Chapter 06: The Battle against Demons
He had checked out the quest yesterday already. It was reasonable for a beginner and yielded quite the reward.
“Sure.”
He visited a weapon shop to buy a weapon, since even the weakest demon was hard to fight against with just bare hands, looking for a weapon within the range of his funds.
“This one.”
“Gladly. A solid knife, that’ll be 2650 Rigin.”
Leaving the town, he headed for the “Clair Forest” in the west. He could reach it by following a straight path called the “Toll Road”.
Even if they were necessary expenses, they completely emptied his wallet. He had to complete the quests by all means or he would have to sleep outside tonight. That sounded fun in itself, but he wanted to avoid a sudden hobo lifestyle.
(What’s that…?)
(Wait, could it be…?)
“A slime!”
“Wait, a battle out of nowhere!?”
The moment the slime jumped up, he swung his knife downwards accordingly. There was no resistance and the slime was cut into half, but the two parts still moved meandering. To put it bluntly, it was disgusting.
In that case, a blade would be useless, so he wondered about what to do, whereas the demon writhed agonizing on the ground and stopped moving before long. Hiiro timidly poked it with his knife.
He opened his ≪Status≫. The NEXT (required experience points until level up) column had been 10, but now it turned into 8. The fact that he had received experience points meant that the demon was defeated.
Still, he felt somewhat accomplished from his first battle and victory. At first he had feared it would pain him to kill, but it surprisingly turned out alright.
When he analysed it calmly, he heard another rustling sound from behind. He turned around and there were more slimes, three even.
Then he could have levelled up. At the time he clicked his tongue, three more slimes appeared from behind him as to ridicule him. Hiiro was totally surrounded.
While he grumbled bitter, he focused on defeating the three in front of him first. After he cut down the first and second one, an smacking impact hit his back. A slime seemingly attacked him with a charge.
It felt just as if he was hit by someone. He took his distance and checked his ≪Status≫, seeing that his HP decreased by 3.
Bracing himself once more, he took a stance with his knife. Since two slimes attack him simultaneously, he dodged them and cut one down immediately. But two more were coming from behind.
By swinging his knife around, he managed to cut down two at once. One slime remained. Hiiro killed it by charging in on his own.
Hiiro Okamura
HP 21/30
EXP 12
ATK 15 (25)
AGI 30
INT 25
≪Magic≫ Word Magic (Single Chain Unlocked)
“Figures. That sound was from the level up. Anyway, my MP sure has an amazing gain. It went up by 25 in one level. Well, not that I’m complaining.”
On his way to the “Clair Forest”, he kept defeating the appearing slimes.
With no other ideas, he advanced into the forest precautious and left marks on the trees as not to lose his way. He would use them as landmarks on his way back.
“…’nother one of you.”
Incidentally, slimes dropped “slime substance” as part of a hunt quest, but he ignored it as it was too disgusting to touch.
WHOOSH!
(C- Close call… I see, that’s a goblin.)
“Must hurt to get hit by that…”
(Damn. Goblins come in groups, I can’t waste time here!)
(Fuh, a humanoid demon… Will I be able to kill it…?)
“…Hah. Well, I gotta survive here.”
“Sorry… but you’ll be a stepping for me.”
SLAAAASH!
“You’re next!”
The his joy only lasted for a moment as one goblin after another appeared in front of him. The earlier battle seemed to have attracted them.
(Good… Come here!)
“Activate!”
“Haha, it worked.”
The word Hiiro had written was “needle”.
(Kuh… It’s more tiring than I thought.)
(Fuh, anyway, first things first)
“Then let’s try the next one”
If all went well, it might stop the goblin’s movement. He threw the stone at a goblin. The moment the goblin was hit at the shoulder, he activated it. However, only the stone was stopped. It stopped right in midair.
As he had written it onto the stone, probably only the stone itself was influenced.
(Okay, next one!)
“Activate!”
In a flash, the blade extended manifold and the goblins in the distant were cut. Three of them went down at once. As far as he could tell, that left three more.
He slaughtered the goblins by swinging his extended knife around and was so immersed in it that he didn’t notice the level up sound during it.
As soon as he finished collecting them, exhaustion befell his whole body. His MP was empty too, so he ate “honey toffee” to restore it.
With his MP replenished, he fixed the ground by writing “original”. Anyway, it had been a while since he moved around so much and he somehow endured that battle, which was akin to a massacre, albeit of only demons.
He sighed while saying that as he didn’t expect himself to get worn out mentally to such an extent. It really made him realize that this was not a game.
Feeling more exhausted than expected, he sat down on the spot to rest. But a rustling sound announced the arrival of something. It was a goblin.
He made a resigning sigh and glared at the goblin.
Somewhat out of frustration, he swung around his weapon.
Hiiro had returned to the town, but took a rest on a bench on the street. The slimes and goblins had attacked him without rest. He had defeated them while their blood splashed onto him, so he was completely out of fuel now.
Hiiro Okamura
HP 31/65
EXP 222
ATK 25 (35)
AGI 46
INT 37
≪Magic≫ Word Magic (Single Chain Unlocked)
≪Title≫ Innocent Bystander, World Traveller, Word Master