Chapter 40 - Chapter 39: A Way of Fighting My Own
One week after the bitter experience of his first quest.
Mika was back at the lake.
However, today he would only gather Karemiso. He would not gather Momorima Stones or Razurassa Grass.
Among these three types of gathering, Karemiso yielded the most efficient profit.
So, today he intended to gather only Karemiso.
Last time, Mika managed to return to town and stopped by the Adventurer's Guild to sell the gathered items.
Income
Momorima Stone: Twenty-three pieces, 1350 Rats
Razurassa Grass: Three kilograms, 900 Rats
Karemiso: Four hundred and thirty grams, 3000 Rats
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Total: 5250 Rats
He could only earn this much in a single day.
Moreover, this was not the only expenditure.
Expenditure
Antidote: One unit, 3000 Rats
Mika had bought and used an Antidote from the tool shop just in case.
With this, the final balance came to 2250 Rats.
He risked his life, suffered such excruciating pain, and was crushed by despair, yet the money he earned was only this little.
At the Guild, the blonde, fluffy-haired older sister who had assisted him during registration had been worried about Mika's dejected state.
When Mika presented his Guild Card, she discovered that the rabbit he had encountered back then was a beast called "Sou-Labi," based on the magic power stored in the card.
When Mika told her he had somehow defeated it, she was surprised and praised him, but she scolded him for entering the forest.
"It is still too early for you," she said.
He had asked the older sister to confirm that this Sou-Labi did not possess poison, which was confirmed, but he did not know what kind of pathogens it might carry.
Leaving the Guild, Mika went straight to the tool shop and bought an Antidote.
It seemed this Antidote worked regardless of the type of poison.
He thought, "Oh my, is that really true?" but apparently, that was how it was.
Thus, Mika's first quest ended with a profit, of sorts.
Whether the reward matched the hardship was another matter.
And so, Mika spent the following week in regret, anger at himself, and preparation for a rematch.
The academy building had a library, where there were documents about beasts.
He could gather information there about beasts around Sarbengeal, especially those in the forest.
What was wrong with his way of fighting?
How could he fight as he envisioned?
Recalling his impetuous feelings, the terror of that time, and the pain that nearly made him faint, he spent a week where he could not sit still.
He had tried to calm his mind by looking at the beautiful view of the lake, but that plan had completely backfired.
Standing on the lake shore, the frustration of that time welled up even more.
The smell of blood stinging the nose, the coldness of the lake, the frustration, the tears.
Everything was recalled vividly.
Giving up, Mika headed toward the forest.
As he approached the forest, he felt his feet freeze with fear.
The terrifying face of that Sou-Labi, which had attacked to kill Mika, floated in his mind.
Mika took a deep breath and muttered, "Stone Bullet." He created the "Stone Bullet."
Thirty "Stone Bullets."
He kept them waiting above his head.
He had lifted the magic restrictions shortly after leaving town.
Once one step out of town, it was no longer a territory solely for humans.
Even if it was not the forest, one should not exclude the possibility of beasts appearing.
He had finally realized this during this past week.
Mika proceeded cautiously through the forest, wary of his surroundings.
His objective was the gathering spot for Karemiso.
He arrived at the same place as last time, but there was no corpse of the Sou-Labi.
Probably, other beasts that noticed the smell of blood had come and eaten it.
He was slightly surprised that even the remains were gone, but quickly pushed the thought out of his head.
He took a ragged cloth bag out of his pouch and began gathering Karemiso.
With the "Stone Bullets" waiting above his head, he gathered while remaining wary of his surroundings.
He could not gather at the same pace as last time, but as he worked silently, he managed to collect a decent amount.
After gathering for about two hours, he collected roughly the same amount as last time.
This was worth about 3000 Rats.
Since he could only come once a week, this left a bit of dissatisfaction.
Mika took a short break and decided to gather again.
After gathering for another two hours, he felt a bit hungry.
As he gathered Karemiso with a "plip, plip" sound, he began to consider taking a lunch break, when he heard a faint rustling noise.
Diagonally in front of the place where Mika was gathering.
Mika placed the cloth bag on the ground, stood up cautiously, and slowly backed away.
While focusing his awareness on the direction of the sound, he also remained wary of his surroundings.
