C4— The Strongest Old Man in the Parallel World ~ I Only Got Physical Skills So I Had to Form a Party but It Turned into a Harem~

Chapter 4: Transfer, and Becoming an Adventurer 04

So, it was the morning of the third day in the other world.

Once again, I ate breakfast first thing in the morning, then headed to the makeshift training ground from yesterday.

To start the day, I tried hitting a thick tree with my mace. The trunk got gouged out nearly halfway through.

There’s no way that’s power a human could produce. If this was the power of an "awakened" adventurer, then it made sense that adventurers were tasked with defeating monsters. Though I still didn’t really understand how dangerous monsters were.

Anyway, I decided to spend today leveling up each of my skills by one more point.

So I went through my training routine again—running, dashing, jumping, and swinging practice.

By a little after noon, I had managed to raise every skill from yesterday by one point—except for [Presence Detection]. Though... it did feel a little too easy to level up. The guide hadn’t mentioned how often skills could increase. Maybe I should ask a veteran adventurer at some point. Whether they'd tell me or not was another matter.

Finally, I headed deep into the forest to train [Presence Detection].

Apparently, this skill extended the five senses—sight, hearing, smell, touch—and integrated them into a kind of unified perception. It likely picked up on subtle changes in the environment to vaguely sense the position of animals and such.

The sensation was like a fuzzy awareness that “something” was a certain number of meters ahead.

As I walked through the woods, I consciously focused on detecting small animals and large insects.

Hmm. Something was about five meters ahead on the ground. It seemed long and narrow—probably a snake.

Up in the tree was a small animal, probably the same squirrel-like creature I saw yesterday. When I approached, it jumped to another tree and ran away.

Twenty meters ahead—something big... about the size of a dog. A boar? No—a wild dog!?

Before I could even think this is bad, the thing let out a sharp GUOH! and charged through the trees straight at me.

It looked dog-like, but its body proportions were clearly off. Its upper body was bulky, and its fangs jutted upward from its mouth.

I remembered seeing this creature in the guide—it was a monster called a “Boarwolf.”

Climbing a tree... damn, my legs were frozen—I couldn’t move.

The Boarwolf was right in front of me. No choice but to fight. I raised my buckler and lowered my stance.

GUAH!!

At the moment of impact, I thrust out my buckler with my left hand and jabbed forward with my mace.

There was no technique—just pure desperation to knock the monster away.

The impact slammed into the left side of my body with brutal force.

Thanks to my push, I avoided a direct hit from its tackle, but I still got flung nearly two meters.

My vision spun, but I knew I couldn’t afford to lie down. I forced myself up—and the Boarwolf was still right there.

On instinct, I swung my mace at the side of its face.

The head of the mace connected with a heavy thud, and a screech—BUIIIII!—rang out.

Looking closely, I saw the area around its eye had been gouged. Looked like I landed a lucky hit.

The Boarwolf staggered in place. As it began thrashing wildly, I brought the mace down on it again.

It was hard to land a clean blow on a moving target. But each time I swung the mace, I felt my mind grow calmer for some reason.

Yes—stay calm, stay calm... Watch your enemy’s movements. Don’t go for vital points right away. Aim for the legs first.

It was a strange feeling. I'd never even hit another living thing before—how could I stay this calm?

I swung my mace horizontally. The Boarwolf’s foreleg shattered.

As it fell, I slammed the mace down on its head. Its whole body convulsed for a moment—then went completely still, as if its batteries had died.

“Did I... do it?”

I dropped to one knee, using my mace as a cane to support my upper body.

The Boarwolf didn’t twitch. I had definitely defeated it.

“Weren’t monsters not supposed to appear in this area...?”

I was sure the guide had said monsters only appeared in dungeons around here. That’s why I chose this area to train.

“Ugh... ow... This isn’t good.”

The outer side of my left thigh had a long gash. Must’ve been from its fangs during the tackle.

I pulled out my canteen and washed the wound.

“Wait... I’ve got potions…”

I remembered I had followed the young man’s advice this morning and bought two potions.

I pulled one out, uncorked it, and poured it over the wound. The elderly shopkeeper had told me that’s how it should be used.

“Stings like hell…”

I wondered how effective it would be—and as I watched, the wound closed up like a reversed video clip. It was like a magical elixir. Within a minute, everything was healed—only the torn slacks remained.

“Whew, that was close.”

I sat down on the ground with a thud.

Looking at the Boarwolf again, it was huge—probably the size of a large dog. I couldn’t believe I’d fought and won against something like this.

“Right, if you defeat a monster outside a dungeon, you’re supposed to bring it back, aren’t you?”

I slowly recalled what I had to do next.

Monsters defeated inside dungeons vanish—absorbed by the dungeon, leaving behind only certain materials.

