10 - The Strong One

I heard Reinya’s relaxed voice.

I meditate and search for the source of the sound.

Then I heard footsteps coming from the meadow, and I could tell from the sound that they were heavier than Reinya.

I pulled out the knife at my waist, held it up and everyone else held up their weapons in silence.

There is more than one sound of raking grass… I don’t know the exact number, but there were at least three light ones and a heavy one.

The grass is so tall that I can’t see the exact location, but I can get a rough idea of the location. The enemy was in the south.

I held my knife to the south and waited for the enemy to come.

Then, the enemy realized that it had been noticed, and it jumped out of the grass at a fast speed.

“…A dog?”

The thing that jumped out was a dog, black fur, and a sleek form.

It bared its sharp canine teeth and pounced on me.

I, on the other hand, dealt with the dog by thrusting a knife in its path.

With my light thrust and the dog’s lunge, the knife easily pierced the dog’s forehead.

The dog died without even a single scream, but it did not stop its momentum and pushed me down.

It seems that I was not the only one attacked, and there were more than a dozen dogs that attacked the eight of us, not including me.

In other words, there was no one who could help me now.

Right now, I’m underneath a dead dog.

There is one dog that is jumping at me, unable to move.

It’s a big one, more than a size larger than the other dogs.

It bared its fangs and attacked my neck.

The knife was stuck in and wouldn’t come out, and I had no time to resist.

This is an assault with dead soldiers, assuming the first one dies. This is not the way a normal creature moves.

Ah, is it dead?

Just as I was thinking that a black shadow intervened between me and the dog.

Can’t help it nya. The black shadow jumped out and approached the opponent, who was much bigger than it was and gave it a splendid cat hook.

The blow cuts through the darkness of the night is a clean hit to the side of the poor dog’s head—

—It flipped of its head like it was a piece of wood.

The dog spun around in the air, shaved some soil, and repeatedly bounced to a stop.

Poor thing’s head turned in a direction it shouldn’t have, and after a few twitches, it stopped moving.

“…Are you a fighter?”

“Nya, I specialize in magic.”

“…I see.”

…The cat was really strong.

《You leveled up.》

◇

Fortunately, the dog attack was quickly subdued.

It seems that I was the only one who saw Reinya’s blow.

Taku, Senri, and Aya were the first three to deal with the attacking dogs, and they successfully saw through the dogs’ surprise attack and smashed their heads in with their iron swords.

The others were not able to defeat the dogs, but they were able to duck and dodge their attacks, and now all that’s left is for the guys with experience to kill the dogs. I’m sure they’ll win.

Wild Dog Corpse Quality:C Rarity:2 Durability:C

Note: Good product with few scratches.

Wild Dog Leader’s Corpse Quality:C Rarity:2 Durability:C

Note: Good product with few scratches.

As I put away my hunted prey in my inventory, I whispered a question to Reinya.

“Reinya, do you know what they can be used for?”

“Nya? Hmm, they are usually sold to the guild.”

Reinya weakly replied.

Normally, yes.

“Are there any other uses?”

“Nya… Artisans use fur and claws to make weapons and armor out of it. The magic stones are used by doctors and alchemists, and the corpses themselves can be used as sacrifices for summoning.”

“Hmm, magic stones and sacrifices, huh?”

“Nya… But with a demon like this, the magic stones are weak and the sacrifice isn’t that valuable.”

“I see…”

So it’s useless after all.

◇

The rest of the hunt went smoothly.

The dogs attacked only once, and the rest of it was a monotonous process of finding and killing small slimes.

According to Taku, the level of the enemies went up a notch when we entered the forest, and most of the players who went into it returned dead.

Is there a lack of flags or simply their levels are too low? Taku muttered to himself. Perhaps I’ll stay up all night today to raise my level.

◇

It was time to go to bed, according to my body clock, so I decided to call it a night.

I greeted the gatekeeper in a casual way and entered the city.

We split the loot evenly, and I got the whole leader dog.

The girls were heading to the inn to go to bed early, and I saw them off.

Taku said “I’ll see you tomorrow then.” and headed south. He’s probably going to hunt dogs.

「Reinya, let me take you home.」

「Nya, it looks like Master won’t be back today, so Yuki can stay the night.」

「Really? Okay, I’ll come visit you.」

I got a place where to leave my body.

「Until Master comes back, you must pour magic into the jar.」

「Oh, by the way, I’ve been keeping the jar.」

While walking along the path to the library, I took out the jar from my inventory.

The Jar. Quality:? Rarity:? Durability:?

Remarks:?

Yeah, I don’t know.

「All right, I’ll do it before I go to bed. By the way.」

「Nya?」

There’s something I’ve been wondering about. According to Taku, the dogs mainly use the south as their stronghold.

And yet, today there was a dog attack on a reasonable scale.

As a matter of fact, we have not encountered a single dog after that.

I talked to Reinya about it.

“Nya… I think nya, that it’s because Malevitos nya, came to the south all at once nya. In the grasslands and surrounding areas, it’s appropriate for novice Malevito to fight dogs nya.”

Reinya said.

The rabbits in the northern grasslands are fast runners, and the armor crabs, or hermit crabs, in the eastern grasslands and beaches are a bit harder.

The slimes in the west meadow are reasonably tough opponents for beginners, and in the end, the dogs in the south, who come at you on their own, are easier to hunt.

As a result, most of the novice Malevitos flocked to the southern grasslands, and the leader dog, feeling threatened, may have fled to the less crowded western grasslands.

“How is that possible?”

“Nya, there was a time when a bear came out of the woods after losing a battle.”

It’s a very realistic world.

◇

After pouring magic into the jar, I said good night to Reinya and returned to the real world.

Reinya, curled up and asleep on her little bed, looked like just another ordinary cat.

When I got back, I got ready for bed and went right back to sleep.

Tomorrow I’ll have another free day, so of course I’ll log in to Another.

The first skills I acquired were alchemy and summoning.

I have some skill points, so I’ll try to use alchemy and summoning while acquiring new skills.