Will I End Up As a Hero or a Demon King (WN)

Chapter 67

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Enjoy~

Chapter 67 – Field Training Like a Field Trip

“””Oh! Here is the Rocker Plain!”””

Rocker Plain, which I came back to with Zink-kun and the others, somehow quickly.

The three of them marveled at the vast landscape.

It’s like kids on a trip with their parents.

It was the same when we were fishing, and I can’t worry about every little thing now that it’s too late.

“Well, it’s easy to see the monsters here, isn’t it? The brown ones in various places are poison mice. While you are killing them, if you feel the presence of the air mantis, which is hard to see because of its protective color, you should prioritize killing it.”

“It’s a great view… There is almost no need to look for enemies here.”

“Maybe it’s because of my hard work, but there are only a few monsters here. If you want to hunt in numbers, you can go to the inner area. If you want to be safe, you can hunt around here, and you won’t have to deal with multiple monsters at the same time as often.”

“Then let’s practice here first!”

“The poison mouse is only slightly faster than the horned rabbit, so you should just stay calm and attack it on the side of its head. The head will be the subjugation proof, so try to keep it as intact as possible.”

“Got it! Meisa, Potta! Let’s go! Stay close!”

“Got it! I’ll take care of the dismantling!”

“I’ll follow you!”

And so the three of them began their test hunt.

I followed Zink-kun and the others from a short distance behind them.

I’m checking the information on the air mantis with Exploration, so I don’t think there’s any chance in this situation.

Poison mouse doesn’t have an instant death-level attack.

When they approached the poison mouse from a certain distance, it seemed like the poison mouse they were targeting noticed and looked up.

“(Maybe another 3 meters or so…)”

As I watched the situation with this in mind, the poison mouse began its attack as Zink-kun took about 10 steps forward.

With his usual clean body movement, he jumped and deflected the poison mouse that was about to bite him, ripping its belly open with the knife he held in his opposite hand.

The poison mouse, which had no significant defenses, was probably already breathing its last.

“After that, all we have to do is cut off the head, retrieve the magic stone, and cut off the tail, and we’re done with the poison mouse.”

“It’s my turn!”

Mei-chan said, her hands a little clumsy, but she put the knife in without hesitation.

She is 10 years old, but she is so different from me at the beginning.

After about two minutes, the work is done, and the material is placed in Potta-kun’s basket.

“Phew. Loki was right; it’s no big deal. Was I really that afraid of something like this…?”

“At first, you have to be very careful with every monster. By the way, this is about 6,000 beeke. If there are three of you, that’s about 2,000 beeke per person.”

“Wow! Isn’t that better than the Great Palmera Forest?”

“Yes! It will easily surpass the rewards we got before!”

“It’s not heavy at all! There’s still plenty of room!”

“Looking at the rewards Zink-kun and the others have received so far, I’m sure that if you hunt five of these poison mice, you should be able to match or exceed them.”

“Seriously?”

“Zink! Do your best! I’ll do my best to dismantle them as well! Keep up the good work!”

“I don’t mind if you take down another 20 or so!”

“All right… Then I’ll show you how serious I am!”

Zink-kun began to move, and when he targeted the next one, he approached it without stopping.

“(It’s a little close to the other poison mouse, but I wonder if it’s okay…)”

I thought, but my worries were unfounded.

“Oh! Bow!”

I couldn’t help but say it out loud.

I knew that Zink-kun had a bow on his back.

He had said before that he wanted to use a bow, so he must have prayed successfully when he used the church coin I gave him.

He took an arrow from his quiver and released it without taking much time.

The arrow hit one of the poison mice in the side, which had not yet noticed him.

Another poison mouse noticed this and approached Zink-kun, but as before, he dodged the attack and stabbed it in the stomach with a knife, killing it easily.

“(In less than 30 minutes from the start, he had already killed three of them, and at this rate, they’re faster than the other parties, you know? As I thought, they are excellent…)”

“The bow is amazing. Is it like the skill compensates for the hit?”

“Yes, it’s still impossible if the distance is too long, but at this distance, it’s almost impossible to miss.”

