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

Chapter 82



Chapter 82



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Enjoy~




Chapter 82 – In Search of Further Ideals


“Hah… hah… ‘O fire, fly.'”


A rig spider falls, its dangling threads melted, but its body is cut in half without even touching the ground.


“I know!”


Swinging my sword horizontally backward, I slash at a small wolf that is aiming at my back while stabbing the other small wolf in the neck from the side with the knife I hold in my opposite hand.


“Huff… Huff… ‘Make a hole!'”


I made a small hole in the foot of the orc that was aiming at me from behind the small wolf.


As it rolled over, I sliced through the remaining three small wolves without worrying about any damage, and as soon as I was done, I thrust my sword into the neck of the orc that was trying to get up and confront the one remaining orc.


“(If it’s only one, I can save my magic power…)”


With that in mind, I dodged the swinging club and thrust my sword into the orc’s foot, and as its face fell, I plunged the knife in my left hand into its throat.


The orc lay sputtering and convulsing, blood spurting out, but just to be sure, I stabbed it again deep in the neck with the short sword.


I looked around, but there was no sign of any orcs.


Even with Presence Detection, there was no sign of any monsters within 15 meters of me.


“(Explore small wolves…none, Explore rig spiders…2 of them…these guys are next…)”


After confirming the enemy’s location and surroundings, I was about to head to the next target.


Peeeppp―――――…..


There was an unfamiliar sound in the forest.


Although I immediately recognized it as the signal of the finger whistle that I had discussed with Mizuru-san, I was naturally nervous.


It must have been less than two hours since I started hunting.


Even the monster blank area has not reached its maximum extent yet.


Would it ring the second time?


But my fears were unfounded, and I was relieved that the whistle only sounded once.


“Phew~… I think I’ll go back and take a break…”


Just to be sure, I rummaged through my leather bag, pulled out my watch, and checked the direction.


I went south through the blank space I had already made, and after about 100 meters, I could see the grassy field outside.


“Ngghh! I’m so tired!”


After being so tense for so long, I felt a tremendous sense of relief when I reached the safe zone.


As I looked around, straining my shoulders and hips, I could see that I had left the forest about 300 meters from the river.


“Hey! Loki!”


“Over here!”


Everyone is waving at me… yeah, they’re okay.


They’re all alive, and it doesn’t look like they were mortally wounded when they waved at me.


“Was everyone hurt?”


“Oh! No one was hurt; I mean, there was never a single battle with monsters… but are you okay…?”


“Eh?”


What does Mizuru-san’s question mean? I tilted my head.


For some reason, the closer I get, the more I see everyone’s face twitch slightly, and the only woman, Royce-san, looks at me and backs away…


[T/n: Changed her name from Lloyds to Royce; sorry for the inconvenience.]


“You look fine, but you’re covered in blood, you know? Did you get hurt somewhere…?”


Alba-san told me, and when I looked at my body again, I saw that my arms, legs, and leather armor were stained reddish black with an enormous amount of blood.


“Oh… this is the returned blood. I was always in the heat of battle and didn’t have time to worry about it.”


“”””””…..””””””


“Hahaha… I’m going to wash in the river anyway!”


I don’t care if the guy backs away from me, but it will be a big blow to my heart if Royce-san, who seems to be in her 20s, backs away from me.


I made it a priority to wash my whole body before checking the material.


▽ ▼ ▽ ▼ ▽


It was beautiful weather that could be described as midsummer.


I was soaking wet, but with this sunshine and temperature, my clothes and hair would soon be dry.


It’s great to be covered in river water.


After taking off my leather armor, I rejoined the group.


Even from a distance, I can see that each basket is filled to the brim with material.


“I’m glad to see that your baskets are well-filled.”


“Oh… I still can’t believe Loki did this all by himself.”


“From now on, I think I’ll call the boy ‘Loki-dono’!”


“No, no! I don’t know what that means!”


“To tell you the truth, I thought 150,000 per person was crazy, you know? But this could be more than 150,000. I’m beyond grateful.”


“Yeah, it’s true. I can’t imagine how much it will be, so I’m looking forward to it!”


Hmm…


To be honest, I don’t know how much it will be either, even though I’ve seen what’s in the basket…


But this? I sometimes wonder.


“Um, did you skin the small wolf?”


“That’s right. That one will sell, too.”


“I know that, but…”


When I looked through the gaps in other people’s baskets, I found that the baskets of Mars-san and Royce-san, who were in the rear guard, were full of small wolf pelts.


The baskets of Alba-san, Mizuru-san, and Zarsa-san, who were in the front, contained about half orc meat and half small wolf pelts.


For Ents-san, who was originally in charge of carrying the luggage, there was a relatively large amount of orc meat.


But instead of carefully selecting the meat, they just took what they could get and stuffed it in…


“Where did you gather your materials, by the way?”


“We went about 100 meters into the forest along the river. There were three orcs and a lot of small wolves lying around, so we worked there and threw them in.”


“I see. And you didn’t find anything else?”


“Eh?”


“Hmm?”


“You didn’t bury the baskets there, did you?”


“W-what do you mean…?”


Ararara…


This is a pattern I’ve done.


Well, it can be said that the more you force yourself to expand the field of travel, the more risky it becomes.


Basically, self-defense is self-responsibility, so I don’t force them to do it, but they are here with the purpose of ‘making a lot of money.’


So let’s just give them the right information.


Then, let them make the decision.


“It’s a simple story; why don’t you be selective about the materials you take? I’ve heard that orc meat sells for the highest price.”


