Luckily, Joe didn't need to visit the priest today because he was still on tropolitan, and hoped to hit level ten in the next two days, so he decided to continue his sli killing as much as possible. With a significant portion of the sun still left since it was barely after noon, Joe returned to his sli killing with a renewed vigor that had been absent over the last two weeks or so, since had been easily able to reach his quota of level five before the day ended. Now with the need of a day and a half, Joe could only hope to maybe have enough ti today to finish out by tomorrow evening.
Garnedell seed surprised by Joe's intention to keep killing, but thought little of it, continuing as the ever present and ever useful excellent helper. Joe's fervor to fight didn't still his need for conversation though, and he soon began speaking with the boy.
"You know, kid, This has got to be one of the most boring scenarios ever! I've been killing slis for almost ninety days and still trying to focus on 'villager' and 'waiter,'" Joe grunted as his spoon flicked a gem directly from a sli, instantly killing it.
"If this were a story, I would probably already be taking out manticores or sothing. Probably dungeon diving and taking out entire swaths of floors," Joe's speech ca to an end as his core tensed to spike another leaping sli into the ground.
"Seriously, if this were a Japanese story, I'd have already t the big bad, confronted him, almost be killed by him, then 'save' him by promising to be his best bud. Then we would cut away to a sad flashback where we learn the big bad really isn't a big bad, he's just so lonely and needs friends, and the actual big bad took advantage of that and manipulated him to the dark side," Joe's speech turned a bit mocking at the end then cut off as he took out another sli gem from its ooze flesh.
"Then, our hero would 'save' the villain by telling them he would be his friend, then they would unite to fight against the REAL big bad!"
Joe sprinted towards his next target, quickly coming upon it and spiking it to the earth before he returned to his monologue, "Of course, if it was Chinese, then it would probably be so stuck up young master that our MC would wipe the floor with. Maybe even 'enrage' the idiot's family."
Joe finished the sli of quickly before moving on to the next, jogging as he spoke, "Unless the idiot master turned out to be a cute girl, then you got the whole 'she likes him but not yet' vibe going on. And he…" Joe grunted as his spike slamd through a sli into the earth, "is, of course, irresistible and suddenly is added into the MC's growing harem. Ain't that right, kid?"
Garnedell said nothing, simply glancing periodically to Joe while he continued to retrieve gem after gem with avid caution, making sure he didn't miss a single one. Joe looked to the boy, hoping for a response, but then realized the kid obviously couldn't understand him. He sighed and fell back into silence, his focus on eradicating every sli before him. The rest of the afternoon passed in silent but frenetic killing. Joe was so focused, that he only ca out of his frenzy with so surprise when Garnedell tapped him on his shoulder and spoke while pointing at the sky. Glancing up, Joe noticed the darkness cloaking the forest in shadows and realized the sun was well on its way to the horizon. The west held the glow of red, and the east was already a deep purple.
"Hey, kid. Thanks for letting know. We need to get back ho pretty quick, huh? Ho soon night co sleep."
He smiled and ruffled the kid's hair and then turned south towards the road. Joe had had felt a couple bigger status updates in the day, and figured he'd at least grown three levels, but when he looked at his screen, he was a bit disappointed to find he only made it to seven, with just a tiny hint of growth on his experience bar. He'd have a long day tomorrow!
When Joe made the road, the two of them ca out a bit further away from the village than they'd expected or they normally did. Their hunting must have pushed them a bit further from the village. Joe and Garnedell jogged down the road, not sure how far they had to go and soon ca upon the sli crossroad, easily recognizing the landmark simply because they'd seen it so much over the past hundred days or so. But as they ca upon where the slis usually crossed the road, Joe found an amusing sight of two slis chasing a single rabbit like creature across the road. The two slis continuously leapt at the rabbit thing and the rabbit thing kept dodging just barely.
