Published: August 25, 2025
Today, two chapters are posted simultaneously.
This is the second chapter.
“Uwahaha! This way, it’s much easier to move forward!”
Even though he shouldn’t know the road, Glen, an s-rank adventurer, laughed loudly as he strode ahead.
Since I ended up accompanying him by default, I decided to use him as a path clearer without any reservation... and every swing of his arm tore through weeds and tangled vines, making a path as if a bulldozer had passed through.
Though with Slime Magic and soil slimes, we exposed the roots of the underbrush to make it easier to pass, I still had to admire his brute strength.
“But still, are you sure it was good to follow me? I won’t tell you to stop coming along, but didn’t you have some quest or errand, Mr. Glen?”
“I don’t care where I go as long as I can hunt magical beasts. Before meeting you, I was just wandering randomly, and if we’re heading deeper, that’s even better. Magical beasts will keep appearing along the way, and some might sell for a good price.
Honestly, I rarely take quests from the Guild. I go where I want when I want, and fight whoever I want. Being ordered to go somewhere and hunt something is annoying, and having all sorts of demands is troublesome.
I earn enough by bringing back magical beast corpses and dumping all the buying and other business on the Guild. Besides, once you become s-rank, you can borrow money just by name, so you never run out of cash. They rarely come asking for repayments either.”
“From the way you say it... does that mean you’re in debt regularly?”
“Yeah, this time the tabs piled up a bit more than usual. The guy I borrowed money from unusually bowed his head. I wasn’t in the mood for a while and was just wandering around town... how much did I spend on food, drinks, and women, huh?”
He came here to earn money to pay off debts but didn’t even know how much he owed. And the reason for the debt was money spent on fun... Could he be called a refreshing kind of scumbag? Isn’t his strength and character just outrageous?
Lately, I thought I was acting pretty selfish and doing as I pleased, but compared to him, I realize I’m much more mature.
“Ah, I still don’t get it. But since you’re going to pay it off eventually, it’s fine, right? As long as you pay back what you borrow, they’ll keep lending.”
“Maybe, but if you don’t keep track of what you borrowed, won’t you get cheated?”
“If someone tries that, I just go and punch them once I realize it. Eventually, no one tries to cheat me anymore!”
An unbelievably brute-force solution. If he weren’t s-rank, he’d probably get arrested for assault... well, even s-rank might be a questionable case. Though whether they can catch him is another matter.
“Well, if someone deliberately picks a fight with you, they must be pretty reckless, right?”
“You think so? There are quite a few who pick fights with me.”
“Eh, really?”
“First, there are those who think beating me will make them famous. Most are weaklings and after one punch, they never come back, but at least those guys confront me directly.
What I hate the most are the ones who come up with excuses, trying to ‘use me cleverly, suck the sweet juice’ kind of thinking. Those guys are everywhere. Even among those who approach after I became s-rank, they’re not rare—oh, looks like something’s coming from ahead.”
He casually warned, and after slowly counting to ten, I finally sensed a group of magical beasts. I wondered how far he could detect them, but more information popped up.
“Oh? Looks like there might be some big ones. Ryoma! Let’s quickly take out the little ones coming first!”
“Roger!”
Right after I answered, raptor packs charged from the front, right, and left. Others flanked and suddenly jumped out from the grass behind us. From our positions, it was natural that I took the rear enemies and Mr. Glen took those in front...
“Take this! Get out of the way!”
Mr. Glen swung his huge hammer effortlessly with brute force, sweeping through the pack of raptors.