The Strongest Farmer in Another World ~I'm a "Farmer", Not a Demon King! ~ - Chapter 117

The Strongest Farmer in Another World ~I’m a “Farmer”, Not a Demon King! ~

Chapter 117   Swarm of monsters and extermination

“This is Indeed, a large one.”

After a while, as the man who had run away earlier had said, a swarm of monsters emerged from the forest, appearing like a huge writhing mass.

“He mentioned hundreds, but it looks like it might be over a thousand.”

“Even so, they’re just monsters. If we just keep running, we should be able to handle them.”

Worst case, we can abandon the carriage and escape on horseback, I think.

“But why have so many gathered? Even though they’re monsters, they should typically fight among themselves if they’re not of the same kind…”

Sofia pondered this, and I shared her thoughts. As Sofia said, even though they’re monsters, being living creatures, there should be territorial disputes or conflicts between different species. Herbivores being eaten by carnivores and so on.

But the monsters approaching us didn’t seem to be conflicting at all, and moreover, they were not dispersing but moving towards us in a cohesive mass. This was clearly abnormal.

“In terms of a story, could there be a mastermind-like figure orchestrating the monsters?”

“A mastermind… Like in the fairy tale ‘Nightmare of Aurelia’?”

“Yes, exactly. Something like that.”

‘Nightmare of Aurelia’ is a fairy tale in this world. Well, even though it’s called a fairy tale, it’s actually based on a true story.

In summary, it was about a demon that killed Princess Aurelia and took her place, rallying the monsters and attacking the kingdom. The monsters attacked without conflicting, even though they were different species. The kingdom was devastated, and despite the country’s efforts, the demon, disguised as the princess, knew about internal information and strategies, using them to cause harm to humans. Eventually, elite forces from neighboring countries were sent to the capital and surrounding towns, the demon was defeated, and the remaining monsters were dealt with by the army and adventurers.

As the fairy tale describes, it’s not impossible for monsters of different races to cooperate.

However, such tales have their own twists, and the existence of the mastermind varies from story to story, so we don’t know what’s causing things to be ‘this way.’

“For now, reducing their numbers is crucial, isn’t it?”

I said this as we were about a few hundred meters away from reaching them. I stood on the driver’s stand of the stopped carriage to get a slightly higher vantage point. It didn’t change much, but it felt good to be higher up.

A horde of monsters emerged from the forest. I took a deep breath and then shaded them with my hand——

“《Earth Reversal》”

——I just said that.

With just those words, the ground in various places started to rise, causing the monsters to stumble and fall into the holes created by the lifted ground. As the fallen monsters filled the holes and it seemed like the ground would cover them, the raised ground flipped around and fell, crushing the monsters that had fallen into the holes.

With just a few words and a few seconds, the once undisturbed ground had turned into a chaotic mess, forming distorted irregularities.

“I did it myself, but this doesn’t really look like ‘farming’ anymore. A bit late to realize, though.”

“But isn’t it good if it’s useful?”

“Well, that’s true, I guess.”

With just that one strike earlier, we were able to reduce their numbers, but it was far from wiping them all out. While we were discussing this, the monsters continued to advance, trampling over the fallen or buried ones.

“Can I do it too?”

“Hmm, I wonder? Why don’t you give it a try? You don’t need to worry about the surroundings.”

“That’s true.”

Saying so, Sofia stood on the driver’s stand just like me and activated her skill by shading the monsters ahead with her hands.

However, even though she has the same profession as a ‘farmer’ like me, it seems the rank is different, as there was a difference in the range of effectiveness of her skill. The number of monsters she was able to involve with her skill was less than half of mine.

“I was not able to involve as many as that. Well, it’s not like I’m Lord Vesnar, after all.”

“Well, our ranks are different. It’s certain that the effect is higher for me, being of a higher rank.”

Even so, even with that, I think being able to involve dozens is sufficient to show results if I were assigned to a military unit. The depth of the holes isn’t that significant, so I might not have killed them, but just immobilizing them to that extent should be enough.

While thinking about that, we continued to use our skills to roughen the ground and exterminate the monsters. However, I felt like something unusual was happening with the monsters.

“Did the enemy’s momentum increase?”

“Yes, it seems so. That’s right. That’s the feeling.”

“I wonder why.”

I think we’ve already taken down more than half of the monsters with the Earth Reversal. Normally, I’d expect them to retreat or scatter after being dealt with to this extent, but for some reason, the monsters are intensifying their charge towards us as a cohesive group, coming closer.

