A Certain Middle-aged Man’s VRMMO Activity Log

owowow what a failure

The guy lying face-down at the Respawn Point right at the beginning is Earth.

Theres no other way to say it hes been Revived1(lit: Force Returned). Of course all in tatters.

How did this happen?

Hed gone to the wooded area in Area 4 to hunt Dread Wolfs for ingredients when a strong greed hit him.

Right, right. If its like this, wont I be fine?

Thats what he thought, and just like that he charged into the forest of Area 5.

In Area 5 he spotted a Big Bee, the #1 weakest monster, shot an arrow and missed because the Big Bee randomly moved out of the way.

(It really was random, because Big Bees arent programmed with combat capabilities.)

If the arrow had just fallen when the Big Bee dodged it would have been fine.

But after the miss the arrow continued on its trajectory and proceeded to whack a Rock Ant, a monster with Link, right in the head.

By the way, Link refers to a special trait that some monsters have.

When a monster with Link is attacked, its friends in the area become immediately aware and come mobbing in all at once.

Are you kidding!?

Earths face froze. Hitting a Link monster by mistake is the worst mistake to make.

By the way, the sound the arrow made when it whacked the Rock Ant on the head was, Clang! After making that light sound it bounced off. It did absolutely no damage whatsoever.

But it did more than enough when it came to letting the Rock Ants know they were being attacked

Immediately, they came rushing in to swarm Earth.

Sorry for all the explanations, but Train is what they call it when you pull a ton of monsters and keep pulling them along as you run2.

The string of monsters trailing behind gives the impression of a train, which is why they call it Train.

Since the arrow bounced off, bow attacks have no meaning.

In the first place attacking a rock with piece of wood is just asking for it to be bounced back.

Out of necessity Earth fought back with [Wind Magic]s and [Kick], but the Rock Ant lived up to the name Rock. couldnt cut through it and, against that hardness, [Kick] attacks just rebounded the damage onto himself.

While drinking a potion, Earth struggled to find a way to combat that hardness.

The result was that Earth met a very unreasonable end.

Thanks to the Rock Ants Link, another Rock Ant used the Rock Ants special Art, and attacked him from behind.

So an archer with low defense, drinking a potion, and somehow fighting an unfavorable battle while completely surrounded by who knows how many opponents,

What will happen if hes suddenly stunned, lying there unable to move, for a few seconds?

He gets sent back to Town with a Death Penalty, of course.

And thats the reason the Earth at the beginning of this story was lying there in tatters.

Forced to reflect on how he splendidly got beaten to a pulp and returned to Town, Earth moved on with dampened spirits.

During the Death Penaltys 30 minutes he repaired his bow and armor. Afterwards he went around browsing the street stalls.

But

There really arent any stalls selling bow stuff

After all this time, of course there have been players whove taken an interest in [Bow].

However, after trying swords or magic a bow cant compare with its firepower and inferior inaccuracy.

This isnt like moving a character on a screen in older style games, but using your own body to move.

For someone watching from within the VRMMO, [Bow] users hang out in the back but arent able to hit anything.

This impression of staying in the back and not doing anything has created a situation where players who take [Bow] are shunned.

If youre able to overcome that you can properly participate in combat, but then nobody wants to have a [Bow] user in the party, so players give up improving [Bow].

Its a vicious cycle.

So of course stalls dealing in [Bow] related goods havent appeared.

Forget not being able to sell anything, youd just plain lose money.

What Earth is looking for is other peoples [Bow] related goods, hoping for a flash of inspiration for new [Bow] related crafting methods.

But of course its not going to be that easy.

Now the Death Penaltys 30 minutes have ended.

Earth is clutching a Smith Hammer in his hand.

Theres some bright person somewhere who gets it.

Thats right, Earth took the skill [Blacksmithing].

Though its been said many times, compared to a wooden arrow 2Glow, an iron arrow is 15Glow.

In his current financial state, if he switched to iron arrows Earth would go bankrupt.

But right now a wooden arrow just isnt cutting it anymore.

Like with the Wild Bear just recently; though hed hit the weak point the shot was too shallow.

Improving his arrows has become an urgent matter.

If we take out the bows Sneak Attack Criticals3, Earths combat capabilities will fall by 60%.

If were talking strictly firepower, then its the tough to use [Wind Magic],

Though [Kick] is versatile, this experience when a portion of the attack was reflected revealed its weakness.

Looking at his abilities, Earth has now reconfirmed that no matter what he goes with, his combat potential is too weak.

To do a simple weapons power balance, lets say the longsword is 100.

Then:

Two-handed axe is 120, staff (for magic) is 110, spear is 90,

one-handed axe and grimoire is 80

One-handed sword is 75, dagger and magic-hand is 60, bow is 50,

and magic ring is 30.

On top of that, an axe is especially effective for attacks on monsters with hard shells.

Theyre heavy, so people with half-assed STR (physical prowess) would find an axe hard to use.

Players who can use a one-handed axe on top of, like Reiji, being equipped with heavy armor and a shield are truly rare.

Those kinds of players are known for almost never failing to defeat a monster and for being nearly indomitable.

Of course, the players ability is also a factor.

In any case, for the bow, which is among the lower damage dealers, to come out ahead, the sneak attack criticals are absolutely necessary.

But if the all-important arrows cant penetrate, then that method is worthless.

For mining ore, a Blacksmith player taught him the basics.

Afterwards he made ingots intently.

For the sake of experimenting with the arrowheads shape he made a huge amount of ingots so he wouldnt run out in the middle of development.

That day Earth single-mindedly made ingots, raising his skill quite a bit as he continued until logout.

Actually he wanted to keep going a little more, but the effect it would have on real-life work would be bad.

Suppressing the burning dissatisfaction of leaving things unfinished, he went to bed.

SKILLS

[Bow]Lv30 [Kick]Lv27[Farsight]Lv25[Wind Magic]Lv18

[Craftsmanship]Lv30

[Cooking]Lv34[Woodworking]Lv11[Blacksmithing]Lv8[Stealth]Lv20

[Physical Ability Boost]Lv33

Reserved Skill(s)

[Alchemy]Lv30

EXP 14

And with that, the [Blacksmithing] skill was obtained.

With this hell be able to make some equipment made of iron.

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