Chapter 60: Surrounded by Monsters
After finishing the MRE with much difficulty, Leo chugged down a bottle of water and went to rest in the small bedroom at the end of the van. There were exactly 2 bunk beds with 4 mattresses in total.
He picked the bunk bed on the right side of the van and laid on the lower bed.
“How are you feeling?” Lilith asked him as she hovered right above him.
“A little bored. I thought this would be more exciting, but it doesn’t seem to be the case.”
“So you want to be in danger?” Lilith raised an eyebrow.
“I didn’t say that. I guess I expected a little more than just sitting in a van and taking turns watching our surroundings. The monsters cannot even catch up to us if we just keep moving.”
“If you want something more exciting, you should’ve done a territory mission.”
“It’s too late now. I also cannot see how I will be able to raise my reputation like this.”
“If your performance is good, the person who hired you will talk about you to the Adventurers’ Guild because they are required to take a survey at the end of their mission.” Lilith explained.
“I see… So I just need to stand out.”
“In a good way, but yes.” Lilith nodded.
Leo closed his eyes and proceeded to take a nap.
A few hours later, Trista suddenly rushed into the bedroom and shook Leo awake, “Leon! Wake up!”
“Huh? Is it my turn to be on the lookout?” Leo asked with a half-asleep expression on his face.
“No! We’re under attack!”
“What?!”
Leo immediately jumped out of the bed and rushed outside with Trista.
Once they were outside, Leo finally understood their situation, as they were suddenly surrounded on all sides by a massive group of monsters, and there appeared to be around 30 of them, all of them being Sharp Tooth Wolves.
“What the hell?! How did this happen?” Leo was dumbfounded by their situation.
How did they become surrounded?
“A group of monsters blocked the road, forcing the van to stop, and the moment we stopped, we were surrounded by these monsters.” Lilith explained to him.
“They couldn’t have driven around or straight through the monsters blocking the road?! This is a heavily fortified vehicle, too!” He cried.
“I guess that is possible, but the cargo being transported may contain fragile items, so they couldn’t risk any violent disturbance. Anyways, you should pay attention to the monsters now. They’re getting ready to attack.” Lilith warned him as the monsters slowly approached the vehicle.
“Step aside!” Leo suddenly rushed in front of the other Adventurers and pointed his finger at the group of monsters in front of him.
Right as the monsters pounced at him, Leo released a barrage of Black Bullets at the monsters, killing over 10 of them at once.
The other four Adventurers were dumbfounded when they saw how Leo had multicast so many magic spells in such a short time, and he had even done it without any chanting or showing the magic circles.
“L-Let’s go! We need to back him up!” The others also started their attack after Jeff snapped them out of their daze.
However, the monsters there ignored the other Adventurers and focused solely on Leo, most likely because they saw him as their biggest threat.
This allowed the others to cast their magic spells without being disturbed, killing several more monsters.
The monsters eventually got too close to Leo for him to use magic and the others to attack using their magic, fearing that they might accidentally hit him, so Leo retrieved his sword and started slashing away, occasionally shooting out Black Bullets with his left hand.
“He’s essentially fighting all of these monsters by himself! Is he really just a D-Rank Adventurer?!” David muttered in a dazed voice as he watched Leo fend off a dozen monsters all by himself.
“E-Even I cannot do that…” Jeff mumbled.
Several minutes later, once all of the monsters were killed, Leo took a deep breath and turned to look at the others.
“Are you guys okay?”
“…”
They all nodded in a stiff manner.
“Leon! Are you okay?!” Tami came out of the vehicle when he was certain that there were no more monsters around.
“Yes, I am fine.” Leo said with a calm smile on his face and without a single injury on his body despite fighting over a dozen monsters at once.
“My god! I have never seen anyone fight like you just did before! You’ve earned my admiration!” Tami said with a look of awe on his face.
The other Adventurers approached them a moment later.
“I’m really sorry that I wasn’t able to assist you back there, Leon. I was so bewildered by your performance that I didn’t know how to react.” Jeff said with an embarrassed look on his face.
“M-Me too! I was so shocked! Just where did you learn to move like that?!” Trista asked.
