Death to Magic Beasts, No Mercy
The weird bird in the sky. And goblins on land, they're all around us.
Not to mention the big Hob Goblin in the back. In fact that's the main actor.
The goblins didn't immediately attack us, they made a circle around me and Alma to cut off our retreat path.
Must be the Hob Goblin's order. That thing can give commands despite looking so dull huh.
Well, this actually works in our favor though.
"Hikaru, I'll stay here and lure the magic beasts away, you go back to the town and ask for help."
"Denied. Even if I went with that, and these goblins let me go, that bird's just gonna kill me dead. Of course the end result would be the same if I were the decoy."
"Uu..."
Her self-sacrificing mind set is respectable, but honestly, it's not gonna do anything in this situation.
Even if I somehow managed to get to the guild and get help, there's a high chance Alma dying in the meantime.
There's no acceptable plans except one where both of us survive. I don't wanna die either.
Eh? I should have said I'd at least keep Alma safe? Uh, yeah, well, I mean dying is still scary...
"This must be, my punishment..."
Alma muttered dead serious.
You're not gonna be able to overcome this with that mind set you know?
"Naw, not at all. Heck, I think this is our rewards even."
"...Eh?"
"The higher level these monsters, the more exp we get no? God must be telling you to beat the crap outta this bunch, level up and Job Change pronto."
I tried to make a joke to loosen the tension.
Well, I'm half serious thought. God part aside.
"But, then how..."
"We're not gonna win taking them on head-on. 'Head-on' that is. Lend me your ears for a bit."
"Eh? U-un."
I briefly explained her my plan. Though uh, it's not that grand.
If it fails, we're just gonna die. Gotta steel my resolve.
"Don't worry. I'm sure it's gonna go over nicely. Ah, but no hard feelings if it fails ok?"
"It's okay. I'm sure it's gonna go well. I'm not gonna blame you even if it fails."
We proceeded with our plan while praying this won't be our last conversation in this world.
"Alrighty, let's do this!"
After which I threw the sword in my hand at the flying weird bird. Pooi.
Of course it's never gonna reach it, the weird bird is laughing like it's making fun of me.
I can tell all the goblins are laughing at me too.
After confirming their lines of sight were all concentrated on me, I threw a pouch filled with a certain something I had overhead and set it on fire.
Shubo
KAA!!
The pouch burst open before emitting an intense ray of light everywhere.
The goblins, the big gob and the weird bird all took that light head-on, blinding them.
Their States all uniformly show 'Temporary Blindness'.
I just set off a powdered form of a horn that releases an intensely bright light when ignited, bought from the mat shop near the guild I mentioned before.
【Horn of Spark Wolf】
<<A horn chiefly made of magnesium. By filling it with mana and set it on fire, it will release a light more dazzling than magnesium could.>>
The intensity is such that even igniting an earpick worth of it emits a light so intense shutting your eyes still let it through.
...I seriously thought I was gonna go blind when I lit it up in a test run. I went 'My eyes, my eyes~!' like that character in a famous work.
The goblin gang descended into chaos.
ZASHAAAAAA!
『Kiiyii!? Kyugiiiyiiii!!!』
The weird bird started panicking and crashed down the ground.
Tch, was hoping it'd at least break a bone so it wouldn't fly anymore, seems like it didn't take much damage.
It's the same as in RPG and stuff, I believe the key to victory is in debuffing opponents to their lowest and buffing yourself to stratosphere.
These monsters should be pretty much neutralized now.
Both me and Alma are fine since we covered our eyes with our hands the moment it was set off.
We're the only two who can move around now.
We can run away for sure now. But we're not doing that. Of course not.
Why wouldn't we feast on these tasty exp!
"Aw yeah! Let's do this!"
"Un!"
I grabbed the sword I threw off earlier and went to eliminate the goblins one by one. Slashing their heads and necks to kill them.
...Oh good. Looks like I can barely feel a sense of guilt in the act of killing when my life is in danger. So yeah, die. Mercy? None. I ain't got any.
Alma raised her offensive power with Magic Sword skill and went for the Hob Goblin.
I couldn't hide my surprise when I saw her activating the skill.
GOUUU!!
"Uwoo!? That looks awesome!"
"W-what is this...!?"
It's clearly different from the sword being burned she's been practicing all this time.
The blade is enveloped by a giant gas burner like flame in the neat shape of a blade, it's even burning blue.
That must be the real deal, Magic Swords Lv1 [Burner Blade].
With the added INT plus her base weapon power, Alma's ATK is currently 181.
That much should be enough to get past even Hob Goblin's high DEF.
She swung down her blazing sword at the Hob Goblin's head.
But
『GOGAAAAAA!!』
"!?"
GIIN!
Girigirigiri...!
That big oaf blocked with his club even while blinded!
The two of them are locked in a clash between a sword and a club.
He must have sensed the danger coming his way with that high Perception attribute.
Gob must be planning to push Alma back using his brute strength!
