"Uwa! It"s the sea!"
The moment she opens her mouth, Rikkchan"s energetic voice echoes on the sandy beach. It was a few minutes" walk from the park. We are currently on the coast near the City Hall. The soothing sound of the quiet waves and the pleasant sea breeze tickles our cheeks.
(How many years has it been since I last came to the sea?)
I haven"t come since I started working. Oh right, this is how the sea looks. How nostalgic.
Once, a junior of mine and I had to work on a holiday. When our boss and colleagues sent pictures of them having barbeque near the sea, I thought of burning down the company. I had wished for their death.
Maybe they"re already dead. Not that I care.
"I knew this would be the case, but there"s no one around."
"Yeah."
Ichinose-san who is standing next to me agrees. She looks around.
"Neither are there any monsters… at least from what my eyes can tell."
She says so with sharp eyes. From some time ago, she"s been strangely sensitive… As I thought, something must have happened between Rikkchan and Ichinose-san.
"Yes, but that"s convenient for us. Let"s search for slimes immediately."
"Yes."
"Wan!"
We start looking for slimes. Soon, Rikkchan who has been walking on the beach shouts.
"Oh, I found one! Onii-san! Here, here!"
A slime"s figure appears under a log near her feet.
"Nice work, Aisaksan."
Approaching her, I confirm that it is indeed a slime. Although the size is smaller than the ones found in the park, it"s still a slime nonetheless.
I capture it with the shadows and have Aka absorb it.
"Furu furu♪"
It was the right choice to come to the sea. To think we"d find one so soon.
"Kudou-san, there"s one over here as well!"
"Oh, found another one. Wow, there are a lot."
"It"s true…"
This is great. There are a lot of slimes on the beach, floating back and forth along with the waves. They look like jellyfish floating in water.
Although I go near them, they don"t try to escape. I wonder if these guys are really suited to survive in the wild.
(Is Aka the unusual one?)
All the slimes I"ve encountered so far except for Aka have behaved this way. None of the slimes bothered to move like Aka.
Now that I think about it, Aka is of different color compared to the other slimes. Also, although it"s a monster, it didn"t hesitate to approach me, a human. The more I think about it, the more Aka seems different from the other slimes.
---An irregular.
Such a word comes to mind.
"Furu furu?"
What happened? Aka stares at me and asks. It has slowly entangled my feet with its body. I laugh at my lack of alertness.
"No, nothing."
I say so while poking Aka"s surface with my finger. Punipuni.
That"s right. Aka will be Aka no matter what. Regardless of how irregular Aka is, it is still an important teammate of ours.
"Wanwan!"
"Furu furu♪"
The appearance of Momo walking with Aka on her back is very cute.
"Well then."
Although I"m also searching for slimes, there"s something else I"m looking out for.
After a short walk, I find what I came here for. Staring at the huge quant.i.ty of "it" lined up along the breakwater, I smile.
--- They"re the wave dissipating blocks.
They"re also known as tetrapods. They"re huge blocks of boulder place along the sh.o.r.elines in order to attenuate and thereby dissipate the waves" momentum. I heard that they weigh around 2 tons even if they"re only the size of humans.
Amazing.
(They should be more efficient to use than sc.r.a.p cars and vending machines.)
There are also a lot of them here. A more powerful ma.s.s attack will become available. While stealing some glances at Rikkchan, I store them in the Item Box.
(Next time I level up, I"ll invest a bit on the Item Box"s extension functions.)
Additional functions became available once Item Box was raised to level 10. Increase in the number of items that can be taken out at once, and the expansion in the area of effect. In addition to the wave dissipating blocks, these two functions would allow me to resist against monster hordes.
(But… this applies only to monsters of regular size)
That golem. Against that, raining the blocks down won"t have much of an impact. To deal with that, I would need something…something with a much higher destructive power.
(An effective way of attacking… on a fly, I can only think of bombs or missiles.)
And tanks. Tanks are the physical manifestation of men"s romance. (TN: romance, but not as in love)
If I"m told to buy either a home or a tank, I"ll choose the latter. Perhaps.
However, they"re not available. Perhaps there will be some in the JSDF garrison, but even the closest garrison is quite the distance away from here. It becomes a different story with cars or motorcycles, but… three people on a motorcycle is too much.
(And even if I get my hands on some tanks, it"s not like I can drive them.)
It might even kill me if I handle it poorly. It"s impossible for me to use them proficiently on the first try like those light novel protagonists. Those things can only be used with sufficient training. With that said, there"s only one other way.
(By raising the level of occupations and skills, I"ll acquire some powerful offensive skills.)
In the end, that"s the only answer. The only way to survive and not die is to defeat monsters and raise one"s level. There"s no other way.
"----Really?"
Of course. There"s no other opt----.
"Wait a second…?"
"What"s wrong, Kudou-san?"
"Ichinose-san, did I voice out anything until this point?"
"Voice out…?"
Ichinose-san tilts her head and looks at me in confusion. So it wasn"t Ichinose-san?
"But just now…"
Wait. To begin with, that voice didn"t belong to Ichinose-san. It wasn"t Rikkchan"s either. It"s the voice of a woman I"ve never heard before.
I look around at my surroundings.
---No one.
Except for us, there isn"t anyone on this beach…
Did I imagine things? Was it a hallucination?
