Side: William's party

The four of us, me, Satsuki, Mee, and Cyril, were waiting in a slightly wider area of the mine.
The rock worm emerged from the ground about five meters away from where we were.

........................

The rockworm appeared in the tunnel with its large mouth open and shouting, and immediately crawled with its huge body and rushed forward.
But its appearance was already known due to the see-through effect.

'...Lightning Bolt!

With the last verse of the spell I was chanting, I pointed the tip of my staff forward and released a magical lightning bolt from it.

With a roar, the lightning bolt shot straight through the rockworm that had just appeared on the tunnel.
Because of the rockworm's long body shape, the spell of lightning bolts that penetrated in a straight line had an extraordinary effect.

The giant rockworm, which was about five meters long, emitted a smell of burnt flesh and skin from front to back, and it was also electrified and trembling.

But even I don't believe that the mighty life force of a rockworm can be defeated by that one blow.
In fact, the huge monster, which had temporarily stopped moving, began to show signs of advancing by shaking its body all the time again.

Seeing this, I called out to Satsuki.

'Satsuki, can you do the rest?

'Oh, yeah. ...... But that thing is almost dead, isn't it?

'You could say that, but it's also true that it's troublesome if it gets out of control. I want to get rid of it quickly while it's still weak.

'I see, I see.

She kicked the ground lightly and made contact with the rockworm in an instant, then swung her sword and slashed the head of the giant rockworm.

Satsuki's sword had the spell effect of an Enchanted Weapon applied to it beforehand.
Combined with her own high attack power, she was able to slice through the rock-hard skin of the rockworm without much difficulty.

The rockworm easily lost all of its vitality before it had a chance to fight back.
The rear torso, which had been writhing in agony, became docile and lay on the ground of the mine.

Satsuki returned with her sword in her hand.

'Well, ......, is this the end of the quest, by any chance?

Satsuki tilted her head.
She seemed to be unconvinced.
I explained to her.

'It's true that defeating even one of them will be the minimum achievement required to complete this D-rank quest to kill the Rock Worm. Now it's up to you to decide if you want more than that.

'I heard that there's more than one Rockworm.

I nodded in response to Cyril's sideways comment.
And if we kill more than one Rockworm, we'll get an additional reward for each one.

'Yeah, we still have plenty of energy left, so we can try for the extra reward.

'I guess. This doesn't make me feel like I've done the quest. The hot springs won't feel good unless we finish the job properly.

Satsuki said, stretching as if she hadn't moved enough.
Incidentally, Satsuki had already confirmed that there was a hot spring facility for tourists in Novan, at her request.

On the other hand, Mee came up to me and asked me something like this.

'But, William, are there so many rock worms? Isn't it possible that they've been popping up in tunnels all over the place?

Mee's opinion is correct.
Considering the fact that rockworms have the ability to move through the ground, it is possible that this one we just defeated could have been in several tunnels.

'Yeah, I can't deny the possibility that Mee is right. But there's also the possibility that it's not, and considering the safety of the people here in Novan, I think we should explore a bit more to be sure, don't you?

I patted Mee's head as I asked this, and all three girls agreed.
Incidentally, as usual, Mi was expressing her intentions while being patted by me, looking as comfortable as a cat.

In fact, it was only at that stage that I became aware that my own hand was stroking her. .......

It was still a terrific attraction.
I unconsciously nodded my head.

'Mee, is that some kind of secret art of the cat-eared people (Myar)?

'......? What are you talking about, William?

'No, ...... nothing.'

I thought I'd asked the stupidest thing I'd ever heard.
It must have been my imagination, but I blamed it on Mee. .......

I was ashamed of this, and began to explore the tunnels again.