Hone To Issho No Isekai Seikatsu Chapter 3
~ Adventurer's life Day 2 (Tue) Noon ~ Comnes South East [Beginners Rock Field]
Now then, the rock field should be around thirty minutes after leaving town.
In the game, they call this part of the area 'beginner's rock fields'.
Comnes has a couple of low levelled areas to choose when starting out.
Though there are a lot of stronger monsters in the areas further away.
(Gerin went off doing the request guarding the merchants, I wonder if he's alright…)
Well, that guy was the strongest within our group as guards, so I shouldn't really need to worry.
On a side note, I ranked on the top lower half.
Back on the topic.
Cut up boulders can be seen scattered around the area.
The place here used to be mined for rock salt.
Though now that the town gets its salt from the White tower salt lake, this place has gone pretty quiet.
I climbed up one of those boulders to take a look around.
From as far as I can see, most of what I could see are just bushes and some weeds between some rocks.
"I'm sure I won't be ever going in that direction, but it sure is a nice view… the forest there is pretty thin huh?"
From what I can tell, they were probably using the wood for boiling the salt out. But it seems to be recovering now.
Even now, apart from gathering herbs, there shouldn't really be anything to do here.
I can see still some people here in the distance. They're most likely adventurers like me.
"Alright, it should be about time for me to get on with the first request."
After locating the herbs from a distance, I jumped off the rock.
"Sekieisou and Toorinagusa huh… It seems like I grabbed a little too many requests here. I should probably hurry with this."
Apart from acting as a digestive medicine, both of these are also used for deodorant, disinfection… and stomach medicine was it?
I looked around again on top of a boulder.
Guess I have to thank my time as an imperial guard. The appearance of these herbs has been drilled right into my head.
Though whether or not a lot actually grow around these areas, I have no clue.
It's a shame I can't even use my in-game knowledge for this.
"Ah, found some already."
After finding one at random, I dug out its root with my hunting knife and stuffed the whole lot into my bag.
Oh, there's more over there too. At this pace, I'll be finished in no time…
… This continues on silently for a few hours.
"Alright, this should be enough."
I laid them onto a rock and checked once more.
If by any chance the guild says this the wrong kind, I'll really be depressed.
One more check…
I looked up to the sun. Seems it's still afternoon.
Surprisingly, it didn't take that much time.
Though if it's like this, then the reward for it should be pretty small too.
Putting the herbs away, I took out another bag. One with the pig bones inside.
Comparing it to the swords I used when I was a guard, length and weight isn't really a problem with this one, though the shape is pretty weird. It's hard to describe it, but it feels like I have a sense of familiarity with this weapon.
Hitting someone seriously on the head with this should deal some damage at least…
Since I have 2 of these, I fasten the other to my belt.
Taking some vigilance, I begin walking to the outer edges of this area.
… time to look for my prey.
~ Adventurer's life Day 2 (Tue) Afternoon ~ Comnes South East [Beginners Rock Field] Outer Edge.
The thing I'm looking for is monster called sh.e.l.led rabbit.
It's about one meter long and covered in scales from the head and back.
They does have rabbit ears, but it really looks more like an armadillo.
Though it's a herbivore, when you enter it's territory, it gets suddenly aggressive and chase you out.
It's body is quite hard so it'll be pretty dangerous if someone were to be tackled unprepared.
Since they tend to stay away from horses and crowds, they don't really cause much of a problem for people.
These guys build their nest underground, so they're not usually found around the rocky areas.
Because of that, I have to leave the rocky field. If it was during the time I can use a sword as a guard, this could all be over with plenty of time to spare.
However, I can't really do that anymore. Instead I'll have to test out that bone damage bonus from the necromancer skill.
Once the ground started getting softer I found a sh.e.l.led rabbit, or rather, it appears it found me first and has been starting for a while, standing above the tall gra.s.s.
It's obviously being vigilant, so I started to slow down…
*Rustle rustle!*
In an instant, it hid into the gra.s.s!
I can hear it rushing towards me, but I can't get it's position accurately… at the time when my focus is elsewhere, the rabbit suddenly tackled at me from the left!
(Ow!!)
