I Said Make My Abilities Average! (LN) - Volume 18 - Chapter 130

Chapter 130:

Meanwhile…

“HOW DOES THE messenger fare?”

“She has been addressing her followers from the balcony every morning and evening without fail. Lately, the content of her sermons has been incredibly well received, and her reputation is on the rise.”

“Excellent. I had my concerns when I heard that her old allies had absconded, so I’m pleased to hear that she has settled in well.” The older of the two priests smiled with satisfaction. “And what of the other matter?”

“Her eating habits, I assume? She’s been cutting back on food, snacks, and fruit juice, so I don’t believe we have to worry about her getting fat anymore.”

“Now that is splendid news indeed! When she asked to sample all the sweets from the surrounding kingdoms, or when she took to gorging herself out of boredom, I was afraid she might gain weight… It would seem she has finally embraced her role as the divine messenger. I’m truly glad to hear it.”

“But what on earth could have sparked the sudden change of heart?” the young priest marveled. “She was so loath to perform her duties, and now she’s like an entirely different person. You don’t suppose she could have been replaced by an impostor…?”

“Ha ha ha! In that case, if the Goddess were to ask me, ‘Did you drop this lazy messenger, or this diligent one?’, I’d answer the latter!”

“Pfft! Did you lift that from one of Miami Satodele’s comedy novels?! Th-that’s too irreverent, Father! Ha ha ha ha!”

“Wa ha ha ha!”

The two priests erupted with laughter, perhaps forgetting that the author of Miami Satodele’s comedy novels was none other than the divine messenger herself.

Of course, the nanomachines were not ones to slack off on intelligence gathering.

THIS IS ALL IT TAKES FOR HER TO BE PERCEIVED AS DILIGENT? JUST HOW LAZY A LIFE HAVE YOU LED, LADY MILE? 

***

“Shall we wait for them in this town?”

“Sounds good.”

“If we proceed too far, we’ll rob the Crimson Vow of their fun on this continent.”

After departing the capital, it didn’t take long for the Wonder Trio to hit pause on their journey. It seemed safe to assume that the Crimson Vow would travel from the port city to the capital. If the Trio moved too close to the coast, Mile wouldn’t have much time to enjoy her journey on the new continent. Thus, they had revised their original plan of moving steadily seaward.

Why not wait for the girls at the capital, you ask? It seemed likely if they stayed there, someone would recognize the Trio, and they wanted to avoid making a scene in the place they planned to make their future base of operations. Instead, they hoped to meet up with the Crimson Vow in a provincial town, explain their and Princess Morena’s current standing in the capital, and compare notes.

“While we’re waiting for the Crimson Vow, we may as well register with the guild so we can work as novice hunters here. There’s plenty of other work to be done, too, such as assessing the local monster threat and determining if the level of magic here is the same as back home. As we know, magic is conjured by ‘magic spirits.’ Different spirits will be in charge on a different continent, which could alter the power, speed, accuracy, and so forth of our spells. We must do our research to ensure that the slightest of differences doesn’t prove fatal.”

“Yes, ma’am!” Aureana and Monika chorused.

That was Marcela for you. Perhaps Aureana would have made the suggestion if she hadn’t, but a true leader would never gloss over such important matters.

SHE SURE HAS HER ACT TOGETHER…

<IT DOES MAKE ME MISS LADY MILE’S DUMB ANTICS, BUT IT’S FUN TO WATCH A LOWER LIFE-FORM MAKE THE MOST OF HER WITS.>

[YOU SAID IT. ONE WAY OR ANOTHER, THE CRIMSON VOW AND THE WONDER TRIO WILL BE THE FLAGSHIP SHOWS OF THE NANONET FOR A LONG TIME TO COME.]

The nanomachines emitted a unanimous signal of agreement.

***

Ting-a-ling! 

Three young girls entered the guildhall, the door chime announcing their arrival. Judging by their height and facial features, they were clearly minors. A single girl of such small stature could be written off as a malnourished orphan, but it was hard to imagine that being the case when there were three of them together. Furthermore, the entire group was dressed in the sort of high-end protective gear and partial armor worn by guards, and they were even equipped with daggers and staffs. There was simply no way they were hurting for money.

Alerted by the sound of the chime, the guild staff and hunters turned as one to look at the entrance. While typically their gaze would return quickly to whatever they were doing, this time, all eyes remained glued on the girls’ every movement.

No one made a move to intercept the three newcomers. No matter how young these girls were, their robust, well-worn clothing and decent equipment made it clear that they were too experienced to qualify for newbie hazing.

Still, all of the hunters present were thinking the same thing.

This was a group of three girls, all good-looking for their age. And all three of them appeared to be mages.

Mages were the class most often missing from a party of hunters. They could take the place of a canteen, a fire starter, a healing potion, or an archer. It was a godsend to have even one in your ranks.

If a single mage was a wild card that could dramatically increase a whole party’s survival rate, just imagine what three of them could do. And they were cuties, to boot.

Some men were thinking unsavory thoughts. Some weren’t. But they were all agreed on one point—

I WANT THEM IN MY PARTY!!

There was one catch: There was no way the girls hadn’t gotten offers before, yet they still chose to travel as a group of three. And despite the odds, their lone trio had made it this far in one piece. Nothing had ever managed to bring them down, be it hostile monsters or other humans. Approaching them without a plan would be far too dangerous.

With that in mind, everyone looked on in silence as the girls approached the reception desk at a brisk pace.

“We’d like to register as new hunters, please.”

Clatter! 

Clatterclatterclatter!

Most of the hunters were halfway out of their chairs before they could stop themselves. And then they exchanged glances.

Not yet! It’s still too early!

Indeed. If the girls were about to register for the first time, it meant they were still civilians. A rugged hunter accosting an underage civilian girl would be a huge red flag. If they laid so much as a finger on the girls, or if one of them screamed, it would be a disaster. At worst, they could be stripped of their hunter’s badge and sent to the mines as a penal slave for years.

As soon as the girls were registered as hunters, however, they would be the men’s colleagues, and a certain amount of fraternizing would be tolerated as long as it passed for a recruiting effort—and since that would be the honest truth, they could claim as much with their heads held high. It was common knowledge that everyone in the business wanted a mage, so it wasn’t as though anyone would doubt their sincerity. 

