Chapter 60 : Searching For Someone Starting From Sixteen
In an instant, the day had turned dark. Our party (+Kanon) were still advancing toward the forest that was located in the northwest of Sasebo, to the place where the whereabouts of her big sister Lilith, was last heard.
I smiled at Kanon who was riding on the back of Ikkun. Mop-san himself summoned another monster for him to ride while he was sorting the content of the quest taken by her big sister.
She took two quest on that day. One is goblin outbreak subjugation in this forest. It"s a quest that would always be available as long as one went to h.e.l.loWork in Nagasaki. Even if the NPC"s ability was set lower than the players, they would still be able to do that quest safely as long as they did it carefully.
Then, the problem should be her second quest. Investigation, or it could be said, subjugation of an unconfirmed new demon species. Just looking at the name of this quest should already screamed to her that her own level was far from sufficient for her to be able to undertake it. The quest content also already warned people not to force themselves to do the impossible if they"re unable to fulfill it. So the main reason for Kanon"s sister, Lilith, going missing was most probably due to this quest.
「Yukihime-san, how many people took this quest along with Lilith? 」
「He said it"s a 3 person party. But further details remain a mysteries.」
The NPC of this world could also form a party just like us. What made them somewhat different from us was the fact that for them, their livelihood came from taking those quests, and their range of quest choices were more limited compared to us. Furthermore, the NPC who could work as adventurer was limited to those who had one of the following six occupations, which were swordsman, fighter, mage, healer, thief, and hunter. And those occupations had lower stats requirement unlike us, players, thus the NPC"s power were also lower than ours as well.
「My sister said that she was a skilled magician.」
If that is the truth, then I"m really jealous of her. If possible I wanted her to teach me how to use magic. Well, let"s try to ask for help after we saved her.
「Let see, it seems we"ve arrived at our destination during our conversation just now. Let"s stay in the formation that we discussed from before.」
Everyone nodded silently after hearing my words. Though Kanon seemed to be the only one who looked worried, Yukihime-san started to calm her by whispering「Don"t worry Kanon-chan, that oniichan over there is more of a monster than a real monster」 into her ears.
Though those words calmed her down somehow, the way Yukihime described me to Kanon was just a bit too much. I mean who"s the monster here.
「Okay, let"s go.」
With that sentence, I started walking toward the forest by myself. Aoi-san and the others were following around 20 metres behind me. The formation we"re using in this case is called, decoy tactic.
In short. The first person who entered the forest, aka me, is responsible for clearing out the possible enemy ambush at the fronts. Meanwhile, the three others, Aoi-san, Yukihime-san and Mop-san are acting as Kanon bodyguard.
If we had to take a tactical retreat, I"d cover the others since I"m the one with the highest damage output in this party.
As I advanced through the forest, I always kept my vigilance at maximum level. However, despite doing so, my ability to search enemy couldn"t find them. If the enemies were master of hiding like Ruri and my pops, we"ll be in deep s.h.i.t, especially if they"re as skillful as them. But then, I don"t think those kind of enemies would be found in this sort of place.
While pondering about such matters, my perception caught the presence of several enemies hiding inside the bushes in front of us. I opened the party chat function.
【Enemies Ahead. They"re coming.】 (Sou)
【GOGOGO(≧▽≦)】 (Yukihime)
【Please be careful.】(Aoi)
【Please step on me】(Mop)
【ヽ(#゜Д゜)ノ┌┛)`Д゜)・;】 (Yukihime stepping on Mop emoji)
【Thanks for the treat///】(Mop)
Well then, I guess I"d need to make some sort of misfired accident to create a windhole in that pervert skull.
Now then, it"s time―― To Hunt.
I ran through the darkness with my sword drawn.
「GYAGYAGYAAAA！ ? 」
The vision range inside the forest at night is far worse than in an open field. But this wasn"t a problem for me. By listening to the sound of their clanking armor, footsteps, and breathing―― I could easily pinpoint the position of my enemies.
「GYAGYAAA！ ? 」
I"m different from my pops and Ruri who could perfectly erase their trace whilst sneaking around. It wouldn"t be possible for me to kill the enemies silently like an a.s.sa.s.sin, but whenever my drawn sword had shown its trail of light, it"s going to reap any life it had targeted.
