Chapter 30 – Training

I go to the guild after taking it easy for a day.

There are less picking quests.
Rewards are going up, so more and more people with nothing else to do are taking them.

Hunting quests are the opposite, they’re being left here.
These are the bread and butter of adventurers, and competition over them can be fierce.
People come here early in the morning to scramble to take them, and a lot of these people are very hot-blooded.

The fact that these quests are still here is a side-effect of the orc hunt.
There’s simply a shortage of hands.

There are people like Siphon and the others coming from different places, so it’s not like no one can accept them, but I don’t know what will happen if this gets dragged out for much longer.

“Ou, you’re here looking for quests too, Sora?”

“You accepted one, Siphon? You’re full of energy right from the start of the day.”

They arrived yesterday and are already accepting quests.
I know this is hypocritical coming from me, but they have too much energy.

“Nah, not today.
Maybe I would’ve if I was alone.”

His hearty laugh shows no sign of him being tired from a long journey.

They have to resupply, and the other members of his party want to go have a look around, because they haven’t been here in a long time.

“So people aren’t taking hunting quests, uh…”

He thinks so too.

“What are you thinking of accepting, Sora?”

“I’m not very good at hunting quests.
If I go somewhere and I encounter monsters, I have no choice, but I don’t really want to take the initiative to go out and fight.
Safety first.”

I feel more comfortable fighting monsters I’ve taken down before, but I don’t think I’m going to go out of my way to accept a quest to hunt monsters I’ve never seen.
To be honest, I’m scared.

“What kind of monsters have you fought so far?”

“Wolves and goblins.”

I’ve actually hunted more, but I know those would be hard for me to deal with… And it’s not like I was alone anyway.

“So the gatekeepers for beginners.
Things that are relatively easy to fight.
Snakes, spiders, bees, and stuff like that are harder to deal with.”

Snakes are blood snakes, spiders are just called spiders, and bees are killer bees.

They all have distinctive characteristics, and come with notes on reference books too.

“Hunting alone is tough, isn’t it? Fighting monsters is something you get used to as you get more experienced doing it, and if you form a party, you can cover for each other’s weaknesses.”

“What about you Siphon? Have you been with this party for a long time?”

“Me and Yuno formed a party, and joined in with Jin and the others.
There was a joint hunting quest, and we hit it off.
Other than that…”

He points to the guild’s board.

There’s a paper pasted there about recruiting party members.
The current members and their skills are written there, and so is the kind of person they’re looking for.
Is there somewhere to write my own skills?

“But they’re mostly going to work in the place where they’re recruiting people, right? “

“It should say their goals too.
It says this party here wants to conquer dungeons.”

It really is there.
Most people are low ranked.

“And then there’s this.”

He’s looking at… A pathway?

“There’s a training area there.
People gather there to test their skills, but some end up taking the opportunity to form parties.”

So it’s like a place where people can meet…

“Are you going to try looking for a party too?”

“I’m fine.
I’m not that interested in forming a party for now.”

That’s half true.
The other half is that I just don’t feel like I’m a part of this place.

I’ve been in this world for around fifty days, but I don’t really get the feeling that I’m living here.
I feel like I’m in a foreign country, going around looking at the sights.

I get it, but I can’t really wrap my mind around it.
I keep thinking that they’re going to defeat the demon king, and then all of a sudden I’ll be back in my world.
Or I guess it’s more like that’s what I’m hoping.

I’m excited about magic and skills and all that, but the comfort of my daily life just isn’t the same.

“Even though this is very clearly real…”

When I was with Rurika and Chris, I definitely wanted to be of help, but now that I’m alone, and the more time goes on, the more that resolve is wavering.

It’s like I got motivated, but as time goes on that enthusiasm is going away.

“Ou, you’re here too, Geitz?”

“…I’m done with what I had to do, so I figured I’d do a little exercise.”

“That’s perfect.
We’re gonna help this lost newbie.”

I’m lost in thought, when suddenly I feel a slap on my shoulder.

“What?”

“You think too much, and at times like these, it’s better not to think about anything and move your body instead.
Right, Geitz?”

“You think too little leader, but you do have a point.
Come train with us for a bit.
Doing it with the same people all the time gets repetitive.
“

“You heard it.
Come on.”

I try to resist them as they forcibly take me away, but stop.

Maybe it really is a good idea to clear my head and just do some exercise.

“No one handles a shield better than Geitz.
Try hitting him first.”

I’m given a wooden sword, and face Geitz.

He has a smallish wooden sword and a shield.
He drops his stance, and waits for an attack.

I try going to the left and right to go around the shield, but he points it at me with minimal movements.
I try attacking, but he easily dodges and takes advantage of the fact that I’ve lost my balance to come at me with a counterattack.

I have to fall back, and this time swing the sword down hard.

There’s a dull noise, and the feeling in my hands is like if I just punched a boulder.
The shield didn’t even budge.
His stance is even lower than before, and this time he doesn’t counter, probably because he’s focusing on defense.

Then I try to mix it up by doing strong attacks and not so strong attacks.

At first it goes well.
I’m able to take advantage of the moment when he stops and manage to attack again.
But I’m guessing he’s gradually getting used to it, because he changes the way he deals with each blow depending on what kind of blow it is, and counterattacks.

I attack, trying to land at least one hit, but it all gets guarded, and the training ends when the wooden sword slips out of my hand.