Sword, Magic and Academic Society

The Boss made his first move, sweeping from the lower left to the upper right as if rolling up the snake. It was definitely not a move to take down the enemy. He must have had his considerations, probably knowing it wasn’t an opponent he could finish in a single strike.

The Grateus Snake instantly writhed to evade but was a step late, and got thrown upward with the Boss’ monstrous strength.

"Don't think you're getting away!"

It was quite a precarious situation, to say the least, but that decisive action showed the Boss’ experience. The situation could have taken a turn for the worse if the snake had managed to slip behind him after evading the first strike, putting him in jeopardy.

I concluded the short moment of respite created by the Boss was around three seconds and revised my plan on the spot. 8 seconds— it was enough for me to quickly tidy up all the rats.

The rats, as they were running in a straight line with the snake hot on their tails, were no different from stationary targets. My first shot went fine, but giving priority to rapid fire afterward lowered my accuracy. In the end, a few of them were still alive.

However, with the elemental rats finished and the Boss keeping the snake at bay, Amur and Roye-aniki should be able to deal with the wounded rats. I put my belief on them and immediately moved in an anti-clockwise direction, closing the distance of around 60m with the snake as a center point in an instant.

What Boss wanted more than ever was to keep the Greateus Snake from slipping into our backline. My next step was clear. I needed to avoid that risk and support the Boss as he was stuck in a deadlock against that snake to let him finish it off.

I had only 5 arrows left, which was something I wouldn't want to waste on the rats if possible. Just in case of an improbable scenario, I gazed at the state of the wounded rats in my peripheral vision while positioning myself in a spot to avoid overlapping the Boss and the snake in my line of fire and waited for my chance to strike.

The boss naturally noticed my movement. He had a surprised expression for a moment, but immediately sensed my plan— I would distract the snake for a moment and, taking advantage of that lapse in its action, he would follow up with a decisive blow. To be able to understand my intention was truly a sign that he was a first-class explorer.

I matched my pace with the Greateus Snake's movement that I had noticed for a while now. It was the movement of stretching its neck backward before using that momentum to follow with a bite attack.

I entered the Boss' field of view and shot my iron arrow from the blind spot of that snake.

While the arrow was repelled by the snake's scales due to its lack of penetrative power, it managed to fulfill its role since I finally got the snake’s attention. And taking advantage of that gap, the Boss churned his Body Strengthening into full power mode, and followed through with his strongest move.

In the face of that incredible display of power, the Greateus Snake was cleaved into two.

Having witnessed that, I immediately turned toward Po and released an arrow about 20 meters above his head.

<Screeee!>

I had noticed a Low Vulture — a carnivorous bird-type monster with a wingspan of around 4 meters — was following us to target our Runesheeps

and was circling in the sky at an altitude of 300 meters ever since the others were busy with the blood draining earlier.

They didn't attack the living but would look for a chance to steal away the prey. Even now, they were cunningly waiting for the battle to reach the climax before swooping down to snatch away our Runesheeps.

The Low Vulture, having its body pierced by an arrow, released its death throes and crashed into the ground, lifeless.

We had gone through quite the ups and downs on this trip. So there was no way I would let anyone else put a dent on our efforts by having them snatch away our main goal.

The other Low Vulture took a sharp turn in the sky and flew away seeing its comrade getting done in.

◆◆◆

"Aren't you quite composed? To pull that off..."

The Boss said in an exasperated voice as he approached.

"No way... I was just following your advice to 'Make sure to look after the party from the backline', and keep the situation there in the corner of my mind. I don't think I can loiter around freely in this region with only my Lygo bow with monsters like Greateus Snake present. Just imagining what would have happened in your absence really frightens me. Look, even my hands are shaking."

Perhaps due to the impending sense of danger being lifted with the battle ending, my body had started shaking out of relief.

My arrow didn't put up a scratch on the Greateus Snake and was easily repelled by its scales, even when it was a sneak attack. Had the Boss not been here, I could have only bitten the bullet and prayed I didn't miss my shot into its mouth from up close.

The Boss burst out in laughter seeing my trembling hand.

"Hahaha. And yet, you managed to pull that off! Seriously, the only cute thing about you is your face! ...The standard practice is to let it pass but it's not enough of a threat, to be honest. Well, leaving aside the forest, it shouldn't have appeared in this vast grassland. We just had bad luck today."

Hmm, that makes sense. There was no way low-rank explorers would have been able to come here for collection requests if encounters with such monsters right at the outskirts of the Royal Capital were that frequent.

But bad luck in this case meant death. A profession like explorer was really like walking on a tightrope. If today’s incident was any indication, I understood that my current strength was simply not worth a cent if I really wanted to have my way in this world. Considering this, I felt fortunate to realize this while under the safety umbrella of the Boss.

It made me appreciate the time when Aniki just happened to invite me to the ‘Apple House’ that day.

◆◆◆

Our spoils for today were two Runesheeps, the Greateus Snake the Boss had taken down, two mana stones from the Meadow Maras, and a Low Vulture.

The hand car could only fit the Runesheeps and the Low Vulture, so the Boss carried the body of the Greateus Snake while Amur-aniki, Roye-aniki, and I looked out for any danger on the way back.

The rat monsters, the Meadow Maras, that Roye and Amur aniki’s group surrounded and dealt with had a very low value and it would have been burdensome to carry them all the way back, so we just kept the two mana stones of the elemental variants while leaving behind the rest.

I pulled them out using my knife made by the Banri Company following the guidance of the Boss. The mana stones in the Meadow Maras were red stones about the size of a grain located in their hearts.

It's difficult to put into words but I had felt a surge of energy of sorts when I held that in my palm.

It was a funny incident. It has already been quite a month since my awakening, however, only when I held that worthless mana stone, according to the Boss, did the realization of 'Ah, I’ve really come to another world, haven't I?' deeply resonated in my heart.

Upon arriving at the royal capital, we parted with the group who made their way from there to dismantle the Runesheeps back at 'Apple Home' while Boss and I headed to sell the materials.

On the way back, the two of us — the Boss carrying the torso of the Greateus Snake on his right shoulder like a hose while holding its head in his left hand, and I carrying the Low Vulture on my back — attracted quite the attention as passersby whispered among themselves and pointed fingers.

"Yo, Ren-kun! Woah, isn't that a C-rank monster, a Low Vulture?! Did you take it down, Ren-kun!? I don’t think I’ve ever heard of anyone pulling that off at just F-rank!! I just came back from delivering my own spoils to the east branch, do you want me to help out?"

It was really the one way of standing out that I hadn't wanted… I was walking down the downtown area while groaning at the situation when a familiar sweaty chubby guy approached us, pulling a handcart, and greeted us with a smile.

"Oh, that indeed will make things easy."

"I didn't ask you, old fart!"

"Haah? Do you know who you're talking to, fatty? I dare you to underestimate our 'Apple Familia'!"

"Just cut it out with that damn 'Apple Familia', for goddamn sake!"

Bam

After such an exchange, the familiar fatty whose name I had yet to know helped us carry our spoils to the east branch with his handcar, which also saved us from getting too much attention.

I thanked the fatty for his help, who said 'Later, Yo!' and left with a smiling face.

It seemed like there was only one 'Yo' greeting in his dictionary.