"Explosion!"

Splat

'Well, that's one wolf pack dealt with', I thought as I looked towards the brand new crater in the forest.

Megumin was on the ground due to mana exhaustion.

Darkness was lying next to the crater with a face which was red from… exhaustion, yes, let's go with exhaustion.

She definitely didn't get excited by the feeling of getting mauled by the wolves, followed by an explosion just a few meters away from her…

Where was Aqua?

Oh, she was just tied to a nearby tree.

Our plan was simple.

Darkness would tank the wolves and try to gather them all in an area.

Megumin would do her thing.

I would take out the stragglers and the wolves who tried to attack Megumin while she did her thing.

And Aqua would support us and use healing magic afterwards.

And as you would guess, Aqua got bored and charged at a wolf.

The said wolf almost ripped her hand off before we were able to save her.

We had to retreat because of her and attack once again after 3 hours.

So… when she tried charging in again, we just tied her up to some tree while Darkness looked on in… was that jealousy?

Get a grip on yourself girl.

I picked Megumin up from the ground as she coughed out some dirt that had gotten into her mouth.

"How many points was that explosion, Kazuma?" she asked.

"Hmm, you targeted it perfectly and the shockwave was not that big… so about 50 on your attempt at a stealthy explosion."

You see, when Megumin uses her explosion in a forest like this, small monsters try to run away from the area as they know whoever made that sound was not to be messed with, while the strong ones just see it as a challenger who approached their territory.

So seeing as only 3 rookie killers were walking towards us was better than expected.

"I shall defend you Kazuma and Megumin! Even though I am tired and might become their p-prey-"

"Snipe!"

"Snipe!"

"Snipe!"

"You done?" I asked Darkness as I threw and summoned my axe back three times.

This was the combination I had come across during my time trying to take down all the toads that resided near Axel.

As snipe can be used on anything that the person is throwing, and as it depends on your luck stat, and as I have maxed out snipe with about 16 skill points…

I had quite a good ability at throwing axes at anything that was in my 20 meter radius.

Then you add the summoning ability of the axe on top of that, and you basically get a new ranged weapon with quite a lot of ammunition.

38 to be precise.

"Oi, hikiNEET, come here and untie me already or I will start purifying your morning coffee from tomorrow onwards!"

"Just a sec Aqua, I'm a bit busy carrying Megumin here."

"Are you by chance implying I am fat," whispered Megumin in my ear in a dangerous tone.

"N-NO, of course not, I only meant I was just being cautious to not drop you," I stammered out.

Don't narrow your eyes at me you loli.

I was only half lying.

She definitely gained weight, which was a good thing considering a month ago, she didn't weigh anything.

"Hmm… I will let you off the hook this time."

Phew

"3 million of our shoulders," Darkness said after she got over the fact that she wasn't going to be fighting rookie killers today.

"You should get yourself healed, those bites look bad," Megumin said from my back to Darkness, pointing toward some wounds on her arm.

"Tis but a scratch."

Yeah, about that 3 million off our shoulders thing.

Yesterday, Luna told us about a Demon King General and his last visit to the wonderful city of Axel.

Apparently, the castle Megumin was nuking for the last month was the place he had been staying at.

So he came to the city to basically stop whoever it was that was doing it.

And as we were away Destroyer hunting…

He just packed up his stuff and started to leave, giving orders to relay his warning.

Which would've been the end of the matter if not for the swordsman Mika Kuzuki or whatever his name was.

Apparently there was another person in the city with a divine blessing.

The guy was rumored to have a legendary sword which basically one shots any enemies he comes across.

So he went and attacked the retreating general.

Which was a stupid thing to do.

One does not simply fight a Demon King General.

They're basically the endgame bosses.

I don't know the complete details, but the guy just kept spamming out magic slashes from his sword in an attempt to kill the general.

Which were all deflected back by either the General's sword or his armour, causing a lot of damage to the city walls and the surrounding area.

When they both finally dueled with their swords, the general didn't even take 10 seconds to disarm him.

He did let him go though, saying he had fun and that he was once a knight, blah blah blah, and he would give him a chance to grow stronger and fight him again in the future.

As the guy left in his new quest to get stronger, and as he was the top adventurer around Axel, the payment for the damage that their fight caused was basically pinned on the people who were the reason for the General coming in the first place.

Which was us.

So now we had a debt of 100 million eris on our backs.

And as Sean Bean once said, winter is coming…

Which meant I have to live with that useless goddess in that stable in the cold winter.

At least I have a cheat to help pay off the debt we have.

I was currently sitting at level 20 after taking out the golems inside the Destroyer.

My stats were at 180, which was comparable with a level 38 adventurer.

I had maxed out snipe, lurk, enemy detect, and one handed wielding, with the extra skill points I had, I had used to learn intermediate magic and fireball, as I really wanted to start getting into the magic aspect of this world.

I had also gotten a skill called dash, which consumed magic for a 100% extra speed boost and auto dodge, which as the name suggested, was used to dodge attacks.

Its activation rate depended on the user's luck and the skill level.

At its current level, it dodged about a quarter of attacks, which was good considering it was a passive skill.

"Hey Darkness, what did your contacts say about us collecting the bounty for the Destroyer?" I asked.

"They are saying that since the Crimson Demon Village is its own sovereign nation, it comes in their jurisdiction and that they are the ones who should be paying us the bounty," Darkness said.

"Which they already did," I said sadly.

Wait…

"Hey Aqua, you still have that hagoromo from before we came here, right?"

"Yes," she answered.

"Yeah, I haven't seen her wearing anything else," Megumin said.

You're one to talk.

"I think you've all forgotten that I'm a goddess! This hagoromo's a holy relic. It can defend against abnormal statuses and has great durability. It's a heavily enchanted artifact! There's no other equipment better than this!"

"Then it should pay well if we were to sell it to some Axis cult member."

"It's not a cult, and no! I-I won't allow it! This hagoromo is proof of my divinity!"

"Making a woman sell her clothes," Darkness said with a dreamy look.

"Wait, Kazuma, if you want to sell someone's clothes, sell mine! I would endure it even if it would bring me shame…" Darkness once again descended back into one of her fantasies.

Wait, where did Aqua go?

I looked towards the horizon and saw Aqua running away from us.

"Don't worry, Axis cult members are crazy, but even they wouldn't pay a single coin for something like that," Megumin said from my back.

Well, those guys worship Aqua, so I didn't have high hopes for them either way.