“I know that, but… are there so many other orcs lying around?”


“I don’t know how many orcs I’ve killed, but I think I’ve killed at least 20 orcs alone.”


“”””””Huh?””””””


“The place where you all gathered your materials is where I first encountered the monsters. I think it’s about 50 meters from there. I moved to the area where I had just come out while I was destroying the monsters in the area.”


“Ah… what do you mean?”


“Leader… What Loki-kun is saying is that if we go to the forest in the east where we collected the materials, there are orcs lying around along with small wolves and rig spiders, right?”


“That’s what I’m saying. Your baskets are five large baskets and one extra large basket of mine. In terms of capacity, even if you carefully select only the parts of the back that can be sold at the highest prices, the large basket should hold four or five orcs. If it were an extra large basket, it would be more. So almost all of the five large baskets you just brought should be filled with big orc pieces. Then you can fill the extra large baskets with small but valuable magic stones and fill the remaining space with other materials and stuff…”


“T-That means…?”


“The meat material was about 60,000 for ‘B’ rank, so the orc meat alone would be about 1.2 million beeke. And if you include the magic stone, other materials, and the proof of subjugation, it would be more than 1.5 million beeke, wouldn’t it?”


“”””””…(Gulp)…””””””


“The only thing is, the more you move, the more risk you take, and the meat is probably heavier than the skin. So I’ll leave it up to you guys to decide what you want to do. But, well, I think you all came here for the ‘big money,’ so I told you just in case.”


“I think Loki-kun has more potential to be a leader than you, don’t you?”


“Ah… Sure, it’s hard for me to deny it.”


“Loki-kun… do you have a girlfriend?”


“I think I’ll call you God Loki instead of Loki-dono from now on.”


“God.”


I guess they are not very good at math.


Everybody says whatever they want with a twinkle in their eye, but I don’t want them to get the wrong idea, so I’m going to make sure I nail them.


“It’s only 30% of the total, right? So even if 1.5 million beeke is the total amount, your reward will be about 1.05 million beeke. From there, it will be divided into six equal parts, so… each person will get about 170,000 or 180,000 beeke. And since you all carry and redeem the money for me, that means I get about 450,000 beeke. Right? It’s a win-win situation, right?”


“We haven’t even fought a battle, you know? And we’re getting this kind of reward… Is this a dream?”


“It’s nice to dream and chase dreams, isn’t it? You know that, Mars?”


“Yes. I knew it. A hunter must chase his dreams. I was wrong!”


After all, they are inhabitants of this world.


They don’t think much of the risks involved and are willing to act if they see a benefit.


I won’t say anything if that’s the case―or rather, I’ll ask them to move so I can get a better margin of safety because I don’t want them to get carried away and die.


I’ll be able to concentrate on the hunt with peace of mind.


“By the way, it took about two hours to get this result. This means that even if you focus on cash efficiency, your baskets will be filled to a certain extent in that amount of time. And since I plan to hunt all day while the sun is still out, you know what I mean?”


“Uh… I don’t know.”


“Two round trips… you don’t mean two round trips!”


“That means we’ll have to move even after dark, don’t you think…?”


It’s probably not impossible if they create a special unit of transporters, but it will be a lot of hard work.


“I think it would be pretty hard considering the time it would take to get here, but if you wanted to, you could make two round trips. But personally, I think it would be good if you could get more people.”


“People? You mean hunters?”


“I mean that. There are other parties that hunt in Lulub, aren’t there? Why don’t you invite them? I think it would be easier to deal with any unforeseen circumstances if you were more organized.”


“I agree. If there are three parties and fifteen hunters gathered together, we can crush them with our numbers, even if we are surrounded by several orcs.”


“The density of the monsters increases rapidly from about 100 meters in front of the forest. But if I continue to hunt, the density will naturally decrease, so you will have to go deeper into the forest as well.”


“Hmm… At that time, with the current six of us, is there a possibility that we won’t be able to react if something happens?”


“I completely understand what you are saying, Loki-kun. More people will not change our rewards, and we will gain more security. Then it would be a decision to take the initiative.”


“That’s right. Why don’t you talk to some people you know? It will do the trick if you show them the amount of material you have.”


“I’m sure they’ll all drool over it and follow us.”


“There’s nothing I can do about that; I’m not returning to Bezart, so I’ll leave the rest to you. I’ll continue to expand the area of the day’s extermination. As you can imagine, orc meat is probably not good at this temperature, but magic stones and proof of subjugation won’t matter even if it’s been a day.”


“Yes. Loki won’t come back tomorrow to check the materials?”


“It depends on the situation. If I see someone, I’ll call him. It would be good to exchange information, such as which areas have been eradicated and where to work next.”


“So, for now, we should assume that you will gradually advance to the east side of the river, within a width of 500 meters, right?”


“Yes. That’s right. I cannot say how far I will go at this point, so if I have to tell you, I will come to the exit of the forest. Even if I am satisfied with this place, I will have to call you.”


“I understand.”


“I hope you can hold on as long as you can…”


“Hahaha… I’d like it to end when you get tired of us being here, you know?”


“Well, that’s only possible with Loki’s help, so that’s not a problem. We’ll make a lot of money during that time.”


“That’s right. Until then, we will work without a break.”


After the discussion was over, I put on my leather armor again while watching the six of them go back to the forest to carefully select materials.


This will certainly increase their income.


Well then… I guess I’ll continue my overhunting and look for a place to sleep in the meantime.



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