The situation called for patience. The hunters held each other in check with their gazes.

Once the girls had filled out their application and handed it back to the clerk, one of them asked, oh-so-casually, “Excuse me, but is it considered a crime here for a girl to fight or kill another hunter if she is coerced, threatened, or otherwise disrespected? Or would it be covered under self-defense laws or the right to strike?”

The clerk and guild staff froze. And then…

WHAAAAAAT?!

These girls were untouchable.

Of course, this was a survival technique the Wonder Trio had picked up after being antagonized one too many times—a light jab of a preemptive strike.

“E-erm, about that… I’m afraid that is outside our guild’s purview. That would be for the police to decide…”

True enough, the Hunters’ Guild was not a judicial body of any sort. It could impose penalties related to the matters it oversaw, but it could only arrest or kill wanted criminals or those caught in the act, and it had no authority to determine guilt or innocence.

“That said, I imagine it would depend on whether the attack was purely verbal or accompanied by violence. Generally speaking, if the other party touched a woman’s body, put a hand on the hilt of their weapon, or began an incantation, they would be judged to have initiated the altercation, and any counterstrike would be classified as legitimate self-defense. As for the ‘right to strike,’ however…”

The clerk hesitated. Commoners were strangers to the “right to strike,” unless they were the ones getting cut down. If this girl was asking that…

“Acknowledged. You have my thanks!”

Marcela took a step back and curtsied, very deliberately giving off an aura of nobility to keep the insects from swarming. Just as she had hoped, both the staff and the hunters were taken aback. 

Normally, a curtsy was reserved for one’s superiors, but a guild employee technically outranked a rookie hunter, so she figured that ought to count. Not that anyone in the guild usually cared about such distinctions.

These girls had the guts to give the guild staff and hunters only the barest attention and establish dominance over a den of ruffians. It seemed that the Wonder Trio had come out of their life-or-death battle with newfound courage.

No doubt this little show of hers had left everyone convinced that Marcela was a noblewoman. Which was, in fact, the case…

The other two were assumed to be either the daughters of lower-ranked nobles than Marcela, or perhaps even her attendants or sentry maids. Of course, she must have had even more guards in hiding, and it wouldn’t be shocking if some of the guild staff or fellow hunters had been hired to protect her and feed her intel. Indeed, there was even the possibility that the guild master himself was at her beck and call…

There was no way anyone would try to mess with her now. Not unless they wanted to be found face up in the river or suddenly expelled from the Hunters’ Guild come morning…

After a quick glance at the information board, the girls closely examined the job board.

“It’s all material-gathering quests and monster extermination jobs below C-rank,” Marcela noted. “Nothing of interest here.”

“Well, we’re fairly close to the capital. Any higher-ranked jobs or specialized requests would go to that branch. That way, more potential applicants and a wider variety of specialists have a chance to see the postings,” Aureana explained.

“Interesting…”

Compatibility between the request and the hunter was important. This was something the Wonder Trio knew all too well, having racked up contribution points during their school days by sticking to specialized requests.

It was common knowledge in the town that if one had a more unusual request to make, it was better to skip one’s own Hunters’ Guild branch and go straight to the one in the capital, which was relatively close and had a larger pool of hunters. As a natural consequence, the requests found in capital suburbs like this one tended to be less interesting than those found in the capital, of course, and also those in the towns much farther away.

“Well, we only just got here, so perhaps we should start by deciding on an inn and getting some rest.”

“Yes, let’s!” Monika and Aureana agreed.

As soon as they had received their finished badges and chain lanyards, the Trio left the guild. Naturally, as newly registered hunters, their starting rank was F.

“………”

Everyone present desperately wanted to invite these girls to their party. Alas, they were also a dangerous commodity that could lead a man to his doom with one false step. Untouchable. It would be like shooting for an elder dragon’s treasure—a foolish, reckless act.

Not a single one of the employees or hunters made a move or so much as a peep. 

Marcela’s “insect repellent” technique had served its intended purpose, but it was going to create different sorts of challenges for the girls…

***

“It would seem there’s no difference in the power, speed, and accuracy of magic here,” said Marcela.

“Agreed,” Aureana replied. “The magic spirits of this continent must have synced their parameters with the spirits of ours. Or perhaps a higher spirit unites and coordinates its brethren from all over the world.”

“Whatever the case, I’m glad that we can wield our magic as we always have,” Monika chimed in.

The next day, the Wonder Trio chose to test out their magic in a nearby forest rather than go to the guild. Their investigation revealed that their spells worked no differently than on the old continent.

Whether on the old continent or new, magic was something generated by the myriad nanomachines in the vicinity. It would be impractical for the same spell to vary based on the quirks of the nanomachines executing it, so although the nanomachines were granted a diverse range of personalities, their implementation of magic was standardized. (There was variance in “reception,” which determined whether the machines would respond to a thought pulse and participate in the execution of the spell—if not, there would be no distinct hierarchy to mages’ abilities.)

“There have been two occasions in the past when the power, accuracy, and reaction time of our magic increased exponentially. One was when Miss Adele assigned us exclusive spirits, and the other was when she asked them to raise our level as mages,” said Marcela. “Honestly, a minor change in our abilities wouldn’t have come as a surprise at this point.”

“That’s what we were thinking!” Monika and Aureana chorused.

***

“Excuse me, may I have a moment?”

“Y-y-y-yes, of course!”

Over by the job board, Marcela approached a party of four who looked several years older than her. 

From the look of them, they were so-called self-made hunters who had been in the business for almost a decade. The party consisted of three men and one woman, and the fact that this composition was working out for them suggested that they had grown up together in the same village. Unless the group had been friendly to start with, a 3:1 boy to girl ratio—especially one in which the girl was fairly attractive—almost always led to trouble.

Of course, being childhood friends didn’t eliminate friction altogether, but apparently it helped. The Wonder Trio had learned as much from a senior female hunter in the past.

“Wh-what is it?”

Hm…?

Marcela tilted her head in confusion. Calling out to the boy she had observed to be the leader had clearly put him on edge. This party hadn’t been around when the Wonder Trio showed up at the guild two days earlier, so they shouldn’t have overheard Marcela’s “insect-repelling” conversation with the clerk.

