The Man in the Rain (Part 1)

Chapter 21: The Man in the Rain (Part 1)

There were at least seventy or eighty goblins at the scene, if not over a hundred. Even if goblins were among the weakest monsters, it was still impossible for these four on their first mission to face them head-on. They would be exhausted to death first.

Fully armed, the tabby catfolk Litia brought up the rear as the warrior. The half-elf Anna took the shortbow from her back and fired arrows at the goblins trying to pursue them. At the current density of goblins, even Pei Renli would not miss a shot if handed a bow. Meanwhile, the bard Moen finally had a free hand. He put away his shortsword, picked up his lute again, and began playing a brisk, impassioned tune with a dense rhythm.

As everyone knew, when a protagonist erupted with power and turned the tide against impossible odds, there was always background music to back them up. Without it, a comeback was basically impossible...

In truth, that was a bard's special ability. Besides casting spells, they could perform music with magical effects. Those listening to the rhythm all felt a surge of strength appear from nowhere, and their swings against the goblins became more forceful.

Simply put, this magical tune provided two buffs: "Increased Attack Power" and "Increased Stamina Recovery Speed." Together with Pei Renli, who hurried a few steps to catch up and used magic to support them, the group fought as they retreated.

They kept at it until they finally managed to open up a little distance. Moen's fingering on the lute changed, shifting into a cheerful marching tune. Bolstered by the buff, everyone stretched their legs and sprinted madly through the forest. Only when the dense mass of trees before them vanished, revealing a great river more than a hundred meters wide, did they finally shake off the goblins and stop, gasping for breath.

Perhaps the goblins had failed to catch them. Or perhaps, having lost Lavna's control, they no longer wanted to give chase. Either way, they were safe for the moment.

Their miserable flight from the goblins could not entirely be separated from Lavna's influence, but the biggest problem had actually been themselves.

First was the half-elf Anna. As the eyes of the party, she should have been scouting at the very front and helping the group avoid danger. Her failure to do so was negligence in itself.

After all, dozens of goblins moving through the forest could have been spotted in advance with even a little vigilance. Even if they had been unable to avoid them in time, they would not have let the goblins surround them.

Then there was the tabby catfolk Litia. She was the leader of this temporary party, yet she had not fulfilled a leader's duties at all. She had never assigned each teammate what they should do or explained how they should do it. In other words, she had played no role whatsoever as a commander. The only correct judgment she had made was deciding to run.

Last was the bard Moen. He had indeed played a considerable role during their escape, but when the battle had begun, he had not buffed his teammates at all. Instead, he had focused solely on parrying with his shortsword. The failures of the first two had objectively made it difficult for him to offer support, but that was no excuse.

Looking over it all, Pei Renli—the greenest of greenhorns—had actually performed the best. When the goblins appeared, he had warned everyone of the danger, and his choice of spells had been entirely correct.

That was mainly because Pei Renli's life was constantly under threat from the Demon King Arena, so he thought differently from ordinary people. While the others saw goblins and thought nothing of them, Pei Renli remained highly alert.

Of course, his commendable performance was only the tallest among dwarves.

Everyone had made plenty of mistakes. The greatest problem was their mindset.

They had believed this easy commission could be settled with a wave of the hand and had not taken it seriously at all. The four of them had chatted as they walked straight into the woods. Even without Lavna summoning the goblins, their talking and laughter would have drawn other beasts or monsters over, as though they had cast a massive taunt in the middle of the forest.

Luckily, there were few monsters nearby. Had this been a dangerous region, they would already be dead and cold.

Do not think details are unimportant. Being an adventurer was an exceptionally dangerous job—essentially making a living with one's head tucked into one's belt. Adventurers who said not to sweat the small stuff could generally only pay more attention in their next lives.

These were all common failings among beginners, and their teachers had mentioned them at school. They simply had not emphasized them deliberately, instead passing over them as lightly as drifting clouds and a gentle breeze, without caring whether the students remembered.

It was not because they thought them unimportant. It was because they understood that hearing someone tell you and taking a beating yourself were two different kinds of pain...

After this experience of being chased by goblins, everyone seemed to have recognized their flaws. They no longer dared underestimate this supposedly safe forest.

The process had been rather holy-shit, but as far as the result went, it was not entirely a bad thing.

It was just that, seeing how seriously they were reflecting, Pei Renli truly had no way to tell them that he had something to do with it...

Back to the matter at hand.

The great river they had seen after passing through the forest originated in the Supreme Mountain Range on the Great Tree Sea side. Fed by glacial snowmelt and the storms that frequently visited the Great Tree Sea, its waters flowed fast and fierce.

Whether for household water or irrigating farmland, Naspar's residents depended on this river. But storms were impossible to predict, and rain could cause the river's level to rise rapidly at any moment, threatening the settlements along its banks.

Therefore, they had built a dam upstream, primarily to prevent floods.

Following the river onward, the group finally reached their destination around half an hour later.

