Hard Carried by My Sword-Chapter 23

Chapter 23
Blaine the Freedom City was always bustling. The commotion caused by thousands—sometimes over ten thousand—people coming and going each day was beyond imagination. And the reasons for coming to Blaine were as diverse as the people themselves.
There were adventurers looking to make a name for themselves, mercenaries chasing fortune, merchants hoping to strike it rich with rare goods, and even artisans trying to get the attention of foreign traders.
All kinds of people passed through the city gates with big dreams, but only a few out of every hundred managed to achieve them. Most vanished without leaving even a name behind.
It was only natural. It was easier to gain fame in a city with more people, but that also meant that more people were looking to do the exact same thing. The more people there were, the harder it became to stand out.
Such was especially true when it came to fame: unless you were at the very top, it lost its shine quickly. Earning a name for yourself in Blaine was more elusive than making a fortune.
“Hey, it’s the Cat! Off to hunt more Ratmen today?” someone said, waving at Leon.
“That kid’s the Cat? He’s pretty young,” another asked.
“Age is just a number for adventurers. As long as you’ve got the skill, who cares? I hear he stacks Ratman corpses like clockwork every day.”
“Ah, so that’s why he’s called the Cat? It fits!”
The adventurers gathered in the guild’s main hall were chatting about him. There weren’t many negative remarks—most just seemed intrigued by the newcomer.
Normally, Ratman extermination wouldn't draw anyone’s attention. However, Leon was an exception.
Blaine was a sizable city and as the city grew, so did its sewer system. Ratmen loved their sprawling, filth-filled paradise. If there had been regular exterminations, perhaps things would've been different—but with the job being so undesirable, their numbers had multiplied beyond reason.
Then Leon showed up—the grim reaper of the Ratmen’s paradise.
“How many has he killed in the last ten days?”
“I stopped counting after a thousand.”
“They say he kills at least two hundred a day. That’s gotta be two thousand by now.”
“I bet the guild’s warehouse is overflowing with Ratman tails.”
Killing a thousand of one type of monster usually earned you the title “Slayer.” But “Ratman Slayer” sounded too pathetic—so people had settled on the nickname “Cat.” It was rare for a rookie to earn a nickname, but that was exactly what Leon did.
His tendency to work alone also played a part. Since he never went for high-paying jobs, no one saw him as competition. There was no reason to dislike him and plenty of reason to be friendly.
With a
thud
, Leon dropped his usual sack of Ratman tails on the counter, and Lize, unfazed by now, weighed it. It was fourteen kilograms.
Still ridiculous, but considering he usually brought in over twenty kilograms, it was lighter than usual. Lize raised an eyebrow and asked, “A bit less today?”
“Yes, there weren’t as many Ratmen around. Even the ones that usually ambush me backed off. I think they’re scared of me now.”
“That makes sense, you know...”
Ratmen might be dumb, but they weren’t brainless. With hundreds of them dying every day, it was no wonder they were starting to avoid him. Even the cleanup crew run by the city had started complaining about sore backs.
Leon took his compensation for the tails. Except today, he didn’t turn to leave right away.
“Actually, I was thinking of taking on something else...”
“Oh, of course! One moment!”
Before he even finished speaking, Lize was already on the move. She pulled out a few quest sheets from her desk and handed them to him.
She’d clearly prepared them in advance. Leon hadn’t expected much, but it seemed Lize had meant it when she said she would look out for him.
What do you think?
Leon asked El-Cid, looking over the documents.
He was hoping to pick something that would benefit his training, and there were four options laid out before him:
Cave Kobold Raid, Rock Slime Raid, Abandoned Ossuary Investigation and Undead Raid, and Living Armor Raid in an Abandoned Mansion.
All of them were low-paying, tedious jobs no one wanted.
—Fighting in a cave might be good... but the others aren’t bad either. Skip the last one, though. Living Armor are too tough for you right now. You don’t have the Aura to properly destroy a suit of full plate armor.
What about the one with the undead?
—
Good experience, but nothing to gain. If I help, it’s too easy. If I don’t, it’s too dangerous. Wait until you’ve awakened Aura.
That left only the Cave Kobolds and the Rock Slimes. After thinking a bit, El-Cid chose the Rock Slimes. Leon silently accepted the decision.
When he picked up the Rock Slime request, Lize nodded to herself with a knowing expression. He saw her mouth the words “I knew it,” though he didn’t know what she meant.
This quest sheet’s pretty old,
Leon thought, looking at the worn-out edges of the paper.
—Means it doesn’t get taken often. Probably never gets renewed.
Let’s see... Habitat: the underground channels near the city wall. Since they erode stone, leaving them unchecked could weaken the walls... Requested by... Blaine’s Defense Captain?
That meant he wouldn’t be cheated out of his pay. Still, the fact that no one had touched it even with a captain's name on the job said a lot. The only ones who had taken it were adventurers being punished. No one had ever volunteered.
Must be a real pain of a monster.
Leon clicked his tongue and tucked the request away. Ratmen were bad enough, but slimes could be worse. At least they weren’t nocturnal, so he could hunt them anytime.
He said to Lize, “I’ll focus on the Rock Slime job for now. If the others don’t get taken, feel free to send them my way too.”
