The Weakest Tamer Began a Journey to Pick up Trash - Volume 3 - Chapter 153

Chapter 153:

Killing Them Was Nice and All...

“WOW, THAT’S AMAZING. There are tracks over here, too.” Druid looked very serious as he searched for gurbar tracks.

“Is it that amazing?” There had been gurbars in this forest as long as I’d been here, so I didn’t understand what was so amazing about seeing their tracks.

We hiked deeper into the forest, met up with Ciel, and headed off to the spot where I wanted to set my traps. Druid kept glancing at our surroundings and tilting his head in confusion. About thirty minutes into the thickest part of the forest, we came to some big trees. When Druid discovered gurbar tracks by them as well, he sighed loudly.

“Gurbars are highly territorial. They rarely travel outside their home turf. It’s very uncommon for them to wander around such a big area like this.”

“Oh, really? But I’ve seen gurbar tracks everywhere in the forest, not just here.”

“This isn’t the only place?”

“No, sir. There were gurbar tracks in the forest on the other side of town, too.”

“I’ve looked into gurbar territories before, but they’ve never been spread across such a huge area.” There were deep creases between Druid’s eyebrows. “That reminds me, somebody I know just got in a request for a survey of the area.”

Sora, who had been bouncing around us, suddenly jumped high into the air and screamed, “Pu! Pu-puuu!”

“Oh!” I cried.

“Hm?!”

Sora landed right on Druid’s head, which has been bowed as he examined the gurbar tracks. Slime and man both fell silent and stood still in bewilderment.

“Sorry about that,” I said.

“No no, it was probably upset that I was getting so carried away with my own thoughts. We came here to set traps, remember?”

“Puuu!” Sora cried, in a way that strongly suggested “Yeah! That’s what I’m sayin’!”

“Sorry, Sora,” Druid said. “Let’s find a good place for those traps.”

“Pu, pu! Pu, puuu.”

“But before that,” I said, “Sora—could you please get off of Mr. Druid’s head?”

“Puuu! Puuu!”

Oh, it’s not a fan of that idea. What should I do? If I pull it off, it’ll probably just jump right back up.

“I think Sora’s saying it wants to stay up here?”

“I’m so sorry. I’ll get it down right away.”

“Buuu!”

That totally felt like Sora was chewing me out. Wait a minute, don’t do your exercises on top of Druid’s head!

“It’s okay. Sora doesn’t weigh a thing.”

“Pu! Pu, puuu.”

No, Druid! Don’t say “it’s okay”! Now Sora’s gone completely into lounge-mode. “Well, if your neck starts to hurt, please don’t hesitate to take Sora off.” It looked like Sora wouldn’t be leaving Druid’s head without a fight. Sorry about that.

“Understood. Sora, be careful not to fall off, okay?”

“Pu, puuu!”

Well, somebody’s in a great mood again. Come to think of it, Sora hasn’t been in a bad mood at all the past few days. I guess that means everything’s okay now?

“Right, let’s find a place to set those traps,” Druid said.

“Yes, let’s. Only thing is, it’s hard to find a place where there’s no gurbar tracks.”

“After all the walking around we’ve done, I’d say you’re right. What sort of place are you looking for?”

Mrrrow.

“Hm? What’s up?” Druid asked, gently patting Ciel’s head.

That’s right. I promised Ciel we’d set the traps together today. Maybe I should have it show me a spot that would be easy for it to guard.

“Well, um, Ciel is going to guard the traps, so we should find a spot where it can be comfortable.”

“Hm? What do you mean by that?”

I explained my history with Ciel to Druid. After I was done, he looked at the adandara with eyes full of admiration.

“I’d heard adandaras were intelligent, but I had no idea they were this smart.”

Mrrrow. Ciel meowed proudly. For some reason, Sora was puffing its chest out from atop Druid’s head, too.

Wow, Druid looks really silly right now…

“Ivy, could you cool it with the smirking? I can imagine how silly I look right now, and I’m about to wrench my neck.”

He didn’t know that Sora was puffing out its chest, but just having a slime on his head was probably making him feel pretty self-conscious. I mean, most people wouldn’t think twice about a slime sitting on a child’s head. But on the head of a man in his forties? Hee hee…ha ha ha…

“Ivy, your shoulders are shaking…what are you thinking about?”

