CH 32

After that, I spent the day buying a few more supplies and looking around town with Tia, as promised, and the next morning dawned. When we showed up at the hunting shack … the country’s equivalent of a meeting place for miscellaneous mercenaries or an adventurer’s guild, Waffer approached us as soon as we entered.

“Oh! You two, this way!”

Turning towards the direction of the voice, I saw Waffer there, waving his hand among countless Chemonian warriors. Waffle was quite small, so I was honestly grateful that he called out to us from the other side.

“Good morning, Waffer-san.” Tia greeted him.

“Good morning, Waffer-san! I’m sorry, are we late?” I asked.

“I don’t think so. But thanks to getting up a little bit earlier, I got a pretty good commission.”

He said proudly, and showed us the request form while wagging his tail.

“Eh? A Damagumo?”

“That’s right. There aren’t many strong Kuronuri around here, so there weren’t many three star requests. So, what kind of requests did Ed and his team get? For a hairless, it’s probably one or two stars, so that would be――”

“Um, Waffer-san. If you don’t mind, we’d like to accompany you on your request.”

Waffer, who was happily trying to be helpful, looked at me with an intense look on his face the moment he heard my words.

“Accompany me? Damagumo is rated a difficulty of three stars. Can Ed and his team beat it?”

“Yes, We are confident. Right, Tia?”

“Of course! Ed and me what kind of… isn’t it, hmm, Kuronuri? Because I can beat them!”

Although I had crammed in the minimum knowledge yesterday, I had not been able to give her any real-world experience. Nevertheless, I was convinced there would be no problems because I knew Tia’s strength and the strength of the enemy named Damagumo, but Waffer, who had no way of knowing all this, pondered with a serious expression on his face.

“Wafumu… I don’t know how good Ed and his team are, so I can’t form a party with you right now. So, the reward for defeating the enemy will only be divided after I have seen how the two of you fight. The hunting certificate would be mine, and if I feel like you two are going to be a burden and slow me down, I’ll let you go back to the town on your own. If you are willing to accept this, then you may accompany me.”

“I understand. No problem.” I replied.

“… Are you sure? Tia too?” Waffer asked.

“Yes.”

“Wafuuu. I understand. Then, without any delay, let’s go hunting! Are you two ready to leave?”

“Of course!”

“Then, we’re off!”

It seemed that we had already received the request, so we left the hunting shack we had just entered with Waffer and headed further out of town. Soon after that, we deviated from the road and proceeded through the forest, and soon after, a sprawling Black something appeared in front of us.

“Hey, Ed. That’s …!”

“Yeah, it’s Kuronuri.”

In this world, there were ordinary animals, but there were no magical beasts that aggressively attacked people like in my world and Tia’s world. Instead, there was the Kuronori, a creature that posed a threat to people.

The common characteristic of the Kuronori was that its entire body was covered with an insect-like shell, and its eyes were the only part on its black body that shone with a suspiciously golden color. The Kuronuri we were dealing with this time was named Damagumo. It had a small, round body with eight thick, long legs, making it almost a spider-like Kuronuri, if I had to say so.

“Waffer-san. To let you know what we can do, do you mind if we take care of that one?”

“Hmm? It’s fine. If by any chance it looks like you are about to die, I’ll help you. But, at that time, you’ll have to say “Help me”, okay?”

“Hahaha, then please do it. Tia, I’ll go first, so watch that guy’s moves closely.”

“I understand. I’ll be ready to cover you in case you need me.”

“Yay!”

With Waffer calm and ready and Tia behind me, I pulled out the steel sword I carried at my waist. Although there was still some pure mithril left in the [Stranger Box] it was impossible to make the “Silver Winged Sword” again in such a short period of time, and I wanted to use it to make the handle for the [Sword of Thin Life] so I didn’t want to waste it.

The main reason for this was that there was no need for a weapon like that against an opponent of this caliber in the first place.

“So, I’ll go easy on you, you black bastard!”

I lowered myself and ran towards Damagumo. We were in the middle of the forest, and if I were even a little careless, I could easily get my foot caught in an overhanging tree root, but I was not an amateur to screw up like that.

Damagumo also didn’t stand still as I came towards him in a straight line. He raised one of his legs and tried to pierce me with his pointed toe, but … too slow.

“Haaaaah!”

I held the momentum of his thrust with my right foot and swung my sword to slice him up from the lower left, and Damagumo’s leg, which was supposed to pierce me, flew through the air with a cracking sound.

Nevertheless, it still had seven legs left. Three more, which it raised while supporting itself on all four legs, were coming toward me, but its body surface was covered with a shell, leaving no room for a direct attack or any other attack.

“Sweet!”

With the centrifugal force from the previous slash intact, I spinned around and sliced off two additional axial legs of the Damagumo. Suddenly thrown off balance, Damagumo’s attack missed me and his legs got stuck in the ground, taking advantage of that I proceeded to cut off two more in the split second it took to pull it back.

“Oh, you want to run away? Tia!”

In an instant, Damagumo, having lost five legs, realized his disadvantage, thrusted his remaining legs into the surrounding trees and attempted to flee upward.  Of course, I could have stabbed through its main body from below, but this was the part where I handed over the show to my partner.

“On it! Release, [Wind Edge]!”

Tia released the magic that was in her silver spirit’s sword while I was fighting, without a change. The magic unleashed from the sword transformed itself into countless small blades of wind and attacked Damagumo’s body and sliced through his body in one go.

Even though it was 10% less powerful because it was in the sword, it was still Tia’s magic, who was an active member of the hero’s party. With all of its legs cut off and a large number of cuts on its round body, Damagumo fell to the ground with a thud and immediately stopped moving.

“Yay! That’s great, Tia!”

“Fufufu! That’s roughly what I can do!”

I raised my hand, and Tia smacked it and laughed. When we turned our heads, Waffer, who had been watching us the whole time, was also happy, wagging his tail and showering us with words of praise.

“You are both amazing! Ed’s swordsmanship was pretty good, but Tia’s was even better! Is that the kind of magic the hairless use?”

“Yes. Well, technically, it’s spirit magic.”

“Wafu? Is this Spirit magic different from ordinary magic?”

“It’s――”

“Ah, well, there it is! Tia is a terrific magician! So, what do you think? How good are we?”

I asked Waffer this while lightly holding Tia’s mouth as she looked at me with a slightly resentful gaze. No, because I really didn’t want to have a long discussion about the different types of magic here.

“Of course, You are both very capable at doing what you do! However, it’s a bit of a hassle to go back and register the party, so how about we just go through with the request today and register the party properly next time?”

“Thank you very much. Then, please. Tia’s okay with that, too, right?”

“Well, that’s okay, however.”

Tia nodded her head in agreement as I asked her opinion while removing my hand from her mouth, while looking at me with scornful eyes. Ahh, this is gonna be bothersome later… It could not be helped, I’d listen to her complaints tonight.

“Then, keep up the good work and keep exterminating the Kuronuris!” I said.

“Alright!”

“Ah …… Mou~, although spirit magic and normal magic are different….”

While smiling at Tia, who puffed out her cheeks, we reached an agreement for the time being. Well, well, now we have passed the first hurdle.