Chapter 322: Parting With Cormi

“Gu!?” [Ryouma]

Glen-san’s attack went straight through the metal slime nail, burying it into the head of the leader rhino, making it sway, and tearing apart the vines holding it in place.

Death throes screamed out of the rhino, but they were drowned out by the the sound of the commotion it made in its last moments. It twitched one last time, then all the strength that was supporting it vanished, and it sank into the marsh.

I managed to teleport immediately after Glen-san fell, but my arms still ended up numb. I didn’t receive a direct hit, but apparently, even with ki reinforcement, my bones cracked. Glen-san’s strength really is fearful.

“Did I break something?　I thought you managed to let go in the last moment, though.” [Glen]
“I supported the nail until you hit it, but this much can be healed with healing magic, and there’s no actual wound, so it’s fine.” [Ryouma]
“So, you can heal too, huh. Maybe it’s because I’ve been seeing nothing undead lately, but you’re starting to look like a zombie to me too.” [Glen]
“I get what you’re trying to say, but…” [Ryouma]
“It’s a compliment.” [Glen]

I’m not that happy with the result, but anyway, we managed to achieve our objectives. The metal slimes that served as the nail of the makeshift pile bunker turned out fine with their physical resist, hardening, and ki reinforcement. I can’t sense the presence of other monsters, so this should be a success.

But I wonder how I would’ve gone about it had I fought this leader rhino on my own.　I would definitely win if I went for the eyes or inside its mouth with my Bloody Spear, but other than that, I can’t think of any way to win.

Glen-san did mention that it was about as tough as an S Rank monster, and it was basically on doping, but still, I should train a bit more in case the unlikely were to occur. It would probably be a good idea to increase my attack power.

“Oh?” [Glen]
“Hey, you guys.” [Ryouma]

Before I knew it, the mother rhino was done recovering from her wounds and was currently approaching us with her kid. They weren’t showing any hostilities, but just when I thought they would check if the leader had properly been subjugated, she raised her forelimbs, stood on her hind legs, and did a banzai post. The child rhino too assumed a similar posture.

“What are they doing?” [Glen]
“This should be the gesture a canon ball rhinos makes when they acknowledge another’s superiority.” [Ryouma]

But didn’t they only do this pose towards other cannonball rhino?

“Is it because we defeated the big one?　Did Cormi tell you something?” [Ryouma]

Or so I asked, but of course, there was no way for them to understand, and the child rhino’s limbs just started to shake. Right. It might be a child, but that’s a lot of weight to support, so it was understandably tough on its limbs.

“How about you put the questions off for later and just form a contract with them.” [Glen]
“Right. We can’t understand each other otherwise, after all.” [Ryouma]

The mother is an undead, so I used the contract on the child. I succeeded in the blink of an eye.

“You’ll be my familiar from now on, is that fine?” [Ryouma]
“Kyu!” [Juvenile Rhino]
“In that case, let’s go back for now. I need to inform Cormi of the results too.” [Ryouma]

The juvenile rhino nodded, and the mother rhino too followed. Although we couldn’t verbalize complicated things, simple emotions could easily be understood. Perhaps, they already knew what would be happening.

“Hey, Ryouma. If we don’t dispose of this guy properly, monsters will come in droves later to eat it. Also, how do you want to split the spoils?” [Glen]
“Right. You can have this cannonball rhino. Just let me recover the slime that you buried inside it.” [Ryouma]
“It’s true I was the one to finish it off, but you’re the one who created the opportunity for me to do so.” [Glen]
“We probably won’t be able to split spoils with this one. In the first place, a normal blade can’t get through.” [Ryouma]
“Ah, so that’s what you meant. Well, it’s true that it’s a pain in that regard.” [Glen]
“Even a ki user like myself can’t cut it easily, so it’s definitely impossible for the goblins. It’s probably be better if you just bring the whole thing home yourself instead of us trying to poorly dress it ourselves.” [Ryouma]

I would’ve struggled a lot more were I alone, and I’ve already accomplished my goals. I got a new familiar too. That’s more than enough of a reward.

“In that case, I’ll take it for now. But can you do something about the marsh? The vines seem to have broken too.” [Glen]

I extracted the water from the marsh and dug out the leader rhino along with my big metal slime.

