Chapter 22 Hunting Magic Beasts (II)
?"Magic beasts!? Do you know what you're talking about?``said Reinhardt as he obviously couldn't believe his ears.
"Although I don't know where you are from, here in Freedom town it's common knowledge. The weakest magic beast is not something a human can deal with"
However, no matter how much he tried to dissuade them, the expression on Elric's face didn't change as he'd obviously made up his mind.
"Sigh... it seems you've made up your mind, however after this, I don't think I'll be able to help you much with this"
After all, although he's one of the most influential people in town, that's only as a merchant. Hunting beasts was not his specialty.
Seeing the difficult look on Reinhardt's face, Elric felt like he was asking for to much
*It seems I owe Reinhardt another favour*
Thought Elric as the thought of how much help he'd gotten from him since he'd arrived
*First the house and now I'm asking for his help again, It looks like I'll have to add more to the list of things to pay him back for*
Just as Elric was about to continue thinking, Reinhardt's voice sounded interrupting his thoughts
"Here's a map of the local monsters around freedom town, over here by the left is a habitat for fire slimes"
"Although there's not much I can do to help you, you could go to the knights of freedom and ask them"
"Given that you came not too long ago, you must have met Kevin at the gate when you entered, he has some experience hunting fire slimes you could ask him for some advice"
waving his hands, he promptly evicted them from his study.
"Thanks, lord Reinhardt"
With a sight bow, Elric and the rest exited the room
"...."
After making sure that they had fully left the room, a voice of concern came from Sebastian.
"Lord Reinhardt, are you sure this is alright?"
"Even with the help of the knights of freedom, it's not easy to hunt down magic beasts, even the easiest fire slimes"
seeing the concern of his most fateful butler, a slight chuckle
"Trust me, if their the ones Elena was talking about, then there'll be no problem"
After saying this, he picked up a book and continued reading like nothing happened
...
Exiting Reinhardt's house, the three of them immediately began to head toward the town entrance, upon approaching the gates they heard a large shout.
"Halt!"
"All those who want to enter freedom town must be searched by the knights of freedom!"
Hearing the familiar lines, a light smile appeared on the three of their faces.
"Davis, George I'll leave the hunting to both of you, I'm going back to read at home" said Elric
Although he wanted to see what it was like to hunt a magic beast, however, he still shook his head against it as he wanted to go back to continue reading books in the library to gain enough knowledge for the experiments he plans on doing
"It's fine young master leave it to us!" said Davis as he gave Elric a reassuring smile, Even the mostly silent George gave a slight nod as if to show his agreement
seeing the two of them so confident, Elric left after wishing them luck
watching Elric leave, they sped up their pace quickly arriving at the gate
"Oi! Kevin!!!" seeing Kevin in front of him, Davis couldn't help but call out his name successfully attracting his attention
"Oh? if it isn't you guys from earlier, what brings you here?" said Kevin with a look of surprise on his face
After a light handshake, the Davis began to explain their current situation to Kevin
"Since it's a favour for lord Reinhardt I can help you but that'll be after my shift"
After waiting for about one hour, Kevin came back however this time unlike his usual knights' gear, he was wearing brown colored leather armour with a crossbow on his back
"Alright let's go, I just had to change and get bretta ready" said Kevin
"Who's Bretta?" hearing the name bretta, Davis gave him a kind 'im a man and I understand' kind of look
Guessing his thoughts, a slight blush appeared on Kevin's face
"What are you thinking of, this is Bretta!" Said Kevin as he pointed to the crossbow on his back
"Anyway, let's start heading off, I need to get back early so as not to miss my night shift" ignoring the suspicious looks on both of them, he headed straight out of town
And with that, Davis George, and Kevin began their slime-hunting journey
After a few hours of walking, all of a sudden, the temperature began to rise.
about a dozen cute balls of flame could be seen jumping around. fre𝑒𝘸𝚎𝚋n૦ѵℯl.c𝒐𝘮
"Um...Kevin? are you sure these are the 'dangerous magic beasts' we're supposed to hunt?" Said Davis as he couldn't imagine such a cute creature is classified as 'dangerous'
Unexpectedly what he was met with was a disdainful snort from Kevin
"Humph! what do you know, although they look cute they are still magic beasts!"
not giving him a chance to reply, he began to wonder why they were so dangerous.
"Flame slime, is one of the more dangerous variants of the slime family, although when most people hear the word slime they think of weak, cute, and adorable monsters however if you think that's true you'll be sadly mistaken
As one of the most numerous monsters in Elias, the slime can be said to be seen everywhere, with almost an unlimited number of variants, from flame slimes to water slimes, to rock slimes; however, what makes flame slimes so dearly, is their self-destruct mode!"
"Once a flame slime encounters fatal danger, it is known to detonate its core releasing an explosion powerful enough to turn all three of us into ashes without any chance to read"
Hearing Kevin speak, the earlier doubt on Davis and George's faces had turned into a look of fear
"So what do we do now?" said Davis obviously not wanting to be blown into ashes.
Seeing their change in attitude, Kevin had a look of satisfaction.
"Don't worry about that, just trust old biretta and I to handle everything" Said Kevin as he stroked his crossbow with a smile on his face
"I might not have told you this, but not only am I one of the knights of freedom, but I'm also the freedom town three-time archery champion!"
"With biretta in hand, I never miss!"
However, just as he was about to continue boasting about his prized biretta, he felt the weird gaze of Davis and George
*Ahem!* with a slight cough he quickly changed the topic
"Alright so here's the plan, Davis you go and get the attention of one of the, once you've gotten it try and separate it from the group and meet at this spot" Said Kevin as he pointed to a certain part of the map
"George you sneak up behind the separated slime blocking his exit, And I'll deliver the killing blow!"
With Kevin's order, the two of them immediately went into position.
After finding a place to hide, Davis picked a stone from the ground and quickly threw it on the nearest slime
*bong!*
with a slight bong sound, the stone accurately landed on an unsuspecting slime
turning its body, it angrily bumped into the nearest slime as if to say 'why throw a stone at me? wanna fight?'
unfortunately, the innocent slime in question seemed to have a temper and bumped back into it
soon both slimes were Jumping in the air as if to fight with each other
just as the two slimes were about to have at it, a large slime came in between them stopping their fight
"#@&$#"
feeling the pressure emitting from the larger slime, both slimes began to tremble
realizing that he couldn't have his revenge, the slime on whom Davis threw the stone bounced away from the group angrily
"Good chance!" Noticing the slime wandering away from the group, Davis took the opportunity to throw another stone at it, unfortunately just as he was about to throw it, the slime accidentally saw his figure.
Finding the culprit who kept throwing things at it, it started to chase after him.
"Damn! This was not in the plan!"
seeing the cute ball of flame getting ever so close, without any hesitation, he started to run toward the agreed spot, thankfully slimes aren't generally known for their wisdom otherwise it would have felt something was off.
"Hey little slime, how about we talk for a bit" said Davis with a nervous smile as he tried to persuade it.
unfortunately, the slime was in no mood to listen
steadying itself on the ground, it swelled its body getting ready to fire a fireball out its mouth toward Davis.
Just as it was about to fire the fireball, a stone landed from behind disrupting it.
At this time George had already appeared at its back holding a handful of stones.
seeing the two of them surrounding it, it was at this moment the slime knew it had been tricked.
Not giving any of them a chance to react, the already enraged slime started to glow all over its body, seeing this a drop of sweat appeared on Davis's head
"Not Good! it's about to explode!"
"Kevin now!"