Joe and the kid actually stopped and watched with a bit of shock as the two slis danced around chasing after the rabbit. Suddenly, a swish of color whipped out of the forest to their left and Joe quickly dropped, a surprised reaction to what he thought was an attack. Relief flooded Joe as he realized that the two had gotten lucky. Another sli had co out of the road, heading north as usual, and leapt to attack them but collided with a tree at the edge of the road. At the sa ti, the rabbit had suddenly darted towards them before juking quickly north when it realized Joe and Garnedell was ahead of them. The two slis chasing the rabbit imdiately leapt towards the rabbit but collided with each other as they both angled in on the rabbit.
Joe watched with so awe as he saw the two slis hit each other, then slowly start oozing together. He'd initially planned to take on the sli that had clipped the tree in its ambush but when he saw the two slis suddenly combining, fear swept through him. He instantly recognized what was happening! It's rging! Crap! Joe left the ambushing sli alone and sprinted towards the forming dual sli. Even as he ran forward, he glanced backwards and noticed that the single sli was almost out of the tree. This is NOT good! I can't! What… No!
"Garnedell! Go! Ho! Go! Go! Go," Joe shouted in a loud panic as he pointed towards the village.
The great sli was still forming and would take a little more ti to complete. Hopefully, Garnedell would have enough ti to sprint down the road away and get out of the range of the slis. Garnedell seed to freeze for a second but then began sprinting down the road. They'd made it about half the way to the dual sli, Garnedell lagging behind by a couple steps, when it suddenly squatted in preparation of its leaping attack and Joe cursed under his breath, leaping to the side away from Garnedell and landing in a roll even as it flew overhead.
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"Garnedell! Go! Go!"
Joe ca to his feet even as he yelled for Garnedell to run again, coming to his feet as rapidly as possible in the hopes of catching the great sli as it landed, but it had already leapt back at him again and Joe had to leap to the side once again, rolling under the whoosh of the slis attack. Even as he ca up, he saw the second smaller sli finally break free of the trees and leap towards him as well. Joe cursed once again and this ti leapt to the side while throwing the spear into the dirt to free his hands. As he flew through the air, he noticed what looked like a horse and knight idling in the distance, unmoving and not watching. But the need to act was so overwhelming he had little ti to consider the ramifications of a horsed knight and almost imdiately had his bow out and an arrow knocked, but the string slack.
At the mont, the large sli was now behind him and the small sli was in front of him. He'd need to dodge the large sli while turning one hundred eighty degrees to get his eye on the small sli. He hoped it would be enough to get an arrow into the small sli and anchor it to the ground. The large sli leapt faster, as always, and Joe pulled his arrow back to his ear even as he leapt to his right and turned to face behind him. The small sli was just starting to land in the ditch close to the forest's edge and Joe sighted his shot and released it. His right hand released the arrow and was able to co down to brace his fall but now he was in horrendous danger. Focusing on the arrow, he saw the shaft thunk into the sli and anchor it to the ground, about three quarters dead center. Joe tsked a bit at his poor shot but he didn't have a lot of ti to complain. He had failed to conserve his montum with any kind of roll and now he would be terribly slow to stand.
He didn't even try. He chose to simply roll on the ground, tumbling down into the ditch even as the thump of the great sli landed exactly where he had been laying. He'd been able to take one of his rolls and turn it into montum to quickly get back to his feet while simultaneously latching his bow back on to his harness on his back, the magnetic locks shunking into place quickly and easily. His eyes were already on the great sli when he was rolling back to his feet and noticed its shrinking movent just before its leap. This ti he leapt directly towards the smaller sli, looking quickly and noticing that the sli still had a good ten or fifteen seconds of wiggling to free itself from the arrow shaft before twisting in air so that he could land facing towards the great sli.