While Glen-san was recovering the corpse, the juvenile rhino quietly watched the whole process. That’s the leader of their group, their comrade, and the enemy of his parents. Can’t say I can understand how he feels. But even as a child, he’s still someone from the wilds, so it seems, he too understands the law of the jungle.

“Hey, I’m done!” [Glen]
“Alright. In that case, let’s go back for now.” [Ryouma]

After he finished storing the leader rhino in his magic bag, we went back to the manor.

The manor itself is Cormi, so it would probably be strange to refer to it as the manor where Cormi is.

Or so I thought to myself as we went back. Cormi was already waiting for us by the gate by the time we got back.

“Welcome home.” [Cormi]
“I’m back, Cormi. We successfully subjugated the leader rhino. We got the kid too.” [Ryouma]
“I see.” [Cormi]

He doesn’t have a face, but I can tell from the air about him that he’s sad.

“Cormi. Although we can’t avoid saying goodbye, we can take a bit more time until then.” [Ryouma]

I don’t know if this will be a good thing for them or for Cormi, but I don’t want there to be any regrets.

Cormi nodded many times in thanks.

“In that case, let’s have the two stay in the manor for now.” [Ryouma]

I entrusted the two to Cormi, then I went out again.

“Where are you going?” [Glen]
“There seemed to be a nest of doping bees somewhere in the area earlier, so I was thinking of destroying that. It’s too high of a risk to leave it be if we’re to make this place our base. And I might just get in the way of their goodbyes if I stay.” [Ryouma]
“True. In that case, I’ll go look for something to hunt too.” [Glen]

As Glen-san left in the opposite direction of the marsh, I walked away.
One hour later, I found the nest of the doping bees.

“I found it fairly easily.” [Ryouma]

Who would’ve thought I’d find such a relatively small thing in such a big forest so quickly? I thought for sure it would take more time, but it was fairly easy to find after retracing the trail of the leader rhino. On the trunk of one of the heat emitting trees was a big nest about the size of a drum can.

I can’t climb all the way up. I might get stung, after all. I could erect an electric barrier, and just like with the gluttony flies, they’ll die before they could reach me, but for this occasion, let’s rely on the slimes.

I took out my spider slimes and big sticky slimes from my dimension home.

The spiders used the trees and branches around us to form a web around the target. I had them make the wall extra thick to ensure that not a single doping bee will be able to escape.

When we were ready, we attacked. The big sticky slime climbed the tree and directly devoured the nest.

Understandably, the doping bees fought back, They flew out of their nest and attack the big sticky slime, but unfortunately for them, none of their needles could reach the nucleus of the slime.

Despite the relentless attacks of the doping bees inside and outside the slime, so long as they failed to touch its nucleus, the sticky slime was perfectly fine. In fact, stabbing the slime only resulted in them being covered by the sticky liquid, and soon, those bees too died from asphyxiation.

With the ventilations of the nest covered, within 30 minutes, all of the doping bees were dead. Some tried to run away, but the web of the spiders was there waiting for them.

A few still manged to escape by sheer luck, but they were originally residents of this forest. A complete annihilation was understandably not going to be easy.

“Anyway, I know now that I can easily destroy their nests, so this much should be fine for now.” [Ryouma]

After collecting the nest and the corpses of the doping bees, I went back to the manor, and this time, the mother and child rhino was there by the gate. The mother had her limbs folded as she slept on the ground, while the child rubbed his body against hers in a similar position, asleep, their eyes turned toward me. Oh, apparently, there were three of them waiting for me.

“…Are you ready?” [Ryouma]
“Kyu!” [Juvenile Rhino]
“Guon.” [Mother rhino]
“That was a ‘yes.’ Also, ‘thank you, please take care of this child.’” [Cormi]

The two rhinos rubbed against each other again, then the mother disappeared. It was as though, she had never been there in the first palce.

“Did she pass on?” [Ryouma]
“Yes. She’s not here anymore. She’s not human, after all.” [Cormi]

It felt rather abrupt to me, but her child rhinos stood up and approached me.

