According to the dimension traveler response manual established personally by the kingdom, any subject who first encounters a dimension traveler is obligated to carry out two processes.
First, they must take the dimension traveler to a guild and determine whether the person truly is a dimension traveler based on the number of aptitudes revealed through evaluation. If the person is confirmed to be a dimension traveler, one of the locals must invite them home and evaluate their character.
Dimension travelers usually crossed over with perks.
They might be weak at first, but they tended to become unrivaled in strength in the blink of an eye.
Therefore, to check whether they were people with dangerous ideas, the locals had them stay the night, gave them alcohol, and gently probed what their true nature was like.
I recalled how Layton had suddenly asked how much I could drink during dinner yesterday.
“No wonder you offered me alcohol first.”
“Disappointed?”
“Not at all. The whole time I was in your care, I felt as if I were being treated generously. You welcomed me sincerely, so I suppose that is why I sincerely felt I was being treated well.”
“There was no lie mixed into what I told you. I hope you do not misunderstand that, at least.”
“Of course. A man who made such a fine bow for his son would never use his son as material for a lie.”
Layton suddenly narrowed his brow.
Had I misspoken?
When I studied Layton’s expression, Arte, who was standing diagonally behind him, smiled warmly and slowly shook her head.
As if telling me I had not offended him.
Layton suddenly turned his back to me, slipped out through the side door connected to the house’s front yard, and spoke briefly.
“Fine bow, my ass. Now it is just a dust-covered ornament.”
Then, not long after, he returned to the blacksmith’s workshop, and in Layton’s hand was the metal bow.
Layton roughly snatched back the wooden bow he had just given me and placed the metal bow in my hand.
“As expected, giving away merchandise is too much of a waste. Take this cheap ornament that will not sell instead.”
It is not that it will not sell. It is that you will not sell it, is it not?
I considered playfully retorting, but a better answer came to mind, and I put it into words just as it was.
“I will look around many places together with it before I return.”
It was time to leave now.
The equipment I had received consisted of a chest guard, greaves that covered the fronts of my shins, a bundle of arrows tipped with various kinds of heads, and a dagger with its edge carefully sharpened.
And a metal bow made from the materials of a high-level monster.
With this much, I had the right assortment to begin my journey.
When I left the blacksmith’s workshop, Layton and Arte waved to me, telling me to have a safe trip.
“Take care and come back.”
It was a farewell thrown toward both me and the bow, which was no different from his son’s other self.
***
After leaving while being seen off, I moved exactly along the road Layton had told me about.
My destination was Nadan’s house.
The next exploration point, Cat Forest, was said to be an area where monsters appeared.
As I moved, I thought over Ravos Travel Agency’s intentions in my own way.
Why had they gone out of their way to designate an area where monsters appeared as an exploration point when they said they were collecting samples from travelers?
Were they trying to confirm whether hunting could be used as a tourism product?
That was entirely possible.
Just as there had once been an attempt in North America to release boar hunting as a tourism product, reducing the number of boars that damaged crops while also trying to attract tourists.
If dimension-travel tourism became commercialized, travelers could gain unusual experiences, while locals could subjugate monsters without lifting a finger, so both sides would benefit.
As I continued walking and thinking, I had already completely left the village before I knew it.
A little distance from the village, near the entrance to a broad forest, chimney smoke was rising.
I went closer.
When I approached, sure enough, I came upon Nadan’s house.
Nadan was sitting on a tree stump in the yard, shaving a wooden stick with a knife, when he sensed someone’s presence and stood up.
“Oh~, my dimension traveler friend! How was last night? Old Man Layton only goes on drunken rants, so it was boring, right?”
I turned my body slightly to the side, showed him the bow slung across my back, and answered.
“It was the opposite. The couple treated me so well that I had no time to be bored.”
The moment he saw the metal bow, Nadan rounded his mouth and admired it.
“Oh~, is that the Deros Bow? To think that stubborn old man would hand over the Deros Bow.”
“Originally, he was going to give me a bow made from materials from a level 20 monster, but then he suddenly changed it and told me to take this instead.”
“Tch, I’m jealous. I’m still using a bow made with materials from only a level 40 monster.”
“What level was the monster that became the material for this bow?”
“Did you not hear from Layton? Deros is a level 70 monster.”
Was level 70 high?
When I wore a puzzled expression, Nadan set aside his work, brushed the sawdust from his hands, and spoke.
“It is high. Among the monsters known to remain in the human realm, the highest-level monster is level 100.”
I lopped off the part of Nadan’s words that bothered me and muttered it just as it was.
“Among the monsters known to remain.......”
Let’s not think too deeply about it.
I was still in the stage of adapting to another world, and as a mere level 4 traveler, it felt too early to start looking into level 100 monsters or anything beyond that.
I told Nadan why I had come looking for him.
“The truth is, I was thinking of going deep into Cat Forest as my next destination, so I came to ask for advice.”
“Did you not say you were traveling? Areas where monsters appear are not tourist spots.”
“Tourism is not the entirety of travel.”
“Hm, well, maybe it will be fine. I was the one who said that even travelers need the skills to take care of themselves. Besides, it seems you passed the character evaluation safely, so it should be all right.”
The Deros Bow Layton had given me was no different from a certificate of passing.
Apparently, the villagers had originally agreed among themselves to give me a bow made from level 20 materials if I passed.
But from the fact that Layton had given me equipment several times more valuable than what they had planned to give, Nadan said he could guess how deeply moved Layton had been, and gave me a thumbs-up.
Nadan told me to wait a moment, then went inside his house.
