In the end, killing them didn’t even took a minute.
As expected, or rather, though they had intelligence their attacks were all monotonous, neither they used shrewd techniques, the Kobolds were attacked quickly without getting time to retaliate, and soon enough were extinct.
If we fought fair and square instead of surprise attacks, they would’ve retaliated somehow, but what we did were just tactics for winning. I didn’t had any intention to say it was coward or whatnot, even I had to put my life on line while fighting.
And, Elk too moved quite splendidly compared to before.
It hadn’t reached the level where it can be considered that she changed into a different person, but now, she could fight against several Goblins or Wolves, and finish them in around 10 minutes.
In the fight before too, she took on 2 Kobolds at the same time, and safely fought them. According to her, she was very nervous.
It must be, because she had been sparring with me every morning for the couple of these days before going outside the city or into the『Labyrinth』for hunting.
In that case, it might not be exaggerated to say she has become Rank D. The current Elk, that is.
Even so, she had grown quite a lot in these couple of days.
There must be a reason for this.
First, Elk is in no way weak. Though she had only been taught by her mom, she has techniques and thinking capabilities on that level.
Based on my opinion, at the very least in the techniques, she had already crossed the line of normal people……it must because she has some sort of talent.
But, because she lacks the basics like『Experience』and『Physical strength』, she couldn’t make full use of her techniques.
In this way, the techniques she couldn’t use completely, are many and stored away.
It might be because of her body constitution or hereditary genes.
Furthermore Elk’s a girl. Not like I am discriminating, but basically girls have low stamina.
It might something else if she could use body enhancement magic, but that can’t be done in a day or two.
Even more, Elk’s fighting styles’ are self-taught, she had never been taught by anyone.
So, though she could fight, there were times she didn’t use techniques, basically the fighting style was unrefined.
Or maybe, she had been taught by someone but forgot most of the points she was taught. No that might be the case.
Actually, during my time of training with mom, it wasn’t once or twice that she pointed out my mistakes, furthermore, all those were that I couldn’t find out myself.
In that state, though you have knowledge but using it fully… to use the techniques that’s quite ….. not possible.
So I thought, if she grew physically to perform the techniques learnt from her mom, and got experience to choose the best techniques for herself, then she would definitely grow strong rapidly.
The『intuition』I said before wasn’t something random.
And right now, I could finally see that part.
Seeing that, I got it confirmed. That Elk would grow.
That’s why, I would help her, if there comes a chance, then I would also tell her my personally-made magic – Including the ones I can’t use – for her to get strong.
How should say it, but I could understand how a coach, who trains pro athlete, feels while teaching.
It sure feels damn great when something with outstanding talent in your hands, especially if the talent has peerless future.
[ET: I seriously thought has this changed into Xianxia. That line, ugh]
Of course, I would choose what magic to tell her.
With『Elemental Blood』at first, the magic which were too powerful, or shouldn’t be told to others, I have no intention of telling them to her.
At any rate, the first mission with Elk has been safely completed, so we cut the proof of subjugation of Kobold, in other words it’s wrists and put them in jute bag,
during the process, I suddenly noticed that the bare stones on the other side of hut were of strange shapes.
What can it be? Underneath the cliff, there were many pebbles collected……huh, was there a landslide recently?
I asked Elk,
「Who knows……Ah, but recently there earthquakes, right?」
「Yeah, you mean the one which triggered the waking up of『Naga』?」
I was still at my home, so I don’t know.
「It must be that. Or this place, was originally brittle」
「……In that case, isn’t it dangerous to keep the hut standing here?」
If, at the time someone lodged in the hut, the ground crumbles, and the earth below the hut crumbles, then……
「……Indeed, you have a point there. We should tell at the reception after we return to guild」
「Hahaha, we found out an unexpected problem here……Hm?」
I was looking down the cliff calmly……but, I think I saw something shine among those pebbles.
The collection of evidence was over, so I gave the bag to Elk, and tried to go there only to find something white buried among the sand and pebbles.
That ain’t a rock. What is it?
I got curious, so I brushed away the surrounding sand and pebbles and take it out……
「……Egg?」
That’s right, it was an egg. At least the appearance was.
However, it was big. It was about the size of a person’s head. ……Is this really an egg?
Judging from the size, if it was an egg, it must be of a demon, right?
Or rather, why was this egg? buried in place like that?
Thought it was buried among quite big pebbles, but let alone a crack there ain’t a single scratch on it. Did the demon (parent) who bore this egg, buried it there for some sort of camouflage?
Otherwise, did it fall down at the time of landslide?
The former aside, but it would certainly break if it was latter, right? Yeah definitely , it would.
No, even the former will break it. What if this got deserted at a place like this?
I got curious, and tapped it with my fist. It was pretty hard.
Though that was hard, but I couldn’t possibly try to see how much hard that thing was, for the time being, I would put taking out conclusion on hold.
At that time,
SFX:Pitter,
「「Eh? 」」
1 minute later,
I and Elk were resting in the hut we recovered after defeating the Kobolds.
The reason was simple. Outside rain was falling down as though someone toppled over a bucket.
That rain which started with『Pitter』then went onto『Pitter Patter』,『Piiiitttteeerrr Patttteeerrr』and finally changed into『Zwoooosh~~!!』was enough to make us understand that we couldn’t descend the mountain.
[ET: Zwoooosh~~!! is like the sound that comes when standing near (below?) the waterfall]
I had known that weather at mountains changes easily, but does it change this rapidly to make unexpectedly strong rain precipitate?
Anyhow, right now we could only wait for rain to stop.
It could be dangerous to walk the mountain road in this rain. Visibility too has gotten worse.
Furthermore, the road to reach the mountain road was an woodland road, so there were chances that we could slip.
And, if the place we slipped to was a cliff, the it would disastrous. This works even more for Elk. In my case I would probably get lost.
Though Elk remembers the way back, but it would be bad to go in this rain, so we had decided to wait till the rain stops.
However,
The rain never stopped, many hours passed, it finally changed into night,
We judged it would be impossible to descend today, so we decided to rest in the hut.
Fortunately, this place was a lodging house before, so there were sleeping bags.
Similarly, we ate jerky we prepared for emergency uses at dinner time because the preserved food for emergency which was in hut had already been eaten by those damn Kobolds.
Night had always been for sleeping,
But vigilance was needed in night for demons, and it would be scary if a landslide occurred.
And so, we decided that one person would watch for the time other person would sleep.
The first half of night Elk kept watch while I slept, the latter I kept watch while Elk slept.
Then, at dawn,
When the east side of sky was getting somewhat bright,
We were taking breakfast of jerky and some cheese found in the hut, of course, maybe because we had been up all time that food didn’t satisfy our hunger……
……At that moment,
SFX: Crack!
「Hm?」
The egg I brought back without thinking anything yesterday, kept in the corner of my view……made a sound like that.