Ossan Boukensha no Jimichi na Isekai Tabi - CH 27

Ancient Wolf of the Forest

“I believe they are called direwolves.”

Direwolves were D-rank monsters. It was huge. Probably the same size as a fang boar.

In spite of its size, it was very quick on its feet. This was not an enemy I would want to face head on. However, this one was also covered in wounds from the fight with the goblins.

When I pointed my sword at it, the direwolf spat out the goblin torso.

“Grrrrrr…”

And then it saw the corpses of its kin and it roared.

“Grraaaaghh!”

Before I even had a chance to move forward, it closed the gap between us and then swiped at me with its front paw.

I tried to deflect it with my shield, but I was thrown off my feet.

“Guhah!”

After rolling about three meters, I somehow got back to my feet. But my shield was cracked.

(Are you kidding me!? Damn!)

Face it from the front? It’s impossible!

As the direwolf opened its jaw and pounced on me, I jumped back and threw a flour bomb at it. This was a new one, which was blended with red pepper.

“Gyan!”

It whimpered. I swung my sword blindly through the cloud of flour until I hit something. Then I retreated, just as a paw flew through the air.

“Here’s the seconds.”

I threw a second bag and this time moved farther back.

This was my chance to escape.

But as if to laugh at my attempt, it jumped just once and landed right next to me. However, it staggered when it landed.

(I don’t know what happened, but this is my chance!)

I held my sword with both hands and slammed it into its right paw with all of my might. It sank about halfway before stopping.

“Gyagya!”

The direwolf fell over, and I quickly let go of the sword and moved away.

“Gugyaaa!”

It roared and then attempted to stand on three feet.

“Don’t think that I’ll let you!”

I pulled out a short sword and threw it. It went straight towards the neck, which I had targeted. But there was a quiet clank and then it bounced off.

“What!?”

That wasn’t the sound of a blade hitting skin, was it?! What’s happening here!

That being said, it only has three feet now. It would not be as fast as it used to be. Though, I had lost my weapon and could not deal a finishing blow. What should I do…

I picked up the goblin at my feet and charged at the direwolf. It would not be able to swipe at me with just one front paw.

So just as I expected, it opened its big jaw and bit. I threw the goblin in. It could not back off with just three feet!

I pushed the goblin deep in, and just as it started to shake its head angrily, I reached out for my sword and pulled it out.

Then I moved away before it finished spitting out the goblin, and I went around to the direwolf’s side.

And then with my full weight behind it, I plunged the blade into the side of its stomach.

“Ga…”

The direwolf fell over. And I fell to my knees.

“I thought that I was going to die…”

Still, normally, this was not an opponent that I could think of beating. What had happened to make it lose its balance when landing?

I understood when I inspected the dire wolf’s body. There was a broken sword stuck in its left leg. It was probably the hobgoblin’s sword. I survived, thanks to it.

Then I went around the settlement and finished off any monsters that were still alive. I showed no mercy to the young goblins that were inside of the huts. Once I had gathered the magic stones and proofs of the hunt, I counted forty-three goblins, thirty-six forest wolves, four hobgoblins, one hobgoblin leader, and one direwolf.

I doubt I even killed half of them, but it didn’t matter if they were dead.

I skinned the direwolf and took out the magic stone. It was about the size of a ping pong ball, and was the biggest I had ever found. Only my sword was sharp enough to cut through the skin, but once it was broken, the rest was easy to peel off.

And while my shield broke, I had gained a lot. Including one level. There really were a lot of monsters in this forest.

“Status open.”

Name: Ajifu

Race: Human

Age: 37

Lv: 14

HP: 131/131 (+5)

MP: 40/40(+3)

STR: 39(+1)

VIT: 38(+2)

INT: 18(+2)

MND: 23

AGI: 28

DEX: 17(+2)

LUK: 9

Skills

Eralt Lv4, Reverse Age Lv3, Farming Lv3, Carpentry Lv2, Carving Lv4, Leatherworker Lv2, Gathering Lv2, Shield Art Lv3, Magic Manipulation Lv2(+1), Everyday Magic(water/earth), Sword Art Lv2

Title

Visitor From Another World, Farmer

By the time I was finished, it had become completely dark around me.