When he was about seven or eight meters away from the bushes, he fired one of the "Stone Bullets" waiting above his head into the bushes.
Immediately, there was a sound of something moving, rustling rustling rustling, and then it went quiet again.
(...It's there.)
Mika remained attentive to the direction of the sound and did not relax his vigilance in other directions.
Beasts were not necessarily alone.
Time flowed slowly, suffocatingly.
If there was no sound, Mika could not find where the beast was hiding.
Mimicking Ninetiana, a master of sensing presence, was not something that could be achieved in a day or two.
Rather, wasn't such a feat impossible for a lifetime?
Mika fired "Stone Bullets" one by one into several suspicious places.
But this time, no reaction came back.
Mika remained still and continued his vigilance.
Five minutes, ten minutes, suffocating time passed.
Mika had no idea where the beast had gone.
Had it already gone somewhere?
Perhaps it had just been a rat or something.
The air was so tense that the thread of tension seemed about to snap.
Mika randomly fired "Stone Bullets" into the bushes.
Then, when he fired the tenth one, there was a rustling sound.
It was a place more than ten meters away from the previous location.
It seemed it had been trying to circle around to Mika's side.
The corner of his mouth involuntarily rose.
(...Are you still there?)
Mika felt a bit happy.
Last time it was a surprise encounter, and the Sou-Labi had attacked all at once.
Mika's "Stone Bullets" had initially been dodged, but eventually, the beast stopped worrying about them hitting.
That beast was now wary of Mika and hiding.
He felt, just a little, that the beast had acknowledged him, and he couldn't help but feel happy.
Mika was now considered worthy of vigilance.
However, if this continued forever, Mika would be the one to give in.
His concentration had been high since entering the forest.
Maintaining magic, vigilance of the surroundings, he had been forced to be tense for over four hours already.
If this continued, Mika would not last.
(It's a bit forceful, but I'll decide.)
Mika muttered, "Stone Bullet," and replenished the "Stone Bullets" above his head.
Then, he fired them one by one into the bushes again, searching for the place that would react.
A reaction came back when he fired the fifth one.
"Air Cutter!"
Mika released countless "Air Cutters" just skimming the ground of the bushes.
The bushes were cut down one after another, and the beast, unable to withstand the sudden change in situation, jumped out.
The beast was the same as last time, a Sou-Labi.
Mika fired "Stone Bullets" one by one at the Sou-Labi.
The Sou-Labi dodged the "Stone Bullets" with quick movements and came zigzagging toward him.
When the distance between Mika and the Sou-Labi became about three meters, Mika fired half of the "Stone Bullets" above his head over a slightly wider area.
So that no matter how it dodged, "Stone Bullets" would be fired into that spot as well.
Biiiii!
As Mika had intended, two "Stone Bullets" hit the Sou-Labi's hind legs and body.
The Sou-Labi let out its first cry.
Even so, the Sou-Labi moved nimbly to try to regain its footing.
"Fireball!"
Mika fired five "Fireballs" at the Sou-Labi.
No matter how tough the beast was, if it lost one hind leg, it could not move as it pleased.
The Sou-Labi tried to dodge the "Fireballs," but it seemed to lose its balance and failed its jump.
All the "Fireballs" hit the Sou-Labi, and it burst into fierce flames.
Biiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!!!
The Sou-Labi let out a dying scream and soon stopped moving.
Mika fired several "Stone Bullets" at the motionless Sou-Labi to confirm its death.
"Waterball."
He created several chunks of water and poured them over the burning corpse of the Sou-Labi.
Just in case, he also used "Water Splash" around the surroundings.
Then, while remaining wary of his surroundings, Mika collected his belongings and left the forest.
Leaving the forest and returning to the lake shore.
Only then did Mika exhale deeply and release his tension.
He put down his luggage, created a "Waterball," and roughly washed his face.
"Haaah... I'm tired..."
A mutter slipped out involuntarily.
Today he came to the forest to gather Karemiso, but his main objective was combat with the beast.
For this past week, frustration and anger at himself had been swirling in Mika's heart, dominating his mind.
Those feelings grew stronger day by day, to the point of driving him mad.
"Finally... I won...!"
Mika clenched both hands tightly and muttered, feeling the victory.
His body trembled as if struck.
Mika had continued to think about how he should fight all this time.
