The next day.
“Be careful!” [Miyabi]
Miyabi sent me off, and I headed to the northern gate of the town. I watched the hustle and bustle along the way as I walked, and when I neared the gate, I braced myself.
It’s a gate, so naturally, the guards would stop me, but I was able to quickly deal with them by showing proof that I was an E Rank adventurer.
Now it’s time to gather some medicinal herbs near an area the smash boar is known to frequent.
My equipment for today is a bow and a knife. I have a spear in my Item Box too, but I’m not planning to use it. Great swords and spears are effective against smash boars, but in order to make it look like I just came across it, I can’t bring weapons that are effective against the smash boar. That would be just too coincidental. The bow is also listed as my main weapon owing to the time when I first registered at the adventurers, so if can’t come too prepared, or they’ll be suspicious of me.
I gathered herbs for a while, but… I couldn’t find the smash boar.
It’s not really guaranteed to find a monster just because you know where it’s frequently sighted. Monsters aren’t herbs, after all; they do walk. Still… I feel like it’s a first for me to have so much trouble finding a monster. Actually, there aren’t any other monsters around either. It seems Miyabi-san really wasn’t kidding. There really are few monsters around here.
I started going around to areas other than those teeming with herbs to look for the smash boar while completing my herb collection job, but in the end, I still couldn’t find the smash boar, but now my quota has been met.
But then again it’s not like I have to find the smash boar today, since I still have another day before I meet up with the employees, so… But on second thought, since it’s difficult to get permission to pass the northern gate, I’ll probably be able to sell as much herbs as I have, so it shouldn’t hurt to gather more than my quota.
While I was thinking that to myself, a faint voice reached my ears.
“—uaAAA” [???]
Is that a person’s voice? Seems a bit far, though. Hmm… Maybe I’m just hearing things.
“——Save me—” [???]
…I heard it again! I’m not just imagining it. Someone was clearly asking for help just now!
I readied my bow, hid my aura, and walked toward the direction of the voice, where I found two adventurers being chased by a monster that seemed to be a smash boar.
I think calling it a pig would be more apt for its appearance, honestly. It might have some fangs, but they’re small and they’re not sharp. The only thing it really has going for it is that it’s really big, about as big as a cow.
Wait! This isn’t the time to be thinking about that!
I nocked an arrow and timed it with the movement of the boar. The arrow flew through the gaps between the trees and toward the smash boar.
The smash boar was charging through the helpless slender trees when my arrow landed right in its right eye, causing it to let out a painful cry that resounded throughout the area.
When the two adventurers heard that, they stopped and turned around.
What are they doing!? Keep running!
“Keep running!” [Ryouma]
I told them, but when they saw me, they became flustered. I tried calling out to them again, but the smash boar had already noticed me and was looking at me with its left eye.
This is going quite differently than what I expected, but… yeah. Let’s do it.
I unequipped my bow and put it on my back, then I reinforced my body with ki and glared at the boar.
The smash boar had a body like that of a pig’s, but it also had two small dull fangs growing from its lower jaw that extended toward the sides of its face. Its fangs aren’t venomous, but they do pack a punch when rammed into someone, so I still need to watch out for it.
But what I really need to look out for is its constitution. It might resemble a boar, but it’s about 1.5 times bigger than the cows I’m familiar with, so it’s clear as day that it’s covered in a thick armor of meat. Countless scars could be seen all over it – those two adventurers probably tried to hurt it – but those are probably all superficial. I doubt they managed to leave any internal damage to it with those shallow wounds.
Attacks against its body seem like they wouldn’t amount to much… In that case, I’ll go for its head where there’s not as much meat!
“GUOoOOOOO!” [Smash Boara]
The smash boar bellowed out a cry and charged toward me, but the trees seemed to have hindered its movements, as it was easy to see despite moving so much.
I dodged to the right, and the smash boar kept going and crashed into a tree. After mowing down the tree, the smash boar turned around and started charging toward me again.
This time I dodged to the left, but unlike before, when we passed each other, I hit its right temple with a ki-reinforced palm strike.
“PIGIi!?” [Smash Boar]
It was quieter compared to before, but the smash boar definitely stopped moving and cried out in pain.
Looks like that was effective. I can tell from that last attack too. The head definitely doesn’t have as much meat to it.
Alright! One more time!
The smash boar shook its head, then it tried to strike me with its fangs, but I took a step back, causing it to miss. I used that opening, to throw a kick toward its left temple.
