Chapter 62

The next day, the weather took a turn, starting off with a slightly overcast sky.

Toro, still tightly embraced by the girl and the child from either side, woke up, stretched widely, and looked up at the sky from the entrance of the tent.

The sky, which had been clear until the previous day, was now covered with white clouds as if by a lie.

The forecast of rain from noon seemed to be accurate after all.

To wake the two up quickly, Toro first reached out to Sora's ear on his left.

As he moved his fingers just barely touching her ear, the girl's cheek, buried in Toro's side, gradually turned red, and her breath began to come out in short bursts.

Unable to bear it any longer, Sora lifted her face and burst into laughter.

"Stop it! I told you to stop with the ears. It's too ticklish!"

"You were already awake, weren't you? We have a lot to do today, so wake up Muu quickly."

As Toro stepped out of the tent, putting on his leather shoes and fastening his sword belt, he turned to see the child's cheeks being pinched and kneaded like dough by Sora's hands.

"Hey, Muu, it's morning!"

"Muuuuu. Muu-muu!"

While waiting for the charcoal to warm up, the three of them did some light stretching to loosen their bodies.

They enjoyed a hot breakfast of dried meat soup and bread, finished their toilet, and then started frog hunting.

"It's convenient that we don't have to go to the hunting grounds, I guess."

"Muu prefers going out, To-chan."

"I also find it more fun to walk there."

"Well, I agree. Let's try to get through this hunting ground quickly."

They encountered five groups in about three hours, achieving a decent haul.

Stopping at twenty, they put away the items that would get wet in the tent, packed up their belongings, and set off downstream.

As they walked, the clouds grew thicker, and the air gradually became more humid.

Feeling the rain approaching, Toro and the others arrived at a wide riverbank by mid-morning.

Lorolf and the others, noticing their arrival, waved them over.

They seemed to be in the middle of lunch, gathered around a hearth.

The smell of grilled fish wafted over, and Muu ran over first.

"Hello, Muu."

"…Have you been well, young one?"

"…Would you like to eat with us, young one?"

"Sure!"

Toro and the others, who had caught up, also decided to join the feast.

After a pleasant lunch and cleanup, the first drops of rain began to fall on the riverbank stones.

"It's starting to rain. Come on, let's hurry."

"Is it going to start soon?"

"No, we'll wait until it really starts pouring. This is just the preparation."

The men pulled out a large tent and set up poles around the hearth to create a makeshift roof.

They lined up empty barrels to serve as table legs and placed them to catch the water dripping from the edges of the tent.

"Water is precious, so we'll keep the fire going. Don't catch a cold."

"Thanks, that's a relief."

As they conversed, the rain grew stronger.

Soon, the riverbank was flooded with a significant amount of rain.

The child, wide-eyed, listened to the sound of the rain hitting the tent and then squeezed Toro's hand, smiling at the sight of the countless ripples on the river surface.

"…It's about time."

"Ah, over there!"

The third son pointed to a reddish-black puddle.

It was undulating eerily, as if searching for something.

"Over there too!"

"There are some over there too. There are a lot today."

"Alright, let's go. Let's start with Sora."

"Okay!"

Lorolf and the others watched in amazement as the famous mud fishing battle technique was demonstrated.

Sora, handed an iron sword by Toro, walked cautiously on the slippery riverbank and approached the puddle-like river slime.

Without any special tricks, she simply thrust the sword in and began to stir it around.

"Huh?"

After a while, the slime, which had been raised, began to collapse slowly.

Toro, who had crouched down, quickly scooped up the slime with a conch shell he held in his hand.

"Huh?"

The sword, which was dissolving and distorting due to the slime's corrosive fluid, began to emit white smoke as raindrops hit it.

The men, seeing the sword in a state where it was no longer usable, let out puzzled voices.

"What's going on? You're supposed to be an expert at slaying slimes, right?"

"If that's how you do it, you're no different from us."

"I don't understand. You don't seem to have a lot of weapons."

Ignoring the questions from Lorolf and the others, the girl ran to a new puddle and, without hesitation, thrust her sword in again.

"Huh?"

The men were surprised to see that the sword, which should have been useless, had somehow returned to its normal state.

Sora, who had easily defeated the second slime, handed the sword to Toro for a moment before moving on to the third.

The iron sword, which had been in a terrible state just moments ago, was somehow back to normal.

Lorolf and the others, feeling as if they were witnessing a strange illusion, watched the girl's movements intently, trying to figure out the trick.

But before they could figure it out, she had easily dispatched five river slimes.

As Toro and the others, dripping with rainwater, approached the tent where the men were waiting, they were bombarded with questions.

"What was that just now?"

"Hey, let me see that sword!"

"The sword was definitely melting… but—"

"No, what's this? It's completely unchanged!"

Toro, who was being looked at as if he had encountered some mysterious, unknown entity, explained without hesitation.

"Oh, that's my skill. I can repair swords and armor."

He could do other things too, but he chose to keep quiet about them.

The men, who had been speechless for a moment, began to speak up, understanding the meaning of the skill.

"Really? That's amazing!"

"That's incredibly convenient. I see, that's why you're a slime-slaying expert."

"I was trying to figure out how to copy it, but this is impossible."

Toro, who had relaxed a bit in front of the enthusiastic brothers, returned to his serious expression and looked at the riverbank.

Scratching his chin, he continued.

"Actually, my skill can only be used ten times per hour."

On the riverbank, new reddish-black puddles were already beginning to form in various places.