Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear

Bear-San Watching the Dismantling Event Part 1

Everything was ready, and the same master of ceremony as yesterday showed up at the venue.

Finally, it began.

“Oh my, that guy is still alive.” (Ellelaura)

Ellelaura-san said something scary in a low voice. I agreed with her, however. Yesterday, he had offended Sanya-san by calling her an old lady or something. If he had been replaced and were missing, I would have suspected Sanya-san first and foremost.

I was glad to see the master of ceremony in one piece.

“Thank you for your patience. Today we will be having a dismantling event for those over 20 years old.” (Master of ceremony)

The audience cheered.

The spectator seats in the arena were definitely filled up more than yesterday.

It couldn’t be helped that this would be the main event.

“Well then, participants, please enter.” (Master of ceremony)

With the master of ceremony’s voice, people came out of the entrance.

Participants were from a wide range of ages, not to mention genders.

Some were around 20 years old, while others were around 60.

There were about 60 participants in the event.

“As Sanya-san mentioned, there really aren’t that many participants.” (Yuna)

Fina looked a little sad as she looked at the participants.

So this was why Sanya-san was trying so hard to increase the number of participants.

At the venue, Sanya-san and the guild master said a few words of encouragement to the participants and began to prepare for the first round of the tournament.

“I wonder what the first round will be?” (Fina)

“I don’t think it will be Wolves at least.” (Yuna)

I doubt it would be the same monsters as the 19 and under division. Moreover, Wolves would only be suitable for beginners.

As we waited, imagining the monsters to be dismantled in the first round, the monsters were brought in on carts.

“Wolves?” (Fina)

“Looks like it.” (Yuna)

It was wolves that were brought in on a cart.

My expectations were wrong. But the number of monsters brought on the cart was unusual. Each of the carts came with about 10 wolves on them and were brought in one after another. Even by simple calculation, there were about 300 wolves. Could it be the remaining of the Wolves I gave her?

I still had a large number of wolves left from the 10,000 monsters I defeated, so I gave some wolves to Sanya-san as a way to reduce the amount I currently carry. Of course, I kept a lot of those wolves for Fina.

Sanya-san had a troubled look on her face at that time. Was this a way to clean up their inventory?

“The first round is to see how many wolves participants can dismantle in a given amount of time! I know this will be easy for the veterans, but please dismantle them carefully as points will be deducted if it’s messy.” (Master of ceremony)

I came upon a realization, they were definitely using this event to clean up their inventory.

If they had 60 competent people dismantling wolves, the dismantling would be done in a fraction of the time.

I thought the audience would be disappointed with the wolves, but on the contrary, there was a buzz of excitement when they saw such many wolf carcasses. Some were surprised by the sheer number of them, while others were frightened.

“It would be scary to imagine that many Wolves all attacking at once.” (Tirumina)

“Yes, scary.” (Shuri)

“I don’t even want to imagine.” (Shia)

Tirumina-san looked at the pile of wolves, and Shuri and Shia agreed.

I’ve fought nearly ten times that many wolves by myself.

Well, I wasn’t afraid because I had the bear gear that God bestowed on me, but if I didn’t have my bear gear, I would have been scared of even one wolf.

Because of the bear gear, my senses have become numb these days. I have to be careful.

While I was thinking about such a thing, wolves were placed on each table.

Preparations were already made.

“Then, please begin!” (Master of ceremony)

It started with the master of ceremony’s call.

Naturally, everyone started dismantling without hesitation.

The way the participants showed their skills in dismantling the wolves was superior to what I saw yesterday in the under 19 division. Everything, in terms of skill, strength, and speed of dismantling.

It felt the same way as how Deed-kun, the winner of the under 20 categories competition, dismantled them.

Fina muttered, “They’re all so fast…”

From Fina’s perspective, that was the case, after all.

“That guy in particular is awesome.” (Fina)

“Which one?” (Yuna)

“The older guy on the right.” (Fina)

I spotted the person Fina was referring to.

On the right side, there was an older man among the participants.

Ellelaura-san asked, “Fina-chan, what’s so great about him?”

Apparently, not only I, but everyone else was looking at the man Fina mentioned.

“Well, there is no wasted movement. Maybe it’s the way he places the dismantling tools. Separating the tools that he was using, into tools that he will use again, and tools that he won’t use. The tools that he will need are within his reach.” (Fina)

As Fina said, I could understand it. The dismantling process was fast, even though there was little movement. The time it took him to switch tools with the others was different. It was as if he decided how to use the dismantling tools and put them in the right place.

“I can tell because I can compare them with others, though. If you didn’t tell me, I wouldn’t have known how he was doing it so fast.” (Yuna)

I thought this before, but maybe Fina was just a good observer.

