11 - settlement of hunting

The hunt then proceeded smoothly.

Thor stepped forward to get the goblins' full attention, and Sola joined him stealthily on cue.

It should be noted here that Sola's was not so obvious.

Usually, if a user shoots out fireballs or flashes thunderbolts with his magic technique, he attracts a lot of attention.

It would be good if the game was decided by such a technique, but if it was not, the user of the technique often fell first due to the concentration of hostility of the monsters.

The skill of the wielder is sometimes questioned in this area, in how to avoid attracting the hostility of the monsters.

In the case of , however, it is significant that the effect is so powerful that it does not attract the attention of most people.

Since the person who is attacked does not know what he/she has done, it is difficult for the user to be identified.

Moreover, if you shoot an ice spear or an arrow, your location will be known by the direction from which the spear or arrow flies.

However, the , which only returns the power of the attack to the user, has none of these risks.

Thus, there were no dangerous situations, and the two men quickly and easily killed the monsters.

In the end, due in part to the high encounter rate, they were able to kill a good number of goblins by the evening.

After returning to the forest path, they were able to kill a horned mole and a forest slime each.

As dusk fell, Thor and Sora returned to the outer gate of the town after finishing their hunt.

"Hey, old man, you're early today. I'm getting tired of collecting mud and I'm going to retire..."

Good evening, sir. Thank you for guarding the gate.

It seems that the same group of people were on duty in the evening as yesterday.

The young gate guard, still with one hand in his pocket, is about to make a joke to Thor when he notices a beautiful girl standing next to him and his purple eyes widen in surprise.

"Oh, old man, what's with that pretty girl?　Oh, you just happened to be there by chance. You scared me.

Thor is always at your service."

"Huh?

"When you enter the city, just make sure your adventurer's tag is easy to see."

"Like this?"

"Yeah, that's fine."

Bowing lightly, Sola lifted the green-rimmed plate around her neck to the two gate guards.

Her awkward movements were full of the freshness typical of new adventurers.

Thor and Sora pass through the gate in a friendly atmosphere, despite the stunned pair.

Just before they are lost in the crowd, the young gate guard looks away from the middle-aged man who raises one hand and the girl who stands beside him, and mutters with a dumbfounded look on his face.

"...... What the hell was that? Isn't she really cute? Hey, hey, you're an old man, don't be popular with the girls! Shit, shit, shit!"

While expressing his too-honest opinion, the young man - Carles - looks at his partner for agreement and notices the tense expression on his face.

"What's the matter?　I froze up."

"...... No, no, it's nothing."

"Oh, yeah. That's impossible. This is crazy."

While the young man continues to complain, the elderly gatekeeper stares out at the waves of people in the dusk, biting his lip tightly.

Thor and his companions slip through the crowds in the plaza and split up in front of the Adventurers' Bureau.

Thor, with his prize hanging from his waistband, heads for the buying station, while Sora lines up at the assessment counter with a leather bag containing the parts of his kill in his hand.

Perhaps because of the earlier-than-usual time of day, the line at the reception desk was short.

Concealing his uneasiness at being left behind, Thora casually makes his way to the end of the line.

Within a few steps, a group of young adventurers lined up behind her.

The group of three men and a woman are talking excitedly and noisily.

The conversation seems to be about the results of today's battle.

They had not lost a step against the goblins, and they had won the battle after quite a rough fight.

"That place was really bad, wasn't it? I thought I was going to be dead."　

"Yeah, yeah, when you were surrounded, I thought, 'Oh, he's done.

That's terrible, isn't it?

"You're getting carried away, you're getting too far ahead. If I hadn't have pushed him, he would have died.

"Yeah, that was really cool, Sisan!"

Sola can't help but listen to the young men's cheerful conversation.

Since there were few children in the village, it was refreshing for the girl to hear conversations among people her own age.

One of them noticed Sola listening to the conversation, and with a surprised look on her face, she overheard the conversation.

"Hey, hey!　Isn't the girl in front of you really cute?"

"What, where, where?"

"............ Oh, man, that's bad."

Sora wonders at the sudden change in the tone of the conversation, and inadvertently turns around to find herself being watched intently.

When Sola smiled amiably to cover his eavesdropping, all three men gasped in unison.

The woman frowns blatantly.

"Good evening, I'm sorry for taking the liberty of asking you a question.

"Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's bad that this one's voice is so loud."

You're no different!

"It sounds like you had a hard time."

"Well, not so much, I guess."

"Yes, yes, we may look like this, but we've been adventurers for quite a long time.

"Wow!　This is my first time here.

The men exchange glances at Sola's words of admiration with great speed.

It was clearly much faster than when they were chased down by goblins.

"Hey, how's it going? We have an opening in our party, if you'd like to join us.

"If you're looking for goblin extermination, I'm really at your service, and I highly recommend it!"

"What are you asking me out of the blue?

Just shut up for a second. I'm in a very important place right now."

The young people are getting excited on their own, but then someone unexpectedly interrupts them.

"You haven't finished yet?"

"Oh, welcome back, Thor."

"Hey, what are you doing sidling in here, old man!"

