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This chapter has been replaced with a new translation on [2024-06-25]. Comments may refer to the old translation.

First, we will dismantle the rabbit without draining its blood. This is the point. Let us set up the meat in the place where we dismantled it. That way, the scent of both blood and meat remains there.

Next, we suspend the rabbit meat on a tree with string made from long grass. This should be sufficient, but if we want to improve its effectiveness, we can scatter small bones and pieces of skin near the tree.

Thus, our dog trap is complete¹.

I remained a short distance away and sharpened a small, thin bone into a sewing needle, while waiting for dogs to gather at the trap. I finished the needle roughly 30 minutes later, so I decided to check the state of the trap.

When I got closer, I could hear barking and yelping, so I hid from view and took a look at the situation. As far as I could see from my hiding place, there were four of them.

I’ve been prepared for no dog at all to show up, you know, but the trap seems to be more effective than I thought. Woo-hoo!

I approached up to the distance for firing magic, not making a sound, and shot a Water Ball at one of the dogs, who was barking at the meat in the trap.

The Water Ball, which used to have the size of a juicebox before, was now about as big as a basketball, due to it reaching level 4. Still, it consumed 4 MP per cast at this size.

Incidentally, I gained detailed information about it, when I examined its skill level. When I did that, it gave me the following explanation:

It looked like the dog, who was hit by the Water Ball, had been defeated. I was already at a point, where I could vanquish them in a single attack. The remaining three dogs were shocked, when one of their own had suddenly been killed. I took this chance and brought one more of them down with another Water Ball.

The two remaining dogs noticed me, and one of them came at me, while the other was trying to intimidate me². I defeated the one coming my way with another Water Ball, and then got close to the last one, killing it with my bone knife.

Oh! I reached level 4!

This time, I allocated one point to A and HP, and two to MP, C, S and W.

Then, I invested two SKP into water magic.
It finally reached the max level! Woo-Hoo!

Due to it having reached the maximum level, its power and size increased, while the MP cost remained at 4. Furthermore, I now had the option to create several Water Balls at the same time, as far as my MP allowed, and it increased my MP by 5.

Suddenly, a message appeared in my mind.

Alright. Bring it on!

That’s it, right? Great, let’s perform evolution and derivation right away!

I mentally chose “Yes”.

Oh! I learned them, didn’t I? Both Improved Water Magic and Ice Magic are marked with (X). So, they won’t disappear if I synthesize them. I’m getting closer to my dream³.

I immediately checked the skills.

As I thought, that’s a staggering amount of SKP for Improved Water Magic, since it’s D-Rank, right?

On that note, when I examined level 0, I got the explanation, that I could also use the spells I had learned before evolution.

In addition to that, I allocated the remaining 8 SKP into Fire, Wind, Earth, and Improved Water Magic, with two points to each. This way, Fire, Wind, and Earth Magic each required 10 more points before evolution. Improved Water Magic also required 10 more points to advance to the next stage.

Author’s note:
The protagonist’s current status screen:

TL notes:
This chapter’s title (and whenever dog trap is used in the chapter) is 犬ホイホイ. It’s clear from context that it’s either a trap or a lure. The problem with this is that ホイホイ doesn’t seem to have these meanings, so I’m genuinely stumped, what the real meaning is supposed to be.

1. The narration is written in polite speech here. My best guess is that Alim tries to make his description sound like some kind of documentary.
2. It’s also possible, that the dog is intimidated, and not trying to intimidate someone.
3. The original is 夢がひろがる (“(My) dream gets wider”). I guess that’s what he means, but not sure.
4. It says 術(例) (“Magic [Example]”) in the original. Probably got copy/pasted from chapter 4.
5. It’s 35/39 (7) in the original. Most likely a typo.