Vol. 1 - Ch. 65 - Uncle

"Are you here, Lynd?"

It should have been just a few minutes since I arrived at my affiliated mutual aid society 'Apple House' and I had just handed over the two Low Vultures I hunted — for the usual fundraising and also to supply some meat — when a visitor dropped by for the Boss.

I had been hunting in the eastern part of the Rune Prairie lately, especially the vultures, whenever I was free from knight work. Whenever our schedules matched, I would party up with Amur and Roye-aniki or Al and Coco to accept D to F rank quests. However, I made sure to keep myself away from the leadership role so that I didn’t suddenly fulfill the criteria for a D-rank promotion.

I was still E-rank and I didn't want to tick the box to be eligible for promotion. The usual D-rank promotion condition was to show a feat worthy of D-rank, whether alone or in a party. So I was just taking things backward by staying away from the core position and being a sidekick of the strong members.

I did have apprehensions about Greateus Snake class monsters appearing, but I believed I could escape when I didn’t have to look after others. As an insurance, I was also carrying two extremely expensive arrows with Malat mountain-produced MacAquate mineral Arrowheads attached to the iron shafts.

One of them alone cost 2000 rea, making them a high-grade product, but Rouge-san of the arms store said that even I should be able to damage a Greateus Snake with just a Lygo bow using these arrows. So I got them as a lifeline to be used in case of precarious situations. Though they were so expensive that I didn't even feel like testing them out...

The enhanced hearing-based scouting magic that I abhorred before turned out to be a huge asset in hunting. And since my wind magic was interlinked with scouting magic, I was also making an effort to train it.

Well, I had mostly made these plains my training ground along with my hunting since the city and the dorm were too noisy for me to handle, and I would also often pick up some conversations that I shouldn't have.

My hunting grounds started a bit away from the main road in the plains. I would look out for wild animals or monsters with my scouting magic and take them down with my bow.

Vultures were quickly attracted whenever there was dead prey around. They would descend whenever I was hunting for another monster, though I made sure to keep my gaze on my target.

My enhanced hearing wasn't trained enough to pick up the sound when they descended, but it was good enough to notice when they were trying to flap their wings after clutching their prey in their claws. This was usually my window to take them down.

My hunting rate was two vultures in less than 30 minutes, by repeating the same tactic. I would have tried for more, but I couldn't carry a mountain of corpses alongside me into the city so two was the usual limit.

“Good work out there, Ren-kun! Vultures again? My handcart has space so dump it on here if you like.”

Recently, I had been often approached by novice explorers from other mutual aid societies.

I sometimes found folks of other mutual aid societies at the receiving end of the vultures’ tricks during my hunts and I would usually help them out since it was a bit hard to ignore when everything was happening in front of me. Though, this seemed to have increased my favorability among them.

Honestly, I also often found myself in a pickle since a lot of such people were quite older than me, and occasionally offered to carry the monsters I was holding, just like now.

“Thanks a bunch. It's not much, but you can carry those Meadow Mara and Jumplgr rolling on the ground.”

“Are you sure!? Thank you really, Ren-kun! Ya lot, load them in quick!”

Well, I couldn't carry everything by myself, so I was going to leave them behind either way and let them return to dust. They didn't have much value either compared to the hassle I would have to go through to carry them.

Besides, if we didn't carry them, they would just become lunch for the vultures or other monsters in no time.NewW novels updates on nov/el/b(i)n(.)com

“Ah, right! Us folks are from Round Piece! I'm Jess, E-rank. These two are F-rank.”

“Look at me, not introducing myself properly. I'm Ren from Apple House. I'm still an upstart explorer, so let's look out for each other.”

When I returned the greeting politely, the two standing behind Jess-san whispered in his ears.

“Just how much booze you want, old baldy!? You see that, brother Ren took it out! Something like a Low Vulture is piss easy for him!”

“Watch your tongue, kid! It's rude to talk like this to a guest! You should be more polite when facing them!”

I dropped a knuckle on the head of Po, who somehow started boasting about me for no reason.

“Ack... Understood, Brother Ren...”

Po sulked a bit and returned to dismantling. He was about to start when Uncle Shell took a step toward Po, oozing with a threatening aura.

The intimidation intensity was off the charts to be directed at a powerless kid. Naturally, Po had fallen on his butt.

I wedged myself between them.

“I acknowledge his rudeness, but bear in mind he's still a kid. You should hold back, Uncle.”

“What? I'm not going to kill him, but a brat like him wouldn't learn unless they see hell. Move aside, Kid.”

I sighed and took a step to the side. I picked up a rusty iron pipe, with a nail embedded in it, that was there on the ground, turned around, and made a full powered swing at the baldy’s stomach.

Baldy used his arms to take the hit. Thwamp A sound, as if it was two metal bars that had bumped into each other, echoed.

Damn, tough! What the hell was this baldy, a cyborg!? I immediately let go of my hand holding the pipe, but right when my body was still recovering from making the earlier attack, his fist rained down.

I loosened my body — to meet hardness with softness — since I couldn't escape or put up my guard on time. Just as I covered my face with body-strengthening magic, he landed a precise blow that sent me flying.

I covered my landing ground with body-strengthening magic and crashed into a mountain of rubbish in the garden.

“Brother Ren!”

Po and the other members screamed.

I quickly stood up and flashed a smile to reassure them.

“I am going to have a chat with this baldy Shell, so you guys go inside for now.”

I put the crowbar I picked up from the debris on my shoulder, and hid some nails in my hand.

However, instead of taking any action, the baldy restrained his intimidation aura and started laughing.

“Kuhahaha. Just a nosebleed from my punch? Hey, you’re called Ren, right? I like your brawling style. You’re good, and it looks like Saki taking care of you wasn’t a lie, it seems. You free after this?”

......This damned baldy, so he was testing me!

“...I'm busy as hell.”