62 - a rainy weekend

The next day started off a little cloudy.

Thor wakes up with the girl and the child hugging him tightly from both sides, stretches out, and looks up at the sky from the entrance of the tent.

The sky, which had been clear until the day before, was now covered with white clouds.

The forecast of rain from noon on seems to be accurate.

To wake them up quickly, Thor first reached out his hand gently to the left of Sola's ear.

As he moves his fingers just barely touching her ear, the girl who had her face buried in Thor's side gradually turns red in the cheek and her breath begins to blow out from her mouth.

Then, perhaps unable to stand it any longer, Thora looked up and let out a loud laugh.

"Oh my God!　I told you to stop with the ears. It tickles too much!"

"You've been up for ages. I have a lot of plans for today.

When Thor exited the tent, wearing leather shoes and a sword belt, he turned around to find the child with both cheeks in Sola's hands, being kneaded like bread dough.

"Come on, Moo-chan, it's morning!"

"Mmmmmm. Mmmmmm!"

The three of us do some light preparatory exercises to relax our bodies until the coals warm up.

After enjoying a breakfast of hot soup with dried meat and bread and going to the bathroom, Thor and his friends started hunting frogs.

"It's easy to say that we don't have to go out to the hunting grounds, isn't it?"

"Moo likes going out better, To-chan."

"I think it's more fun for me to walk, too."

"Well, so am I. Well, let's get out of here as fast as we can.

Perhaps it was a little easier to get out in the morning, but we hit five herds in about three hours, and we had a fair amount of success.

We finished up at the end of the day with twenty fish, put away our wet items in the tent, packed our gear, and set off downstream.

As we walked, the clouds began to form thicker and thicker, and the air gradually became humid.

Thor and the others arrived at the wide riverbank before noon, feeling the rain close at hand.

Rorolf and the others, noticing the visitors, call out to them with a big wave of their hands.

It seems that they were in the middle of having lunch around the stove.

The smell of grilled fish in the air caused Moe to run out of the house first.

"Hello, Mr. Moo!

"...... how are you, little one?"

"...... want to eat with us?　Little boy."

"Yes!"

Thor and his friends caught up with them and decided to join the feast.

After the lunch was over and the clean-up was done, drops of water started to fall on the stones on the riverbank.

"It's starting to rain, isn't it? Hey, let's hurry up!

Is it coming already?

"No, it's going to rain a little later. We're just trying to get ready for it.　

The men pulled out a large tent and erected posts around the hearth to create a makeshift roof that completely covered it.

They then lined up empty barrels, which had served as legs for the table, to catch the water dripping from the edges of the tent.

Well, water is precious. I'll leave the stove burning, so you won't catch a cold.

"That would be great."

While we were conversing, the rainfall was increasing in intensity.

Soon the rainfall became so heavy that the riverbank was flooded.

The child, who had been listening to the sound of the rain hitting the tent, squeezed Thor's hand and smiled when he saw the countless ripples on the surface of the river.

"...... should be about time."

"Oh, there it is!"

The third son pointed to a reddish-black puddle.

The surface of the puddle was shaking eerily, and it was groaning as if it was searching for something.

"Over there, too!"

"There's one over there, too. There's a lot of them today."

"All right, let's go. Let's start with Sola.

"Yes, sir."

Roloff and the others watched with bated breath as the rumored mud fishermen fought their way out.

Thor handed Thora the iron sword, and Thora walked carefully along the riverbank, which had become slippery from the rain.

As he approaches a river slime that looks just like a puddle...

Without showing any unusual ingenuity, he quickly thrusts the sword into it and begins to stir it around.

"What?"

After a while, the rising slime slowly begins to collapse, as if its nucleus has been crushed.

Then Thor bent down and quickly scooped up the mucus with a conch shell in his hand.

"Huh?"

Raindrops hit the sword blade, which was distorted and melted by the dissolvable fluid, and it rose up as a white smoke.

The men let out a bewildered cry at the sight of the sword, which was no longer usable.

"What's going on?　I thought you said you were an expert at killing slime."

If that's the way to beat him, he's just like us.

"I don't know. It doesn't look like they have a lot of weapons.

With Roloff and the others at her side, the girl rushes to a new puddle.

And again, without a sign of hesitation, she inserts her sword.

"Huh?"

The men were surprised to find that the sword, which had already completed its role, had somehow returned to its normal state.

Sola, who had defeated the second one without difficulty, held the sword out to Thor for a moment before turning to face the third one.

The iron sword, which had been in a terrible state just a few moments before, somehow returned to normal condition at that moment.

Rorolf and the others, who felt as if they were being shown some kind of strange magic trick, watched the girl's behavior with rapt attention and tried to figure out what was going on.

However, they had no idea what she was up to, and the five river slimes were easily put away.

The men waiting in the tent, with Thor and the others dripping rainwater from their clothes, all rush over to them.

"What the hell did you do that for?"

"Hey, let me see that sword!

"I'm pretty sure the sword was melted. ......

"No, what is this?　You haven't changed at all!"

Thor, who looked at me as if he had encountered something mysterious and unidentifiable, did not waste any time in giving me the answer.

"Oh, that's my skill. I can mend swords and armor."

He could do many other things, but Thor dared not say a word.

The men were at a loss for words for a while, but then they understood the meaning of the skill and began to speak up.

"Really?　That's awesome!"

That's very useful. I see, so you're an expert at killing slime.

"I was hoping I could copy you, but this is a bit of a stretch."

Thor's cheeks relaxed a little in front of the excited brothers, but he returned to a straight face and turned his attention to the riverbank.

Then, scratching the bottom of his chin, he continued.

"So, actually.... My skill is limited to ten times an hour.

New red puddles were already forming here and there on the riverbank.