“Kyuon.” [Juvenile Rhino]
“He says he’ll be in your care from now on.” [Cormi]
“Yeah, me too.” [Ryouma]

The child rhino let out a cry, and I crouched down, and just like it did with its mother earlier, it rubbed its head against my neck. Although it was still young, it acknowledged that its parents were gone, and it started walking on its own.

As its master, and as the leader of its group, it’s up to me to watch over this child.

The next day.

“Are you going already?” [Cormi]
“We’ve concluded our business, and while I’m not particularly in a hurry, I can’t stay here forever.” [Ryouma]

Although we could live here just fine, it’s still a dangerous region. If I take too long, the others will think that I died. No, that’s still on the better side. In the worst case, they might actually send a search party and cause more casualties.

“Don’t make that face, erm, I mean air. I’ll be back. With Dimension Magic, I’ll be able to come back a lot quicker this time.” [Ryouma]
“Yeah.” [Cormi]

I placed stone slimes at fixed intervals along the way to serve as markers. I placed them inside a vase made from earth magic that I filled with stones for feed to ensure that they wouldn’t have to worry about food.

I can’t teleport straight to Cormi, but I can teleport rapidly through these landmarks to quickly make my way back. It might not even be impossible to make a round trip from outside and this village. I made sure to tell him that and even got him to read my memories so he knows that it’s not a lie. But despite that, Cormi was stil lsad.

The goblins too will be in my Dimension Home. Although they have bedding here, without me, they’ll run out of food. Although the undead and Cormi could live alongside each other, it’s still too early for the goblins.

I plan to go back as quickly as possible, but it would still be best if I could get him something to distract himself with until I got back.

While I was thinking that, Cormi suddenly came to view.
When we first met, he had taken the shape of Tabuchi-kun, then the village leader, but now, he was just in the form of a mannequin.

“I know. Why don’t you change your form?” [Ryouma]
“Form?” [Cormi]
“It’s something from my home town. Parts that have been pre-made, you can assemble them to create an avatar of your own. In a game, you could make someone that looks like yourself to immerself even more. People who get into it can become quite obsessed with it.” [Ryouma]

Spending hours customizing one’s avatar in a game is a fairly common thing.

“Your default body might be that, but there’s no reason for you to stay like that forever, right?　So why don’t you spend time customizing your avatar until I get back?” [Ryouma]
“…I’ll give it a try.” [Cormi]

Cormi read the information he needed from my memories and changed himself from a mannequin to a child. It seemed that coming up with an original right away was difficult, and though he understood the concept, his avatar was based off of me. Black hair, black eyes, and even his clothes were a child sized jersey.

It’s as though he took the current me and turned me into a child.

“You kind of look like my little brother if I had one.” [Ryouma]
“Little brother?　…Little brother!”
“Oops!” [Ryouma]

Cormi suddenly jumped and started looking at himself from various angles.
Was it such a happy thing to be my little brother? But either way, he seems happy.

“Cormi, I’ll promise you again. I’ll try to get back as quickly as possible. So watch the place while I’m gone, okay?” [Ryouma]
“…Yeah!
I’ll show you the avatar I come up with next time!” [Cormi]
“Alright!　It’s a promise then.” [Ryouma]

I showed him the little finger of my right hand, and he immediately understood. Our little fingers wrapped around each other, and we made that promise with a smile. Outside the gate, some ways away, I rendezvoused with Glen-san.

“You done?” [Glen]
“Yeah, sorry to keep you waiting.” [Ryouma]
“It’s normal for kids to cry. If anything, that much is on the better side, you know.” [Glen]
“Yes. I’ll have to make sure to come back right away.” [Ryouma]

When I looked back, Cormi was there by the gate waving his hand and saying goodbye.

“I’m going!” [Ryouma]
“When he looks like that, he really does seem like a kid. …When I run out of money, I’ll be sure to drop by when I hunt!　At that time, be sure to lend me a room!” [Glen]

Cormi waved with all of the strength of his little body.
A smile surfaced on me, and I went back home with a light heart.
Cormi who waited for me inside of the forest. And all the people I’ve formed a connection with waiting for me outside.
In order to protect my promise with both sides, I hurried along my journey to leave the forest.