Itai no wa Iya nanode Bōgyo-Ryoku ni Kyokufuri Shitai to Omoimasu

Defense Specialization and Encounter

They went to the forest together on the following day as well. And while they were defeated by monsters more than a few times, they were eventually able to arrive in the part of the forest where they had spotted the bear cub.

"Th-this time...it took us a while."

"Yes. I think we need more practice."

Still, they felt that it wasn’t too bad, as they at least knew which part of the large forest to start looking in. Not having to walk aimlessly in the forest meant they could minimize the number of encounters, which meant accidents would be less likely.

"Ah! There!"

"Oh, good..."

The same bear cub they saw yesterday now appeared in front of them. Apparently, it really did depend on the time of day

And so they chased after it, hoping to catch it this time. Monsters attacked them on the way, but as they had gotten used to fighting them yesterday, they were able to take them down. Like this, they advanced smoothly through the forest, until the paw prints started to lead towards the mountains.

"We’ve gone pretty far, haven’t we?"

"Hmm... We’ve never gone so far before."

Both of them continued down the wild road while following the paw prints and floating stars.

After a while, they reached a small cave that was in the middle of the mountain.

"Let’s go in!"

"Yes...!"

They gripped their great hammers tightly and walked into the cave. The floating stars from the paw prints rose into the air and illuminated the ground and walls.

Gradually, the path into the cave widened, and the lights became stronger. And when they reached the back of the cave, they were greeted to the sight of a bear cub sleeping in a cradle of stars.

The place was like a small bedroom and was filled with blinding light.

"Agh!"

"Agh!"

The bear cub got up as if reacting to their voices. Then it looked at them. In the next instant, the lights in the room became brighter, and then gathered towards the bear.

In the brief instant that the two had closed their eyes due to the brightness, the bear cub had suddenly grown into a giant bear. And it roared in a low voice.

Stars were scattered over its body. They illuminated the tips of its ears and fur.

"It’s kind of like Syrup!?"

"’Enlarge’...maybe... What should we do!"

They had thought they might be able to tame it if they caught up. But now there was a very strong-looking monster glaring at them.

They still didn’t have enough items either. As they stood there and wondered how they could make it join them, a blue panel appeared in front of them.

’Show your power.’

Beat the monster in battle in order to make it join you.

It was treated like a quest and showed them how they could tame the monster.

Upon seeing this, their expressions brightened. Show their power. That was the thing that they did best.

"Let’s go!"

"Yes! Though, I won’t be able to show restraint..."

"We’re sorry!"

"We’re sorry!"

In the next instant, a low thud echoed and could even be heard outside of the cave.

"I-is it alright?"

"I...I don’t know..."

In front of them was the bear that they had defeated in one hit. As they worried that they had used too much power, the walls and floor around them began to shine brightly again.

And then the bear got up heavily and slowly approached them. Then it rubbed its head against their legs and let out a small cry before turning into light.

"Uhhh..."

"Wh-what happened?"

When the light disappeared and they opened their eyes again, there was a single ring on the ground.

It looked just like the rings that Maple and Sally had.

"Yay!"

"Yay!"

They picked it up and smiled as they high-fived each other. That being said, this was only half of their goal. They needed to acquire two of these. And so their search for buddies had not ended yet.

"Alright! Let’s do it one more time!"

"Yes, we made it this far. It should be fine...we can do it!"

It was still hard to get to this point, but the actual fight had been easy. And so they were both eager to continue.

However, and this was something they would not even realize, the fight to acquire a rare monster was actually very difficult.

Yes, in other words, just like they always did, they had killed it in one shot before something could be activated.