「Wha-what the hell was that?」

Maintaining his guard up, Tanaka moved to identify the black creature that had just attacked him. It looked like a black rabbit to Tanaka, no matter how he looked at it. Except for its sharp fangs and the horns on its forehead, that was it.

「So this is a horned rabbit that is common to appear in another world, huh? But still, I did hit it out of reflexes, but to think I’d defeat it that easily…」

Tanaka’s battle power was on the same level as a baby. For Tanaka who was well aware of that fact, he’d have never expected that he would be able defeat a monster. At the very least, he’d have never thought of voluntarily fighting a monster on his own. However, for better or worse, in the end he succeeded in defeating the monster. Noticing that, Tanaka swiftly inspected his personal information.

「Oh! Experience 9/100! Perhaps this could work. I was intending to directly head to a town, then live and work there quietly for a while, but… very well, I suppose I’ll stay and level up here for a while! But still, for rabbits that can be easily defeated even by someone like me whose battle power is only at the level of a baby, I’m surprised they haven’t gone extinct yet…」

He couldn’t help but worry about the rabbits that could be defeated so easily even with his baby-level battle power.

「But well, I suppose by living in such a deserted place, on the contrary they should be safe, huh? Still, I’d like them to follow Cerberus’ lead and choose to live in a place with harsher environments. He lives so close to a human settlement, after all. It’s easy to tell that he has survived through numerous bloody and horrific battles against humans. The moment I met him, I could immediately sense the aura of a powerful being exuded out of his body, after all…」 Tanaka recalled his rival whose fierce battle against he managed to avoid previously. Right now, every moment of that tension-filled scene was a fond memory to him. For a while, Tanaka was lost in thoughts about it.

「… wait, now isn’t the time to be thinking about such a thing.」

Thus, Tanaka decided to spend some time in these remote mountain ranges to level up. However, the food that had been prepared for him would only last for less than a month. And he didn’t have the ability to process the rabbits into food either. After a long deliberation, he decided to stay there for only about two weeks.

「For the time being, I suppose I’ll just put this poor rabbit into the item box. There’s a good chance that their raw materials and meat can later be sold for money, after all. Ufufu, I’m not one to show an opening.」Just a while before, he was attacked by the poor rabbit because he’d shown an opening. However, Tanaka lavished himself with praise, as though to deceive himself into forgetting the matter. That alone showed how much of a deplorable man he was. Anyway, for two weeks starting from this day, Tanaka spent his days playing with rabbits.

◇ ◇ ◇

And then, the two weeks of turbulent bloodbath against the rabbits was now over. Tanaka was about to resume his journey.

「Wow, I’d have never thought that I’d stumble upon a chance to level up as soon as I set out on my journey. I guess even lady luck is on my side, huh. But still, Leveling up to level 11 is fine and all, but…. my stats value has barely improved at all, hasn’t it?!」

Tanaka had continuously hunted the rabbits until he reached level 11. There were a total of 778 rabbit carcasses in his item box. As a matter of fact, he’d originally intended to stop at the lucky number of 777. However, Tanaka was suddenly attacked by a rabbit that was oblivious of this wish of his, thus bringing us to the current situation. It was a very Tanaka-like conclusion.

「Well, there’s something I get to understand out of this venture, so I suppose it’s fine. Your power grows the more you level up. Also, since I had fought using the short sword, I managed to increase both my Vitality and Strength even without leveling up, even if only by a bit. My Agility and Dexterity had also increased ever so slightly… Oh crap, my eyes are sweating.」

Tanaka couldn’t hide his shock at the fact that his stats hadn’t improved as much as he had expected. Sweats involuntarily gushed out of his eyes. 「Oops, not good, not good, I was about to fall into the dark side. Well, I managed to obtain a new skill, so let’s stay positive about it. But still, the sword skill that I’d obtained has somehow stopped increasing in value midway. I suppose I have to raise my level first before I can improve my sword skill further, huh…. I wonder if this is the pattern where I’m supposed to face powerful enemies first before I can improve myself? Or rather, would there really come a day where I have to face powerful enemies just to level up? Kuh, I’ve got a bad feeling about this.」

Up to this point, Tanaka had been fighting using the short sword, and before he knew it, he had acquired a sword skill. This skill had originally improved steadily as he continued to hunt the rabbits, but one day it suddenly arrived at a standstill.

「Hmm, as expected there are still too many things I don’t know about. Looks like I have to pay the guild a visit, after all.」As far as he was concerned, Tanaka did want to continue leveling up more. However, as it stood there were yet too many things unknown to him. Above all, he was left with only a small amount of food.

Tanaka began to resume his way toward Haru Empire through the mountain ranges. More accurately, toward one of the towns of the Haru Empire close to the border of the Purin Kingdom. It was about one week later that Tanaka arrived there. With summer in full swing, it was around the time when intense heat was about to set in.

◇ ◇ ◇ World history records. It was a story that would be passed down in the towns and villages along the eastern highway of Purin Kingdom.

Year 5963 of the creation calendar, early summer, ‘it’ appeared out of nowhere. According to numerous eyewitnesses, the omen of its appearance was a rumbling in the ground. A short while later, the air began to tremble, and along with thunderous roars which threatened to split their ears, ‘it’ appeared and then disappeared in a very short amount of time. Leaving clouds of dust in its wake, ‘it’ moved at an inhuman speed. While its real appearance was unknown, it was presumed to be a newly appeared calamity-level monster, or so the rumors said.

There had also been sightings of it by the soldiers serving the country, thus the country swiftly took actions to deal with it. However, after that, as they had put a lot of effort into guarding the highway, the new monster didn’t appear ever again.

Name: Tanaka

Level: 11 Experience: 802/1100

Vitality: 2.2e13/2.2e13 Magical energy: 2.0e13/2.0e13

Strength: 2.2e12 Dexterity: 2.1e12 Agility: 2.1e12

Intelligence: 2.0e12 Spirit: 2.0e12

Skill: Sword (2.00)

Equipment: Short sword, Cloth clothes, Scent bag

Money: 50,000G