Did I have good luck? Or bad luck? After fighting the unforeseen Elder Treant, we hurried to an area a little ways away from the forest to meet up with Heath-san’s party.
There, stacks of Treant Wood were piled up.
「Hey! Takumi, you guys okay?」
「Yes, I’m glad you are all safe as well.」
「Could I ask you to store the Treants immediately?」
「I understand.」
They borrowed Item Bags from the guild, but it seems that 5 of those had been filled with Treant Wood. I stored the stacks of the remaining Treant Wood in my Item Box.
「The capacity of Takumi’s storage magic is amazing.」
「It seem I have a large amount of magic power.」
In order to deceive them about my Item Box, I gave a suitable reason to Lyle-san.
「Let’s go back to the carriage then. The dwarf uncle is probably tired of waiting.」
「Yes.」
We returned to the area, a bit distanced from the forest, where Doganbo-san was on standby.
「Doganbo-san, nothing happened?」
「Yeah, it was all good.」
We’ll camp here today, then tomorrow morning, Heath-san’s group will return to Volton, and we will go to Horuas.
「Alright then Takumi, let’s meet again in Volton.」
「Yes Lyle-san, please take care.」
「Takumi, the main roads are few and they are infested with thieves. Don’t hesitate when that happens. Don’t forget that innocent lives will be lost If you turn a blind eye to them. Thieves kill the men and violate the women until they’re bored then sell them. Try to imagine that.」
I, who has no experience killing people, was warned by Heath-san who had a stern look.
I lived my ordinary petit bourgeois life never having gotten involved in fights in the peace-at-all-costs Japan. But seeing a destroyed village first in this world, I think I was able to realize that danger comes hand in hand with this world. Nevertheless, I still think that killing a person is at a different level, but I have a feeling I’ll be fine.
Since coming to this world, I who had never killed a living thing, didn’t feel shaken mentally when I killed Horned Rabbits and hunted the Blade deer. I have a reluctance to killing a person, but this world is that kind of world. I have a feeling that that had been etched into my soul. I am almost certain that this is Goddess Norn’s doing. My Japanese ethics and morals had been influenced so that my mind would not break.
「It’s alright, Heath-san. If it’s to protect Sophia and Maria, I have no reason to hesitate.」
「That’s right, don’t forget that feeling.」
According to Heath-san, there will be thief subjugation requests and merchant escort requests starting at adventurer rank D. He said that when confronting thieves, those who hesitate die.
He might have given me this advice knowing that I would be promoted to Rank D after this request is over.
「Alright, see you at Volton.」
「Yes, please take care Heath-san!」
「………………」
「Bogah-san as well, please take care!」
The two carriages then began running in opposite directions.
We continued towards Horuas with the Forest of Death to our right.
Camping twice, we continued until we could no longer see the Forest of Death, and it changed into a desolate scenery with rocks scattered and standing out.
「Water Arrow!」
Maria’s water attribute magic pierced through a skink lizard[1] that spanned over 2 meters.
The skink lizard monster was a Rock Lizard. It has rock-like scales that are strong against physical attacks but it is weak against Water attribute and Ice attribute magic.
Our carriage has constantly been attacked by Rock Lizards ever since the scenery changed to a rocky landscape. Their movements were slow, so they became practice targets for Maria and I’s Water and Ice magic.
「Rock Lizards are quite troubling monsters.」
While dismantling the Rock Lizard, Doganbo-san grumbled, looking disgusted.
Apparently, the rock-like scales of the Rock Lizard can be materials for armors and shields.
「I can’t use these as they are, though.」
It seems that the materials still take the characteristic of being weak to Water and Ice attributes and the process to mitigate that is troublesome.
「The liver can be used as an ingredient for medicine, right?」
I checked with Doganbo-san as I helped with the dismantling.
「I’m not a pharmacist so I don’t know the details, but it seems it’s used as an ingredient for fever medicine.」
If that’s the case, should I reserve a bit of it for ourselves?
Medicine for illnesses aren’t that important for us.
That is because I can use Recovery magic to cure illnesses. However, the common knowledge of the people of this world about the use of Recovery magic seems to be different. My Recovery magic cures illnesses normally, but it seems that when other Priests use Recovery magic, it isn’t that effective. This is the result of not knowing the cause of the disease. Since I have the unique skill Appraisal EX, I can investigate details of the disease. Only after knowing the details of the disease, whether the cause is a bacteria, virus, or something else do I imagine taking away that cause and use Recovery magic.
Thanks to Sophia listening to the spirits’ voices, we were able to prevent monsters’ surprise attacks. We defeated many overconfident monsters, and didn’t encounter the thieves that Heath-san was worried about.
「Heee~ So that’s Horuas.」
Seen from an elevation, Horuas truly is a mining town surrounded by mines. With many streaks of smoke rising from within the town, I knew from a glance that there were many metalworking studios. Many slag heaps from mine were piled around the town.
「Horuas is a mining town, it has many miners and blacksmiths so be careful of the rough ones.」
According to Doganbo-san, many criminal slaves are sent to Horuas to work in the mines. It’s that kind of town so the public order is worse compared to Volton, and we were told to be careful so we don’t get caught in any trouble.
「(Doganbo-san, that’s what we call raising a flag!)」
We descended the elevation, moving along the path to the gates of Horuas.
There were many merchant caravans lined up before the gate to the town.
We lined up at the end of the queue. It took a long time but we were able to pass through and enter Horuas before it got dark.
***
Footnotes:
