CH 7

Chapter 7 – Consecutive Battles against Monsters

The sky was turning to dusk by the time our horse carriages stopped.

We were going to camp outside that day.

It was my first outdoor camping experience in this world, so I was pretty excited, but Barnar and the others seemed pretty experienced and finished setting up camp really quickly.

After we ate the dinner prepared by Bacchus, Barnar’s party and I discussed how we would take turns to stand guard throughout the night.

In the end, I was first, so I found myself looking up at the stars after everyone went to sleep.

“The night sky here is a lot clearer…I can see so many stars.”

In my previous world, I barely saw any stars, but here there weren’t any street lights or similar illumination devices, so the stars in the sky were clearly visible.

I continued to look at the sky while keeping alert for any dangers in the surroundings, and before I realized it, it was time for the next shift.

I stood up, thinking that it was almost time to wake Barnar up, but my Detect Presence picked up something.

“Hm? What’s this?”

So I whispered to myself, when a huge black silhouette appeared in the woods not too far from the camp, emanating incredibly powerful intimidation.

It was the strongest presence I felt after coming to this world, so I used Appraisal on it.

<table>NAME : Black Tiger LEVEL : 108 SKILLS : Night Vision</tbody></table>

<table>Physical Boost LV 7</tbody></table>

<table>Roar LV 6</tbody></table>

<table>Leap LV 6</tbody></table>

<table>Intimidation LV 7</tbody></table>

<table>Ground Shrink LV 8</tbody></table>

<table>Darkness Magic LV 10 TITLES : Disaster Class</tbody></table>

Black Tiger? All I could think of was one of my favorite foods. Black tiger shrimp. Because the name reminded me of the seafood, I thought it was silly. Despite how silly the name sounded, I took the beast seriously as its level reached triple digits.

It also had a title called “Disaster Class” and skills I saw for the first time.

I was thinking that its skills looked pretty useful, and suddenly the robotic voice echoed in my head.

<<Skills “Night Vision”, “Roar”, “Leap” acquired. “Roar”, “Leap” skill level reached 10. “Night Vision”, “Roar”, “Leap” skills added to Martial Unification.>>

…once again, the skills got created all on their own.

Ever since I received skills from god, everything had become easy mode…not that I wanted to complain.

Anyway, I had to take down that tiger soon or everyone would be in danger.

Thinking of experimenting with a new technique, I focused magic power on my fingertips.

I compressed it densly, eventually forming magic bullets.

<<Skill “Magic Power Manipulation” acquired. Skill level reached 10. Skill added to Magic Unification.>>

Oh, I learned a new skill too.

While I was considering this, the Black Tiger approached me at a very high speed.

It probably judged the magic power concentrating in my fingertips as dangerous, and decided to attack. Its front claws were bearing down on me.

Without further ado, I released the magic power on my fingertips.

The concentrated magic power, shot at the speed of sound, struck the Black Tiger as if it was sucked by the beast’s body, and blew off its head with a loud, dull sound.

The headless Black Tiger dropped on the ground, as Barnar and the others rushed outside, alarmed by the sound.

“Haruto! What was that noise just now?”

“What happened!?”

“…hey, what’s that body?”

Barnar, Norkas and Oorde each called out to me, then saw the Black Tiger’s corpse and froze on the spot. Bacchus, who was behind them, reacted in the same way.

“It was a Black Tiger…I think.”

So I answered and Barnar looked at me, wide-eyed.

“You think…?? A Black Tiger is a disaster class monster!! It’s not something anyone can take down by themselves!!”

“Disaster class? What’s that?”

I recalled that I didn’t analyze the title with God Eye before.

“You don’t know? Well, you only registered as an adventurer yesterday after all…”Disaster Class” are monsters that need 10 or more rank A adventurers or a whole military to defeat. How did you kill it…?”

Hmm, I guess it’d be quicker to just show them.

“Like this.”

I concentrated magic power in my fingertips and created a magic bullet as I did before.

Under the looks of surprise of Barnar and the others, I shot the magic bullet at a tree on the side of the road.

The magic bullet struck near the base of the tree, blowing it away and carving a small crater on the ground.

“You…you shot magic power just like that!? Is such a thing even possible!?”

