Bullet Turtles were turtles with one-meter-long shells at first glance, but they were problematic monsters that could withdraw their limbs into their shells and use wind-attribute magic to spin through the air at high speeds in order to perform ramming attacks.
Their shells were harder than iron; their ramming attacks would be dangerous even for heavy warriors.
The Crusher Turtle was five times larger than a Bullet Turtle, but its ramming attack wouldn't be only five times as powerful. There were apparently numerous incidents in history where stone walls of towns were destroyed by the ramming attacks of giant turtles such as these, and it had a powerful defense as well.
They were monsters that were difficult to defeat among Rank 4 and Rank 5 monsters.
In fact, not only Braga and Kachia, but even Zran and Vigaro were having a hard time dealing with them.
「Nuh! It's fast!」(Vigaro)
『And they're coordinated, too!』(Zran)
With their heads withdrawn into their shells and spinning at high speeds, the turtles had begun to move in a coordinated fashion. As Vigaro made an attempt to reduce their number by one first, others attacked from the side and above him to interfere.
Half-hearted attacks would simply bounce off the spinning shells that were harder than iron.
This is where magic would come in handy, but Vigaro, Vran and Kachia couldn't use magic.
「Leave it to me!」(Kachia)
But Kachia raised her sword and stepped forward.
「Kachia, it's impossible!」(Braga)
「It's not impossible!【Rapid Reaction!】」(Kachia)
Taking no notice of Braga as he tried to stop her, Kachia increased her reaction speed with a martial skill, dodged a Bullet Turtle's attack with the bare minimum required movement and released a deadly thrust into the side of its shell.
「【Pierce!】」(Kachia)
A swordsmanship technique that increased the speed and power of a thrust. Now that Kachia had become a Ghoul, she had more physical strength than she had possessed as an adventurer. Her attack pierced the Bullet Turtle's shell.
There was a sound of breaking metal.
「Eh?!」(Kachia)
Kachia's plan fell apart along with her sword.
As she opened her eyes wide, dumbfounded, another Bullet Turtle closed in on her. She noticed it, thanks to her【Rapid Reaction.】But though the【Pierce】she used was fast and powerful, it also left a large opening. Even though she had seen it, her body couldn't keep up.
「I'm done f –」(Kachia)
「I won't let that happen, don't worry.」(Vandalieu)
Though Kachia thought she was doomed, the Bullet Turtle crashed into the ground.
「Well, if I erase their Mana, they're just huge turtles.」(Vandalieu)
The Bullet Turtles that were using wind-attribute magic to fly through the air like bullets lost their ability to fly as they were engulfed in【Magic Absorption Barriers.】They crashed with full force into the walls and into the ground.
If they had wings, perhaps they might be able to glide through the air, but all they had were flipper-shaped legs.
「The amount of Experience Points gained will decrease if I interfere, but it can't be helped. Ah, everyone, please finish them off.」(Vandalieu)
「Yeah.」(Vigaro)
『Sorry about that, Holy Son.』(Zran)
They dealt with the turtles by thrusting their short swords and claws into the gaps in their shells. The Crusher Turtle resisted a little by attempting to bite them, but it joined its subordinates in death with one swing of Vigaro's axe.
「Let's have a new sword made for you when we get back. If there's anything nice in the treasure room, you can simply take it... What's wrong?」(Vandalieu)
Kachia, who was sitting down with the broken sword still in her hand, had tears in her eyes.
Should Vandalieu have helped her quicker? Had he spent too long waiting to see what would happen?
As he panicked, her tears began to fall from.
「I... I'm shorry...」(Kachia)
Why was she apologizing to him?
Vandalieu wanted to ask her this question, but decided to console her instead for now.
「I felt my limits even before being captured by the Orcs... Uu... And then I became a Ghoul, but even so...」(Kachia)
「I see, so you were impatient.」(Vandalieu)
Kachia was a fast learner. She had grown strong rapidly after becoming an adventurer, catching up to her seniors... and then she had hit a wall.
It wasn't a hard iron wall, but a soft one made of mud. It gradually became harder to level up and no matter what kind of training and battles she went through, her skills were improving at a snail's pace. She couldn't even imagine when her skills might level up.
