56 - weekend appointment

The next day, with the three of them too drunk to move, Yuril, Sora, and Dialgo woke up early to fire up the stove and quickly prepare breakfast.

Thor and Moe take a walk on the bank and enjoy the beautiful view.

"There's nothing here, Tor.

"Yeah, there's nothing here."

The wilderness across the river was covered with sucking grass as far as the eye could see.

Moe muttered in wonder at the strange scenery.　

"There's nothing but blue and brown. It's so strange..."

In the clear morning air, not a cloud can be seen in the blue sky.

A straight horizontal line neatly bisects the sky from the brown that extends far beyond the earth.

"Who drew that?　God?"

"Yes, it must be God."

Stroking the hair of a child pointing to the horizon, Thor thinks for a moment and answers.

There is no doubt that the creator of this world is the god of creation.

And since the cause of this strange landscape is the "coma hole" created by the god of destruction, there is no mistake either.

In any case, everything is in the hands of the gods.

"...... Good morning, little one."

"...... you're up, little one."

There was a visitor on the bank. They were the twins Tapa and Tali of the Midoriwa tribe.

They greeted Moe, who gave Thor a quick nod, and then turned their attention back to the sky.

"Good morning!

"Good morning, what are you looking at?"

Not a cloud floats above our heads in the bright sunlight.

Thor's questioning words had the two looking up at the sky in silence for a while, when suddenly one of them spoke up.

"There will be no rain until the end of ...... the week."

"Oh, you've been reading the wind."

It is mainly used to check the changes in the weather, but it is so useful outside of adventures that retirees are in great demand from all walks of life.

After finishing the explanation in a few words, the two men quickly pointed to the riverbank.

There they saw Sola waving her hands in the air as if she had just finished her breakfast.

"Oh, I'm sure it's ready!　Tor-chan."

Moe notices the girl's gesture and runs out with a yell.

And in a few steps, she tumbled down the bank.

Thor and the twins looked at each other and slowly made their way to the breakfast table.　

The porridge had sobered them up a bit, and Roloff and the others were ready to demonstrate how to build a bridge.

"All right, let's get started!"

Leading the way is Dialgo, armed with red iron armor and helmet.

His cast-iron shield is held out in front of him, and he carries a club made of boar's bones.

A little further away are the three brothers.

They are wearing red river horsehide armor and cast-iron helmets with nose pads. In each hand is a weapon of their own speciality.

Diagonally behind them are twins.

Tapa, the elder, wears a red breastplate and holds a long bow, while Tali, the younger, holds a small dagger.

As the shieldmen approach the riverbank, four eerie red and black patterns jump out at them, which have become familiar to them.

Diargo, who is hunched over, uses his shield to catch the frogs as they leap, while skillfully using his club to keep space between his feet.

The four frogs and one man are entangled for a moment.

The shieldman, who is well versed in the movements of the monsters, continues to deal with the attacks without showing any signs of breaking down.

This in itself is not a particularly problematic tactic, but what is strange is the members in the back.

They were still holding their weapons at the ready and showed no sign of moving even a little.

"Are you all right?"　

"To-chan, are you skipping that one?　Come on, keep up the good work!

"No, it's an operation. Oh, it's working.

As if he had been watching for the right moment, the third son suddenly approached him and thrust his spear out from a low position, just above the ground.

The red poison frog, pierced by the tip of the spear, finally noticed the presence of others and broke away from the group and attacked alone.

The second son, who was waiting for the frog, hit it hard in the side with his long double-handed axes, splitting the air.

At the same time, the eldest son, who had come up behind the second son, struck him with two one-handed axes, hitting his mucus-slick backside in rapid succession.

The frog easily scrambled to the ground, splattering blood mixed with poison.

Then a relentless follow-up blow is delivered, and the first one easily dies.

After it was over, the process repeated itself again, and the brothers finished off the monsters with no problem.

When there were only two left, a red dorsal fin emerged from the surf.

Arrows piercing through the air intercept them without a moment's pause.

The blood-spouting fish responds with a water bullet, but Tapa's skill in shooting three arrows at once leaves no room for the frogs to cover him.

