Since they had completed the request too quickly, there would be quite some time before the boat would arrive to pick them up. In order to signal that they were already finished, Ray decided to try using fire elemental magic. He called to mind the image of something resembling fireworks. The magic would involve launching a ball of fire up into the sky and then detonating it.
I want to shoot up a ball of fire and make it explode in the sky, but how should I do it? Even if I try to imagine gunpowder, the spirits probably won"t be able to understand it . . . if I launch up a ball of air together with the fire . . . would it be ignited by the fire and expand? . . . no, if I do that, it might suddenly explode without warning on me. Argh, let"s just forget the difficult things and imagine an explosion in the sky.
He gave up thinking any further and in order to for the fire spirits to understand, called to mind an image of fireworks that was as vivid as possible.
After around twenty seconds, a ball of fire took shape on his left hand. He threw the ball up into the air and it began to steadily ascend. When it rose to a height above the treetops, it burst open with a loud popping noise and then expanded to a size comparable to those fireworks sold in the market.
Although the explosion didn"t appear very glamorous since the sky was still bright, it still managed to create a cloud of white smoke that floated in the air.
Well, seems like it worked. It ended up being more shabby looking than I expected though. It"s probably good enough to replace a signal fire though . . .
Ray wasn"t able to feel satisfied since he had imagined a slightly bigger firework.
As for Ashley who was standing next him, she wasn"t able to conceal her surprise.
What was that just now? Although I thought for sure that he was just launching a normal fireball, his magic managed to so far as to create sound . . . if this was properly utilized in a night attack, it could cause considerable confusion to the enemy . . .
As Ashley recalled her time as a mercenary, she was able to immediately realize the worth of this magic which she had never seen before.
"What was that magic just now? Was that also an original of yours?"
Without noticing the serious expression upon Ashley"s face, Ray embarra.s.sedly told about her about the magic he believed had gone unsuccessfully.
"Ah, I thought that it would be a good idea to add sound since we want them to notice us. The explosion was a bit dull though . . . I was expecting the fire to spread out a bit wider . . ."
Ashley"s grave expression didn"t slip an inch as she heard Ray"s casual tone.
"Don"t show the magic you used just now to anyone. Since it"s still considerably rare and could be useful in ambushes. It might become troublesome if the military were to know of this."
A short time later, Koda arrived to pick them up in his boat.
"What was that magic earlier? It"s the first time I"ve seen such a thing."
Ray bitterly smiled and tried to give an excuse, "My magic failed." In an attempt to change the topic, Ashley began talking about the bear in a cheerful tone.
"The grizzly bear"s been killed. The bear"s body is mostly free from any wounds since we defeated it by penetrating its eye. If you could help us transport it, we"ll pay you for the labor."
"You"ve already defeated it?!" Koda"s eyes widened as he couldn"t help expressing his shock. However, he immediately replied, "Please give me one hour! I"m going to call everyone over." and then furiously paddled back towards the village.
Even faster than he had promised, within forty minutes a group of fishermen were a.s.sembled upon the lake"s sh.o.r.e.
The grizzly bear weight close to one ton and although it was a considerable struggle, they managed to safely bring the whole thing back to the village. While reporting the completion of the quest to the village chief, they asked if he could buy the grizzly bear from them.
"You want to sell the grizzly to me? . . . hm, since it"s fairly large, how does one gold coin sound? One hundred Crona."
Since Ray had no idea what the market price was, he told Ashley, "I"m leaving it to you." and a.s.sumed the role of a bystander.
After thinking for a short moment, Ashley consented to the deal. They paid twenty silver coins, in other words, twenty Crona, to the fisherman who had given them a hand and then left the village.
Since they had completed the request more quickly than expected, the two of them decided to go to the forest yesterday for Ray to practice his magic.
Ray received a warning from Ashley, "Be careful not to exhaust your magic again."
While smiling, Ray replied, "I won"t fire off my magic continuously like yesterday. I promise." and began to practice his magic.
Let"s practice tree and earth magic today . . .
Rau wondered if he could turn the roots of a tree into a weapon with the the tree element.
