Chapter 47
Chapter 47
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 47
Chapter Title: Meal
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I used the two sturdy legs that slimes lack to run at full speed.
"Hey, what are you doing! Stop standing there dazed and get over here, quick!"
I commanded Luna and Yui, who were staring blankly at me.
Luna managed to keep up somehow, but Yui, a born-and-bred homebody mage, seemed to find running quite a struggle.
"W-Wait! Wait for meeee...!"
The King Slime, watching us from behind, once again shot acid as if spitting.
"Haha! You i-diot! You think I'd fall for the same attack twice!"
-Splat.
"?"
A strange sound echoed.
The acidic liquid that should have sizzled and melted everything like before, instead made a viscous, gooey sound, like a liquid monster.
Upon closer inspection, I saw it had split off a piece of its own body and launched it.
"So it wasn't the same attack."
They said it was intelligent, and it is indeed the most intelligent monster I've seen so far, second only to the vampire.
A group of slimes that had flown ahead of us blocked our path.
"Luna!"
Luna unleashed a gust of wind in our direction of travel.
It wasn't the focused, single-point attack I'd seen before; she whipped the wind about wildly, as if to blow away any obstacles in front of us.
Thanks to that, the path cleared for a moment.
Once we get past that point, we should be out of the King Slime's range, but...
"Hah... Just a moment, please..."
Yui, with her poor stamina, was starting to gasp for breath.
I had no choice but to lift her with one arm, tuck her under my side, and run.
"E-Eek...!"
But maybe because she was so thin, she felt lighter than the greatsword I swing.
With a little exaggeration, if I raised my Strength stat just a bit more, I could probably lift her with just my pinky.
We escaped from the King Slime's location and returned to the border between the dense forest and the field, the very spot where we had gotten off the carriage.
"Um... Sir Luke. I know it's a bit late to ask, since it's already happened, but now that we're here..."
"What is it?"
"Why did you run—"
"A strategic retreat."
"...Why a strategic retreat? You've never done this before."
Well, she wasn't wrong.
But back then, there was no need for it.
This time, a retreat was necessary.
"Can you two take that thing down with just your mana?"
"...It would be difficult."
"I... don't think it's possible either..."
See.
So why ask why we retreated?
"Luna. No matter how much of a real man I am, I don't hunt with my brain turned off."
Imagine swinging a sword at a creature that obviously looks immune to physical attacks.
That's not what you call a real man. Society has agreed to call that being a mindless brute.
And since I'm a real man, not a brute, I naturally made the rational choice.
"What you're thinking of is a brute. I'm a real man. Okay?"
"...What's the difference?"
"A brute is an idiot, and a real man is smart. And I'm a real man. Got it?"
"...."
"I asked if you got it."
"...Yes."
Back on Earth where I lived, a famous general had a renowned saying.
*He who is willing to die shall live, and he who is determined to live shall die.*
But my genius brain tells me that's all a load of crap.
Did the man himself die because he sought to live?
If you seek death, you die. What's this nonsense about living?
If you truly had to seek death to live, then everyone in the world would have cuts on their wrists and rope marks on their necks.
That would be the only way to survive.
The true art of war is to retreat and formulate a new plan when things look grim.
Not to brainwash yourself with some strange mantra like 'We can win!' and form a suicide squad.
*'So, what now...'*
We don't have a one-trick-pony mage who only uses Explosion magic, nor do we have a lich skilled in wide-area ice magic.
But that slime is slow, and seeing as it hasn't followed us this far, it probably doesn't leave the field. Do we really need to go through the trouble of fighting it?
*'In that case...'*
I took an axe out of my inventory.
"Here, take this."
""...?""
When I held out the axe to Luna and Yui, they both looked at me with puzzled expressions.
"Don't you know what an axe is? An axe. A tool for chopping wood."
"No... It's not that I don't know what it is, I'm just wondering why we need it..."
"Go chop some wood. We need to start a fire."
"Are you planning to hunt it by setting a tree on fire or something...?"
"Am I a caveman?"
I scowled.
I'm not some caveman who just discovered fire. Why would I use such a stupid method?
"Then why the wood...?"
"To eat."
"Here...?"
"Yeah."
"Now...?"
"Yeah."
Is eating a meal really something to stare at me like I'm crazy for?
I'm starving.
You know what they say, even the best sights are better on a full stomach.
It's way past lunchtime. I'm hungry, so let's just eat.
We do all this to live and eat. What's the point if we're starving?
We can hunt while we eat, or after we eat. It's not too late.
"Don't bring back small stuff like twigs. Chop down whole logs so we can put the griddle I brought this morning on top."
While the griddle is heating up, I should grill the meat I bought before we came.
To prepare lunch, we each scattered to chop wood.
We each gathered wood using our own efficient methods.
Luna with wind magic, and Yui by creating an axe with blood magic.
For the record, one swing of my greatsword felled a tree.
Everyone had long since thrown their axes to the ground.
