Volume 1 Chapter 16 – Even a capable wizard has her own problems
The next morning we proceeded in almost the same way. There were battles, they were all dealt with by the parties in front, thus it was peaceful here. However, just before noon it seems there was a bit of trouble. The instructor a.s.sembled everybody.
“A group of orcs has been sighted ahead. Approximately 30 within the scope of what could be seen. If there are more, I think there could be double that.”
“No, if we leave them alone, it’ll be bad if they strike us from behind. We must annihilate them.”
“It’s an opportunity. Let’s get them. They’re only orcs, even 50 or 100 won’t be a problem with this war potential, right?”
On Lazard’s comment it’s readily decided to exterminate them.
“They’re currently at a standstill. If they’re resting or waiting for something we don’t know, but it’s a situation where doing a surprise attack is not a bad idea. First, two wizards with do a preemptive attack. After that, we’ll decrease their numbers with the bows. Furthermore a portion of the parties will circle behind them, we’ll keep their attention this way, so a.s.sault them however you want. If there’s room, the rest of the forces will attack too.”
I and the wizard from Dawn’s Battleaxe will be the preemptive. Alipour and h.e.l.lvaughn will attack with bows. Dawn and Twilight will conduct the surprise attack from behind them.
Wearing a black robe. The wizard from Dawn’s Battleaxe. The wizard was carrying a small wand. Facing me took of the hood. She was a girl. Maybe around high school age. Her height is slightly shorter than me, because of the robe I don’t know her figure. Blond hair stretches from inside the robe, her face is well-proportioned and beautiful. Even though she’s blonde like Angela, she’s the cute type. Her eyes are big and pretty. Although she’s glaring at me with distrust.
“I’m Elizabeth. A Wind Mage! Okay? You’ll absolutely not get in my way! Understood?!”
“Ah, yes.”
TL Note: design sketch by a different artist taken from WN, that’s why she looks quite different from LN ill.u.s.trations made by Sameda Koban
Why is she so eager to pick a fight?
“Excuse me, why are you so angry?”
“Ahhh, I’m sorry.”
“Fine! I can’t take it anymore!”
Saying that, she stomped off. Fl.u.s.tered I chased after her.
“But I was hired to carry the baggage, that’s the truth.”
“That kind of thing, is not the job of a mage! I’ll show you what a real mage is. Come after me!”
You don’t need to tell me since we’re going in the same direction, we’ve been a.s.signed the same task anyways.
Soon we arrive at the attack position where the instructor was. We come to what seems a valley, looking down it was full of orcs.
“It’s about time the surprise attack unit arrive at their position. You two wizards will start the attack at the signal. Well then, we’ll be relying on you two.”
“You aim towards that direction. I’ll be doing this. Okay? You’ll match my timing.” in a whisper, Elizabeth issued the instructions.
Confirming the attack location, I nod.
Once Elizabeth starts casting I too start casting [Minor Explosion]. Elizabeth in an almost inaudible low voice she’s mumbling something. Is she reciting some kind of spell? In my case I don’t do anything in particular besides concentrating Magic Power, could it be different for others?
“Wind Storm” Elizabeth fired with a whisper. Matching her, I cast Minor Explosion.
From the unexpected attack the orcs were in a chaos. Successively the arrow attacks started rattling and orcs were falling. However, soon they began counterattacking. It was sporadic, but arrows came flying from the orcs. One arrow landed right in front. Quickly I take cover behind a tree. Looking for Elizabeth she’s already hidden.
I search the direction from where the arrows are coming. Found it. I use [Minor Explosion]. I aim at the orc shooting with a bow and it’s cast. Several orcs are blown off altogether, I leveled up. I postpone checking my status. There were orcs coming here, so I deal with them with [Fire Lance].
“Halt the attack!” the order came from the instructor. Looks like the surprise attack unit started their a.s.sault.
Silver came along here.
“Kreuk’s leg received an arrow. Won’t you come look at it?”
Going to check and Kreuk was looking sad while cold sweating. An arrow was stuck to his thigh. Kreuk was a.s.signed to use bow, so there was no way for him to hide, unlike Silver’s heavy equipment. It should be said you’re lucky it resulted in merely this.
“Silver, please pull out the arrow. I’ll use healing magic immediately after. Kreuk endure it for a bit.”
Matching Silver’s extraction of the arrow, I cast [Heal]. A little bit of blood spout out, but the wound soon closed.
“Hey, you guys. Wait here. We’ll go exterminate the remaining orcs.”
Lazard informing us of that, he ended up going where the orcs were.
There, only me, Silver, Kreuk, the instructor and Elizabeth remained.
“Instructor, is it already finished?”
The sound of battle that was present until a moment ago stopped.
“That’s right. It only remains those who have fled. In the meantime stay on standby here. Stay vigilant of the surroundings.”
As told Kreuk and Silver watch over the surroundings. While checking my status I consider my skill build and Elizabeth talked to me.
“You’re pretty good. What was your name?”
“That’s right. Precisely chanting the incantation is the proper way.”
“Ehh, my acquaintances don’t do it though.”
Angela and sister Matilda didn’t say anything in particular.
“They’re novices, ok? Properly chanting the incantation and at the end shouting the spell name will increase the power 20%!”
Poking me with her wand, she says striking a pose.
“I don’t know about the 20% increase, however there’s no mistake about shouting the name of the spell before shooting. In the case where a party is fighting, what kind of spell the wizard at the rear is using must be let known to the front line.” The instructor who was listening next to us gave that supplementary explanation.
Indeed. Silently casting followed by a bang, you’d catch your vanguards by surprise. Elizabeth had a self-satisfied look.
