Because I Want To Survive Too

And then, a few days later.

Kikori stood before the Hero Gate, carrying as much luggage as he possibly could.

Since it was an important request from the Adventurers’ Guild, they had arranged some conveniences for him.

To a certain extent… that wording let him glimpse the darkness of organizational management, but setting that aside.

“Kikori, please don’t push yourself too hard.”

“Yes, I understand. Because I want to survive too.”

Aria made a troubled expression at Kikori’s reply, but Kikori did not understand why.

“Uh, um… I really won’t do anything reckless.”

“That’s good.”

Saying that, Aria placed a hand against Kikori’s cheek.

“Promise me just one thing. If you think it’s dangerous, use the return scroll immediately. Understood?”

“Of course. I won’t save it for later.”

“Then good.”

Smiling, Aria took her hand away from Kikori.

“Take care, Kikori.”

“Yes, I’m off, Aria-san!”

Waving his hand, Kikori walked toward the spatial distortion.

Yes, this time for the exploration, he had also been issued potions and a return scroll… apparently an expensive item, but that too had been provided.

He also had a large amount of preserved food, so there was no need to be reckless. What was more, the reward was good.

And yet the contents were, “Explore the interior, and find and bring back the advance party, or traces of them.”

Apparently, because they had not expected things to be like this, they had not equipped the initial advance party with return scrolls… and so they wanted him to bring those people back.

“I don’t think this is the kind of job they should be entrusting to a complete newbie like me, though.”

They said they were evaluating the survival ability of the one who had lived through it, but who knew what the truth was.

Kikori felt as though he had been chosen because it would not particularly matter even if he died.

Well, it was not as though he really had the option to refuse…

“Alright, let’s go.”

After passing through the forest and through the tunnel and going as far as the spatial distortion, there stood a smashed signboard there.

“…Entry restricted due to investigation, huh.”

Whether it had been broken by a monster or an adventurer, either way it probably had not been anyone decent.

But Kikori too had to pass through here now for work.

Swallowing hard, he leaped into the spatial distortion… and on the other side was a grassland.

“It’s huge…”

Yes, it was an incredibly vast grassland.

Last time, he felt like each section had not been this large… had it expanded due to becoming labyrinthine?

Still, having an open field of vision was a good thing.

If that advance party was there, he would be able to spot them right away. Thinking that, Kikori walked while carefully checking his surroundings.

Of course, he kept his Magic Axe at the ready so that he could respond immediately to any unforeseen situation.

But there was nothing. Not only was there no advance party, there were no enemies either.

Even so, Kikori carefully looked around.

A whistling sound rang out, and a sharp pain shot through his leg.

“Guh…!?”

An arrow had pierced him, aimed at a gap in his armor.

No way. He had been paying attention. A sharp pain ran through him when he pulled the arrow out, but it was far better than leaving it stuck there.

He knocked aside the arrows that kept flying at him with his axe, and drank the potion tucked into his waist.

His wound healed immediately, and Kikori found “it.”

Wearing a mantle decorated with fresh green grass, holding a shortbow, and lying flat on the ground… a humanoid with a dog-like face, completely different from a beastman.

“Kobold…!”

A monster said by some to be a close variant of goblins, and by others to be something entirely different.

The difference from beastfolk was that its body was not covered in fur.

Arrows flying in from all directions kept Kikori entirely on the defensive, and before long kobolds holding hand axes came running at him.

“…Mjolnir!”

With a heavy boom, much stronger lightning than before he had collapsed enveloped Kikori’s Magic Axe.

“Raaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!”

Not caring that several arrows pierced him, Kikori smashed the axe kobold and charred it black.

He could still go on. Following that feeling, Kikori activated Mjolnir once more.

His target was the bow kobold that had entered his sight.

Before the Magic Axe came back, Kikori wrapped his round shield in lightning, hurled it like a boomerang into the face of one bow kobold that had started to raise its body to flee, and just like that, the lightning turned the bow kobold into a charred object.