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Chapter 24 – Taunt
Three days have passed since Allen started digging potatoes. October was almost over.
“I’ll be out after lunch today.”
“Oh, okay. Don’t stay out too late.”
“Okay, I’ll be home before evening.”
Allen had finished digging up all the potatoes and now there was a big pile in the yard. 60% of the potatoes, excluding the seed potatoes, were to be given to the mayor. During the harvest season, the yard had a lot going on.
At fixed times throughout the year, wagons would come by to collect taxes. The next one would come in early December, so Allen had to sort the potatoes by then.
In the morning, he sorted potatoes. He was becoming more and more like a farmer.
Gerda had told Allen about the work to be done after the potatoes were sorted. They had to remove the stems and roots that were still growing in the field. Otherwise, they’d get in the way when planting in the spring. Now they had to check the canals for clogs, and make sure that it was level. This was for the irrigation canals that bordered Rodan’s fields.
(I’ll work on it in my spare time. But finally, my cards are ready.)
Three days had passed since Rodan regained consciousness.
3 days ago
・Beast F - 11 cards
・Bug F - 2 cards
・Bird F - 2 cards
・Grass F - 15 cards
Now
・Beast F - 16 cards
・Bug G - 3 cards
・Bug F - 2 cards
・Bird F - 2 cards
・Grass F - 7 cards
(I’ve adjusted my card loadout, and Enhance is at level 2.)
To increase his attack and to make field work easier, Allen had reduced the number of Grass cards and added more Beast F cards. After he finished optimizing his loadout, he leveled Enhance to level 2. Now, he had a general idea of Enhance level 2.
Enhance level 2
・Consumes 10 MP
・Increases 2 stats by +20 each
(With this, I’ve confirmed that all my skill, except Create, don’t cost more MP at higher levels. Synthesize is fixed at 5 MP, and Enhance is 10 MP.)
When Enhanced leveled up, the stat boost went from +10 to +20. He had already Enhanced all his cards with Enhance level 2.
Going forward, he planned to first raise Enhance to level 3, then distribute skill EXP evenly until Enhance, Synthesize, and Enhance all reached level 4.
Halfway through potato picking, lunch was served. Rodan still hadn’t been able to come out of the bedroom, but he was getting better. Hopefully, the Grass F tree that Allen had planted next to his parents’ bedroom was helping.
After lunch, Allen went out to the yard again. Now that Rodan and Theresia were both at home, Mash wasn’t lonely anymore, and was quieter.
Out of several baskets of various sizes, Allen picked a medium-sized basket. He put 10 stones in the basket. These stones had all been thrown many, many times. Each one was about the size of a baseball, and had been worn smooth.
He took the basket and headed out, following the dirt road to the fallow field that Gerda had told him about.
Allen reached the overgrown field. The weeds were all dead and untouched, they were taller than him. With rustling and crunching, Allen entered the field.
He put the basket down and pushed through the weeds.
(First of all, I need to find out what this fallow land looks like.)
The overgrown weeds obscured the size of the field. He waded back and forth to get a rough idea of its size.
(So the middle is around here?)
Allen approximated the center of the field. Then, he began to trample the weeds, starting from the center. He worked silently. Only the crackling of the weeds could be heard.
He created a circle, about 30 feet in diameter. It looked like a crop circle from an old movie.
(Something like this should be good.)
He went to the grassy area around the circle, took the rocks out of the basket and randomly placed them on the ground. Then he readied his wooden sword.
(Summon Pyonta.)
He summoned Bug G in the center of the crop circle. It looked like your average bullfrog.
(Alright, use Taunt.)
“Ribbit. Ribbit.”
Pyonta flashed red, blue, yellow, and hopped around. Allen held his breath while observing from inside the weeds.
10 minutes passed.
(Hmm, this isn’t going the way I thought it would.)
Still holding his wooden sword, Allen looked at the sky. Dotted throughout the sky were birds of various sizes.
(There are birds in the sky though… Maybe there aren’t enough? Or maybe they’re too far to Taunt?)
It would be winter soon. Firewood was an absolute necessity. Up until now, Rodan had been trading Great Boar meat for firewood to keep their home warm throughout the winter. Allen had a younger brother at home. Also, Allen was only 6. Naturally, he wasn’t very cold-resistant either.
Everytime Rodan hunted a Boar, he got around 20 pounds of meat, and he usually hunted 10 a year. He would trade about half for firewood from the village.
However, Rodan couldn’t go Boar hunting this winter. He had a bit of meat from the one he had managed to kill, and some food from the mayor. Furthermore, because Rodan was so beloved, he had received gifts from his fellow serf Boar hunters. But even then, it was unlikely that they would be able to get enough firewood to match the 200 pounds of Boar meat they usually had.
In order to protect the new life in Theresia’s belly and the rest of his family, Allen was trying to catch a bird.
(Well, even if we ignore the Albaheron, the japanese-crane-like birds around here have about 4 pounds of edible meat. I was hoping that I would have an easy time catching 50 of them.)
In the sky, there were some monsters, like the Albaheron, that were flying north. But these monsters weren’t trying to get hunted. The crane-like birds were also flying during this season, so he decided to target those, using Pyonta’s Taunt as a lure.
While he layed low, thinking, one hour passed.
(Is one not enough? Good thing I had made 3 cards, just in case.)
He summoned a second Bug G. The second one started hopping around the first, using Taunt.
Another hour passed.
(Dang. Even 2 Pyontas isn’t enough. Or maybe it simply doesn’t reach that high? I don’t know the area of effect of Taunt.)
Dong
Dong
Dong
The bell rang to signal 3 o’clock.
(It’s already 3? I told Kurena that I couldn’t play today. I haven’t seen her in days.)
He hadn’t played knights with Kurena since Rodan was injured. And now, he couldn’t play because he had to take care of his family. When he told her, Kurena looked sad for a moment, but she said that she understood. Kurena hadn’t come over in the past two days.
(Okay, let’s make it 3. That’s all of them.)
“Ribbit. Ribbit.”
“Ribbit. Ribbit.”
“Ribbit. Ribbit.”
There were 3 Bug G Pyontas hopping around in the circle in the fallow land. The red, blue, and yellow began to blend together, and started looking like they had a life of their own.
Allen grasped his wooden sword and waited. But nothing changed.
(Hmm, was I counting my chickens before they hatched? No, it’s too early to give up.)
That’s when it happened.
Just as Allen was about to give up and drop his guard, something swooped down from the sky. It landed right in front of him. A single Bug G was attacked by a claw-like foot. It disappeared into glowing bubbles.
“GYAAAAAASU!!!”
It landed in the circle and spread its wings. It had a wingspan that stretched over 12 feet. In an act of intimidation, it let out a loud cry.
Descended from the sky, there was an Albaheron.
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Thanks for reading! 🙂
JATranslations 
Thanks for all the hard work, it was a pleasure reading, looking forward to future updates…
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