"Kudou-san. Seriously, what"s wrong?"
Ichinose stares at my anxiously.
"No… it"s nothing. Sorry about that."
"Really…?"
"Yes, no problem. Now, let"s find more slimes. It seems like Aka can still absorb some more. Let"s go, Ichinose-san."
"Eh, w-wait for me…"
I head for Aka and Rikkchan, acting cheerfully to suppress my nervousness. After that, the search for slimes proceeds smoothly, with Aka absorbing more slimes than before.
But my brain has been ingrained with the "voice", and I can"t get my head off the topic.
What was that voice? Whose voice was it?
Meanwhile.
"Haa… haa…."
Nis.h.i.+no and the others were running desperately in the shopping district. The reason was simple. Behind them were more than twenty giant ants in hot pursuit. The herd of ants relentlessly chased after them while making creepy noises.
"d.a.m.n it…. We were doing so well until the middle….!"
Nis.h.i.+no and the others who were moving along in the shopping district were attacked by ants again. Although there were many, Nis.h.i.+no"s "Command" hindered their movement, and s.h.i.+bata and Goshogawara reduced their numbers while trying to gain distance.
They desperately escaped by breaking out. It was going well until halfway. Unfortunately, the ants did not decrease in number. In fact, their numbers gradually increased until they were being chased.
(…and I have this feeling that they aren"t attacking us more than necessary. Are they trying to exhaust us?)
The ants might be cautious after seeing their kind being killed, but it was more likely that they were waiting them to run out of energy. This tactic was a basic of hunting. To weaken the prey before hunting it. He never imagined monsters being capable of doing that.
(d.a.m.n…I knew that they were clever, but I didn"t antic.i.p.ate this to happen…)
Nis.h.i.+no tried to turn the gears inside his head, but the more he thought, the less he could think of a way to survive the situation.
What can he do? What should he do?
Urgency, fatigue, and fear gradually wore off their spirits.
Were they going to die? In this half-baked manner?
(Don"t joke with me! d.a.m.n! d.a.m.n! Think! Think!)
He would absolutely not give up. They eyes of s.h.i.+bata and Goshogawara running behind him were not dead yet either. He managed to hold his heart back from breaking apart and continued to run like a madman. In the process of doing so---
"Hey! Over here!"
He heard a voice. It was from a man.
There was a vacant building when he looked over. A man was waving at them from the window on the second floor.
"Come here! You just have to manage to come here!"
(Who is it? …. No, anyone is fine at this point….)
Nis.h.i.+no and the others were already at their limits, both mentally and physically. They had no other choice.
They decided to aim for the vacant building.
"Ha… haaa… haa…"
When Nis.h.i.+no, s.h.i.+bata, and Goshogawara entered the building, the giant ants flew in as well. There were five men inside already, including the one who just waved at them.
(What"s that?)
They held a certain something in their hands. They were about the size of plastic bottles, with yellow barrels and gun-like handles.
"Ok! Do it! SHOOOOOT!!"
Along with the signal, they released it at the invading ants. White smoke envelops the ants.
"Gyiiiiiiiiiii!"
Were the ants screaming? The ants were screeching in pain one after another inside the smoke. Nis.h.i.+no eyes opened wide upon seeing what was going on.
"What"s that?"
Nis.h.i.+no looked towards the man who invited them. He was a middle-aged man with gla.s.ses. His mustache, s.h.i.+rt, and the tobacco in his mouth matched well.
"They"re magnum blasters. It"s a bazooktype insecticide. It"s originally used against flies and the like, but we figured out that they work well against the ants. We carry it around when we go outside."
"Outside…?"
"Okay! The ants" movements have slowed down! Brothers! Tear them apart!"
"""Uooooooooooooooooooooooo!"""
When the ants slowed down, the men hacked at them with hatchets and axes. The ants that were affected had their numbers slowly reduced.
"Kiss.h.i.+kis.h.i.+."
"Kishkis.h.i.+kis.h.i.+."
"Kis.h.i.+s.h.i.+s.h.i.+."
"Kis.h.i.+s.h.i.+s.h.i.+s.h.i.+s.h.i.+!"
The remaining ants were quick to act and immediately turned around to withdraw.
"We survived?"
When Nis.h.i.+no muttered so, the middle-aged man standing nearby laughed satisfactorily while exhaling a smoke of cigarette.
"Seems like it. It sure was dangerous for you, boy."
"Eh… ah, yes. Thank you for helping us…"
Nis.h.i.+no bowed his head towards the middle-aged man who saved them.
"Hey, you have decent manners considering your appearance… Oh, is that a prejudice? My bad."
"Ah, it"s fine. I"m used to being judged because of my appearance."
"Is that so? Oh, I haven"t introduced myself yet. My name is Fujita Soichiro. I"m an employee in a government office."
"Government office…?"
"Well, since we can"t talk peacefully here, let"s head back. Hey, everyone! We"re going back! And don"t forget to pick up the stones! If you don"t, Kamome-chan would be really noisy."
The man with the beard gave out swift instructions. Nis.h.i.+no sat down while watching them. After coming out of the plight, a sense of fatigue washed over them.
(It" s better to follow these guys for now…)
Thus, Nis.h.i.+no and his team survived the predicament and followed the men to the City Hall.