After we finished our breakfast, we went to the usual prairie that we went two days ago when I first showcased my support magic to them.
I saw that there was already a camp on top of the hills.
"Ugh, I knew it.. She has a grudge over me after all." I murmured lowly so the others won't be able to hear me.
Zhanna-san was looking at our direction with the rest of her party member.
Well, I already prepared myself to become the subject of her grudge so I guess it was as expected?
"What's wrong Ren-chan?"
"No, nothing's wrong." I shook my head.
I didn't see any reason to tell them and even if I told them, nothing good will come out of it anyway.
"Well, here we are."
"Whoa, what a big tent."
There stood a conspicuously big tent on top of the hill.
Around the camp area, there was a lot of people gathering here.
It was not an understatement to say that there were more than 80 adventurers gathering here.
And of course, since they were all an adult, all of them were around 2 meters tall.
If it weren't for the three of them shielding me from the crowd, I would've been crushed to death quite literally.
Not long after, someone emerged from the big tent.
Oh wait, that person..
He was the guild staff from before!
The one that processed our party application!
"Test, test. Can you hear me? Okay.. Greetings! My name is Johnson! I'm the guild master for the Royal Capital Adventurer Guild!"
Johnson-san's voice could be heard across the camp.
He was holding a some kind of walking stack? No, maybe it was a wand?
I guess the stick worked as some sort of megaphone, it was enhanced by magic so the voice of the bearer will become louder.
"Thank you everyone for gathering here to participate for Calhea Annual Subjugation Quest! I've established a barrier around the perimeter so everyone can hunt the monster at ease. Now, can I please have the leader of the party and the solo participant to gather up to receive the Return Device ?"
Barrier?
Return Device?
Well for the time being, since I was the leader of Luce I guess I should follow the others.
Ah.
I could see Zhanna-san..
If looks could kill, I would've been died by now.
She was looking at me with pureblood lust in her eyes, so scary!
"As everyone already knows, you can take a rest in the camp area. You can either set up your own camp or use the camp that we've already provided. The return device that I will distribute to each of you will work as your verification. We can check your wellbeing through the device and you can also use the device to return to the camp."
After Jonson-san's explanation, the guild staff started to handed the device.
They gave me a bracelet with red gemstone on it.
I received the bracelet and returned to my party.
"I've received the return device but how do I activate it?" I asked the others.
"It's easy~ You need to chant 'Return Party' and all of us will immediately teleported back. Well~ I don't think we're going to use it until the very last day though ~ I think it'd be better if we keep moving forward and just annihilate all the monster that came to us~ " Chris-san explained as he put the bracelet on my left arm.
Certainly the prairie was so wide so we wouldn't be able to reach the deepest part if we returned back to the camp everyday.
"Has everyone received their return device? Well then! Please return back in one week! I hope everyone will be able to return safely and best of luck to everyone!"
After saying that, Johnson-san returned back into his tent.
I guess, that was the end of the opening ceremony for the annual subjugation quest?
"Umm, what did he mean by barrier though?" I asked the three of them as I watched the adventurers started to depart.
"That man just now, not only he was the guild master of the Royal Capital Adventurer Guild, he also an excellent barrier caster. He casted a barrier surrounding the encampment so the monster that appeared in the prairie can be contained. After that, it's more or less a buffet for us to defeat any monster that we find in the prairie." Fer-san explained.
"He was such a great person?! I didn't realize!"
To think that old man was such a great person..
Uwah..
If I didn't stop these guys from hurting Johnson-san, there was a chance the subjugation quest would've been a failure.
Thank goodness I stopped them just in time..
Well, there was no use in thinking about the past, it was not like I can change it.
I need to focus on the subjugation quest instead!
"Okay then, we should also depart soon. Where do you want us to go Ren-kun?"
"Hmm.. I don't know.. I've never done this before so I don't have any idea.."
"It's okay, Ren. No need to think that hard, just point into whichever direction you like."
"Ren-kun, if you want to reach the deepest part, I think it'd be better if we proceed through the forest first."
"Oh? Is that so? At first I thought I'm going to stay in the camp and provide support magic to anyone that needs it so I didn't gather much information regarding the monster and such. I still have much to learn.. I know I might be a burden but, I will be in your care."
Ah so it'd be better if we go through the forest.
I guess that kind of thing could be considered as common sense in Alsar but I didn't even know basic things like that.
These three guys.. They were really dependable.
Was it really alright for me to become their leader..?
"It's okay Ren-kun. For now, let's go to the prairie first." Fer-san suggested.
"Ren-chan, when we encounter a monster please cast support magic on us like 'Haste', 'Shield' and 'Might'."
And so, the four of us advanced toward the prairie.
From here on, we will be in the battlefield.
Time to get serious!
——————————————
"Look, it's almost sunrise~ The monster will start to appear soon~"
From the horizon, the dark night sky started to disappear, replaced by the velvety orange hue of the sun.
Ah..
It was already dawn..
"A man eating ogre! [Ice Arrow]!"
I heard a voice from somewhere far away.
"To yell in such loud voice, is he trying to attract all the monster to him? So reckless~"
"Who knows? I think he was trying to show off that he was strong enough to defeat an ogre."
"The monster has started to appear. This will be the first time for Ren-kun to encounter a monster, I wonder what kind of monster will appear."
