Chapter 33
Otoko Aruji - Chapter 33: RoarThe next morning after hunting with Myun, I was thinking while eating breakfast. I"ve been in the care of Myun for quite a while. I was taught various hunting grounds near Bakkudo, there are different efficient hunting methods and weaknesses for each monster, knowledge about monsters. A variety of common sense for Orth, about the Kingdom of Rombert and the Kingdom of Davas. There is no end if you were to try and total it up. When I think calmly about it, if there was no Myun, if I had killed Myun at that moment I would not be in my present situation.
Experience gained by hunting monsters (not only experience points but, battle experience and knowledge are important) and common sense and knowledge indispensable for living in Orth. Although these would eventually be learned someday even if it was left to time, there"s no problem with learning it early on. Myun is literally my teacher.
I would like to do something for my teacher"s new life. It was common in j.a.pan to give things and cash, but regardless of things, I do not have any money, I"m not in a situation to get cash. Generally, I have never seen a marriage in Bakkudo where gifts were given. In the first place we"re not not rich enough to give gifts. Just doing a banquet and the ending it. After that the priest comes once a year and does the wedding ceremony and it"s really the end..
Mill talked to me at practice the next morning, she probably thought I was eating while thinking with a difficult face. It is already no problem to use simple magic without having to concentrate for both of us. Even though I said that it is limited to low level magic, when you use magic that is high level, you need to concentrate considerably.
"Hey, Al, what"s wrong? You were making a funny face since having breakfast, does your stomach or somewhere hurt?"
"No, it does not hurt anywhere, older sister. I was just thinking of a few things."
"Hmm, about rubber?"
"No."
"Well, what about forging?"
"No."
"Oh, what about work in the fields?"
"No."
"Well, what is it then? Do you have something to worry about? Because tomorrow is Myun"s wedding party, you should not make such a difficult face."
Mill said so and tried to end the story.
Oh, shall I try asking Mill?
"Sister, umm... Is there anything I can do for Myun for her wedding? Myun was...um..always together with me after all.."
"Oh, that"s it. Does Al want to give Myun a gift?"
It"s good she understands quickly. Though if I were to say it outright she would misunderstand.
"Hm, usually you give furniture or clothes...but you wouldn"t be able to prepare them at this point, it"s too late..."
Huh? You usually give furniture....?
I did not know.
"Ah but, the first thing is food. Remember, it"s been a about a year but.... that Bundo bird that Kerry hunted came out at Zal"s wedding."
"Oh, yeah, that was delicious..."
I remember that time. That was really delicious. I"ve only eaten Bundo bird that once, but it"s intensely remained in my memory. There have been several wedding banquets until now, but the impression from that time is still strong. At the time of a wedding b
anquet, naturally the most lavish cuisine is served, but the ingredients of most banquets are provided by the Wolf race hunter Doshu after all.
In Bakkudo, the source of most animal protein is from chickens and their eggs kept by farmers, and then pigs, but hunters are also an important source of providing animal protein. Chicken meat and pork can not be eaten regularly. Putting aside chicken, the pig has few farmers keeping it from the amount of fodder they require, and only one to two pigs are eaten in the whole village monthly. Although it is a small village, since it has a population of over 400 people, and pigs have a weight of 100 to 200 Kg (Bakkudo"s pigs are not as big as pigs kept in j.a.pan for food because we don"t have a lot of fodder. The variety differs as well.) so at best only two or maybe three servings per person per month is possible.
No matter how you look at it that"s too little so the spoils from hunting are always sold out on a reservation basis. Sometimes there"s plenty to be sold without problems when large game such as white hair deer, Dengboar, Giant Toad, and Green Crocodile are hunted. It is too much for one family and since they can not pay for it alone, they buy it jointly. When it is a big game, our family often pays out money as well, since we"re the family of the lord we often get the best parts.
