Chapter 38 (2/2)
Holding the shovel in my hand, I turned around and dashed towards the place where Elvie was
Shortly after, I started to see Elvie's silhouette in between the trees
However, I need to act fast!
「Let's do this……----」
I let out a ferocious battlecry as I drew my sword from my waist
When Elvie suddenly came to a stop, I rolled up to him and pushed hi popped out of the ground in the exact place where Elvie stood a e snake…… No, it was an earthworm
Its body was reddish-brown in color and its peristalsis seemed to be over one meter
It was impressive, but at the same time really messed up
Irritated that its surprise attack didn't work, the earthwor the sharp teeth around its 'mouth'
If it wasn't for my quick reaction, Elvie would have without a shred of doubt end up inside of its stomach
「Earthworain, but this ti the shovel that I held in et away froed deeply into the earthworth it didn't do that much harm to it
But the earthwored towardsroar In that case
I'll send you back to the ground where you belong! Earthworm!
I directed s rose up, and while avoiding the earthworth
「Haa!」
The moment the sword separated earthworm's head from the rest of its body, a pillar of flaround shook and vibrated from a tre against metal, but the monster recovered from that quickly
Even without its head, it still wanted to attack et down!」
As soon as I heard Elvie's voice I crouched reflexively, and then a huge ical power passed oversound
Eh, huh, wait a second, explosion!?
To be more precise, it was a shock wave, one of the ical co on the caster, but it usually detonated upon iht now it crushed upon the earthworh-pitched shrill
Earthworh it, bodily fluids gushi+ng out of its now coh of relief, stood up and looked back at Elvie, as now holding some device made of wood and metal in his hand
「Thanks for that Are you injured?」
「No, it should be me who should thank you for the rescue Are you injured anywhere, Noct-san?」
「Ooh, it's nothing big Anyway, I' the course of this quest, but instead I parted ith you, exposing you to hara after putting their descendant into a harm's way?
「No, it's not your fault at all, Noct-san! Rather, the bla for us to act on our own! If it wasn't for your help, I would have ended up in thatall over fro of the bottoh warmly
「But still, just before that Earthwored to see it and wanted to dodge it, right? How did you know?」
Earthworerous Beasts, which puts theence is really low, but since it htest of sounds, it is virtually impossible to detect it unless you surveil the area around you with ic
But Elvie for sure knew about its presence before I even came to his rescue
Additionally ----
「Umm, how do I put it? I simply knew that it was there, like an intuition I can't really explain it all that well, and I don't really understand it all that well, but I always feel uneasy deep down inside ofor whenI can avoid it I used to think those were mere coincidences in the past, but now I know that it is quite handy」
「…… Oh, well, it's good that you're not hurt」
I gave up on investigating the matter further, since no haret it ical waves that belonged to so other than him Just as that?
Besides, I was really curious about that strange device that Elvie was holding in his hand
「It is one of the things that I'et, and its power is comparable to that of a cannon But I wonder if the aic it uses is okay?」
「Umm, this is……」
At thatjust how un, and then put it away back into the holster that was hanging from his hip
In the past, this device was icians who had proble the incantations for more powerful spells But now, since it underwent lots of iuns could now autoical reserves and convert them into 'bullets' of sorts Even the nor as they possessed enough ical power for the bullet to forical poas by no means perfect and as a result each bullet needed trey to work effectively So unless you weren't a genuineit effectively was limited and full of flaws
「U, it is only as powerful as theall of this froician who cannot use ht now, I understood that it must be true His situation was not an enviable one
The look on his face convinced ht now, and so I swiftly changed the subject
「Hun employed was quite powerful and precise Surely it must have been expensive?」
「I've made it on my own, so it wasn't all that expensive, really」
「Your own…… Did you ht It is the part of the extracurricular activities that I'm involved with」
Elvie scratched his cheek as if he was embarrassed to admit it, and then proceeded to explain
「You see, both un itself I received from an old man at the Guild as about to retire, but since bullets are consun and craft them myself froic for me But even so, one bullet like that consu expenses, so it's a rather cheap gun that needsone shot」
Certainly, with the eic', one could reduce the incantations by a largee No wonder it was popular aun itself was not expensive at all, but for the cost of one bullet you could probably buy three short swords
「Truth to be told, it is ood luck charm to me It reminds me of my dreah it was not the easiest tool to use, the way in which Elvie looked at this piece of scrap ain
「I see You are truly a all that praiseworthy, Noct-san I wanted to use fire, but since we are in the middle of the woods I wasn't sure ould happen, since I can't control the ical fla just an ordinary Hunter」
Elvie sround, the one that I sent flying towards the Earthworm's neck
He didn't know that those flames were my own, so it was natural that he would think like that
「But, seeing that thing in action, un of your own……」
Hearing that, Elvie shtly
Ah -- Yes, yes I see how it is
In order to make a device like that you need qualifications, so if anyone ever found out what he did hesent into court and sentenced to prison
Well, since he is a minor it would not probably be that bad, but still it would be bad nonetheless
「Even if you say that, I just remodeled the parts that are already available on the n It was risky of me to do, but technically I did not broke the law in any way…… B, but I don't use it for bad things, I swear!」
Elvie started to panic right in front ofjust whatever shall I do about this situation
After all, I a by the rules of common sense, I should at the very least say SOMETHING to hi
Besides, Elvie's face was truly shi+ning when he was talking about the gun
Right, let's start with this
「…… Well, I can understand that you make your own bullets because of financial reasons, and custo your weapon is perfectly norun can compensate for your own lack of physical ability」
「But still, Noct-san, even if I didn't shoot I think you would have been able to defeat that Earthworm quite easily」
「I see it quite differently Since I wasn't able to get rid of that monster in one fell swoop, I just caused one-fourth of your living expenses to go to waste So don't be so hard on yourself」
「But……」
Seeing how Elvie was torn between pride and cohed wholeheartedly
「Well then, so how about it? When you un, will you show it to me?」
「Noct-san!?」
「The Cassia roots that we are digging will be used to strengthen your gun, correct? I would like to see the fruits of our labor with uns quite a lot, so you can say that it is nostalgic for ht……?」
Rea, I looked into the distance, and Elvie looked atabout now
That's right, that friend of randmother, I can't meet her anyun back in its holster and nodded vigorously
「I understand I will definitely show it to you once it is done」
「Yeah, and I' forward to it Once you do, please contactstore 'Dryad' in western part of Hibernia」
「Right」
Okay, with that I now have an excuse tothat I successfully passed my sh into the air Then I cal quite dark
「…… The sun will soon set, so we should get a s off that Earthworht Also, I heard that its body fluids can serve as a base for soood souvenir for Nectar
Thinking like that, I began to take the valuable parts off of the subjugated monster's corpse At the sahtly disappointed look on the boy's face
When I finished , we took the other Cassia roots and put it in Elvie's backpack
Fufun You may be one of thetoh for you?」
「Yes, thank you so ratitude shone in his eyes, and we slowly began to walk back through the forest