Chapter 557 – Obvious and Hidden Reasons
In a dark forest, five adventurers were surrounded by demon beasts.
「Can’t we do anything?」
A light armored warrior said that while glaring at the demon beasts.
「The only choice we have now is to fight.」
The moment their leader with a big sword said that, the battle started.
The demon beasts that are surrounding the five adventurers are called Grattle.
They are demon beasts that are around 1 meter and look similar to a tanuki.
However, they are not adorable like tanukis.
They are obviously there to hunt the other party for food.
Though grattle is powerful, it can be defeated if it is alone but the problem is they hunt in groups.
Right now, more than twenty grattle are surrounding the adventurers.
The adventurers were able to damage three grattle with their respective weapons but those three fell back and new energetic grattles took their places to attack the adventurers.
The adventurers will soon meet death if this goes on.
Perhaps the adventurers already had that premonition the moment they were surrounded. The light armored warrior shook his sword looking obviously frightened.
The grattle evaded that attack in a simple manner and began attacking the light armored warrior intensively.
It looks like they will take out the weakest first.
That’s what the adventurers thought.
However, there’s nothing they can do.
The adventurer’s leader even thought of abandoning the light armored warrior they are targeting.
How about making that guy a decoy, he thought.
However, he immediately erased that in his mind.
Abandoning one would lower their overall strength which will endanger them more.
They can only hope for help.
The adventurer’s leader spoke with power to his comrades to continue their battle with the grattles.
But all of them knew.
Given the strength difference, there is no hope.
The time they were surrounded by the grattles, they were already doomed.
The world is not that sweet.
It’s not a story.
Even if an adventurer party who’s stronger than them shows up, they will not help them.
They can only overcome this challenge with their own power.
If not, they will die.
It’s not uncommon for adventurers to die somewhere and no one knows about it.
They are aware of it.
But they did not give up.
Because they are adventurers.
If they don’t give up, maybe a miracle will happen.
And a miracle happened.
-0-
The earth tremor and the source is coming from a distance.
It’s not an earthquake.
Given the rhythm, they are footsteps.
Footsteps of someone with a big body.
Moreover, it’s not alone.
Three of them.
And they are coming towards the adventurers.
The adventurers rejoiced as it was a chance.
Usually, intruders in a battle are only hindrances but given their situation, they’ll welcome it with open arms.
Everyone’s surprised by the tremor so the grattle might try to escape.
After that, the adventurers will escape too.
However, the grattles did not escape.
Half of the grattles ran in the direction of the earth tremor.
They are going to intercept.
The adventurer’s plan is now gone with the wind however, they are pleased that the number of grattles has been reduced by half.
「We’ll all survive!」
The leader with the big sword roared and continued to fight.
However, he was not able to continue because a big shadow covered the leader.
From where?
From above.
Something jumped in.
Is this big shadow the source of that tremor?
Looks like it.
The leader’s intuition tells him so.
And he is correct.
He doesn’t know the true identity of the shadow but it was humanoid and its height is more than three meters.
He thought it was a titan but a titan can’t jump twenty meters high.
In addition, it twisted its body in two full rotations after landing.
The adventurer’s heartbeats are louder than ever since the unidentified shadow doesn’t look like it will protect them and given its attitude, it might even confront them.
It doesn’t have a weapon but it opened its hand towards the leader as if signaling him to stop.
In other words, it’s not an enemy.
The grattles fled all at once.
They are probably escaping by using the adventurers as decoys.
The adventurers hoped that the giant shadow would chase the grattles but that didn’t happen.
And two more shadows descend to the left and right of the first shadow.
They’re done for.
The adventurers thought.
These big shadows are clearly targeting the adventurers.
And even though they are heavy enough to make the earth tremble, they are overwhelmingly faster than the adventurers.
They could even feel that even one of these shadows is definitely stronger than all those grattles earlier combined.
Now, they thought which is better? Being eaten by grattles? Or being crushed by these big shadows?
