH+3

DEF +1 M. Res +1

Hooray for totally not OP cloak that I made in a stroke of luck while crafting! While cheering silently in my mind and waiting for the author to grudgingly change my stats in his Excel file, I went on to read the other bonuses I earned.

First, I went through the skills upgrades. Two handed mastery is almost literally one slash away from entering intermediate rank, while shockwave resistance increased a whopping three levels thanks to me being blown up so many times.

Scale-mail mastery reached level two of intermediate, which left me with a bit more defense when it came from scale-mail armor. Consumable mastery is now up to level eight and retreat level five. Ready for Anything, my ultra-versatile multi-resistance skill increased a whopping five levels.

While feeling surprised about this, I understood that it was probably thanks to the fact that I was in the snow, then in a volcano without any gear to cover for that. Finally, Recklessness reached a nice level four thanks to the fact that the spider was so strong.

However, party didn’t end there.

Smiling to myself, I saw as the announcement of two new skills appeared before me, and reading the first one, I couldn’t help but feel a bit surprised.

For proving its effectiviness in battle, you have unlocked a new skill for your style: Spiked Shell StanceSpiked Shell Stance

(Level increases with two-handed sword mastery)Sometimes, the best offense is simply taking advantage of your opponent’s attacks. Using the ground as a defensive measure, you stop your opponent’s attack in a defensive stance and pay back with a mighty slash that deals increased damage according to the opponent’s weight and attack damage. An attack made specifically to hunt massive enemies, this technique is original to the Hunter’s style and only works under specific circumstances.

Reduces damage taken by up to 70%

Deals 120% of weapon damage + Bonus based on damage taken and Enemy’s weight

Refunds energy should the attack connect.

Connecting the attack initiates a combo, reducing the cost of First form or beyond skills by 50% for 3 seconds.

Lasts 2 secondsCost: 100 energy

Yeah, seems like that makeshift counter somehow became a real skill. And man, does it looks good. Not only it works as a counter, but it also reduces the damage I take if I manage to get it right! nodding satisfied to myself, I couldn’t help but frown at the sight of the cost.

One hundred energy? That’s like my entire reserve! Literally!

Then, it does refund the energy if I land the strike, so I guess it’s not that bad. Nodding to myself and deciding that I would have to take a better look at the functioning of the skill itself later on, I prepared to move to the next skill.

“What are you doing, teacher?” I stopped when I heard Lily asking me confused as she crouched besides me. “Aren’t you going to rec… Erm… Skin the spider?”

“Oh, yeah, I will.” I said with a nod. “Just checking my new skills and such.” I said while making a motion towards the windows. Lily widened her eyes in surprise for a moment before nodding.

Getting my attention back to the matter at hand, I went on to read the new skill I got.

For managing to replicate its effect and proving its effectivity in battle you have unlocked a new skill: Reckless FocusSkill: Reckless Focus [lvl 1]

0%For a warrior, things such as distractions are unneeded in battle, as they focus all their attention on the single enemy before them. However, some take it a step further, focusing all their attention the foe before them and ignoring even the pain in their muscles and the cracks in their bones just so they can have a bit more fun in battle. This Last stand, albeit effective, is extremely reckless and may lead to harsh backlash once the battle is over.

Ignores Physical status debuff for a large time window. This skill can only be used in battle and lasts a maximum of one minute after the battle have ended.

After the skill ends, damage is taken according to the severity of the ailment and the time spent ignoring it.

WARNING: THIS SKILL DOES NOT LEAVE THE USER IMMUNE TO RECEIVING NEW AILMENTS DURING ITS DURATION, AND WILL ONLY IGNORE THEIR EFFECTSCost: 0 energy

Cooldown: 1 hour after healing from backlash. Instant in case of death while skill is active.

Maximum time duration: 3 minutes

I did not expect that. I sincerely did not expect that. Reading the window a couple of times, again, I started to understand the meaning of this, and while looking a bit odd and hard to piece together, once you think about it, this skill is the difference between a pitiful death and a last-second victory.

