Episode 20
(You have leveled up.)
(You have leveled up.)
(You have leveled up······.)
It wasn’t only my level that was rising.
Even my proficiency with Fire Enchant was going up! At first I had struggled and groaned with Fire Enchant, but after an hour I could slap it on like sticking on a sticker.
I left the fighting entirely to Isti and focused only on enchanting while diligently searching for traces. As a result.
(You have acquired Search.)
Oh···! Amazing!
After learning the Search skill, traces became much easier to see.
For example, a sort of halo of light appeared around footprints left by orcs.
When I focused on that halo, I could feel the direction the orc had gone.
It was impossible for me to grasp their location, distance, and numbers all at once like Isti did··· but I understood how it worked.
“I learned it! The Search skill!”
“Really?”
Isti was as happy as if it had happened to her.
We went around killing orcs in the forest with enough force to wipe out their entire breed.
To be precise, Isti did.
Along the way, we also easily came across adventurers surrounded by orcs and in danger, and Isti saved them with a single arrow.
The party of adventurers, who at first couldn’t even tell what had happened, saw Isti and bowed their heads.
“Did you see that just now?”
“White hair, elf, godlike archery. It’s the ‘Aloof Hunter.’”
“Wow.”
I understood very well why they were so moved at the sight of Isti.
But whenever Isti saw people, she always tried to leave even more quickly.
As if she absolutely hated the thought that they might speak to her.
“Looks like they’re grateful to you.”
“I don’t care. As long as it isn’t Dekal, I don’t care what happens to anyone else.”
With that level of skill, and a mystique that kept her from getting involved with anyone.
No wonder she was famous.
When I kept quiet, Isti spoke as we walked.
“Dekal, do you want me to be kind to people?”
“No, I like you just the way you are, Isti. There’s no need to force yourself to change. I enjoy traveling around with you like this too. Ah, there’s an orc coming.”
Fire Enchant!
Isti handled her bow skillfully and dealt with the orc.
Now I could tell how many had fallen just by the sound. About seven died, I think.
“I’m having fun too. In the past, going hunting with someone else was unthinkable···.”
I bet.
Back then, she hadn’t been hypnotized yet.
“Shall we catch a few more and then rest?”
“Yeah.”
With Isti, a total of four hours.
We really dealt with countless orcs. If I had been alone, it would have been impossible.
A timely event in the form of a mass outbreak of monsters, combined with the fantastic condition that I got to share the experience from the monsters Isti hunted.
In a truly short amount of time, I was able to achieve tremendous growth.
Level: 81
Status
HP 3145/3145 MP 3449/4217
Veleira’s Blessing (True) 「Fire Immunity, Increased Fire Magic Power, All Skill Proficiency Values ++」
Goddess’s Proxy 「Communicates in all languages and reads all writing. Qualification to cross worlds.」
Stats
Strength 341 Magic Power 558 Stamina 322 Agility 343
Skills
Fire Arrow (★★☆) - The most basic yet practical fire magic. Inflicts ignition after impact to deal damage.
Fire Enchant (★★★) - Magic that grants the fire attribute to all sorts of objects.
Search (★★) - A skill that discovers and analyzes traces through careful inspection and observation.
After raising my level tremendously, I felt a physical change.
My whole body overflowed with strength and vitality. I felt a sense of fullness, as if everything was being tightly drawn toward the center of my body, and I could tell that my stamina had increased considerably as well.
As if proving that stats weren’t simply numbers going up, I could feel that my mind had become clearer and my movements more agile.
At first, I hadn’t noticed at all, but now that my level had shot up, I knew.
I had become stronger.
We used a flat rock as a chair and rested.
We shared the water in the bottle and caught our breath.
“Isti, I’m grateful for the help. But why did you decide to raise me like this?”
“Earlier, at the Adventurers’ Guild, when that long-haired human was talking.”
“Yeah.”
“I got angry when I saw him looking down on you, Dekal. I don’t care how other humans see me, but I don’t like it when you’re looked down on.”
“So you were worrying about how to raise my rank? Doesn’t that make me unfit as a leader?”
When I said it meanly for no reason, Isti panicked.
“Th-that’s.”
“I’m kidding. I’m happy.”
“···.”
Looking relieved, Isti leaned against my shoulder.
As we sat like that, something suddenly occurred to me.
“Do you have any useful defensive skills? If there’s something like that, I’d like to learn one.”
“A defensive skill? Hmm···. I protect myself with spirit arts, but spirits are picky, so it’s hard to get close to them right away.”
There are spirits?
“Wait.”
When Isti cupped her hands together, a sudden breeze blew in.
Isti stared intently above her hands without saying a word.
“What are you doing?”
“Shh.”
···It seemed like she was doing something that shouldn’t be interrupted.
After a little over ten minutes passed, Isti said to me.
“Done. One spirit says it’ll help you, Dekal. I’ll give you one.”
···Give me one···.
It felt like I was receiving a puppy.
“I’m grateful, but··· I can’t even see this spirit thing.”
“It’s shy, so it doesn’t show itself often.”
“Is that how it is?”
“Yeah.”
Isti placed something in my hand.
Strangely enough, I knew there was nothing there, yet I could feel a pleasant wind swirling.
(You have learned Wind Spirit.)
“Oh, I learned something.”
“When you want to convey something to the spirit··· just send it through your thoughts. It’ll always follow by your side, Dekal.”
Hmm···.
“Isti, stand up for a second.”
