Leave a comment

After I looked at it for a while, I placed the horn in my hands into my bag.

From the looks of it, it should be a Horned Rabbit’s horn, but its quality far surpasses other Horned Rabbit’s horns. It might very well be scarce material only dropped by the cream of the crop. Aleya had also just finished resting, so we continued our journey northwest.

Within the next three days, we killed an innumerable amount of widely dispersed Demons.

The amount killed was so many that at the end of it, the slime’s appearance already transformed a little.

Its body was no longer completely colorless, its outer ‘skin’ now held a faint golden tint. When I first saw the change, I thought that it was due to the sunlight’s shine that made it look like a lump of gold. But once I picked up this sticky ball of a fellow up, I discovered that its color was real.

After playing around with the slime in my arms, it seemed as if it had become very dissatisfied with my wanton rubbing. With a ‘haughty attitude’, it jumped out of my hands and onto the ground before bouncing away. Its core had also become much brighter; apart from the times that it went to sleep, it resembled a small light bulb.

Then, after the three days, our party finally ran across a Demon with strength surpassing that of an elite’s.

It was a【Red-Mane Bear】at the General level. Just a look was enough to sense its deterrent force. There wasn’t any Demon activity within a 1 kilometer radius around it, so it could be clearly seen how big of an impact the guy was. Its height was approximately 2.5 meters and appeared like a hill moving back and forth within the forest as each step of its created an enormous footprint.

In addition to this, there was a lion-like mane around its neck, giving it an awe-inspiring presence upon looking at it. The claws on its two paws were a superficial grey color and occasionally flashed with a cold light. I’m sure that with a casual pat from it, it would be able to knock down a gigantic tree with a girth that a human wouldn’t be able to wrap their arms around.

I had just started observing the situation with Aleya and the slime, but the Red-Mane Bear sensed us very quickly. I saw it stand up and start sniffing the scent in the air. Upon seeing this, I patted Aleya’s back. She then drew out her sword and went over to ‘greet’ it.

The Red-Mane Bear bellowed in anger and rushed over in our direction.

Aleya faced it head on.

She thrust out her longsword, then was slapped flying with a swat!

I helplessly facepalmed, this foolish girl. The Red-Mane Bear before us had strength rivalling that of at least a Level 5’s and even faintly suppressed Aleya’s power. With a tall figure, coarse fur, and thick flesh, how could you face it head-on. Aleya’s approach was to pierce its throat, so it was clear that she clearly didn’t understand the sword move I taught her called ‘preemptive strike’ since the move wasn’t to let your opponent treat you like a sandbag. ¹

Aleya’s breastplate had broken into pierces, but luckily she didn’t have much of a chest in the first place, so there was no need for special protection.

Aleya, who had crashed into a tree after being swatted, spat out a mouthful of blood, then stood up swaying as she held the sword in her hand tightly.

I stood on the side with full intent to watch the ‘play’.

The Red-Mane Bear roared in anger again before rushing straight at Aleya, knocking all the trees in its way, away. Aleya stood up from the ground panting as she stabbed her longsword into the ground in an attempt to stabilize herself. Without much of a choice, she passively avoided the brown bear’s meat-wall rush. Even if Aleya was in such a difficult situation, she still went to pierce her sword forth twice. However, due to having suffered internal injuries, these two moves barely created any influence on the Red-Mane Bear.

After the Red-Mane Bear slapped several trees into fragments, it swatted again at Aleya. The move held no style or technique, it was a pure swat. This sort of ‘one move subdues 10’ fighting technique happened to restrain skill-based swordsmen like Aleya. If there were sufficient people, it would be best to transfer over some archers or, better yet, sorcerers to continuously consume and make it unable to touch them, then fight it.

Aleya leaned against a gigantic tree and upon seeing that there wasn’t anywhere to hide, she fiercely pulled her sword out of the ground and prepared to take on this strike. Fortunately, the longsword “Roaming Dragon” was really hard and stabbed into the gigantic bear paw instead of being broken by the move. After suffering some pain, it fell back, giving Aleya some space to gasp for breath. But I could see from my position that one of her arms was probably broken and she was gritting her teeth, doing her best to not cry out in pain.

The Red-Mane Bear let out an ear-splitting howl.

It started continuously unleashing attacks at Aleya and in return, Aleya retreated again and again in defeat.

The little slime trembled as it hid behind me, poked its head out, and its core started flickering with unknown thoughts going through it. When Aleya was sent flying, the little slime produced ‘biijii biijii’ yells, stuck its sticky self on my pants, and bounced over in her direction as if to pull me over.

However, I didn’t move a single muscle.

Becoming strong was something that could only be done by oneself. Other people can guide, they can comfort, but the most bitter part of the process can only be taken on by oneself. If one is able to shoulder it, then one will become strong. On the other hand, if one isn’t able to shoulder it, then one will die, the process is just so cruel.

The little slime was probably angry at how cold-blooded I was acting. After bouncing in place several times, it launched itself at the Red-Mane Bear. The result was that the Red-Mane Bear swatted it away into a tree like one would at a housefly. Afterwards, the Red-Mane Bear sniffed the sticky liquid on its paw and, as if it was a bear smelling honey, renounced Aleya to charge at little slime. Not only was it unable to save Aleya, it even became the Red-Mane Bear’s target.

In its eyes, the slime’s priority level was clearly higher than Aleya.

The pitiful slime had tried to help, only to end up worse off. It went from an observer on the periphery into the one bearing the brunt of the offensive. It turned round and round in an attempt to find a place to hide in, but found that there wasn’t such a place. Suddenly, its core flashed and like the lightning behind Detective Conan, slipped behind me with a ‘whoosh’.

WTF!

Seeing the Red-Mane Bear immediately make a 90° turn and rush at me, I cursed the slime for having no morals while preparing to run away. But in that instant I saw Aleya get up swaying again, I suddenly decided not to run.

The Red-Mane Bear evidently didn’t take me seriously, but it was hungering for the slime behind me, so it suddenly went to swat me aside. If this paw fell successfully, then I would most likely become mincemeat and become golden-curry fried rice along with the slime behind me, turning into the Red-Mane Bear’s snack for the day.

The little slime was so frightened that all of its non-existent hair stood up and the plump, round ball turned into a sea urchin-like form and was momentarily scared out of its wits. It dragged at me with all its might, seeming to want to drag me away as well as wanting me to think something up.

If it was possible, I really wanted to tell it, ‘quiet down, I’m also working very hard’.

Resisting the instinct to slap this bear to death truly isn’t an easy job.

1. The Chinese characters for preemptive strike are ‘先发制人’ and the word ‘thrust/pierce’ is ‘制’. The literal meaning for the phrase preemptive strike is quite literally ‘first pierce person’ or to make more sense ‘first pierce your enemy’. As you can tell, ‘first pierce your enemy’ is not the same thing as ‘preemptive strike’.