Think about it, if by the end of a long drawn battle I’d usually be covered in injuries and have more than a few broken bones and such, if I were to use this skill, I’d instantly be back to my top form and ready to kick some monster tail once again!

While it wouldn’t heal me, for someone who’s so keen on fighting in realistic mode, this is somewhat of a really strong skill. Nodding satisfied, I looked down to my shoulder. While it had taken some serious damage, I somehow managed to use it just fine by the end of the battle.

Now, that makes a lot of sense!

Wait a second… Damage based on the duration and severity of the injuries?

Didn’t I have some really serious damage during the fight? Like the shoulders, the cut in my legs and such?

Oh carp.

-1005 (5/1010) (Sever shoulder damage) (Severe leg damage) (Crushed ribs) (Severe arm damage) (Light leg damage) (Dizzy) (Dazed) (Stunned)

“I… Totally… Saw… Coming…” I said as I felt everything going dark.

“T-TEACHER!” I heard Lily calling out to me as I passed out from the huge damage burst.

…

“I’m a happy golem! I’m a happy golem!

I mine, I skin; I craft, I win!

I’m a happy golem! I’m a happy golem!

The ores are mine! The forges will shine!

I’m a happy golem! I’m a happy golem!

The spider is dead! The scythes are left!

So I’m a happy golem! I’m a happy golem!”

I sung my theme song as I once again stabbed the spider in its abdomen and started making a careful cut through the skin underneath. Stopping suddenly when I felt a strange thing through the knife, I removed the blade and peeked underneath, seeing what looked like some kind of large bone-like jelly.

“Hmm, this again?” I said a bit confused before shaking my head and going back to cutting around. “Anyway, as I was saying, it might be a good idea to always stop the moment you notice something strange when skinning.” I told Lily, while making a motion towards the shell that I managed to remove. “Luckily, this doesn’t seem to be directly linked to the shell, but who knows how it can be in another monster?” I said with a shrug while passing her the shell.

“Hmm… I think I can understand a bit.” She said while holding the shell that once covered the back of the spider and looking around it. “Still, why are these here?” She asked confused while pointing to a pair of nerves connections that had appeared in every single shell we removed up to now. At least the ones from its back.

“Yeah, I’m also confused.” I admitted while nodding. “It doesn’t really make much sense for it to have nerves in its shell.”

“Maybe it have something to do with its spike-creating abilities?” Crys said while using her sharpened hands to cut another piece. “These nerves are strangely flexible, you know?”

“Are they?” Lily asked confused and I took a moment to think before nodding and passing her a piece of the nerve that I had to cut before removing the shell. Evidently, she hesitated a moment before finally grabbing the piece of nerve with a clearly disgusted expression to herself. I couldn’t help but smile awkwardly at that before she started pulling the nerve.

They had been a bit annoying to cut, seeing how they could stretch to a surprising length before actually starting to sever. Hmm, I wonder if I can use this on my bow later on. But then, I did want to use the silk instead…

While thinking so, I heard some footsteps coming from behind us, turning around and seeing the mummy coming back, together with Lieutenant and a cheerful Rio, I couldn’t help but notice a few charred bandages on the mummy’s body.

But I couldn’t really care much about his ailments and instead focused more on what he brought in his hands. Same could be said for Lieutenant and Rio’s claws.

“Be careful to not let that fall on magma!” I said in delight while seeing him drop the bundle of silk on the ground, making the small sprite that had been nearby jump in scare and run away to hide behind me.

“I… Kinda understood that…” He said in a mix of annoyance and powerlessness while sending Rio a brief glance, who had a strange cheerful mood as she lowered a smaller bunch of silk onto the ground.

“These red strings are fun!” She said cheerfully.

“I must admit that I’m divided between scolding her and praising her right now.” I said amused while getting an idea of what that meant.

“And I have the feeling that you have something against me.” Ozzur added coldly while staring at me.

“Well, maybe initially, but right now I just seem to think of you as a go-to victim right now.” I replied in a dead-pan look. “So yeah, you are just unlucky.” I shrugged. “Also, you might want to take the cat away from the silk. It seems that he’s getting some weird megalomaniacal tendency with that maniacal laugh.”