"I don't need to worry about it; the growth period for my strength has just passed. I just have to become stronger one step at a time from now on."
Even though she told herself this, she could only see the backs of the seniors that she was supposed to have caught up to and those who started training in the same year as her left her behind. Even her juniors were catching up to her.
She suddenly felt that the stories of retired female adventurers that spread throughout the Adventurers' Guild were real.
If Kachia had earned enough money, she might have retired in the same way. However, she had only just become a D-class adventurer and all of her money was going into her equipment, living costs and paying off the debt that her parents had left her.
Though she didn't live extravagantly, the amount of money she had was only several months' worth of living expenses.
She didn't have the connections to be hired as an exclusive escort. The Mirg shield-nation didn't employ female soldiers to fight on the frontlines, though some were used for office work.
That was why she had no choice but to continue as an adventurer, putting in hard work without knowing when it would produce results.
It wasn't that Kachia had become weak. However, the adventurers around her had become strong and left her behind. She was unable to find decent requests to accept, the monsters in Devil's Nests whose materials would sell for high prices were too much for her to handle and there were many cases where more skilled adventurers were already hunting them.
Perhaps it would simply be better to find a suitable man to run away with and marry.
She had been captured by Orcs while thinking this and fell into despair. She thought that she would be giving birth to a Noble Orc's children until she died. She would have been better off dying during her adventures, even when she still had dreams to accomplish.
However, Kachia was rescued by the Ghouls and decided to become a Ghoul at Vandalieu's suggestion.
After becoming a Ghoul, Kachia thought that she had been reborn.
She gained the【Superhuman Strength】and【Pain Resistance】skills and her Attribute Values increased. She was clearly more powerful than she had been as a human.
She could finally become stronger. She would regain her pride and her dreams. That was what she thought.
「But because everyone else was becoming stronger faster than you, you grew even more impatient.」(Vandalieu)
That was why she had grown impatient and done something like that, believing in herself.
「Eeuuh...」(Kachia)
These were Kachia's circumstances.
Hearing this, Vigaro and Zran thought that this was where Vandalieu would scold her.
After that, Vigaro and the others went to retrieve the items in the treasure room. And all of them began the journey back to Talosheim.
Kachia and Vandalieu were sitting together on top of a Golem that Vandalieu had created. This was because Sam's carriage was full with the harvested materials. Braga looked jealously up at them.
Vigaro didn't understand the circumstances of humans, but he knew how it felt to be frustrated with one's own lack of progress. However, allowing that to cause reckless behavior was not good. His death would cause the village to lose strength.
That was why Vandalieu had to scold her, even if he understood how she felt. He had to scold her and teach her so that she wouldn't become impatient again. That was his job as a leader of the village.
「I understand how you feel. I really do.」(Vandalieu)
But Vandalieu's words faltered.
「V-Vandalieu?」(Vigaro)
Vigaro called his name out, wondering why he wasn't continuing, but the words that came from Vandalieu's mouth weren't scolding or reprimands.
「I've thoroughly experienced that.」(Vandalieu)
It was sympathy. Vandalieu knew all too well why Kachia had felt impatient.
No matter how hard he had worked on Earth, his grades were just a little above average. He had always been scolded at his part-time job and he had been unable to make any friends. When he had finally participated in the school trip with the money he had saved, everyone else was having the time of their lives and he had to mask his feelings of being alienated by trying to enjoy the view.
His own worth shouldn't change, but as others rose above him, he had felt that his own worth was decreasing relative to them.
「I still feel impatient. Among my mother's enemies, Gordan is an old man, but judging from the sound of his voice, Heinz was still young. He'll have grown stronger by now, but meanwhile, this is how I am.」(Vandalieu)
Heinz had been B-class back then. It had been three years, so he might have become A-class by now. Even while Vandalieu was doing this, Heinz was undoubtedly becoming even stronger.
And Amemiya Hiroto and the others who would be reincarnated here were likely undergoing high-level training and fighting in Origin right now. They wouldn't have the【Experience gained in previous life not carried over】curse, so they would be able to make use of that training fully once they reincarnated in Lambda.
