Chapter 21: The Rescue and The Mediation

The reaction on the advanced radar showed people that looked like bandits.

For the time being, I had to judge whether they were really bandits or not. It would be a bad idea to attack an innocent person and making myself a bandit instead.

However, if I approached in a friendly way, they could harm me or run away if they were really bandits.

While thinking about that, I noticed that the group was about to leave based on their movements shown on the advanced radar. I chased them in a hurry.

I prepared a set of 6 Pressure Magic strikes while chasing. Pressure Magic was convenient because I could hit the enemy directly while being far away. Therefore, I prepared magical power in advance. Magical power consumption would increase as I increased the amount.

I had not received any training, and I did not know how to get close enough in order to make a secret appraisal on them.

Then again, what I had to do was use appraisal while jumping. That was what I used during the battle against the Metal Lizard.

When I jumped, I saw several men. I noticed that they carried a child who seemed to be younger than they were. That child was probably a girl.

I used appraisal in one of them and it revealed that he was a bandit. His status was similar to the statuses of ordinary adventurers.

When I jumped again while imagining “bandit” in my mind, there was a ▼ on the heads of all the men. It was like FPS*.

There was no need to refrain since they were all bandits. I decided to defeat them quickly.

I didn’t want to hesitate, but I didn’t feel like killing them either. Since I decided to use Pressure Magic, I had to think of a way that would not kill them immediately. I decided to use this strategy.

I decided if I wanted to approach them all at once, I would release a low suppression force upon unleashing some pressure. The possibility of killing would be low with this strategy. Okay.

Well then, what part of the body would knock them out without killing them? What could have the highest control of suppression when pressure is applied?

…Of course, the key point.

As I saw earlier, all the humans who seemed to be bandits were men. It would not be possible to counterattack me if I struck in the upper body.

I’ve accumulated some magical power, and decided to attack.

With a dash, I quickly approached the 6 men from a distance of 3m, and activated my magic force toward their key point.

I hit them!

At that moment, all of the men’s bodies collapsed on the ground. It looked like I impaired them physically.

It didn’t hurt, did it? It seemed that my power was too high on their abdomens.

I hurriedly caught the girl from the man that was about to drop her to the ground.

She was about 17 years old. She was a short girl with reddish brown hair.

I held the girl and kept a safe distance from the men. They could pretend to be dead in order to attack me later, so it was safer to be far away from them.

I appraised the men after distancing myself from them, but all of them were dead. I wondered if I inflicted too much pressure on their internal organs.

I didn’t feel guilty for killing these humans. Maybe it was because these people were ruthless humans, or maybe it was because I had already killed several animals and monsters.

Anyway, what should I do with this girl? I wondered if I would get a reward for a bandits’ subjugation, so if I brought the Guild Card, there should be no problem.

I tried to appraise the girl for the time being.

—

Name: Sumisa

Age / Race / Gender: 18 / Dwarf / Female

Level: 7

HP: 36/36

MP: 9/9

STR: 16

INT: 12

AGI: 8

DEX: 63

Skills: Life Magic

Abnormal Condition: Forced Hypnosis

—

Her DEX was high!! She was a dexterous type!!

I wondered if it was because she was a dwarf.

No, that didn’t matter now. Forced Hypnosis. Did they put her to sleep? I wondered if I could wake her up with healing magic.

… No, it was different from healing your body because of an injury. I also did not want to do something unwise that could become irreparable.

Fortunately, her HP didn’t seem to be decreasing. It seemed that Forced Hypnosis didn’t have an immediate effect on health.

She belonged to the dwarf’s race, and it was highly possible that those men kidnapped her from Herrera. I decided to carry her like a princess and take her to Herrera.

I slowed down a little and returned to the main road. Then, I started climbing the slope. However, I was still much faster than a horse.

Shortly before I left the forest, I noticed a reaction on my advanced radar. It seemed that someone rode a horse on the road. I passed by this horse by the time I left the forest.

The scenery changed after an hour since I began running. I saw a bald mountain.

All the trees were cut down and left as stumps.

As I climbed the slope while thinking about the whole scenery, I saw the gate in about 10 minutes later.

“Herrera” was written on the gate. I saw some guards surrounding the gate. It seemed that this town had the same procedure as the other towns when it came to Guild Cards.

「Hey, isn’t that girl Sumisa-chan who was kidnapped? It seems that the bandits have been defeated. Are you the guy who rescued that child?」

They did not seize me with their weapons. They probably confirmed that I was no bandit.

