NBAA Vol. 3 Chapter 1 Part 4
When Reito got in his wolf-cart, he heard a voice come from the entrance to Faas Village.
He looked in the direction the voice came from only to see a familiar face.
“Well I’ll be. Is that, Reito?”
“Gon-chan?”
Who did he find standing there but the giant Gonzo. He had a monster on his back that was a ginormous two meters long wild pig hybrid called a poark.
Gonzo trudged over when he saw Reito.
“So, it was you. I heard you were a member of the Black Tiger Adventure Guild but, that is your village, right?”
“Mmm, yeah… for the time being”
“I wanted to give my thanks so, I brought this along with me. Take it”
He dropped the poark on the ground with a thud.
Compared with the poarks Reito hunted in the depths of the forest, it was pretty fat. It’s head was smashed. Reito figured it had been done in by some sort of club.
Reito continued observing the poark.
“This looks really delicious but I don’t know if I can accept it. Gon-chan hunted it after all”
“No worries. Back when I used to get quests to subjugate monsters, I would always negotiate with the commissioner to keep one animal for myself. So, don’t worry about it”
“All right, in that case I’m gonna cook it up and we’ll eat it together”
Reito proposed.
Gonzo apologetically replied, “Nah, I’ve got another quest now. I’ve gotta get to my destination by tomorrow afternoon so, I’ve gotta go now.
“Really? But you have so little on you”
Gonzo only had the club on his back. He had nothing to ride and no bag for food.
Giants eat a lot, so he would need a lot to eat on long journeys…
Reito was skeptical but then Gonzo took off the black pendant dangling from his neck and squeezed it before holding it out with one hand.
“Take a look, it’s a flask”
“Haah!?”
“Hmm!?”
Ullr whimpered.
Just like when Reito used the Storage Magic, a black whirlpool came swirling out of the bottle and a wooden flask appeared.
Reito had heard that Gonzo was not particularly good at magic so he was surprised that Gonzo had learned a magic technique that only Support Magicians could learn.
Gonzo put the pendant in Reito’s hand.
“This has a magic stone called a Storage Stone inside of it. If you use the Storage Stone, you can store items in thin air just like the Storage Magic”
“This!?”
“This stone is an extraordinarily rare stone. If it’s destroyed, all the items stored inside of it will come bursting out. You’ve got to handle it delicately so I only use it on rare occasions… It’s gonna be a long journey this time around. I’ve put some food and beverages in it”
“…Really. Maybe that’s another reason why we also have storage magic in this worthless job”
Reito mumbled disappointed.
『But, the Storage Stone has a lot of weak points. Its storage capacity is only one hundred kilograms and, when it absorbs objects, the weight of the stone increases. Of courses, it is only about one-tenth of the original weight, but… By the way, a Storage Stone can not store another Storage Stone』
In that regard, the Support Magician’s Storage Magic could not only pull out whatever one pleases, but also had varying degrees of storage capacity depending on level. At present, Reito’s storage capacity had surpassed 2,000 kilograms.
Reito felt better after hearing Airis’s explanation.
He asked Gonzo, “So, Gonzo-chan, where are you headed to?”
“I’m going to a town named Gollum. A lot of golems have apparently come out of the mines and descended into town and are causing a lot of damage”
“Golem…”
『It’s another archetypal monster from RPGs just like dragons. They are a troublesome monster that dwells in mines where they excavate magic stones. But, they always have a good quality magical stone inside of them so if you can subjugate them, you can make quite a lot of money. I believe Reito has experienced that first hand.』
Back when Reito lived in the forest under the advice of Airis, he had experienced it once.
Reito saw a golem and ran for it so he could barely remember even encountering it, but, maybe now that he was older he would be able to face it head on.
Reito thought about that before asking Gonzo, “So, you’re going to fight some golems. Can I come along?”
“I don’t mind but… I only have food for myself”
“That’s all right. I’ll get my own food ready, just wait a moment”
Reito went off to get ready before Airis gave him a warning, 『But Mr. Reito, didn’t you make a promise to see Kotomin tomorrow morning? If you join Gonzo, you won’t be home today』
『Ah, I completely forgot! I’ll just leave it up to Ullr to get us back in time』
He got his luggage in order and patted Ullr on the head before attaching him to the wolf-cart.
But, there was one problem. The wolf-cart was not equipped for a giant like Gonzo to ride it.
