DAR Vol. 1 Kristoff Report 2(WN)

Kristoff Report 2 (Summary of the second half of volume 1)

 

This is a record of Kristoff’s recollections.

*This is a summary of the story from Kristoff’s point of view. As such, its focus might not be the main story and could include episodes not featured in the main story. It also does not include information Kristoff could not know at the point of the story.

* [Idiot] [Dumb leader] [Leader] all refer to Dietrich.

 

X Month X Day

 

We entered the Aldon forest in the morning. As soon as we did, we hunted a Wild Boar: pretty peculiar beast to find in the outskirts of the forest.

After the hunt, Cornelia said something strange: her full plate armor suddenly felt lighter. Roa casually replied that he just “adjusted” it, confusing all of us even more.

Before we entered the forest he adjusted our armor, and he said he did everything he could. He did work well enough for a specialized craftsman, though. Listening to him, you would think he didn’t do anything special, though. I was so surprised that I even asked him if he became a blacksmith’s apprentice.

He did not, of course: he was just taught *a little bit*. If that was enough to learn to do so much, blacksmiths wouldn’t have apprentices anymore, though. Roa doesn’t seem to realize how out of the norm the things he says are.

Then, when we were about to start cutting the Wild Boar, he gave us something I never heard of: magic recovery candy. As Roa put it, they can relieve fatigue and heal small wounds without being a burden on the body, apparently.

…yes, no matter how much I think about it, it’s just unreal. I just can’t wrap my mind around it. That’s what I should have said, but Roa gave them to us so easily that we accepted them without thinking. Maybe we were already being brainwashed by Roa’s lack of common sense. 

By the way, the magic beast repellent bag made with gryphon body liquids…that was another shining example of no common sense. First, I can’t think how anyone can become good friends with a gryphon to the point of extracting its body fluids. And even if you can, who would think of making magic beast repellent out of it?

They say that artisans are all a bit out there, but Roa is on a whole another level. I wonder how someone like him could grow up like this in a country founded on the master-disciple hereditary system?

Roa was also very knowledgeable about the forest. He knew where to gather all sorts of materials, as if the forest was his backyard. We did a bit of research before the departure, so we wouldn’t get lost in the forest, but he was on a whole different level.

The reason, as it turns out, is the gryphon that was with him when he was in Crack of Dawn. It’s true that if you have a gryphon with you can look around all you want without fear of being attacked by magic beasts. Roa used this to his advantage and extensively searched the forest.

It looks like Roa likes gathering materials and creating all sorts of items. It was like the forest was his natural habitat: he went here and there looking for materials, at a pace we could barely keep up with.

He started from magic crystals beginner adventurers gather to make a buck, luxury items like Red Mushrooms, creepy bugs he started gathering who knows why, and lots more, with the biggest smile on his face.

There were plenty of things I saw for the first time, so I asked lots of questions. Roa answered each one in detail, with sparkles in his eyes. He looked so happy that I got excited too and asked more questions, but…

I’m sorry, friend, but I really can’t tell why bugs that feed on corpses are so amazing. Okay, maybe they can do incredible stuff, but they’re still bugs, right?

Roa is really an interesting guy.

In the meanwhile, our already dumb leader went full dumbass.

When he meets someone for the first time or he’s wary of someone, he acts like a completely different person, like a proper adult. Thanks to that, some think he is a person of good sense, although he’s just dumb. He looks good on the surface, that’s it.

He acted like an adult with Roa at the start, yet slowly but surely it peeled off and by the afternoon he was back to his usual dumb self. Roa too looked seriously bothered by his way too friendly demeanor.

If he finds someone he has good affinity with, the leader acts normal after a few days, but I guess the affinity with Roa was just that good. The trigger to turn him back to “dumb adult” mode was the Red Mushrooms Roa found, probably.

The Red Mushrooms can be used to make aphrodisiacs and love potions: as soon as he heard that, our dumb leader started plotting all sorts of nasty stuff in his head. Definitely not the kind of role model you wanted to show to a pure young man like Roa.

Cornelia got angry and kicked the idiot, but she got all excited too when she heard of the luxury cosmetics you could make with Red Mushrooms, so she’s a culprit too.

Something happened in the forest. There were signs pointing to it, but I missed them. Roa’s safety was top priority, so we failed spectacularly. Maybe I got excited by being together with him like I had a little brother all of a sudden?

A pack of Rock Lizards appeared. Magic beasts not supposed to be in the forest. Beyond the Aldon forest there’s a large valley called Norfar: Rock Lizards are supposed to prowl there.

We concluded that something abnormal must have happened in the Norfar valley, forcing the Rock Lizards to flee to the forest. Thus we immediately started our retreat.

At the time, we had no idea what actually happened in the valley, but the cause revealed itself soon enough. In the form of three Silver Golems.

Silver Golems were spotted in the Norfar valley, so an extermination request was created. The Hero Party Crack of Dawn took it and went to dispose of the two Silver Golems reported to be in the valley. There were more than two, however.

When he saw the golems, our leader shouted in anger at the Hero Party. When I heard him, I understood.

It’s in the nature of golems to increase their numbers when they perceive danger. Crack of Dawn probably triggered this response, but ended up letting the golems escape. The golems who fled increased their numbers and chased the Rock Lizards in the forest.

At that moment, our extenuating long fight against the golems started.

We continued to retreat while fighting the golems, but were eventually surrounded. We probably defeated about 50 of them, but after a certain point we didn’t have the luxury to count anymore.

We definitely overwrote our record of most magic beasts defeated in a single mission. Normally, we would have been exhausted much earlier, but managed to survive thanks to Roa’s recovery candy.

Roa, protected by us, looked at us fight with concern. So even if we were surrounded by a large number of golems, we continued fighting while cracking jokes. To make the person we are escorting worry is shameful for a real man: Cornelia is a woman, but she feels the same, I’m sure.

The leader had a nice smile too. A trustworthy smile. Do it more often, you dumbass.

All of a sudden, a refreshing smell struck our nostrils. At the same time, Bernhart shot a lightning magic spell. I was surprised and looked behind me, but I couldn’t see Roa anywhere. We thought that he might have panicked and run away, but no matter how much we called him, he kept running.

Bernhart too was surprised by Roa’s actions, but since he had just cast a spell he couldn’t move to stop him.

Another strange thing happened. The silver golems we were fighting against stopped attacking, then chased after Roa, without even looking at us anymore.

We looked at them, dumbfounded, then understood. Roa probably thought about the reason why the golems came after us and figured it out. Then he acted as a decoy to save us.

We fell to our knees in despair. However, the strange events weren’t over yet.

The golems chasing after Roa stopped in their tracks and collapsed. A blue and red magic wolf puppies running like the wind…

I had seen them before: they were Crack of Dawn’s servant beasts. Roa’s magic beast companions. They were running at incredible speed, defeating the golems one by one, in the same direction Roa ran off to.

There’s still hope. We then started looking for Roa, treading over the golem corpses.

He was safe. Our leader intended to scold him for doing something so reckless, but cried halfway through. In the end, I had to be the one to scold Roa. That’s your job though, dumb leader…

If the leader didn’t cry, though, I might have. That’s how happy I was to see Roa still alive. We felt relieved, thinking that we could return safely now, but the forest’s disturbance wasn’t over yet…


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