Episode 19
It was when we passed through the village entrance that the words “a mass outbreak of monsters” truly hit me.
At a glance, I could see that both the patrols and the guards had been increased, and even the captain of the guard was personally out giving orders.
The reason was immediately obvious. Orcs had begun appearing near the village, where before there had only been goblins.
“Don’t let your guard down!”
“Surround it and stab it properly.”
The guards were fighting an orc.
Compared to goblins, orcs were much larger. Compared to humans, they were generally short and stout, but to protect themselves,
they wore crude armor, and it was clear they were accustomed to using weapons.
“Wait. You two there, stop.”
Just then, a guard I hadn’t seen before stopped us.
“It’s dangerous up ahead. There’s been a mass outbreak of monsters, so wherever you go, it’s crawling with orcs.”
“We’re adventurers assigned to the orc subjugation mission.”
“I’ll need to check your licenses.”
Judging by everyone’s expressions, I could feel how on edge they were.
Since I didn’t have a license, Isti stepped forward in my place.
“Here.”
She handed over a rectangular card that looked like an ID, and the guard took it and examined it carefully.
“My apologies. Having a Diamond-rank adventurer join us will be a great help to the residents of Mareun. Thank you.”
Thanks to Isti, I got a free pass.
Isti was like my guardian, after all.
“The mood is pretty serious.”
“Yeah. During mass outbreaks, a lot of people die. We have to be careful. There are even bandits who take advantage of the chaos to attack adventurers and steal their soul stones.”
“Bandits? They attack people, not monsters?”
“That’s what bandits are like. They’re people who think honestly hunting monsters and gathering souls is stupid.
So, Dekal, don’t trust everyone you meet just because they’re an adventurer.”
I felt like I understood what kind of mindset Isti had lived with as an adventurer.
People taking advantage of other people had always existed even in the world I came from.
But had I ever been this close to something so bloody?
I grew a little tense as well.
At the entrance to the forest, we saw many adventurers trying to kill orcs for the same reason we were,
but the farther in we went, the more overwhelmingly the number of orcs increased.
No, there were so many of them that I seriously wondered where they all ate and took dumps.
The clustered orcs hadn’t noticed us yet, but I wanted to go home.
“Should we just go back…”
There were too many.
Ten to fourteen armed orcs.
“I’ll take care of them.”
Isti took her stance. Once again, from empty air where nothing had been a moment ago, a translucent bow appeared.
At times like this, you had to follow the leader’s orders. I prepared to fight. The moment Isti released the bowstring, there was a sound like air being sliced cleanly, and the heads of more than ten orcs burst apart in an instant.
Gasp. I swallowed my breath.
“Done.”
What just happened?
The orcs hadn’t even been standing in a straight line, yet a single arrow traced an absurd trajectory and pierced through their vital points.
It was so destructive that “burst apart” was the right way to describe it.
“Dekal?”
Isti looked back at me.
“I was surprised…”
So when she said she’d take care of them, she didn’t mean she’d attack first and we should fight together. She meant she’d deal with them all in an instant herself.
“Orcs are easy opponents for me.”
Isti said it lightly.
No way all elves were as strong as her, right?
If they were, humanity would have gone extinct.
Back then, when I first spoke to Isti. If things had gone even a little wrong, what would have happened to me?
It was the moment I belatedly realized just what kind of person I had hypnotized.
“Ah, I need to collect the souls.”
I took a large soul stone out of my personal storage and collected the orcs’ souls.
“Let’s go. There are orcs this way.”
There are orcs?
Isti strode off as if she could see who knew how far ahead, and began shooting down every orc she found.
It was incredible. Her skill was so overwhelming I had nothing to say.
She fired her bow with graceful posture, and her arrows precisely eliminated their targets.
Whether there were trees or bushes in the way, none of that seemed to matter to her.
Faced with such an overwhelming gap in combat power, I had simply become a porter who sucked up souls.
Still, well, it didn’t feel bad.
Just watching Isti’s pretty profile as she focused, and her tense posture, was enjoyable enough in its own way.
I was probably the only one who could see an elf hunting monsters from this close.
Then curiosity struck me.
“How exactly do you find them so well? Can you see them?”
Isti’s ability to locate orcs was astonishing.
Even if this was a mass outbreak, the way she accurately found groups wherever we went was enough to make me click my tongue in admiration.
But without boasting at all, Isti answered in a calm tone.
“Any hunter Gold-rank or higher can do it. This is the Search skill.”
“Search skill?”
“A skill that lets you read a monster’s traces or presence and determine its location.”
It definitely seemed like a skill any hunter absolutely had to learn.