「Yes, I found the bandits carrying her. I defeated the bandits and brought her here. It looks like she is under Forced Hypnosis. Where should I take her?」

「Forced Hypnosis, you say? It is easy to cure with medicine, but it cannot be entrusted to a person who does not know it well. I’ll take care of her, is that okay?」

「Yes, it’s okay. By the way, where should I ask for the blacksmith? 」

「It depends on the material and what do you want to make, but I think it’s better for you to go to the mediation office than to go directly to the workshop. Go straight down this road and you will find it at the end. Then, can you come to the main station when the evening bell rings? I want to give you a reward.」

「Thank you very much. 」

I handed over Sumisa-chan to the guard and went to the mediation office. I wondered if dwarves would drive me out again.

With that in mind, I arrived at the mediation office and opened the door, but I saw an unexpected sight. There were no dwarves. There was a human man at the counter to my right. There were other people at the counters divided by three divisions.

There was also a door on the opposite side of where I came from, and one could enter and exit from there as well.

I spoke to the person closest to me.

「I want to process the hard skin of the Metal Lizard into a sword, armor, and shield. Where should I go?」

「Ah, if you’re talking about the Metal Lizard Metal, then I think you should ask at Sumizu-san’s workshop…」

The person at the counter had a troubled expression on his face. This Sumizu-san had a similar name as Sumisa-chan. Were they related?

「But I don’t think that he will take your request right now. His daughter has been kidnapped, and he has been searching for her.」

I knew it. Well, if you were a parent and child, it was not strange that the names were similar.

「His daughter has been rescued earlier. She was put to sleep, but she seems to be okay.」

「Oh, that’s great news. It seems that several people were looking for her near the town, but they had a hard time finding her. It seemed that those who kidnapped her entered the forest from the road, but it was very difficult to locate her…」

Did I just come across that scene? It was more correct to say that I discovered her in a lucky way rather than a predetermined encounter.

Well, I did not intend to say that. The person who prepared the weapon processing would have a troublesome reaction if I were to say such a thing.

「I see. By the way, where is that workshop? How much does the weapon processing cost?」

Even though I helped Sumizu-san’s daughter, I did not want him to process my weapons for free. Even if she were not kidnapped, it wouldn’t cost me much anyways. I didn’t want to extort him since he had a business to run.

I did not want to go that far.

「I think it depends on the sword and shield, but if there is no decoration or any special design, a one-handed sword with materials brought already in is about 1 million. A two-handed sword will be around 1.3 million. The workshop is located on road number 5. You can see on the map here.」

He said so while pointing to the board where was the building of the workshop.

I take my words back. Extremely high. I had a little over 100,000. Of course, it was not enough.

「Excuse me…Is there a place where I can sell some of the hardened skin…?」

「You can sell it at the place where they process it. I think that many people want Metal Lizard Metal because the supply has been low recently. It’s about 3 million per kilogram.」

Eh, I had the whole animal. How many kilograms did it have in there? Could I buy a dragon’s sword?

But I also had to make armor. Even though I acquired this special hardened skin in a short period of time, it would be a waste to use it all easily. Even if my current sword was convenient, it was not sturdy at all. I had to change all of my armory and weapons first.

「I understand. Thank you very much. 」

Apparently, I did not have to worry about money. Or rather, I did not want to become a bandit myself by saying, “I rescued your daughter, so process my weapons for free.”

Anyway, I had to check if I could really sell the Metal Lizard Metal, so I decided to go into the workshop now. However, a man of the human race who was nearby approached me and talked to me.

「Are you going to the Sumin Workshop? 」

Sumin Workshop? The names were similar, was it an ancestor of Sumizu-san?

「Yes. I would like to request the processing of the Metal Lizard Metal and negotiate the purchase of the remaining hardened skin.」

「Oh, the Metal Lizard Metal. The Metal Lizard hasn’t appeared recently, so we are running out of stock. How many kilos do you have?」

「Well…I have a whole body in the item box. How many kilograms can I get from the body of the Metal Lizard?」

The man looked at me with suspicious eyes.

「Do you have a Metal Lizard in your item box? The Metal Lizard is about 10m long. I am not very familiar with item boxes, but isn’t the Metal Lizard way too big for an item box?」

「Ah. I don’t know why, but my item box has a large capacity. Therefore, the Metal Lizard could easily fit in for some reason.」

「Eh, is that so? I had no idea that some people had large item boxes… Anyway, you said you have 1 Metal Lizard. The body length might be around 10m long. Then, it should be around 1400kg. Even though we have a shortage of stock, I think it will be impossible for us to buy it all at once. Besides, I heard that Sumisa-chan was found earlier, but I don’t think the Master will work today, so maybe after tomorrow…」

When the man spoke those words, Sumisa-chan, who seemed to have woken up, came with a person that had the same vibe and atmosphere as Dveragh-san.

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*Meaning on Chapter 16.

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