Chapter 255

Defense Specialization and Encounter

They went to the forest together on the following day as well . And while they were defeated by monsters more than a few times, they were eventually able to arrive in the part of the forest where they had spotted the bear cub .

“Th-this time…it took us a while . ”

“Yes . I think we need more practice . ”

Still, they felt that it wasn’t too bad, as they at least knew which part of the large forest to start looking in . Not having to walk aimlessly in the forest meant they could minimize the number of encounters, which meant accidents would be less likely .

“Ah! There!”

“Oh, good…”

The same bear cub they saw yesterday now appeared in front of them . Apparently, it really did depend on the time of day

And so they chased after it, hoping to catch it this time . Monsters attacked them on the way, but as they had gotten used to fighting them yesterday, they were able to take them down . Like this, they advanced smoothly through the forest, until the paw prints started to lead towards the mountains .

“We’ve gone pretty far, haven’t we?”

“Hmm… We’ve never gone so far before . ”

Both of them continued down the wild road while following the paw prints and floating stars .

After a while, they reached a small cave that was in the middle of the mountain .

“Let’s go in!”

“Yes…!”

They gripped their great hammers tightly and walked into the cave . The floating stars from the paw prints rose into the air and illuminated the ground and walls .

Gradually, the path into the cave widened, and the lights became stronger . And when they reached the back of the cave, they were greeted to the sight of a bear cub sleeping in a cradle of stars .

The place was like a small bedroom and was filled with blinding light .

“Agh!”

“Agh!”

The bear cub got up as if reacting to their voices . Then it looked at them . In the next instant, the lights in the room became brighter, and then gathered towards the bear .

In the brief instant that the two had closed their eyes due to the brightness, the bear cub had suddenly grown into a giant bear . And it roared in a low voice .

Stars were scattered over its body . They illuminated the tips of its ears and fur .

“It’s kind of like Syrup!?”

“‘Enlarge’…maybe… What should we do!”

They had thought they might be able to tame it if they caught up . But now there was a very strong-looking monster glaring at them .

They still didn’t have enough items either . As they stood there and wondered how they could make it join them, a blue panel appeared in front of them .

‘Show your power . ’

Beat the monster in battle in order to make it join you .

It was treated like a quest and showed them how they could tame the monster .

Upon seeing this, their expressions brightened . Show their power . That was the thing that they did best .

“Let’s go!”

“Yes! Though, I won’t be able to show restraint…”

“We’re sorry!”

“We’re sorry!”

In the next instant, a low thud echoed and could even be heard outside of the cave .

“I-is it alright?”

“I…I don’t know…”

In front of them was the bear that they had defeated in one hit . As they worried that they had used too much power, the walls and floor around them began to shine brightly again .

And then the bear got up heavily and slowly approached them . Then it rubbed its head against their legs and let out a small cry before turning into light .

“Uhhh…”

“Wh-what happened?”

When the light disappeared and they opened their eyes again, there was a single ring on the ground .

It looked just like the rings that Maple and Sally had .

“Yay!”

“Yay!”

They picked it up and smiled as they high-fived each other . That being said, this was only half of their goal . They needed to acquire two of these . And so their search for buddies had not ended yet .

“Alright! Let’s do it one more time!”

“Yes, we made it this far . It should be fine…we can do it!”

It was still hard to get to this point, but the actual fight had been easy . And so they were both eager to continue .

However, and this was something they would not even realize, the fight to acquire a rare monster was actually very difficult .

Yes, in other words, just like they always did, they had killed it in one shot before something could be activated .