After rapidly growing the tree roots, they could be thrusted up from below. If I could harden the ends of the roots, they might be able to replace my spear . . .
Ray called to mind the image of a tree root growing. His memories were based on a sped up video he had seen of a plant rapidly growing. A long time ago, he had seen a doc.u.mentary on the growth of trees in the forest on his television.
A root was beginning to crawl out from near his feet. However, it was slower than he had expected. When he touched it, it seemed to be a normal root, with a tender sponginess.
This can"t be used as a spear . . . however, if I can control this freely, then I wonder if it could be used as a binding restraint? An image of it freely moving . . . that would be . . . a carnivorous plant? No, this world should have plant-type monsters. If I try to imagine something like that . . .
He invoked the magic once again.
The tree root creeped out of the ground in the same manner as before, but this time, it moved about as quickly as a snake. Still not nearly enough to restrain any human though.
Still too slow . . . was it a mistake to expect more power from a plant? Power? Hm, what if I make it bend and then release all that power at once . . .
He forced the tree root to bend into a shape resembling a bow and then made use of the recoil. As he release the potential force, the root lashed back with the force of a whip, releasing a loud snapping sound.
It"s a success! This is going to particularly effective in a forest . . . although I still need to determine its usable range, I need to move onto the the next one.
For the next one, earth elemental magic, Ray wondered if it could be used to fashion a pitfall. He tried to convey the image of a fissure opening up in the ground, of the earth separating apart, to the earth spirits.
A fissure in the ground . . . an image of the earth"s tectonic plates rubbing together . . . uwah!
The moment he conveyed the idea of moving tectonic plates to the spirits, no fissure opened up in the ground. Rather, it was an earthquake that sprung forth.
Although it wasn"t of a very great intensity, the earthquake still managed to toss up the ground. Even Ray who had cast the magic himself ended up falling onto his rump due to the oscillations. Also startled by the vibrations, Ashley shouted, "Are you alright?!"
Looking embarra.s.sed, Ray replied, "I"m fine." He brushed off the dust on his body and stood back up.
Won"t this magic be unexpectedly useful. Although I don"t know how hard the ground needs to be until this becomes ineffective, if I can make an enemy fall over, then we"ll gain a considerably advantageous position . . . however, I"m going to be injured if I don"t pay more careful attention while trying out new magic . . .
Although Ray felt like his magical power could still go on, he decided to stop here for today in order to not worry Ashley.
Seems like there"s at least three more hours left, so I might as well polish my spear and sword skills some more later. No matter what, I would like to stand on my own as quickly as possible.
And so, the two of them returned to town.
Ashley and Ray headed to the adventurers guild to report their completion of the request.
It was still three o"clock in the afternoon when they arrived. As it was a fairly early time for adventurers to be coming back, most of the receptionist counters were empty. Thinking that it was probably fine to carry out the completion procedures with their acquaintance, Edsel, they walked towards her counter.
Although Edsel handled the work with an indifferent outward appearance, inwardly she was actually quite shocked that they had only taken this much time for a grizzly subjugation request. Suddenly, she noticed something as she gazed fixedly at their orbs, and couldn"t help raising her voice.
"Ray-sama . . . has risen to the seventh rank. Furthermore, he . . . he is now level ten . . . for this to happen in only two days, I . . ."
In the end, she didn"t know what else to say, and remained silent. As she heard Edel"s words, Ashley also stared with a surprised expression at Ray, who was sitting right beside her.
"He"s risen three ranks, you say? Not only that, he jumped ten levels in one go . . . well, he managed to defeat the grizzly bear, a fifth rank monster, by himself in one swoop . . . I have a feeling that might be why . . ."
"B-by himself?! Ah, sorry for raising my voice. However, you really didn"t a.s.sist him at all?"
In response to the abnormality that didn"t fit her common sense, Edsel lost her usual composure and unintentionally used a loud voice as she spoke with them. However, she immediately re-a.s.sumed her usual expression. Well, the only thing she could manage at this moment was a slightly cramped smile though.