I started with some half-hearted cleaning around the house. Well, it's a cave, so "cleaning" might be a stretch.
Next, weapon maintenance. Since it's just a wooden stick, that basically meant rubbing it a little.
Then armor maintenance… or rather, laundry. My clothes are just cloth, after all.
I munched through a late breakfast.
Man, my motivation was in the toilet.
Mushroom sauté every single day.
Goblin bashing every single day.
I was even dreaming about mushrooms and goblins. Was this some kind of twisted romance? Yeah, right.
My level still hadn't budged from 3. It was probably because of those crappy skills, "Jack of All Trades" and "Useless Blockhead." The description said they made it harder for your level to rise. No doubt about it.
Skills become useless or even harmful if you don't understand and master them. That's what the explanation said, so there had to be some kind of upside.
"Jack of All Trades" meant I could do pretty much anything decently well, but that also meant I couldn't focus on one thing long enough to truly excel. In the end, I'd never really master anything. Still, since I could handle most tasks okay, maybe the skills were easy to pick up. They'd just be slow to level, I figured.
The real problem was "Useless Blockhead."
It meant a puppet, a marionette, a wooden dummy. Or a useless person, someone who can't read the room, someone who just does whatever they're told. It was also used as an insult for that kind of person.
No matter how I looked at it, this was a straight-up bad status. The only way to learn more was to raise my level and use Appraisal, but my level wasn't going up. Great.
It probably wouldn't cause any real trouble, but the "good at reporting, communicating, and consulting" part? Yeah, I didn't need that. Not for a loner like me.
There was no point dwelling on things I didn't understand. For now, I'd do something actually useful: health maintenance and exercise. I did my radio calisthenics like always, then headed out to hunt.
The area along the river still had no goblins. Did those things not drink water? The Map skill I'd somehow obtained automatically recorded everywhere I'd been, so all I had to do was keep walking around.
To secure the area around my cave, I decided to expand my search both upstream and downstream along the river.
I was living right next to a river but didn't have a fishing rod or a net. I stared longingly at the tasty-looking fish while chewing on yet another mushroom.
I didn't want to go too far upstream and run into those wannabe delinquents again. I couldn't imagine anything good coming from meeting them. Plenty of bad things, though.
They were just posers who couldn't even fight properly. They were annoying, nothing more. But now that they had skills, that type suddenly seemed the most dangerous. They were like those punk characters in V-cinema who wave around a gun, get cocky, and can't back down until they actually pull the trigger.
Even at level 3, my stats had gone up. My body moved way better than it had back in the old world. The increased mobility was probably helping. I wandered around, smashing the occasional forest goblin I ran into.
Still… getting summoned to another world full of swords and magic, only to spend my time clubbing goblins to death… What was this, a Tuesday night suspense drama? I'd better be careful not to get cornered on a cliff. If those punks chased me to the edge and started beating a confession out of me, it'd be all over. Wait, actually, without a confession it would just be circumstantial evidence, right? Yeah, the cliff was definitely the dangerous part.
Ugh. Still nothing but mushrooms. Appraisal showed there were lots of different kinds, but they were all mushrooms. Some restored HP, some restored MP, all sorts of effects, but none of them made anything gigantic. Oh well. I could already shoot my own fireballs anyway.
The most poisonous-looking mushroom having a detoxifying effect had to be some kind of otherworld trap. If I couldn't use Appraisal, there's no way anyone would think to eat something that looked that toxic when they were already poisoned.
It was still a little early, but I decided to head back. My motivation just wasn't there today. My level wasn't rising either. At this rate, even Sage would get mad at me. Time to call it.
Sigh. Couldn't I at least get something to raise my spirits? Like lightning magic, flame magic, a magic sword, or a beautiful girl companion? At the very least, I'd never read an isekai story where the tension dropped this hard this fast.
Normally it starts with a beautiful goddess, right? Then a princess summoning you, right? Not getting separated from the entire class, ending up as the lone loner with no cheat skills. This difficulty level was way too high.
With those thoughts running through my head, I made it back just as evening was approaching.
My MP was still full, so I used the time to tidy up the cave and cook more mushrooms. What a domestic otherworld life. At this point, I could probably star in a whole "slice-of-life in another world" genre.
Ah, crap. I was talking to myself more and more. I'd even started doing solo straight-man routines and solo comebacks. If this kept up, I'd be doing full solo manzai comedy next.
"Something like a cheat… I'm not even asking for that much…"
I muttered to myself as I stared hard at my status screen.
---
**NAME:** Haruka
**Race:** Human
**AGE:** 16
**Lv:** 03
**Job:** --
**HP:** 35
**MP:** 32
**ViT:** 37
**PoW:** 35
**SpE:** 38
**DeX:** 38
**MiN:** 36
**InT:** 40
**LuK:** Max (Limit Break)
**SP:** 16
**Martial Arts:** "Staff Arts Lv2" "Evasion Lv2" "Foresight Lv1" "Magic Wrap Lv2"
**Magic:** "Temperature Lv2" "Movement Lv2" "Weight Lv1" "Packing Lv2" "Fire Magic Lv2" "Earth Magic Lv2" (Up)
**Skills:** "Health Lv2" "Sensitive Lv2" "Calisthenics Lv2" "Walking Lv3" (Up) "Servitude Lv1" "Appraisal Lv3" "Clairvoyance Lv2" (Up) "Presence Detection Lv2" "Enemy Search Lv2" "Magic Manipulation Lv2" "Presence Blocking Lv1" "Stealth Lv1" "Map Lv1" (New)
**Titles:** "Hikikomori Lv2" "NEET Lv1" "Loner Lv2"
**Unknown:** "HouRenSou Lv1" "Jack of All Trades Lv1" "Useless Blockhead Lv1"
**Equipment:** "Wooden Stick?" "Cloth Clothes?" "Leather Gloves?" "Leather Boots?" "Cloak?" "Contacts?" "Ring of Soul Torment" "Item Bag" "Bracelet PoW +1%"
Earth Magic had gone up. Probably from all the housework.
As usual, it felt less like "if I give up the game ends" and more like "the game gave up on me before it even ended." It was already over.
If I showed these skills to people, I'd probably get flooded with "give up melons." Bumper crop.
Didn't look like I was escaping the daily goblin-bashing lifestyle anytime soon.
I was stockpiling way too many clubs. Maybe I could start a club savings account and trade them for fish?
Man… I really want to eat some fish.