We were on our way to Speranza, which was still about two days away when Yoru notified me of a monster that was ahead on the road.
[Looks quite strong…] said Yoru with his telepathy.
[It's fine, let the knights do their thing.] I said. I didn't really want to interfere with their mission.
I was technically just a kid, and these guys were professionals. I still notified them of a strong monster ahead, though.
As we kept going forward on the road with the knights having their weapons ready, we spotted the monster that was currently blocking the entire dirt road. A troll.
Trolls were dangerous monsters that could go from rank B to S, mostly due to their incredible strength, but only the S-ranked were able to cast some magic.
They were also about 8 feet tall and had two tusks that came from their mouth and curved upwards.
[Seems like the amount of people coming through this road lately disturbed the troll. Probably lived close to this area.] said Yoru.
[I see, we've been getting a lot of merchants using this road…] With the amount of trade that the town had been getting over the past two years, I never once thought about scouting the area to make sure that the roads were safe.
I pretty much only explored from End Town to the east, where the forest was located. This was the road going west, so it was my very first time around these parts.
The knights all got off their horses and prepared themselves for battle. Two of them began casting magic, but…
"Oh fire spirit that burns everything that is wicked, give me your power to burn and vaporize, I beseech you! Turn this monster into ashes, Fire Ball!" chanted the knights, casting a medium-sized fireball at the troll.
'Wh-What the hell did those guys just say? Did they say a whole-ass prayer before shooting a fireball that weak!?' I thought.
Their fireballs had burned a bit of the troll's face, but then it quickly regenerated.
As the other knights began casting their spells with chants as long as the one they had used for the fireball, I only got more and more worried for them.
'Are these guys gonna be okay?' and just as I pondered that, the troll waved his mace and used wind magic to send the knights closest to him flying into some trees.
Right after that, another knight shot an arrow and hit one of the troll's eyes, making him yell out a screech that almost made my ears bleed. Although, it did make some of the knights pass out.
The ones that were still standing kept chanting fire and ice spells, which must have made the troll even angrier because it started casting ice magic, shooting car-sized ice rocks at them.
As the knights scattered and avoided the troll's attacks, I felt a little guilty. The reality was that if I had thought about it more carefully and scouted this area before, this troll would have been hunted down weeks or even months ago. With that in mind, I decided to step in.
The troll raised his maul, ready to kill his first knight, who was weakened in front of him. I launched myself at full speed using wind magic and managed to block the troll's weapon with my "bo" right before it could hit the knight in the head.
I parried it upwards, leaving an opening for me to hit him right in the face.
I quickly slid my hands across my "bo" and jumped, hitting the troll on his left cheek and breaking one of his tusks.
As his blueish blood splattered on the ground, he began wailing his arms, trying to hit me. But honestly, I could clearly see all of his moves, and it wasn't much of a problem to evade them.
I saw that his face began regenerating again, except for his tusk, so I launched myself at him and hit him again in the same spot, making the troll tumble on the ground.
With that second hit, I could hear the troll's left eye popping as blood gushed out from it, which was honestly quite disgusting.
"The troll is down. Everyone charge!" yelled the commander of the knights, making them all do a battle shout as they ran with their weapons towards the troll, skewering him and finally ending its life.
After the fight was over, I opened my "Void Pocket" and took out a few different healing and MP potions.
The knights seemed to be very grateful to me about the potions, saying that it would have cost them a ton of gold if they waited until we reached a city.
Some of them even wanted to pay me, but I refused since I technically felt like it was my fault that they got hurt in the first place.
After everyone was healed, the knights took apart the troll for its materials. From what they told me, the tusks and hide were worth a good amount, since they were used to craft weapons and armor for adventurers. However, they weren't planning on selling them but giving them to the king.
'What the hell is the king going to do with this crap anyway?' I thought, but it wasn't my place to judge them.
Besides, all of these knights were supposed to be nobles, so it's not like they were short on cash. I supposed that gifting the king whatever loot they got from a battle was a common thing for them to do.
We resumed our trip to the town of Speranza, which was only a few days away. We ran into a pack of wolves the day after battling the troll, but I was able to scare them, making them flee without having to kill a single one of them.
__________
We had finally made it to the town of Speranza.
My first time away from End Town, and I was feeling pretty excited. I didn't know why, but I didn't have the biggest expectations about Speranza when we first left.
People said that it was full of merchants and adventurers, and their population was around 10,000~, so I imagined a bit of a shithole. On the contrary, this place was absolutely beautiful.
The streets were clean and nicely paved, they had lamp posts that turned on with fire magic at night, a park with lots of grass and a fountain, and the people looked generally happy. It also had a bit of a Western European feel to it, which wasn't a bad thing.
'How the hell is this place considered a town?' I thought.
Considering the population was ten times greater, and their territory was at least five times the size of End Town, I couldn't understand how both of these places landed in the same category.
'If End Town is considered a town, then this is a city. It might not be a huge city, but it should definitely go into that category…'
There was just too much life all around me for me to feel like this was a peaceful little merchant town. It's not that I disliked being in cities with tons of people. It was just kind of a shock since it had been so long for me.
Harvey, the sub-commander of the knights, told me that we would be resting at Speranza for two days, which I thought was a great idea since now I had a full day to browse around all the shops and stands on the streets.
I had seen them selling a bunch of fruits and vegetables that we didn't have in End Town, so I felt like I had to stop there.
I registered at the same inn that all the knights were staying at, which was pretty big. It almost felt like three buildings in one, and it gave me some ideas for remodeling the inns in End Town.
After I booked my room for two days, I was ready to go and tour around my first big town in this world.