PAGE 1

◇

 

“So, here it is.”

 

I left the town and moved towards the volcanic mountain for quite some time until the river came into view.

It was about 10 meters wide. …Not particularly wide, but not that narrow either.

 

And both sides were cliffs.

It looked like it would be hard to get down.

 

As there was a bridge over it, I decided to look down into the water from there.

 

‘Maneater Bass… See anything like it?’

 

‘Hmm… It’s hard to see in the water…’

 

The slimes said with disappointment.

Apparently, their detection ability did not work well underwater.

 

I had heard that the monster I was after was close to 1 meter in length. That should have made them easy to detect.

If they were the kind of fish that jumped out of the water, then maybe the slimes would detect them the second they broke the surface—but there was no guarantee that the Maneater Bass would do anything so convenient for us.

 

‘How far are you able to detect things that are in the water?’

 

‘Hmm… We can if it’s close by! Like up to there!’

 

The slime said as it pointed to a rock that was a short distance away.

…So, that suggested they had a range of about 10 meters when it came to detecting monsters that were in the water.

 

‘In that case, we’ll use your numbers to our advantage.’

 

‘Do we scatter?’

 

‘Okay!’

 

And so the slimes started advancing to the river’s edge.

Slimes were creatures that could stick onto flat, vertical surfaces, so they made it look easy…but it would have been very hard for a human like me to go down there.

 

“Magic Throwing Net.”

 

After thinking about it for a minute, I hooked ‘Magic Throwing Net’ onto a tree and used it as a rope.

‘Magic Throwing Net’ was very strong, and so it could carry my weight.

 

“Oomph.”

 

Like this, I was able to go down into the ravine.

Of course, there was still no road by the riverbed, and so I had to travel over rocks and boulders.

And the boulders would often move…which made the trek even more difficult.

 

“Huh! Umph! …Ooph.”

 

‘Yuji. You’re so slow!’

 

‘You can do it!’

 

As I struggled with the unsure footing, the slimes continued to move past me.

They even had enough time to cheer me on.

They were light and could stick to walls, so this terrain did not even count as an obstacle for them. I was incredibly jealous.

 

‘I’ll support you with attack magic, so you guys go on ahead!’

 

‘Okay!’

 

And so I continued to move upstream along the river.

Now…if only this Maneater Bass would hurry up and show itself.

Next Chapter