I wake up not feeling great, but that can’t stop me!

I notice my cock feels a little weird… Did Bianca do something to me while I was sleeping?

How rude.

I go downstairs and see a similar scene to yesterday, Felix is cooking breakfast again, Bianca is nowhere to be seen, but everyone else is here.

I serve myself some scrambled eggs(?) and grab a seat, I like eating like with everyone else…

We are making some small talk, Timotei is telling us a little about basil and his day, apparently he’s a guard for the <Basil clan>, they’re the same as my <Paprika clan>, they’re the ones governing this place, and they also have an immortal as their head, I honestly don’t know too much about them, I’ve never cared about politics.

After he finishes I ask him “Do you know a good place to get fire bricks and coal? Oh and also a chisel and tongs”

Timotei ponders for a second “I do, but why do you need them?”

“I’m going to start smithing as soon as I can, and I need those materials to start working.”

Timotei nods “I’ll get them for you, it’s the least I can do.”

Really?

I think you’re already helping me more than enough.

I’m not going to say no though.

I also nod.

Aurora looks a little confused and scratches her head “Don’t you need other things for that, like an anvil, or even metal? I don’t think you have that.”

Hehe, how foolish, I already planned that! “The place Timotei told us about yesterday has this black sand all over the place, it’s mostly magnetite ore, so I should be able to get iron out of it.”

Timotei and Luca look very surprised, and Luca chokes a little “That place has any value?!”

I nod, hehe, that’s the power of the young master of the <Paprika clan>! “And for the anvil I plan to use the shell of a root tortoise.”

Aurora nods “That’s clever! I think, I honestly have no idea about any of that, but I can help you hunt one of those” Aurora is making a confident smile “Yesterday I spend almost all day in church, so I want to get some action!”

Antonia also looks interested “I’m in too!” She then looks at Anton with puppy eyes “Can I bring the wagon?”

Anton is grabbing his liver, but then laughs “Haha! Of course, just be careful!”

It seems he can’t say no to his daughter, how pitiful.

Felix also quickly chimes in “I also want to go!”

I nod, he shouldn’t be a burden, though I’m not sure how strong he actually is.

This is becoming a rather large operation, isn’t it? Obtaining more materials shouldn’t hurt, but I hope we don’t waste too much time.

 

* * *

 

We are outside Basil once again, our group is Me, Aurora, Antonia, and Felix.

Maria is pulling the wooden roofless wagon that Anton lend us, we are going to put the corpses of the monsters we catch in there. The outside of basil is mostly rocky terrain, but it’s mostly flat gray rocks, so it’s not so hard for it, you can see a tree here or there, but they’re very sparce, you can also see the forest in the distance, but we don’t plan to go that far, so it’s mostly plain terrain.

Aurora says she has something that can attract monsters, and with their increased activity recently, it should be easy to find some fairly quickly, at least according to her.

Aurora stops walking “Here is good, I’m going to begin the <Ponape chant>, it’s a spell that will attract monsters to me. The whole chant is going to take me 1 minute, so I’ll need you guys to protect me.”

We nod, then Antonia joins her hands and starts chanting something in a language I don’t understand.

…

After 15 seconds a nimbus eagle starts closing in!

*Bang! * *Bang! * *Bang! *

I shoot it 3 times with a <Steam cannon>, but only the last one lands.

My aim isn’t too good…

At least the darn thing falls near us, collecting the corpse won’t be too much trouble.

Shortly after that 2 wild slimes start coming in from the forest

*Bang! * *Bang! * *Bang! *

I also them, and they die pretty quickly.

Being able to attack at long range sure is convenient~

Just as I’m getting a little cocky, a laser comes right at me!

I jump to the side as fast as I can, but it still grazes me.

Foolish! It may hurt, but my arm hurts way more all the time!

Something like that can’t faze me!

Antonia starts running towards the root tortoise in a zigzag route “Keep it distracted!”

*Bang! * *Bang! * *Bang! *

*Bang! *

Me and Felix shoot at the monster, though Felix only shot it once. Does he not have a pattern?

The tortoise just hides on it shell and stays completely unharmed, its head comes out again and starts preparing to shoot another laser, but Antonia jumps on top of it shell and kicks its head!

Aurora stops chanting “the effects of the chant will last for half an hour!” She looks at us, and notices that I was grazed “Are you ok?”

I nod “It’s not a problem.”

Antonia has a dumb grin on her face as she’s coming near us again “’It’s not a problem’” She’s imitating my voice “I bet you were even thinking something like ‘foolish!’, ‘Something like that can’t faze me!’, or something cocky like that!”

I look to the side “T-that’s not true…”

“Haha!” Antonia starts laughing.

*Bang! * *Bang! * *Bang! *

Another nimbus eagle was closing in “let’s focus.”

Antonia nods, but still has her dumb smirk on.

A few wild slimes start closing in, but Aurora cuts them in half with her massive blade “Haha! Finally some action!”

More monsters start coming.

 

* * *

 

The effects of the <Ponape chant> are over.

In total we managed to kill 6 root tortoises, 13 Nimbus eagles, and way more slimes than I can bother to count, I can’t use them and according to Aurora their corpses have no value.

Our team of 3 is honestly a little too good for the monsters in this area, Nimbus eagles are fodder to me, Felix only managed to kill one of those, and Antonia has no trouble with the root tortoises, Aurora is also really good at defending us, and can kill slimes very easily too.

But we don’t drop our guard.

I look around and see that Antonia is a little perturbed “Are you ok?”

Antonia jumps a little “Kya! Ah, I’m sorry, I’m fine, I was just thinking about something.”

“What is it?”

“This number of monsters… isn’t it too many?” Antonia looks a little worried “Did all the monsters start becoming like you?”

What do you mean like me!