His strengths, his weaknesses.
He had thought and thought in circles in his head, and for now, he had been able to envision a way of fighting that was his own.
Although, it was still something like a theory on paper.
It would need to be improved gradually through actual combat.
But if he did not even know how he should fight, there was no way to fight.
He had not even realized such a thing without going through a near-death experience.
Mika's strength was, above all, this magic.
And his abundant magic power.
He could create hundreds of "Fireballs," "Stone Bullets," or "Ice Javelins."
Moreover, considering recovery with "Absorb," there was almost no upper limit in quantity.
Since overwhelming numbers were possible, there was no reason not to use them.
However, he could not simultaneously control hundreds of "Fireballs" or "Stone Bullets" at once.
While magic power might not be an issue, Mika's proficiency would become the "bottleneck" of quantity limits.
Therefore, he had created about thirty "Stone Bullets" before entering the forest, both to practice controlling many "Stone Bullets" and to reduce the trouble of creating them one by one when needed.
By doing this, he could save the effort of creating them when necessary, and if his concentration dropped, the "Stone Bullets" would fall.
It was also training to maintain magic while being vigilant, so it could be said to be the optimal method for Mika right now.
And Mika's weakness, needless to say, was his lack of experience.
In addition to that, his poor equipment could be cited.
Mika had ultimately not been able to buy any armor.
The reason was simple. He had no money.
There was nothing one could do about what one did not have.
So, he had no choice but to give up on that.
Starting activities after equipping everything was something that could not be known when it would happen.
He intended to save money and prioritize getting armor first, but until then, it could not be helped.
He had no choice but to take on the danger.
From fighting today, Mika learned one more of his weaknesses.
He had absolutely no idea where the enemy was.
He had fired stones randomly to find the position, but this method would not get him anywhere.
He had almost been circled around to his side today.
He had been wary of his surroundings, of course, but he wanted to avoid situations where he was attacked from the side as much as possible.
The Agu Bear and the Sou-Labi from last time had charged, but being hidden like this was very troublesome.
It seemed he would need to consider countermeasures for this as well.
Mika stretched widely.
He inhaled the cold air cooled by the lake into his chest.
Then, he took out bread from his pouch, gnawed on it, and started walking toward the West Gate.
When he arrived at the Guild, there were quite a few adventurers.
It was probably around 2 PM now.
More than ten adventurer parties and one or two individual adventurers were scattered about.
There were so many adventurers on the Guild's open-floor atrium that he did not feel like counting them.
Nevertheless, the impression that it was not too crowded made him realize the size of the Guild once again.
When Mika entered, some adventurers gave him looks as if to say, "Why is there a child?"
Last week he had no spare attention to worry about others, so he hadn't noticed, but it was probably the same feeling.
"Oh, hello. Did you come out again today?"
When he passed near the counter, the usual blonde, fluffy-haired older sister called out to him.
She still exuded an air of an arrogant young lady from somewhere, looking so luxurious that she did not seem like a Guild employee at all.
"Hello. I will go to the collection window."
Mika returned the greeting and headed straight for the dedicated collection window.
In the Guild, there was a dedicated window inside the building to hand over gathered items and request goods.
However, for large things like beast bodies or monsters that might dirty the surroundings, there was a dedicated window immediately after entering the city wall gates.
If one were to walk down a crowded main street carrying such things, complaints would flood in and it would be full of trouble.
One might think, "Then why not pick it up outside the city wall?" but apparently, there were circumstances that prevented that.
So, they tried to allow pickup as soon as one entered the city to cause as little trouble as possible.
Mika handed over the Karemiso he had gathered today at the collection window and presented his card.
The clerk touched Mika's card lightly with a metal rod, and weighed the amount right there.
Today's gathering was eight hundred and fifty grams, worth about 5950 Rats.
He signed the transfer documents and waited to be called on the floor.
Soon, the blonde, fluffy-haired older sister called out Mika's name.
"Yes, Mika-kun. Sorry to keep you waiting. Will you have the reward in cash? Or pool it on the card?"
"Please with the card."
Mika handed the card to the older sister.
The older sister informed him of the deposit amount this time and the remaining balance on the card.
She told him the remaining balance only because he asked; if he hadn't asked, she would not have mentioned it.
In a place with so many people, no one would want to hear, "The remaining balance is one million Rats."
