Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation - Volume 3

Chapter 14: The Beginning of Our Journey

For me, as a member of the Dragon Quest generation, the words "Demon Continent" naturally bring to mind the concept of a "Demon Realm." You know...a dark land ruled over by an all-powerful Demon King, with small villages populated by monsters, long-forgotten ancient shrines, and fearsome creatures swaggering around all over the place.

It wasn't really like that in this world though. For one thing, that all-powerful Demon King was nowhere to be found.

Which isn't to say that "Demon Kings" didn't exist. In fact, there were roughly thirty of them at the moment, and they all had at least a bit of territory to lord over. But they weren't rulers really. They just called themselves kings and acted like they owned the neighborhood.

Each Demon King did have something like a guard squad or a band of knights, typically with impressive-sounding names. The soldiers in Rikarisu technically belonged to one of these. They complemented the activities of adventurers by exterminating dangerous monsters in the area, capturing criminals in town, and otherwise taking independent action to protect their homes. More of a city watch or local militia than an army really.

I wasn't that clear on the exact relationship between the local Demon King and those guys. Did he actually issue them orders, or were they just calling themselves his soldiers? They'd presumably be his army if he ever went to war, so I guess there was some sort of contract in place.

At the moment, no one was fighting any wars, and things were relatively peaceful. But that only applied when you were in the neighborhood of a specific Demon King. The majority of the Demon Continent was completely lawless.

Things may be calm around Southern Cross and the Holy Emperor's Mausoleum, but everything in between was rampant with mohawk-sporting biker gangs basically.

In any case, the Demon King who controlled the area around Rikarisu was named Badigadi. He was said to be a muscular, macho guy with six arms and black skin. At the moment, however, he'd set off on an aimless journey, and no one had any idea where he was. Sounded like something of a free spirit.

At any rate, the Demon Continent was crawling with powerful creatures. There was a reason the Adventurers' Guild put all the monster-slaying jobs at rank C or higher; basically every monster you could find here was at least that tough. Stone Treants were maybe just barely D-ranked.

That said, demonfolk were generally stronger than humans. They were also very good in group combat, as the unique abilities of various sub-races helped them play specific roles. Hitting rank B was still a real challenge for most people, but the adventurers who got there were stronger than the Brankers you'd find elsewhere. Those who couldn't get that far usually ended up like Nokopara or Jalil.

The more I thought about it, the more incredible Ruijerd seemed. The man said he could take down A-ranked monsters singlehandedly, and I believed him. All by himself, he was stronger than a group of six or seven skilled B-ranked adventurers.

You had to be pretty happy about earning the trust of someone like that, right?

***

Three days had passed since we left the city of Rikarisu. I'm not sure if it had anything to do with the fact that I was feeling a bit more relaxed after winning over Ruijerd, but my appetite was growing increasingly ferocious.

The problem was, we didn't have anything good to work with. We were mostly living off Great Tortoise meat, and Great Tortoise meat wasn't my idea of a good time. I decided to try and improve our culinary situation slightly. The stuff was gross when you roasted it, so we may as well try a different method.

Using magic, I whipped up a large clay pot, a basic but powerful cooking stove, and some delicious Greyrat-family artisanal water. It was everything we needed to make a basic stew. Water was a precious resource around here, but I could produce it in unlimited quantities.