Had he used wind magic too much while caught up in the moment? Yuuto entire body was tired, as if he had just swum for a long distance. Being exhausted when he arrived at the destination would be putting the cart before the horse. He decided to pace himself a bit more from now on. Yuuto pulled down the lever of the bike and slowly landed it on the ground.
「Oh. Is this the Lownas Grasslands.」
When he had heard the word grasslands, he had expected a sprawling plains as far as the eye could see, but the area in actuality also included a lake and a forest. According to the map, the area was the largest amongst the ones he had visited so far.
「The Lownas Grasslands is located on the southernmost border of the Rhodran territory, and several different types of monsters appeared here.」
While looking at the book that they had gotten from the guild, Spica began explaining. It seemed that seven types of monsters could be found in the Lownas Grasslands; Wild Bear, White Bird, Lizard man, Skeleton, Red Slime, Blue Slime and Green Slime.
「It seems that Wild Bears and White Birds are the rarest of the monsters that appears in Lownas Grasslands and are difficult to find.」
「I see. So the success rate of the two pose a problem.
「Yes. By the way, not just the materials, the meat of these monsters are also exquisite. If you take it back to the adventurer's guild, they will buy it for a high price.」
「What's that!?」
Yuuto's motivation increased at Spica's words. When he and Ririna had gone to the market, he had realized that the price of fish and meat was too high in this country. If he could supply meat through these subjugation quests, the dinner would be very luxurious. In order to get the main dish for the day's dinner, Yuuto decided to begin the search at once.
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Then, after four hours, Yuuto became impatient at not being able to advance the subjugation quest and sighed heavily.
「U〜n. I had thought it would be a struggle……」
So far, he had defeated 10 Lizard men and 7 Skeletons. He had ignored the 3 types of slimes when he encountered them, as he wouldn't make much money defeating them. It wasn't a bad result, but he hadn't been able to defeat a single Wild Bear or White Bird. Wild Bears lived deep underground and a habit of hiding themselves, so finding them is very difficult. If he could find just one monster, he could then use Spica's smell radar to find the rest and the subjugation would become easier, but there in lay the problem.
Conversely, the White Bird was easy to find, but was a very difficult monster to subjugate. Being someone who was a master of martial arts, he was powerless against the White Bird which flew high in the sky. When he tried to use ice made from water magic to shoot them down, they easily avoided them as they were too far away. Because it was this easy to find them, it was really irritating that he couldn't kill them.
「My lord. The sun is setting. At night, the monsters become more active, and the danger increases. We should return to the mansion today.」
「………That's right. There's no helping it. Let's return for now to the mansion and come back after thinking about measures.」
Yuuto resigned himself and decided to return to the mansion.
「「「………!?」」」
Suddenly his field of vision shook. Spica and Sylphia lost their balance and fell to the ground, and he crouched down reflexively.
(Is this by chance……an earthquake!?)
It was considerably strong too. Yuuto had never experienced such a strong earthquake before. Furthermore, their misfortune continued.
Wild Bear
Threat LV 13
Was it surprised by the earthquake and came out of its den? Behind Spica stood a huge, 2-meter-tall, hostile bear.