The ones caught up in the tornado had been flung away in a parabolic arc, and since they were hurled toward the forest, they probably didn’t survive.
“There should be two more archers who shot at us from the forest. What do we do about them?”
“They’ll probably run.”
“Yeah, and even if we reported this to the guild, they wouldn’t believe us. From the outside, it would look as though the three of us had picked a fight with eight men.”
“Then I’ll kick up a dust screen so we don’t get shot at. Let’s hide over there.”
I expanded the wind barrier and boosted its strength, tearing up grass and soil from the ground until thick dust clouds rose, obscuring everything. Then I dissolved the barrier.
“Well, that’s one flashy trick, but now they can’t target us.”
“Let’s hide out around here and see what happens.”
We sat somewhere out of sight from where those guys had come from and calmly started drinking tea.
Those two—still casually coming and going at the guild even after disbanding their old party—really were something.
Mintz in particular had apparently been invited to join other parties many times, but he always brushed them off without concern.
I had both Detection and Presence Sense, but because I was still a rookie, no one took me seriously enough to invite me into a party.
When we returned to town in the evening and sold our prey, we dropped by the tavern, where Scott grinned and said, “Let’s go say hi.”
Mintz waved me over, and when I asked what was going on, he told me the people at the table were the ones from earlier, members of Wolf’s Fang.
I thought that was their name. Scott stopped in front of the two men, who were gloomily drinking ale, and asked:
“Hey, what happened to your buddies?”
They glared at him furiously, but he merely laughed. “What, don’t like my tone? How about a mock battle to settle it?”
“Scott, don’t drag me into this!”
“Relax. Against this lot, Scott can handle it alone.”
“Hey now, don’t make me do it by myself. You’re helping too.”
The moment the words “mock battle” came up, the whole tavern went quiet, and everyone turned to watch.
“Hey, that guy’s picking a fight with Wolf’s Fang.”
“Scott? That’s the man who’s been stuck at Bronze Rank forever, right? Can he win?”
“You don’t know? He’s actually pretty strong.”
“Wait, isn’t Wolf’s Fang supposed to have eight people? Where are the rest of them?”
This was heading in a bad direction. Seriously, give me a break.
“What’s wrong? You only act tough when you’ve got numbers? Here it’s two on two. The kid behind me won’t interfere, so you’ve actually got a chance.”
“If you’ve got the guts to glare, then let’s finish this properly in a mock battle—no hard feelings after.”
Scott and Mintz challenged them, but the two men who’d been glaring dropped their eyes and said nothing.
“If you’re too cowardly to accept a mock battle, then get out of this town.”
“And if you stay, be prepared for what that means.”
Still looking down, the two of them stood up quietly and hurried out of the tavern.
“There are always men who act tough only when they have numbers.”
“You’re the one who suggested a mock battle. I was terrified, you know.”
Yeah, I was the one terrified, actually. My heart couldn’t take this kind of stress.
“Hey Mintz, did something happen between you and Wolf’s Fang?”
“Why were only two of them around anyway?”
“Ah, we ran into a little trouble near the southern edge of the forest. Same old story—one of them started something, and a few arms ended up broken. Those two were the first to run.”
“When we got back to town, they were just sitting there, drinking ale like nothing happened.”
“Well, that sounds rough.”
“Who knows where they came from, but when all eight are together, they certainly like to act tough.”
“Poor things.”
Everyone could guess what happened to the others from the tone of the conversation, but no one asked further. Adventurers were scary that way.
Because I’d been giving my mother 10,000 dara every day, it took eight months to save up 1,500,000 dara—so it ended up becoming a 17th birthday present for myself.
I went to the adventurers’ supply shop to register the owner and user restriction for the Magic Pouch. At the magic-tool shop, I learned that extending its preservation time in ten-hour increments cost ten gold coins plus a two-gold-coin service fee. I nearly fainted.
My Rank 3–10 Magic Pouch could keep food that normally lasted one day fresh for ten days, but I wanted to extend that to thirty. Then I could store more prey and even carry a portable camping shelter.
As promised, I went out to the plains alone once a week to hunt and practice magic.
I had completely mastered [Stone Bullet], so launching arrows was even easier, and firing short spears with [Lance] posed no problem.
However, since I couldn’t rapid-fire, I came up with a new idea: load a Rank 1–10 Magic Pouch with stones of different sizes, give them a vertical spin, and fire them all in a “scatter shot” version of [Stone Bullet].
That meant I needed more pouches—probably another two or three, so I could sort the stones by size.
My Detection range had surpassed seventy meters, and sometimes I spotted things before Mintz did.
My Presence Sense worked up to about fifty meters—good enough to feel hidden prey or hostile intent.