But overall it is not very tasty. However, as everyone says delicious delicious, it is a reasonably high quality ingredient. Just my taste is too different due to my previous life. Among such ingredients, my memory of the Bundo bird vividly remains. I don"t remember tasting meat as good as that even in j.a.pan very often. It was good enough to rival brand beefs such as Matsusaka and Kobe that I ate on business trips. Even though it"s bird meat, it wasn"t very sinewy, that itself was delicious.
That"s right, as Mill says "a good marriage banquet" is lifted up and becomes a target of envy. If I was able to provide some kind of good ingredient wouldn"t that become a good gift?
"Older sister, I understand. I think that I am going to hunt for today. It"s still early in the morning so I will go and get permission from father and then ask at Kerry"s house."
"Eeh? But they"ve already made an order from the Tobas family right? I heard that 10 legs of Giant Toad are already prepared?"
"That"s fine, I just want to send something myself."
"But, it"s dangerous if only Al goes, so I think father would absolutely not allow it."
"....There is no choice but to ask, depending on the case I"ll try asking father to accompany me."
"...It can not be helped. I will go too."
"Eh?"
"I am already 12 since Kerry and I are the same age so father shouldn"t easily reject me from going right? But it"s not good if Kerry isn"t with us, we need to catch Kerry before she goes to work... Anyway, let"s talk to Kerry first and then we can go together to get permission from father."
"...Thank you, older sister."
Then we ran towards Kerry"s house and caught the Dokshu family as it was departing to hunt and explained the circ.u.mstances. We asked them to wait for us to depart and went to Hegard who is training with the squires and asked if we can go with Kerry as well as her parents as they hunt so we can get something for Myun"s wedding banquet, Hegard asked me and Mill our remaining amount of mana. We both skipped this mornings practice so plenty is remaining. Mill used about 20%, but I have not used even 10% and I still have about 6000 MP left. When both of us told him that we still have plenty of mana, Hegard called the squire leader, Beckwiz and had him accompany as an overseer. In order for us to not get in the way of the Dokshu family hunting he put emphasis on with Beckwiz and told us to be careful before returning to training.
We were allowed because it wasn"t just Kerry but also her parents Zachary and Winry coming as well. It"s a good thing we talked to them first.
·····
I prepared my sling shot and type 64 bayonet, Mill had prepared the short sword that she got from Fern and a sling shot of the same type as mine. Beckwiz just brought one long sword. In terms of armor Beckwiz had on upper body armor and we siblings just had it on our shoulders, elbows, and knees. The three of us went to Kerry"s house and the hunter family was ready and waiting. I reported that we got permission to go, and thanked them for allowing us to accompany them, after that we quickly departed.
Today it was planned to head towards the forest in the eastern part of the village, but it seems we"re going through the forest in the north in order to reach the northwestern mountain area instead to find larger game. According to the schedule we"re supposed to be back in the evening, but depending on the tracking situation it seems there is a possibility that it will take until tomorrow. Tomorrow is Myun"s wedding banquet so I told them I definitely wanted to return home tonight, they said it would be alright while laughing.
Well then, let"s depart. Zachary and the Dochsu family were all wielding a bow and knife as expected of a family of the Wolf people race that excels in endurance and strength, they were all wearing full body rubber armor as well. I notice a buckshot type slingshot hanging at their waist as well. Come to think of it, other than the knight group and Viscount Kindo they were one of the first customers.
"Come to think of it, Al-sama, this buckshot type slingshot is a great thing. There"s no greater thing than this to shoot a bird. It"s not very good for shooting large game but it"s just right for quails. The bullets spread around a bit so it rarely misses as well."
Zachary praised the slingshot.
"And this protector is wonderful. I am not afraid of the horns of the deer anymore, it is light, and it helps that it fits the body making it easy to move."