Or so Marcela thought. In fact, over the past couple of days, the branch had sent out an official notice to its affiliated hunters to prevent any unfortunate incidents. The guild had no intention of letting its hunters die in vain.

As a result, all the local hunters knew about the Wonder Trio—and the facts had been exaggerated to the point of misinformation. Thus, while the boy’s party had been vaguely aware that the Trio had them in their frights—er, sights—they had convinced themselves it was their imagination and refused to make eye contact.

Why us?! the leader screamed internally. He was sweating buckets despite the brisk weather, desperate not to incur the displeasure of Marcela’s hidden guards or the escort that had surely been sent from her family’s estate.

Then Marcela told the boy what she was after. “Why not come hunt some orcs and ogres with us, boy?”

It was a rather haughty way to address someone older than her, but she’d chosen her words in accordance with the “insect-repelling” strategy. And so, despite internally trembling with embarrassment, she valiantly played it cool and kept her composure.

There was a reason she had specified “hunting” rather than “exterminating”: It wasn’t common for people to offer rewards for killing orcs and ogres, unless they had settled near a human village or proliferated to the point where they needed to be culled. Furthermore, even if there were such a request, there was little chance that a party of three F-ranked, underage girls who had registered as hunters only a few days prior would be allowed to take the job, even if they teamed up with more experienced C-rank hunters. Such a request was bound to specify “C-rank or above,” and even if it didn’t, the clerk would most certainly turn them away for safety’s sake. Complaining or lodging a formal protest would just get the guild master to show up and reject them under his own authority.

For these reasons, the Wonder Trio didn’t have the option of exterminating orcs and ogres as part of a standard quest. Still, no one would object to them handing in materials such as tusks, hides, meat, and testes, which could be used as ingredients for aphrodisiacs. It was perfectly acceptable to test your blade on a monster that just so happened to wander into your path and strike first.

Get it? Testing your blade for testes!

All the Wonder Trio wanted was to err on the side of caution and bring along a local hunting party as a guide. After surviving that hellish ultimate battle, there was no way an orc or an ogre was going to give them a run for their money. However…

Clatter!

Clatterclatterclatter!

“DON’T DO ITTTTTT!!”

A chorus of screams filled the guildhall. And it was coming from both sides of the reception counter…

Marcela and her friends were taken aback by the intensity of the reaction. It would have been one thing if they were discussing going it alone, but they were planning to take local hunters with them.

The girls still didn’t know the truth: The monsters of this continent were far smarter and more formidable than the ones they knew.

“Don’t do it!”

“Oy, don’t you dare take them up on that offer, Endless Journey! Kick ’em to the curb!”

The party known as Endless Journey didn’t need to be told twice; they had never planned on accepting Marcela’s offer in the first place. Even on their own, they would be looking at a total party kill. It would take at least three B-rank hunters to take monsters of that level down while also protecting three underage girls who were new to the guild and virtual amateurs.

This blatant display of bullying and obstruction had the Trio steamed, but this wasn’t their first rodeo. They had no intention of backing down over such a minor setback.

“Will you accept? Or will you let these insignificant bullies cow you into running from a few paltry orcs and ogres?” Marcela added, deliberately phrasing it as a taunt in hopes of spurring the group to action. But then…

“Sorry, no can do! We could handle one or two orcs, but we don’t stand a chance against ogres!!” the leader wailed. Within seconds, he and his party had booked it right out the door.

“What…?”

The Wonder Trio watched in a daze as their chosen prey gave them the slip.

“It’s not gonna happen, little miss. Don’t blame those kids. The most they could handle is one stray orc. A pack of orcs or ogres would wipe ’em out. Maybe one or two of ’em could get away if they’re lucky, but they’d spend the rest of their lives with emotional scars from letting their friends die. That’s not to mention the risk of injuries that might force ’em out of the hunter business. No matter how hard you try, some things are just impossible.

“You girls ought to do a little research on the correlation between hunter rank and monster level before you go around making offers like that. Those kids made the smart choice to run, but I bet you could find some idiots who’ll be desperate to show off in front of a pretty girl. I can picture the total party kill so vividly that it’s making me feel like crap over here.”

“What…?”

After hearing this advice from the hunter hanging nearby, the Wonder Trio were left gaping.

“Is it truly that serious? Why, we’re only talking about a few orcs and ogres…”

Their combat magic could end any battle in one hit. Even relying on physical attacks, a C-rank swordsman or lancer should have been able to put up a decent fight against a couple of ogres. If a balanced four-person party teamed up with three mages, they should have been able to take out five or six orcs or two or three ogres without taking damage. That was common sense, as far as the Wonder Trio was concerned.

“What kind of high-ranking hunter do you think you are?! Only a B-rank or higher could manage that!”

All three girls were flabbergasted. “Huh?”

“Orcs and ogres tend to work in groups of two or three. If our two parties teamed up, and assuming all three of you ladies have decent combat magic, we could probably handle about three orcs. But two ogres? Not a chance. Even if we managed to take ’em down, we’d take casualties in the process. No one’s gonna agree to that.”

“WHAAAAAT?!”

The Wonder Trio was stunned. His explanation was the last thing they had expected to hear.

“Well for the record, all three of us can use pretty powerful combat magic…”

“SERIOUSLY?!” all the hunters present interjected, but the Wonder Trio ignored them.

“Unless they’re near their den, don’t orcs and ogres usually act alone?” Aureana asked, mystified.

“Nope. Hrm, you ladies oughta head to the second floor to study up on monsters before you do any hunting! No matter how good you are at combat magic, you’ll get wiped out on your first day if you go in blind. A jackalope might stab you through the belly with its horn, or a slime might cling to your face, block your nose and mouth, and suffocate you to death. Even a five-year-old can kill a seasoned soldier if he lowers his guard. If you underestimate the lower-level monsters, you’re gonna wind up dead.”

“………”

It was sound advice.

Still, the Wonder Trio was only F-rank because they were new registrants. In truth, they had the capabilities of a lesser C-rank party overall and an upper B-rank in terms of pure offensive power.

