Chapter 170

(170) Anxiety before the fight

Translator: Tseirp

As the boat drifted away from the coast, I jumped into the boat and stretched my hand towards Carol who was following behind .

Carol grabbed my hand and climbed onto the boat .

“Our feet are soaked now . ”

“Yeah ― it’s a good thing we brought 2 pairs of shoes . ”

I bought hiking shoes at Gomaki village so I had changed into those when I was running on the coast .

Since it would have been a problem if I got a wound from running along the coast . There were considerably sized rocks around after all . I would be able to treat any injuries using healing magic but it would have been troublesome if I got some strange infection from the wound .

Naturally, there weren’t any doctors or hospitals on the deserted island so getting a bacterial infection might be life-threatening .

When I went barefoot by taking off my shoes, Carol also followed me and took off her shoes and we poured the water in our shoes off the boat .

Carol’s small feet were revealed .

“Now then, I guess I’ll start rowing . ”

“Ichino-sama, should I row too?”

“No, it’s the guy’s role to row on a rowing boat after all . ”

I held the oar securely and rowed .

“I guess the last time I rowed a boat was about 5 years ago ― immediately after I graduated from middle school . ”

Miri was still an elementary school student at that time . During summer break on a day our parents were away for work, we went to a park together and rowed a boat .

Until today, I still clearly recall Miri saying “Hey Onii, Miri is no longer a child so I won’t be happy with something like this . ” even though she was still an elementary school student .

At that time, that small pond felt extremely wide . We reached the opposite shore of the pond a minute before we would have had to pay additional by missing the appointed time . It would have been seriously dangerous if a strange gust didn’t blow us towards the boat landing area . And I remember Miri looking quite exhausted perhaps because she was seasick from the sudden gust . She was as exhausted as I am when I reach magical power exhaustion .

Never in my wildest dreams would I imagine that I would now be sailing out into the ocean with a rowing boat .

Thankfully the waves were calm so the ship didn’t sway much . To the extent that I felt that I was shaken more when I rode on a horse carriage .

I thought to myself that once this was all over, it might be fun to have a relaxed journey by sailing on the sailboat and passing time by doing something like fishing .

Thanks to my status increase, rowing the boat didn’t tire me at all and my speed was much faster compared to when I last rowed a boat in Japan .

I wonder how far should I row the boat until? By now, the island was but a faint shadow .

“Well then, shall we wait here? ― ”

The biggest problem was where the monster would appear from .

She mentioned that it would appear around the island but I didn’t ask her for the exact location . It would be troublesome if it appeared at the opposite side from us but I took a gamble .

However, Carol discovered that inside the uninhabited labyrinth, the monsters spawned more frequently at the southeast so I sailed the boat to the northeast .

If you’re wondering why not to the southeast, it’s because I would not have the leeway to intercept the monster if the monster appears directly below the boat, I would be too busy avoiding it .

“Carol, in your opinion, what kind of nasty monsters live in the ocean?”

“Let me see, a famous legendary monster would be the Sea Serpent . ”

“A huge snake huh ― ”

“Sightings of other monsters include the Spirit monsters Lorelei that sink ships with their songs, single-horned whales the size of islands, or the Big Black Shark that’s feared for consuming ships is also famous … but the Demon Lord should be able to defeat those . ”

“I don’t feel like I would be able to defeat a single-horned whale the size of an island though . ”

“Don’t worry, their weakness is Thunder so Ichino-sama will be able to defeat it easily with Boost Thunder . ”

… Carol’s belief in me is way too high . I seriously don’t believe I can defeat a monster the size of an island .

“In addition, there are many other mythological monsters of the sea . ”

“Really?”

“Yes . A huge octopus called a Kraken, also ― ”

It happened when Carol was about to say something .

The waves surged ― and the ship was swept about as if we were being sucked into the sea .

“This presence ― tch, this is out of my expectations . ”

My monster Presence Detection skill captured it instead of my Enemy Detection skill and I looked towards it .

A shark flew up from below the ocean surface like a flying fish .

“Ichino-sama, is this the monster?”

“No! Slash!”

It was a slight expenditure of MP but it was better than using magic .

The shark aiming for the boat was shot down by the Slash attack released from my knife hand pose .

That’s right, the shark died from just that ― there’s no way that kind of small fry would be something the Demon Lord fail to defeat .

In addition ―

“More of them incoming . ”

Not only the shark, numerous monsters were surfacing on the ocean surface . They were the monsters that were not detected by my Enemy Detection skill even though the bottom of the ocean isn’t that far away .

This was most likely due to the revival of the monster Sheena No . 3 talked about .

The monsters inside the ocean were escaping to the ocean surface ― and the agitated monsters attacked the enemies they were unaccustomed to ― in other words, us .

“Give me a break, just escape and leave us be! Slash!”

I cut down the monster that came to assault our boat this time, a large octopus (not a Kraken) . The octopus ink polluted the ocean but when that washed away, a shark appeared next .

My MP would be depleted even before the actual monster appears if this continued on .

That being said, if I allowed the monsters to approach until I can reach them with a sword, a small boat like this would sink in the blink of the eye .

We were in a bigger pinch than I had imagined .