“Phew… It’s hot.”
It had already been two hours since she’d begun searching the tropical rainforest.
Ian trudged onward, flapping the clothes that were soaked through with sweat.
Simply walking was enough to make sweat pour down like rain.
For a moment, she even found herself missing the clothes she had worn back in Valtor.
And if all she had to do was walk, that would have been one thing—but there were also attacks from plant-type monsters every now and then.
[Lv 17. Rimbahitam Shroom]
“A mushroom this time?”
A mushroom-shaped monster approached Ian, spewing spores.
Before the spores could invade her respiratory tract, her sword split the mushroom apart.
As this process repeated again and again, Ian was starting to get irritated.
“Where the hell is the settlement?”
If there had been a high hill somewhere, that would have been different, but the ground was utterly flat, and even that was covered in densely rising trees.
This place looked like that place, and she began to wonder if she was just going around in circles.
Struggling with the search in every possible way, Ian eventually plopped down.
“I don’t know. Let’s rest for a bit.”
If there was one thing better than the Valtor Mountains, it was that the soil was soft and springy, perhaps?
Since her backside wouldn’t hurt no matter where she sat, Ian leaned against a nearby tree and waited for her sweat to dry.
At that moment.
—Piyung!
The sound of something cutting through the air came from somewhere.
Ian hurriedly raised her sword.
—Kaang!
“Ugh… An arrow?”
She barely blocked it, but a crack appeared in Ian’s sword where it had collided with the arrow imbued with a skill.
But she had no time to be flustered.
Before she knew it, a snare had appeared and caught her ankle.
“Aaagh!”
Pulled by the force, Ian’s body rolled across the dirt.
With her ankle caught, even struggling wasn’t easy.
Even when she tried to cut it, she was being dragged around by the snare, making it hard to line up her sword.
But she couldn’t just let herself be helplessly dragged away like this.
‘If I can’t cut it…’
Then she would burn it.
Throwing away her sword, Ian aimed her staff at the snare’s rope.
“Fireball!”
Even while being shaken about, Ian’s magic struck the rope.
The rising flames severed it.
Regaining her freedom, Ian immediately sprang to her feet and dashed toward the direction the snare had come from.
There stood a small-framed person with a black hood pulled low over their face.
‘A player? No, an NPC?’
One thing, however, was certain: the being before her was hostile toward her.
Ian, who had already drawn a second sword, swung it at the one in the black hood.
Just before the blade reached him, he bent his knees and dodged Ian’s sword.
But because of that, the hood concealing his appearance slipped off.
Ian was startled.
“A-A dark elf?”
With skin as dark as shadow and long, pointed ears, he looked like a dark elf one might only see in a fantasy world.
Yet his face was youthful enough to remind her of Rian in Area 1.
“Punch.”
Ian was late to respond to the attack and took the fist squarely in the abdomen.
“Guhak!”
It felt as though all the oxygen had been knocked out of her at once.
Ian’s body shot high into the air.
The dark elf leaped up with all his might, aiming for Ian.
A purple light gathered in his fist.
Basic Fist Technique Skill, Fourth Form.
Two-hit combo technique.
“Somersault.”
A chained attack in which an uppercut and a kick were executed together with a spin.
Ian drew her sword vertically and blocked the dark elf’s attack.
‘The power itself isn’t that strong.’
Even though the attack had landed squarely, it only hurt and didn’t lead to an injury.
The level Ian felt from it was around 12.
In that case, he was no match for her.
However.
—Piyung!
The biggest problem was that every time the dark elf in front of her was pushed back, an arrow came flying from her blind spot.
‘That one’s definitely stronger.’
Her hand went numb every time she blocked a shot.
Thanks to properly canceling them out with skills, her sword didn’t crack like before, but dealing with arrows one by one while worrying about the fists was quite annoying.
‘Then I should deal with the annoying one first.’
Ian twisted her body sharply.
Like a spinning top, her body whirled rapidly.
“Top Blade!”
A blue trajectory swept across a wide range.
The dark elf put distance between himself and Ian to avoid being caught up in the attack.
Using that opening, Ian cast Haste magic on herself, ignored the dark elf, and ran toward the direction the arrows were coming from.
Startled, he belatedly chased after Ian, but her speed, now on a completely different level from before, allowed her to easily shake the dark elf off.
“There!”
Ian’s sword was pulled taut past her waist.
She swung it with enough force to cut down the entire tree along with the being behind it.
“Slash!”
A blue slash exploded outward.
Her strike, combining speed and power, completely split the solid tree.
—Crack!
The tree screamed as it collapsed.
An ear-splitting roar rang out, and rough dust billowed up around Ian.
But.
—Piyung!
A volley of arrows poured through the dust cloud.
“Persistent, aren’t you?”
Ian sprinted sideways to avoid the arrows.
Then, before the next attack could come, she changed direction and stomped down.
A single-strike charge technique, Sword Rush.
Her body became the wind as she charged through the dust.
An elf with the same black hood as the previous one, but with a large build.
Before Ian’s sword could drive in, his body slid backward like someone on skates.
Basic Archery Skill, Second Form.
Single-strike evasion technique.
“Dodge Shot.”
An archery skill that combined evasion and attack at the same time.
Blocked by the arrow, Ian’s sword once again only managed to knock off his hood.
If the other one was a youthful boy, this dark elf looked like a menacing bandit.
While Ian was forming that impression, his bowstring aimed toward the sky.
