By the Grace of the Gods

After finishing the meal, we left the house.

Outside, it was dark, and a thin mist hung in the air, so visibility wasn’t very good.

However, it wasn’t so bad that we couldn’t see at all, and I had been shown the way beforehand.

More importantly, Mr. Kai and Mr. Kei were with me, so there was no chance of getting lost.

I moved my hands and lifted my legs high, warming up as I went slowly to keep my body from getting cold while heading toward our destination.

By the way, my father had finished eating faster than anyone else and had gone ahead alone.

“Oi.”

“Yo.”

“Good morning.”

As we got closer to the lake, more people heading out to work appeared.

Eventually, we reached the beach, our destination.

“Whoa…”

There were several hundred sturdy men gathered on the beach. They were split into two groups, both watching the lake intently, waiting for the moment to begin.

Near each of the two groups was a bonfire, probably serving as a lighthouse.

Further out on the lake, there were lights from boats. Several small lights formed a formation.

On the beach, there were also eight large bonfires burning like campfires, each surrounded by piles of firewood.

Men holding spears—no, harpoons—were standing by there.

The firelight reflected on the dark lake, and the mist blurred the outlines of the light, creating a fantastic scene.

It seemed they were using whistles and drums to signal between the boats, making it look like some kind of festival.

“Ryoma, this way. Let’s go.”

“Yes!”

The scenery was beautiful, but there was no time to be distracted.

First, I greeted the person organizing the adventurers here and reported our arrival.

Then we joined up with everyone from Shikum’s pier.

Apparently, the mud salamander hunt was done in teams, and I was to join theirs.

“Good morning!”

“Morning.”

“Hey, you’re energetic this early.”

“Looking forward to working with you…”

Mr. Shin, Mr. Sain, and Mr. Peyron had already arrived, so everyone was gathered.

However, it seemed there was still some time before the hunt started...

“By the way, everyone, if it’s alright, could you tell me a bit about how to hunt mud salamanders?”

I had already looked up some basic information, and I’d heard about the hunting method from a senior adventurer when I greeted them yesterday.

But since there were experienced people here, I wanted to hear any useful information or things I should especially keep in mind.

“Ah... I think seeing them is faster—they’re black and huge. And they’re everywhere, swarming.”

That was Mr. Kai.

What should I do? The only thing that comes to mind is those things called G.

“Here, since they attack during fishing or when fish are gathered at the collection sites, protecting the fish is more important than just hunting. In our village, as you said, there are many of them, so we take shifts to deal with them.

There’s a veteran adventurer who takes on the job every year, so at first, it’s fine to observe their movements and mimic the village’s methods. But even with shifts, since we’re dealing with magical beasts, it takes until around noon, so you have to pace yourself or your body won’t hold up.”

Mr. Kei added this.

I see—endurance and pacing are important.

“Also... sometimes, magical beasts called ‘pocket eagles’ attack from the sky, so watch out for them too.”

“Ah, those guys sometimes try to steal fish while adventurers and mud salamanders are fighting. They’re even more of a hassle in some ways.”

That was new information.

According to Mr. Shin and Mr. Sain, those are magical beasts that try to benefit from others' fights.

Because they attack from high altitudes at sudden angles during combat, they’re hard to respond to.

…If the attack comes from the sky, maybe we can leave vigilance to the limule birds.

From what I heard, they attack alone, are cunning but not very strong.

If several of us take them on at once, we should be safe, right? For now, I’ll watch how things go today and make a suggestion.