Even though the monster has started to appear, the three of them looked very calm and composed.
They didn't seem flustered or anything.
Well since these three were all A-ranked, I didn't feel that scared even though I was in the middle of roaming monster
"[Search]. Let's proceed while using 'Search', if possible I want us to be able to find somewhere to take a break for before lunch time."
I almost forgot to cast 'Search'.
With 'Search', I will be able to detect any monster that came close to me.
I could also detect other things if I wanted to, like the one that I did to search for Chris-san.
It was a pretty convenient skill.
"Wow~ As expected from our leader!~ Look Ren-chan, around 15 km from here there is a pretty high hill. On there, there's a very big tree. I think that place would be great to take a break for~"
15 km..
The walking speed of average men is about 4km/h.
That means to reach that place we have to walk for about 4 hours without rest.
Ah but since the ground was not flat, there was uphills and such so I guess it would take longer than 4 hours.
There was also the possibility on encountering a monster during our way there.
Right now was 5 o'clock so we have 7 hours before lunch time.
"Okay let's go there then. Ah! That's right, Sig-san since your sword has flame elemental, does that means you will burn the surrounding grass when you use it?"
Fer-san was walking in the front with Chris-san, leaving me to walk beside Sig-san.
"Ah about that, since my sword is an elemental sword so it has magic attribute in it, yeah? The flame from my sword won't affect to anyone that I didn't think of as enemy so you can rest assured. See? Even if Ren try to touch the flame on my sword, you won't get burned! Ah but since other than the magic attribute, a sword is still a sword, yeah? So anything the surrounding grass will still get cut if I swing my sword carelessly."
I see!
Malik-san was also a flame attribute user, at first I thought that his magic would be inconvenient when you use it in prairie area where there are a lots of burnable things but turns out there is nothing to worry about.
"I see, so even if I'm wrapped in your flame, I still won't die, right?"
"Yup! It will be alright!"
Ah what a relief.
It would be bad to get caught in friendly..fire.
"Ah, there's a response from 'Search'. There's something over there, about 1,5m from here."
When we were walking, suddenly I felt a presence from 'Search'.
'Search' magic will make you able to see some kind of radar on top of your palm.
The object of my search right now was 'living thing other than human beings'.
If there was a response from the magic, I will be able to feel it and pinpoint the exact location.
"Understood. Ren-kun please get in the back, I don't want you to get hurt."
I went behind Sig-san and braced my heart.
Finally!
My first monster!
"Ah, poison slime~"
Turned out the first monster that I saw was a slime.
Well, slime was the standard beginner monster for most RPGs so it was not that surprising to see one in Alsar.
But..
Wasn't the slime's size a little bit too big…?
No matter how I looked at it, that slime must be at least 3 meters tall!
As if to boast its poisonous attribute, the slime body was in purple hue filled with black spots all over its body.
I'd never seen a slime like this in any game I played back in earth!
"You know~ That slime is pretty bad news for beginner adventurer~ It can spew poisonous spray if you get close to it and even if you hit it with your weapon, your weapon will melt because of the acid inside its body. So! The best way to defeat it is by using long range attack like burning it or freezing it with magic~"
Yeah, definitely not the monster for beginner.
Ah, the slime had noticed us and had begun moving!
"Everyone is a swordsman, right? Then.. what should we do?" I asked.
"Please leave it to me. Also Ren-kun, please cast [Root] on it so the slime won't get close to you."
"Understood. [Root]!"
I casted 'Root' on the slime immediately.
The slime, noticing the entangling roots from the ground, started to thrash around violently to free itself but to no avail.
Since the slime had trapped inside the magic circle, the slime won't be able to free itself no matter how hard it tried.
"Yosh! That is some good [Root]! Fer, your turn now!"
"I know, you don't have to tell me what to do. [Ice Blade]."
Fer-san muttered the chant softly, the sword he was holding immediately engulfed in sharp ice.
Fer-san dashed toward the slime and thrusted his sword into the slime.
The slime had this jelly consistency as Fer-san's sword sliced it but on the part of its body that came in contact with Fer-san's sword, a frost had started to form.
As if the frost was alive, the frost started to spread through the slime's body and not longer than 10 seconds later, the 3 meters tall slime had completely frozen over.
"As usual, Fer's ice magic is super scary~ Well now that the slime has turned into ice statue, we can destroy it easily~" Chris-san explained as he nonchalantly walked toward the slime and sliced it to pieces with his twin sword.
"I-incredible.."
So fast!
I didn't even have any time to react!
Everything happened in a blink!
One second Fer-san was sheathing his sword, another second he already had the slime completely trapped in his ice magic!
If I was not wrong, Fer-san attribute was water magic, right?
Well, ice was originally made out of water so I guess it was more or less the same?
"Slime is a pain in the ass to defeat because you can't defeat it in normal hack and slash method and there's no precious part you can retrieve out of it. There's plenty of other monster that has rare part that can sells for quite a sum of money." Sig-san explained.
Well that was true, I normally only saw things like lizardman's skin or the horn of mountain goat on the market.
Anyway the first monster that I encountered was a slime.
Even though slime was the standard beginner monster for RPGs…
The slime that I encountered was a pretty high level monster for a beginner..
Though all I did was casting 'Root' and had Fer-san and Chris-san finished it off..