Winry also laughs while knocking against the chest part of the protector. Although there may be some flattery and kissing up I can tell from the way of speaking that they really feel that way so I feel a bit good as we head towards the northwestern mountains. We left at around 7am and after walking for about three hours we arrived at the northwestern mountain area. Up until here the reason we were able to hunt six quails and 3 Foto birds, which resemble the starling, is because of the Dochsu families skill with the buckshot slingshot. Mill and I didn"t bring a buckshot slingshot so were just watching. For the time being we put all 9 into a rubber bag, tied it tight, and hung it from a tree we marked. If you properly tie a rubber bag shut it cuts off the smell so other animals won"t be able to find and eat it. In a plain sort of way it"s doing a good job.
After a short break of about 20 minutes, we finally head into the mountain. Even if I were to say the mountain, it"s not an area with rocks and gravel laying around but more like an extension of the forest. Panting while following after the Wolf race family for an hour or so the hunters all crouch down and check in front. We also crouch down about 10 m away and quietly ask Kerry.
"What"s wrong? Is there something there?"
Kerry glances to the side at me while looking forward with a serious expression
"I don"t know yet, but my father seems to have found something."
Oh, I forgot to use identify. I activate identify and quietly look at the front.
Incidentally, the range of unique skills is also about double the range of ordinary magic. Magic is 20 meters per level so it"s up to 200 meters. In the case of Mill and I, we can extend the range further by putting in more mana though.
Level - Range
0 - 10 m
1 - 20 m
2 - 40 m
3 - 70 m
4 - 110 m
5 - 160 m
6 - 220 m
7 - 290 m
8 - 360 m
9 - 450 m
My identify can see up to about 450 m, but I do not have the confidence to notice anyone 450 m ahead. In the middle of this forest with my sight of view blocked by trees and leaves there"s no way to tell if a portion sticking out is a person or a tree. If I really want to distinguish it I have to confirm the direction of the identify and then look at the window that comes up. Of course if its hidden or only a part of it is visible then there"s things I won"t notice. In order to actually tell them apart the only options are for my view to be open or to repeat identify constantly while looking at the window. On a practical level for this type of forest I"d say 200 m is the best I can do.
I quietly use Identify"s selection mode to sweep the area ahead.
……I don"t see anything.
Should I try repeating identify knowing it will just waste MP?
Suddenly, Winry stood up halfway and moved to hide behind a tree 10 m ahead. Zachary also starts moving immediately afterwards and pulls close to the trunk of the tree a little away from the Winry. Kerry and Zachary were both hiding behind nearby trees. Mill, Beckwiz, and I just kept crouching down and watching not knowing what to do.
After all there seems to be some sort of game. I concentrate in the direction in which Zachary and Winry look while using identify...I don"t see anything. Is what I thought but it seems I was looking in the wrong direction. I had thought it was a large animal or monster that was hidden behind a tree or a bird behind some branches but that was a mistake. The direction they are looking at and the direction I"m looking at matched, but they seem to be looking at the ground.
I did not notice because I was paying attention only to 1 m above the ground. I noticed that a part of the ground 4 to 50 meters ahead could be chosen as an unnatural object for identify. Approximately 10 m ahead can be identified.
【】
【As.e.xual / 21/10/7433 · Brown slime】
[Condition: Good]
[Age: 3 years old]
【Level: 2】
【HP: 125 (125) MP: 1 (1)】
【Strength: 0】
【Agility: 1】
[Dexterity: 1]
【Endurance: 62】
【Special skill: Dissolve】
【Special skill: Divide】
Oh, just a slime? I started to think of it was a weakling while remembering Dragon Quest from my previous life. I thought it was just a small fry with high endurance. After all, you often hear the name slime and they"re always the weak monster that comes out at the start of RPGs right?
The hunters come back and Zachary says.
"Al-sama it"s a bit bad. There"s a slime. Let"s go back and go in a different direction."
I don"t know what you"re talking about.
"Huh? It"s a slime right? If you hit with an arrow wouldn"t it easily be defeated?"
Zachary was a bit surprised at my words and taught me while saying it.
"Sword and arrows don"t work against slimes so even like that they"re considerably dangerous. If you go nearby you"ll quickly be engulfed and melted. It"s top cla.s.s among the dangerous monsters in this forest."