However, not all of them are coming straight at us. Among the monsters, who can be considered small fry, I could occasionally see some attempting to escape, trying to break away from the group.

“Well, if they’re coming at us, we’ll just do the same.”

With such abnormal things happening, I think the monsters are probably being controlled, but even so, if they come at us, I won’t show any mercy.

“With the distance getting closer, it’s easier to set the range for the skill. I hope I can take them out completely this time.”

While I can activate it as long as they’re within my field of view, it tends to be a bit rough, and I might miss the settings. I set it for a radius of ten meters, but sometimes it only activates within about five meters.

Plus, it’s nerve-wracking for far-off locations, so it’s much appreciated when they come closer.

So, I continued to use Earth Reversal to knock down the approaching monsters under the ground, just as before, but there were still quite a few left. Those are… large-sized monsters. Their size is different compared to the other monsters around them.

When I say large-sized monsters, I don’t mean dragons or giants. They are monsters a bit larger than a human, like cyclops or ogres. Somehow, they seem to have survived and are coming towards us. Well, in the hole where the small fries went, it might have been a bit cramped for the large ones. I set the depth to about five meters, so if they’re large, they might just manage to come out if they try.

“Excellent job.”

“But there’s still about a quarter remaining.”

The large monsters and the small fry around them. Altogether, there’s probably around two to three hundred. I’ve never counted such a group before, so I can’t say for certain, but that’s the rough estimate.

“Isn’t that sufficient? Initially assuming a thousand and reducing them to about two hundred single-handedly, isn’t that more than enough as a military achievement?”

“Well, if you put it that way, Sofia took down about a hundred of them, so you’ve also made quite significant contributions.”

“…Yes, you’re right. It’s something I couldn’t have imagined in the past.”

Well, that’s true. The old Sofia was somewhat listless, influenced by her profession as a ‘farmer.’ Even if you were to say a ‘farmer’ achieved such military feats, not only Sofia but no one else would believe it. Probably, if I were in a combat-focused profession, I might have thought, “What is this person saying?”

But now things are different. It’s not just in terms of mental strength, but obviously in terms of ability too. Unilaterally taking down a hundred monsters from a distance against a hundred opponents. That’s not something just anyone can do.

“Your efforts have paid off.”

“Yes!”

While we talk like this, this is still a battlefield. We haven’t engaged in a proper battle, but it’s still a battlefield. It’s foolish to let our guard down and get attacked. Let’s go ahead and take down the remaining ones.

Thinking so, I turned my attention forward again…

“—Right, there are still some enemies left… Huh?”

“Are they trying to escape?”

Some of the surviving large monsters are coming towards us, but when combined with the small fry around them, there are only about a hundred. The rest have flipped and are returning into the forest.

“It doesn’t seem like a specific strategy.”

“Shall we pursue them?”

“No, there’s no need to go that far. Isn’t repelling them enough? Even if the ones charging at us now manage to get past us, the numbers should have reduced compared to the beginning. With this number, even if those who retreated into the forest earlier join and attack the town, it should be fine. The town is likely prepared as well.”

Initially, there were nearly a thousand monsters, but now they’ve been reduced to around two hundred. I feel bad for the man who ran away, but as someone on the prepared side, it feels somewhat anticlimactic.

“Hmm?”

What could that thing heading straight into the forest be? Could it be that there was a mastermind truly controlling that horde of monsters?

“Is something the matter?”

“Huh? Ah… no, it’s nothing.”

Well, even if that was the mastermind, I can just ignore it. If it gets in the way, I’ll kill it, but for now, I’m not the target. And besides, I could chase after it now, but it’s a tremendous hassle.

“But well, you know, if we continue like this, we’ll be entering the forest, so in the end, we’ll end up chasing them.”

“Come to think of it, that’s true. Should we turn back?”

“If we do that, then the fight from the start was meaningless. It’s not much of a danger, so why don’t we just keep going?”

“That makes sense. Shall we proceed like this then?”

Sofia said this as she was about to sit back in the carriage, but there’s still something to be done.

Looking ahead, there’s a group of monsters approaching us. We have to defeat them before we can proceed.

“First, let’s deal with that.”

“Right.”

That being said, even if they’re large monsters, if we know they’re coming, we can just use specialized attacks. Apply “Sowing” and “Growth” to the joints of their faces and limbs, immobilize them, and then knock them into a hole about ten meters deep. They might struggle for a bit, but they’ll calm down eventually. Even if they manage to come out of the hole, it’s fine as long as we buy enough time for us to pass through.

