Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear

Bear-San Watching the Dismantling Event Part 2

The dismantling of the spiders started.

No one abstained. All of them dismantled the spiders with a sense of familiarity.

I thought yesterday’s finals were great, but today’s event was on a completely different level. There was no doubt that all of them were more talented than those who participated in yesterday’s final.

With such great people in the mix, it was not surprising that fewer people might be interested in participating.

The difference in experience was too great.

Fina stared at those who were dismantling.

“It’s okay if you don’t stare so much, I’m not going to let Fina dismantle monsters that you don’t like.” (Yuna)

Fina said she was not fond of insect-based monsters. I would not ask her to deal with it in the first place if she didn’t want to.

“Uuum. I’m not good with insect monsters, but if I can’t do it when I need to, I’ll be in trouble.” (Fina)

I think this was a great response.

It is the same with the studies we learn in school, but well, those studies often become useless when we become adults. But I believe that’s not the case.

Studying was about thinking and about confronting things you didn’t want to do.

If you run away from things you dislike from childhood, I think you will also run away from things you dislike even when you grow up.

So it was important to confront unpleasant things from when you were a child and not run away from them. I believed that this would improve their growth and would even help them as they grow into an adult.

Of course, it would be better to run away from bullying, violence, and other unreasonable things, but it was better not to run away from things that would nourish you, such as studying. There were children in this world who wanted to study but could not do so.

I should not say this, though, because I did not go to school.

Maybe it was my parents’ blood that made me run away from troublesome things.

Blood relations could not be disputed, as they used to say.

“I knew it, he’s an expert.” (Yuna)

I watched the same old man who was fast at dismantling the wolves, and I could tell he was using minimal movement as he continued his dismantling.

Compared to others around him, his movements were still few and far between. It was a good way to conserve physical strength. For Fina, who was smaller, it could be a learning experience.

And the dismantling of spiders finished one after another, faster than yesterday’s finals.

Only 20 could make it to the third round. But they were all so skilled that even I could not tell who would actually advance to the top 20.

The judges were having a hard time too.

“Fina, how was it?” (Yuna)

“Yes, they were all great.” (Fina)

“How do they compare to Gentz-san?” (Yuna)

“Well, I don’t think we can compare properly because no one in the guild dismantle in such a hurry.” (Fina)

That’s true, it was a dismantling event, and they were only doing it at this speed because they were competing with someone else. If they were to dismantle at this speed daily, they wouldn’t be able to hold themselves up.

“Then maybe next year we can get Gentz-san to join the event.” (Yuna)

“Yuna-chan, it would be a problem if he loses in the first round, so please don’t do that.” (Tirumina)

Tirumina-san stopped my suggestion.

It was true that if he participated and lost in the first round, he might lose his dignity as a father and a dismantling teacher. But I doubt that it would hurt their family relations.

But there was someone who believed in Gentz-san.

“Ehhhh, dad would be the best. Dad is amazing.” (Shuri)

Shuri denied the notion of Gentz-san’s first-round defeat.

“Yes, he is a great guy. Your father is amazing, right? He must be the best.” (Tirumina)

Tirumina-san replied, not wanting to ruin Shuri’s dream.

I already knew that Gentz-san was good at dismantling, but I didn’t know how good he was in comparison to the participants of this event.

It would be a pity to destroy Shuri’s father figure, so it might be better not to ask him to participate.

This kind of thinking may be the reason why the number of participants was decreasing.

While talking about such things, the names of the 20 people who had made it through the second round were called, and preparations were made for the third round.

In the third round, I hoped a monster I didn’t know about would appear.

However, my expectations were betrayed again.

The third round was to dismantle three sets of Scorpions, Gator, and Tiger Wolf.

“Yuna-chan, what’s wrong? Is it boring for you?” (Ellelaura)

Ellelaura-san asked, perhaps noticing my expression.

“No, I’m just a little disappointed because I thought I would get to see some monsters I didn’t know about today.” (Yuna)

The people in the audience, who had never seen monsters before, exclaimed in surprise every time a monster appeared, but as for me, all I saw were the monsters I knew, which was not enough for me.

“Well, coming from an adventurer like Yuna-chan, I can’t blame you for being that way.” (Ellelaura)

“Are monster encounters really that rare?” (Yuna)

“For an average person, yes. Some of them have never been out of this royal capital. And even if they go outside the royal capital, they rarely encounter them unless they go out of the city or off the roads.” (Ellelaura)

Was that how things went? Well, certainly, in my previous life, as a city dweller, how would I feel about encountering a wild bear?

If you never went to the mountains or forests, you would never encounter wild bears. Especially if you live in the city, you probably would not see them.

“And even if they do see them, they’re usually far away, and as soon as a report is filed with the Adventurers’ Guild, those places are properly searched, and if they find a monster, they’ll take it down.” (Ellelaura)

I felt sorry for the monster who would be taken down that way even if they did nothing, but there was a high risk of humans being attacked if someone encountered those monsters.

