Chapter 12

Takami no Kago – Chapter 12

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“Master, there is something up ahead . ”

After we advanced through the forest for a while, Ayla reported so .

“Something? Is it a human? Or a monster?”

“I do not know . It only has a faint presence . It gives a feel like a human, yet it also gives feels like a monster, too . ”

The heck is that .

“Got it . I’ll go check it . Crest-san, I’m sorry but could you please stop the horse-drawn carriage?”

“I understand . Please take care . ”

“Yes . ”

Saying so, I walk following the road in the forest . The width of the road is around 2 meters, so the horse-drawn carriage barely fit through it .
It’s practically just animal trail which only have several small spaces to avoid horse-drawn carriage from the other direction .
And in the middle of the said road, there was a man, collapsed . I can’t say for sure from afar, but it seems he’s still alive .
When I rushed over to him, he let out a groan . Yup, he’s still alive .

“You alright?”

The man looked up, and when I tried to check whether there were any wounds on him, he stabbed my flank with a dagger he hid in his hand .
The dagger pierces through my leather armor, stabbing me .
Even after I try to push him away, the dagger still deeply stabbed in my flank .

“Th-The fuck are you doing?!”

The man who I pushed cackled as he stood up .
His body gradually expanding, tearing through his skin, and frighteningly exposing his skin that lustered with mucus .

“Guggyagya!”

Looking at my wound, he sure was laughing . That was all a trap .
After he completely transformed, he looked like a monster with pig-like head . He was an orc .

“Mutant orc, huh . ”

Deciding to use status-reading-ability of [Divine Protection of God of Appraisal], I look at him .

Mimic Orc Lv . 12
Mutant
5 years old

HP 820
Atk 180
Agi 150
Int 75
Luk 65

▼

That’s the first time I see a symbol ▼ .
When I’m focusing my mind there, the status was renewed .

Mimic Orc Lv . 12
Mutant
5 years old

HP 820
Atk 180
Agi 150
Int 75
Luk 65

Skill
【Mimicry】★★
Makes it possible for you to mimic living thing you’d ate .
If what you try to mimic is stronger than you are, the ability would be limited .

What’s a skill!
I never saw it before!
You could mimic something you’d ate?
No wonder the eye-witnesses’ testimonies are all different!
It seems he believes that he already wins .
He approaches me slowly .
With a club in hand, with the long of my height he got from somewhere .
When I already in his attack range .
He raised the club .

“Don’t underestimate me!!!”

I bent down while holding my stomach, sweeping sideway in a flash, face towards him and hit him .
I manage to cut the oh-so-unprepared orc’s abdomen’s region . Even so,

“Tsk, to shallow, huh . ”

Nevertheless, I managed to buy myself some times . I insert my hand into the bag on my waist and take out a potion .
I pull the dagger from my stomach and drink the potion in one go .
I feel a burning pain on my stomach, however it gradually calms down .
Though I don’t know to what extent the potion will cure your wounds,
as expected I couldn’t fight with the dagger still stuck on me .
While facing the blade towards the orc, I confirm that my bleeding has stop to some extent .
The orc is coming, not letting pass the slight opening when I distorted in pain as I touched my wound .

Quite fast .
I somehow withstand it by diverting it diagonally with my shield . However I don’t think I could withstand it for too long .
Though I can counterattack with the other hand, the orc’s skin is not only hard, cursed to some-kind-of-mucuses, it’s also slippery .
I can feel my attack’s slipping .
The wooden shield that receives his blow is letting unpleasant creaking sound .

“Damn! What should I do!”

With my current level 10, my status is slightly inferior than his .
My hands’ already full avoiding his fatal strike that could penetrate my defenses .
For me who haven’t experiencing any battle other than relying-on-status battle, this might be my first [battle] .
And then, I’ll lose if this goes on . I needed something to win over him .
Surprise attack won’t work on him anymore . He’s already all-prepared thanks to my attack on his stomach before .

“Is there nothing…”

All being said, what I got in my bag aren’t much .
Sake that could ignite, rope, dagger, flint, and some potions .
In my head, I tried to recall the contents of the bag on my waist .

“Hm? [Sake that could ignite]?”

I feel like I saw a chance . I really was something for purchasing sake even though I didn’t drink .
This might also be the effect of having high [Luk] from level 1 .

