2.6

Before we completely left the village and the Chief behind, a thought occurred to me: I might never come back here again, but for me this was my first village, my place of genesis in this strange new world.

Granted, my start in here wasn't exactly a peaceful one and I was this close to being (possibly) turned into a slave over a pair of sandals if anyone ever caught on that I stole them from that barn I woke up in, but other than that the Chief has treated me kindly, so I might reminisce about them from time to time if I ever feel like it.

For a while we were just sitting in our respective seats, taking in the sights. The man in the cage has been silent, not saying as much as a word ever since we departed.

「Are the roads safe to travel?」

I asked the merchant in an attempt to break the silence which began to get really awkward really fast.

「I'm not going to lie, monsters are known to be lurking around Veil and the roads that surround it, but they are being exterminated by the Adventurers and the town's guards on a regular basis, so we have nothing to worry about.」

With each passing minute, the world around us was getting more and more bright and the wagon was also slowly gaining speed, rattling and shaking as it did so. Could it be that the roads are in such a bad shape or maybe the wagon itself is at fault here? Or maybe both of those things at once? All around us was a leaf forest, exactly the same as the one near the village where I hunted for Slow Rabbits yesterday. I don't know if it also goes that deep, but it does not seem to be the case here, or at least that is my guess judging after the trees unimpressive height. Also, because it was just the same generic, repetitive scenery all the time it grew dull on me pretty fast, so much so that staring at those trees began to hurt my eyes, and when you combine it with the constant shaking, you'll get something that's more akin to a passive-aggressive torture than anything else. So yeah, we haven't been on the road for more than half an hour and I could already tell that I was not going to have a jolly good time.

That being said, I basically had no choice but to grit my teeth and endure it. In an attempt to divert my mind from this uncomfortable feeling I tried to bite into the bread that was among the things the Chief's wife prepared for me for breakfast, but this endless shaking made it insanely difficult to enjoy even a smallest bite of it in peace. With that attempt ending up in failure, I returned to staring mindlessly into the space around me since I had nothing better or more interesting to do.

.....

...….

......

*Sigh* I'm. So. BORED! Not to mention that if I don't shift my sitting position from time to time then my butt will start hurting as if it had wooden splinters piercing into it!

Then a small shadow wandered in front of the wagon. An animal, or maybe some kinda monster?

「Oh, a Slow Rabbit. So they are here as well, huh?」

「You seem to be very familiar with them already, Michio-sama.」

「Well, I did hunt a bunch of them yesterday, so I guess there's no way for me to mistake them for anything else now.」

That, of course, was a lot of bullshit on my part. All I did was glance at it and my 「Identify」 skill told me that it was a Slow Rabbit. Probably. The font its name is written in is too small to see it properly from here.

「Ah, you were right, Michio-sama! This is indeed just a Slow Rabbit. In that case we have nothing to worry ourselves with. We can continue without slowing down or having to find a way around it.」

「If you say so.」

The wagon approached the Rabbit and then drove past it without attracting its attention at all. If we had more time on our hands I would have liked to get down from the wagon to hunt it, but for the current moment our biggest priority was getting to Veil as soon as possible.

「Wow, we really went past it without a hitch.」

Not that I wasn't expecting that to happen. If those guys were so passive and weak, then I wonder why everyone back in the village had so many problems with fighting them, to the point of pissing themselves from fear whenever someone mentioned them? Were they so weak, or is it that I'm just too strong as an Adventurer (putting the matter of my OP Durandal aside)? Be that as it may, that obstacle was now behind us. But another one would soon take its place.

From atop the wagon, I managed to spot a small, spherical shape further down the road. I tried to focus my eyes on it, and 「Identify」 showed that it was a Lv1 Gumi Slime. So it would seem that there are even monsters like that in here. This is much closer to the bestiary from the classic RPG games that I know about than that rabbit earlier.

「There's a Gumi Slime up ahead.」

「D-Did you just say G-Gumi Slime?!」

The merchant pulled the reins and stopped the entire wagon in an instant.

「What's wrong? What happened?」

「Gumi Slime is a vicious monster that attacks any people who come near it on sight! Usually it resides only in the depths of the more remote forests, but this one must be on the lookout for prey if it wandered off onto the roads like that. Now that it has crossed our path, we won't be able to go further. We have to either find a way around it or wait for it to go away.」

「We will only waste time if we do that. You stay right here, I'll go and take care of it.」

If avoiding it means making needless detours and wasting precious time, it will really be better for me to fight with it. I should be able to manage just fine, especially with my Durandal.

「Are you sure about that? It's one of the strongest monsters in the entire area! It's threat level is so high that even all of the villagers would be unable to defeat if even if they ganged up on it!」

Yeah yeah, you said the same about the Slow Rabbit, and we all saw how true those warnings ended up being.

「Not to mention that if the Gumi Slime catches you inside it, your body will melt instantly!」

He explains with an expression of sheer horror written all over his face. Is it really that dangerous? Because I'm doubtful as heck about that.

If what he says is true, then I should be fine as long as I won't allow it to catch me. That and I can't cower away from any Lv1 monster just because someone tells me that it's dangerous. I won't be able to achieve anything at all with such a noobish mindset. No pain, no gain, as they said in my old world.

「We'll be fine. You just focus on keeping the wagon going forward. I will handle the rest.」

I command the merchant in the most confident tone I'm able to muster.

「A-As you command, Michio-sama. I shall trust in your judgement.」

The merchant resumed the wagon's advance, resuming the sickening clutter and shaking.

While we're on the subject of fighting monsters, the Hero's Job surely must have some Skills I can use, right? If it turns out that I won't be able to beat it with Durandal, I'd have to try using those. With that in mind, I proceeded to check the Job settings.

「Over… whelming?」

Ugh, the name itself does not tell me anything. The spell has floated into my head, but should I be using it now? And more importantly, can it be used by itself, like any other Skill, or maybe I can only use it with the sword belonging to Teirichi-san?

「Michio-sama?」

「It's nothing. Keep going forward.」

「As you wish. I just hope that you really know what you're doing.」

That makes two of us, man. That makes two of us.