However, a miracle happened.
The three big shadows in front of the adventurers started to speak.
「Hello customers. Would you like some cold juice?」
「How about some hot drinks?」
「We also have simple meals.」
-0-
Fully automated vending machine golems.
That’s the result of adding something during meetings one after another.
Of course, that’s only a plan.
When we are talking about vending machine golems, the work of the mountain elves increases one after another. Because of that, I suggested the mountain elves to just focus on making the prototypes and the mass production will be left to Village Five.
With that, Loo and Tier came up with a fully automated magic stone circuit for golems.
Fully automated golem has been researched for a long time but it was considered as impossible to make due to lack of materials.
The lacking material is the magic stone.
It looks like it is possible if there are 58 magic stones of the forest rabbit.
「There should be three more to balance control.」
It became 61.
「Loo-san, I used seven for whole body control but there’s still some time lag. How about we use magic stones from grappler bear or bloody viper?」
Ehto, if we use magic stones from grappler bear or bloody viper we can reduce the magic stones being used.
However, Kuro and Yuki protested saying we are using too much magic stones.
Maa, it’s just a plan.
If we actually make it, it will take the mountain elves half a year.
There are also technical problems.
To solve them, it will probably take another half year….in short, a year.
…..
If that is the case, is it worth doing?
Okay.
Having a dream is good but that’s too much.
Let’s review it all over again.
-0-
And so, the vending machine golems will be very unlikely to be the normal vending machine I envisioned.
After careful consideration of all parties involved, all that it needs to do is to be able to sell food.
However, the first one that the mountain elves made was the ordinary vending machine I wanted to make.
The reason why I want that kind of vending machine is not only because the mountain elves suddenly came out of something similar when they were tinkling with some magic stones. It all started when I went to the royal capital of the demon king’s kingdom a while ago.
There were surprisingly tons of races.
There are also several races in this village, Village Five, and even in Shashaato City but I can’t believe that there are a lot more in the royal capital.
It would take a great deal of effort and ingenuity for that many races to live together.
As for me, I have no intention of talking with them.
However, that’s where I got worried a little.
Yes, about language.
Basically, I speak in common language but some races and children could only talk in their respective languages.
And the area where people like them can live is limited.
They will surely have some trouble shopping.
Not only that, there’s a chance that they’ll be tricked.
When I thought of that, I thought of a vending machine….
I even thought of making one right away.
Anyway, that’s the reason why I’m ostensibly obsessed with vending machine golem.
-0-
And there’s this thing too….
I still have to think of measures to stop the children from holding back.
The children are holding back to me ever since Ursa, Alfred, and Tiselle went to school.
Thinking about it, it is always Ursa, Alfred, or Tiselle who’ll ask me on everyone’s behalf.
The three of them were telling me their requests as the children’s representative. Now that they’re not here, no one has taken their place yet.
Nutt doesn’t hold back to me that much but she’s very careful when it comes to her father Gutt and her mother Nashii.
I don’t need to worry about her.
Anyway,
It’s not good for children to not say anything even if they want something.
In particular, they should be able to drink and eat whatever they want.
I thought that the solution to that was a vending machine golem.
-0-
No, that’s just running away.
Regardless of vending machine golem, I must get close to the children.
Reflect, me.
I’ll do my best.
-0-
Side story.
I suggested that the products sold by the vending machine golems be the canned goods of Village Four or Sun Castle.
If it’s canned goods, both food and drinks can easily be sold.
Even if you handle it in a rough way, it will still be okay which is very convenient.
However, there are two problems.
One is that you need a can opener to open it.
Presently, canned goods can only be made in Village Four so there’s no way other places have can openers.
The only places where there are can openers are places related to Big Tree Village.
Yes, a can can be opened using a knife but it requires a certain technique and it can also damage the content.
The other problem is that after the can is opened, it can easily cut someone.
And so, canned food was rejected.
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