---

That said, if one’s really lucky he’d not get stabbed, huh . It seems mine’s [Bad Luk] instead of [Luk] .

“Then, should I go for the gaudy one?”

While receiving the orc’s attack with the wooden shield, I look for an opening .
Seeing me stopped to bother doing counterattack, the orc starting to attack me to his heart content .
Somehow dodging the large swing from overhead, I glance sideway to the orc that slightly lost his balance, and head towards the forest in full speed .
Following the animal trail, I enter the forest and hide from the orc’s sight .
Though the orc immediately give a chase, many trees hinder him . Opening the bottle of thesake, I dip the rope I’ve cut short with dagger into the sake, moistening it .
Then I take out the rope from the mouth of the bottle, and use flint to ignite it .
Though the rope I’ve dipped in the sake burned unexpectedly more well than I thought, I pay no heed and come back to the animal trail .
Hibiki who created the so-called [Molotov], who no one but God knows when it’d explode, aim and throw it straight to the orc’s face that came out of the forest, chasing after him .
Colliding with the orc’s hard skin, the container break into pieces, raised flames in front of the orc’s face in an instant and obstruct his field of vision .
The flame ignited from the sake that covered the orc’s face burn his throat . The orc who couldn’t breath, fall in his knees while keep glaring at Hibiki .
Hibiki throws his shield, grasps the sword with both of his hand and aims at the orc’s neck, swings his sword with all his might as a finisher .
Maybe because of the orc’s thick fat, the sword stops halfway .
Though the orc raised a loud cries and swinging his arms, his stance is bad that it doesn’t reach Hibiki .
The club’s fall from his hand due to the blow Hibiki deal before .
Putting more of his strength into the sword that cuts the orc’s neck halfway, Hibiki swings the sword . Even though the neck didn’t fell off, the sword came out of the orc’s right side .

“Gugyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!”

Raising a scream louder than ever, the orc collapses .
Even after collapsing, it seems the orc’s still breathing .
Approaching it carefully, this time Hibiki cut the orc’s neck off the body .

“Haa, haa . Did that got him?”

When he checked the corpse’s status, it displays [Mimic Orc’s Head] and [Mimic Orc’s Body], both was treated as items .
Finally took a breathe, Hibiki sit there .
After some time passed and he calmed down, he checked his own status .

Hibiki Jinno Lv . 13
Swordsman
16 years old

HP 750 (+250)
Atk 140 (+49)
Agi 147 (+49)
Int 273 (+91)
Luk 585 (+195)

[Divine Protection of God of War]
Effect : Raise combat-related status (Large)
Doesn’t stacked | Target : Party

[Divine Protection of God of Wisdom]
Effect : Raise magic-related status (Large)
Doesn’t stacked | Target : Party

[Divine Protection of God of Craftsman]
Effect : Raise production-related status (Large)
Doesn’t stacked | Target : Party

[Divine Protection of God of Healing]
Effect : Raise holiness-related status (Large)
Doesn’t stacked | Target : Party

[Divine Protection of God of Appraisal]
Effect : Makes it possible to appraise everything

---

Target : Self

[Divine Protection of God of Trading]
Effect : Makes trading become advantageous
Target : Self

[Divine Protection of Light]
Effect : Removes all abnormal status
Target : Any

▼

I notice the same symbol like the Mimic Orc’s .
However, I was too tired at the moment that I didn’t feel like confirming it .
Let’s just confirm it later when we return to the town .
However, my level went up by 3 .
That means Mimic Orc was that strong of an enemy .
Having put my breath in order, I stand up and approach the orc’s corpse .

“Now to collect the drop item and return to the horse-drawn carriage . ”

Mimic Orc’s drop item was [Mimic Orc’s Blood] .
Returning to the horse-drawn carriage, the other two beside Ayla doubted me when I tried to explain the circumstance .
In the first place, the one who said there was something up ahead is one of my own, so it’s a given if they doubt me .
As for Ayla, as expected she was angry with the two but she doesn’t do anything but glaring at them .
Since there was no choice left, I showed the [Mimic Orc’s Blood] to both of them .
Even though they looks like they don’t know what that is, it’s certain that they haven’t seen this kind of drop item before .
Even Mr . Crest and co . would believe it after they confirm the real things .

