Chapter 16: The Raid and The Encounter

After finishing my usual routine, I walked down the road to the Guild. However, I felt that something was wrong. I didn’t know what was going on, but the atmosphere was different from usual. It felt as if the town was particular noisy today.

I went inside the Guild. I noticed that the Guild was completely different from the other days. All the counters, which were usually occupied with one or two Guild female employees, were closed. All the quest boards have been removed as well. There was no one inside the Guild except a man standing with a cane.

A notice at one of the counters said, “In case of an emergency, adventurers who can fight should gather immediately in front of the gate on the forest side.” Something must have happened.

I decided to leave the Guild and headed toward the gate on the forest side. There was no gatekeeper at the gate, and instead, the Guild receptionists, including Sally-san, stood near the gate with weapons. I wondered if some of the adventurers at the gate were newcomers. These adventurers, did not have a very strong physiques and did not own good weapons, were looking toward the gate with a tense look.

In front of the gate, stood something that resembled a lengthened mat with a width of about 2.5 m. Two men who seemed to be wizards were standing near it.

「What happened? 」

I asked Sally-san, who was nearby. Was it a monster attack given the seriousness of this situation? It smelled dangerous to me.

I wondered if the horde of Green Wolves were the cause for this emergency.

「Yes, an adventurer who went to investigate yesterday’s horde of Green Wolves found a significant number of monsters heading towards this town. Without your information, things would have been much more dangerous. Thank you very much.」

Luck during misfortune. In other words, was Ain’s defense battle about to begin?

「Then, do you mean that I should protect the gate? 」

「No. Many strong monsters such as Gargons, whom excel in rushing power, have been confirmed among the packs of monsters. It means that even if you try to protect the gate, the walls will be broken. Our walls are not as thick as a fortified city. Therefore, I must leave the gate to the new adventurers. Kaede-san, you should go to the front line and defeat the Gargon monsters. It is important to fight the monsters from a safe distance so that we can protect this town. Of course, you will be rewarded depending on the number of subjugations.」

Okay, I should go forward and fight. But I…

「I am a newcomer who just registered in the Guild not too long ago. Is it okay for me to go regardless of my position?」

「You see, although you are a newcomer, Kaede-san is one of the top adventurers in this town because you have defeated so many Green Wolves. It will be a waste if we hold you here. It is embarrassing for me to say this, but the Guild of this town doesn’t have very strong adventurers, and to tell you the truth, our Guild is a weak branch. It means that we are not prepared when it comes to attacks of this scale. So please leave as soon as possible. Are you ready?」

「Yes, I have everything I need in the item box. So I can go anytime. 」

With that said, I equipped the sword, armor and shield together from the item box, and finally grabbed my short wand.

It has not been a long time since I came to this town, but now I felt some fondness for it. If I could prevent this town from being attacked, then I shall do my best to cooperate and help.

「Great. But, listen. You are the main adventurer in this raid, so please do not injure yourself in the frontline.」

「Yes. I will go now. 」

I said those words and started running.

It was quite demanding of her to ask me not to get hurt while being in the frontline, but it seemed that she expected this much of me. Well, I wanted to level up as well, so I saw no problem at all. I went deep into the forest while thinking about killing the enemy.

I had healing magic in case of an injury. In addition, if I defeated the enemy, my level would rise and my safety would increase too. It was a good idea to raise my level as much as possible before any strange enemies appeared. I would be grateful if the Green Wolves appeared…

I drank some of the magic recovery acceleration potion while running through the forest. This potion had the power to speed up the recovery of magical power, but I should save it as much as I can. Although I had a good magical power and recovery system, those were not infinite. At full power, about 910 seconds + recovery meant that 1 MP recovered about 1.5 seconds.

First, I found 5 Green Wolves in the first group I encountered, so I changed my direction of and struck them with my sword. I cut the upper bodies from two dogs on the right side. Then, I cut the next green dog and the fourth dog that jumped from the left side. I killed the last remaining dog by cutting its head.

I continued to run. Then I found two pig-like creatures with ferocious faces. I cut them into pieces and proceeded ahead. When I cut the pigs, I felt that I saw other adventurers diagonally to the right and behind, but it did not matter. I just had to kill the monsters I found. I had no mercy. It was like seeing frame rates*.

This time was a pack of green dogs. I wanted to release fire magic, but releasing fire in the forest was a bad idea. It would be a waste to spend time in extinguishing the fire, so I decided to use the rock spears. I handled the pack that rushed in large numbers with the shield and the sword while releasing seven rock spears.