None of them were about to say as much, however. No one would believe them, and even if they did, it would only cause the girls trouble in the long run. Furthermore, it was better to keep their rivals’ guards down and not give them more information than necessary—especially if they weren’t planning to keep their high-capacity storage magic a secret.

“………”

Marcela and her friends were completely lost; everything they had just heard contradicted their own experiences and common sense. Their points of reference were so different that it was impossible to wrap their heads around this new information or reconcile the discrepancies between what the hunters here were saying and what they had seen in the past. Until the Trio gained a proper understanding of the monsters in the area, there was nothing to be done for it.

“Very well. To the second floor we go.”

One of the other hunters had told them to go study upstairs. If they followed his advice, perhaps they would understand why the local hunters considered the monsters to be such a threat. 

When it came to matters like this, the Wonder Trio always endeavored to make rational judgments rather than rebel for the sake of rebellion. They took the advice of their veteran peers seriously. Whether they would follow it was another matter, but this particular suggestion was one they found useful.

“H-have at it…”

Most of the time, youngsters overconfident in their own abilities would simply ignore an old-timer’s advice. The veteran hunter had expected the girls to blow him off, so he was thrown for a loop when they seemed to have taken his words to heart.

Still, if at all possible, he didn’t want to let a bunch of youngsters—not to mention the priceless treasure that was three pretty young mages—die in vain. Plus, he’d feel pretty good about himself if they survived thanks to his advice. He could look at them and think, I raised those girls!

He had taken on a thankless role with the full expectation of being resented and written off as an old geezer, and this was the result. You better believe he was happy.

“Well, if you ladies run into trouble or have any questions, don’t hesitate to come to me.”

Once the Wonder Trio had moved to the second floor, the man’s party members clapped him on the back and praised him for getting a leg up on the competition for the Pretty Combat Magic-Wielding Noble Mage Trio. Around them, the other hunters shot him baleful glares.

***

“What am I reading?!” Marcela exclaimed despite herself as she read the pamphlets for new recruits on the second floor of the guildhall. 

“‘Recommended personnel to engage a three-orc cell: 10+ C-rank hunters’…”

“Do you suppose the idea is for three C-rank hunters to subdue one orc each, while the sole remaining hunter goes for the vitals? Still, that means…”

“It takes more than three hunters to kill a single orc without injury!” all three girls finished together.

“Why, the hunters here are a bunch of weaklings!”

“Shh!” Monika and Aureana scrambled to shush Marcela, putting their index fingers to their lips.

Not many people were around, but that didn’t mean the second floor was empty. They weren’t far from the guild employees who worked on the floor as well as a few local hunters. 

When Marcela’s insult reached their ears, they gave her the stink eye.

“My apologies…”

She had indeed gone too far with that verbal gaffe. Marcela owned up to her faux pas and apologized.

The other hunters and staff were used to overconfident newbies coming in with a skewed perspective, so they weren’t seriously upset. Still, it would have taught the rookies the wrong lesson if they hadn’t reacted at all, so they had feigned offense for the sake of education. It wasn’t uncommon for young hunters to yell back, “You got a problem?!” and fly off the handle, so the fact that this girl had regretted her slipup and apologized left a decent enough impression.

It didn’t hurt that she was a pretty young girl, either.

The crowd all accepted the apology with a slight flick of their wrists. When it came down to it, being a pretty woman got you far in this line of business.

“Allow me to try that again. Unlike in our kingdom, here it takes several C-rank hunters to kill a single orc…”

“Lady Marcela, that’s a better way to phrase it, but you’re still saying the same thing!”

There were several good reasons why the Wonder Trio was classified as a lesser C-rank party overall, despite their upper B-rank offensive power. They lacked stamina, so the longer a fight dragged on, the more sluggish their movements became. Their travel pace was slow. They had poor close-combat ability. Their paper-thin armor meant that a single hit would leave them down for the count. They had little to no experience in PvP combat.

People also looked down on them because of their appearance. No matter how much of an advantage they had, very few would heed their calls to surrender. If an assailant conspired to kidnap them, it might be easier to fend them off for lack of lethal intent, but no one was going to hold back for a woman or child in mortal combat on the battlefield.

They were a mess. Given their failings, their overall rating as hunters was bound to be low, no matter how formidable their attacks were.

Now, to be clear, the Wonder Trio had plenty of merits beyond the increased magic power their exclusive nanomachines and level-2 authorization granted them, or even the repertoire of original spells they had developed based on Mile’s teachings about the essence of magic. They were capable of true silent casting, not the “spell-free casting” that still required reciting the incantation in one’s head. They could wipe out enemy forces unopposed with their long-range detection and ranged magic attacks. Their inventory allowed for easy transport of items. They could leverage their looks to catch their opponents off guard. Not being recognized as a hunter could be an advantage in some scenarios. They also had the option of working as undercover personal bodyguards for other women.

Still, it was inevitable that they would be treated as either eye candy or a curiosity. No merchant in their right mind would consider hiring the Wonder Trio to guard their caravan. Having three pretty girls come along for the ride wouldn’t deter bandits; it would serve as bait.

Of course, the three girls were aware of their own strengths and weaknesses. Thus, even if all their members could use offensive, defensive, support, and healing magic, and their attack power was on par with the best of the B-ranks, they were careful to team up with a party composed mainly of frontline fighters when they accepted requests with even the slightest element of danger or uncertainty. 

No matter how minor the risk, if you worked enough jobs, there was a high probability your luck would run out at some point. Even if the odds of getting injured on a particular job were one in a hundred, mathematically speaking, if you accepted one of those quests once every three days, you would hit the “jackpot” within a few years at most.

And there was no telling when you would hit it. It could be the hundredth time. It could be the fiftieth. It might even be the first.

So, now that they knew their own perceptions were out of sync with what was considered common sense around here, they had no intention of taking on an extermination job all by themselves.

Really, even before learning that, they hadn’t planned to do their first job in an unfamiliar land alone, which is why they had approached that boy’s party…

Marcela huddled close to her friends and spoke in a whisper so no one else could hear. “In any case, we must figure out why the hunters here are so weak. We confirmed that our magic is just as strong on this continent, so the only remaining possibilities are that the spells used here are of a lower level, the incantations are inadequate, the hunters’ magic reserves are so low that they can only fire a few spells at a time, or there are fewer types of magic available.”

