Gather Divine Coins and Gacha! - Chapter 217

 "......Are you really going?"

"Alexio has gone to the castle, so I'm the only one available. Or should we postpone it?"

The old man puffed out his chest and retorted.

In the mansion's entrance hall, there stood the old man, Oriana, who was seeing him off, and the servants. He was dressed in linen from top to bottom, with armor made from the hide of a magical beast on top of that. He held a short spear in his hand and had a sword strapped to his waist.

He usually didn't wear very flamboyant clothes, but even so, one could tell he was a nobleman at a glance. However, now he looked like a seasoned old warrior.

"........."

At first, I had thought about postponing it too, but the old man eagerly volunteered to take Alexio's place.

Was it Huang Zhong from the Romance of the Three Kingdoms? The origin of "old but still vigorous." If I remember correctly, he defeated an enemy general at around 70 years old.

Thinking about that, the old man is in his 60s. The opponents are just some shallow-water monsters. Remembering how he wielded his sword in the yard, there's no way he would lose.

When I looked at Oriana, she nodded too. It should be fine.

"Okay, but we'll come back in an hour after we dive in, alright?"

"That’s fine. It’s been a while for me too. I don’t plan on pushing myself too hard."

"Alright then, let's go."

◇

"Hah!"

Dodging an oncoming boar at the last moment like a matador, I quickly thrust out my short spear and slashed its hind leg. The boar lost its balance and fell, rolling towards us with its momentum.

The old man was already facing another one. Looks like I have to deal with this one.

"Do it."

I drove my Shirojita into its head and crushed its core.

"Wow, this really is easy."

Destroying the core makes the body disappear. Thinking about how difficult it was to deal with this outside, I can see why dungeons are popular. You can get here from town, the handling is easy, they aren't very strong, and, most importantly, only monsters appear.

Outside is probably better when you want materials, but I prefer dungeons.

"Oh, watch out!"

Noticing a bat approaching from behind, I swung my left hand. With a crashing sound, the fragments pierced and the bat fell. Shirojita moved to finish it off, but there were still more left.

I swung my Shadow Sword and knocked all of them to the ground.

As long as I don't aim for a one-hit kill, bats are easy to handle.

"Hey!"

When I turned back towards the old man, two boars were already down, and he was dealing with a third. But two more were still alive and trying to get up.

"Take care of those first!"

I decided to leave the bats for later and deal with the boars first.

◇

"Isn't the old man getting a bit too excited?"

About an hour after we started, we decided to head back. On the way, we talked about the fights we'd had, and the old man...

That's all there is to say.

"Ha ha ha! Sorry, sorry. You were moving better than I expected, and it brought back memories. Was it 'Pray'? That was good too!"

He seemed in high spirits, maybe because he got to cut loose.

Whenever he spotted a monster, he'd charge in without a signal and start fighting. He'd leave the finishing blow to me, so I didn't mind, but it was a bit disappointing that I couldn't test my Amber Sword much. They say if you go deeper, you'll encounter demon types, but in the shallow areas, it's mostly beasts, so it's not very suitable.

At least it was good training for Shirojita.

"Still, I didn't think your blessings would be much use in monster battles, but you're handling it quite well. And those two snakes too. You said you had trouble with the upper layers before, but now you should be fine, right?"

Even though he seemed focused only on the monsters, he was observant.

"I wonder... The deeper you go, the more enemies you face at once... I'm better suited to taking down weaker monsters one by one..."

I manage with magic and items, but because of my short reach, I can only fight in close quarters one-on-one. The rush-and-spin combo of Scarlet Bee's Sting and Shadow Sword also relies a lot on luck... I have a lot of things to work on.

"I see... You still have a lot of room to grow."

"Exactly."

With my current size and muscle strength, there's not much I can do. I'll stick with my current style for now.