Their task was to inspect the dam, checking whether it had been damaged or clogged with debris. The city regularly sent people to handle such matters.

Naturally, the dam was not a modern concrete structure, but a primitive construction of earth and timber. Magic might have been involved in its construction as well, and its sturdiness was still quite reliable.

Following the commission's requirements, everyone checked the dam. After confirming that there was no problem, Litia found a type of tree growing on the bank beside the dam, one that bore small dark-green fruits. She chopped off a branch bearing olive-like fruit.

This kind of tree originally grew deep within the Great Tree Sea and could not be found around its outskirts. Its roots were extremely developed and effectively prevented soil erosion, so it had been deliberately brought here to reinforce the riverbanks on both sides of the dam.

Taking away a branch was proof that they had completed the task. Otherwise, there was no way to prove whether they had actually visited the dam.

With that, their primary objective was complete. It had been a very simple mission to begin with, and now all they needed to do was turn around and head back.

However, it was already nearing noon. After walking all morning and then fleeing from goblins in such a frantic mess, everyone was thoroughly tired despite the magical music's buffs, and their stomachs had long been growling with hunger. They quickly decided to eat lunch here, rest for a while, and leave afterward.

Forcing a march while in poor condition was dangerous in itself. If they ran into another situation requiring a fight, anyone who had not eaten would have little strength to use.

At that moment, the Great Tree Sea displayed its unreasonable side once more. When Pei Renli and the others had just inspected the dam, the sky had been clear for miles. Yet when they took out their rations and decided to eat, the light visibly dimmed. Dark clouds instantly crowded the sky, and a cold wind laced with damp air swept over their bodies. A storm was about to arrive.

Wind and rain were an enormous nuisance to anyone traveling through the wilderness. Setting aside the fact that getting drenched could lower one's body temperature and make one sick, it was also extremely dangerous to travel while heavy rain obscured one's vision.

Fortunately, Pei Renli and the others did not need to walk through the rain. Not far from the dam stood a small wooden cabin for its caretaker, where they could take shelter.

The cabin was not being used for the time being. People were generally only sent there during summer, when rainfall was at its heaviest, to keep watch over the dam at all times and prevent it from bursting.

Still, even when unoccupied, it was stocked with all the necessities.

The group lit the stove, and the warm fire drove away the chill brought by the storm. They also boiled a kettle of water, making it easier to chew through their rations.

It was impossible to expect good food in the wild. Even if they hunted and roasted meat, the smell of grilling could draw beasts or monsters, so they could not just do it casually.

An adventurer's rations mainly consisted of dried vegetables, jerky, rock-hard bread, or tightly pressed flatbreads. Their greatest virtues were ease of transport and long storage life. As for the taste...

Pei Renli opened his backpack, intending to take out some jerky to gnaw on, but the recent goblins came to mind, and he decided to eat something vegetarian instead.

Sitting by the window and watching the rain pour down in sheets, Pei Renli could not help sighing over their good luck. At least the rain had not started on their return trip. If it had, they would have had nowhere to shelter from it.

Though the ice and snow had long since melted at this time of year, the temperature was still quite cold. Catching a chill after being drenched by heavy rain would be troublesome—not only uncomfortable, but treatment costs would also deal a heavy blow to one's wallet.

So, of the four of them, everyone except the fur-covered Litia wore a cloak outside to ward off the cold.

Demon King Castle's finances had already grown so dire that they had only a dozen or so copper coins left. They still had not found an effective way to increase their income; another heavy blow, and they would probably have to go into debt.

Speaking of Demon King Castle, Pei Renli remembered Lavna mentioning that whenever a storm arrived, they could toss things like gold coins or valuable magic items into the crystal ball. It was like paying into a gacha draw—they might pull something good.

Though Lavna had paid into it for twenty years before drawing Pei Renli, just what that thing actually was remained utterly baffling.

During this time, Pei Renli had been looking through books in the library, including books related to magic items, but he had never found any information about that crystal ball. There was not even a record of any magic item with a similar function.

Maybe the Adventurer School's library simply was not comprehensive enough. After all, people generally did not go digging through books, so the library had no reason to be especially well maintained.

Or, more likely, that crystal ball was a one-of-a-kind special magic item. Things of that sort were without exception immensely powerful, and almost never left behind any records.

Scratching his head, Pei Renli gave up trying to puzzle out his transmigration and all the matters related to the Demon King, returning instead to his battle between his teeth and the hardtack.

After all, no matter how much he thought about it, he could not come up with an answer right now.

Come to think of it, adventurers probably all needed good teeth. This hardtack was especially difficult to chew; it had to be softened in boiling water before he could barely manage a couple of bites.

He had once thought Lavna's roasted meat with boiled wild vegetables was rustic enough, but now it seemed his horizons had not been broad enough...

"Quick, look! There seems to be someone outside!"

With a dried fish hanging from her mouth, Litia pointed out the window, drawing everyone's attention over.