“Even if we assume their magic is weaker, with four or five C-ranks together, wouldn’t physical attacks from the vanguard and middle guard be enough to take down several orcs with ease?” Aureana argued. “If we assume a configuration of, say, two swordsmen, one lancer, and one archer…”

“Fair point,” Monika agreed. “And if you add a mage into the mix…no matter how weak their attacks may be, a proper use of blinding magic or support magic ought to be a big help.”

“If nothing else, we’ve learned that there are unknown factors at play. Beyond that…”

“All that’s left is to investigate for ourselves!” the three girls finished together.

“Easier said than done, I suppose,” said Marcela, still keeping her voice to a whisper. “If we want to find out what the hunters here are capable of and how they fight, it won’t help us to take on a request alone…”

“We need to invite the right party to join us,” said Aureana. “An established party, stronger than the one we approached earlier.”

Monika grinned. “I have an idea of a party that looks reasonably tough and might accept our offer to team up.”

Marcela and Aureana struck their palms with their fists. “Oh!”

***

“Excuse me,” said Marcela, flagging down the veteran hunter who had given her party advice earlier. “We are interested in observing one of your orc hunts as a learning experience. Would you care to take on a joint mission with us? We don’t need the reward for the kill. If we can have whatever is left after you’ve extracted the resources you plan to keep, we won’t ask for more.” 

The veteran’s eyes widened with surprise, but when one of his companions prodded him in the back, he blurted, “S-sure thing! It pays to be both cautious and studious. That’s the trick to living a long life. Since you said ‘observe,’ should I take that to mean you girls won’t be fighting?”

Marcela nodded.

“In that case, I’m a little worried about us going it alone. Well, if we were really alone, we could handle it… But if things get hairy, I dunno if we can protect you girls and still make it out unscathed. Mind if we rope another party into it?”

He was cautious enough to give the Wonder Trio a run for their money. That was the way hunters had to be if they wanted to live long enough to become an established party.

From the looks of it, his party didn’t have any mages. That meant there was a high probability of him seeking out a party that did, which was a welcome development as far as the Wonder Trio was concerned. Not only would they get a look at the physical attacks of the frontline fighters, but they could also gauge the level of the local mages.

So, naturally…

“We don’t mind at all. By all means, be our guests!”

And with that, the Wonder Trio’s first (observation of a) monster hunt on the new continent was set.

***

“We’re the C-rank party Heroes of the Goddess. It’s a pleasure.”

“We look forward to working with you.”

There were five members in the veteran hunting party, the Winter Fortress, and four members in the Heroes of the Goddess. Both of them were apparently counted among the upper C-ranks. The Winter Fortress was a team of physical fighters, with swordsmen, lancers, and archers (who could also use daggers). Meanwhile, the Heroes of the Goddess were a more unusual party. With two frontline fighters, a combat mage, and a healing/support mage, they relied on preemptive magic strikes and support for the vanguard.

Since mages were in short supply and high demand in the hunter business, the fact that two out of their four members were mages—and both of them were women—undoubtedly made them the envy of all the other parties.

Though the two parties were previously acquainted, the true reason the Heroes of the Goddess had accepted the Winter Fortress’s invitation was because their mage duo had taken an interest in the Wonder Trio. As fellow female magic users, the two more experienced women found it hard to watch a trio of underage girls plunge headlong into danger. They themselves had been lucky enough to make it as established professionals, but they had surely seen their fair share of female colleagues drop out along the way, picked off by monsters and humans alike.

I swear to protect these girls!! each of the two female mages thought in a frenzy of excitement.

***

“There are three orcs up ahead. Let’s get ’em!” whispered the frontline fighter of the Winter Fortress, making a hand signal so that those at the rear would also get the message.

Some nodded their heads, while others gave a quick wave of their hand to show they understood.

“As we discussed earlier, the mages will attack and provide support from a distance, while the Wonder Trio will hang back with them and watch. We make the first strike with magic, and then everyone else swoops in at once. We good?”

The party members nodded along with their leader’s instructions—or rather, his last-minute confirmation of what they had already discussed several times now. As redundant as this seemed, it was always worth reiterating one’s plans to help prevent any mistakes or mishaps.

“I see no issue with the leader’s orders or his party’s reactions,” Marcela whispered, to which Monika and Aureana nodded. 

The problem didn’t seem to lie in their teamwork or preparedness. And as for their combat skills…

“Icicle Javelin!”

“Ice Needle!”

After quick incantations, the women shouted their spell names and unleashed their magic attacks. One of the two mages specialized in support magic, but it seemed she wasn’t completely incapable of combat magic, as she joined in the initial assault on the defenseless enemies. 

Those who were adept at attack spells could fire off powerful bursts of magic to thin the enemy ranks. Those who weren’t could forgo accuracy and focus on AoE spells, which were less powerful but could still chip away at the collective enemy’s strength. It was the optimal choice of attack to make before the frontline fighters headed into the fray.

The Icicle Javelin pierced one orc’s shoulder, and the Ice Needles spread out and rained down upon all three.

“Charge!” yelled the leader of the Winter Fortress, and the frontline fighters sprung forward at his command.

The Ice Needles yielded the best results when they managed to blind their targets, but failing that, they were still useful for confusing the foes and weakening their will to fight. The party threw themselves into the chaos, two fighters taking down the orc with the punctured shoulder, while the rest descended upon the remaining two monsters and slashed them to pieces.

Just like that, the three orcs went down.

Marcela had a somewhat unreasonable complaint to lodge. “Why, they’re quite strong! We’ve been tricked!!”

“I told you we’re strong! We’re upper C-rank hunters, damn it! And with the two frontline fighters and two mages from the Heroes of the Goddess in the mix, we’re as good as a B-rank team!” the leader of the Winter Fortress shot back, clearly taking offense at Marcela’s unjustified accusation.

The Heroes of the Goddess cracked a mirthful smile. They knew the circumstances that had led to this joint-party hunt, so they weren’t altogether surprised.