“There’s no way…I know, this must be a dream…”

“Yeah, that’s right, that hole in the ground was there from the beginning too.”

You’re all escaping reality, folks?

Afterwards, I put the Black Tiger parts in my dimensional storage, Barnar and the others saw it and marveled at the size of my magic bag. Various things happened…but since my shift was over, I headed to my tent to sleep.

~

The next morning, after breakfast, we departed again on the road to Vaana.

The day before was just the first one of our travels, but we encountered a band of thieves and a Black Tiger, so I hoped that this second day would be peaceful, but a little before lunch my hopes were dashed by my Detect Presence skill. A monster was coming in our direction.

I quickly reported it to Bacchus and the others, then got off the carriage with Barnar’s party to prepare for the attack.

Soon enough, a beast with red eyes and black fur, resembling a large bear, appeared before us.

“Damn, it’s a Grizzly Bear!! After a disaster class monster, now it’s a class A one!?”

After hearing Barnar’s surprised reaction, I used God Eye on the monster.

<table>NAME : Grizzly Bear LEVEL : 78 SKILLS : Intimidation LV 3</tbody></table>

<table>Physical Boost LV 4</tbody></table>

<table>Roar LV 2</tbody></table>

<table>Might LV 3</tbody></table>

I see, it does look pretty tough.

“Hey, Barnar, how exactly strong is a class A monster?”

“Monsters go from class F to class A, it’s the highest..barring disaster class beasts. So this is a really powerful enemy too!!”

Barnar shouted, his tone betraying his nervousness.

Facing enemies of this level one after the other would definitely be unexpected, I thought.

“I see…actually there’s something I want to try, can you let me handle this?”

Before Barnar could reply, I created a skill with All Creation.

<<Skill “Molding” acquired. Skill level reached 10. Skill added to Magic Unification.>>

What I created was the “Molding” skill, which used magic power as a medium to create matter.

I placed my hands on the ground, infused it with magic power and molded it into metal. A bolt of crimson lightning, a physical manifestation of magic power, flashed for an instant, revealing a spear.

I then used Enchant to attach the spear with the “Thunderstrike” and “Fierce Blade” effects.

“Haruto, you can use Molding too!? And you also used Enchant magic, right!?”

I ignored Barnar’s surprise and faced the Grizzly Bear, with spear in hand.

The monster was standing on its hind legs to intimidate us. Its height seemed to be over four meters.

Being able to stand up made it look more menacing than the Black Tiger.

I felt no fear, however, as I charged it.

The Grizzly Bear brought down its front paws on me: after dodging them with a sidestep, I thrust my lightning-infused spear into the monster’s unguarded side.

The electricity ran through the monster’s body, paralyzing it for a moment, but it withstood the attack without collapsing.

“Tch, guess it wasn’t good enough. Let me give you something even more thrilling, then!!”

I let my magic power flow into the spear, increasing the offensive power of Thunderstrike.

I focused the magic power in the tip of the spear, creating a globe of electricity, which I thrust towards the Grizzly Bear.

The Grizzly Bear had already been pierced by my previous attack, so it collapsed on the ground, powerless, and drew its final breath.

It took a bit more than expected, but I could defeat it without problems.

With a sigh of relief, I stored the corpse into my dimensional storage, and Barnar’s party came up to me.

“You killed even a Grizzly Bear in seconds…well, considering how you handled the Black Tiger yesterday, I wasn’t worried, but…what’s with that spear anyway? It shot lightning, right?”

“Yeah, I molded a spear and enchanted it with lightning magic…hey, why are you looking at me like that?”

After I explained about the spear, Barnar, Norkas, and Oorde looked at me with envious eyes.

Could it be that…they want a weapon like this?

“I can make you a sword if you want?”

“R-really!? …I don’t have a lot of money on me, to be honest…”

“No need, you’ve taught me a lot of things after all. Let me give you one each as a gesture of thanks.”

Barnar and his two comrades looked at me with sparkles in their eyes, overjoyed like children with a new toy.

I could give the spear I just made to Oorde, so I only needed to mold swords for Barnar and Norkas.

Just like before, I put my hands on the ground and poured magic power in it. After the crimson lightning flash, two swords appeared.

I enchanted both with “Fierce Blade”, then added “Flamestrike” to Barnar’s sword and “Windstrike” to Norkas’.

