Reminder that if you like the work, you should support the author by buying the books. You can buy Netoge no Yome volumes at the Kadokawa Bunko Digital Store, BookWalker, or any of the physical stores in Japan (Animate, Gamers, Toranoana) with a proxy. Without support, niche works like these are just going to end up disappearing and all that would be left is trashy run-of-the-mill FOTM.
It’s finally time for Volume 8. I’ve mentioned before that I wanted to fully translate this as well, but as work is unforgiving even once I finish tasks, I’m afraid I’ll simply have to go the summary route. That said though, I’ll still try to put in as much details as I can so I can at least do the original work some justice, but it’s most likely that the game references mixed into the real life parts of the story will be glossed over so do not take this as a complete experience of the actual work. The actual LN is much more detailed so I would still encourage you to read that if you’re able to read Japanese.
Also, if you have any feedback regarding how the summaries are done, let me know. Since as of now, I’m still including most of the details, even minor ones, except that I don’t have to write it like the author’s prose anymore. I’m also over halfway done with Chapter 1 already so expect that to be done soon as well. Regarding the usual colored illustrations at beginning, I’ll also be adding them in when it’s that part in the story already, just to avoid confusion and to give an easier depiction of what’s actually happening during the summaries.
Volume 8 – Detailed Summary
Prologue
The volume begins as usual, with Rusian telling tales of his MMO experience from the past. The main focus of his story this time was that everyone was a beginner once. He even recounts that before maining being a main tank, he had gone the DPS greatsword route (during his time with Nekohime) and trying out ranged classes after that.
Continuing on with his story, it’s an episode where Rusian runs a dungeon with pubs, including a player named Tanuko Sensei. Much like Nekohime, Tanuko Sensei is also an RPer so he ends his sentences with -tanu, which if I were to localize it, I’d probably keep adding I reckon (raccoon, taken from Tanuko’s name which is from Tanuki, meaning racoon dog).
That aside, Tanuko Sensei then asks Rusian if he can do a marathon run. For additional information, the marathon referred to here is a style of pulling every mob in the dungeon until you hit a boss/midboss. Rusian disagrees, not because he doesn’t know about it, but because based on info on the wiki, he thinks this is pretty much impossible as the mobs here will just burn your HP down. Insisting on the marathon, Tanuko Sensei urges Rusian to try pulling all the mobs up to the midboss, which as you’d expect, fails spectacularly due to too much incoming damage. Rusian then reiterates that this style is just impossible for this dungeon, to which Tanuko Sensei responds insisting that Rusian can do it too, he just needs to see how it is done. He then logs in his other character, Tanuko Master.
Now with Tanuko Master, the party does the dungeon again using the marathon method, but succeeds this time. Surprised by what just happened, Rusian mentions that this is still impossible for him so Tanuko Master tells Rusian that they can train until he is able to do it. Tanuko Master also gets approval from the entire party if they can accompany Rusian in his tank training, and they all get onboard. In the end, Rusian finally gets down the method of kiting around the mobs, using defensive skills when they get close, and maintaining the flow of running around in a circle until they finally cleared the mobs up to the midboss. They celebrate for a bit at Rusian finally being able to do it, but there’s still the latter half of the dungeon left. And as expected yet again, the party fails this time as Rusian is still new to this that he can’t perfectly do it everytime.
The focus goes back to Ako and Rusian in the present time, talking about how they beat Tanuko-san during the sled race, and where he messaged Rusian after the fact. Going back to Rusian’s story from the past, he then tells Ako that everyone was bad at the game once, even himself, Master and Schew. Ako replies that while everyone may have been bad once, the speed at which they get better is different. Unable to refute this, Rusian encourages Ako by telling her she’s still making progress little by little. However, Ako is still worried that they won’t make it in time for Valentine’s day. Rusian can’t help but agree with that fact as he mentions that the 14th of February is approaching fast.
Hotdog Translations 