Chapter 84: F-rank Part 2

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Translator: Soafp

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We took a break to have lunch in a slightly open area. Although we called it lunch, we couldn’t cook anything, so we just chewed on jerky and drank water.

“How many high-level herbs have we gathered?”

Lewis asked and Nero responded

“It’s four sets since one set consists of five herbs. And a bit more.”

“Alright, we have enough high-level herbs.”

Lewis seemed to think that encountering enemies was less likely today, and indeed, there were fewer enemies than usual. The rewards from constant requests and the sales of magic stones were significant sources of income for us.

“Shall we try scanning with the area sonar?”

Considering our desire to minimize the use of my and El’s special magic and combat abilities, it still felt good to make some earnings.

“Today, why not? Aldo, go ahead.”

“Got it.”

I activated the area sonar with a range of up to 1 km. But wait… What’s this mana? This is bad; I’ve found something!

“Not good, there’s a large mana heading towards us. We’ve found something!”

Sensing something wrong from my panic, El, Lewis, and Nero instantly prepared for combat, anticipating the enemy’s attack.

Since I had scanned the area quickly with the range sonar, the enemy should be visible by now.

The forest was eerily quiet, making it even more terrifying than usual.

Nero had been looking up anxiously. Suddenly, he shouted,

“Above!”

We all looked up and saw a Wyvern, a type of dragon, aiming at us from the sky.

I immediately realized that Lewis and Nero had no means to attack the Wyvern. To be frank, they were liabilities. I had to be blunt and inform them.

“Lewis, Nero… Run. El and I will handle this.”

“What are you talking about! You want us to run away by ourselves?!”

“Yeah…”

“I won’t run away!”

I mentally sighed at their reaction.

“I’m telling you straight. You two don’t have a way to attack the Wyvern.”

It seemed I hit a nerve. Lewis glared at the Wyvern, visibly frustrated.

“We don’t have time for this. Please, just run…”

“… … …”

“… … …”

“… … … Are we just dead weight?”

“… Yeah.”

Although Lewis must have felt frustrated, he seemed to be willing to run away.

“Nero, let’s go…”

“Got it…”

The two of them gradually moved away, still holding their weapons.

Now, let’s see if we can defeat that thing.

“El, do you think we can take it down?”

El smiled wryly before answering.

“If we just want to defeat it, Condense Ray should do the trick.”

“Well, yeah, but it’ll leave more than just blackened corpses; it will practically evaporate.”

“That’s… true.”

“You know, Wyverns supposedly sell for a high price.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, if you take one down cleanly, it can fetch 2 to 3 God Silver Coins.”

“God Silver Coins…”

“Marl mentioned that her clothes and accessories look shabby next to El’s.”

“Nii-sama…”

“What’s up?”

“Condense Ray is prohibited! Let’s try to defeat it cleanly!”

“Come on… Got it.”

El’s sudden change caught me off guard.

“First, let’s use the sonar to find its weak points!”

“Yes!”

The two of us waited for the Wyvern to dive in. The Wyvern approached us like a hawk hunting its prey.

Just before the attack, we leaped into the air with Space Kick to dodge the Wyvern’s attack. As we passed each other, I didn’t forget to use the sonar.

(Once isn’t enough to figure it out. Should I keep using it until I do?)

From there, it was truly an aerial battle.

While the Wyvern moved in a large, straight line characteristic of flying species, El and I darted around in small, quick movements.

To be honest, dodging the Wyvern’s attacks wasn’t that difficult… By the umpteenth use of the sonar, I had a rough idea of the enemy’s strength.

We could inflict some damage with our attacks. However, we couldn’t slice through its neck in one clean cut.

In essence, if we let it flee, we wouldn’t be able to catch up. If we attacked half-heartedly, it would surely choose to escape.

“El, it’s a shame, but… aim for the wings to incapacitate its ability to fly, even if it causes some injuries.”

“I suppose that’s unavoidable…”

At that moment, both El and I saw the Wyvern only as prey. We were only thinking about how to hunt it down without causing too much harm… In other words, we underestimated it.

I lured the Wyvern, aiming for me, and dodged its attack at the last moment. In that instant, El slashed at the base of the right wing from above.

While it didn’t cleanly sever the wing, El successfully cut about a quarter of it from the top.

The Wyvern couldn’t fly properly and gradually descended, staggering.

I followed up with a strike using my shortswords transformed into a greatsword, aiming for the injured wing.

Unable to fly, the Wyvern tumbled down while spinning… Dust was kicked up where it fell.

It dropped from a height of about 10 meters. If we had dropped it from a slightly higher altitude, we might have been able to kill it, but at 10 meters, it probably wouldn’t have been enough to finish it off completely.

As we waited for the dust to settle, El landed beside me.

“Nii-sama, did you defeat it?”

“Probably not; it’s likely still alive. It should be on the brink of death due to the fall.”

I should have distanced myself more or wrapped myself in magic… Ultimately, it was an action born out of my own arrogance.

Wind magic flew from within the dust cloud. In hindsight, it was because the area sonar had revealed our location.

It was natural for it to use magic. Only magic users would notice the area sonar.

El blocked the magic with his shield. However, my style was based on dodging attacks.

I took a direct hit from the wind magic. I was blasted away, and I don’t remember anything after that…

I was shaken awake by El. There was blood spread around me, which I must have shed.

Looking at the Wyvern, a short sword from El’s spare weapons was lodged in its forehead, and a one-handed sword was stuck in its chest. It seemed like overkill.

Looking around again, the amount of blood I had lost seemed enough to cause fatal bleeding. Looking at my Brigandine, the left shoulder and the right flank were missing… My skin was exposed.

