“…Alright, that’s probably enough.”

An hour had now passed since I had killed the monsters that came out of the magic stone.

I looked at all the Dria flowers we had gathered with a satisfied nod.

There was no requirement in terms of amount, so this was surely good enough.

‘We got so much!’

‘Thank you, Dryad!’

‘No, thank you! Call me if you ever need more flowers!’

“Yeah. I might ask for your help again if I’m ever doing a similar quest.”

I had the slimes put the flowers in their storage while I talked to the Dryad.

And then-I realized there was something odd about what she had said.

“Call you… I don’t have to go to you?”

‘Hmm…you could… But I can generally travel to any place with trees, so it would be better if you called. I would get weak if I stayed away from my lands for too long, but that can be fixed if you send me energy like before.’

The Dryad said. Then she vanished into the ground as if she had melted. And then she reappeared a short distance away.

…It was like teleportation. How convenient.

“Well…I guess I could leave a tamed monster here to keep in contact. Raise your hand if you would like to stay.”

I said as I looked at the slimes that were scattered around me.

A few of the slimes that were here originally now raised their hands(?).

“Alright, you guys can stay here with the Dryad.”

‘Okay!’

Now that was settled.

I could stay in contact with them even when apart with the use of ‘Tamer Skill: Mutual Understanding.’ So I could use Magic Transfer if anything happened.

“I guess we should go back now…huh? Where did the Proud Wolf go?”

He had come with me all this way and promised to give me a ride back…but he seemed to have disappeared at some point.

As I wondered about this…the slimes raised their voices.

‘The Proud Wolf is over there!’

‘It got scared and ran when you used magic!’

‘No it didn’t! It ran even before that. When it first saw the magic stone!’

…I see. He ran away.

The shameless wolf. Some things never change…

‘Uh… Can I come out now…?’

I suddenly heard the Proud Wolf’s voice.

He was hiding behind a boulder that was a short distance away.

“The fighting is now finished. Actually, there was a barrier the whole time, so it wasn’t even dangerous.”

‘But, it was kind of scary…’

The Proud Wolf said as he inched his way back to where the barrier had been.

Was this guy really a monster…

Well, there were a lot of unfortunate things about him, but the Proud Wolf would still give me a free ride.

And there was no need to have him participate in battle anyway.

“Alright. Can you just take me back to the town then?”

‘Yes!’

And with that, I got on top of the Proud Wolf and he started running.

‘See you later!’

“Yeah! See you again!”

Well, as long as the slimes were there, I should be able to stay in touch.

◇

And then a few hours passed.

I arrived safely back in the town.

The first thing to think about…was the Proud Wolf’s future.

I could return him to nature, but I somehow felt that it wouldn’t survive back in the forest.

Well, I could just leave the choice to him.

“Hey, Proud Wolf. What are you going to do now?”

‘Do…? I will follow you, of course. I bet that I’ll be safer that way. …That Magic Transfer thing, could you use it on me too?’

Yes. I expected as much.

And he felt that I could protect him with Magic Transfer if he was in danger… And if I was going to ride him, then maybe being this much of a coward would actually be safer. I didn’t mind, in any case.

“Yeah. I could. …Alright then. You can stay with me.”

‘Thank you! I will wholeheartedly carry you, Mister Yuji! …Though, I don’t think I’ll be useful to you in combat.’

“Don’t worry about that. I don’t expect you to.”

And so I put a collar and tag on the Proud Wolf.

This tag helped people differentiate between monsters that have and haven’t been tamed.

It wasn’t necessary for slimes, but you apparently had to use these tags when bringing other monsters into a town.

I had bought one while preparing for camping, and it now proved to be very useful.

And with that, we were just about to step foot into the town, when a nearby Adventurer pointed at the Proud Wolf.

“That’s a great wolf… I didn’t think there was a good enough Tamer in this whole town to be able to tame something like that…”

A great wolf…are you sure about that?

It was an interesting question that I pondered as we continued on our way.