With that in mind, we got on the carriage and cautiously headed towards our destination.

“Once we reach the capital, we should have some free time. Shall we relax?”

“That would be nice, but are you sure it’s okay? What if something else happens?”

“Don’t say such ominous things.”

I furrowed my brow and complained, but Sofia seemed to be joking as she chuckled happily.

However, considering my past experiences, something is likely to happen. The location being the capital makes it feel like something is bound to occur.

While thinking about this, we advanced on the road, sensing the moans of the monsters and vibrations through the ground in the vicinity.

Well, they’re just underground. It’s not surprising they’re still alive. But again, I won’t kill them, though I won’t hesitate to do so if they pose a threat. There’s no experience points to gain from them, and killing them serves no purpose.

“But still, it’s a bit disappointing that we can’t obtain materials from such a large number of monsters.”

“Yeah, that’s true. It’s a drawback of this technique. I guess if we were to dig them up, we might get some, but…”

“Considering the effort to do that, it seems a bit impractical.”

“In reality, if someone said, ‘Hunt this!’, I’d come up with a way to hunt it. But at my current age, I can’t accept requests from the adventurer’s guild due to age restrictions, so I never get asked to do things like that.”

“There’s nothing we can do about age. It’s not like we can go searching for an aging potion.”

“Even if there were one, I wouldn’t want to use it.”

After all, I’ll turn fifteen in just one more year, so if adventurers want me to hunt, they can wait until then. It’s not like I’m dying to hunt monsters as an adventurer! That doesn’t mean I completely lack that desire. However, it’s not necessary to force it.

“There was a time when Emil received a request once and we, Kyle and I, handled it. But now Emil’s not around, so that’s not an option. Well, even if we don’t take requests, we can still make money by selling the monsters we hunt. There’s a way to earn, but it would be nice to get the official reward for the requests and raise our status as adventurers.”

“If you’re registered as an adventurer, they’ll buy the hunted monsters from you even if you haven’t taken any requests. So, even though we can earn money without taking requests, it won’t raise our adventurer rank. Plus, we won’t receive the rewards we would have gotten if we had taken the requests.”

“Well, in the first place, adventurers have ranks from F to S. But because of age restrictions, I can’t go beyond the lowest F.”

“However, if we’re going on a journey, we’d want a reasonable rank… at least around D. If we go up to A or S, it might bring its own set of troubles, but even at F, we might face some difficulties. So, I’d like to at least be at the D rank, which is the average rank for adventurers. Then we can openly take on requests, and we might earn some trust from the Adventurer’s Guild.”

“Well, that’s once the age restrictions are lifted.”

“Yes, that’s true…? Um…?”

While we were discussing, Sofia seemed to have noticed something and tilted her head.

“Hmm?”

“Is that not possible for me?”

“What do you mean, Sofia?”

“To accept the subjugation requests on behalf of Lord Vesnar. There are no age restrictions for me, right?”

“…Huh?”

Could it be that if Sofia accepts the request instead of Emil, it would work?

“…Ah, Sofia is five years older than me, right? Well, age-wise, that should be fine, but you’re not an adventurer… Well, you could just register as one.”

“Yes, that’s true. In that case, I thought, what if ‘I’ accept the request and ‘we’ complete it together?”

“Indeed, up till now, Emil was acting as a guardian, so I had a misunderstanding, but there’s no need for it to specifically be Emil who accepts the request.”

It dawned on me rather belatedly, but that’s right. There’s no requirement for it to be Emil. If Sofia accepts requests and raises her rank, it might come in handy at some point.

“Sofia, that’s a great idea. When we reach the capital, let’s register right away. Even if we decide not to accept requests, having the registration can be useful.”

“Yes, indeed. It can serve as identification, and it’ll reduce the chances of being stopped at gates.”

“Actually, I wonder why I didn’t think of this from the start. I’d tell my past self, ‘Make an ID as soon as you’re stopped at a gate.'”

“I also wish I had realized it earlier.”

Sofia lost her ID when she became a slave. After that, she was our slave and hardly left Karakas, so she didn’t need an ID.

But now, since we’re going on a journey, having an ID would be beneficial.

Anyway, we’ll do it once we reach the capital. Hopefully, we’ll get there soon… We’ll have to wait patiently.