Hone to Issho no Isekai Seikatsu

 Adventurer’s Life Day 45 (Wed) – Afternoon – Comnes Town – West – Abandoned Mine

Standing on top of the cliff located to the west of Comnes, a skeleton larger than 2m shadowed before me.

Certainly, this would be that great general from Comnia, Philips.

… However, I’ve been pondering why it only happened now, and not immediately when he possessed the skeleton…

Guessing what I’ve been thinking from the look of my face, Philips gave me his answer.

“… Master… I felt a strong power coming from you, and with it I used it to regain my original form… was this not what Master had intended?”

“Well, I did feel the mana passing over to you, but I can’t really call that intentional…”

Watching the both of us stare for a while, Benedetta spoke up.

“Erm… You wouldn’t think the level up from earlier had something to do with this?”

“Ah… that’s right…”

Now that I think about it, that wound I had when fighting against Philips earlier had been completely healed…

Off topic, but at least with this, I know that all damage before levelling gets recovered.

It’s a shame I won’t really be able to use this to my advantage as I don’t really know when I would level up… and I’m not sure to what extent I would be healed either.

“Hm… It seems like all divine protections levelled to 9… It’s a multiple of 3, so for ‘Necromancer’, ‘Heroic Spirit Contract’ and ‘Engulfing Darkness’ seems to be the new skills added…”

“’Heroic Spirit Contract’ huh… If it’s that, then it’s a little weird…”

“What do you mean?”

I gave a quick explanation on my guess, but Philips had been switched over as a ‘Heroic Spirit’, despite how I had originally used the ‘Undead Spirit Servant’ skill back then. But perhaps it was because of that, that Philips’ power had been restricted.

Though I suppose the ‘Heroic Spirit Contract’ skill had a higher priority from that, and it unlocked his original power just now.

… Most likely, what initiated it was his turn of loyalty for me.

“Mhm… I don’t particularly understand what you meant from your conversation, but to put it simply, Master’s ‘Divine Protection’ and ‘Skill’ had something to do with it…?”

“?”

At the time I was about to give Philips a brief explanation, Centurion cut in and spoke.

“MASTER. It’s turning EVENING soon.”

“Oh…”

We didn’t bring our camping equipment with us… I mean, it’s not like hunting in the Mines would’ve required one…

I’m too tired to think too much about it… I’ve already had my life in danger about twice today.

And even though I have much less skeletons than usual, the amount of mana I had used up is half.

“Alright. Let’s head back! We’ll make a dash back to town! Benedetta, ‘Hasten’ please!”

Benedetta took a worries peek at Philips for a while, before taking in a breath and sang.

However Philips…

“Hou…? What a strange melody… It gives off a pleasant feeling.”

He was unexpectedly favorable towards it.

– Adventurer’s Life Day 45 (Wed) – Afternoon – Comnes Town – West – Abandoned Mine – Exit

Thanks to the powered up Philips being able to completely overwhelm monsters along the way we’ve been able to cut through the Mine at a fast pace.

Ahh… I can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel.

I thought it would already be night by the time we get out. Thank goodness for Philips.

“So this is the power of Benedetta’s mysterious ‘Hymn’. Truly, it lives up to the expectation for a ‘Hastening’ effect!”

Philips gave great praise to Benedetta’s ‘Hymn’ effect.

Not surprising, since the effect of the skill is clearly felt when moving.

It’s difficult to explain what it does, as it’s not as simple as ‘faster legs’, but it’s more like you’re just trying to walk normally until you noticed how much distance you’ve travelled… it’s a nice feeling.

Benedetta turned meek and looked away flustered.

I cautioned out.

“Philips… The monsters outside are fewer and weaker than the ones in the Mine, but don’t let your guard down. From here, leave it to me.”

“Why would there be monsters outside?”

“Eh?”

“Hm?”

We looked at each other with weirded out faces.

… Somehow, there’s an overwhelming difference between our timelines than I had thought…

– Adventurer’s Life Day 45 (Wed) – Evening – Comnes Town

It’s been a while, but we’ve finally arrived back at Comnes. Even seeing the guards suddenly go on high alert felt strangely nostalgic.

Of course, the one they’ve been vigilant from was the stupidly big skeleton walking behind me.

However, I kinda expected this, so as to make a demonstration I had Philips turn back into the coi… Eh, rejected…?

Wait, this can be rejected!?

“Master! In order for myself to keep you under protection, I wish to remain here!”

“Ah now come on…”

Somehow in the end, I managed to convince to return to the coin.

Having a giant walking skeleton around town would just make unnecessary commotion, and it might trouble us too… That spear of his look especially valuable, and I wouldn’t be surprised if another group of thugs were to appear and attempt to take it…

“If anything were to happen, make sure to call me okay!?”

