🐈 Week 8 and following | 黒猫ニャンゴの冒険 ✨

Japanese Reading Book Clubs
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Since we’re now 30% into the book and the threads have become quite short, week 8 and following will be in this thread from now on.

Previous week: Week 7
Home Thread: 黒猫ニャンゴの冒険

We’re reading this book as part of the Beginner’s Light Novel Book Club.

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Discussion Guidelines

  • Please blur/hide any major events in the current week’s pages (however early they occur), like so: text here (that’s [spoiler]text here[/spoiler]).
  • If you have a question about grammar, vocab, the story, cultural things or literally anything else related to the book — ask! There is really no need to be hesitant. If it’s something you are wondering about, chances are someone else will be thankful you asked first, lots of people enjoy answering questions, you learn something new, and the thread gets more lively. It’s a win-win on all fronts!
  • Don’t forget to put on your club-supplied cat ears for a more immersive experience while reading. You will find them under your seat.
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Week 8 July 12
Chapter 第三話 成長を求めて (part 1/3)
End Percentage 39.21%
End Page 128
Read until 味は文句無しだったが、完食するまでには、だいぶ時間が掛かってしまった。 ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆
Home Thread 黒猫ニャンゴの冒険

Participation Poll

  • I’m reading along :cat2:
  • I have fallen behind and I’m planning to catch up later :dog2:
  • I’m reading this at my own pace :paw_prints:
  • I’m reading this book after the club has finished :spiral_calendar:
0 voters
1 Like
:cat: Home Thread for 黒猫ニャンゴの冒険 :sparkles:
:cat: Week 7 | 黒猫ニャンゴの冒険 :sparkles:
:cat: Week 7 | 黒猫ニャンゴの冒険 :sparkles:
:cat: Home Thread for 黒猫ニャンゴの冒険 :sparkles:
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Week 8 thoughts

ゴブリンが走り寄ってくるコース上に、空属性魔法で作った刃渡り十五センチほどのダガーナイフを固定しておいたのだ。

Oh, smart!

胸や腹から滴る血の量を見れば、このまま見守っているだけでもゴブリンを倒せそうだが、それでは冒険した意味が無いと思った。

That’s a dangerous way of thinking.

…aaaand not much to say about the other parts. I guess we’re mostly back to powering up, which I guess is necessary, but not very exciting to read about.

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Week 9 July 19
Chapter 第三話 成長を求めて (part 2/3)
End Percentage 43.69%
End Page 143
Read until この後、ゼオルさんと一緒に周囲の話に聞き耳を立てながら、いろんな冒険者の話を教えてもらった。◆◆◆◆
Home Thread 黒猫ニャンゴの冒険

Participation Poll

  • I’m reading along :cat2:
  • I have fallen behind and I’m planning to catch up later :dog2:
  • I’m reading this at my own pace :paw_prints:
  • I’m reading this book after the club has finished :spiral_calendar:
0 voters
:cat: Home Thread for 黒猫ニャンゴの冒険 :sparkles:
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Week 9 thoughts

「爺ちゃん、なんでニャンゴなんかを連れて行くんだよ」

I have the same question, but about someone else.

「こんな奴、何の役にも立ちやしないよ」

I cannot insert GIFs into detail sections, but… just imagine this GIF here.

こいつは、俺に命を助けられた事も叩きのめされた事も忘れているのだろうか。

My only explanation is that Nyango hit him so hard that he suffers from memory loss now.

村長にしてみれば、理由はどうあれ親元を離れての生活で、ミゲルのわがままな性格が矯正できるのであればと考えているのかもしれない。

Yes please!

「こ、こんなの雨の日以外は役に立たないよ」

Nyango can shield a big area from rain, but can he also open a hole directly above Miguel?

壊れやすく設定した空気の塊で、尖った棘のようなものを作り、犬人の冒険者の周りに幾つも展開してやった。
チクっとするが、すぐに壊れる。痛みに驚いて体を反応させると、別の棘が刺さる。

Damn, Nyango can be absolutely ruthless.

Well, that got much better after that pretty weak start about… *checks notes* the job market in the city and its implications for a background character we’ll probably never see again.

A new environment? Potentially a new character who ? Nyango actually doing adventurer-type work? Yes please.

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Week 8

これなら冒険者としてやっていけるかもしれない

But will it be in this volume…? :joy:

More training and committing goblin atrocities but I think I’ve gotten a handle on this book’s vocab/writing style and reading is feeling a lot smoother.

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Week 9

I did it, I caught up! :triumph: :muscle:

:joy:

I was wondering about the brother character too. Has he even been named? Are we supposed to care? I thought the same thing in the last part when Nyango was randomly like ‘and my brother has been lazing around the house,’ I was like, your what now? Because we haven’t had any development around the family characters at all.