“It appears that our scattered forces have returned. Let’s descend too.”
We descend to the bottom of the valley and following instructions we collect the orc corpses. The dead bodies that are in pieces must be the ones I defeated. Because of the extreme damage their value is too low, so they’re left alone.
“I can noncommittally put them in Items, however what are we gonna do about who defeated what?”
Will there be a dispute about the sharing of this? Thinking that, I asked the instructor.
“Later we’ll compare it with the guild card and decide on the share. There’s raw material that we won’t take home because of the damage and we don’t need to look at all the little details.” said the instructor.
I see. They’re the corpses that I had blown away, right? I understand. Because the others were mostly defeated using arrows and swords. Even the ones Elizabeth got, weren’t so disfigured they couldn’t be recognized. Fire Magic, it got firepower, but in these cases it’s inconvenient.
Checking my guild card I defeated 9 orcs. One didn’t have as much damage because it was with Fire Lance, the other 8 I reckon are almost worthless. Since each orc’s corpse can fetch 200 Gold, it’s quite painful.
Gathering all, there were 41 orcs. Added to yesterday’s share it totals 62. a.s.suming each weights roughly 80 kg, I calculate it’s close to 5 tons. As usual, Item Box is too much of a cheat. When I told I stored everything, the guys from Dawn were surprised.
Because two people had light injuries they received medical treatment, after we had a light meal, we departed.
Just when I thought we fell behind schedule, in no particular hurry, before the sun disappeared we arrived at the second day’s camp site. It appears the distance to travel has been set up taking into consideration this amount of trouble. Skillfully they set up camp and finish preparing the food. Tomorrow using this place as a base, we’ll survey the area around the lake.
After dinner, I was near the bonfire I practicing Water Magic floating a Water Ball when Silver came to ask what I was doing.
“Practicing magic.”
Because he tried poking while letting out a ‘Hmmm’,
“Don’t! If you touch it, you might die?!” telling him that, he retreated nervously. When I slowly brought it closer, he stepped back again. Of course it’s plain water.
“Hey, cut it out!”
Since he ran away, I tried to pursue him with the Water Ball. Ah! he fell over. As he was the Water Ball hit. Silver’s head is drenched in water and dumbfounded.
“It’s regrettable, but you’re already dead. Don’t catch a cold!”
Finally realizing it was a joke he got angry.
“Ahahahaha. I’m sorry. I apologize. Hey, you just skinned your knee, didn’t you? I’ll use healing magic on it, ok?”
While having some fun joking with Silver, Elizabeth came along.
“I’ve something to talk with you. If possible only us two, ok?”
Saying that, I glimpsed st Silver’s direction. Making a guess he went somewhere else.
“Then, what’s your business, Elizabeth?”
“Yea, that… eh”
Elizabeth seemed somewhat bashful, having a hard time talking. She was looking a bit downward, but her face was slightly reddened. Clearing out the other people, could it be what she wants to tell me is… perhaps that? A confession?! Was she charmed by the way I fought today?
“That… you have the Item Box magic, don’t you?”
Umm? Item Box?
“Ah, I have it?”
“Look, I’m not very good at spatial magic. That is, still I can store more than a normal person, but when it comes to my party there’s a lot of loot, it ends up filled in no time.”
The chat took an unexpected direction!
“Masaru, isn’t that your strongest point? I wonder, do you have any trick or practice method?”
Right. There’s no way she fell in love. I want to kick the me from 30 seconds ago.
“Well, somehow from the beginning it has been like this, I don’t know about a trick.”
Because it’s a cheat, there’s no way to explain it.
“Is that so?..”
Hearing that, Elizabeth was downhearted. I want to be helpful, but I can’t do more than that.
“Look, you’re still young, while you keep using it you’ll get more skillful.”
“As expected, I have no choice but to honestly get on with it, isn’t it? I understand.”
Saying that, Elizabeth staggered back to her own tent. It’s a bit of a let down. After all, it was a chance to become friends with a cute girl. Despite having the face of a winner in life, a proud mage has a lot of problems too.
However, it’s not like I have time to be worrying about other people. If we talk about the problems of a junior like me, it’s the practical use of Fire Magic that has too much firepower. Like today, it’s hard to get a reward when I blow up the loot. If I use Skill Reset I’m able to change Fire Magic to another one, but if I think about it, tomorrow suddenly I won’t be able to use Fire Magic. If I raise Earth Magic to Max Level or something like that, they’ll get suspicious at best. It’s ok if MP Consumption Reduction and MP Recovery UP are removed with the reset, but leaving that aside I feel it’ll be faster if I aim to level up. Will I be able to partic.i.p.ate in battle tomorrow?
Since Kreuk and Silver are a.s.signed to the first night watch, that night I slept alone. It was scary being shot with an arrow by an orc, before sleeping I raised Fire Magic one level in advance.
Text stats from WN
Yamano Masaru, Human, Magic Swordsman
[t.i.tles] Wild Rabbit Hunter
Guild Rank E
Level 6
MP 398/199+199
Stamina 33+33
Skill 26
Magic Power 50
Skill Points 6
Life Magic, Clock, Fire Magic Level 4
Archery Level 1, Throwing Technique Level 2, Stealth Level 2, Ninja-Walk Level 2, Presence Detection Level 2
MP Recovery Up Level 2
[Fire Magic Level 4] Fire Arrow, Fire Ball, Fire Lance, Fire Wall, Minor Explosion, Fire Storm, Large Explosion.
***************************************************
TL Note: From the author’s comment in the WN, he mentions Elizabeth should have Kugimiya Rie’s voice. Is there a tsundere not voiced by Kugimiya?