“Alright, that should do it.”

It was the next morning.

I had been preparing to leave on my journey to gather some Dria flowers.

Unlike the quest for the Healia grass, this one would take me a few days.

Of course, that meant camping outdoors, so I needed to prepare.

Thankfully, a tent and food supplies were not too expensive, so I was able to acquire them immediately.

‘Hey, is there like a capacity limit for this thing?’

I asked the slime as I made them store the tent.

It was a tent for one person, so it wasn’t heavy. Still, it was clearly larger than the slime.

If there really was a limit, I wanted to know beforehand.

‘Hmm… I don’t know!’

I see.

Well, there was nothing I could do then.

I would just have to think about it when or if the time came.

‘Alright, let’s go then.’

‘Yes!’

We said as we left the town.

Our destination was the top of the western mountains, so we just had to climb them.

But…

‘It’s so far…’

‘Far!’

Some time had passed since we first started.

I had been walking for at least an hour now, but it didn’t seem any closer.

I think it was something like three days on foot…

Thanks to my skills, I didn’t get too tired physically, but I got tired mentally.

I mean, it just didn’t feel like I was making any progress.

And then I thought of something good.

‘Hey, are there any monsters nearby?’

‘I don’t know…why?’

‘I’m a Tamer. I thought maybe I could ride a monster if there is a good one in the area.’

My skill was called Taming.

It clearly wasn’t only Slimes I could tame. So I thought I would capture something else.

‘A monster that Yuji can ride… I will tell you if I find one.’

‘Good. Thanks.’

And so we continued towards the mountain while searching for monsters.

The Manager had said it was a ‘safe forest’ so there weren’t many monsters…

But after about thirty minutes, the slime raised its voice.

‘There’s one! A wolf-like monster is over there!’

‘Thanks!’

We finally found a ride!

That’s what I thought as I looked towards it.

However…

“GRRRRRRRRR…!”

“It seems really hostile…”

The monster wolf was baring its fangs and growling at me.

Well, it was a monster. So maybe this was just normal behavior.

“Hey, please let me ride you!”

“GRRR!”

I tried solving the problem peacefully, but the monster ignored it and attacked me.

…It looked like I would just have to ride it by force.

‘I’m going to throw you now!’

I got the slime’s consent and then threw it up into the air.

The wolf ignored the slime and came at me.

And just as the slime was out of the wolf’s vision…my magic activated.

“Magic Transfer-Capture!”

And then a net shot out of the floating slime and captured the wolf.

As it was magic for capturing things, it was very strong and stopped the wolf from moving.

“…Sword Summon.”

I said and summoned a sword. And then I pointed it at the wolf.

And then…

“Woo…owoo…”

It started to whimper sadly. There was no sign of the hostile beast from a moment ago.

But I had no idea what it was trying to say.

Maybe I couldn’t understand monsters who haven’t been tamed.

As I wondered this, I realized there was something called ‘Monster Mutual Understanding’ in my Tamer skills.

Maybe I could use this to talk to animals I hadn’t tamed.

And so I activated it.

And then I started to hear the voice of the monster…it was even more pathetic than I had expected.

“Wooof-oooof! (Help me! Don’t kill me!)”

“Uh, I’m not trying to kill you. I just want to ride you…”

“Squeak! Woof! Bark! Bark! (I’m sorry! A scrub wolf like me shouldn’t have attacked you! Don’t kill me! I will do anything!)”

Hmm.

It was so shameless that I lost any desire to have it join us.

Still, it was bigger than ordinary wolves and seemed like it would be able to carry me…

“Uh… Alright, can I tame you then?”

“Bark!(Yes! Gladly!)”

The wolf answered. And then there was a bell ring and a window appeared.

——————————————————-

‘Monster: You have tamed a Proud Wolf.’

——————————————————-

A Proud Wolf?

…Was it just me, or was there not an ounce of pride to be seen?

…Oh, well.

“I won’t kill you. So, can you take me to those mountains over there?”

‘Okay! Please ride me!’

The Proud Wolf said as it lowered itself to the ground.

Yes, I didn’t feel any pride in it whatsoever…but at least I had a new means of transformation.