“PI, GIi…” [Smash Boar]
The attack this time was a lot more effective, as the smash boar’s right foreleg gave way and the boar fell to its knees.
I attacked again. This time I gave it a nice uppercut to the jaws, grabbed its fangs, then drove my right elbow into its head.
“!” [Smash Boar]
A dull sound resounded as I clearly felt the feeling of crushing a bone. At the sam etime, the smash boar’s legs shook and then it fainted.
Did I kill it just like that? …Huh. It seems it really is dead.
“U-Umm!” [???]
“Thank you for rescuing us!” [???]
“Oh, you’re welcome. You’re not hurt, are you?” [Ryouma]
After confirming that the smash boar was dead, the two adventurers walked up to me. I didn’t notice it before because of the distance and their armor, but apparently, one of them was a woman.
“If not for you, we would’ve…” [Male Adventurer]
“One of our friends is wounded. We can’t thank you enough for saving us, but we need to go help him.” [Female Adventurer]
If they have a wounded friend, then maybe I should go too.
“If you don’t mind, I can come along too. I can use healing magic.” [Ryouma]
“Really!” [Male Adventurer]
“Thank you so much! Please come with us!” [Female Adventurer]
“Ah, but we can’t just leave this smash boar here without anyone watching it…” [Ryouma]
“I’m sorry. I didn’t catch your name…” [Male Adventurer]
“Oh, excuse me. I am Ryouma Takebayashi.” [Ryouma]
“Ryouma-kun, then. Ryouma-kun, you stay here. We’ll bring our party member here.” [Male Adventurer]
“There are some bad adventurers around these parts, so do be careful.” [Female Adventurer]
The two of them left after saying that.
Bad adventurers? This is a flag, isn’t it?
I’m sure some real bad ones are gonna come around any moment now.
I braced myself for the inevitable, but I couldn’t sense anyone nearby.
Hmm… Anyway, let’s go drain this thing’s blood first.
I had the bloody slime deal with the smash boar’s blood, then I took out my heal slime.
Huh? Done already? The bloody slime sure works fast.
I waited for a while after that, but in the end, no bad adventurers showed up, and the two adventurers from before came back carrying a wounded female swordsman.
Tl Note: Changed the theme again. Still minimal, but with a warmer white and some margins. By the way, the theme you guys keep saying is broken was actually the ‘new’ theme last time. It barely had any CSS, so it looked ‘broken’. The new theme is Susty by Jack Lenox.
A dark mode has now been installed. Due to the way the caching works, you might get pages that are cached as dark mode or normal mode, so you’ll just have to turn it back off or on. Fortunately, the button is placed right underneath the title, so it shouldn’t be too much of an inconvenience.
Also, for those suggesting to make dark theme default, there are more bright-theme users than you think. They’re just quiet, but the moment I make the default theme dark, they’ll come out of the woodworks like a swarm of angry bees. I know since I’ve already tried it twice.
Also, a sort of old change, but I didn’t mention it, but we changed to disqus for the comments, so the server doesn’t need to manage it anymore and we can free up resources. It works perfectly well with the themes as long as you set your theme before scrolling all the way down, which is going to be the case for pretty much everyone.
So in conclusion, the site lag has been fixed and you shouldn’t get much resource limit warnings anymore. You’ll still get them at certain times when the site is doing some self care, but not as much as before. Not even close. Dark mode has been implemented. There are margins now and the white is now warmer. There are still some things that need to be readded like chatango (probably just gonna switch to discord) and the logo, but the site is basically back to shape.
Now, we can focus on translating. This is the second regular release this week. Two more to go.
…Her body appears to have been hit with significant force. Probably took one of that smash boar’s charges head on. There are scratches and fractures all over her shoulders and legs. She’s sweating a lot too. Fortunately, there’s not much damage to her ribs or her body. Her internal organs will take a while to heal, but I should be able to heal her wounds now.
“‘High Heal’ ‘High Heal’ ‘High Heal’ ‘High Heal’…” [Ryouma]
“…Thank… You…” [Female Swordsman Adventurer]
After casting high heal many times on the wounded adventurer, her sweat finally stopped and she started groaning. She was even able to thank me. A huge change in a short period of time.
“Thank you so so so much!” [Male Adventurer]
“Thank you. We owe you a lot.” [Female Adventurer]
“You’re welcome. Her wounds are better now, but the fatigue remains, so please make sure she keeps resting.” [Ryouma]
We introduced ourselves, and I found out that the wounded swordsman is called Firi-san, while of the two adventurers being chased, the man was Ken-san and the woman was Ruri-san.