After clearing out all the nearby logs, we laid them in a line on the ground, poured oil on them, and lit them up.
Normally, it's hard to get logs to catch fire, but we had someone who was excellent at supplying oxygen to a flame.
"Luna."
"Yes."
With one great gust of wind, the small embers instantly flared up, engulfing the logs in flames.
On top of that, I placed the large, 4-meter diameter iron griddle I had brought today.
How many people in the world could carry something this big?
I can confidently say, none.
This clearly shows the advantage of the inventory, which the author foolishly set as F-rank.
On the moderately heated griddle, I grilled the meat I had bought this morning from my inventory.
-Sizzzle.
It sounded just like the slime's acid melting something, yet the sound of grilling meat was so wonderful.
"...I'm starting to question if this is what we should be doing during a hunt."
"M-Me too..."
"What's wrong with eating? It's already past lunchtime."
There are always those types who complain but will eat just fine.
"Whatever, eat up. You need to eat to have strength."
"...Yes."
"Yes..."
***
"Urp."
Ah, I'm stuffed.
As expected, a full stomach increases both motivation and strength.
"Shall we begin now?"
Heave-ho. I got up from my spot, making a sound like an old man.
As I stood, Luna and Yui followed suit.
A slight turn of my head brought the King Slime, still in the same spot, into view.
"Do you have a plan in mind?"
"We'll use this to catch it."
Flick, flick. I tapped the iron griddle with my finger.
"Didn't you take this out to eat...?"
"Who would carry around something so ridiculously big just to eat?"
I obviously had it made for hunting.
I had a rough idea of how to hunt it from the moment I read the King Slime's description.
Actually, one of the methods I considered was making an iron ball, heating it up, and throwing it.
Throwing a round iron ball is technically a blunt attack, and if you watch those YouTube videos like '1,000-degree steel ball vs. ice,' you see it melts instantly, right?
The reason I didn't go with that is because I figured it wouldn't work in one go, and that would be a pain.
How many dozens of heated iron balls would I have to throw to melt that huge thing?
I can't be bothered with that kind of hassle.
And while this griddle probably isn't actually 1,000 degrees, it should be hot enough to evaporate liquid in an instant.
After all, we've been heating it this whole time while we were eating.
"Yui, you said slimes were strong, right?"
"Yes! At least, according to the information I have."
Bullshit.
Slimes are strong?
Today, I'll show you why slimes are nothing but small fry.
"I'll tell you your roles. Luna, you make a foothold, the strongest one you can. Yui, you can use all your mana, just make sure that slime can't move."
"Understood."
"Yes! I'll try!"
"Good. Let's start right away."
I put the griddle into my inventory.
From now on, it's a race against time.
Hot iron cools down surprisingly fast.
So we have to finish the hunt before it cools.
I spurred my idle legs into a full sprint toward the slime.
"Luna!"
As soon as I called her name, she created a foothold of wind right before my eyes.
A launchpad like the ones you see in games, that lets you jump high when you're in the wind.
Packed with mana, the effect was immediate.
"Wooooooah—!?"
No matter how many times I experience it, flying through the sky was a pretty great feeling.
The wind was cool, my body felt light.
The biggest problem was the lack of a safety net, though.
"Yui!"
Next up was Yui.
Since I'd told her beforehand she could use all her mana, the scale of the magic Yui used was incredible.
In an instant, blood pooled on the ground, and soon, thorns shot up, blocking the slime's movement.
Now, only I was left.
I took the griddle I had put in my inventory and brought it out beneath my feet.
Iron is weak to acid.
If this had been made of ordinary iron, it would have corroded and melted in an instant.
But an Iron Golem, despite the name, is actually a monster, not real iron. It's something harder than iron.
They said the Iron Golem itself was a late-stage C-rank monster, so it must be stronger than or equal to the King Slime.
Being made from the material of such a monster, it wouldn't melt so easily.
"It's an iron griiiiddleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
No need to apply force. No need to add weight. Gravity would take care of everything.
Wriggle. Sensing the danger, the slime struggled desperately to escape.
It belatedly tried to split, launching pieces of its body in all directions, and moved its sluggish form to evade even a little.
But,
"Mou osoi!!!!! Escape is impossible!!!!!!"
Since Yui was holding it fast, its escape attempt came to naught.
-Sizzzzzzzzzzzle!!!!!!!
The moment the griddle touched the slime's body, steam from evaporation billowed out as the slime's body began to shrink.
It was like watching a pancake being flattened on a griddle.
Standing on the griddle, I felt a sinking sensation as the steam gradually began to clear.
[ Level Up! Please check your status! ]
[ Level Up! Please check your status! ]
[ Level Up! Please check your status! ]
[ Level Up! Please check your status... ]
Just as my view became endlessly close to the ground.
The level-up notifications appeared, and I knew the hunt was over.
*'Too easy...'*
Well, it's not like I was expecting anything spectacular from the start.
A slime is a slime, after all.