67 - Episode 65 Firebird

I was able to catch ten magma fish, said to be the best delicacy in the volcano's magma river ......, but I have no idea how to cook them. When I tried to cook them, the magma that was clinging to their bodies hardened into a rock. I have no choice but to put it away. I'll have to check how to cook it before I eat it. If I can eat it. .......

"Hey guys, we're leaving soon!"

He calls Bell and the others, who are still blasting away in the magma, to come forward. They must have had a lot of fun, because they smile and explain the fun part of the Magma River to us.

Sylphy says that there's nothing I can't do if I put on Sylphy's wind .......　I look away and move on.

"Yuta. There's a Fire Lizard behind that rock over there.

"Roger that."

Since blasting it with a hammer will ruin the material, I set the saw to its maximum size and head for the rock behind which Sylphy pointed.

"Yuta, if that Fire Lizard is in that position, you can cut off its head with a rock.

He explained to me that the Fire Lizard is huddled behind a rock, ready to pounce on me at any moment. I adjust the angle of the saw as Sylphy said, and pull the whole rock out at once.

I hear a thud behind the rock and Sylphy smiles at me. It must have worked. I go around to the back of the rock and see a bright red lizard about a meter long lying on the ground with its head cut off.

"It would be easier if it was like this every time.

"Hmmm, yes."

In the latter half of the cave, this guy gave me quite a hard time. Because of its small size (only one meter), it moved quickly and kept its distance while sending hot fireballs at us.　

As you can see from the fact that they ambushed us, they are surprisingly intelligent, and when they are in numbers, they are very troublesome. There were many times when the fireballs from a long distance would have been dangerous if the wind wall had not been in place. Even if Sylphy's spotting had revealed their location, it would have been a very dangerous opponent if they were caught by surprise. We stow the Fire Lizard and move on.

"Sylphy, now that we've crossed the poison gas and the magma river, the Firebird's nest is the dangerous place, isn't it?"

"There are still some places with poison gas. And the firebird nest. It's only about an hour's walk away.

What are the nests like?

"Well, they are nesting on the cliff by the magma pond, and the cliff is stained red with the color of firebirds.

You mean there are enough firebirds to stain the cliffs?　How many are there?

"How are we going to get through?　Can we proceed under cover?"

"You can't hide. If Yuta wants to defeat the firebirds, he only needs my wind wall or Belle and the others' nature armor, so we'll proceed steadily to reduce their numbers. I will force my way through by bouncing them off with my wind cocoons. Which one of them do you think I'll be able to defeat them all?"

"Well, I can't decide which one is better, so I'll just look at the nest and decide."

The eyes of Bell and the others lit up after the mention of nature's armor. No, we don't need nature's armor if we have Sylphy's wind wall, do we?　...... is very promising. I think Sylphy also named it because he wants to see the armor of nature.

****

No. That's not happening. Birds that look like blobs of flame about six inches long are nesting all over the cliff. An occasional firebird dives into a magma pond and bathes ...... in the magma. I don't get it.

"That's a lot of firebirds. If I'm going to take them down, it's going to take me a long time, so I'm going to have to either go in hard or get Sylphy to take them down."

Belle. Rain. Tulu's expression turns despairing. Tamamo doesn't understand. Did he really want to use nature's armor that badly?

"Yuta. You're not going to fight?"

Belle asks ruefully. Rain, too, is cuddling her cheek and cooing.

"I can handle it, okay?"

Tulu looks very disappointed too.

"But it's going to take a long time. ......"

"It won't take that long if Bell and the others join in. If I go out, it will be over in an instant, so if we are going to fight, it will be just fine with nature's armor and Belle and the others.

Sylphy betrayed us. No, I knew this when I mentioned the name of the armors of nature. If we ask Sylphy to help us, we can find another way, but we can't betray the excited looks on Belle and the others' faces with anticipation.

"...... Let's fight then. Nature's armor and the wind wall, please."

Belle is excited, like she's done it. Rain. Tulu. She twirls around as usual and puts on my nature armor. Phew. Well, it's a good thing no one can see me.

"Coo. Coo-coo!　Coo-coo."

Tamamo is excitedly saying something to me. I can almost guess what it is. .......

"Yuta. Tamamo's going to do it!"

Right.

"But how do you do it?"

When I asked them about it, the four of us got together and started discussing it with a humph. What's going to happen?

"Let's start over."

When Bell says this, the armor of nature disappears as if it were melting away.　

"I'll make a new one!

Bell declared, floating in the air and puffing his chest out. They had just finished discussing the new armor of nature. Tamamo is thrilled and excited. Sylphy is standing next to her, looking very happy.

Belle. Rain. Tulu. Tamamo sticks out her hands and spins around me, floating in a circle. Armor of Nature ver. 2.

"Cu-cu-cu-cu-cu-cu-cu-cu-cu-cu-cu-cu-cu-cu-cu-cu."

"The armor of a rock."

"Man of the wind."

"Koo-koo-koo (green helmet)."

"""" natural armor (cu-cu-cu) (cu-cu-cu) """"

Except for the tamamos, the process seems to be the same and the natural armor is created as usual. Then the surrounding grass flies in and makes a green helmet to cover my head. I can't see it well. And then some pepper leaves flew in the air.