Since I’m at it, I might as well appraise them.

<table>NAME : Flame Blade RARITY : Artifact NOTES : Allows usage of Fire Magic up to LV 2.</tbody></table>

<table>The blade can be enveloped with flames.</tbody></table>NAME : Wind Blade RARITY : Artifact NOTES : Allows usage of Wind Magic up to LV 2.</tbody></table>

<table>The blade can be enveloped with wind.</tbody></table>NAME : Thunder Spear RARITY : Artifact NOTES : Allows usage of Lightning Magic up to LV 2.</tbody></table>

<table>The blade can be enveloped with lightning.</tbody></table>

Pretty much named literally…what’s this “rarity”?

I focused on the word and an explanation resounded in my head.

There were seven grades of item rarity: Common, Rare, Artifact, Legend, Phantasm, Divine, and Genesis.

Common grade items, as the name said, were the items normally found on sale: high-quality ones could be Rare grade.

Even rarer items with unique qualities were labeled with the Artifact grade, which could also be found in dungeons.

Legend grade items were the greatest creations of master craftsmen. This was thought to be the maximum grade attained through normal crafting, and a considerable number of such items existed. In very rare cases, Artifact grade items could be boosted to this grade. Most weapons bestowed to Heroes belonged to this rarity grade.

Phantasm grade items were much fewer: at present, you could count the known ones on the fingers of both hands. Legend grade items were reinforced through a long period of time. They were both incredibly powerful and possessed amazing effects.

Items with these grades of rarity could be acquired in the present age, albeit with increasing levels of difficulty, but items with higher rarity were considered practically impossible to obtain.

Divine grade items were created after the world itself was born, in the age of the gods. Only those accepted by the items themselves could use them. There were documents recording their usage in existence, but nothing more: the existence of the items themselves was a mystery.

Genesis grade items were said to exist when the world was created. Wielding them meant to wield enough power to destroy the whole world, but just like Divine grade items, only chosen ones could wield them. They were found in myths, but it was not known whether they actually existed or not.

Thus concludes the explanation about the rarity of items in this world…but even weapons I randomly whipped up came up as Artifact grade, huh.

Maybe the rarity grade increased after I enchanted them.

Well, as long as Barnar and his party were happy, no need to fret over the details.

~

After Barnar and his boys finished expressing their joy, we once again resumed our travel.

According to Bacchus, tonight we would stay the night in a village, so we didn’t need to camp out.

We would arrive in about three hours, so we continued being alert, as our escort duty demanded: Barnar and the others, however, were also excitedly looking forward to the chance to try out their new weapons.

Every time I said that I picked up enemy presences, they eagerly got off the carriage, then happily told me that they even managed to defeat class B monsters, a difficult feat for rank C adventurers.

Eventually, we arrived at the village as planned, but found it deserted and in shambles.

“Mr. Bacchus, was the village always like this?”

“No, according to my subordinates, it shouldn’t be in this state…”

Bacchus shook his head to my question, then Barnar, his chin resting in his hand, spoke.

“Standing around here will solve nothing. Haruto, Mr. Bacchus, we should go look for the villagers to see if we can learn what happened. Norkas and Oorde should stay here with the others to guard the carriages, who knows what might happen.”

I nodded to Barnar’s proposal and we split into two groups.

Bacchus, Barnar, and I headed towards the largest building in the village.

We knocked on the door and an old man, probably around 70 years old, emerged from inside.

“What brings you here?”

“We apologize for the sudden visit. We are travelers, we came to this village hoping to spend the night…but it looks like it’s in a very desolate state, did something happen?”

The old man answered my question by inviting us inside to talk.

We sat down in what seemed to be the living room and the old man, with a heavy, sad tone, began to speak.

“Firstly, allow me to bid you welcome to our village, travelers. I am Karl, the village elder. Regarding what happened to this village— ”

The village elder then explained the reason behind the sorry state of the village.

It turned out that recently the village was subject to the attacks of certain monsters.

The monsters ravaged the fields, destroying anything the villagers cultivated, so they were barely surviving on their reserves.

They thought that the monsters would leave after a while, but unfortunately, that was not the case: the village’s food reserves were almost gone, so they were thinking of going to the next town to put in a request for extermination…and then we arrived at the village.