“El, could you… perform healing?”

I spoke to El while lying on the ground, raising only my upper body.

“Nii-sama! I’m so glad… I’m so glad you’re okay…”

El clung to me, tears streaming down his face.

I must have been on the brink of death… I had done a terrible thing to El.

I really should consider seriously researching the creation of a shield using magic power, as El and I discussed before.

“El, I have a general idea of what happened, but it would help if you could explain.”

El seemed relieved to see me more energetic than he expected and proceeded to recount what happened after I lost consciousness.

It seemed that El immediately cast healing magic and performed first aid as soon as I lost consciousness.

While casting healing magic, he held up a shield-like structure, resembling a turtle, to block the Wyvern’s magic attacks. As soon as the first aid was completed, El’s shield collapsed, and he dealt the final blow to the Wyvern with an overkill.

Upon returning to me, El was once again surprised by the amount of blood I had lost. He continued to cast healing magic until my injuries were completely healed, using blood transfusion magic as well.

However, as time passed and I still didn’t wake up, El began to feel scared. Eventually, I finally woke up.

“I see. Thank you. I owe you one, El.”

“No, I’m just relieved you’re okay…”

“I need to research the shield made of magic power we talked about before.”

“That’s right… With a shield…”

“I was a bit too cocky in this fight. If it reacted to the area sonar, it means it can use magic… Overlooking such a simple fact is a sign of complacency.”

“That’s true. I also felt a bit complacent…”

“It’s better to wrap ourself in magic power, even a little, during combat.”

“It must be desperate too… I learned that from this incident…”

Despite being injured, we could consider it a decisive victory in the battle. However, the atmosphere between the two of us felt like a wake as we approached the fallen Wyvern.

“Now, how are we going to carry this thing back?”

With its wings spread, the Wyvern was about 10 meters long and 3 meters tall. Even with body strengthening, it would be impossible to carry.

Fortunately, the Wyvern crashed at the outer edge of the forest when we emerged.

But if we couldn’t lift it, it was the same story.

As the two of us pondered what to do, we saw a considerable number of people running toward us from a distance.

Considering what had just happened, we waited for them to come within recognizable distance, remaining cautious. At the forefront were Lewis, Nero, and Joe.

We relaxed our guard, waving to let them know we were safe.

“Aldo, El, are you two alright?”

Upon hearing Lewis’s voice, both El and I couldn’t help but smile wryly.

“Lewis… I was on the brink of death.”

Apart from El and me, the others were all rotten to the core. Even the seasoned warriors seemed to have had a tough time. The atmosphere became somewhat odd as everyone seemed curious to hear about the battle.

In the end, they listened intently as I recounted the details of the fight, and gradually, their reactions became more and more absurd.

Eventually, someone whispered softly,

“Are you kidding me? A Wyvern. They are the monsters…”

“Are they really human?”

“No way…. underestimating a Wyvern… Unbelievable.”

“Even if it’s the lowest rank, it’s still a dragon species. Can children defeat something like that?”

“But seriously, how did they manage to bring it down to the ground?”

“So, his blood is really red…”

I can hear all of you, or rather, you’re definitely saying it loud enough for me to hear!!

The last one, am I some kind of monster or something!!

It was harsh criticism, but at least everyone who came here seemed genuinely concerned about me and El.

“Everyone, I apologize for the trouble. Thank you very much.”

El and I expressed our gratitude to everyone with a noble-style bow.

From there, it was time to dismantle the Wyvern and prepare to transport it. Everyone only had simple knives for dismantling as they were prepared for combat.

We needed to return to the capital once to bring back a carriage and proper dismantling tools.

After El replenished my magic power to full, I dashed off to the capital.

Running through the gate, I arrived at the Adventurers Guild. When I returned to the guild, Naga-san shed tears of joy and hugged me upon hearing that we had defeated the Wyvern, though the light in her eyes vanished when I mentioned it.

I asked Naga-san to arrange for tools, people for dismantling, and a carriage for transportation.

As a sub-guild master, the competent Naga-san quickly made all the necessary arrangements.

Afterward, we made several round trips between Scarlet Forest and the capital, gradually collecting the Wyvern’s materials.

As a bonus, I decided to give each adventurer who had rushed to help us three gold coins.

Since I didn’t have any money on hand, I arranged for the guild to pay them through the sale of the Wyvern’s materials.

It was a hectic day, but I thanked Lewis and Nero at the guild before parting ways.

“Thank you for today, Lewis, Nero.”

“Thank you for your hard work today, Aldo, El.”

We exchanged farewells with Lewis and Nero.

El and I returned to the Blue Ring mansion.

Upon arriving home, the backyard seemed unusually noisy.

I had planned to take a relaxing bath, but… something seemed to have happened to my bath.

As I headed towards the bath, Noel blocked my way.

“Noel! What’s going on?”

When I asked, Noel looked more beautiful than usual… Her hair was shinier, and overall, she seemed more put together…

“Didn’t you offer the bath to the ladies? There are still people waiting, so it’ll be occupied for a while longer.”

I didn’t understand what she was saying. It’s true that I told Faristea, Yuri, Marl, and Noel they could use it. But I didn’t say all the women could.

“I said you ladies could use it. I didn’t say all of you.”

“You did. You said, ‘Ladies, you can use it.'”

“Ladies… huh? Wait, you took it that way? What about my bath?”

“It’ll be a while longer.”

“Seriously… I was going to take a bath, have dinner, and then go straight to bed…”

“It’s fine if you don’t take a bath for a day, right?”

“… “

I looked up at the sky… The stars were beginning to appear, creating a beautiful sky… I decided that tomorrow morning, I would take my first morning bath in this world.