Chapter 35: The Slave and The Bombardment

I thought they would stop me from entering the town when I came back from the forest. But, I showed the Guild card, and they let me in.

Why I thought so? Because I was not alone. Catherine came with me and she didn’t have a Guild card herself. Yet, they let her come with me. Was there a different way to check one’s identity?

I went back to the inn and booked another room.

「I got another room for you in this inn. It will be a good idea to practice making magic tools, and depending on the result, I’ll decide what we’re doing to do in the future.」

If she was useful, then I’d welcome her. But if not, then I’d have to sell her.

I didn’t want to have an extra hands or feet just because I could afford it.

「Excuse me. Is it okay for a slave to have a room?」

Hmm? Slaves did not receive a room of their own?

Certainly, an inn was like a hotel for guests. Perhaps, slaves didn’t sleep inside an inn, but were given a space for sleeping small fish.

But I had some money, and there was no need to live off scarps.

「There’s no problem. Okay. I’m going out for a moment because I’ve something to do.」

That’s right. An errand.

We came back to the town from the place where we saw the Giant Spider Crab, but we didn’t encounter any monsters on our way home.

After recalling the battle with the Metal Lizard, it seemed there was still a boss.

The Giant Spider Crab was reasonably strong. That’s for sure. But even though I was stronger than before, I knew that that monster was still a lot inferior to the Metal Lizard.

I decided to report it to the Guild just in case. Perhaps, I could defeat the boss on my own without a hassle, but it was not good for the monsters that ran away from it to damage this town.

When I entered the Guild, I noticed the atmosphere was a little hectic. There was only one person at the reception. I spoke to the receptionist.

「Greetings. I have a report about monsters.」

「I’ve already heard the stories of Rush Sheep and Red Wolf attacks. Are you here to report on something else?」

It seemed the news of those monsters had already arrived here. Considering that I saw no problem at the gate, maybe no assault happened so far. Or, perhaps, there was no monster like the Gargon that could effectively damage the outer wall.

Even so, my encounter with the Rush Sheep was strange. I did slice them up, perhaps, not all of them, but most of them.

Anyway, everything felt strange. And there was that spider thing too.

「Yes. I’ve found a Giant Spider Crab about two hours ago and I immediately subdued it.」

「Two hours ago, you say. And a Giant Spider Crab. Where in the forest did you find it?」

「From here, exit the gate on the side of the Tsubai town and turn left; from there it is an hour and a half on foot.」

「I understand, I will report it. What will Kaede-san do from now on? I would be very grateful if Kaede-san, who is said to be a rank fraud even though you’re from the E-rank, participates in the defensive line.」

Defensive line? However, even if they created defense mechanisms, the monsters from the Boss Class would not stop no matter how much we dealt with the little fish that came out.

On the contrary, if we killed the monster from the Boss Class first, there was a high possibility that the small fish would withdraw. As a result, it may be safer to crush the Boss quickly.

「I will be looking for a big one to kill. There was a similar occurrence in the town I was before, and when I defeated the big one, the attack of other monsters stopped immediately.」

「I understand. It seems that you get involved in trouble quite often. But you look strong. Please do your best to stay alive.」

「Of course. 」

I left the Guild and ran outside the gate. Fortunately, or unfortunately, I met the Metal Lizard while I was running through the forest in Ain.

However, running through the forest would not always work. I needed a more convenient means of searching.

So, in this situation, I decided to start invoking flight magic. Yes, the one I failed earlier.

Magical search was also convenient, but my visual reconnaissance was still basic.

Therefore, this time I decided to use flight magic, but perhaps, floating was the right word for it. Since I used it before, I felt that I floated instead of flying. This magic worked like pushing a part of my body straight in the air.

If I lifted my legs, I would drift straight up. I tried it for the time being.

I raised up. Then, I made a half turn and hit my head against the ground.

No good. Did I have to align the center of gravity with the direction of force?

This time, I jumped forward and applied force to the front side of my body. I floated well. This made my reconnaissance easy.

However, it was difficult to land, but… In the worst case, even if I crashed into the ground, I could manage it. But, it hurt so I wanted to avoid it as much as possible.

I went up for about 10m high. I could see the surroundings well. I did the forward thrust by using the side of the foot.

For the time being, I tried raising the altitude to see if there was anything in the vicinity. From my sight, the forest stood diagonally in the distance. It looked a little strange.

I was far away so I couldn’t see very well, but the color was different. Kinda brownish. On the other hand, the other part of the forest was still a vivid green forest. Obviously, something was not right.