When the smoke flowing from the chimney stopped, Nadan came back outside.
Nadan’s outfit had changed from shabby everyday clothes to hunter’s attire that clearly showed signs of meticulous maintenance.
“They say you should pull the ox horn while it is hot, so let’s leave right away.”
“You have a refreshingly straightforward personality.”
“You have quite the talent for putting things nicely. Everyone else is busy scolding me, asking if I am not living too carelessly.”
“I do not mind. Let’s depart.”
“Hahaha, you are in no position to say anything about others. You are just as refreshingly straightforward as I am, are you not?”
There was no separate means of transportation.
It was purely travel on foot.
When I pictured the map in my head and checked, the distance remaining to the next exploration point was roughly 35 kilometers.
Nadan’s house was near the forest, so we soon arrived at the forest entrance.
The signpost set up at the forest entrance read.
[Cat Forest]
There was no separate path laid inside the forest.
It meant this was not a place people entered and left as part of daily life.
Despite the lack of a path, Nadan advanced boldly, as if an invisible road existed.
“Did Layton give you any hints about me?”
“He advised me to ask Mr. Nadan if I was going into Cat Forest. Before that, the guild manager told me Mr. Nadan was the best archer in this region.”
“Hahaha! In front of me, they cram even the arrows I missed as a child into the statistics and tease me for having a low hit rate. What bashful little things they are.”
“Would it be rude to ask your level, Mr. Nadan?”
“Oh, are you setting the stage for me to brag about my level? It is 60, 60. For a country hunter, it is on the high side.”
For reference, assuming one had plastered their skill window with combat skills, level 60 was enough to be employed as a knight under a local noble.
Separately from that, Nadan added unnecessary trivia, saying that if one went to the capital, level 100 max-level powerhouses were everywhere.
As he moved, Nadan took out a sharply honed sickle.
Then, whenever he found tree roots jutting out above the ground in a way that was perfect for tripping over, he cut them one by one.
“I call myself a hunter, but normally my main job is acting as a forest keeper. If I maintain the forest, herbalists and woodcutters come and take care of their business.”
“Do ordinary animals live here too?”
“Of course they do. They are hard to see, but there are quite a lot. Wild animals are cowards, so there are surprisingly few opportunities to encounter them.”
“I hope the chance to shoot a bow comes soon.”
“Are your fingers already itching to shoot? You are full of enthusiasm. I will teach you step by step from the basics. I will pass down a skill while I am at it too.”
The words “pass down a skill” left a deep lingering note and echoed by my ears.
According to what I had heard from the guild manager, there were two ways to acquire skills.
The first was to satisfy specific conditions through experience and acquire one.
The second was to learn directly from someone who possessed the skill.
I had heard that either way, skill points were necessary to acquire them.
My current level was 4.
As a result of gaining 1 point per level up.
-Current remaining skill points: 3
I had deliberately left them entirely untouched, without turning my eyes to other fields, intending solely to receive Nadan’s archer skill.
I was already looking forward to what kind of skill Nadan would pass down to me.
Nadan strode broadly through the forest as if walking on flat ground, extending his steps with refreshing ease.
“Oh, right. Do you know why this forest is called Cat Forest?”
“I am not sure. Because many cats live here?”
“That is right. Very many live here. And cats with very nasty tempers, at that.”
Nadan’s eyes as he gazed ahead changed.
For the first time since we entered the forest, his eyes, which had remained hazy until then, came clearly into focus.
The air around us changed distinctly, enough that even I, a complete outsider to hunting, could tell.
Something ominous was lurking ahead.
Nadan slowed his walking speed and gripped his bow with both hands. Then he pulled an arrow from his quiver, nocked it to the bowstring, and spoke.
“This is your first time seeing a monster, right? Watch carefully how I hunt.”
The dense thicket shook violently, and from the middle of it, a four-legged grotesque life-form leaped out.
It was as large as a fully grown wild boar.
Green fur and cat whiskers.
Yet its snout was long, like a crocodile’s.
“YOOOOOWL!”
When the monster that leaped out opened its mouth in anger, sawtooth teeth set inside its long snout were revealed.
It was bizarre, chilling, and radiated endless hostility.
Against that grotesque and ferocious creature, Nadan calmly pulled the bowstring without so much as a twitch.
“Stabilizer.”
A pattern like the crosshairs of a scope appeared in Nadan’s eyes, and blue light flowed faintly from the outline of the arrow.
When Nadan released the bowstring, the arrow flew like a shot in the truest sense.
The arrow drew a trajectory almost perfectly straight, grazed beneath the monster’s jaw, and embedded itself near its left armpit.
SQUELCH—!
More than half the arrow shaft dug into the monster’s chest.
Its penetrating power was terrifying.
The monster collapsed while still carrying its acceleration, then, unable to withstand its own speed, rolled over and over across the ground.
By the time the monster’s body stopped rolling and fell forward, it was dead, its tongue hanging limply out.
Nadan lowered his bow, raised his thumb toward me, and struck a pose.
“What I just used is the skill I am going to pass down to you in a little while. What do you think? Do you feel a little motivated to learn it?”
My heart pounded.
Waiting calmly, then in a single instant, one shot, one kill.
It was a skill with something in it that stirred the romantic heart.
When I found myself thinking that I wanted to learn the skill, an event occurred as if answering my enthusiasm.
-Traveler Package activated.
-For three days starting now, ‘Archer Experience Event’ is unlocked.
-During the event period, experience points gained from bow attacks·hunting monsters with arrows increase fortyfold.