There was a monster called Lagarut that coexisted with people like horses did in the desert, but such monsters might be rare.

“But I’ve encountered a fair amount of monsters.” (Yuna)

Maybe it was because I was not a shut-in in this world, but I did encounter many types of monsters.

“Isn’t that because Yuna-chan is an adventurer and goes out to places where monsters can be found?” (Ellelaura)

When she pointed that out, I couldn’t respond in any way.

I often went to places where I had heard that monsters had appeared.

If I was only on the roads, I might have only encountered wolves.

The Kraken was already there when I went to that location. The moving island, Targui, was also originally something that people didn’t approach, and in the village of the elves, there was a monster problem, the same thing happened with the pyramids.

Huh? Then why did it seem like monsters were waiting for me everywhere I went?

“Was I destined to encounter monsters?” (Yuna)

I refused to accept such a fate.

My motto was to live a happy, easygoing life, doing what I love.

While Ellelaura-san and I were talking about this, Fina was looking intently at the event.

Shuri said, “Wow,” as she watched while talking about it with Tirumina-san.

Shia was also watching while talking to Ellelaura-san from time to time.

Even to my amateur eyes, the dismantling skills of all the competitors were so great that it did not seem surprising if any of them won.

In the midst of all this, five of them advanced to the fourth round.

“There are five of them left in the fourth round.” (Yuna)

There were 20 of them before, so I thought there would be 10 of them who would make it to the fourth round, but instead, they were down to five.

“Maybe it was because of the monsters to be dismantled in the fourth round. The monsters presented changes every year, and then the challenge would depend on how many of those monsters have been defeated and brought back to the guild.” (Ellelaura)

Ellelaura-san answered my musings.

It was true that there could not be more than a few rare monsters. A dragon, a cockatrice, a large scorpion, etc., if there were many of those things roaming around every year, there would be a great deal of trouble.

If that was the case, I might have high expectations for the monsters appearing in the fourth round since the number of participants had been narrowed down.

I was looking forward to it.

Then, after the cleanup of the third round, the five winners of the fourth round remained in the hall.

“Well then, here we go. There are five of you left. To tell you the truth, I can’t even imagine who will be the winner.” (Master of Ceremony)

I agree with the master of ceremony.

Unlike Deed-kun and Garde-kun yesterday, today’s participants were so highly skilled that I, as an amateur, could not at all tell who would win.

However, there was one person left that I was curious about: the older man that Fina had been watching since the dismantling of wolves. He had not won first place in any rounds till now, but he remained this far.

“Now, I will announce the details of the fourth round, which is what you are all interested in. I will ask the remaining five of you to choose two of those who did not advance to the fourth round to form teams.” (Master of ceremony)

The master of ceremony said this and extended his hand. At the end of his outstretched hand were the previous participants who didn’t make it to the fourth round.

“Teams? Isn’t this an individual match?” (Yuna)

“That is usually the case, unless you are dealing with a large monster. Big enough that you won’t be able to do it by yourself.” (Ellelaura)

“Maybe it will be a team like when we dismantled the Black Viper?” (Fina)

Fina, who was listening to Ellelaura-san’s reply, said as if she remembered.

Certainly, just like when they had to dismantle a Black Viper. At that time, Gentz-san and several guild employees had to dismantle it together. Fina even joined them.

As Ellelaura-san and Fina said, even dismantling a Black Viper by yourself would be a challenge.

It would be impossible for Fina to even think about dismantling a Black Viper by herself, both physically and time-wise. I could just imagine her crying and saying, “I can’t finish dismantling this thing”.

“But when they get help from other people, won’t they not feel like they’ve won by their own strength?” (Yuna)

Yesterday and today, the participants have survived through individual efforts. It felt strange to turn it into a team fight suddenly.

“Huh, Yuna-chan, that’s not correct. Those who stand on top need to have the skills to give instructions on dismantling and also to grasp the situation of the people dismantling around them. Individual strength is only up to the third round, and from the fourth round, in addition to the rare monsters, it’s going to become a matter of being able to give the right instructions.” (Ellelaura)

It was true that if the dismantling was carried out selfishly, it would be difficult to keep track of the situation.

In short, it was a matter of whether they could take the leadership role or not. No matter how good they were at dismantling when it came to large monsters, there was a limit to what they could do on their own. In games, that would put them as a party leader. To defeat a strong monster, the group would need to work together. When to attack, when to use magic, when to recover. If the members could communicate well, they may be able to do it, but to get to that point, the leader had no choice but to give instructions.

In this world, when I talked about a party leader, Jade’s face came to mind, and I was convinced.

As with a certain goblin face, even if an individual had the ability, if they had a difficult personality, they could ruin the party.

And with that perspective, the contents of the fourth round made perfect sense.