“Also, I think he has done a lot of wolf dismantling. I think that’s why his hands move before he thinks.” (Fina)

I have heard when you get used to doing something, your body would move before you could even think about it.

If you repeated the same action for a long time, your body would memorize it.

When I was fighting, my body would sometimes move without thinking. I believe it worked the same way.

Fina watched the participants’ dismantling with a fixed gaze.

We watched her quietly so as not to disturb her.

Time went on, and they reached the final stage of the process.

The many piles of wolves had almost disappeared.

“You have three minutes left.” (Master of ceremony)

The master of ceremony’s voice signaled the final spurt.

Then the signal to end was given, the scoring began, and the results were announced.

Forty people were able to move on to the second round.

First place went to the person who barely finished the 6th body in his last spurt. However, the person who finished after him was in the middle of the 5th body, so it would not be an exaggeration to say it was a very close call.

That old guy had also made it through the first round without incident.

And soon enough, everyone finished dealing with wolves, but there were still those who were in the middle of dismantling, but the audience already applauded those who won the first round.

There were young ones, old ones, and each had their different dismantling techniques. Everyone was awesome.

I thought the audience would be disappointed because the first round was to dismantle wolves, same as yesterday, but I probably thought so because I could compare them with yesterday’s competition.

My impression of the first round was that the participants’ overall skill level was very high.

As Sanya-san said, it might not be possible for someone who just turned 20 years old to join the tournament out of the blue. Even if they did, I doubt they would participate again if they were shown the difference in ability between them and the others.

I could understand why certain people would only want to withdraw from participating if they knew they had much less dismantling experience in comparison to other participants.

Increasing the number of people participating seemed like a challenging task. It was like putting an average person against cheaters. That was why Sanya-san was trying to raise the overall level of competence.

Shouldn’t participants be grouped according to ability rather than according to age?

“Yuna-chan, what’s wrong?” (Ellelaura)

Ellelaura-san asked me as I was thinking.

“I just thought it would be better to group the participants according to their abilities, not according to age.” (Yuna)

I explained to Ellelaura-san what I had in mind.

An advanced group for the best of the best. An intermediate group for people that have a fair amount of dismantling skills. A beginner group for people that could dismantle a little so that people could join the level that suited them and, as they get better, move up in rank.

In sports, they often divided participants into elementary school, junior high school, high school, college, and adult groups. In other words, they separated them by age.

But in gaming, people tend to be divided by levels. There was no age barrier there. Even elementary school students would compete with adult gamers if their level was high enough. And sometimes the kids even won.

“Yeah, it makes sense. Instead of limiting by age, base it on skills, like Fina-chan would join an advanced group where the best would have gathered.” (Ellelaura)

“I can’t do that!” (Fina)

Fina shook her head in refusal at Ellelaura-san’s words.

“Well, I’m just kidding. But I guess Sanya and everyone else was too hard-headed. And maybe because they have been doing this for so many years, they were bound by this method. You’re right, Yuna-chan. I’ll talk to Sanya about it later.” (Ellelaura)

“But will it be that easy to change it?” (Yuna)

It was usually difficult to change something that had been done for so many years.

It was like bringing in high school and junior high school students to a professional baseball team just because they were good at it.

If they failed, there was a possibility that people around them would complain about it.

“That is the job of the guild master, Sanya. I think I can help a little bit, as well.” (Ellelaura)

I really wondered what her job title was.

While we were talking, the preparations for the second round began.

What would the second round be like?

I hoped that this time, there would be a monster that I didn’t know about.

As if to betray such feelings, the monsters for the second round were brought in.

“What is that?” (Fina)

“Spiders?” (Yuna)

A lot of spiders.

“The spiders that appeared in yesterday’s under 19 finals have appeared in the second round again!” (Master of ceremony)

The audience gasped. I could hear people saying things like, “That’s disgusting,” and “Scary”.

I was not scared, but I was uncomfortable.

If there was a profession called “Monster Tamer” and I was asked whether I would rather have a Wolf or a Spider as a companion, I would choose the Wolf without hesitation. Of course, if there were a bear, I would choose the bear.

I already have Swaying Bear and Hugging bear with me, so I might as well be called a Monster Tamer.

While pondering about this, I somehow heard Swaying Bear and Hugging bear squealing “ku~n”. It was as if they were saying, “We are not monsters.”

However, following the wolves in the first round, the second round also had monsters I knew.

Perhaps, like the wolf, they collected the spiders I had defeated but sent them to the event because it was too much trouble to dismantle them?

Yesterday, only seven spiders were dismantled because some people declined to dismantle them, so I couldn’t help but make such an unwarranted assumption.

“Well, then, everyone, are you ready?” (Master of ceremony)

The audience went quiet.

“Then let’s begin!” (Master of ceremony)

The master of ceremony signaled, and the second round began.