Overall I thought this was a pretty good section, kind of something I was expecting from the beginning of the book :joy: Going to a new place, going to the tavern with all the hardened adventurers, meeting new characters, crossing my fingers that the adventure is starting! Although the female bartender character was a bit stereotypical and I rolled my eyes at that a bit, but we’ll let it slide.

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Week 9 Reply

Nice!! Welcome to the forefront of Nyango’s Soon To Be Had Adventure!

I don’t think he has. And yeah, I was wondering about it too when he came up before. And now we follow up on him… hum hum. Maybe they’ll meet again in the city and the brother will play a role then? At least I don’t think the book had other completely irrelevant parts so far. Boring parts, yes; but this feels like the first time that it has talked about something that feels completely unrelated to the story.

Either way, it’s weird that the book suddenly goes “I guess halfway in is the best time to meet Nyango’s family, so…”

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9

I fell behind as I was sick the whole week last week :frowning: hope to catch up to at least mid week 9 this week. I’m about halfway through week 8 right now.

Thoughts so far

The powering up by eating the goblin’s heart was certainly a… thing. The first thing on my mind was if he couldn’t just eat a part of it every day or something to slow down the process, lol. But I guess that wouldn’t be feasible anyway (no storage of food/place that he could actually store it in at home)?

I just started the part on winter and regarding the habits of cat people, which I find a bit more interesting to read. Funny how he basically mentions that his family stinks though :sweat_smile:

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week 8

:grimacing: I feel like we’re going to see this again, maybe with a stronger magical creature like a kobold and then an orc.

I wonder if eating a person’s heart gives the same benefit (they have magical powers after all), then the story would truly progress to horror where Nyango is the bad guy. (I don’t think this is going to happen, just taking this idea to its logical conclusion)

I think all the talk about cat people being dirty is cat slander. Cats are very clean animals!

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reply

Now that you mention it, it does seem like the author has some kind of bias against cats. Cat people are small, weak, smell bad… it’s a bit strange, right? Especially considering cats are generally very smart and clean (I am constantly surprised when I see how much my cat interacts with me and understands what I say!)

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reply

Right, you would think there might be something about how they’re clever, or more athletic and can jump high… but I guess being clever is reserved only for Nyango since he’s the protagonist.

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Week 10 July 26
Chapter 第三話 成長を求めて (part 3/3)
End Percentage 49.14%
End Page 159
Read until End of Chapter
Home Thread 黒猫ニャンゴの冒険

Participation Poll

  • I’m reading along :cat2:
  • I have fallen behind and I’m planning to catch up later :dog2:
  • I’m reading this at my own pace :paw_prints:
  • I’m reading this book after the club has finished :spiral_calendar:
0 voters
1 Like
:cat: Home Thread for 黒猫ニャンゴの冒険 :sparkles:
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Week 10

紙のようにペラペラではなく、厚さ三センチぐらいに空気を固めて魔法陣を作ると、ボンっという音とともに炎が噴き上がった。

And with this, the cover image is complete!

  • Airwalking: Check.
  • Stylish eye patch: Check.
  • Wielding fire magic: Check.

And I’m honestly surprised we didn’t get 10 pages of him trying to properly copy the magic circles :sweat_smile:

火と風の魔法陣を重ねると、ボォーっと音を立てて炎が大きく噴き上げられた。

Show this to Miguel! Please! :laughing:

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I finally caught up!

Week 10

I enjoyed the part where they were at the school and then the cafe. I wonder if Miguel succeeded at the exam? A bit weird that the school would be so cold without heating, even if it’s just the corridors. Anyway, I liked the food descriptions and the fact that it was the first time that all 3 of them were at a cafe (and that Nyango was the only one who actually had money, lol).

To me, the magic circle part seemed a bit… weird. Surely someone must have tried that once in the past? I’m assuming it’s a bit ‘taboo’ and that it could be something kept hidden by nobility or more high class mages, which is why the general population doesn’t know. I just hope the book doesn’t try to paint it as something completely new that Nyango came up with because he’s Japanese or something (I feel like we already get this a bit with Zaol praising him for his innovative way of thinking of new techniques…)

Anyway, if I understood it correctly: even if he drew the magic circle from the tools, he still had issues reproducing them. But then, the easiest way to visualize them was apparently to just activate the circle, because once the magic is activated a circle appears (?). And he was able to memorize this? Is this correct…? I found this part confusing.

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Week 10 Reply

To be honest, I feel that way about his magic in general. The whole “I can imagine compressed air better because I know about industrial presses from my past life” feels flimsy at best, but I’m happy that we got any explanation at all, so I’m doing my best to suspend my disbelief there.