Are you my mother?

We make our way towards the guild…

On our way, I opened up a conversation with Phillips.

(From what you said, on how it’s strange for monsters to appear outside…)

(Had things really changed that much since my time…?)

(Originally, monsters are capable of functioning without receiving energy from caves. It’s so much as a common knowledge, that if you were to say otherwise, you’d look like an idiot. It goes the same wherever in the world you go to.)

Of course, this would be the case if that person wasn’t Philips. I had been in contact with him telepathically even when he returned to the coin…

Though for some reason, I can’t do the same with Centurion… 

Now about the effects from the divine protection.

Surprisingly enough, Philips’ strength wasn’t even enhanced by the divine protection at all… even more so, the actual concept of one didn’t exist back in his time.

It made me wonder, is a strength like his really that possible without any sort of divine enhancements…?

Were humans like supermen back in the day…

(No, no, it’s nothing like that Master. It’s embarrassing for me to be the one to say this, but I am an exception compared to the rest… )

Even still, it’s undeniable on how those from Phillips’ days still had the capabilities of defeating monsters even without any divine protection.

To add to that, he was surprised at how small the guards looked.

On a different note, despite being able to communicate with me, it doesn’t seem like Philips could perceive our surroundings… he had been worried about what’s been going on the entire time.

(Centurion, I leave Master in your care!)

(LEAVE it to ME.)

Hold on a sec… This is the first time knowing Centurion can communicate like this…

– Adventurer’s Life Day 45 (Wed) – Evening – Comnes Town – Adventurer’s Guild

Arriving to the guild, we had our materials from the Mines exchanged in the exchange center. There, we met up with trainer Dorris, and reported to her about how we were attacked by adventurers.

“Darza…? I’ve heard that name before.”

“Is that so?”

“You mentioned that you’ve brought that man and his company’s equipment did you? May I take a look at it?”

“… I’m fine with that?”

Like I’ve been asked, I began to fish out for their equipment.

From the end of it all, I presented Darza’s breastplate, along with a number of their guild cards.

“… So this was the missing item… I heard it had originally belonged to another adventurer which had reportedly been killed.”

“He was really that much of a dangerous guy?”

“If you have the body of that man, the guild could reward a bounty for it. I’ll write up a report about it to another branch. The guild here doesn’t have enough authority to give the bounty reward so we have to take it from a much more influential guild.”

A guild from another town huh.

Comnes is a good trading hub between the north and south, but when it comes to facilitating adventurers, it is a little lacking…

“Which do you recommend, north or south?”

“Of course, it has to be south!”

Trainer Dorris said it quite strongly to me.

Well, I suppose it should be quite obvious, given the sudden surge of fleeing adventurers from the north.

It caused a lot of trouble to us for the past couple of days.

Not to mention there’s also Benedetta’s circumstances…

Speaking of which, I’ve also been hearing about how tariffs towards the north had increased to an absurd amount.

Unsurprisingly enough, the price had been cut down once merchants didn’t come. Funny story.

Having such thoughts to myself, trainer Dorris made a gesture of hitting her palm like she just remembered something.

“Aah… that’s right! You know! Thank you so much dealing with the slime cloth! You really saved us there!”

“… Huh?”

“The slime hunting! Despite being easy, it’s a good way to earn money, and with the addition of being able to collect different herbs in the area, it’s much easier to recommend it to beginners. It’s a popular hunting ground now!”

Seriously… did it really turn that much of an important place?

“Oh… back when I was in charge of dealing with the requests, the widow from Rostam… erm, I mean Adrianne… wanted to give her thanks to you.”

That’s right… perhaps I might take a visit to their place.

Tomorrow evening seems to be a good time.

When leaving the guild, the sun had already set for some time now.

Aah, too many things happened today. I’m tired.

There’s lots of things I’m going to have to do tomorrow too… I’ll have to rebuild the skeletons again, there’s also Philips equipment I’m going to have to do something about, the bounties from those guys, mana potions and… that’s right, there’s also the new skills I’ll need to see.

—- Summoning Memo —-

Centurion Team:

Members: Centurion, Skeleton 1, 2

Equipment: Hatchet, Shield, Armor and helmet

Phillips: Spear

Other Skeletons:

3 – 14: Club, Round shield, Armor and helmet

15 – 18: Round shield

Stone Golem: 1

—– Note of Nemo’s summoned creature —–

○ Inherent skeleton and its unit “Centurion” team ・ Members: “Centurion”, Skeletons 1, 2 ・ Equipment: One-handed axe, shield, armor and spear “Communia Philippos” ・ Equipment: 槍

○ Other skeleton (No. 3 or less 12) equipment: clubs, round shield, armor and helmet Other skeleton (No. 15 or less 4) equipment: Round shield

○ 1 stone golem