I will stay at the village tonight and drink. While I felt better now that I had let off some steam, I still wanted to complain a little more.

The next day, I told the chief about my hunt of the goblins in the settlement and the direwolf, and received the compensation gold. Then I returned to the farm to see how Emma was doing.

“I hope you have a strong foal. Now take care.”

I patted her neck and she rubbed her nose into me.

Tsk. She really was cute.

And so it was with feelings of regret that I left the village behind.

On my way back to town, I entered the forest to search for forest wolves and goblins in order to round up the numbers for the quest, and so I barely made it to the gates before closing time.

I went to the guild to report the completion of the quest and to sell the materials. And thought the direwolf skin had a lot of damage and was in bad condition, it still sold for eighty silver. So along with the quest, I made one gold and seventy-four silver. And the number of quests I completed was now seventeen.

The requirement for rising to F-Rank was fifty quests and the minimum combat ability, and so it would be a lot easier than G-Rank. The beginner stage being the hardest was the same in any world, apparently.

The next day, I went out to buy a shield and chose an iron round shield. It was just a little larger than my previous one, and quite heavy. It was very plain in design, and if seen from the front, one might think that it was some kind of pan. But there was metal wrapped around the rim so attacks wouldn’t slide off towards you.

It cost me one gold. That was as much as I could pay.

It was now the third month of the year. Last year, I came to this town on the fourth month, so it was about time that I left. I had tried to spend the past year without getting too close to anyone, but there were still quite a lot of people who recognized me now.

I had already chosen my next destination. The royal capital of the neighboring country, Razsita. It had a good relationship with the country I was currently in, the Fia Kingdom, and so travel between the two was easy.

This city of Razsita had a school that was opened by a master swordsman who lived a hundred years ago, and they taught you how to use all kinds of weapons. I read this from ‘Sword Arts of the World’ from the library.

I felt that it was time that I finally learned to properly wield a sword.

But in order to do that, I needed to save a little more money. My income should increase a little once I become E-rank. Perhaps I should go around to some other villages other than Kijidore, in order to raise my rank and save up money.

I went to the guild and looked at the F-rank quest board. Then someone called to me.

“Ah, are you F-Rank, old man?”

While he looked unpleasant, his armor was nice. He seemed to be in his mid-twenties? I doubted that he was up to any good.

“Aye, that’s right. What do you want?”

“As an Adventurer, I’m E-rank, but I’m a D-rank at the Mercenaries Guild. Now, instead of doing quests like this at your age, why don’t you join us and become a mercenary? It pays a lot better than being an F-rank Adventurer.”

So he was scouting for mercenaries? He showed me a metal golden plate, which was a different shape to the Adventurer’s plate.

In fact, there were a lot of ways that being an Adventurer and a mercenary overlapped.

Mercenaries needed to be strong, but killing humans did not result in your level going up, so they had to hunt monsters to raise their status.

I think, that perhaps god had made adjustments…had been merciful, by doing this so that nobles and the powerful would not kill commoners, slaves and the weak in order to level up.

“Sorry, but I have no intention of doing that.”

“Really? You should listen to me if you want to stay in this town. It’s easy work really. You just have to bring goblin ears and magic stones to me.”

I glanced over to the reception counter, but they didn’t seem to care to get involved.

There were more E-rank Adventurers than F-rank ones. While the road to D-rank was hard, you could still make a living by just doing simple work around the roads and surrounding settlements.

While doing fixed F-rank quests at E-rank won’t affect your completion rate, you could still make money.

Furthermore, once you were D-rank, you would only be able to sell the magic stones and materials from monsters, so you wouldn’t make much money.

“I see. Thank you for the valuable advice. I will leave this town as soon as possible.”

And then I turned to the reception counter.

“I’d like to report my imminent departure.”

I said.