Isti rose smoothly with a puzzled expression.
Lift Isti’s skirt!
···.
A truly artificial wind blew, making Isti’s skirt flutter, and her underwear showed slightly.
“···Dekal.”
“I’m kidding.”
I was startled when I saw Isti’s eyes turn cold.
“If you commune with the spirit often, you’ll be able to handle stronger winds accordingly.”
“So if I apply it, I can use it for defense too?”
“That’s right.”
This seemed more useful than I had expected.
Since commands were given not through words but through consciousness, there was no chance of being caught off guard either.
Thanks to Isti, I learned a lot of useful skills today. They were things that would help me for a long time.
Isti suddenly turned her back. When I looked to see what was there, an orc was running toward us.
Something about the atmosphere was strange. It looked like it didn’t care about us at all and was just having a hard time.
But I didn’t think too much about it and cast Fire Enchant on Isti’s arrow.
The orc, struck by an arrow in its thick torso, couldn’t withstand the speed it had been running at and toppled forward.
Behind the dead orc stood a woman with a dumbfounded expression.
“Huh!? That was the one I was hunting!”
More than the embarrassment of having unexpectedly stolen the orc that woman had been hunting, I was struck by surprise.
With vivid red hair that reminded me of Veleira and a yellow ribbon, the pretty female swordsman looked good with a ponytail. She was petite, but her breasts, as big as her head, and her thighs overflowed from her clothes, making her seem unfair, like a violation of the rules.
In fact, if not for the short sword in her hand, I wouldn’t even have known she was a swordsman.
Her body was so obscene it could almost be called violent. Its charm protruded in a completely different direction from Isti’s.
“Unbelievable! Both of you just clamming up. Are all adventurers like this?”
I missed my chance to speak because I was busy admiring the woman, and Isti didn’t seem to have anything in particular to say.
“We couldn’t see you from here, so we didn’t realize. I apologize.”
I squeezed myself between Isti, who had a prim expression, and the woman.
“Hmph.”
The woman crossed her arms under her chest and looked me over.
“You’re not the one I want an apology from. The person who did something wrong should be the one to apologize, right?”
She was right about that.
But Isti probably absolutely wouldn’t apologize.
As expected, she was listening without really listening. Rather than trying to provoke anger, it seemed more like she simply had no interest.
If I hadn’t been here right now, what would Isti have done? She would have simply turned around and left.
“Are you listening? You’ve got that much skill, yet you’re hiding behind a man and not even saying anything! It’s unsightly!”
The woman had a fiery personality, just like the color of her hair.
Are all red-haired women like this? She was speaking to Isti over my shoulder.
“Are you listening? Elf!”
“Dekal. Aren’t we leaving?”
“Let’s resolve this nicely. It’s true that we made a mistake.”
There was no need to use hypnosis for something like this.
If anything, I wanted to use it for another reason. Looking down from above, she really had a body I wanted to embrace.
Of course, if I tried that without hypnosis, that short sword would sink right into my stomach.
“I’m sorry.”
Isti apologized honestly.
“What the heck. So you can talk. Be careful next time.”
The woman turned away briskly.
“Wait. You’re not an adventurer, but you’re hunting orcs here?”
“So what? Is there a law saying only adventurers can hunt them?”
Alone, with a body like that?
All I could picture was her getting captured by orcs and having unspeakable things done to her.
"There’s no law against it. But adventurers risk danger because there’s a proper reward waiting for them. I was wondering why you would."
"You sure are curious. Are you interested in me, oppa?"
I am. Very much.
"I’m an aspiring Hero. In these woods, besides adventurers, there are also Hero candidates preparing for emergency missions.
And I’m one of them!"
From the woman’s mouth came a topic I had shoved to one side of my mind and completely forgotten about.
Now I understood. As an adventurer, she felt out of place, but as a Hero candidate, she fit perfectly.
Young, yet brimming with confidence; reckless enough to come face monsters alone.
If she was bold enough to call herself a Hero candidate, she ought to have at least this much vivacity.
I liked her even more.
"By emergency mission, do you mean that?"
Unsure, I looked at Isti, and Isti silently nodded.
The red-haired swordswoman saw our reactions and said,
"Looks like the rumor’s spread among the adventurers too."
"Putting rumors aside, the one who brought that emergency mission order to Marne is Is... Hunter, right here."
"..."
The woman froze solid.
"Y-you’re the examiner?"
"Examiner?"
Does Isti even conduct evaluations?
"I’m not an examiner, but when they judge the results, I do get to speak on the mission evaluations."
...In a way, you could call her an examiner.
"Then you’re saying whether all the Hero candidates pass or fail ultimately depends on your decision?"
"Only for the emergency missions in the Marne region. There are also emergency missions issued by other Diamond-rank adventurers."
"..."
The woman stood before me with an uneasy expression.
"You won’t... deduct points because I spoke casually to you, right?"
She suddenly became polite.
"..."
Isti quietly watched the red-haired swordswoman, then shook her head.
"I don’t do things like that."
"Phew. My life almost went down the drain."
It seemed Isti’s public standing was far higher than I had thought.
So she could even have a say in the selection of Hero candidates.
If Isti was the one who chose the emergency mission assignment, then I could understand why the difficulty was above B-rank.
An assignment from Isti...
Wouldn’t their lives be in danger?
"Nothing else you’re curious about, right? I’m going! Bye!"
The woman left, waving her hand cheerfully.
Before that, though.
"Look this way."
Snap.
I flicked my fingers.