CH 69

Day after day, the village was filled with the sight of the two new adventurers, Shin and Rumeya, following Tauro as he went about collecting herbs.

For those who didn’t know what was going on, the sight of two adults (16 years old is considered an adult) following an 11-year-old boy, even though they were newcomers, made them think that the boy was some kind of rich kid from a nice family.

Of course, this wasn’t the case, but even for those who knew the situation, it was a strange sight.

While the three of them were gathering herbs, Shin and Rumeya were listening to Tauro’s lecture on skills.

“Since you have the “strength” skill, you should hone it of course, but since you also have the ‘Shield’ skill, I think you should use both to your advantage.”

“But isn’t a shield supposed to protect?”

“There are many ways to use the shield skill. From what I was taught, the basic idea is to take on the enemy’s attacks and not allow them to attack your allies, but you can also use your shield to strike, charge, counter, stab and slash with a prepared blade. Rumeya-san has “strength”, so I think if you combine it with the shield skill, your strength will increase considerably.”

“Oh!”

Since Rumeya had the “Strength” skill, he didn’t hold the “shield” skill with high regard because he thought it was only meant to protect.

But listening to Tauro, the skill started appealing to him.

He had been swinging his axe with all his strength, but now he wanted to master the shield skill properly.

“Shin-san, a fighting style that specializes in attack with your current “Sword” skill and “Taijutsu” would be good. I think it will be a very strong technique if you combine the two together. Since in a battle, you can either grab, throw, kick and stab. I think it’ll be a good skill, if you put them together.”

“All right, I’ll try that!”

Since Shin was too straightforward, Tauro thought that if he learned a fighting style that combined the two skills, his range would expand.

“But for now, if we can learn to gather herbs efficiently, we’ll have time to do other things. So let’s hone our specialties and prepare ourselves so that when we reach the E rank zone, we won’t fall behind the others.”

“Got it!”

Tauro thought that it would be even better if the two of them teamed up.

At twilight, when the western sky was tinted a bright orange, Tauro and the two others returned to the inn after dropping by the guild to complete their quest.

Just then, a carriage was arriving near the entrance of the village.

I heard that this village of Dansas stopped carriages for a while when it had a bad reputation, but has recently allowed them again.

It was a good thing that people were coming and going again.

Aside from the passengers getting off the carriage, Shin and Rumeya quickly walked into the inn, saying “Rice, Rice!”

As Tauro was about to enter, he was approached by a beast-human woman who had gotten off the carriage, was carrying her luggage and was looking around.

“Hey there. Can I have a word with you?”

“Yes?”

“Do you know an adventurer from this village named Bob?”

“Yes! Yes, I know him!”

When Tauro heard Bob’s name, it hit him.

She had black hair, black eyes, triangular ears and a long, thin tail.

This woman, who also looked good in ethnic clothes, presumably of the cat people tribe, was probably Bob’s girlfriend!

“Shall I show you to his house?”

“Really? That would be great. I just got here, so I wasn’t sure what to do.”

“It’s going to be dark soon, it’s not far. We’ll be there soon.”

“Thank you.”

“No, no. Bob’s girlfriend is very welcome.”

“What? How did you know?”

The cat lady asked back in surprise.

“Oh, sorry, I was the one who wrote the letter on his behalf.”

“Oh, I see. When you think about it, Bob isn’t that good at writing. I was so happy that I didn’t think about it, Hahaha!”

The cat-human woman smiled and thanked me.

“My name is Tauro, it’s nice to meet you.”

Tauro bowed as he walked.

“Oh, I haven’t introduced myself yet. My name’s Momo.”

The name “Momo,” and the fact that she was a cat person, reminded Tauro of the name he’d given his cat in his previous life, which had been the number one pet name for female cats in Japan in 2020.