Basic Archery Skill, Fifth Form.
Area annihilation technique.
“Arrow Rain.”
Green arrows of mana covered the sky.
With the front and the sky completely sealed off, Ian threw herself to the side, then closed the distance with the dark elf again.
A rapid exchange unfolded between the two.
A sharply digging sword and surging arrows created sparks.
Meanwhile, the dark elf with the gauntlets rejoined the battlefield and swung his fists at Ian.
Ian’s brow furrowed.
‘What am I supposed to do?’
A two-on-one situation.
Considering the archer’s skill, she couldn’t guarantee victory.
Then there was only one way to get through this situation.
“Hey, what are you guys?”
Cowardly attempting conversation.
If they had been monsters, that would be one thing, but since they were humanoid elves, she thought she could at least buy time, even if she couldn’t compromise.
However.
“Guess you don’t feel like talking.”
What returned was wordless hostility.
The bow and gauntlets aimed at her.
Realizing there was no other option but to fight, Ian let her sword hang down.
Since when had she only fought battles with good odds?
If anything, this sort of situation put her more at ease.
The corners of Ian’s mouth curved upward.
At the same time, just as her foot was about to press hard into the ground—
“Stop! That’s enough.”
A woman’s voice rang out from atop a tree.
‘What? When did she get up there?’
While Ian was caught in confusion at the appearance of a female dark elf who boldly revealed her voluptuous figure, the woman landed on the ground from the tree and glared coldly at Ian.
The two dark elves, who had been showing killing intent toward Ian until just moments ago, put away their weapons and stood beside the woman.
A three-on-one situation.
Ian had no choice but to sheathe her sword as well.
Before turning around and walking away, the woman spoke to Ian.
“You there, human. Follow me.”
There was much she wanted to ask right then and there.
Where this place was, whether they had seen people similar to her, whether there was a leader of the plant-type monsters here.
But the dark elves, who had already begun walking, didn’t seem to have any intention of conversing with her.
‘Guess there’s no helping it.’
In the end, Ian had no choice but to follow after the dark elves.
***
The place she arrived at after following the dark elves was deep inside the tropical rainforest, where drab tents were lined up.
‘Don’t tell me… this is the residential district?’
The scenery felt less like a residential district and more like an outpost.
Most of the dark elves moving around the place like soldiers wore the same black hoods pulled low over their faces.
While Ian looked around, the woman, who had been walking silently, arrived at a tent and gave orders to those beside her.
“You two return to your mission.”
They nodded, pulled their hoods low again, and left the tent.
Then the woman’s gaze turned toward Ian, who was standing there blankly.
“Come in.”
‘She really does whatever she wants.’
Ian shook her head and followed the woman into the tent.
‘The inside isn’t as bad as I thought.’
The exterior was shabby, but the neatly arranged desk and cot gave it the feel of an office in its own way.
Of course, compared to Staria, the environment was still poor… but maybe it was because she had been in Rundel all this time.
Ian found herself thinking that this was livable enough.
While Ian looked around inside, the dark elf woman sat at the desk.
At her cold voice, Ian turned her gaze.
“Human woman, what is your purpose in coming here?”
“What, straight to the point? Don’t people usually start with introductions?”
“Answer the question, human.”
Ian sighed.
It felt like dealing with the most stubborn of stubborn old fogeys, someone with not a shred of flexibility who only insisted on their own way.
But even if she asked what her purpose was, there was no way Ian could tell her.
If she told an NPC, I came to defeat the boss, who would understand that?
So all Ian could do was talk around it as similarly as possible.
“Someone told me there was something dangerous here.”
“Something dangerous?”
“A person like me, well, my job is to deal with things like that.”
When she thought about it, it wasn’t exactly wrong.
All the bosses she had encountered so far had been beings that threatened the people in their respective areas.
Though that had only happened twice.
In any case.
The weaker the hand you held, the more confidently you had to act, so Ian met the woman’s eyes without wavering.
After glaring at Ian with suspicious eyes for a while, the woman finally opened her mouth.
“Very well. Then prove it.”
At those words, a window appeared before Ian’s eyes.
[You have received a quest.]
[The Search Captain’s Trial]
Kalinia, the dark elf search captain tasked with guarding Durigarda, demands proof of your innocence.
Overcome the trial she gives you and prove yourself.
‘Durigarda? What’s that? Is Kalinia that woman’s name?’
The female dark elf, Search Captain Kalinia, continued speaking.
“To the west of this Durigarda, there is a monster that has long threatened our sentries. Slay it and bring back its token. Then I will believe what you say.”
[Will you accept?]
“What’s the token?”
“You’ll know it when you see it.”
Ian pouted for a moment and looked at Kalinia with displeasure before nodding.
[You have accepted the quest!]
“Fine. What’s the time limit?”
“I will give you three days.”
“Then can I move around freely until then?”
“Yes. If you use my name, Kalinia, you will be able to act freely. But remember this: our sentries will always be watching you.”
“Don’t worry too much. I’ll bring it back quickly.”
Just as Ian was about to slip out of the tent.
“Ah, and my name isn’t ‘you’ or ‘wench’…”
Ian smiled at Kalinia, who continued to glare at her.
“It’s Ian. Make sure you remember it.”
The tent flap fluttered, and Ian’s figure disappeared.
“Ian, is it…”
Kalinia snorted as she stared at the place where she had vanished.
“What an amusing human.”