Reito immediately went to work repairing a cart in the village and fastened it to the back of his cart before Gonzo called out to him, “Damn, you sure made that fast”
Before he could blink, Reito had fastened a cart to the wolf-cart and Gonzo was surprised.
“You know, I’m really heavy. I’ve also got this big club on my back and even horses can’t carry me. So, usually I just go by foot”
“It’s all right, Ullr can just get bigger”
“Get bigger?”
“All right, Ullr, get HUGE!!”
“Woof!!”
After getting the orders, something strange happened to Ullr’s flesh.
Gonzo opened his eyes wide watching Ullr’s body balloon outward. Before long, his body had enlarged to four meters in length.
Ullr cracked his bones and barked, “woof!!”
“There we go, it should be no problem now”
“Wait, hold on a second. What in the world!?”
“Hmm?” Ullr was puzzled.
Gonzo stood there with his jaw dropped, unable to understand what had just happened.
Reito told Gonzo that this was the hidden power of the White Wolf. On Ullr’s command, he could freely change the shape of his body.
He continued, “Ullr has been able to do this since about a year ago. When he gets bigger, he’s probably getting stronger as well but he also gets a little slower”
“He’s a Giant Wolf? I’ve never heard of that…”
“When he suddenly got huge, I thought he was sick but nothing else appeared to change in him besides getting bigger. Look, paw please”
“Woof!!”
“Ow! Don’t put it on my head!!”
Reito offered his hand out to the dog and he happily nuzzled his head on it.
In his current state, Ullr should have no problem carrying Gonzo in his cart. Reito and crew departed immediately.
Now that he was a giant wolf, he was a little slower but it was still way faster than going by horse. They would be able to proceed quickly.
◆◆◆
Roughly an hour had passed since their departure.
Ullr had managed to run in an hour the distance it would have taken Gonzo half a day to walk alone. They arrived at Gollum Town.
The residents of the town saw the giant wolf and got extremely flustered. But Reito and Gonzo explained that they meant no harm so they were allowed in the village.
By the way, Ullr could only be a giant wolf for an hour. A few minutes after arriving in the village, his body shrunk like a deflating balloon.
Gonzo played around with Ullr.
“Come here pup, you almost got us in big trouble. You brute, hehe…”
Ullr whimpered.
“But, we got here early. We ought to be able to enter Rock Mine before the sun goes down”
Reito and crew left the wolf cart to the residents in town and headed toward Rock Mine which was located a few kilometers away.
The road from town was covered in deserted land but there were almost no monsters inhabiting the area.
It appeared to be land that wouldn’t allow agricultural products to grow and so the people of Gollum town primarily collected ores from the mine to support their livelihoods.
“What kind of place is this mine?”
“It’s a rocky mountain… not much else to say about it besides that”
“Are there any monsters besides golems that appear there?”
“No, Rock Mine has been totally overrun as a base for golems, so there aren’t any other monsters besides them”
“All right, got it”
“Leave the fighting up to me. Their shells are hard… They can’t be damaged with any old weapon”
“Okay… But, I should be fine given I have this”
Reito said, pulling out and displaying his Extermination Blade.
Gonzo’s expression showed a disgusted look. It seemed common sense to Gonzo that Reito’s blade, without any magical metal, wouldn’t put up any fight against the Golems.
In reality, Reito’s Extermination Blade was made from a hard metal not available in this world.
“Until we get there, let me listen to your story. I’m curious about how things are going at other adventure guilds”
“All right, all right” they chatted back and forth like that for a while, setting their sights on the mine.
~
When Reito and crew had arrived at the mine, evening had already come.
They ascended the mountain path while looking out for Golems.
Golems are nocturnal creatures so they are mainly active at night. For this quest, if they could defeat a set number of Golems, the mission would be complete. Reito and Gonzo made a plan to finish the quest before nightfall.
“But, shouldn’t we just drive back the golems who come to town?”
“There’d be a chance that someone in town would be harmed. Also, golems are used to just going back to their base so, we should be able to ambush them here”
“But, is this really a job you could have handled on your own, Gon-chan?”
“To be honest, it’s gonna be rough… But, I’ve taken down a few golems before. Also, the golems who inhabit the mine are smaller and weaker than usual”
“Ok… Wait, what’s that? On that wall of rocks… That’s strange”
“Where?”
“Over there”
Reito had a weird feeling about the rock wall that he was about to pass by on the mountain path.
He quickly used his “Observing Eye” to scope out the rock wall before finding an indent with something resembling a human face. Gonzo grasped his club and Reito used his assassin skill “Detect Presence”.