「Well………That should be the majority of the enemies around this area.」
That made 38 of them in total. Though most of them were only goblins, there"s also some bear-like monsters amongst them. While I did have my fill of fun when I fought mano O mano against a bear with just a knife in my hand, my maximum priority right now is Kanon-chan who was so worried about her big sister. Therefore, we need to find her as soon as possible. So, we should advance even further inside of the forest immediately.
【This area is safe. Let"s have an emergency meeting.】
【YES SIR(≧◇≦)】
【I understood.】
【Please scorn me.】
The last comment aside, the four of us were having a discussion in how to proceed from this point forward.
「Shall we advance for a bit more? 」
「Uh~m, let"s think about it first. Time aside, all of us really want to take an action immediately right. But the thing is, we have to go back to the city to log out.」
I see, that"s true. Though we could start again later from the city after logging out, an NPC like Kanon-chan had to go back to the city by herself. That"s why before logging out, we have to guarantee Kanon-chan safety by bringing her back to Sasebo, so we could be at ease when we started the journey over again.
「In that case, we should be going back to the city by using the route that had yet to be used.」
「Yeah, I"m with Ruu-chan.」
In this case, me and Mop-san were in the same opinion, thus we returned to Sasebo by taking a slight detour. Actually I wanted to get some sort of clue by the end of today but…….. Well, I guess I was just being too hasty.
「Well then, let me take the lead again. Leave the path to me.」
「Yeah, I"ll become the shield for everyone.」
Quite a wonderful shield you are. The shield that would shave off the willpower of the attacking side that is, Not someone who I would want as an enemy.
I ran into the forest, opening some distance from the party for the second time.
While it would be for the best if we found the lost sister of Kanon but, deep inside I want to at least meet that unknown ogre species. Well, discarding that thought away, I should focus on my current situation. Being alone in this darkness makes me ultra sensitive to my surroundings.
Several minutes after setting out, I was still advancing forward without detecting any enemies. As such, I turned around to go back, but then, that happened.
――Something is there.
Though I couldn"t see its figure due to the darkness, I knew that something is there, something that was completely different from bear or goblin that I met so far. And THAT is emitting a different kind of pressure unlike the enemies I encountered so far.
While I have no idea what is THAT thing, I knew from the tingling sensation on my skin. That is,
「―― KILLING INTENT! ? 」
Right after that, a huge club is being swung down from overhead. It"s a brutal attack that would basically turn almost all players into mince meat.
I managed to barely avoid it by jumping back but, the ground where the club landed explode upon impact, scattering soils to all direction.
「KUH！ 」
This power. It"s obviously far more vicious than my ogre form. This one hit was enough to kill me if it connected.
Though I couldn"t confirm its features due to the darkness, it"s definitely a humanoid type monster from its silhouette.
「It"s the real thing huh.」
In the worst case, I"d be killed by it, but if that"s the case, I want to at least observe its movement. If possible, I"d want to disarm it and defeat it, turning it into particles of lights.
「Reload【Exploding Bullet PT-2】」
Against the kind of opponent whose skin was so hard that it could even repel the bullet, this exploding bullet is the best bullet to use. Hence, I fired those bullets to that THING knees without a moment"s hesitation. That THING was unable to cope up with my sudden counterattack.
「GUOOOOO！ ? 」
「Yosh, this bullet is working on that THING huh.」
That THING raised a wailing grief sound while red spurting effect appeared from its knees. After confirming that THING had stopped moving, I gave it another serving of the sweet and sour kind of bullet.
「Reload【Signal Bullet PT-03】」
Then I fired the signal bullet to the sky along with “PSSSHHHHH” sound. And then――
「GUGAAAAAA！ ? 」
Hails of light started raining incessantly inside the dark forest.
「I see, it really isn"t used to light since its eyes are already used to the darkness.」
With that said, I fired another bullets to both of that THING shoulder to seal its movement.
And then, the THING that had fallen to its knees with blood that kept spilling from its shoulders finally showed its true figure under the hail of light from my flare bullet in the sky ――
「――EH」
The THING that was wearing women"s clothes was an ogre.