Aurora laughs “Haha, I agree, it’s very weird. But it’s good for business! Just from this hunt I already recovered from my loses thanks to those weirdos.”

Felix laughs nervously.

We all relax, it seems we had a good hunt, no one was injured, and we didn’t waste much time!

…

Just at that time, something jumps at us!

*Bang! * *Bang! * *Bang! *

I shoot as soon as I can, but it casually evaded all my projectiles, and the monster started circling around us slowly.

I gulp “A thunder tiger.” This thing is fucking terrifying, we were waiting for this thing to come out from the beginning, it was obviously going to approach us, but seeing it in the flesh is a completely different thing.

Aurora barely manages to call her octagon barrier, and she’s completely focused in maintaining the barrier and making sure it stays in front of the thunder tiger.

Antonia looks a little shaken but stays on guard.

Felix is in the wagon alongside maria, neither of them can move.

I’m trying to keep my finger always pointed at it, but I can never completely lock into it, the way the thunder tiger moves is too weird.

The pressure the thunder tiger is releasing is completely suffocating me, even though it’s much weaker than Bianca’s or Timotei’s pressure, I feel it digging much deeper into me, I instinctually understand that this thing wants to kill us. The only reason I’ve managed to not panic is because I have felt Master’s pressures before.

It’s like the difference between the ocean and a glass of water stuck in front of your mouth and nose, sure, the ocean has more water, but the glass will probably kill you faster.

This is making my arm hurt…

I can’t shoot at the thunder tiger behind the barrier, it goes both ways.

The monster jumps and attacks the barrier!

The barrier blinks and Aurora spits out some blood, but the barrier manages to stay up “Guh! I won’t be able to hold on for long, those attacks are too strong.”

The thunder tiger circles around us for a bit and jumps towards the barrier again!

“Gah!” Aurora screams in pain, and she really won’t be able to hold the barrier for too long.

I look at Antonia, and she nods at me.

The beast charges the barrier again, this time with more strength than ever!

But the barrier disappears before it can attack it! And the thunder tiger falls on the ground.

*Bang! * *Bang! * *Bang! *

I shoot it while it’s confused, and Antonia dropkicks it!

The thunder tiger is not dead, but it’s very injured now, and it’s having trouble moving!

Aurora quickly drops her massive blade in the middle of its head!

The monster quickly drops to the ground.

“Talk about a headache!” Antonia stretches her body “That should be the end of it, right?!”

It seems it’s really dead, I still have goosebumps just looking at it.

Aurora sighs “Yeah, I doubt any other monsters will approach us now that we killed one of these.”

Antonia jumps while having a smile as bright as the sun “Woohoo!”

Hehe, now this is satisfying!

But I only wanted a single root tortoise!

Didn’t we go way overboard?!

I guess it can’t be helped, going this far for just one root tortoise wouldn’t be profitable, and without Aurora’s <Ponape chant> just finding the single tortoise could have taken a lot more time.

I smile, I may still have goosebumps all over my body, but I don’t care, I’m happy!

Felix starts moving some of the monster corpses into the wagon, he still looks nervous “Is it going to be fine to go into town with all of this?”

Aurora shrugs “It should be fine, let’s just rest a little before going back” she just sits on the floor and pats the corpse of the thunder tiger “Oh! And put this bad boy at the bottom of the pile”

Felix nods “Ok, so how are we going to divide the loot?”

Huh, aren’t you a little too greedy?

You were a bandit so I’m not too surprised.

Aurora shrugs again “We’ll divide it equally among the three of us, and you’ll get the eagle you killed.”

Felix looks a little disappointed but nods anyway, he starts gathering the corpses.

I go near Aurora and sit down, and Antonia also does the same.

Antonia seems really happy, but she’s also breathing loudly “Haha! We make a great team, don’t we!”

Aurora nods “We do! The last time I had such an easy time with monsters I was in a 12-man team.”

I also nod, there’s a lot of nodding going on, isn’t there? “I don’t have a lot of combat experience, but at least it felt better than with the caravan.”

Antonia claps “I have an idea! Why don’t we try traveling together! If it doesn’t work out then no hard feelings, but I think our synergy is too good!”

“I don’t know, you’re going out with that Makoto guy, right? He’s too strong, it’s not fun traveling with people like that.” Aurora isn’t convinced by Antonia’s enthusiasm.

“That guy broke up with me back at the sycamore hideout… He wants to keep playing bandit!” Antonia looks a little mad, but after a second her face returns to normal. “I’m not traveling with him anymore!”

You two were dating?

Aurora nods and smiles “I see, I guess that makes sense, in that case it would be a pleasure.”

The two look at me “I’m also interested, but I have to take care of this first.” I point at my bad arm.

Antonia smiles again “I heard you need 50 gold! I don’t have anything to do so I’ll help out if I can!”

I shake my head “It’s 50 gold in 2 weeks, that’s the offer the alchemist gave me.”

Antonia looks very surprised, and Aurora lets out a dry laugh “I’ve seen a lot of people with a missing a limb or two, there’s no shame in it.”

Hmph! So little ambition!

“It doesn’t matter, I just have to try anyway.” I’m not giving up!

Aurora nods “That’s a good attitude. But even if we start hunting here full time we won’t make the 50 gold in just two weeks.” She starts counting something with her fingers “This hunt should be worth 60 silvers in total, and it’s not very sustainable either.”

“That’s why I’m going to try and make artifacts from some monster materials and hope I can ma enough.”

“You can make those?!” Antonia looks a little surprised, and Aurora also looks surprised.

“I saw Master work in one once a few years ago, I should be able to do it.”

Everyone is looking at me with pity, even maria!

Hmph, just wait and see!

 

///////////////////////////////////////////////

 

Happy new year guys!