"What cat-ears?! I'm from the Leopard Tribe!"
That's still a cat.
The young lady that just appeared had short brown hair, purple eyes and an outfit that screams that of a gyaru in my previous world. She may not look hostile, but I took a defensive stance right away and One reflexively climbed a tree for safety.
"A-Anyway, why are you spying on me?"
"I wasn't spying on you, why would I even?"
I lowered down my guard for now. Seeing my get-up then also my storage ring, she looked like something came over her.
"Are you an adventurer?"
"Yes, I am."
"My name is Hunter Arlet. Care to introduce yourself?"
"Hee, so you're a hunter. I'm Seven Clavery, a low ranked Adventurer."
I completely left myself open and calmed down, sitting on the floor while staring at her. Seeing the situation safe, One went down the tree and rested herself on my lap.
"You got something wrong. I'm not a hunter, my name is Hunter Arlet. I'm also an adventurer."
"I'm sorry for the trouble. So your first name is Hunter and your last name is Arlet, right?"
"Mn, that's right."
"So what are you doing out in this forest?"
The one who asked is me. She didn't look much of a fighter with that get up. Moreover, she's a girl so maybe a mage?
"If you're asking me, I was hired by the Guild Master to execute a thorough investigation of the orc issue. Moreover, to find out what caused it in the first place."
Ah, so the guild master already sent someone to be his informant. I listened intently to her explanation, but my eyes were mostly focused on her ears and the fluffy tail swaying smoothly on her back.
"So did you find anything valuable?"
She replied with a nod and recklessly gave me even more information.
"I found traces of summoning magic at their base. Based on their numbers, equipment and number of shamans, I can roughly guess they wanted to summon a monster from another world and make it wreck havoc upon the human lands."
"Wh-What?!"
"I know. I'm curious too but I found no other monster near their base, and I heard no news of any towns being attacked by a monster yet either."
M-Maybe that's... I might be that 'monster from another world' she's looking for. Well, I have to keep quiet or I'll be in big trouble-
"Heey~ come to think of it, you're not from here are you?"
"Y-Yep! I just registered to the adventurer guild the other day and came here to test out my magic!"
Here she comes with the suspicions! Is she attacking me on purpose?! Theres no way she found out, right?
I put on a fake smile to deceive her. I don't know if it'll work but it's worth a try!
"Hm..."
She leaned closer to me with sharp eyes that looked like it was trying to pierce through my soul.
After pondering for a while it looked like the mood she had, immediately changed.
"Oh! A newbie! Nice to meet you!"
"Y-Yeah... Please take good care of me."
"Fufu, I'll take care of you lots, kouhai. I'm a Thief class adventurer. I specialize in infiltrating enemy settlements and gathering information."
"You really do give alot of information, huh..."
"That's right! Stealth Magic is my specialty!"
This girl... I'm starting to worry about her in so many ways.
Right now, she was staring at me as if waiting for something, should I tell her my class too?
"I'm Seven Clavery, my class is sword wielder."
Even though I can also use some magic and have a high aptitude towards it I'm still inexperienced as a magic caster, noone except Nina and Leyla know about my secret. For now, it's best that people think I can only use swords for having high physical aptitudes. Rather than attracting too much attention I will do it slowly, that's just my decision. I would rather not have people underestimate me and get angry when they pick a fight. That's just selfishly stupid.
"Sword wielder despite being a woman? That's so cool!"
Her eyes sparkled in awe which I perceived as nothing but exaggeration. This gyaru is surprisingly cute.
"By the way..."
"Hm?"
"Why did you throw your lunch box at me of all things?! I would have preferred you threw a tree instead!"
"Ah... Ahahaha."
It didn't cross my mind until now but... what I did was undeniably a bit rude.
We went back to the city by foot. I know my intentions for going there was to practice magic but I felt like taking a quest so I'll be going to the city and come back later.
Now that I had a pet, One hid on the small bag behind my back that I had between my hips. I now had the storage ring so I had no trouble at all about emptying it.
Hunter-chan and I entered the guild hall together. The guild was full of vigor as always even when there is an army of monsters on the lose.
"Bye Seven-chan, I'll be handing my report to the Guild Master. Be right back~"
I waved my hand at the high-spirited cat girl who was given an immediate reply of audience with the guild master.
"Now what should I take?"
Judging by how easy and low paying these F-Rank quests are, I can't even deny the fact that newbies are having it rough.
While the missions may be pretty soft, the main problem would lie on the travel. Since it needs time and it's such a hastle to make such easy quests. For example is catching a cat, catching a cat takes some effort and mostly take adventurers some minutes or hours to overcome.
It's something I could do in the forest so I guess I'll take this one.
Quest Type: Screampea Subjugation
I don't exactly know what a screampea is, but since it's for F-Ranks it's bound to be easy, right?
I asked a guild receptionist what a screampea is and they gave me a photo of a young flower with a completely green color. According to her, this flower contains several peas that when crushed or harmed, releases a loud sound that attracts nearby monsters. This job was available to newbies since it wasn't such a hard task and you only needed to look out for the plant in the picture. It's between a monster and a plant but it doesn't directly attack people.
Before I left the guild to head back to the forest and resume my training, it was announced that we will form a subjugation team 2 days from now.
When I came back to the Forest Of Scritz where I met Hunter-chan, the sun had already began to set.
"..."
While it became irritatingly unlucky for me not to check the time, it was also a bit opportune since it would make my quest easier.