But outside… in game terms, the "field"… the entire corpse remains.

Monster corpses apparently had many uses—but that also meant hauling them back.

I rested for about five minutes, then stood and tried lifting the Boarwolf.

It looked like it weighed close to 100 kilograms, but I barely felt it. Likely thanks to my awakened body and strength-related skills.

“Guess this counts as my first job as an adventurer.”

I began walking toward the town of Torson, still carrying the Boarwolf.

When I walked into the Adventurers' Guild carrying the Boarwolf, the receptionist’s eyes widened, and she guided me to the dismantling area behind the guild.

The townspeople who saw me were shocked too—so monsters appearing in the field here really was rare.

When I asked the receptionist why there was a dismantling area then, she replied, “It’s not like they never appear.” So I guess I just had bad luck.

“Okuno-san, right? Our staff will handle the dismantling, so please wait a bit. This is your number tag—please don’t lose it.”

As she said that, she handed me a wooden token and placed the Boarwolf on the dismantling table.

“Excuse me, could you explain how this prey will be handled?”

“Ah, yes. Our staff will dismantle this Boarwolf. Since many of its parts are usable, we’ll assess the materials and set a price based on their condition. Then we’ll buy it from you. We’ll also deduct a portion to repay your loan.”

“I see. Roughly how much would that come to?”

“Hmm… let’s see… Boarwolves usually go for around 700,000 rom.”

“That’s quite a sum.”

I had borrowed 300,000 rom the other day. The rom seemed to be close in value to Japanese yen.

I didn’t know how much a wild boar cost in Japan, but 700,000 didn’t seem bad.

“It’s really rare for monsters to appear outside dungeons in this area. Meat from field monsters often gets special treatment.”

“Oh? Does it taste different?”

“Apparently so. I’ve only ever eaten dungeon-raised meat, though,” she said with a sheepish smile. I guess even this world had social inequality. This country seemed to be a monarchic class society.

“Still, Okuno-san, you’ve only been an adventurer for three days, right? Taking down a Boarwolf solo is impressive. Were you a soldier or something?”

“Eh? No, I was just... a merchant, I suppose? Had nothing to do with fighting.”

“Really? Then maybe you’ve got talent as an adventurer. Good luck!”

“Thanks. I’ll reread the Adventurer’s Guide while I wait for the dismantling.”

After thanking her, I headed to the rarely-used reference room.

In the end, I received 450,000 rom and returned to the inn. The amount was lower because my loan had been repaid in full.

On the way back, I restocked my potions and bought replacement pants for my torn slacks. Since the slacks were made of a rare fabric, the clothing shop actually bought them for a decent price. Compared to the textiles of this world, modern Japanese fabric must seem valuable.

Also, since I planned to head into the dungeon tomorrow, I decided to buy some armor. I stopped by the armor shop and ordered a breastplate, gauntlets, and greaves. They only needed minor adjustments, so they’d be ready by morning.

Stretching out on my bed, something occurred to me.

I felt like my physical abilities had jumped up a level since this morning.

I noticed it when I was carrying the Boarwolf—something had changed before and after the battle.

“Was that like a level up?”

The guide had said “adventurers grow stronger through battle,” but I thought that only referred to skills. Maybe the body could also grow in other ways.

It seemed like “Awakening” bestowed various blessings on the human body. Combine that with skills, and someone could become a true superhuman.

Even someone like me, a mere F-rank, had defeated that monster one-on-one. The D-rank adventurers in this town might already be beyond human.

Now that I thought about it, adventurers were severely punished if they used their power to harm people without just cause. That made sense—if someone with this kind of power turned to crime, it’d be a disaster.

Or rather, it was inevitable that some would try. I’d need to stay on guard against that kind of thing.

Anyway, based on today’s training and battle, here’s my estimated skill list:

Adventurer Level: 2

Weapon Skills

Mace: Lv.3

Dagger: Lv.2

Armor Skills

Buckler: Lv.2

Physical Skills

Stamina: Lv.3

Strength: Lv.3

Speed: Lv.3

Agility: Lv.3

Reflexes: Lv.3

Sensory Skills

Vision: Lv.2

Hearing: Lv.2

Smell: Lv.2

Touch: Lv.2

Dynamic Vision: Lv.2

Presence Detection: Lv.3

Mental Skills

Composure: Lv.1

Assuming I leveled up from the battle with the Boarwolf.

Most skills probably rose by 1 through training.

The sudden calm I felt in battle likely came from a skill. Let’s call it [Composure] for now.

Thinking about all this made me wonder if I was still dreaming.

But the pain of the wound and the sensation of my mace striking the Boarwolf insisted it was all real.

Life truly was unpredictable. But I doubt many people ever get thrown into something this incomprehensible.