Relief flooded him even as he watch the great sli slam into the trees at the side of the road and embedded itself into the trees, enveloping two or three tree trunks. Ha! That'll hold it for a few monts! Joe gave a non-vocal cry of triumphant before taking out his spoon spear and quickly scooping out the single sli's gem and ripping his arrow out of the turf before throwing it into the dirt another foot or two away to get it away from the slis acidic body. The gem flipped out of the sli's body and bounced off a tree trunk before flying back towards him in an almost perfect arc and Joe could only feel a bit more relief as he felt the small flash of a kill flood through him while he snatched the gem out of the air and dropped it in his coin pouch.
When he turned back to look at the big sli, he registered it sliming its way down the trees back to the forest floor but was more shocked to see the traditional knight simply standing there, watching him. Joe realized he'd heard the clop of horse hooves a good minute or two ago about the ti the fight had gotten a bit hairy.
"Hey! Co help ," Joe called to the knight while pointing at the great sli but the man simply stared and did nothing. Joe cursed and realized he'd yelled in English and as he was going to try again, Garnedell yelled out loudly in the local language but the knight made no move.
"No help, mulkan!"
Joe felt his anger simr even as he realized the knight had no intention of helping in the first place. The realization ca when he noticed that the knight's distance was almost perfectly outside the range that the sli would detect him. The man never was going to help! What a bastard! Joe grimaced and spit before turning his attention away from the knight and sprinting towards the great sli. His spoon spear pulled out and braced for his running strike. The sli had made it to the forest floor by this ti and was rapidly wiggling its way off the tree trunks but it was too late. Joe's spoon spear slamd into the side of the sli and burrowed deeply towards its gems. His spoon spear bowl ca into position quickly and easily and Joe grunted as he pulled out the dual gem with a grunt. This ti, he was able to pull out the gems well enough that only a small amount of the sli's ooze was left and he was able to jog to the dual gem and flick the last of the ooze off, finally killing it.
Joe headed towards his spear he'd slamd into the middle of the road and looked up at the knight, disgust plainly written on his face as he stared at the man. The knight looked back at Joe with a mildly interested subtle shock but seed completely unconcerned with Joe's personal opinion of him. Granted, Joe was guessing this as he was only able to see the eyes shining through the small slit in the helt lit by the setting sun. The knight looked around carefully for more enemies before coming forward once again. Joe had reached his spear and simply stared at the night as he ca by. About the sa ti the knight showed up, Garnedell arrived at his side, panting.
The knight was dressed in a blue and light blue color sche on his various equipnt with a stylized four petal flower for a coat of arms. The four petal flower did not have four petals on all four sides, but had the four petals spread equidistantly around three sides while the bottom side sported a strange curlicue like construct. Huh, looks a little like an orchid!
The knight sauntered up and ca to a stop beside Joe before speaking to him with such disdain that Joe didn't even need to see beneath the helt or understand his words for it was so thick in the atmosphere of his presence. Joe felt an imdiate dislike for the knight and simply stared, refusing to reply. Garnedell turned to Joe and offered a translation.
"Kiers… give kiers sli gem."
"What?"
"Give kiers sli gem."
"Why?"
"Kiers say…"
"The knight says give your loot that I didn't help you fight at all? I don't think so. Kiers no get sli gem."
Garnedell seed to gulp a bit, eyes wide, but then translated for the knight. The knight's mockery remained hidden behind his helm as the knight simply looked at the two for a bit. Joe returned the gaze without flinching, equally cold and unforgiving. The knight grunted then snapped the horse reigns to send it down the road towards the village. Joe and Garnedell watched the knight go for a while before turning and retrieving the arrow left by the side of the road. Joe then gathered up Garnedell and began walking back ho while cleaning off his arrow and two spears carefully.
While riding, the knight glanced back at Joe and Garnedell from ti to ti and when the knight was about a hundred ters away, the horse wheeled around and the knight pulled out a sword. Joe's eyes rose and he pulled out his spear and pushed Garnedell into the woods.
"Garnedell. Go!"
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