“Oh, nothing, sir. Let’s find a place to set those traps!”

We wandered through the forest while Ciel looked for a place where it could be comfortable standing guard. After a while, we came upon a big tree with thick branches spreading wide in every direction.

“Do you think this is a good place?” I asked. “I see some gurbar tracks but also plenty of smaller animal ones.”

“I like it,” said Druid. “We might as well give up on the idea of finding a spot with no gurbar tracks at all.”

He was right. There were gurbar tracks in so many places that it was a real ordeal finding even a tiny area without any. In fact, it seemed like this area had more gurbar tracks than it had the day before.

Mew! Ciel cried loudly.

“Whoa there, Ciel!” Druid exclaimed. “You’re sure enthusiastic, aren’t ya?”

The adandara had been pretty excited ever since I made the promise to set traps. I only hope it doesn’t get so excited it gets itself hurt.

“Ciel, if a pack approaches you, you run away, okay?”

…Mewww. It sounded terribly displeased.

“Don’t worry, Ivy. Gurbars could never outfight an adandara.”

Druid had a lot more experience in these matters than I did, so he was probably right. But Ciel was my dear friend, so I couldn’t help but worry. 

I set the traps and checked them over with Ciel. We had five in total. Ciel looked really pleased.

“Wanna take a little break?”

“Yes, sir.”

There was a lake a bit deeper into the forest. I had Ciel lead the way there.

“By the way, where’s your other friend?” asked Druid.

“My other friend? You mean Flame?”

“That’s right.”

“Flame is still quite weak, so I’ve been leaving it in its bag.”

“It’s weak? Oh, that’s right, you said they were collapsed slimes.”

“Yes, sir.”

“When I look at Sora now, it’s hard to believe it was a collapsed slime, so it totally slipped my mind.”

I looked at Sora. He was right—Sora looked very strong. It could slam into anything and still be fine.

“Oh! There it is.”

I followed Druid’s gaze and saw the lake, filled with sparkling sunlight…and with gurbars. We quickly ducked behind a big tree. Ciel wanted to chase after them right away, but I managed to hold the adandara back somehow.

“I didn’t notice them,” Druid admitted.

“Neither did I.” I carefully leaned out from behind the tree to look at the herd of gurbars. Wait, huh? “Something’s strange.”

“Strange?”

“Yes, the gurbars’ auras are very weak.” While we were in the forest, I had been constantly vigilant for gurbars’ auras. That was the only way to stay out of danger. Maybe having Druid with me made me let down my guard down a little…but with this many gurbars this close, there’s no way we wouldn’t have sensed their auras. I looked curiously at the gurbars. Something had to be wrong with them.

“Sorry, I can’t sense auras,” Druid said. “Are they very weak?”

“Yeah. Even though they’re right there, I can’t pick up how many there are by their auras.”

“Really?”

“This is actually the first time I’ve seen live gurbars. Do they normally have such weak auras?”

“I’ve never heard that.”

We both stared at the gurbars in confusion. Was this somehow connected to the creatures’ strange activity lately?

After only a few minutes of hiding behind the tree, Ciel’s yowl suddenly boomed out across the lake. Mee-yaaa! 

“Huh?!” Druid and I both gasped, peeking out from behind the tree and searching for the source of the noise.

“Ah!”

“Whoa, amazing!”

Before our very eyes, Ciel was attacking the gurbar pack. The moment after Ciel killed one gurbar, it pounced on the next, and in a matter of seconds, it pounced on yet another.

“Wow, you really are fierce!” Druid marveled at the adandara…but I wasn’t in a marveling mood. I was stunned. I’d never seen Ciel like this before. I had heard time and time again that adandaras were vicious, but I had no idea they were this powerful.

I couldn’t exactly count them, but there had to be more than thirty gurbars out there. I saw a few making a break for it, but most of the pack was annihilated in just a few minutes. Ciel looked pretty satisfied.

“Wow, your adandara really is amazing. What incredible strength.”

“I know… Mr. Druid, you don’t suppose the guild master will help us out again?”

Ciel was really powerful. But there were just way too many gurbar corpses. If Druid and I worked together, we could probably only handle one between us. We looked at the area around Ciel. There were over twenty dead gurbars.

“Wowww…so many,” Druid gasped. “What are we going to do with them all?”

“Gosh. That’s a very good question.”