“I see, so that’s what happened…”

“Thus, if you travelers happened to be adventurers, I would like to inquire about your rank…”

Barnar nodded to the elder’s words and replied.

“This man is a merchant and we are the adventurers currently on a mission to escort him. There are some more people in the horse carriages we rode here, as well as two more adventurers in my party.”

Barnar motioned at Bacchus and me and explained our situation.

“My name’s Barnar, I’m a rank C adventurer. My two other party members are rank C too.”

The elder mumbled “I see, rank C…”, looking a bit dejected, then turned towards me.

“My name is Haruto, I’m rank B.”

“Oh, to be so young and already rank B…very impressive…but the monster we face this time is…”

The elder’s expression became more afflicted, then Bacchus spoke up.

“I apologize for interrupting, I am Bacchus, the merchant that hired these adventurers. What kind of monster is it…?”

“It was actually a class A monster, a Mephistos Bird…it can fly at high speed and has very thick skin, making it very difficult to damage, so normal weapons barely scratched it. Many of the villagers who tried fighting fell victim to it…”

The elder sighed and continued.

“To defeat a monster like that, we’d need at least a rank A party, I fear. So I asked about your rank, but…”

The elder looked hopeless, but Barnar replied in a bright tone.

“I see, in that case, you can leave it to us.”

Curious about his answer, I looked at Barnar and saw Bacchus looking this way too.

…is this going where I think it is…?

“You can defeat it, can’t you Haruto?”

Yes, just as I thought.

“Well, I never fought against a flying monster, though…”

The elder reacted to my words with a nod.

“That would make things much more difficult. The rank gap is wide too…”

“Oh no, Haruto would be just fine.”

Bacchus and Barnar replied simultaneously.

“…guess I have no choice, huh.”

I sighed to myself and the elder looked at me, surprised. He probably never expected us to take on the task.

“What is the basis of your confidence, if I may ask?”

Barnar answered the elder for me, saying “Haruto, just show him that.”

I nodded and led everyone outside, where I took the Black Tiger’s headless body out of my dimensional storage and placed it on the ground.

The elder, shocked by the sight of the monster’s massive body, barely managed to squeeze out a reaction.

“A Magic Bag…? But more importantly…this is…”

Bacchus, Barnar, and I replied in unison.

“A Black Tiger.”

“Could it be that…the one who defeated it is…”

Bacchus and Barnar silently pointed at me.

“I did, by myself.”

The elder stared at me, slack-jawed, unable to utter a word.

I put away the Black Tiger in the storage and encouraged everyone to go back inside.

Once we all sat down the elder had probably regained his composure, as he bowed deeply to us.

“I shall have faith in your words. You said your name was Haruto…I wish to ask you to exterminate the Mephistos Bird. The reward we can offer is five gold coins…I know it isn’t much, but please…save our village!”

“…there is one thing I must know.”

The elder raised his head after my reply.

“Does the Mephistos Bird taste good?”

The elder looked lost for a moment, then nodded.

“I-indeed it is. Mephistos Bird meat has no excess fat, it is well known for its delicious taste. It is often sold at high prices, actually.”

Well, looks like I got something to look forward to.

“I see, thank you. I’ll take the extermination request then.”

“W-will you really!? Thank you so much!!”

The elder looked like he couldn’t believe what he heard.

“Okay then, you guys should make preparations: we’re going to have a feast tonight.”

“Eh? Tonight?”

“Yeah, I’ll go take the monster out now.”

I said it as casually as if I was going to buy groceries, so the elder raised his voice to stop me.

“T-that’s too dangerous! Even if you are powerful enough to defeat a Black Tiger, that monster can’t be taken down without proper preparations!! Please say something too, you two!”

The elder looked at Bacchus and Barnar, but they both laughed wryly.

“Well, well, elder, you should just trust in Mr. Haruto.”

“That’s right. More than that, if we don’t start the preparations quickly, Haruto will wrap up the hunt before we’re ready for the feast.”

Once again, the elder was speechless.

“Okay then, I’m off…look forward to good news, elder.”

“Y-yes…”

“Please take care.”

“Looking forward to some delicious meat!”

The elder, Bacchus, and Barnar saw me off as I left the village.