“The parties that would have trouble orc-hunting are the regular C-ranks and below, especially those without mages. We’re upper C-ranks, so if we didn’t have to worry about guarding you girls, we could have handled this on our own. I said that at the start, remember?”

“Uh, y-yes, I suppose you did…” Marcela clammed up as she recalled their conversation back at the guild. “W-well, let’s move right along!”

As the whole party proceeded onward, it suddenly occurred to Marcela to store the three orcs behind them in her inventory.

The other parties had left the carcasses to rot, figuring they couldn’t lug them around if they planned to do more hunting, but Marcela thought it would be a shame to waste perfectly good game. She may have been a viscountess now, but as the third daughter of an impoverished baron, she had been raised to be a penny-pincher.

Given their plans for the day, Marcela had no intention of keeping her inventory a secret…but the two parties marching ahead of the Wonder Trio still failed to notice her stashing the three orcs away.

***

Next up was a battle in which the assembled hunters functioned as a stereotypical, run-of-the-mill C-rank party. The five members of the Winter Fortress would be fighting alone. No mages would be involved—only melee combatants such as swordsmen, lancers, and archers-slash-knifemen.

“With our lineup, deliberately holding back and fighting with the strength of a middle-of-the-road C-rank party is just asking to get hurt. We’re gonna go all out with our attacks, so adjust for our strength however you want in your calculations.”

“Very well. Rest assured, we’ll be ready to assist you with magic if necessary, and we’re fairly confident in our healing spells. Though I’m sure you’d rather avoid the pain regardless, and we can’t repair broken armor or torn clothing,” Marcela replied. She was half joking, but it was true that if their expensive armor got destroyed, the reward for the quest and profit from selling whatever meat they could carry wouldn’t be nearly enough to offset the loss.

“It ain’t gonna come to that!” the leader snapped as the party moved through the forest in search of prey. And then…

“Three orcs straight ahead!” the scout who had gone ahead reported in a firm whisper upon his return.

“The orcs really do fight in groups of three…”

Now that it had happened twice in a row, Marcela was finally beginning to believe that orcs operated in groups of three, even a good distance from their dens.

“As we discussed, the Heroes of the Goddess should focus on guarding the Wonder Trio and keep attack spells in reserve for emergencies! Beware of friendly fire!”

“We’re not some rookie F-ranks, so it’s not going to come to that! Well, as long as you don’t bumble into our line of fire after we’ve already cast our spells!”

The leader of the Winter Fortress had only been following protocol and reminding everyone of the plan, but one of the Heroes of the Goddess’s female mages ripped him a new one for hurting her professional pride. The Wonder Trio couldn’t help but feel a little sorry for him.

“…Okay, let’s do this!” the leader yelled as soon as he had pulled himself back together. Not that he was nursing a crush or anything, but he had still been a little demoralized to hear a woman bite his head off.

No matter how high the odds of victory, letting one’s guard down was a recipe for disaster. Before heading into a life-or-death battle, it was crucial to have not only the body but also the mind in top condition.

So, no matter how dejected he might be, he could always switch mental gears when it came time to fight. He was a professional, after all…

***

“What on earth is going on?!” Marcela murmured, dumbstruck.

Monika and Aureana had also gone stiff.

The Winter Fortress had won the battle soundly and unscathed. However…

“Were those orcs employing teamwork?!”

Indeed. Orcs normally fought separately, but these had each other’s backs and fought as a team.

Five members was on the large side for a party. That, along with the fact that they were some of the highest-ranked veterans among the C-ranks, had scored the Winter Fortress a decisive victory. But what if they had been a smaller party of three or four members? Or a lesser C-rank party?

Even if they won the battle and wiped out the orcs, just one person getting injured would result in a heavy financial loss. Not to mention the chance that the wounded would have to retire as a hunter, the party would be forced to disband, and so on…

No one could routinely accept a request like this for such a small reward. 

There was a difference between three orcs, fighting individually, and a three-orc cell. A huge difference. If you just had three orcs together, their strength would be three times that of a single orc. However, if the three orcs were cooperating, covering each other’s blind spots, and fighting together, the threat level would skyrocket.

“They travel as a pack and fight in a coordinated fashion rather than separately… Although they certainly don’t possess the superior physical capabilities of the new species we fought in that ultimate battle, their ability to work together upends the overwhelming advantage we humans are supposed to have in a fight, turning it into a contest of pure physical prowess,” Aureana remarked.

Before Marcela could stop herself, she uttered one of the vulgar swears commonly thrown around by hunters. “That’s freakin’ nuts!”

It was language unbecoming of a noblewoman, but that went to show how rattled she was.

“Still, their physical attack and defense specs are no different than an ordinary orc. Won’t we still retain the advantage, since our traditional style is to get the first hit with long-range magic, followed by a one-sided, rapid-fire assault?”

“Th-that’s true… In the first battle, the attacks of the two mages from the Heroes of the Goddess got the job done. And one of them doesn’t even specialize in combat magic… Which means…”

“We’re in the clear!”

“’Scuse me?” said the leader of the Winter Fortress, appalled.

His reaction was understandable. Three underage girls in the rear guard were treating a fight against three orcs like it was no big deal. It was the sort of thing only an overconfident, conceited fool would say. 

And people like that were always the first to die.

The leader hadn’t taken these girls for idiots, but now they were making asinine remarks at odds with their previous displays of intelligence—and in all seriousness, too. As he listened to them, he started to think that he shouldn’t have expected any better from a bunch of kids.

“Um, about how the orcs were fighting just now… Is that normal?”

“Hm? Yeah, pretty much. What about it?”

The girls lowered their voice to whispers.

“So that was normal…”

“That must be tough on the parties with no mages.”

“So wherever we go next, we can expect the recruiting wars to get even more intense…”

“Ughhhh,” all three of them sighed.

“Wait, now isn’t the time to worry about that! It would seem we were mistaken all along!” said Marcela.

Monika and Aureana nodded.

“The hunters here aren’t weak…”

“The monsters here are strong!” all three of them exclaimed.

The Wonder Trio had finally realized the truth.

“The monsters’ physical capabilities are no different from those back home, but they’re smart enough to employ strategy!” Marcela murmured. “I can see how this would pose a challenge for a lesser C-rank party.”

