The Wrong Hero

Chapter 12 - Alternative Farming System

Killing the bandits one after another turned out to be mostly a waste of time. After killing the second one, they didn't get any new information. Well, they still fed them all to his Savage Shield, so it wasn't a complete waste, just time inefficient. Night had fallen by the time they were finished.

The bandits did just overhear about Dante's party being near Lurolona in the town. They didn't ask the people who were discussing it, they just heard Dante had some demi-human slaves and decided to go claim them. The woman Raphtalia killed apparently knew about orca demi-humans, so that's why they kept their distance for a while until they saw a pattern.

The only lead they had was some unidentifiable person in Ronota. Of course, they were still going to check it out. Someone there wanted them dead, that much Dante was certain of. Ronota wasn't on the way to Lurolona from the capital. Rather, Lurolona was roughly on the way to Ronota. They didn't even pass by anyone on the carriage ride. If it was a shadow that spread the information, there was little they could do, outside of killing every bandit and slaver they could find. That was certainly within the realm of possible—indeed probable—actions to take.

That would be their plan come morning. For right now, Dante had another problem, though much smaller in scope.

"You guys...I need to cook the food..." Dante was sitting on a log in front of the fire, with a filolial child clinging to either side of him. They shifted slightly, allowing him to lean forward to stir the pot he was cooking from, but still held firm.

"You two know I was in no real danger, right?" He asked the pair.

"Yeah." "Yep." JoJo and Dio said at once, not loosening their grips at all.

"I got hit in the shoulder with an axe and stabbed in the back with a sword. No damage either time."

"You're strong." "Very tough." They each patted him on his lower back.

Dante sighed. He stirred the pot a bit, then turned the skewers over the fire. Sadeena brought back some sort of octopus monster and a large fish creature for dinner, plus an assortment of less edible looking monsters for absorption. Interestingly, one of the bandits had something like an onion as an item drop, so Dante chopped it up and put in the octopus stew.

"What about Raphtalia?" Dante tried to shift their attention to the raccoon girl. "She was in much more danger than me. She could use the comforting."

"Ah, no, I'm okay." Raphtalia said, waving her hands in front of her. Dante gave her a pleading look, but she just smiled sympathetically back to him.

"She seems fine." "Sadie is comforting her." They wrapped their arms around Dante tighter.

Accepting his fate, Dante stirred the pot a bit more before easing back. Turning his thoughts to the future, Dante wasn't pleased. The plan they had got flipped on its head. It was pretty simple: Sadeena and either Dio or JoJo would fight in the high XP sea while the rest hunted and learned on land. They had a great start, but they tripped up near the end. It was incredibly disappointing, considering the gains they made.

Dante: LV 29
Sadeena: LV 35
Keel: LV 20
Rifana: LV 20
Raphtalia: LV 19
Dio: LV 28
JoJo: LV 28

It was infuriating, really. In a single day, they earned so much XP, it made all their previous work look pathetic by comparison. Of course, Dante had two maturation bonuses helping, but still! They played with the idea of everyone going into the water, but they didn't have a great way to go about it. They didn't have a boat, couldn't make a boat themselves, and Dante doubted they could purchase one at a fair price, if at all. Even if they could, when they finished for the day, that was just another thing they had to keep an eye on, lest it be destroyed during the night. He hinted to Sadeena about using her secret base, but she wasn't for it. The more it was used, the more likely it was to be found.