The four Rockhead Bees are rus.h.i.+ng to Nana who"s set up her great s.h.i.+eld. These Rockhead Bees are monsters that have heads as st.u.r.dy as rocks. Master is not here today, so I cannot recklessly use magic edge. Let"s go at it steadily, this is not because of Nana"s provocation.
"Pochi, Tama, avoid attacking the hard heads and aim for the gap on their necks."
"Aye aye~"
"Roger nanodesu."
I move to the side of the flying bee with Flickering Movement, and thrust my spear on the gap between its rock-like sh.e.l.l. It seems to be a fragile monster, the head separates from its body with just one blow. Pochi and Tama had defeated them without any problem too.
"Nana! Don"t kill that one, drop it to the ground."
"Understood!"
Nana blocks the last one with her great s.h.i.+eld, and then knocks it down to the ground as instructed by Arisa.
"Iruna, and Jenna, attack that Rockhead Bee."
"Is it alright? The sword will be chipped if I attack like this y"know?"
"It"s fine, just hit it! You can break one or two swords!"
The two were hesitating at first, but they finally moved after the second instruction. As for the bee, Nana has st.i.tched its wings to the ground with her magic sword.
The two swing their sword with weak postures, but it doesn"t reach. Let"s have Nana teach them the way to swing sword a bit later.
◇
"Level 10 enemies are really weak aren"t they."
"No no, that conclusion is strange."
"That"s right, even a knight in full body armor would suffer great injury if he was rammed by this monster."
That knight must have not enough guts surely.
"You two hear me. When multiple enemies come, exterminate the last enemy that we have left like just now. You two attack the enemy Nana has pinned down."
"Eh? Is it alright like that?"
"I feel guilty like I"m a stone-throwing baggage carrier."
After I told Iruna who was showing disapproval toward my instruction that it was for the sake of raising their levels, she reluctantly agreed to it.
This kind of high pride of a warrior is likable isn"t it.
"By the way, can I ask something? What"s stone-throwing baggage carrier?"
"Ah, do you know that every year during the harvest festival, great number of children from the villages and towns around the vicinity come to this labyrinth city to become explorers and baggage carriers?"
"Yep, I know."
"Some of them are imprudent. There are some baggage carriers who secretly throw a stone to the monster that explorers have desperately defeated and have their level raised. That kind of act is called 『stone-throwing baggage carrier』. If a baggage carrier does such thing even once, he/she won"t be hired by explorers ever again."
I see, it must be like s.n.a.t.c.hing prey that has been weakened. Pochi, Tama, and me raised our levels with such method at the beginning, but I shouldn"t worry about it since we had received Master"s permission for that.
"Eh~ parasitic people exist in any world huh. But, our goal this time is leveling you two up, so keep on keep attacking okay."
"Yeah, I understand. Much obliged."
"We"ll work hard so we can quickly become useful."
Now then, the time for conversing should be over soon.
Tama has returned from the other side of the corridor while bringing some Horn Hopper.
"Pretending to be the leader just because you have a horn, how ridiculous!"
There"s only monster this time. It doesn"t seem like I"ll have a turn, but I"m keeping alert on the surrounding to prevent Arisa and Mia getting attacked.
Tama slips through between Nana"s legs. The Horn Hopper vigorously rammed its whole body onto Nana"s great s.h.i.+eld, but seemed that it was too vigorous, its prideful horn broke and fell on the ground. It"s the same great s.h.i.+eld that didn"t even let a single injury in from the attack of the Hunter Mantis" big sickles. This kind of result isn"t surprising in the least.
"No way, it should be able to penetrate an iron plate you know?"
"Oh dear, that"s a great s.h.i.+eld."
"You two, move your hands before your mouths."
"Yes."
"Understood."
The Horn Hopper is even softer than the Rockhead Bee from before. The two"s swords are doing better than before. After confirming that the two have wounded it, I thrust my spear for the finis.h.i.+ng blow.
◇
"Lizsan, we will be late for dinner if we don"t go back soon."
That"s a serious problem.
"How regrettable, we"re almost at 100 monsters defeated with just three left."
"Stomach hungry~?"
"Yes nanodesu. Hamburg steak-sensei is waiting nodesu!"
It"s hamburg steak tonight huh. It"s a bit unsatisfactory since there"s no chewiness on the texture, but Lulu should also be making steak. Leaving aside the taste, the chewiness of the monster meat we ate yesterday was quite outstanding. I wonder if the meat of these monsters are like that too?
"Iruna and Jenna, are these monsters edible?"
"Un, horn and rockhead should be edible."
"The body of the rockhead is said to be sweet and tasty, although we can"t bring it back with us if we can"t shave off the heavy outer rock sh.e.l.l. I"ve never eaten it before, but I"ve heard it from someone."
I see, it is tasty huh.
I leave my spear to Nana, and then peels off the rock sh.e.l.ls of the Rockhead Bees by using the disa.s.sembly knife I"ve put on my waist"s back. I line the Rockhead Bee"s meat on the taking-home meat sheet, Pochi and Tama also bring and line up one body-worth of meat each. These girls must have been fascinated by the talk just now. When Pochi saw that Tama was also bringing the Horn Hopper"s meat, she was also going to bring the meat in panic, but I caught her nape, stopping her. Let"s have just these much today.
"Hey, do Arisa and the others always fight this many series of battles?"
"As expected, we don"t usually defeat this many monsters."
"That"s so, isn"t it. It"s usually only around 30 monsters."
"That"s right huh. Your body won"t be able to endure it if you always fight with this pace."
I feel that the fights with the higher-leveled enemies we usually do are difficult too, but there is no need to tell them the truth and make them feel down.
◇
We got four gold coins from the meat of Rockhead Bees which were sold for quite a price, and also from the magic cores that had higher grades that I thought. The Horn Hopper meat sold for 20 copper coins for one monster worth. There was no purchase notice for the horns of the Horn Hoppers, but it seems they can be sold for several big copper coins each if you negotiate well at the weapon shops.
I was going to sell all the meat from the Rockhead Bees, but I decided to bring one monster worth of meat as a souvenir for Master.
We had to pay the carrying tax for the Rockhead Bee"s meat and the Horn Hopper"s horns, but judging from Arisa who didn"t complain about it, the sum was probably right.
As ordered by Master, we split the income according to the number of people, including the two girls. Arisa calculated the amount of money. I"m still bad at calculation even now.
It should be alright to split the shares for the Horn Hopper"s horns after we"ve sold them.
At first the two refused the split income since they thought that they were just being a burden, but Arisa told them that it was Master"s order, and they were forced to receive it.
"It"s amazing. Earning this much by going into the labyrinth for just half a day!"
"Yeah, earning half a gold coin much for each of us is like a dream."
I tell the two who look as if they will grow wings and soar about the plan for tomorrow.
"We"re going to hunt with the same pace tomorrow, so eat some good food and have a good rest today."
"T-tomorrow too, like that?"
"Uu, Iruna. I wonder if we can go back to the labyrinth city tomorrow."
I leave the two anxious girls for Arisa to console, let"s quickly go home.
Lulu"s meals are waiting.