Huh? Is that so? Come to think of it, it"s not the shape of a dumpling like in games. It"s just spread out along the ground. Like just a slightly brown liquid. Since it"s mostly brown it would be easy to mistake it as slightly wet ground.
"Even you can"t defeat it?"
I asked Beckwiz the squire leader who was accompanying us.
"It"s a bit impossible for me. I think it would be impossible for the lord as well. When we"re always patrolling around slimes almost never appear so it hasn"t been a problem, and they eat goblins so even we see them we just change directions."
Hm, even Beckwiz and father are no good. Though if we were to change directions it will take more time. It looks like a liquid so what about burning it with fire magic? As long as I"m careful not to cause a mountain fire and then use water magic afterwards shouldn"t it be fine?
"How about burning it with fire magic? That level I can burn all at once."
I try saying to Beckwiz and Zachary.
"Eh? Magic huh....It might work with magic, how about it?"
Beckwiz asked Zachery.
"I"m not too sure. Since I can"t use fire magic..."
When Zachary answers, I try to push back there.
"Well, I want to try and see if it can be burnt with fire magic then. If it"s no good let"s retreat. Or are slimes fast enough to quickly make it here once attacked?"
"No, they are considerably fast if the prey is nearby but we"re plenty of distance away and it hasn"t noticed yet as well..."
Zachary answered and looked at Winry.
"I guess so, if you try it out and if it"s no good, as long as we retreat right away it"s not very dangerous."
Winry replied like that so I decided to do it.
"Okay, here I go!"
I aim my left hand at the slime and at the same time use level 5 fire magic and use void magic to shape it into a carpet. The MP used was 5 for fire magic, 5 for shaping it, and 3 to fire it off. I didn"t particularly add any MP into the fire magic so it"s probably just enough to set fire to dry wood around 300 degrees. If it was just a matter of igniting a fire then if you take some time you can do an even lower temperature but just using fire magic without thinking it usually comes out to about this temperature. Just thinking of making it colder probably changes it to around -30 degrees.These two are the fundamental temperatures of fire magic and from there you can increase or decrease it based on the amount of MP used. Between them raising the temperature actually takes less MP than lowering it. For every 1 MP you put into it you can raise the temperature by about 100 degrees but the same 1 MP for lowering only reduces it by 1 degree. From the initial minus 30 degrees to around 300 degrees can be changed freely by directing it with feeling.
The fire that flew towards the slime quickly engulfed the surface of the slime. After being scorched by the flame it quickly spread out to try and shrink itself but it died before it could get any smaller. I tried identifying it but it seems it doesn"t leave a corpse. I couldn"t confirm the slime died by identifying the corpse but I was able to check that I gained experience. The experience was about 750. Even though it"s a slime it"s pretty amazing. After confirming I immediately used water magic to put out the remaining fire and approached to pick up the magic stone but was stopped by Beckwiz.
"Al-sama, it"s not confirmed the slime is dead yet. I"ll get closer first."
The slime is definitely dead but no one else would be able to figure it out.
"Yeah, I understand. Please do."
Beckwiz fearfully approached but as nothing happened he just brought back the magic stone. It seems that the value is not much different from that of Goblin"s magic stone, around 200 or so.
Anyway, I was able to handle the slime well so we were able to proceed straight to the hunting area. If you proceed straight ahead for 30 minutes it seems there"s a good place to hunt where there are large animals such as white hair deer.
After walking for about twenty minutes, we started proceeding with caution. It seems that there is a swamp several hundred meters from here and it is where animals and monsters go for water. Winry and Kerry went out to scout. After a while Kerry came back a bit agitated and afraid.
"Father, this is bad. It"s there. One-eye."
Human claw? Or One-eye? What on earth is that?
"What?! This is bad Beckwiz-sama. It"s a Horned Bear. One of it"s eyes is crushed but it"s pretty tricky and dangerous."
"What..Horned Bear huh... That"s bad... Is Winry still watching it? We should retreat from here..."