“NYA-HA-HA-HA! NYA-HA-HA-HA!” Said cat laughed while stepping atop the pile of red silk and spreading his arms wide. Definitively a villain material.

“If I were you, I would step away from the silk slowly, and not get close to it again.” I said while taking a small fire crystal and pointing it at him. The cat widened his eyes before smiling wryly and stepping down from the pile. “Also, unload your inventory. I know you got some silk there with you.” I added, and saw as he flinched before sighing and nodding. A few seconds later the pile increased slightly as he unloaded the silk. “Good boy. I’ll make some explosives for you later.”

I did not need to say that he immediately jumped over the pile and hugged me with a wide smile while singing something in the rhythm of the happy golem song. Probably an I’m a happy cat music or something.

Pushing the cat back and getting some space for me, I quickly went on to store the remaining silk on my inventory. Just as I had guessed, the spider did spread more silk around the cave than simply that cave. Either trying to make another room to place her new eggs or something else. I couldn’t be quite sure, seeing how I had to stay here skinning the monster.

Well, at least I managed to save me some silk. What? Deus Ex? Come on. Everybody knows that if you find spider-web in one place, its almost undoubtedly going to appear somewhere else! Besides, we never really explored the mines entirely, so I asked them to search some nearby caves to see if they found some remaining silk. From the looks of it, we lucked out

It’s still less than what I used to blow the bastard up, though. Counting both the “Ambush” and the knifes together.

Knowing that I wouldn’t need to worry about the silk for any time soon, I went back to skinning the spider, only to stop when I felt someone tugging me on the side. Blinking surprised, I turned to the side and saw as the small sprite kept pulling my robe slightly.

“Tek-tek. Tek-tek.” It said surprising me for a moment.

“What? Hungry already?” I asked surprised and seeing as it nodded briefly. Sighing, I shook my head and pulled another piece of iron ore and gave it to it.

“By the way, I’ve been meaning to ask, but when the hell did all these guys get here?” I heard Ozzur asking confused.

“Oh, they?” I asked surprised while looking at the twenty or so sprites that were gathered around us, eating pieces of rocks that had fallen thanks to the battle with delighted ‘tek-teks’. That said, the annoying many-legged sprite was easily the one who ate the most, already on his third piece of ore. Well, not that I really could complain, though. “Dunno. Seems like they came here as soon as they heard the spider dying.” I said with a shrug. “If something, I’d say they are throwing a party of kinds.” I said while seeing the sprites walking around in a cheerful mood and making the ever-present tek-teks.

“Why do I have the feeling that this is somewhat of a common sight around you?” The mummy said amused.

“Nah. Just your imagination.” I said while cutting another shell and piling it up on the side.

How could I say this… Cutting shells is a lot more troublesome than simply skinning them. That said, I do have this feeling that crafting will be a bit easier than usual. Anyway, leaving that aside, I had already cut apart the claws and severed the legs. With so many different types of shells covering its body, I just couldn’t bring myself to leave it behind.

Bonewise… I didn’t find much besides the thing that stayed inside the spider’s back, that was probably something used for forming the spikes, but it’s not like I could be entirely sure. Probably it used the exoesqueleton as a support instead of inner bone.

“Still… To think that you managed to finish the quest alone.” Ozzur said a bit surprised. “I’m still trying to wrap my head around it.”

“What? I did tell you I was amazing, you know?” I said with a proud tone.

“Tek-tek! Tek-tek!”

“AGAIN?” I asked annoyed before sighing and giving the little bastard another piece of ore, only to see him jump atop the ore delightfully and start eating it up. “Goddamit, what am I gonna do with you?”

Taking advantage of the distraction, I quickly turned back to the spider and spun the skinning knife for a moment, preparing to stab it and take a piece of its flesh.

“You disappoint me, You perverted pile of trash.”

“What the hell is it this time AND WHERE THE HELL DID YOU COME FROM?” I shouted surprised while almost falling over in shock at the sight of a certain slime-ninja-maid that popped out of nowhere.

