The first stop after exiting Geradin was Durbin village. They were going to stop there for one day.
As soon as Gojo and Grisella got down from the cart, they were greeted by the village chief. Since the slaughtering the goblins outside Durbin village no attack of that scale happened. Many villagers also came to greet Gojo and Grisella.
That day nothing happened, they had a good dinner that night. The next day they left a bit early. The next destination was Claymore town, it took around twelve hours to reach that town. Gojo was becoming pretty bored.
" Looks like it's too peaceful around here. " Gojo commented.
" Why ? Don't you like peace like this ?" asked a surprised Grisella.
" Well, it's not that I don't like peace. It's just that we have been missing action for a lot of days now. I hope we get some action soon. " said Gojo.
" That's my wish as well, but let's enjoy the peace while it lasts. We can have the action later. " said Grisella. Hearing this Gojo turned around and looked out at the lush green forests surrounding them. The weather was quite pleasant.
Suddenly the horse carts came to a halt. Gojo heard some commotion coming from the front. He got out to check what was happening. Reaching the front of the carts he saw three men standing in the middle of the road.
" Give us all your money and valuables that you have if you want to leave without a scratch. " said one of the men. These men were bandits.
" Finally, thanks to you I get to have some action. " said Gojo as he walked towards the men.
" Hey, who are you ? Don't you see we are armed ?" shouted the previous man.
" Just wait and watch. " said Gojo as he ran towards one of the men and punched him on his face. The man fell on the ground unconscious. The other two men also tried to attack him but got knocked out in the same manner. Then the journey resumed.
A few hours later they reached Claymore town. Claymore had a similar population to Bardin. They would stay for two days at Claymore town. Gojo and Grisella went to visit the adventurers guild. There were not many quests in the guild. Most of the quests were of gathering different materials or those about cleaning the town.
" No exciting quests huh ? Well we can check tomorrow. " said Gojo and they went back.
The next day, they came in early to check on the quests. They were searching for quests when they heard some discussion going on between different groups of adventurers. They approached the adventurers to know what they were discussing.
" Apparently, a group of woodcutters went to the forests in the morning. There they saw a huge horned bear roaming around the forests. Thankfully no one was hurt but who when an attack will take place. A group of adventurers consisting of D rank adventurers have left to hunt it down." said one of the adventurers.
Gojo was crestfallen to miss such an opportunity to hunt the bear. But he didn't have to wait long. After sometime a group of adventurers came running into the adventurers guild. They were all badly hurt, one of them had an arm torn off. Fortunately there was a healer present at the guild, so they all managed to survive. This was the same adventurer party that took the quest of hunting down the horned bear. They were viciously ambushed by the bear and it bit off one arm of an adventurer. They had to use stealth to escape the bear.
Hearing all this Gojo stepped forward towards the reception.
" Can I take up the quest for hunting the horned bear ? asked Gojo.
The receptionist was pretty surprised to see such a young man asking to take up the quest.
" Are you sure about this young man ? You saw what happened to the adventurer party that went before you. " said the receptionist.
" I am quite strong, so I can take care of the bear. It won't cause me that much of a problem. " said Gojo.
The receptionist seemed reluctant at first but decided to oblige since no one else came to take up the quest. As soon as he took up the quest, Grisella walked up to him.
" I hope you have no objection if join you on this quest ?" Grisella asked Gojo.
" It's not that I have any objection. This quest is quite dangerous since the bear is an ambush predator. However, judging by your skills, you can fight a bear quite well. So join me if you want to. " said Gojo and Grisella nodded her head.
Soon, Gojo and Grisella reached the part of the forest where the adventurer party was ambushed by the bear. Apart from the bloodstone and a few footprints here and there, there were no signs of the bear. Suddenly Gojo detected some movement in the bushes near them. Something was charging towards them.
" Watch out, Grisella it seems like the bear is charging at us from behind. " said Gojo and turned back.
Out of the bushes came a huge bear with a horn on it's head. It jumped out of the bushes and started it's attack. Gojo jumped to avoid an aggressive attack by the bear. The bear missed him and bit a nearby tree. The portion where the bear had bitten crumbled to pieces. At this moment Grisella launched her attack and struck at the bear with her sword. It only gave the it a scratch. The bear then turned it's attention on Grisella and charged towards her.
Then, Gojo used his lapse blue technique to hurl a few rocks at the bear. It turned it's attention back at him. Gojo used his lapse blue again to hurl the bear and sent it crashing into some trees. The impact of the bear caused many trees to break and it then crashed into a huge rock.
Gojo jumped above the rock against which the bear crashed into. He then started using lapse blue to break it's neck. Grisella joined the attack by slashing and stabbing the bear at various parts of it's body. After sometime the neck of the bear broke, and it died.
Gojo and Grisella went back to the adventurers guild with the horn of the bear to present it as evidence of the slain bear. Soon, an adventurer party was dispatched to confirm the same. After the confirmation, they received five large copper coins as the reward for killing the bear. Also the other adventurers treated them to a nice dinner.
They left Claymore town, the next day. Their next destination was Ulmer village.