“Who’d have thought there was individual that have mimicry ability . I’m amaze you could make it alright . ”

“I can’t say I’m alright . I was quite beaten up . ”

I also used the quite-precious potions .
If it was not for urgency calling, I’d use medicinal herb . While the recovery amount of the medicinal herb is small compared to potion, I can get it for free since I can harvest it in the forest .
I’d not use potion if it was not a live-death situation .
Beside as though she noticed, Ayla constantly minding me .

“Master, are you really alright?”

“Yeah, no probs . Sorry for making you worry . ”

“Nonsense, it is great as long as I know Master is safe . ”

After I defeated the Mimic Orc, the trip’s like the time when we departed, not so smooth nor so grave, and that continued for 3 days .
We who arrived at Brett town as scheduled, headed to Mr . Crest’s mansion first .
It’s the bonus-on-completion time .
By the way, the number of attacks we’ve repelled these past 7 days is 28 . It’s approximately 4 monsters a day .

Eventually, all my fortunes combined with the recompense of the deferred payment numbered 29,000 Gal, around 3 millions yen .
And if I were to sum the drop item’s selling value I pick from the attacks, too; voila, I’d got 39,650 Gal or around 4 millions yen .
Even I haven’t include the Mimic Orc’s drop item, [Mimic Orc’s Blood] there .
Since I got the feeling that it’s quite rare, I refrained from selling it to the guild .
There’s the sake’s matter too, so I don’t know what’ll prove useful in the future .
That being said, I wonder about receiving the special reward that’s worth manyfold the escort’s reward .
Though I want to ask Lily later about it, the escort’s reward is really cheap to begin with, it seems the normal reward is as much as when I include the special reward .
Well, if the hired adventurer’s incompetent, that means less money is paid, huh .

Then again, I haven’t forgotten about the special reward .
I who have splendidly kill the Mimic Orc of course get the privilege to receive the [Jade Silk] clothing .
Though I was enthusiastic on seeing Mr . Crest asserted to give me the special reward, seeing him giving it so readily was anticlimactic .

“Since I want to be in Hibiki-san’s favor from now on, I want to pass this as a prior investment . ”

[Jade Silk Robe (None)]

HP +80

【Effect】
If an element was assigned,
damaged from the element assigned would be reduced greatly .

I see, it’s an equipment aimed at magician, huh .
When I confirmed the status of the Mimic Orc’s corpse I realized,
that my status-check can be used on things too .
Well, [makes it possible to appraise everything] was written, so it’s no wonder .
Since I used it to check the Mimic Orc’s corpse .
So far, I had no equipment that has effect like this .
Even if I check [Iron Sword]’s status,

[Iron Sword]

Atk +15

was the only thing showed up .
Well, I’ll accept gladly whatever is given to me .
Since I can just sell it if I don’t need it .

“You have my gratitude, for being so generous to me . ”

It was already late at night of the day we arrived, when we finished all the processing task .
Even though we were only unloading the drop items from the horse-drawn carriage, we took our time .
Well, it was quite of amounts . And it occupied a little space in the horse-drawn carriage, too .
Although Mr . Crest didn’t say anything about it, he must be quite bothered by it .
Whatever . What’s done is done . Forget that, let’s call it a day .
Tomorrow I’ll go to the guild and look if there’s any good mission .

“My, welcome . Even though you’d just came back yesterday, are you going to work again?”

Lily wore a surprised expression on her face .
Adventurer sure is a wilful job . Since it’s morning when I woke up, then it’s night when I felt sleepy .
You can have a day off as you want, there’s no working on a day off, either .
Almost all adventurers live a disorder life .
However, that being said doesn’t mean we can slack our ass off . Even so, I’m fundamentally a lazy fellow .
If it’s a day off, I’d continue to chill the day off . However, after coming to this world I giving my darndest not to be a shut-in .
While I say all that oh-so-remarkable lines, the sun’s already high in the sky .

“Yeah, is there any good missions?”

“Let’s see, since frequency of the monsters’ appearance is calming down at the moment, there aren’t many subjugation-type missions . ”

“I see . ”

Heard of monster subjugation, suddenly there was something that bothered me .
About the alchemist girl we met in the forest right after we departed and exited the town .

“By the way, what of the Rookie Amy?”

“Huh?!”

When I asked that, Lily froze .

“What’s wrong?”

Lily, seeming hesitant to talk, started to talk about that person’s present state .