“I came from your impure desires and dirty fetish towards maids.” She said with a deadpan face and in monotone.

“So, you are going to be a perfectly meek and quiet maid, who’s actually really gentle and never talk back, and more importantly, never, ever, play any trick?” I asked with a raised eyebrow and a taunting tone.

Yami froze in place for a moment and I noticed how her eyebrows twitched and she hesitated, unable to go on with the joke as it meant killing the joke instantly and being unable to joke more in the future. Finally, she sighed and looked away.

“That’s your victory.” She said annoyed a while I smiled proudly.

“Of course it is!” I said with a nod before frowning. “Wait a moment, why are you disappointed?” I asked confused while tilting my head.

“Isn’t it obvious?” She said while shaking her head. “We reached a grand milestone that not many can say to have even scratched, yet you didn’t even mention it!”

Huh? Milestone? Reached? Does it have something to do with the spider I hunted? Well, I guess it could be considered a milestone of sorts. Looking back at the slime, she sighed before shaking her head.

“Even a toddler would have noticed the fact that we broke through the one hundredth chapter barrier! Yet you never even mentioned it in these last chapters!” She said with a disappointed tone. I blinked surprised for a moment before stopping to think, finally I frowned and became angry.

“Look here, First, I was planning on how to fight a damned massive spider, two, it’s not every chapter that I break the fourth wall, and third, it’s the writer’s fault that he forgot the joke, okay? There’s not much I can do if he is the one to forget it!” I blurted out angrily before taking a deep breath. “Anyway, leaving this one hundredth chapter shenanigan aside, I take it that Yuu and Hanbei are here?” I said while leaning back and looking for the two, and just as I expected I saw a couple of shadows approaching us.

“Ah! Shishou!” I heard a familiar voice calling me.

“Yo!” I said with a wave of my hand as I saw her approaching. “Seems like you missed me too much so you decided to come and see how I was doing?” I said jokingly.

Much to my surprise, the kitsune blushed a bit before nodding, leaving the two of us in an awkward atmosphere. Luckily, the cat-girl in wolf’s clothing was smart enough to break the ice by being very subtle.

“So… Who’s the mummy?” She asked while blatantly staring at the person. “He’s… Somewhat familiar…”

“I take it that you are Wargon’s travelling companions.” Ozzur said with a serious tone before nodding. “It is a pleasure to meet you, I am Ozzur, reporter from the Sword and Keyboard channel.”

“Ah… A reporter… EEEEEEH?” The cat girl jumped back in surprise before looking him head to toes. Hmm, I wonder if that is how I was supposed to react to him when I first met the mummy. “W-W-Why would a reporter follow Gon arou…” She started asking surprised before stopping and thinking. “Actually, Gon IS pretty famous, if I think about it.”

“Indeed.” Ozzur said with a nod.

“Strange, I’m starting to pity you right now.” Hanbei said once she looked at the state the mummy was. “It must have been shocking to find out how He actually is, right?”

“Yes… not exactly what I expected.”

“Oi! Why do you sound so depressed?” I complained loudly. “Even if I’m not exactly your average player, don’t that mean you got an even better of a scoop for yourself?”

“…Yes. There is that.” He said with a disheartened tone that left me angry, but he quickly shook his head before going on. “Actually, seeing how you’ve been following him for such a long time, would you mind giving me some of your time in an interview?”

“Huh? Me?” Hanbei said surprised, but before I could keep on hearing about their situation, Yuu approached me while holding her hands behind her back and peeking at the body of the impaler besides me.

“W-Was this the monster you fought, Shishou?” She asked while looking at the spider a bit warily.

“Yeah. She was a lot more trouble than what I expected, to be honest.” I said with a sigh.

“Eh? How so?” Yuu asked me curious. “Wait, she?”

“Yep. It’s a matriarch.” I said with a sigh. “And She was annoying as hell. Not only did it use these annoying explosive threads…”

“Explosive threads?” Yuu asked confused.