Before I realised it, I was on the ground.
c.r.a.p! I'm surrounded by long gra.s.s, I can't see a thing!
*Rustle!*
I hurried myself up and looked around. I can hear it but I still can't see it.
It came at me once again, but this time it's coming from the right.
Surprised, I fell over again but with the rabbit right in front of me.
(Oh c.r.a.p, it's gonna bite me!)
I quickly held the bone in front of me and luckily enough, that blocked it.
It probably came at me with so much force that it took some damage itself.
I should use this chance to push it off of me and get myself together here.
*…Creak…*
(…Eh?)
I'm getting dangerous warning signals here. Though I held the bone with both hands, I can feel it gradually beginning to…
*Snap!!*
Ah, the bone broke.
The rabbit is right close to my face…I immediately closed my eyes and readied myself.
…
…I'm not feeling anything.
I can feel something warm forming onto my chest.
What is this. Blood?
The rabbit definitely hit me but I don't feel any pain.
Don't tell me it's my blood…
I carefully open my eyes. In front of me was the rabbit with its head split open, splattering my chest and arm with blood and goo.
"Uwaa!!!"
I let out a loud voice and threw it into the ground.
Seems like it died… Though I still poked it with the bone several times just to make sure.
That's great and all, but my clothes is in a complete mess right now…
No wait that's not important. What did it even die from?
I winced as I examined the rabbit and noticed a large tear from it's mouth to neck. It probably died from blood loss.
Seeing that, I took another look at my weapon.
Though it broke, the splintered end was sharp as a knife. I can probably guess what happened, though the blood on it was a dead giveaway.
I wiped off the blood on me using a cloth I brought this morning. I can still feel the adrenaline rush from earlier but right now I have to dismember the rabbit.
From the way it died earlier, there's probably no need to drain the blood.
This broken piece of the bone though, despite how it looks, cuts the sh.e.l.led rabbit quite easily
I did a little bit of practice cutting up carca.s.ses before, but my handling of it now is abnormal better than that..
I have a feeling I know the reason why, but let's just focus on this for now.
After several minutes of silently working, I finished.
I'd attract quite a lot of attention if I were to take the bones with me… I contemplated about this for a short while.
Walking around with some pieces of meat stuck onto the bones doesn't sound very nice.
I'll bury all the wasted bits. As for the bones… I'll bury these somewhere else.
Picking my bag up, I moved myself to another location.
I don't think I have enough strength to handle another sh.e.l.led rabbit so I try not to move around too much. Finding one right now would be really dangerous.
I chose a pretty conspicuous boulder to bury the bones into, but don't seem to have anything to dig a hole with.
In the end, I dug a shallow hole using my hands and placed a fairly large rock over it…
I'm exhausted.
Let's go back…
~ Adventurer's life Day 2 (Tue) Evening ~ Comnes Town, Adventurers Guild, Exchange Centre
By the time I arrived back to the guild, it's already close to evening as the town seemed to be dyed in red.
I can hear the rowdy drinking bouts of the adventurers finished with their quest in the lobby.
I don't really want to get mixed up in such a thing so I'll just quickly pa.s.s through it.
Thank goodness the entrance to the exchange centre is in a separate building… well they probably took this into consideration but still…
"…Erm… are you alright?"
"Yeah, I'm fine."
The staff at the counter wanted to speak up about my terrible state so I put up a bold font.
In any case I really wanna go home and take a bath.
When I gave the requested herbs to the counter along with the sh.e.l.led rabbits meat and scales, the staff member went quiet and went into sorting the items out, starting with the herbs.
Putting on some transparent gloves, one of the herbs was returned.
"I have confirmed this is the requested item. Here's the remaining amount. Would you also like to exchange the other item?"
"Yes please."
The staff member then begins to verify the meat and scales.
Both are in good condition, so the guild proceeds to take out a request from the mission board.
…. Though, since these materials are cheap, all in all they should amount to just 110 Goldos…. just a little over the inn fees.
After signing off the last request, the staff member came back.
"Okay, I've signed off the paper. Please proceed to the reception next door to receive your reward."
"Eh!?"
You serious. So in the end, I'll have to get past that rowdy bunch of drunkards anyways.