Vol. 1 - Ch. 66 - Honey Ant

“Come now, quite glaring at me! Who sulks like that after a greeting?”

“Hah, you call that a greeting? I would be lying on a hospital bed with broken bones if I hadn't used body-strengthening magic in time, Uncle.”

“Ahahaha! I knew you caught on, with your lax attitude. I couldn't appear weaker, right? Anyway, if it ends well then all's well!”

“Sigh... fine. But I better not see this happening again— alright!?”

Thump

I followed with a surprise attack on his stomach while I was talking, however, his abdominal muscles were like a piece of iron— hard. And when I held up my balled-up fist with tears almost squeezing out from my eyes from the pain, Uncle Shell burst into laughter.

“Fuhaha. You're quite a cheeky bastard. That said, you’ll have to learn to handle that much if you want to be an explorer, your being a brat doesn't mean jack shit.

And Lynd too, the heck was he doing? How could he have not told me about you? I would have liked to meet an interesting fella like you earlier.

Hey, Ren. We're going to the forest north of the capital. Honey ants have made their colony there.”

“What? No. Didn't I tell you I'm busy—”

“But you were just sitting around in a trance earlier. Enough, grow a pair, and come with me. What do you prefer— do you want to be knocked out cold and wake up in the forest, or you will go there on your own?”

“The hell’s with that absurdity!? Elimination of Honey Ants should be a B-rank quest, ain't it? Just so you know, I'm mere E-rank. I'm not qualified to join your temporary party.”

“Oh? I'm surprised you know about it, I'm sure such cases are rare even in the Royal Capital’s vicinity. Studying hard, eh? But if you know, that's just fine! Besides, don't sweat over it. It's not a quest. They’ll target all the magical plants if we leave them alone, so this is more of a voluntary act. We can't afford to let those monsters run rampant with the already scarce magical plant materials.”

“What do you mean ‘that’s just fine’? I'm not budging from here, the end!”REaad updated stories at n/o/vel/bin(.)com

“That place is 60km away from here so we're running there. What? Don't want to follow? Then I’ll knock you out and carry you by myself.”

He's really deaf when it comes to listening to others...

“Are you kidding, it's already dark! You can't go there unprepared. Not that I'm going!”

“Why would I need preparation just to handle the neighborhood? It's piss easy like taking a stroll in the park. Let's settle this quickly and hit some booze. Man, you should be rejoicing more, Ren. You're going to see the performance of Shell Monstel from up close.”

Uncle said and snapped his fingers.

What, Shell Monstel?!

“... Who the heck are you!?”

◆

We took a ride on a Magic Car to the 3rd Avenue intersection and then sprinted out of the Royal Capital.

The world was already dyed in darkness.

<You don't even know me despite being an explorer in the capital? How oblivious can you be, brat?>

That was his reaction when I said I didn't know him. I explained I was just a country bumpkin who had just arrived from the Dragoon territory this summer.

I might be interested in monsters but getting to know about the bigwigs wasn't on my list of interests. But I was still surprised when I heard that he was one of the few S-rank adventurers in this Kingdom. He had looked at me with skepticism that I didn't even know that.

I hurriedly dodged the acid, closed the distance, and kicked one to overturn it. With its stomach left vulnerable, I swiftly stabbed it with my Banry firm knife to end its life.

I opened the distance between us and re-used scouting magic to read the cave’s internal situation while keeping an eye on the Queen Ant.

......This is bad. Uncle was busy kicking down the other ants while they had opened another entrance in the cave. The Queen's convoy was now directly aiming for that exit.

Uncle had yet to notice this path in his advance and that he was about to miss the Queen Ant.

I activated my body-strengthening magic to its full extent, leaped out of that hole, and circled the cave to rush toward the newly formed entrance.

I was there in nick of time.

I hesitated for a moment before pulling out the arrow with the MacAquate mineral arrowhead.

The Queen Ant had already leaped out of the hole. My enhanced vision wasn't on par with night vision, but the sound of its wings flapping in the dark night was enough. I turned my aim in that direction and released my arrow, which easily pierced the Queen Ant and it dropped to the ground.

Truly, money solved problems. My 2000 rea arrow showed its worth tonight.

I headed to the Queen Ant's direction and by the time I reached her, she had already drawn her last breath.

“Hey, sounds like you have my ass covered... But boy, you already have one heck of a scouting range at your age. I did hear from Godorfun about your visits to the 3rd Legion. So what, are you now Dew's subordinate or something?”

Uncle Shell said as he approached from behind.

“Right. I have taken Dew-san as my mentor and have been under his tutelage.”

“Aha! I heard you talk him down, but I guess that old man is still an old fox... Just how long have you been dancing on his palm, eh?”

I shrugged my shoulders in response.

“He really knows how to make others dance to his whims. My guess about his goals is no better than the others. No matter how much you roast that old man, it's hard to tell what he actually is cooking.”

“Hahaha! No shit. Anyway, let's collect the honey from the Queen Ant's belly. Someone else will come at a later date to retrieve the materials here. It's beer time!”

Alcohol, huh?...

Intoxication wasn't a problem with the magic in this world, so the general drinking age was 12 when the kid's magic organ had finished developing.

Well, I was still a bit appalled about drinking in my current appearance. However, I have no plan to be adamant about it when my goal is the outlaw life.

“What's with that mystified expression? Alcohol is a part of being an explorer if you want to tread on this path, just so you know. Whether it's merry-making with comrades or resistance to poison.”

“Wait, you can increase your resistance to poison with alcohol?”

“Hn? You don't even know that? You have quite the mismatched knowledge. The elimination of foreign substances through mana relies on your experience in drinking. This is why the pompous aristocrats also make themselves familiar with alcohol. The same goes for first-class explorers. Too much drinking is also no better than poison but leaving aside likes or dislikes, try to have alcohol once in a while as training. Alright, time to go.”

I really wasn't aware of that! But if that was true, then I guess I really couldn't ignore it! Yes, definitely. It was all part of training.

“Ah, can I retrieve my knife first? I left my knife lodged into a Soldier Ant at the first entrance when I rushed here.”

I said, and so I returned to where the Soldier Ant was. However, the ant I stabbed with my knife was nowhere to be seen.

Haa, and here I had finally gotten used to it after using it every day. Bummer...