My Appraisal skill had improved too—I could now tell if an unfamiliar plant was medicinal or not, and I could roughly gauge my remaining mana.
Wind Magic wasn’t something I used continuously. Even during hunts, I cast only a few spells in each battle, so mana consumption wasn’t a major concern.
Lately, I’d been obsessed with a trick I discovered while hunting bats—encasing prey in an air bubble.
If I just wrapped them, they’d stay alive even after falling, so I started experimenting with expanding the bubble.
When I caught birds in midair with an expanding air bubble, they’d suffer from oxygen deprivation and either faint or die before hitting the ground.
Now I didn’t even need a bow to hunt Chiki-Chiki Birds or Red Chickens.
As a result, my solo practice hunts usually brought in Runner Birds and Chiki-Chiki Birds, which sold at high prices and made me quite happy.
Sometimes I’d bring them to the Olivetan Hotel where my mom worked, and she’d have the kitchen cook them up.
She would bring half of it home, and we would have it for dinner.
The hotel staff didn’t mind, since those birds were high-end ingredients—whatever was left after cooking went to the hotel, so they were happy to oblige.
＊＊＊
“Leon, you’ve got a designated request.”
“Huh… me? But I’m only Iron Rank Second Class.”
“The submaster said it’s because you’ve been bringing in Runner Birds and Chiki-Chiki Birds. Go take a look at the request board. You’ll get a laugh out of it.”
Scott told me this with a grin. I’d never actually looked at the request board before, but Scott and Mintz dragged me over to it anyway.
There were two sections—general requests and designated requests—and both listed Runner Birds and Chiki-Chiki Birds.
The clients for the designated ones were the Travis Trading Company and Marks General Store.
“Are designated requests… something you can’t turn down?”
“Come on, man, this is Travis Trading Company and Marks General Store! Big names.”
“The reward must be huge… Huh, it isn’t even written down. I suppose they couldn’t obtain any through ordinary requests, so they had to designate you.”
“Anyway, go ask the submaster. Depending on the conditions, you might be able to decline… probably.”
“I’ve heard rich folks can be gluttonous, but putting in a designated request just for that? Seriously?”
“Since you’ve got family in town, it’s probably harder for you to turn down a rich client, huh?”
“You two are clearly making fun of me.”
“If you take it, show us how you hunt those birds.”
“Yeah, I bet it’s some trick only you can pull off.”
“Can I just… ask to see the submaster like that?”
“He’s the one who called for you. Tell the receptionist your name and ask what it’s about—they’ll tell you.”
So I went to the reception desk, gave my name, and told them I’d heard the submaster wanted to see me.
A burly, heavily muscled man emerged from the back. He looked as though he had some bear blood in him.
“You’re Leon, huh? I hear you’ve been selling Runner Birds and Chiki-Chiki Birds to the Olivetan Hotel. They’re difficult to obtain through ordinary requests, so those clients submitted designated requests for you. If you accept, you’ll receive the normal market price plus a designated-request bonus.”
“How soon do they need them? And what happens if I refuse?”
“Well, rich folks tend to be persistent. You’ve got family?”
“Yeah. My mom and brother both work at the Olivetan Hotel. My dad and oldest brother work elsewhere.”
“Then take it once at least. If they start getting too pushy, come talk to me.”
The submaster’s name was Melvin—a rather cute name for such a tough-looking man.
“One request calls for five Chiki-Chiki Birds and five Runner Birds; the other calls for two Chiki-Chiki Birds and one Runner Bird. I can’t catch all of those at once.”
“Bring in whatever you manage to catch and tell us it’s for the request. We’ll record it against the commission. Make sure you get paid properly.”
Scott and Mintz were grinning from ear to ear when I got back.
“How’d it go?”
“We never received designated requests back when we were in Lynas’s Blast.”
“The submaster told me to take it once, and if they’re too persistent, just tell him.”
“Then starting tomorrow, we’ll hunt for the request, huh?”
“Can’t wait to see how you do it.”
＊＊＊
“Not much luck finding any.”
“Chiki-Chiki Birds won’t show themselves unless you hear their cries. Runner Birds don’t make much noise either.”
“Then how do we find them?”
“With Presence Sense. Runner Birds usually hide in thickets or large clumps of grass.”
“Then only you and Mintz can actually find them.”
“If they’re in bushes, sometimes you can see them a little—so you can spot them too, Scott.”
“Poking around in the undergrowth near the forest edge—you’ll get mauled by a monster doing that.”
“There’s something in that clump of grass over there.”
“We’re still a fair distance from the forest. Something’s really here?”
“Scott, it’s probably a Horn Rabbit or a Hedgehog. Maybe a Jumping Mouse. But if we flush it out, it’ll probably escape.”
“Then why don’t we have Leon catch it?”
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