Mika was not yet used to this card, so he was asking just to confirm.
Once he got used to it, Mika would not bother asking such things either.
"There is a record of Sou-Labi extermination again. ...Did you go to the forest again? Since it's Karemiso gathering, it's natural you went to the forest..."
She looked at Mika with a suspicious gaze.
It seemed the older sister was looking at Mika's record of achievements.
A dry laugh escaped from Mika.
"Really, it was so dangerous."
The older sister puffed out her cheeks.
She looked like an older sister scolding her younger brother.
For a moment, he remembered talking to Loretta and felt nostalgic.
"Yes, I will be careful."
"...You still don't get it, do you?"
Mika replied with a smile, but it seemed the older sister understood he had no intention of stopping going to the forest, so she sighed.
"You fought smoothly today, didn't you? You have that look on your face."
Looking at Mika, she said such things.
When Mika tilted his head, she continued with a worried expression.
"Last week, Mika-kun was really a mess. Even if the clothes were tattered, you looked so dejected."
It seemed he had been seen through.
Crushed by the harsh reality, unable to do anything, he had been so dejected about his own inadequacy that he felt like sinking to the bottom of the earth.
"Sorry. I caused you worry."
Mika conveyed his honest feelings, but the older sister shrugged as if to say, "Nothing to be done."
"...Really. You have a cute face, but you were such a rascal. Really, please, don't do anything too reckless? Okay?"
"Yes. Then, excuse me."
Mika bowed lightly to the older sister and left the Guild.
"What, what, Yunressa. Is that child the example of your favorite one?"
As Yunressa watched Mika leave the Guild from across the counter, her colleague next to her spoke to her.
"What, 'favorite'?"
Yunressa answered while organizing the documents on the counter.
What was "the example"?
"Everyone is saying it. Recently, Yunressa has been obsessed with that small boy? Maybe she has awakened feelings for him."
The colleague spoke laughingly.
Awakened feelings? What does that mean?
Awakened to what, exactly?
Which "that" are they talking about?
"It's not like that, fool. That small child is doing dangerous things, so I'm just a little worried."
"Oh. Well, I can understand that kind of thing."
The colleague made a complicated face.
"But, it's not a good thing, that kind of thing."
"Yeah... I know that."
Yunressa nodded.
No matter what happened, being an adventurer was a dangerous job.
Every year, many adventurers lost their lives, and many were forced to retire due to injuries.
Nevertheless, there were always those who could only proceed to such jobs, and she was the one who facilitated that dangerous work.
Worry was just an excuse or sentimentality.
"Last week was his first quest, and he came back in such a terrible state. That's why I couldn't help but worry."
"Ahahaha, so that's why you were distracted all week?"
"I don't think I was distracted, though?"
Was he distracted?
Indeed, he had thought of him occasionally even during work.
"...But, it's amazing."
"Hm? What is?"
Hearing Yunressa's mutter, her colleague asked back.
Unaware of that, Yunressa fell into thought.
When Mika appeared at the Guild last week, Yunressa felt as if her heart was being squeezed.
His shirt and pants, tattered and stained with a dull hue, were one thing.
Mika himself was in such a terrible state.
The lively, childish feeling he had when they first met had subsided, and he wore an aura like an adventurer whose entire party had been wiped out.
He twisted his face in pain, yet his eyes had not lost their light.
A sharp, gleaming gaze.
It was not eyes a child should have.
It was hard to believe he was the same child who had registered as an adventurer the previous week.
But today, Mika was completely different from last week.
Different from when they first met.
Including today, they had only met face-to-face three times, but she felt a strong sense of great growth and potential.
Even though he was such a small child, she thought deeply, "He is an adventurer."
"...You are distracted after all."
"Huh? Ah, what?"
Her colleague narrowed his eyes and stared at Yunressa, who was lost in thought.
"Truly, should I be happy that spring has come? I am a bit troubled, myself."
"What are you talking about!"
"Stop making noise there and get to work!"
When Yunressa retorted to her colleague, a reprimand came from the chief woman behind them.
Startled, the colleague and she shrank back, and a group of adventurers came to the counter.
"Yes, welcome. How may we help you?"
Yunressa switched her mood and returned to work.
Secretly praying for the future success and safety of the small adventurer.