“I’ve been saying that this whole time! Why are you acting like it’s some big revelation?!” the leader snapped.

“………”

He was totally right, so Marcela couldn’t argue.

“Ahem. We shall hunt the next ones alone, so we ask that you stand by to protect us should things go awry.”

“Uh, sure, fine by us…”

They had already confirmed that the physical defenses of these orcs were no different from those of the old continent. So what, you might ask, drove Marcela to lay their cards on the table?

If we don’t prove our combat ability here and now, we won’t be able to take on extermination jobs in this town, and none of the teenaged parties will be willing to do joint missions with us. Even the older, veteran parties won’t undertake a mission as tedious and low-paying as babysitting three little girls, unless they’re simply kind souls like the two parties we have here.

So Marcela thought, but she was forgetting that once word of her storage magic spread, her party would be inundated with requests to team up. Even she had her airhead moments.

“Next, let’s… Oh, I almost forgot! Storage!”

And then the three orcs vanished.

The members of the Winter Fortress and the Heroes of the Goddess were paralyzed with shock, their mouths dumbly hanging open.

“Hm? Didn’t I mention that I have storage magic?”

“NO!!” the two parties screamed.

***

After that little mishap, Marcela was grilled about her storage magic and confessed that its capacity was quite large. No one even thought to ask if the other two girls could use it, and she never specified one way or the other. After all, the existence of one user of storage magic was enough of a shock, and it wouldn’t do for the Wonder Trio to share all their secrets. 

“So all this time, you were a storage magic user with a mind-boggling capacity… Is that why you girls are always walking around empty-handed? I was wondering how you were planning to camp with nothing but your staffs, daggers, and canteens… If you can fit three orcs in there no problem, I’m sure you’ve got room for the tarps and fur pelts to pitch a tent,” the leader of the Winter Fortress muttered.

“Of course. We have tents, beds, and blankets.”

“B-beds? Seriously?”

He could concede the tents and blankets.

But beds? No way.

The members of the Winter Fortress and the Heroes of the Goddess stared into space, their eyes glazing over.

***

For the purposes of this job, the Wonder Trio had opted not to use their search magic. The point of the mission was to test the abilities of the local hunters; there was little immediate danger. With so many experienced frontline fighters, even if they were ambushed—by, say, a monkey monster attacking them from the treetops or a goblin or kobold charging at them from the shade of a tree—they would be able to withstand the first hit. If they could buy that much time, the Wonder Trio could use their defensive magic to handle things from there.

Besides, seeing as the girls planned to keep their search magic a secret, they wouldn’t be able to alert the other parties if they detected a monster in the vicinity even if they were to sense one.

And so…

“I see ogres! Four of them… Damn, they spotted us!”

In most cases, ogres worked in pairs. With two parties together and mages among their ranks, the group could handle ogres, even with the Wonder Trio slowing them down.

Or so they thought. However, they hadn’t anticipated they would be dealing with four. Worse, the enemy had already spotted them.

The color drained from the faces of the members of the Winter Fortress and the Heroes of the Goddess.

“This is just like that line Miss Adele loves to say! ‘Though you stood downwind, you fools never noticed me!’”

“It’s the opposite, Lady Marcela. We were caught unawares because we stood upwind and allowed the enemy to detect our scent.”

The Wonder Trio, apparently, felt no sense of urgency.

“We’ll buy some time. You girls run—”

“Rock Javelin!”

“Water Cutter!”

“Hot Mist!”

The Wonder Trio simultaneously fired off their attacks with the names of their spells alone.

An ogre’s muscles were tougher than an orc’s, so Marcela had chosen the more advanced Rock Javelin over Icicle Javelin in hopes of getting through.

Different people cast Icicle Javelin differently—some condensed the moisture in the air into a spear shape and then froze it, while others froze the moisture first and then chiseled it into the proper shape. (The latter version was more powerful.) Regardless of your method, it wasn’t a particularly difficult attack spell. However, if you were casting Rock Javelin without any solid rocks nearby, you either had to create them from the soil or retrieve them from a distance, and both methods were extremely difficult.

Monika’s Water Cutter was also rather sophisticated: Ice was one thing, but few would think to cut a hard object with water. Then there was the fact that Monika used more than just a stream of pure water. She mixed in silicon carbide as an abrasive to dramatically enhance the stream’s effectiveness, and the creation of silicon carbide required a similarly very high level of imagination. 

As Aureana’s magic reserves were low, her choice of Hot Mist was the most effective attack spell available to her. It was a “hot” mist made of capsaicin that she had developed alongside Mile—or Adele, rather. The low cost of chemical weapons was a constant among all worlds.

Two of the ogres had survived the hits from Marcela and Monika, while the other two were still untouched. Aureana had gone with an AoE attack to weaken them and throw their ranks into chaos. This bought the girls more than enough time for a second round of attacks. Once again, they yelled only the spell names without incantations.

“Rock Javelin!”

“Water Cutter!”

“Ice Arrow!”

To prevent wildfires, it was common practice to avoid using fire magic in the forest for anything but cooking or keeping warm. However, the Wonder Trio had self-imposed restrictions on other types of magic as well.

Unlike orcs, ogres had edible flesh, and their other parts fetched a good price as raw materials. The girls avoided using attack spells that would tear their opponents to shreds so as not to diminish the value of those resources—which only proved they could afford to hold back.

“Who are these girls?”

As an awed whisper escaped the Fortress’s leader’s lips, all four ogres toppled to the ground.

***

“So you’ve got no plans to keep your storage magic a secret?”

“Correct. If we tried to hide it, we would have no means of bringing raw materials back to the guild, which would drastically cut into our profits. As rookie hunters, we cannot make a living from job rewards alone.”

The other hunters were forced to accept Marcela’s explanation. No matter how strong their offensive skills, rookie hunters couldn’t take on high-ranked extermination jobs, so the ability to bring back the spoils of their hunts was indispensable.

It made sense. But still…

“People are gonna come after you. For recruitment purposes, of course, but kidnapping is also on the table.”