“So now you can use a bow and dagger like you always wanted to.”

“The only problem with the bow is that it uses a lot of arrows. This time, I wanted to see what it would be like, but if the situation is such that I can only afford to use a knife, then I shouldn’t force myself to use it.”

When I take a quick look at the arrows, they seem to be well-made, so they probably aren’t handmade.

If that is the case, arrows are consumables.

Unless you have money to spare, I guess they are for higher-level monsters and emergencies.

“Still, I think it’s good to use it the way you’re using it now. It’s a way to fish and hunt, and I think it’s very effective when other monsters are likely to get close to you by getting involved. And if the air mantis is getting ready to use its magic and you can’t get to it in time, you could use it for interference.”

“Oh, that sounds good. Well, it is best to defeat them before they start singing.”

While talking with Zink-kun and the others, Mei-chan seemed to have finished killing the two monsters, and the group naturally went deeper and deeper into the forest.

I’m not worried because they seem to have more leeway than I thought, and if it comes to an emergency, I’ll help them as well.

“(Oh, I found an air mantis… Will they notice?)”

I’m not going to say anything because it would be pointless if I did, so I’ll just keep an eye on the air mantis to see if there’s any movement.

Zink-kun’s Presence Detection Level 2 is still out of range, so of course, none of the three seem to have noticed, and they set their sights on the nearby poison mouse as their next target.

“Okay, that guy’s next!”

“Yeah!”

“Okay!”

With that, Zink-kun moves closer to the poison mouse.

“Wait a minute! There’s an air mantis! I’ll get it first!”

“Huh? What are we going to do about the mouse?”

“I-I-I’ll take care of it!”

“(Did he notice? If you have level 2 Presence Detection, you should have no problem with the air mantis’ surprise attack. …However, these three are weak in this situation.)”

Zink-kun is the only fighter.

If he concentrates on one of them, the other will come out.

But he is not prepared to help.

Potta-kun puts his basket in front of him and uses it as a shield.

Such courage should not be wasted.

It could lead to a chance for growth.

Zink-kun… I still think the bow is the best choice in this situation.

In fact, it would be the bow because of this scene.

The Rush skill is also possible, but it would take a long time to get back to the poison mouse.

If Zink-kun wants to defeat the poison mouse right away, he should choose the bow.

Hyuhh――pushuu!

A black mist was generated, but then the head of the air mantis that was preparing to cast its spell was pierced.

After confirming this, Zink-kun quickly turned around while throwing his bow and immediately switched to the knife at his waist while completing his understanding of the current situation.

He plunged the knife into the side of the poison mouse that was biting into the basket that Potta-kun held in front of him.

――The battle was over. It was a smooth move that could only be described as brilliant.

“Amazing. I was wondering if I should help you, but I’m glad I didn’t. Nice defense, Potta-kun!”

“Phew… that was scary…”

“Well done, Potta! Are you two hurt?”

“No problem! Potta did a great job protecting us!”

“Well… Loki, do you think we did the right thing?”

“Yes, I think it was the right thing. The only thing is―if anything, Mei and Potta, I think it would be best if you two could join the fight in case of an emergency.”

“””…..”””

“Of course, there’s no need to push yourself too hard. In the Rocker Plains, the monsters are small, so a dismantling knife would be a sufficient weapon, and in the party I had contact with the other day, the baggage handler had a small mace. I think the ability to defend yourself in an emergency is a big factor.”

“Well… that’s true, but…”

Of course, Zink-kun would like it to be that way, but I guess he can’t ask too much of them.

He looked at them with an indescribable expression on his face, but…

“Yeah… If we’re going to make a lot of money on the Rocker Plain, we’ll need them. There don’t seem to be any medicinal herbs growing here, so I’ll do my best. I’ll try my best!”

“M-me too! I don’t want to cut myself with a sword or a knife, but if I can just hit it!”

When it comes to this kind of talk, it’s probably best to keep the outsider’s mouth shut.

One way is to make Palmera a hunting ground, as it has always been, because it is just too difficult.

It is one thing to increase what you can do and get more income for it.