Reito felt some sort of living creature’s presence and drew his Extermination Blade.
“Is it camouflaging into the wall?”
“That’s right, but he seems to be sleeping… Golems have a core in their chest, let’s aim for that”
“Core?”
“It’s like a heart for those bastards. If you can’t completely destroy their core, or don’t take it out, they’ll just regenerate themselves”
“Huh? So, if we don’t do something about their core, they’re invincible?”
“No, in order to come back to life, they need soil. If they’re in a place without soil, they can’t come back to life, but if they touch soil with their cores, they will start to regenerate. If they have sustained considerable damage, it’ll take a while for them to come back”
“Got it… Does magic work on them?”
“They are highly resistant to pyro-magic. I’m not sure about their vulnerability to other kinds of magic but… they should be weak to water attacks. I’ve seen their outer shells melt off like mud when they touch water”
“In that case, we don’t know if they’d be weak to my ‘Ice Block’”
Reito’s “Ice Block” skill could produce a block of ice so he wouldn’t be able to convert it into water to attack the monsters.
If he paired “Ice Block” with “Fireball”, he should be able to make water. He thought about this before turning his sights to the Golem’s chest.
“Gon-chan, step back. I want to test my magic”
“What? You’re not going to use your Blast Magic?”
“Don’t worry about it, trust me”
“… Okay”
Gonzo obeyed Reito’s words but prepared his club just in case Reito failed.
Reito faced the Golem camouflaging himself on the rock wall and put both his hands on the ice saber’s blade he just made appear. He used “Hyper Vibration” to move it.
.
<Technical Skill “Ice Vibration Bullets” acquired>
.
In Reito’s field of vision, a new skill acquired notification appeared on his screen.
Reito maintained the “Hyper Vibration” in his saber before releasing his “Ice Blade Bullet” at the golem’s chest.
The moment the “Ice Vibration Bullets” pierced the chest of the golem camouflaging into the rock wall, it let out a shriek.
“Ahhhh!?”
“Woah, it just moved!”
“This is not good!!”
They thought they had hit a bullseye on the Golem’s chest but they had barely missed the core on account of it camouflaging into the wall.
The Golem began to move with its chest pierced. It was over two meters tall and had a body like a sumo wrestler.
It faced Reito and crew, releasing a roar, “graaaaah!!”
Gonzo kept his eye on the Golem while frustratedly muttering, “we didn’t hit the core. It’s calling its friends. We gotta shoot it down!!”
“On it!!”
Gonzo waved his club and Reito got his Extermination Blade ready. The Golem reached its hand to pull out the ice blade stuck in its chest.
“Graaah!!”
The moment it pulled the ice blade out of its chest, the hole was plugged up.
Seeing that sight, Reito was reminded that the Golem had a high regenerative capacity.
The Golem was a troublesome foe who would not only be difficult to harm with ordinary attacks but also had a body that revived itself quickly.
Reito was a little flustered and called out to Gonzo.
“What a pain in the ass… How are we gonna fight with it?”
“You just do this… Haa!!”
“Graaah!!”
Gonzo slammed the golem with his club overhead, knocking it over with one blow.
No matter how large a two-meter body might seem, Gonzo was over three meters tall. One blow from Gonzo’s superior body size was enough to smash the golem’s head apart.
“You did it?!”
“No, I just smashed its head”
The golem, with its head smashed to pieces, took on a fully daunting pose. Gonzo continued, punching the golem in the chest with his fist.
“Nnn!!”
“With your bare hand?!”
Reito was astounded at Gonzo using his bare hand instead of a club. He stuck his fist into the golem, pulverizing its stone flesh.
Cracks ran through the golem’s body before it fell onto the earth.
“All right, got’em”
“U-, uhh… That’s the core?”
“That’s right. The core of a golem makes use of high-quality pyro magic stones,” said Gonzo, showing the core to Reito.
It was surprisingly small. Even Reito’s hand was big enough to completely envelope it. Gonzo stored it in his Storage Stone.
He decided to move onwards, calling Reito, “It’s about to be nightfall. We should go find some more sleeping golems”
“Got you. But, how many more do we gotta defeat?”
“About ten more. We should also take down an extra three just to be safe”
“Are you serious?”
Ullr whimpered.
Reito was at a loss against Gonzo’s casually uttered words.
Having come this far, it wouldn’t be possible to just leave Gonzo on his own so Reito begrudgingly followed him.
~