An hour had now passed since I had killed the monsters that came out of the magic stone.
I looked at all the Dria flowers we had gathered with a satisfied nod.
There was no requirement in terms of amount, so this was surely good enough.
âWe got so much!â
âThank you, Dryad!â
âNo, thank you! Call me if you ever need more flowers!â
âYeah. I might ask for your help again if Iâm ever doing a similar quest.â
I had the slimes put the flowers in their storage while I talked to the Dryad.
And then-I realized there was something odd about what she had said.
âCall you⌠I donât have to go to you?â
âHmmâŚyou could⌠But I can generally travel to any place with trees, so it would be better if you called. I would get weak if I stayed away from my lands for too long, but that can be fixed if you send me energy like before.â
The Dryad said. Then she vanished into the ground as if she had melted. And then she reappeared a short distance away.
âŚIt was like teleportation. How convenient.
âWellâŚI guess I could leave a tamed monster here to keep in contact. Raise your hand if you would like to stay.â
I said as I looked at the slimes that were scattered around me.
A few of the slimes that were here originally now raised their hands(?).
âAlright, you guys can stay here with the Dryad.â
âOkay!â
Now that was settled.
I could stay in contact with them even when apart with the use of âTamer Skill: Mutual Understanding.â So I could use Magic Transfer if anything happened.
âI guess we should go back nowâŚhuh? Where did the Proud Wolf go?â
He had come with me all this way and promised to give me a ride backâŚbut he seemed to have disappeared at some point.
As I wondered about thisâŚthe slimes raised their voices.
âThe Proud Wolf is over there!â
âIt got scared and ran when you used magic!â
âNo it didnât! It ran even before that. When it first saw the magic stone!â
âŚI see. He ran away.
The shameless wolf. Some things never changeâŚ
âUh⌠Can I come out nowâŚ?â
I suddenly heard the Proud Wolfâs voice.
He was hiding behind a boulder that was a short distance away.
âThe fighting is now finished. Actually, there was a barrier the whole time, so it wasnât even dangerous.â
âBut, it was kind of scaryâŚâ
The Proud Wolf said as he inched his way back to where the barrier had been.
Was this guy really a monsterâŚ
Well, there were a lot of unfortunate things about him, but the Proud Wolf would still give me a free ride.
And there was no need to have him participate in battle anyway.
âAlright. Can you just take me back to the town then?â
âYes!â
And with that, I got on top of the Proud Wolf and he started running.
âSee you later!â
âYeah! See you again!â
I said goodbye to the Dryad and left the forest behind me.
Well, as long as the slimes were there, I should be able to stay in touch.
â
And then a few hours passed.
I arrived safely back in the town.
The first thing to think aboutâŚwas the Proud Wolfâs future.
I could return him to nature, but I somehow felt that it wouldnât survive back in the forest.
Well, I could just leave the choice to him.
âHey, Proud Wolf. What are you going to do now?â
âDoâŚ? I will follow you, of course. I bet that Iâll be safer that way. âŚThat Magic Transfer thing, could you use it on me too?â
Yes. I expected as much.
And he felt that I could protect him with Magic Transfer if he was in danger⌠And if I was going to ride him, then maybe being this much of a coward would actually be safer. I didnât mind, in any case.
âYeah. I could. âŚAlright then. You can stay with me.â
âThank you! I will wholeheartedly carry you, Mister Yuji! âŚThough, I donât think Iâll be useful to you in combat.â
âDonât worry about that. I donât expect you to.â
And so I put a collar and tag on the Proud Wolf.
This tag helped people differentiate between monsters that have and havenât been tamed.
It wasnât necessary for slimes, but you apparently had to use these tags when bringing other monsters into a town.
I had bought one while preparing for camping, and it now proved to be very useful.
And with that, we were just about to step foot into the town, when a nearby Adventurer pointed at the Proud Wolf.
âThatâs a great wolf⌠I didnât think there was a good enough Tamer in this whole town to be able to tame something like thatâŚâ
A great wolfâŚare you sure about that?
It was an interesting question that I pondered as we continued on our way.
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