“It’s a little late to be warning us about that. Do you honestly think no one has ever tried? Yet as you can see, we’re still alive and well. I’m sure you can guess what that means,” Marcela replied. “Furthermore, who could hope to sell off three mages capable of silent casting, who can fell any opponent with a single blow? Gagging us or wearing out our voices will do nothing to stop us. We would simply feign helplessness until it came time for the prisoner exchange, then round up all the criminals at the scene.”

“………”

This world had nothing so convenient as magic collars that enforced absolute obedience to a master or enslavement spells that could brand someone for life. And silent casting meant the girls’ counterattacks would be instantaneous.

“Wait, you girls can use silent casting? Not just spell-free casting? Oh, what am I saying, of course you can…” The leader’s shoulders slumped. 

After how thrilled they had been at the prospect of mentoring the newbies and saving them from an untimely death, the two female mages of the Heroes of the Goddess were feeling similarly deflated. It turned out the girls they had been looking forward to tutoring far outclassed them in skill…

And they were minors, to boot.

The group was unbelievably bummed.

“In any event, we’ve found out exactly—no, even more than what we were hoping to learn. We couldn’t have done it without all of you. I sincerely appreciate you all taking the time to team up with us rookies. Now, it’s a touch early, but why don’t we wrap up today’s joint mission here?”

The members of the Winter Fortress and the Heroes of the Goddess nodded listlessly.

***

“What in the blazes?!” the head butcher back at the guild screamed in surprise when he saw six orcs and four ogres dumped onto the floor. And who could blame him?

The first surprise was the girls’ storage magic and its stupidly immense capacity. The second was the monsters themselves. Although this trio of girls had a storage magic user in their ranks, he couldn’t imagine them having any combat ability to speak of. It should have been impossible for even the combined forces of two parties to hunt this many orcs and ogres while protecting three helpless girls.

“D-did you hunt all these yourselves?!”

The storage magic had obviously come as a shock, but the sheer number of monsters seemed to have made the bigger impression. Three orcs would provide more meat than anyone could hope to carry, so it was normal for parties to pack up and go home after a single fight. For a moment, the butcher had been under the mistaken impression that all these kills had come from the same battle.

“Wait, I see now! You didn’t hunt these all in one go! With that humongous storage space, you can fight multiple battles and still bring home all the spoils! Damn, I guess common sense goes out the window when you’ve got storage magic! So I’m guessin’ you guys fought two trios of orcs and two pairs of ogres? That’s still pushing your luck when you’ve got a bunch of child apprentices along for the ride. Or was it the kids who made you want to show your stuff? Don’t go showing off around cute girls, you jerks—it’ll get you killed! You guys can drop dead for all I care, but don’t drag a bunch of beautiful wannabes into your stupidity!”

As a longtime acquaintance of both parties, the guild butcher knew what the Winter Fortress and the Heroes of the Goddess were capable of. He was aware that four consecutive battles—some involving ogres—were more than their combined forces could reasonably handle. 

And so, he had assumed they had gotten reckless—and lucky. 

“………”

The entire group was left dejected, red-faced, or exhausted by these comments. The hunters of the Winter Fortress and the Heroes of the Goddess had been thoroughly chewed out, while, for their part, the Wonder Trio didn’t enjoy being repeatedly complimented (if you could call it that) as “cute” or “beautiful wannabes.” 

Not even the higher-ranked hunters would dare to cross an important guild employee like the head butcher. Heck, even the guild master had to watch himself sometimes around the person in this position. Typically, the head butcher was a retired hunter, often a veteran who had taken care of some of the guild’s most important officials when they were still fresh out of the nest, or the instructor from their beginners’ training course, or a former high-ranked hunter who had once saved their life in the forest.

The same tended to be true of the old guys behind the purchasing counters.

“Ooh, this is a clean cut. You guys have gotten better,” the head butcher remarked as he examined the ogres’ cross-sections.

The butcher had never seen a cut made by a high-pressure stream of water mixed with silicon carbide, so he apparently thought the slice was the work of a skilled swordsman. He also thought the hole left by the Rock Javelin was made by a lancer…

He might as well have been blind.

“………”

The member of the Winter Fortress and the Heroes of the Goddess hung their heads, embarrassed. Getting complimented for something they hadn’t done felt shameful. 

Still, attempting to clear up this misunderstanding could lead them to violate the greatest taboo for hunters: revealing another hunter’s secrets learned on the job. Of course, “secrets” included fighting styles, special skills, and weaknesses. This was to be expected, as the disclosure of such information could mean the difference between life and death in a PvP battle—especially for female hunters, who were often targeted by illegal slave traders and other unscrupulous characters.

As such, the two parties couldn’t correct the butcher even if they wanted to. The girls broadcasting news of their storage magic put them in enough danger as it was; the two other parties weren’t about to hand out free advice like “You’ll be countered with combat magic if you charge them head-on, so a surprise attack or an ambush is your best bet.”

“………”

It was a very awkward time for all the hunters present.

***

“Are you sure you don’t want your cut of the extermination reward? You girls took down all four of the ogres! I don’t even think we could’ve handled them on our own. At best, a few of us would’ve been injured, and at worst, we all would’ve been killed. Doesn’t seem fair for—”

“A hunter is only as good as her word,” Marcela cut the leader off. As per the original agreement, the Wonder Trio insisted on forfeiting the entire reward to the other two parties. 

The Winter Fortress and the Heroes of the Goddess seemed to feel a bit guilty about this, but even accounting for this forfeit, it wasn’t as though the Wonder Trio had earned nothing from the venture. Since the agreement was for the girls to keep what was left after the other two parties had taken what they could carry, the Wonder Trio ended up getting most of the materials from the orcs and ogres for themselves.

Of course, they didn’t actually carve the monsters up on-site but instead distributed the profits based on everyone’s self-assessment of how many of each body part they could have carried. It came down to how much of six orcs and four ogres seven men and two women could haul from the forest back to town.

Indeed, in the end, most of the proceeds from the sale of the monsters had gone to the Wonder Trio.

Easy money, as they say.

***

“Until Miss Adele and her friends arrive, let us use this town as a base to undertake all manner of jobs and get to know the area even better than the Crimson Vow! Then we will be the ones poised to lead our next venture!”

“Yeah!!”

In this fashion, the Wonder Trio steadily accumulated points for promotion…