Zachary and Beckwiz are talking slightly agitated. What"s a Horn Bear? I tried asking Kerry.
"Kerry, is it really that bad? Is it dangerous?"
"Yes, the fur of the Horned Bear is extremely tough and you can"t penetrate it with arrows unless you"re really close and if you get hit with it"s calws you"d be in luck if you escaped with serious injuries. It"s a dangerous beast."
"Al, I"ve heard of it. Horned Bear"s rarely appear, it"s an uncommon beast around here. There are some people who consider it a monster. Father and mother seem to have killed one a long time ago, but they said that it was quite strong... but it is also supposedly delicious..."
What was that?! I reacted to Mill"s words. Is it delicious? I want to try it. I wonder if magic is no good? I guess it will burn if I use fire magic?...Ah! Wouldn"t work if I wrap it up with earth magic?
"Zachary, Beckwiz, could I talk to you for a moment?"
I call out to the two who are discussing whether to retreat. It seems they"ve already pretty much decided to retreat but I"ll just ignore that.
"What is it?"
Beckwiz answered.
"I heard that Horned Bear is quite strong, but that it"s also pretty delicious. Can we not try hunting it?"
"Certainly according to what I"ve heard it"s very tasty but...Um... I don"t think we can handle it with just us here."
Zachary answers calmly. But for Myun"s sake I can"t retreat from here.
"Yeah, it seems that a bow doesn"t work unless you"re considerably close, but how about magic? If older sister and I use earth magic and create a large amount of dirt and then use that to bury it wouldn"t it work?"
I try saying my idea.
Mill nods in understanding but the other three expressed disapproval.
"I know that Al-sama and Al-sama"s older sister are good at magic, but the opponent is not good. It is not just a normal Horned Bear. After living for many years it grew in size and has gotten much more powerful. Until today we have seen it several times, but it is not normal. To be honest, I give up hunting and go home if I see it."
Zachary says that. I wonder if it is like that Red Helmet that came out in the dog manga story that was serialized when I was in middle school? Do you need a hunting dog? No, if it is a wolf then 3BK, there"s three here from the start though... I guess I shouldn"t think of them as the same.
"Well, even if you were to say powerful it"s just a bear right? If you bury it I don"t think it would be able to resist...How about it? If you can defeat here, you won"t have to be afraid of him from now on, and you can also have delicious food. How about trying it out here. "
At that time, Winry came back.
"Dear, it"s bad, One-eye, it"s bringing along cubs. If the wind changes, our location might be given away by the scent. Let"s return."
Huh, isn"t that a bit bad? I heard that a bear with children gets extremely ferocious. Though I don"t know if the bears in Orth are the same as Earth but I feel like them fighting at full strength if there are children would be the same anywhere. Hm, I think it would be bad to try and push ahead here. I don"t want anyone to get hurt.
In that moment, a large roar was heard.
In an instant everyone"s body stiffened up.
Author"s Note: This time it"s Mill.
【Milhauer · Greed /26/2/7425】
【Female/2/2/7424·Human· Greed"s Eldest Daughter】
【Condition: Good】
【Age: 12 Years Old】
【Level: 4】
【HP: 53(53) MP: 861(861)】
【Strength: 8】
【Agility: 11】
【Dexterity: 7】
【Endurance: 7】
【Special Skill: Earth Magic (Lv.5)】
【Special skill: Water Magic (Lv.5)】
【Special Skill: Fire Magic (Lv.4)】
【Special skill: Void Magic (Lv.6)】
【Experience: 15147 (18000)】
【Kerry · Doksh/20/3/7424】
【Male/5/4/7423·Wolf People Race · Rombert Kingdom Webdos Marquis Territory Registered Free People】
【Condition: Good】
【Age: 13 Years Old】
【Level: 4】
【HP: 66(66) MP: 3(3)】
【Strength: 11】
【Agility: 11】
【Dexterity: 10】
【Endurance: 10】
【Special Skill: Small Magic】
【Experience: 14965 (18000)】