I used my sword to kill some green dogs within my reach. Then, I used the rock spears to kill those who were further away from me.

*victory sound*

The level-up sound echoed in my head.

This pack of green wolfs did not seem to be as big as last time, so I quickly defeated them. I leveled up only once. I proceeded anyway. I had to go forward in order to protect the town. Of course, I had some limitations, but I had to do my best since all the enemies running in this forest toward the town were enemies.

After running for a while, I felt a slightly bigger reaction on my advanced radar. When I looked at the location of the reaction, I saw a wild boar with a height of about 1.5m rushing towards here fiercely. Was that a Gargon?

His speed was quite fast even though it had a huge body. It looked like a wild boar and it amazed me how good it was at turning and running. In the first place, I could not imagine an animal of that size that bended swiftly with that speed.

I had no time to appraise. There was no choice but to strike back with magical power, so I generated 7 rock spears at once, added magical power for about 0.5 seconds, and released them at the boar that stood about 5 m away from me. At the same time, I moved to right side with my full power.

It seemed that the Gargon was not good at bending after all. The boar passed by my left side. I wondered what to do if it bent well.

I tried to appraise it during this gap.

—

Gargon

RANK: C

HP: 2252/3500

MP: 0/0

STR: 251

INT: 1

AGI: 63

DEX: 3

Skill:

—

A true fearsome monster. STR was high. It would be a catastrophe if it ran over me. Besides, it had a lot of HP. What a tough beast. I hit it with seven rock spears that had the double of the usual magical power, and yet its HP did not decrease that much.

I observed the Gargon with the intention of striking it with an additional rock spear. However, the Gargon looked strange. It tried to change direction, but its legs got tangled and collapsed to the ground. I wondered if it was dead. I appraised it and found out that its HP was 0.

Perhaps, it was not so strange. If I hit it with an attack that brought down nearly 30% of its HP, then it would die in no time due to excessive bleeding. This world was different from games. The HP did not decrease because of attacks alone. There was no need to keep attacking an enemy until the HP was 0. Injuries, if not properly healed in time, also decreased the HP.

I stored the Gargon in the item box and proceeded into the forest. It would have been a waste to proceed without picking it up. The Gargon was one of the monsters that had a high rank and was likely to break the walls. These type of monsters had to be annihilated as much as possible.

For the time being, I created 9 rock spears, and made them float around me since they were made of my magical powers. If one of them managed to hit an enemy’s head, it would die immediately. Even the Gargon would probably die straightaway too.

I kicked the ground with all my might, jumped high and searched for more preys. I could jump high because my wide range. It was better to look at a high place that surpassed the advanced radar. I found my preys. Two Gargons were running on a course that were about 10m to the left of me. The Gargons died instantly when I hit them with the rock spears. The spears probably reached their brains.

I heard the *victory sound* in my head.

As far as I could see when I jumped, no other monsters were the size of those Gargons, but it seemed that all the other regular monsters were running from the same direction.

It would be easier to find a much dangerous prey if I went in that direction. I started running when I put the Gargons in the item box.

The monsters naturally came towards me when I reached the direction they came from. I killed Green Wolves and pigs creatures with my swords and with the newly generated ordinary rock spears. I also killed a Gargon with a large rock spear.

I kept running into the forest after killing several monsters. I could not find any more monsters after running for 5 minutes. I wondered if I came too far into the forest. When I decided to go back…

「Grrahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh… 」

I heard a disturbing sound, or rather a roar. Did the monsters that were approaching the town escape from it? I wanted to go back, but it would be better to report what kind of monster it was.

I jumped once again to clarify the source of the roar. I noticed a silver mass that reflected the sun’s rays and headed toward the town.

I jumped again as I activated the appraisal skill.

—

Metal Lizard

RANK: B

HP: 2798/2800

MP: 0/0

STR: 1237

INT: 4

AGI: 163

DEX: 6

Skill: Metal Armor

—

It only had one skill. The HP was quite low for its rank, but the armor could prevent damage…Ah, our eyes met.

「Grrahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh… 」

It noticed my presence. It had a very sturdy structure, but its AGI was higher than mine was, so it would be difficult to escape. For the time being, I tried to escape with a strong dash.

Oh no, I knew it. This monster started following me. What should I do?

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*Frame rate is the speed at which those images are shown, or how fast you “flip” through the book and it’s usually expressed as “frames per second,” or FPS. Each image represents a frame, so if a video is captured and played back at 24fps, which means each second of video, shows 24 distinct still images.

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