"It's done! It's done. "It's so cool!" "Coo-coo!" "It's a great success!" "Kai-Kai-Kai!" "Koo-Koo!"

Bell and his friends are very satisfied with their masterpiece, and they praise it. I feel a bit irrational that Sylphy is nodding her head in approval, but there's not a trace of malice in the Belle and her friends, so I have to praise them all the more. I thank each of them politely and pat them on the head.

"Well, let's get going."

I walk forth, clad in a helmet of pale shining green, in a robe of blue shining water, protecting my vital points with pale shining rocks, and clad in a cloak of pale shining wind. I desperately need a mirror. Is it possible to have two cloaks?

By the way, since there are many opponents, we fight with hammers without considering the materials. Sylphy is going to stay by my side and not touch me unless I'm in real danger.

When I stepped into the nest of firebirds, the firebirds on the cliff started to make noisy noises and started shooting flames at me at once.

There were so many of them that it was unfashionable. The flames mingled with each other and formed a huge flame that flew toward me. It's pretty crazy, isn't it?

The flames hit the wind wall that Bell had put up and cause a huge explosion in the area. The blast breaks through Bell's wind barrier and exposes him to the blast. Wasn't it stronger than Rich's attack?　No damage, but still scary.　

"Belle. Wind wall again. After that, you and the others can reduce the number of firebirds."

Zombie. Skeletons. Firebird. I don't like to fight when there's too many of them. Swinging hammers and smashing firebirds in a blaze of flame.

This is ...... one-sided. Tornadoes, mineral spears, water sprays, and grass blades cut and pierce the firebirds. The firebirds' numbers dwindle quickly. I love magic! It makes me sad that I'm wielding a hammer.

Maybe I should learn magic too.　But the magic of the Belles is just like the magic I use. In fact, there's no point in learning it. ...... I don't feel as if I'm fighting with spirit magic. It's a problem.

I've heard a lot about magic, but it seems to be a profession or something. I'm longing for it, but I don't want to study it now.

A firebird is rushing toward me with a huge army. I'm the only one who can see them, so it's only natural. I swing my hammer and bounce off fireballs and firebirds.

There are too many of them for me to swing my hammer in time. The hammer roll is empty up there, and it's nasty when they come flying in. They hit us from everywhere.

Oh, the second wind wall is broken. ...... Nature's armor is awesome. The water cloak keeps fire away and the wind cloak repels fireballs and firebirds. Belle notices that the wind wall has been broken and puts it up again.

"Thank you, Belle!"　

He thanked her, waved his hands happily, and then ran into the firebird. He looks like he's having a great time.

Belle stuck out her hands in a cute "ah-ha" gesture, and the wind blades flew wildly, slicing the firebird to bits.

Rain creates a large mass of water, which takes in the firebirds one after another, and then works hard to extinguish the fire.　In a sense, this is the most terrible.

Normally, water vapor would be generated since the temperature is high enough to jump into magma covered with flames, but the water produced by Rain is so great that the flames are extinguished unilaterally and the firebirds are limping.

Tulu is shooting out mineral spears from the ground to the sky, shooting down firebirds without fail. It looks cool, like anti-aircraft magic. The scene where the spears are shot into the sky in succession tickles the male heart.

Is Tamamo struggling a bit?　Flames and plants are not compatible with each other, and sometimes leaves are burned. But they seem to be having a good time. Their hunting instincts have been awakened, and they are excitedly flying around the area.

With the help of Belle and the others, we have killed all the firebirds in a much shorter time than it takes to conquer a nest of the undead.

"Whew. We're finally done. Let's take a break."

"Right."

It took more time to store the firebirds than it did to kill them. How many of them were there? But as you can see from the carcasses, the firebirds that Bell and the others killed were clean, while the ones I killed were in a rather grotesque state.

"What rank would you say Firebird is?"

Now that I'm curious, I ask Sylphy.

"I think it's a B-rank demon. I think this time, since we are defeating a herd, it should be at least A-rank, right?"

So you got a glut of B-ranked magic stones. ...... You'll make a lot of money just from this one. If you're honest about it, though.

"Hey, Sylphy. If we follow the pattern so far, we'll have to go through the same field three more times. Does that mean we have to climb the volcano three more times?"

It breaks my heart to think about it. I don't like mountain climbing, and to be honest, I'm full of it.

"Hmmm. Maybe so, but that doesn't explain why we're stuck on the volcano, so I'm sure there's something different about it.

That too. Lots of adventurers get together and get stuck. There must be a reason. If we were on good terms with the Adventurers' Guild, we could have gathered a lot of information before entering the labyrinth.

We didn't have to gather information from the Adventurers Guild alone, we could have found out the cause of our deadlock right away by gathering information in the labyrinth city, or we could have asked Sylphy to gather information for us. I got irritated at the beginner's class and came straight to the labyrinth.

"Well, you'll understand why when you get there.　　

I was feeling a little regretful, and Sylphy followed me up. She knows about the food at the palace, but she doesn't know much about adventurers. She didn't even know about the necromancer. ...... Maybe she's not interested in adventurers.

Yuta. What's wrong?

It's nothing. Let's move on."

I can't help it if you ask me now. Sylphy's right. We'll figure it out as we go. But I don't want to go climbing, so next time we'll fly as far as we can.