“This is nothing. Your healing spells really saved me. The slime too.” [Firi]
“Unfortunately, we don’t have much to repay you with.” [Ruri]
“Take this for now. If it’s still not enough, I’ll pay you when we get to town.” [Ken]
Ken handed me a pouch full of money.
They don’t really have to, honestly. I’m not lacking any money and they’re just E Rankers. That’s a level where they should still be struggling to make ends meet. I’ll just accept this pouch, but I won’t ask for any more.
“Thank you. This will do. Instead of more coin, just tell me more about those bad adventurers you were talking about just now.” [Ryouma]
“Are you sure about that?” [Ruri]
“You’re losing a lot out in this, but alright. We normally go adventuring with us three partied together, but today we had two more with us.” [Firi]
As the story goes. they hit it off at the bar with some C Rank adventurers from another town, who then told them that they wanted them to lead them to the smash boar.
As compensation, they offered to teach them how to fight, help them accumulate experience, and give them a very small portion of the reward.
“They showed me their guild card and I was sure that they were C Rankers. You know how the guild lists at the back of the card all the problems that an adventurers has caused in his career, as well as the cases when they’ve breached any contract? Well… They didn’t have any of those, so I thought I could trust them.” [Ken]
“The compensation was the right amount too.” [Ruri]
“But those guys just made us fight under the pretense of gaining experience, then when things got bad, they used us as decoys and abandoned us. When I got hit by the smash boar, these two used themselves as a decoy to protect me. The rest of the story is as you know it.” [Firi]
“I see.” [Ryouma]
Were they tricked or were the C Rankers just too weak themselves? Either way, those adventurers aren’t very nice. I don’t think these three are lying since the smash boar was chasing two of them and one of them was heavily injured to the point of being unable to move. They’re risking way too much for this to be a mere lie.
“Umm… Are you really sure you’re okay with just this? We can pay more money if you want.” [Ruri]
“It’s fine. I’m the one who suggested to use healing magic anyway. Consider it a free service this time.” [Ryouma]
“But…” [Ruri]
“Ruri, I understand you feel sorry being unable to pay him back, but it’s rude to keep refusing. At times like this, you should just gratefully accept.” [Firi]
While Firi was saying that, an idea suddenly came to mind.
“I know. Why don’t you help me carry the smash boar to town? It would also be great if you could help me explain to the guild that my encounter with the smash boar was really nothing more than an accident.” [Ryouma]
The smash boar has already been drained of blood, so it’s not that heavy anymore. It’s at just the right weight where I can carry it after reinforcing my body with either ki or reinforcement magic. Unfortunately, my body is tiny, so even if I can carry it, I’ll still end up dragging it along the ground. I also need some eyewitness to help me prove that meeting the smash boar was really nothing more than a coincidence.
“If you’re okay with just that, then sure!” [Firi]
“Please allow us to help!” [Ken]
“Thank you.” [Ruri]
Like this I got the help of the three adventurers and we carried the smash boar to town. The guards looked quite shocked, but after a short explanation, they let us through.
As expected, all eyes were on us until we got to Pioro-san’s store.
“Uwaah!?” [Customer 1]
“What is that!?” [Customer 2]
“Sorry, please let us through.” [Ryouma]
The customers in front of the store were shocked when they saw us carrying the smash boar.
“Ryouma-han!? What is with that big thing!?” [Miyabi]
“Oh, Miyabi-san. This is a smash boar.” [Ryouma]
“I can tell that just by looking, thank you! What I’m asking is why that big thing is here! Did you go fight it even though we told you it’s dangerous?” [Miyabi]
Miyabi-san was clearly furious as she approached me, but Pioro-san calmed her down. After that the three adventurers explained what happened.
“So, it’s our fault that he ended up fighting with the smash boar.” [Ken]
“If he hadn’t helped us, who knows what could have happened to us.” [Firi]
“Please don’t blame him!” [Ruri]
“U…” [Miyabi]
Seeing the three plead for me, Miyabi-san heaved a sigh of relief.
“So you were out saving some people, huh? …Well, I guess it can’t be helped then.