Vandalieu didn't know whether they were serving as soldiers or agents in Origin so he could only make vague guesses as to what kinds of things they would experience, but there was a high chance that they would possess first-class skills even without their cheat-like abilities.
「So how can you stay so calm?」(Kachia)
「I intend on using any method available to me. And no matter how strong they become, they won't be immortal.」(Vandalieu)
He would kill them, even if he had to use poison, spread diseases or catch them by surprise. He would have no qualms about making thousands of Undead and Golems to crush them to death with the strength of numbers.
He wouldn't care if he was called a coward. In the end, he just needed to be the one to stand victorious.
As for those who would reincarnate here... Well, if they insisted on killing Vandalieu no matter what, then he had no choice but to deal with them in the same way. They wouldn't be immortal, either.
However, he still wanted to avoid having to fight all one hundred of them. He didn't like them; emotionally speaking, he couldn't forgive them. But if he couldn't defeat them in the end, all of it would be meaningless.
He would talk to them. If they apologized, he would keep his distance and watch them work hard to develop this problematic world while enjoying a comfortable life eating delicious food with everyone else. That would be more than enough as revenge for him.
「So what should I do?」(Kachia)
Kachia seemed to have calm down. Vandalieu took a moment to think before replying.
「How about leaving swordsmanship aside for now and trying some magic training? Ghoul women are supposed to have a high aptitude for magic, after all.」(Vandalieu)
She might just end up as a jack of all trades and master of none, but she was currently not making much progress so it wouldn't be a bad thing to have more options.
「... Yes, I'll give it a try. But what if it doesn't work out?」(Kachia)
「If it doesn't work out? I'll be there to listen to you again if that time comes.」(Vandalieu)
Vandalieu felt that he was responsible for Kachia. He was the one who had suggested that she and the others become Ghouls. He had known that their previous lives would come to an end and this would be a step down a one-way road that they would never be able turn back on. That was why he thought that taking care of them was the obvious thing to do as a person, if he wanted to be considered a person.
Wanting to help others in need was how a person should act, wasn't it? He got the feeling that everyone said that the character for "person" was one person supporting another.
TLN: The kanji for "person" is 人. I don't think this font shows it, but when it's handwritten, the left stroke is longer/taller so it looks like the right stroke is supporting it.
「I see. You'll be there to listen.」(Kachia)
「If magic doesn't work out either, there are other options like becoming a specialist in making fish sauce and acorn miso.」(Vandalieu)
「Hmm, try again.」(Kachia)
「Then how about becoming a maid with Saria and Rita?」(Vandalieu)
「A maid, huh... Well, let's go with that for now.」(Kachia)
Why did she add,「for now?」Could it be that she wanted to be a maid in the past? Was her childhood dream to become a maid leader?
「Mhmm, I've found my motivation. I don't know how far I can go, but I'll do my best with magic as soon as we get back!」(Kachia)
Leaving that aside, it was a relief to see that she had recovered.
「Basdia has a rival now.」(Vigaro)
『This is good, isn't it? Heroes are supposed to be popular with the women.』(Zran)
「I want to be popular too, like Berg.」(Braga)
... Had Vandalieu raised some kind of flag?
Vandalieu didn't care, since he was looking forward to making miso soup with kombu and dashi.
Name: KachiaRank: 3Race: GhoulLevel: 24Job: WarriorJob level: 77Job history: Apprentice WarriorAge: 19 years oldPassive skills:Night VisionPain Resistance: Level 1Superhuman Strength: Level 1Paralyzing Venom Secretion (Claws): Level 1Active skills:Swordsmanship: Level 3Armor Technique: Level 1Shield Technique: Level 1Dismantling: Level 1
As a human, Kachia possessed moderate strength for a D-class adventurer. But she had the flaw of having no skills other than swordsmanship, and hitting a wall in her growth made her feel even worse about not making progress.
She has gained passive skills after turning into a Ghoul and her Attribute Values have increased under the effect of Vandalieu's【Strengthen Followers】, but the way she fought as a human is unable to make use of them and display her strength.
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