They must have seen Sola respond to Thor's call, but it was neatly cut off in the youngsters' brains.

Thor replied with a blank expression in front of the three men who were about to kill him.

"Sorry, he's with me."

"Huh?

"Oh, I'm at Thor's party, so I'm sorry!"

"To ............?"

The three of us froze speechless.

Then Sola's turn at the reception desk comes around.

"Good evening, nice to meet you!

Welcome. Hey, Ms. Sola, how was your day?

Sitting at the window was Enna, who had registered Sola as an adventurer.

The girl reported happily to the receptionist, who smiled warmly at her.

"It was all new to me, so it was very interesting.

"Oh, that's a good thing, isn't it?"

Most new adventurers are exhausted on their first day, and their physical strength is limited.

Or, more often than not, they are injured and depressed.

However, from the look on the girl's face, she seemed to have seriously enjoyed her adventuring career, despite her fatigue.

Enna was inwardly impressed by Thor's reputation for leading the group so well.

"Here are today's results!

The girl hurriedly pulls out from her sack a finely curled shell, a pointed horn, and a bright red crown feather.

Enna was even more surprised when Sola began to spread her green ears on the counter.

It was insane to take an amateur on his first day of adventure on a hunt for little ogres.

It would have been less dangerous if he had been accompanied by an E-rank or higher, but Thor was still a G-rank adventurer.

However, there was nothing unnatural about Sora's behavior.

It seems as if he has been hunting for a long time.

This could mean that Sola's magic of reversal is unusually superior.

"Well, this is all of them. ......"

"Yes, I'll take a look."

Enna, who had been lost in thought, hurriedly reached out for the part of the body that had been killed when the girl called out to her.

The green ears that had been cut off were still raw and quite grotesque, but she checked them with a familiar hand without a hint of fear.

The receptionist, who had finished her calculations with ease, had a note of admiration in her voice.

"Yes, first of all, two forest slimes, five horned moles, one pointed beak, and six bottles of mucus.

"Look, I knew it! You're not a mud scavenger!"

Behind me, a mocking voice was raised by a woman who was the only one among the youngsters.

She seems to be telling her friends, who are still in shock, to let go of their minds.

But when she heard the next words, she lost her voice as well.

"Next, as for the goblins, we will take down a total of 21 goblins and buy 17 magic stones. If I am correct, please accept them.

Sola stares wide-eyed at the pile of coins on the checkout plate.

Behind her, the men were gaping their eyeballs in the same way.

"Wow, Thor! I've never seen this much money before.

"All right, let's go home."

Thor casually puts away the coins and bows lightly to the receptionist.

Enna, who had a vague idea of what he meant, decided to keep today's incident to herself.

She would find out in a few days, however, when her boss, Siecka, who is a stickler for numbers, would find out.

"Well, I'm glad you invited me earlier. We can't party together, but I'm sure we'll do our best!

The three men in line behind her nodded awkwardly at Sola's smiling words, and the woman blushed and looked away.

Later, when the unusually quiet foursome offered her five goblin ears, the receptionist again guessed what was going on, but decided not to say anything today and let the assessment proceed.

As he crossed the plaza again, Thor made a quick calculation of today's income and expenditure.

First of all, he spent one large bronze coin for Sora's adventurer registration fee.

And two large bronze coins for the young oak staff he purchased at the Adventurer's Bureau.

The robe and breastplate are borrowed, and the leather gloves, backpack, and water bottle are used by Thor, so they are free.

The total is three large coins.

The first income comes from the killing fee, which is ten coppers for each horned mole and pointed beak, and two coppers for each forest slime.

By the way, each of them has one skill point.

Each goblin costs 20 copper coins to kill and two skill points.

The total is 484 copper coins. And Sora earned twenty-three points.

As for the purchase of materials, the mole and the bird were bought with the exception of their meat, which was sold for seven copper coins.

For the slime's bodily fluids, 30 coppers.

And the magic stone. Even though it is a stone of the lowest grade, the purchase price is ten copper coins, for a total of 170 coins.

All in all, 691 copper coins. This is nearly seven times the amount of Thor's usual income.

Subtracting the amount spent, Thor and his family's cash income for the day was 391 copper coins.

In addition, there are twelve shells and some monster meat.

"Thor, did you get the meat?"

"Yes, the pointed beak thigh is quite tasty. You want me to grill it for tomorrow's lunch?"

"Really!　I'm really looking forward to it!"

Sola, who had been walking excitedly, suddenly stopped and looked up at the sky.

"Wow, Thor, that thing is glowing!　

"It's a magic stone lamp. Remember the one that came out of the goblin today?"

That strange stone?

He said if you press it hard enough, it glows.

"Heh!"

Thor does not know much about it, but magic stones have the property of emitting light when they are pressured at a special angle, and the magic stone lamp is an application of this property.

It is said that a 10th grade magic stone can last for a night, although it is not very bright.

The girl who grew up in the countryside looks up at the light that softly illuminates the plaza with admiration.

"There are so many interesting things in this town!

"Huh, I guess so."

Thor's lips lifted in a sneer at the sight of Sola, who was innocently enjoying herself.