“I had good teachers,” he said with a smile.
He then asked, “Anyways, do you mind if I take a couple of minutes to harvest their mana cores?”
“Go ahead. I’ll be waiting in the vehicle.” Tami nodded.
“I’ll help you,” said Dean.
“Me too.”
The other Adventurers proceeded to help Leo harvest the monster’s mana cores as a way to apologize to him for letting him fight all of the monsters just now.
“Here, you can keep all of them.”
They decided to give him all of the mana cores.
“Really? Thanks!” Leo accepted all of them without any hesitation.
They returned inside the vehicle shortly after.
“There’s a shower available if you didn’t know. Go ahead and wash the monster’s blood off your body.” Tami said to Leo a moment later.
“Okay.”
Leo went into the shower to quickly wash his body. After coming back out with a fresh set of clothes, he said to the others, “Since I just took a nap, I would like to be on the lookout now.”
“Seriously? Even though you did so much work just now? I wouldn’t complain even if you refused to be on the lookout for the rest of our way to Fairwood City, you know?” David said.
“I agree with him, Leon. I think it would be better for you to save your energy for situations like before, so you don’t have to be on the lookout anymore. Any objections?” Jeff suddenly said as he looked at the others for their opinion.
“No objection from me.” David quickly shook his head.
“Me neither.” Dean said.
“I also have no objection.” Trista smiled.
“Then it’s settled. You can just relax until we need to step outside the vehicle again.” Jeff said to him.
‘Seriously? But I am so close to finishing one of my quests…’ Leo sighed inwardly.
“Why don’t you sit over here right beside me, Leon? It’s been half a day but we haven’t spoken much.” Trista suddenly said as she patted the empty space beside her.
“It’s alright… I don’t like feeling cramped…” Leo politely refused.
“Come on, don’t be shy! I promise I won’t bite!” Trista chuckled, finding his reaction a little cute.
“Stop bothering our little hero. He’s definitely already taken.” David smiled.
“I-I just want to talk to him!” Trista immediately became flustered.
“By the way, where did you learn to use the sword like that, Leon? You’re not only very talented with magic but you’re also really good with swordsmanship as well. There are not many people out there that are good at both.” Jeff suddenly asked him.
“I learned swordsmanship from someone named Khrome. He’s an A-Rank Adventurer,” he said.
“What?! Sword King Khrome?! You actually got someone like him to teach you swordsmanship?! I am really jealous!” Dean exclaimed.
“Who is that? Is he famous?” Trista asked.
“Are you serious? How can you not know of Sword King Khrome? He’s one of the strongest A-Rank Adventurers out there and also a master swordsman! I would literally die to be trained by him!”
“You wouldn’t say that if you knew what training with him is really like.” Leo said with a bittersweet smile on his face as he recalled his hellish training with Khrome.
“What’s your relationship with Khrome? How did you get someone like him to teach you? I heard rumors that he’s a stubborn man.”
“Oh, I wasn’t the one who asked him. Someone I knew asked him for me. She’s also my magic teacher.” Leo said.
“Either way, I am really envious of you. No wonder why you were able to fight off so many Sharp Tooth Wolves by yourself.” Dean sighed.
“You must have a pretty high magic talent for you to be able to multicast and silent cast at once. Let me guess, it’s at least A-Rank?” David asked.
“Just tell them it’s B-Rank.” Lilith suddenly said.
Leo didn’t ask why and said, “It’s only B-Rank.”
“Seriously? I swear it should be higher!” David looked genuinely surprised.
Lilith then said, “While it’s fine to show off a little, you shouldn’t reveal too much about yourself. There are a lot of envious people out there, and we don’t know if we can trust them yet.”
“You’re right. I will keep that in mind.” Leo agreed with her.
Sometime later, David went to be on the lookout while Leo and the others started having random conversations.
“Hey, Jeff, I have a question. What was your C-Rank examination like?” Leo suddenly asked him.
“Ah… It was brutal. I failed four times and nearly died during three of them, not to mention the money I had to spend to retake the examinations… I don’t even want to recall it.” Jeff shook his head with a bitter expression on his face.