And according to them, it doesn’t seem like you were fighting a reckless battle either, so I guess it’s fine?” [Miyabi]
“Sorry to worry you.” [Ryouma]
“Seriously… But, let’s leave it at this for today. Dad, we need to process the smash boar immediately or the meat will spoil.” [Miyabi]
“Right! We can’t just leave it here. Take it to the store!” [Pioro]
Pioro-san led us to the butchering room of their butcher.
“Shall we start?” [Employees]
“Wait a minute!” [Kurana]
Just as the employees were about to begin, Kurana appeared and asked everyone to wait. Apparently, a person from the adventurers guild came.
“Can’t it wait for a bit? We’re at the good part right now.” [Pioro]
“They need to inspect that smash boar first. It’s the monster responsible for causing so much problem in the north recently, so they need to confirm that it’s been dealt with.” [Kurana]
Oh, right. We told the guards that we would be selling it at the Saionji Firm, so they probably passed that info to the adventurers guild.
After a while, the male clerk I met yesterday entered the store. Pioro-san greeted him.
“Welcome.” [Pioro]
“Sorry to disturb you while you’re in the middle of something. I’ve come here to confirm that the smash boar has been dealt with.” [Male Clerk]
As the male clerk said that, he walked around the smash boar, heaved a sigh, and then nodded.
“This is undoubtedly the same smash boar that has been causing us much problems. Thank you for your cooperation. With this we can lift the restriction on the northern gate.” [Male Clerk]
As he said that, he was about to leave, but before he could, the three adventurers hurriedly approached him.
“I see… I’ll write a record for those two. Can you three accompany me to the guild? Takebayashi-sama, you can come any time with the smash boar’s trophy to claim your reward.” [Male Clerk]
“Thank you.” [Ryouma]
The man took the 3 adventurers and left. The three adventurers thanked me again before leaving.
After sending off the four, I went back to the butchering area, where the employees were waiting for the butchering to start.
“Someone got in the way there for a bit, but now that that’s out of the way, let us begin! Commence the butchering!” [Pioro]
“Yes!” [Employees]
“Ryouma, you sure you’re okay selling all of these meat to us?” [Pioro]
“Yes. I don’t have anywhere else to sell it anyway. Oh, but can you spare some meat for me to eat too? I’ll sell everything else.” [Ryouma]
“No problem. Right, everyone?” [Pioro]
The employees all nodded to his words and the butchering of the smash boar began. But when they started, they suddenly let out voices of inquiry.
“What’s the matter?” [Pioro]
“This smash boar doesn’t have a single drop of blood.” [Employee]
“What do you mean? Has the blood coagulated? But even then, a drop should at least come out.” [Pioro]
“No. There’s really nothing.” [Employee]
Pioro-san checked the meat himself and found himself equally bewildered.
Oh, yeah! I used the bloody slime to drain it of blood.
“Sorry, I forgot to mention that I’d already drained its blood.” [Ryouma]
Everyone turned to look at me.
“Without opening a wound? And can you really drain a beast of blood so throughly?” [Pioro]
“I used a special method. Do you know about the slimes called bloody slime?” [Ryouma]
As I asked that, one of the employees answered.
“That’s a slime that sucks blood, right? I remember seeing one in the forest when I was a kid…” [Employee]
“That’s right.” [Ryouma]
“You have a slime that could suck blood? …I’m guessing you must’ve used that to suck the blood of the smash boar then?” [Pioro]
“Yes. I always have it suck the animals I hunt. Especially the smash bear since it’s bigger than normal, so I wanted to make it lighter. The meat is still safe to eat, but will this in any way affect the selling of the meat.” [Ryouma]
“I used Identify on it and can confirm that there are no issues with the meat. In fact, its quality is even better than normal. So, no. This won’t affect the price, but this does make me want your slime.” [Pioro]
After that I talked to Pioro-san about the bloody slime. Right now, I only have one with me, so I refused him after telling him that it might run loose without an owner and might cause some problems.
I am willing to lend him the bloody slime in the future, though. Provided there are some trustworthy monster tamers under him. It’s good to make the world know the value of slimes and I’m sure I can entrust the slimes to his store. Also, unlike the cleaner slime and the scavenger slimes, the bloody slime can actually be found out in the wild. So, it’s not like there’s a lot of merit to monitoring them too much.
While I was thinking that, they finished butchering the smash boar. They gave me a medium gold coin and some meat for me to eat. For the trophy, I took the tusks of the smash boar.
I’m tired today already, so I’ll just hand over the herbs I collected to the guild tomorrow.