After following Isti around and watching orcs die, all my tension had completely vanished.
Isti eliminated orcs before they even realized they had died.
“Phew.”
The first thing Isti did after taking down over two hundred orcs in under an hour was let out a short sigh.
She wasn’t even sweating.
“Want to drink this?”
I handed her the goddess’s water bottle.
“Thanks.”
“Next time, I want to try taking one down. I’m bored.”
After Isti finished drinking the water, she let out a small laugh.
“Okay. If it gets dangerous, I’ll watch over you.”
How reassuring.
“Then… somewhere with just one…”
It seemed Isti could determine not only the orcs’ locations, but also their numbers.
“This way.”
When I followed her, there really was a single orc wandering around.
“Good.”
I immediately cast magic.
Since it hadn’t noticed us, I overcharged it with the focusing bracelet.
“Fire Arrow!”
I drove a Fire Arrow of maximum power into the orc’s back.
The orc took the heavy impact and pitched forward. Just when I thought it wasn’t going to move, it staggered back to its feet.
“Tough, huh.”
That power would have shattered a skeleton in Bordeaux Dungeon to pieces.
I overcharged it one more time…!
“Fire Arrow!”
The orc stopped moving.
(You have leveled up.)
Two shots with overcharged Fire Arrows. If even three of them gathered together, I’d be in danger.
“I got it, Isti.”
Isti spoke with a smile.
“You were cool.”
I was grateful she at least said that.
“I didn’t know you could use magic, Dekal.”
“I got it from that goddess. She said it was basic self-defense magic.”
“It seems much stronger than the Fire Arrows I’ve seen other people use.”
She had a good eye.
“I can overcharge magic. Thanks to this bracelet.”
“I might be able to help you become stronger, Dekal.”
“Me?”
I expected her to teach me some new magic, but Isti suddenly took out an arrow.
It was one of the translucent glass arrows she used.
“Use magic and try lighting the arrowhead on fire.”
As Isti instructed, I cast Fire Arrow and guided it so the arrowhead would catch fire.
But perhaps because it was fire made from magic, the flames didn’t transfer easily.
“It’s not working very well.”
“It’s fine. Be patient.”
Following Isti’s guidance, I kept trying to set the arrowhead alight.
Then, a message I had never seen before appeared.
(You have acquired Fire Enchant.)
“This is…”
“It’s the most basic fire-attribute enchantment magic. You can learn it when you try to grant an elemental attribute to an object.”
“Oh.”
Did that mean this burning arrow was a joint effort between Isti and me?
That was pretty cool.
“And…”
Isti shot an orc that happened to be passing by.
(You have leveled up.)
Then my level rose.
“If we do it this way, you can grow too, Dekal.”
“That’s amazing, isn’t it?”
Because I had enchanted the arrow with magic, it seemed I was counted as having contributed to killing the orc.
Normally, I couldn’t gain experience from monsters Isti defeated on her own, but with this method, it was possible.
“It was something I’d only seen over someone’s shoulder, so I wasn’t sure it would work.”
“Should I just start calling you Master?”
“…”
Isti suddenly stared intently at me.
“Hm? What’s wrong?”
“Do something better.”
Isti begged in a coquettish voice.
I kissed Isti. Naturally, I wrapped my arm around her waist and kneaded her backside as if it belonged to me.
Isti showed no sign of disliking it and tangled her tongue with mine.
“You like this?”
“Dekal’s lips taste better than water.”
If we weren’t in the forest, I would have pushed her down already.
No, if we weren’t in a forest where fat monsters carrying blades were wandering around, I probably would have pushed her down even if we were in a forest.
“Orcs are easy opponents for you anyway, Isti.
Then can you teach me a useful skill?”
“A useful skill?”
“Like that Search skill you mentioned earlier.”
“All right. I’ll teach you.”
A skill lesson personally taught by a Diamond-rank hunter. Wasn’t this a total steal?
On top of that, every time she killed an orc, I gained experience too.
This was enormous.
Because Isti’s speed at dealing with orcs was, without exaggeration, more than ten times faster than mine.
“For the Search skill, first, you have to focus on the footprints, traces, and presence left by monsters.”
“Footprints. These?”
“Yes. There are a lot of monsters around here, so if you keep looking, you’ll get the hang of it. Let’s keep going.”
A rule was added to our hunt.
When Isti took out an arrow, I enchanted it with the fire attribute.
My MP drained quickly, but that was a problem solved by drinking water.
And Isti was skilled enough to use a single arrow to pierce and kill more than ten orcs.
In two seconds—no, in around one second—I absorbed all the experience held by a group of orcs like mad.