Screampeas tend to glow at night to protect itself from predators and alert adventurers that may accidentally step on it, which makes it easier to spot at this time of day. It's the F-Rank's duty to remove these things before the large scale battle between the Orc Army and the Adventurer's Guild.
The moment I stepped into the area, I was already seeing dozens of screampeas shining and glimmering in blue under the shadows of groves brought from the moonlight. The trees were as still as unwavering statues as there were no night breeze.
I carefully plucked out screampeas by their stems and put them in my storage ring, I plucked out every one of it's kind I saw without danger as it didn't seem like there was any monsters within my detection range. I skillfully avoided stepping on anything that would cause alarm to the monsters nearby as well.
*Screech*
A high pitched scream of an ugly indistinguishable voice resounded in the environment. The sound came from somewhere far in front of me.
"Sh*t! Someone triggered the scream!"
"Who the hell did it!?"
"Holy goblin, I'm really sorry!"
"Blaming won't help us now! Run back to the entrance!"
Voices of three young men and one girl came from the direction the scream was heard. This means monsters would be rushing at them by now. Who knew there would be other adventurers besides me out at night? They must be searching for screampeas too.
"Sh*t! They're already here!"
*Hiss*
The sounds of hissing could be heard at their location. Judging by the volume of their voice, I can estimate the distance between them and me is 10+ meters.
And looking from the apertures of a shrub, I can scarcely tell they are encircled by a pack of raptors. Wait... There are dinosaurs in this world? Well, I guess that isn't all that important right now.
I want to try fighting them. Theres no way I would lose, right? On top of that, I'd like to see if defeating monsters will make One's level rise. Speaking of One, she's currently observing the situation from a safe and high distance.
Acknowledging that they've been backed to a corner, the group of four young adventurers readied their weapons. One had a long sword, the one adjacent to him had a sword and shield, the rear guard wielded a spear and the only girl had a staff. The typical gender alignment in this world.
They are outnumbered as the raptors numbered no lower than 10.
They're in a tight spot. Cold sweat broke down their chin. As the raptors don't sense me yet, I'll take this opportunity to make a surprise attack.
Both parties are currently doing a staring contest to see an opening.
This is my chance.
Pouring strength to my legs and feet, I zapped at a raptor's side in less than a second after briefly amplifying my physical body with magic.
"Bane Of True Evil."
It gave me one quick look before it's head was severed all connections from it's body.
Bane Of True Evil in the game had the ability to change it's attributes depending on the opponent to match it with it's weaknesses, dealing 75% more damage than usual and guaranteed draining the health bar by 5%. This works well with monsters and player killers as the effects could be further amplified by being 'evil'.
In this case where it's applying in reality, it seems very effective. The ordinary looking blade had changed into a glowing blade of white, clouded with sparks of blue lightning.
I swung the sword at my side to shake off the blood on it's blade that didn't seem roasted by the weapon's attribute. The adventurers and raptors were looking at me in bewilderment.
I've always wanted to do this!
Seeing their kin slain in front of them, the raptors were overcome with rage and imprudently charged at my direction all at once. I faced them with a smile on my face, why am I smiling? Because I got a notification that One leveled up twice from that one raptor which means it actually was capable of getting experience points in this world.
Back to reality.
There were three raptors on each of my sides and one by the front, with this kind of disadvantage, I wouldn't be fast enough to dodge. Well, that is if it was the me a few hours ago.
I already started visualizing a magic circle that time the raptors had begun approaching me.
And with a burst of speed that left dust tail me by equilibrium, I managed to avoid being shredded to pieces. Simply by back stepping with my stats amplified, I gained a safe distance and dashed at the enemies once again.
Every dash was faster than the blink of a human eye, and each time, a kill was guaranteed.
I subsisted this technique and perpetuated the deaths of my enemies one by one until only three was left.
They seemed to be the youngest of their herd and kept their distance from me considerably. After spotting the direction of where my eyes were looking, they confirmed that I am aware of them and fled without hesitation.
I didn't chase after the three because I didn't feel like it. One had also powered up to Lv12 by killing a total of 14 raptors.
"Are you guys alright?"
I asked the party of adventurers with a worried voice that I used to hide the sense of excitement in myself.
"Y-Yes, thank you very much!"
The only girl bowed her head to me and the other three followed her lead. Thanking me, one after the other.
From their backs I saw bags that were used commonly for collecting things. I can bet that's where they're putting the screampeas they were harvesting. Since they're not using storage rings yet, maybe they're new?
"You guys are newbies?"
"Yes!"
Right now, I wanted to say I was a newbie too but if I do that, it would somehow crush their pride and that's what other isekai protagonists do. I don't want to do something so cruel and selfish just to look good like those idiots. That's why, I don't plan on telling them for now.
"I see. You guys should be more careful next time, I'll escort you back home."
They willingly agreed and we went by the path leading to the exit to come back to the city. I made them defeat the monsters that tried to ambush us on our way, it wasn't that hard for them since the monsters were just the supposed fodder if this world was a video game.
Their moves were completely amateur and lacked skill or power. Judging by how I'm constantly getting stronger, maybe everyone here can get stronger pretty fast if they train diligently. While I came to this world with the knowledge I had from my past life. I'm probably regarded as a genius in this world if I can learn magic so fast, this may be the cause of the difference in education.
So if magic can be made stronger by repeating the same spells over and over again until I get used to it, maybe physical power can be made stronger if I train my body in fitness.
All that aside, it is time to go home.