Hard Carried by My Sword Chapter 23

Blaine the Freedom City was always bustling. The commotion caused by thousands—sotis 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 na for themselves, rcenaries chasing fortune, rchants 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 na behind.

It was only natural. It was easier to gain fa in a city with more people, but that also ant that more people were looking to do the exact sa thing. The more people there were, the harder it beca to stand out.

Such was especially true when it ca to fa: unless you were at the very top, it lost its shine quickly. Earning a na for yourself in Blaine was more elusive than making a fortune.

“Hey, it’s the Cat! Off to hunt more Ratn today?” soone 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 seed intrigued by the newcor.

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. Ratn 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 Ratn’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 nickna “Cat.” It was rare for a rookie to earn a nickna, 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 Ratn around. Even the ones that usually ambush backed off. I think they’re scared of now.”

“That makes sense, you know...”

Ratn 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 sothing else...”

“Oh, of course! One mont!”

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 seed Lize had ant it when she said she would look out for him.

What do you think? Leon asked El-Cid, looking over the docunts.

He was hoping to pick sothing that would benefit his training, and there were four options laid out before him:Cave Kobold Raid, Rock Sli 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 Slis. After thinking a bit, El-Cid chose the Rock Slis. Leon silently accepted the decision.

When he picked up the Rock Sli 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 ant.

This quest sheet’s pretty old, Leon thought, looking at the worn-out edges of the paper.

—ans 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 ant he wouldn’t be cheated out of his pay. Still, the fact that no one had touched it even with a captain's na 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. Ratn were bad enough, but slis could be worse. At least they weren’t nocturnal, so he could hunt them anyti.

He said to Lize, “I’ll focus on the Rock Sli 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 ti, 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 co to know well in just a few days. The nickna “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 t with a confused look.

“Rock Sli 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 ca down and twisted a few unlucky arms.

Because both sides assud the other was simply misinford, the two of them ended up arguing briefly. It just ca down to a simple misunderstanding.

Fortunately, the dispute was quickly resolved—thanks to the tily 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 .”

“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 seed to know it too, since he didn’t wait for a reply and just patted Leon’s shoulder a few tis.

“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 n 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 mont. 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 sothing 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 squird at the edge of his vision.

There you are.

Rock Slis, 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 Slis in total. Leon’s eyes fixed on the wobbling blobs. He’d seen slis before, but never this kind.

If they were just ordinary slis, 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, ca slashing down toward the Rock Slis.

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 tallic 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 sothing 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 Slis!” he exclaid upon the discovery.

A sli’s biggest weakness was its core. No matter what abilities it has, destroy the core and it was done. However, inside these Rock Slis, countless shards of stone were embedded around the core, layering over it like armor. It was a pretty clever defense chanism for a monster.

Slis’ gelatinous defense worked best against blunt weapons. Blades and arrows could pierce right through them. So Rock Slis 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 Sli 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 seed like the Rock Slis were about to react to Leon’s strike. Usually, slis attacked in one of two ways: body slams or spraying digestive fluids, but Rock Slis did neither.

The three blobs all convulsed for a mont—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.