That’s for them to decide, not for me to say.

If they ask, I will give them the best advice I can.

――That’s all I can do.

“Since today is a trial run, let’s get rid of more and more monsters before the sun sets. Otherwise, you won’t be able to make new discoveries like you are now, right?”

“Yes, that’s right. I’m going to try a lot of things while Loki is here! Just for today, even if something happens, Loki will take care of it!”

“That’s right! Let’s do something crazy while Loki-kun is here!”

“We still have plenty of room in our luggage!”

“Yeah…”

It’s okay to try, but I hope you won’t do anything reckless…

Blurting this out, I followed the three as they went deeper into the area.

▽ ▼ ▽ ▼ ▽

The sun began to set, and the Rocker Plain was tinted with dusk.

As we walked home, we all thought to ourselves how we felt about the day.

“I’m so tired!”

“As expected, it’s getting hard…”

“This is amazing… this is definitely amazing… it’s going to be a great reward…”

There’s one guy mumbling suspiciously like a Buddhist monk, but I’m sure all three of them are very happy with today’s results.

Even though I beat them, they hunted all kinds of monsters and filled about half of their baskets with materials.

This is about the same as mine on the first day in Rocker Plains, so this amount of material would probably be around 150,000-200,000 beeke.

Divided by three, that’s more than 50,000 beeke per person.

This is an extraordinary amount of money compared to what they have been getting.

And that was just this afternoon.

Whether it’s a lunch box or that horse manure if they had a proper lunch and a full day of hunting…

Their lives would certainly change drastically.

“I think you got used to it in the second half, didn’t you? Mei-chan even killed a poison mouse once.”

“But I stabbed it in the face!”

“That’s because you close your eyes when you attack! You have to look at where you’re going to attack until the very end!”

“Eehh! That’s so scary!”

“You idiot! It’s better than getting bitten if you miss an attack!”

In the end, Zink-kun was bitten once, and Mei-chan was bitten once by a poison mouse after she swung her knife at a spot she wasn’t sure about.

It seems that you don’t always get poisoned when you’re bitten, but Zink-kun and Mei-chan drank the poison potion because their bodies became sluggish right away.

Normal recovery potions were poured directly on the bitten area, so I was quite surprised inside, thinking that potions were supposed to be drunk.

Of course, I was afraid that they would say, “Why now?” I just looked at it as if I knew what it was.

I would have no problem demonstrating the level 1 Wind Magic that the air mantis would release when we reached a tree on the way back.

If they knew that they couldn’t even scrape the bark off a tree at a distance of about 10 meters, they would be more aggressive in their movements, and their number of defeats would increase.

While I was thinking about this, Zink-kun, who was walking in front of the party, suddenly approached me.

“Loki. Was the Rocker Plain once a ruin?”

“Eh?”

“There are some mysterious stone pillars there, aren’t there?”

“There are several of them in one place. They must mean something.”

“…..”

It’s not that I want to hide them.

The truth is, it’s a little embarrassing to tell the truth when people think it’s something special.

If they hunt in the Rocker Plains in the future, they’ll soon find out.

“Oh, that one, the culprit is me…”

“””Hmm?”””

“When I was hunting, the basket was in the way, so I put it on that stone pillar so that no one could reach it.”

“””Hmm?”””

I explained the situation to the three of them, but they looked as if they did not understand at all.

I could see the question marks on their faces.

“Well, here’s how I do it.”

‘Create a stone pillar five meters long.’

Rumble, rumble, rumble…

“””…..”””

“If I put my basket on top of this thing, no one will be able to reach it, right?”

“…There are many questions about how to put the basket on it and how to pick it up after you put it on, but… it’s still great, Loki.”

“It’s magic! Loki-kun, are you a magician?”

“I saw a mystery…”

“It’s not a mystery; it’s magic. But I’m sure Zink-kun can do at least a small version of it.”

“Eh? Why me?”

“Because you have Earth Magic, right?”

“No, I don’t.”

“…..Eh?”

Zink-kun’s unexpected reply.

I felt my assumptions crumble at his words and couldn’t help but stand there.