Tali, who is a wind wielder, helps Tapa's arrows become more and more powerful.

In the end, the fish lay on the surface of the river like a needle pile without once sending a water bullet into the riverbank.

The battle on the riverbank had come to a somber end.

As Dialgo easily dispatches the last of the frogs, Roloff and the others, who have finished the third frog, rush to the scene.

"I got it!"

"Hear me, my wrath!"

"Yes, sir, I'll take it."

The third son was the first to arrive.

A spear with purple serpentine lightning clinging to it was hurled with such speed that it pierced the frog's heart and blew it out of the sky.

A two-handed axe, thrown a step behind, and two one-handed axes, swung from the top, lost sight of their target and scattered the stones on the riverbank in a spectacular manner.

The first and second son, who were exposed to each other's blows, stopped moving silently for a while.

They remained silent, but put their weapons at their feet and suddenly struck the third son, who was trying to escape, in the face from both sides.

They glared at each other at close range and thrust their fists into each other's faces.

"What the hell are you trying to steal my prize!"

"Shut up, that was totally mine!"

"You didn't play nice!"

"That's my line, bro!"

The two men suddenly began to punch each other over something unimportant, and Moe clapped his hands in glee.

Yuril gives his usual gentle smile and looks at the naughty child tenderly.

Thora was not interested in the quarrel between the brothers, but asked Thor what was bothering him.

"What?　It's over as usual. Oh, did we kill the annoying monster, or are we going to build a bridge now?"

"Look, I think there's more."

Out of the corner of Thor's eye, he saw Dialgo crossing over the mounds of stones that lined the river before he knew it.

Dexterously bouncing along, the man moves forward in rhythm.

When the young man reached the stone mound in the middle of the river, the young man of the Chacoan tribe stood on his feet.

Just in front of Diargo was a low, unfinished stone pile.

Beyond it, there was still nothing.

Just when it looked like he was about to jump, the man silently thrust his shield into the void.

The next moment, the low mound of stones rose up, shaking slightly and clearly.

Several stones could not withstand the movement and tumbled to the surface of the water, sending up a column of water one after another.

"Wow, the mountain is growing all by itself!

"Did you see that, To-chan?　It's like a big, fat, nymphetically rising cloud."

Sora and his friends were surprised to see the clearly transformed stone mountain.

"Wow, I want to do that too. Can you do it?"

"That was probably a shieldman's technique. It's a way to build a wall of earth."

"Yes, the rock pile formation. That's why you were building up your fighting spirit at first. I was surprised to see you use it like that.

Rorolf and the others approach Thor and the others, who have finished discussing their fists.

Looking closely, the wounds that had been caused by the fistfight are already starting to heal.

Perhaps they have .

"That's about it. What do you think?"

"How did you come up with that? That's a safe way to make a mountain out of a molehill."

Haha, I'd like to brag, but using rock piles is pretty common here. Here.

Roloff threw a reddish-brown stone block the size of the palm of his hand.

It had a rough, hardened sandy feel to it.

That's what you call red iron sand. It tends to accumulate at the bottom of the river here. They used to dig it out by lifting it up with a rock pile with a thud.

"Well, this is the material for red iron. It's surprisingly heavy.

So, that's my main point. This iron sand is actually a favorite of a certain monster.

"Oh, so that's why you asked for my help."

Thank you for being so perceptive. They're called river slimes around here, but because there's so much iron sand in those piles of rocks, they swarm around and melt them down.

"If we accidentally stab our weapons, even our favorite weapon will melt, and that's a big problem.

"Oh, yeah?"

"Of course. But it's not like you're going to be out all the time, is it?"

Thor looks at the freshly made stone pile and asks what is bothering him.

If what Rorolf and the others say is true, at least one of them should have appeared, but there is no sign of them.

The eldest son nodded lightly and turned around to ask a young man from the Midoriwa tribe.

"How did it go?　Tali."

"...... mostly stable until the end of the week. Should break down from there."

"I see. Actually, river slime comes up when it rains. I'm sorry, but I need you to come out this weekend or something.