“Of course! I’ll hold them for you!” Lize replied enthusiastically.
“See you next time, then.”
With that, his business at the Guild was finished. Leon gave Lize a quick farewell and headed out, following the map on the quest sheet. The location was near the city wall—a fair walk.
He waved at those who greeted him and strolled down a path he’d come to know well in just a few days. The nickname “the Cat” wasn’t exactly dignified, but it wasn’t so bad having people recognize him.
***
When Leon approached the guardsman at the entrance to the underground tunnel, he was met with a confused look.
“Rock Slime Raid? I haven’t even put in the request for that yet,” the guardsman said.
“How do you explain this quest sheet, then?” Leon asked.
From the guardsman’s experience, this annoying job only got done after the defense captain himself came down and twisted a few unlucky arms.
Because both sides assumed the other was simply misinformed, the two of them ended up arguing briefly. It just came down to a simple misunderstanding.
Fortunately, the dispute was quickly resolved—thanks to the timely arrival of the defense captain, who spotted them in passing.
“Oho! So you’re the one they call ‘the Cat’! The rookie adventurer who cleaned out the sewer rats?” the captain said.
“Yes, that’s me.”
“
Hahaha
! Excellent! We need more adventurers like you. Picking only the sweet jobs and avoiding the bitter ones—calling that adventuring? That’s laughable, isn’t it?”
It was certainly not an easy question to answer. The captain seemed to know it too, since he didn’t wait for a reply and just patted Leon’s shoulder a few times.
“Well then, I’m counting on you for this too. If you pull it off, I’ll make sure you’re taken care of. Do your best.”
“Thank you for your consideration, Captain.”
Once the captain walked off after telling his men to look after Leon, he was finally allowed into the underground. Upon arrival, the interior was just what he expected.
The damp, clammy air tickled his nose, and the lanterns on the wall cast long shadows down the passage. The scent of dirt and moisture mixed into a musty stink. Thankfully, unlike the sewers, it was breathable air, so it didn’t require El-Cid’s purification.
The ground’s a little soft.
It wasn’t quite mud, but definitely not firm ground either. His footing slipped now and then when he accidentally let his mind wander off of Rodrick’s Footwork.
Still, this too was a form of training. Leon moved forward with noiseless steps, leaving no trace behind. It required transferring his center of gravity at just the right moment. If he was even slightly off, too much force would go into his knees, and his balance would break down.
Tch, this is harder than I thought.
Just a slightly soggy floor and the difficulty had shot up. Maintaining that balance in the middle of combat would be impossible.
His Footwork was still only at level one. He had gained something from fighting in the tight confines of the sewers, but it wasn’t enough to reach the next level. The battles in these tunnels would hopefully provide the stepping stones.
After a few more paces, a shape squirmed at the edge of his vision.
There you are.
Rock Slimes, the targets of the raid quest. As soon as he identified them, Leon’s focus sharpened. He suppressed any stirring of emotion and channeled all of his awareness into the faculties needed for combat.
—There are three of them.
Just as El-Cid said, there were three Rock Slimes in total. Leon’s eyes fixed on the wobbling blobs. He’d seen slimes before, but never this kind.
If they were just ordinary slimes, no adventurer would bother avoiding them. To find out why they were different, Leon used Rodrick's Vision to scan them closely.
El-Cid asked, —Well? Catching on?
Roughly.
He responded with his thoughts and raised his sword. The Holy Sword El-Cid, a blade sharper than any weapon in this world and utterly unbreakable, came slashing down toward the Rock Slimes.
There was no way these gelatinous-looking blobs could withstand a strike from
the
Holy Sword, but a loud
clang
rang out. Instead of slicing clean through, the sword only dug in slightly before bouncing back with a loud metallic ring.
It felt like striking solid rock.
“As expected,” Leon muttered with narrowed eyes as he shook off the recoil.
Those round, jelly-like bodies—there was something hidden inside them. He focused harder, trying to pierce through the murky ooze to find whatever had stopped his sword.
“So that’s why they’re called Rock Slimes!” he exclaimed upon the discovery.
A slime’s biggest weakness was its core. No matter what abilities it has, destroy the core and it was done. However, inside these Rock Slimes, countless shards of stone were embedded around the core, layering over it like armor. It was a pretty clever defense mechanism for a monster.
Slimes’ gelatinous defense worked best against blunt weapons. Blades and arrows could pierce right through them. So Rock Slimes had compensated for that weakness by hiding behind stone. That made them nearly immune to conventional weapons.
No wonder no one wants to fight these things.
To take down a Rock Slime with ease, you either needed aura or magic strong enough to evaporate their ooze. That was far beyond most D-rankers.
And even if you did manage to kill one, all you got out of it were rocks. It wasn’t worth the effort. The guards weren’t offering much for the job either—so naturally, adventurers steered clear.
It seemed like the Rock Slimes were about to react to Leon’s strike. Usually, slimes attacked in one of two ways: body slams or spraying digestive fluids, but Rock Slimes did neither.
The three blobs all convulsed for a moment—then simultaneously fired off the stones inside their bodies with consecutive
thwips.
Caught off guard by the sudden barrage, Leon’s eyes flew wide open.