Volume 2 - The Dragonslayers

It's still the middle of the night right now... and while I was waiting for the four of them to wake up, I pulled out the dire wolf's dead body that I kept inside before rushing here. 

I was not finished with getting the magic stone as well as any kind of things that can be bought at the Adventurer's Guild. The rest of it was just fatty meat that can be cooked if it was prepared enough by marinating it with alcoholic wine for 2 hours using magic to submerge the wolf meat in order to remove its gaminess.

When I finished preparing the wolf meat, I utilized my <Magic Power Operation> to lift the marinated wolf meat as I quickly took a knife from my <Dimensional Storage> to cut the meat into 2-inch wide kebab-style pieces and pierced it into the skewers that I brought from my <Dimensional Storage> in order to cook it on the bonfire.

For now, I'll just let it cook for now as I add some additional salt and pepper for flavoring.

As I finished tending the wolf-meat barbeques, I noticed a person from the four that is waking up. When I checked the four of them, it was the elf girl with short light green hair who woke up first so I quickly greeted her.

[I-It smells... good...]

[Good evening. Don't force yourself too much to stand up.]

[U-Unnn... W-Who are you...uuuuu?!]

[Uu?]

Immediately soon after that, her eyes widened when I faced her as she immediately looked behind her as if she was taking something. I don't know why she's scared...

[Calm down, Elf-chan. I'm not an enemy.]

[E-Ehhh...? Ahhh... I'm sorry about that... Y-You leak too much mana.]

[Eh? Seriously?]

Seriously?! As I thought about that, I immediately used my <Magic Power Operation> to try and minimize the mana leaking outside my body to a bare minimum. When I felt like everything inside me was contained now, I can hear the Elf-chan sighing in relief as she replied.

[T-Thank you... Y-Your name...?]

[Emi. My name is Emi.]

[I-I'm Ceres...]

[Is that so...? Ceres-chan, want some barbeque?]

As Ceres-chan was about to answer my question, the other two aside from the Himari girl who I saved from a fatal wound woke up too.

[Oya? Good evening.]

[A-Ah... Miss Paladin, good evening...]

[[Miss Paladin?]]

[Emi-san is a Paladin?!]

[I'm a Paladin?]

[[[Eh?]]]

[Eh?]

What the blue-haired guy said was quite a misunderstanding for sure as I inquired the guy about that matter. It seems that they thought that I was a Paladin since the Paladins from the Holy Empire were Holy Knights who have the capability of doing Healing Magic and Purification Magic. 

And he thought that I was a Paladin that was undercover as an Adventurer or something like that. It doesn't make sense to me, but it seemed that it's truly quite a misunderstanding on his part.

[I-I'm sorry about the misunderstanding, E-Emi-san... I never thought that there are adventurers who can do that.]

[Y-Yeah... P-Please, forgive that misunderstanding idiot... He may be our leader, but he's mostly an idiot.]

[Oi, Mia...]

[It's alright. Those who could do healing magic are generally treated as having a job as a Priest so I can see his conceptions although...... uh...... You... have you introduced yourself earlier...? Ceres-chan introduced herself to me earlier. How about you two?]

As I said that, the three of us looked over to Ceres-chan who was eating the wolf meat as fast as possible as if it was the end of the world. Like what the hell's with that kind of eating speed and her body still with that figure...? Am I wrong to think that elves are purely vegetarian?!

A-Anyways... As the blue-haired guy cleared his throat, the Mia girl and I turned our attention back to the guy as he started introducing himself.

[Uhmmm... I-I'm Everest. As Mia-chan said it earlier... I'm a C-rank swordsman as you've seen earlier.]

[I'm Mia... I'm a Support Mage. I'm also a C-ranker.]

[*gulp* Same... I'm Ceres. A C-ranker magic archer adventurer.]

[The one you saved was Himari. She's a C-ranker Blade Warrior as you can see.]

[I see... I'm Emi, a magic swordsman and a C-ranker adventurer. Once again, it's nice to meet you four... 

For now, just eat the food that I made for you three since I've made some barbeque at the bonfire. We'll leave in the morning for Himari-chan to recuperate the blood she lost from earlier.]

As I said that, the three of them nodded synchronously as they stood up from their sleeping futons and immediately took 3 skewers for three of them as they started eating their fill. I made around 8 pieces right now, but it appears that I should probably make more considering everyone's well-being.

While that happened, the three of them talked to each other as if the four of them were already close friends. I guess they started adventuring as a party for quite a long time now but...

As a man... Everest-kun is quite a lucky bastard to get such a harem... or am I mistaken somehow...? Anyway, I don't have the time to think about that nonsense and just focus on my cooking for now...