When I flew towards that point, I found out what it was. I saw a horde of that huge Giant Spider Crab. How did they swarm with their big size? I couldn’t find anything else that looked strange. Perhaps, there were no other abnormalities.

Did they drive away the pathetic and stupid Rush Sheep?

I decided to get rid of the resentment for killing the Rush Sheep by killing all of these spiders.

I tried to come directly above them for the time being. Such ugly monsters. Disgusting.

Previously, I killed one of the Giant Spider Crab by cutting off the legs and then crushing the main body. But I couldn’t do it now since I was flying. I had to aim for their main body.

I decided to use magic just like the time when I fought the Metal Lizard.

I decided to use the familiar rock spear. I made a rock spear of a reasonable size in 10 seconds.

I shall blow off those beautiful heads! I released the rock spear and smashed into the spider’s head. Given the size of the spider’s head, it did not seem to be very effective. In fact, the spider looked fine.

I tried to use fireballs and water cannons with the same magical power, but they had no effect. It seemed it would take time to even kill one, but there were so many. There were about 200 monsters. Where did they come from? It felt like a sea of spiders.

Okay. What should I do? Shall I use the sword? I had confirmed that the magic sword could cut their head. Shall I do a dive slash?

Maybe I could cut their heads with the sword while increasing the speed of advance by lowering the altitude. And so, I rushed to the ground.

In order to increase the altitude, I rose the upward thrust with all my might and succeeded in avoiding to the ground. But I did it “by the skin of my teeth”*.

This flight magic was quite difficult. It seemed that a dive slash was not very suitable.

In the first place, the dive attack had the maneuver of an airplane and flew by using thrust directly upward, which may not be compatible with this magic that worked like an helicopter.

So what was the aggressive maneuver that went well with a helicopter?

There was no such thing. Helicopters were not such vehicles in the first place.

Then, what should I do? Shall I shoot with Hellfire? Maybe I could use something like a real cannonball instead of Hellfire.

In the first place, the rock spear flew straight without a thrust, and the fireball exploded immediately. If I could hit it and then explode, then I could make it explode in the inside.

I tried to think about a fireball inside a thick rock spear. When I tried it, I could make it.

When I hit a spider near me, it dug in and then exploded. However, the explosion was a bit dull. Since it exploded without much infiltration, the explosion looked the same as those explosions on the surface.

What should I do?

First, should I use a piercing power? Maybe I could manage it. The magic power was proportional to the power consumed. Of course, the thicker it got, the more powerful it became.

I decided to create a long, thin rock spear. The magic power consumption increased and the cross-sectional area was small. I inserted the explosive part and raised the temperature.

Completed. I enclosed flame magic near the tip of the rock spear with a length of 2 m and a diameter of 5 cm. I made it in about 2 seconds.

I threw this into the spider’s head. The rock shell hit and broke the tip. The first half was broken. However, the second half soon hit the spider’s head, but broke in the same way.

The explosion occurred when the first spear broke, but it was a mild explosion. In other words, a surface explosion again. Apparently, the ratio of thickness was too extreme.

I knew the efficiency reduced, but I tried shooting with different thicknesses, and found that it was unbreakable.

Then, I made a rock spear with a length of 2 m and a width of about 8 cm that crashed into the spider’s head firmly and exploded from the inside.

It took about 3 seconds to generate. It was within the practical range.

In addition, the effect of the rock spear had an effect like a debris grenade.

This magic was the first magic that I developed properly. It was a waste to have no name. I decided to call this magic the Explosive Cannonball.

While generating 10 Explosive Cannonballs at once, I tried the dive slash again while practicing flight magic.

I mean, I didn’t have to dive since I could drop the bombs. I could fly straight and hit them.

The problem was that I couldn’t hit them well unless I went close to a spider, but I got the hang of flying around. Even if it were impossible to make a proper dive, this was a practical level. While keeping up with the moving swarm, I hit them and shoot several Explosive Cannonballs.

After a while, the shadow of the monsters disappeared. It seemed that the spiders did not have a way to attack me in the air.

Rather, I felt that it would take more time to store the corpses in the item box than actually kill them.

Unlike the time when I thrusted the pack of Green Wolf with rock spears, there was no overlap and speed was not at a bullet level. Things were different back then.

It felt like one-hit and one-kill. The defeated monsters probably died, but it would be a problem if I left one alive. Even if I looked around, the monsters did not seem to resurrect.

It seemed there were 208 spiders, but they all fit in one frame of my item box. Quite mysterious.

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*”by the skin of my teeth” is used to describe a situation from which one has barely managed to escape or achieve something (by a very narrow margin).

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