“Yeah. It would drink magma from around the cave to make the threads somehow.” I said while pointing to a nearby magma pool that I was using as a pseudo-lamp. “Which, would have been fine if it weren’t for the fact that it was really, REALLY mad during the last fight.” I said with a sigh before eyeing the sprite. “All thanks to this little guy here.”

“Tek-tek?” The sprite asked confused while taking its attention away from the ore for a moment. Only to become surprised by Yuu and run behind me once again.

“Come on. She isn’t dangerous.” I said annoyed while picking him up and giving him to Yuu, who ended up taking him confused as the small sprite shook scared. “Seriously, for someone playing hero, you are one scaredy pants, you know?”

“Playing Hero?” Yuu asked confused while looking at the small sprite trembling in her arms before gently caressing it, trying to calm him down.

“What do you mean, Teacher?” Lily asked with a frown.

“Well, did you notice how it had some strings tied around its claws earlier?” I asked while pointing to the sprite. “And remember how I said that all the egg sacs had been cut horizontally near the bottom?”

“Wait, you don’t mean…” She said surprised, already seeing where I was going.

“Yeah, the little bugger had been destroying the eggs as soon as the spider laid them. That’s why there were so few spiders in this cave all in all.”

“And why the Impaler was always looking around when we first got here.” Ozzur said surprised, “It was hunting this sprite in anger.”

“And why it was angry when I fought it at the last battle.” I said with a nod. “Heck, it was so hell bent in trying to kill the bastard that it didn’t even care about me at all until I literally blew its back to hell with the fire knifes and explosive strings.” I said annoyed. “It literally had to go berserker on me before it started ignoring the sprite.”

“Bear-seeker?” Rio asked confused. “It was looking for bears?” The small wyvern asked while landing on my head and peeking downwards confused.

“Not bear-seeker, Rio. Berserker. Is when you get so angry, but so angry that you don’t care about hurting yourself.” I said while picking her up and passing her to Lily. “It started to literally hurt itself so that it could hit me harder. From spewing magma from its back to weaving its own claws in explosive before blowing me up.”

“That… Sounds dangerous.” Yuu mentioned with a worried tone. “Are you fine Shishou?”

“Well, I did break my shoulder, had a few crushed ribs, almost lost a leg and a few other nice things that happened to me.” I made sure to try and keep my best uninterested tone, but Yuu made an horrified face that left me this nagging wish to tease her a bit more, but I held myself back as a thought crossed my mind. “That said… I’ll be wanting an explanation on why it went berserk and why it suddenly changed to the defensive suddenly like that, okay?” I told the crystal maid who was floating while carrying another shell.

“Hmm? Oh, sure” Crys said with a nod. “It’s not like it needs a lot of thought, anyway.” She said with a shrug.

“I see…” I said with a nod before sighing. “Now, let me go back to skinning this guy here. It’s been more than half a chapter without me even removing a single shell.” I said annoyed before blinking and turning to Yuu. “Before that, what’s that sweet scent I’ve been smelling since you arrived?” I asked curious and noticed as Yuu quickly hid one of her arms behind her back, this time I noticed that she was holding something in her hands.

“That’s… ermm… Well…” She said embarrassedly while starting to get a bit fidgety. The sprite took the chance to jump from her arms and cling on my back. “I was… Avoiding Shishou… And I felt… Guilty… So… Baked… Cookies…”

I froze.

“D-Did you say… Cookies?” I asked, making sure my ears weren’t playing tricks on me, but she nodded nonetheless.

I couldn’t help but smile widely.

BREAK TIME FOR COOKIES!

----

(dead) Author’s corner: Uugh… Tables… Why do you haunt me so?

Anyway, let’s do this:

FIRST EVER IO QUIZ THAT WILL PROBABLY BE IGNORED BY 80%+ OF THE READERS!

Q: In the very first chapter, I mention an imaginary installment to the MH franchise, and that two characters are playing it. Who is the other character playing it besides Gon(Come on, Gon was too obvious)? I accept either the in-game name or the Real-life name.

PS: For fairness sake, edited comments aren't valid.