...

The time has already passed and the Sun has just risen. As the three of them woke up again, we were now wondering how to return to Celeste within a day so the four of us were deliberating as to how are we going to return when Himari-chan woke up.

The three of them immediately rounded up in front of her as the four of them were talking to each other so I left the four of them to talk for a moment.

After a little while, the four of them decided that they would be continuing their mission of subjugating the goblins' nest first before returning to Celeste which is a decision that I respect. But what was quite surprising was when Himari-chan called me as she invited me to join the subjugation mission.

And I accepted her invitation.

[I know that you've helped us with the Titano-Mantis already, but we're sorry for pushing you to accompany us to finish the goblin's nest subjugation request in my place...]

[It's alright, Himari-chan. I'm glad that you're awake now but you still need to recuperate your body from the blood loss that you had.]

[Unn... I leave it to you...]

After that, she went back to sleep once again as the Everest-kun, Ceres-chan, Mai-chan, and I are now discussing our way of destroying the goblin's nest. But the hurdle was that...

[What about Himari-chan, Everest-kun?]

[Mai can take care of Himari while Ceres, you, and I would be going to face the goblin's nest. Are you alright with that, Mai?]

[U-Unn! But be careful out there, Everest, Ceres, Emi-chan... They have the numbers...]

As Mai-chan said that, the three of us nodded to her in unison. And thus, the three of us left our camp as we ran our way towards the goblins' nest that they accepted their quest on. 

While on our way towards the goblins' nest, I turned on my <Elemental Sight> and used my <Magic Power Operation> to widen up the scope of my Elemental Sight in order to detect mana from as far as 10 kilometers away.

And as expected, I can see a high concentration of mana at around 8 or so kilometers away that is scattered into little hotspot-like phenomena. I'm sure that it's either the goblins' nest or a powerful monster.

[I can sense something. Around 8 kilomeits ahead. I still can't comprehend whether that's the goblin's nest or a powerful monster like the Titano-Mantis.]

[Is that so...? We should proceed with caution, Emi-san, Ceres.]

[[Yes!]]

...

When the three of us arrived just a few tens of meters away from the beginning of the field which was one of the hotspots that I detected from my <Elemental Sight>, we hid in the bushes as Ceres used her <Telepathy> on the two of us and reported something to us.

[Emi-chan, Everest, it's a goblins' nest. 5 who were on guard outside that gate, around 30 or so goblins and...]

[And...?]

[Those damned goblins... They also have hostages there...]

[What the?!]

[Oya? If that's the case, then that's more than enough reason for the three of us to move.]

It's as expected for the goblins to do that... Goblins tend to capture women in order for those ugly bastards to impregnate them and turn those women into child-making machines. Now that I'm seeing this up close, I can't help but want to just obliterate every single one of them.

But of course... We need to save them too... So there's that.

[Emi-san's right... But what should we do about those guards...? For something like this, we need a diversion, and to those who would face the goblins inside...]

[No need to worry, Everest-kun. Diversionary attacks need to be carried out when there's a powerful individual diverting the goblins' attention... So I'll be the one who would be the bait.]

[You sure about that, Emi-chan...? It's dangerous, you know...]

Ceres-chan asked in quite a worrying tone which Everest-kun quickly sighed and responded.

[Emi-san's right. She could do that. After all, she took down an entire Praying Titano-Mantis by herself.]

[Wait... seriously?!]

[Alright, Everest-kun. I'll leave the infiltration to you. See you after this mess.]

[W-Wait, Emi-san!]

As Everest-kun tried to stop me, I immediately used my <Limited Teleportation> skill to teleport myself away from the two of them toward near the goblins' nest's gate. Now that I can see it, it's actually more of a village than a nest itself, although a pretty ragged-down one with wooden fences and stuff...

 I immediately readied my stance as multiple goblins noticed my presence and started to run toward me.

...

[What the hell's with that girl?! She can do Limited Teleportation too?!]

[Everest, there's no time for us to think about that nor stay here. We should immediately infiltrate the goblins' nest now while she's diverting their attention.]

[B-But...]

[Move now, questions later.]

[Y-Yes.]

The two of them immediately moved from the bush that they were hiding from and jumped above the goblins' nest's fences as Ceres started to rain down the goblins with her magic bow from behind Everest who's the vanguard.

It was later noted that their subjugation of an entire goblins' nest was the first major achievement that a famous adventurer party known as "the Dragonslayers" would be known for. 

But they wouldn't know at the time that such achievement would be that significant at the time of this subjugation.