But really: I’d expect all of these things to have been done by other people with his element already. You’re telling me that in the whole history, nobody ever tried really hard to get this magic element working? Especially someone who wasn’t a cat-person with minimal mana reserves? Trying to make the result harder and trying to imagine useful everyday shapes is the most basic and obvious thing you can do with it, and even then it seems much too useful to be discarded as a “useless element”. And if anybody did this, there would be teachings about it that others follow, and successful users would be everywhere… but seemingly there aren’t, so… nobody ever did? It’s a conspiracy?

With that being said, back to suspending my disbelief :see_no_evil:

I remember being pretty confused by that as well. I think what I settled on was:

  • Drawing them into the earth, then pouring his magic into them: Slow.
  • “Just” visualizing them fully formed, like he does with all other things: Probably inaccurate, but he can do it quickly in succession and get better through quick repetition.
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Week 10

To be honest, whenever a dull training scene like this starts, I stop looking up words and just read to get the gist :speak_no_evil: Something something he’s making magic circles with his void power so he can use other elements…ok got it.

I agree that him being able to use all other elements with his void power seemed like a bit of a shortcut? Like, there’s really no extra magic cost and it’s not very difficult for him? Why can’t everyone do this with their powers? Surely you could make a magic circle design out of stone or flames or whatever, and activate other elements in the same way. It seems odd that he would be the only one who’s thought of this, if it’s really that easy.

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Week 11 August 2
Chapter 第四話 強敵との戦い (part 1/2)
End Percentage 55.19%
End Page 180
Read until あとは角度を変え、複数同時に発動できるように、これからも練習を重ねていこう。 ◆◆◆◆
Home Thread 黒猫ニャンゴの冒険

Participation Poll

  • I’m reading along :cat2:
  • I have fallen behind and I’m planning to catch up later :dog2:
  • I’m reading this at my own pace :paw_prints:
  • I’m reading this book after the club has finished :spiral_calendar:
0 voters
1 Like
:cat: Home Thread for 黒猫ニャンゴの冒険 :sparkles:
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Week 11 thoughts

第四話 強敵との戦い

If that’s not a good title…

実戦では雨の中で戦う場合もあり、足元が濡れて滑りやすい、雨滴が目に入るなどの状況にも対応できなければならないからだ

I mean, slipping or getting water in his eyes are things that our air walking and air clothing/tools making protagonist probably doesn’t have to worry about.

俺はエアウォークを使っているから足を滑らせる心配は要らないし、何ならアンブレラで雨も防げるが、経験値を上げる意味で濡れながら立ち合いを行っている。

Huh, alright! Why though? :sweat:

When it actually rains, he’s probably going to use air walk / umbrella to gain an advantage anyway, right?

「ニャンゴ、お前は俺と一緒に御者台に座ってもらう」
「屋根係ですね」

Haha. That took the next paragraph to understand. I first thought he’s saying that he’ll be sitting on the roof and keeping watch, and I was like “What? But didn’t Zeol tell him to sit in the driver’s seat with him?!”

練習している探知魔法を試してみたが、立木や灌木が邪魔をして上手く探知できない。

I would’ve expected the rain actually being the bigger hindrance? Or maybe the particles he’s using are not as easy to destroy than I thought.

あちこち痛む体を無理やり引き起こし、覚悟を決めて雄叫びを上げる。
「うにゃぁぁぁぁぁ！」

猫叫び

「それならば……デスチョーカー」
オークの首の周りに、空属性魔法で固めた輪っかを嵌めた。
輪の内側には、ぐるっと刃が付けてある。

I would accuse him of chuunibyou, but no… that’s a pretty apt name for that technique :zipper_mouth_face:

Although to be honest… I feel like it would rather be best to continue trying to take both orc’s eye sight. Wouldn’t that make them much less dangerous?

Either way, though, he’s doing pretty well so far. He’s keeping two orcs busy!

これなら戦える、俺でもオークを倒せるかもしれない。

Or maybe he’ll even take down two. Haha. 1 Nyango = 14 trained villagers? :smiley:

「自分で運搬する方法が無ければ、パーティーを組むんだな」
「なるほど、運搬を手伝ってくれる仲間を探す訳ですね」
「そうだが……ニャンゴ、お前の場合は難しいかもしれんな」
「えっ、あぁ……猫人だから、ですね？」

Yeah, I guess Nyango will have to get a reputation first.

別に、今すぐ街に行って冒険者になる訳じゃないので、もう少し対策を考えてみます。

Don’t make soggyboy sad.

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Week 11

Following fighting scenes is also a bit harder, but I realised something wasn’t really clear to me when I was reading their dialogue in the aftermath (when both Nyango and Zaol were in the carriage): …How many orcs were there in total? I thought there were 3, but then they said that Nyango lured 2 of them, while Zaol was busy tackling an orc by himself. But I also understood the villagers were busy with 2 other orcs in the meantime? So there were 5? Or were the villagers just late to help Nyango (for some reason I guess I missed)?

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