Not on my watch!
"Alma! Use mana control to stream your mana into you sword and power it up!"
"Uuu....! AAAAAAAAAA!!"
Alma poured her mana into her sword as she yelled out loud, turning the blue flame white.
Juuuuu! Jaku!!
The club got easily melted as the blazing blade cleaved through the Hob Goblin's neck.
Hieee, what's up with that firepower. Overwhelming.
"Haa, haa, I, did it...!"
"Nicely done Alma! Whoops, gotta take care these goblins now."
Alma and I went around and swiftly dealt with the remaining five goblins.
Only the weird bird remains.
To be honest, I was gonna eliminate that thing first, but it kept shooting magic everywhere to prevent anybody closing in while it was blinded, I couldn't get close.
It even took down two goblins. Damn you, that's my exp.
Looks like it's recovered its sight enough, it flew up into the sky again.
Perhaps it's planning to carpet bomb us from above and gradually wear us down.
...Hm? It's kinda flying funny. Maybe its vision hasn't fully recovered?
Feels like it's getting farther away from us too, is it trying to run away?
Let's check the status.
Magic Beast: Blade Wing
Lv11
State: Temporary Vision Impairment, Mana Shortage (Small)
【Attributes】
HP: 104/120
MP: 12/102
SP: 161/188
<TLN: Catch the latest updates and edits at Sousetsuka .com >
I see, it's got its vision back to a degree, but not a lot of mana left.
Well I mean the thing did go crazy shooting magic.
One more and it's gonna fall to Mana Shortage (Large) or worst, Mana Depletion state.
Thus it opted to run instead.
Think I'd let you?
"Alma, mind letting me take care of that bird?"
"Eh? But, it's flying high up, how?"
"Like, this!"
I threw my sword to lighten the load. It's not gonna do much against that bird anyway.
I've just leveled up thanks to the goblins earlier, my HP and MP are fully restored with higher maximum. How handy.
I've got the mana. Should be enough.
Mana emitted out of my body gets harder and less precise to control the farther away it gets.
In other word, mana that sticks very close to my body is the easiest and strongest to control.
I wrap my mana around my gloves and boots, then harden it. Same with my body and head.
I control this hardened mana and launch it along with myself toward the flying weird bird!
That was the moment I flew in the sky. At super high speed at that.
Wait what, hiiii!? M-made it flew too fast!
How many kilo is it!? How many k/m!? It feels like moving at around 100 k/m on a highway!
Aah, so this is what it's like to be a Z warrior... Let's not go there, it's dangerous.
『Kiyiii?!』
As the weird bird got startled by me who caught up to it in no time, I splashed it with liquid in a bottle.
A little smear turns firewood into charcoal instantly, [Fire Frog Oil].
What's gonna happen if an entire bottle gets set on fire? Can you bear it, bird?
Fire out of my hand, Ignite!
The bird blazed up so bright I thought another sun showed up.
『KIIIIYGYAAAAAAAAA!!!』
The weird bird crashed down while loudly wailing to its death.
The Menu display turned red even before it reached the ground. That did it in huh.
The body kept on burning on the ground, by the time the flame went out, only a charcoal remained.
Kinda waste of mats and meat, but I got a feeling letting it run back to the forest would be bad, so let's not dwell on it.
T-that was tiring.
I leveled up after defeating the weird bird, restoring my HP and MP to max, but I'm just physically and mentally exhausted.
Flying with hardened mana was something I just thought up during mana control training, so that first flight was done without a rehearsal, there was a non trivial chance of it failing.
...Yup, let's not get ahead of myself next time.
Alma ran up to me. Ah, she picked up my sword. what a mindful girl.
"Good work. I'm just glad we're both in one piece."
"H-Hikaru, did you, just fly...?"
Her face twitched as she said that and handed over the sword.
Don't make that face now.
"It's actually pretty simple when you understand the principle behind it. Want me to teach you how next time?"
"I-I'll pass."
She's backing off. Is she afraid of height?
"Still, wasn't it rare for magic beasts to prowl these parts? And those were some powerful beasts."
"I had never seen such strong magic beasts coming out of magic beast forest before. Something might be up in the forest."
"Any guess?"
"Either they were driven out by strong monsters, or it's an omen of Stampede."
"Stampede?"
"When magic beasts proliferated too much, they form a swarm and leave their original territory to invade towns and villages. It shouldn't occur if we just cull out a certain number of them every month..."
"...It's not because you haven't been taking on magic beast elimination quests for the past week, is it?"
"I don't believe a Stampede would suddenly break out just because I didn't do it for a week. Something's not right."
"...Either way, we've gotta report back to the guild, let's go."
"Un."
We started walking briskly toward the town.
If this Stampede thing is really going to happen, we've gotta plan it out.
Ah, right. I'll check our Status post-level up in the meantime.
First, me.
Kajikawa Hikaru
Lv5
Age: 25
Race: Man
Job: ERROR (Appraisal not possible)
State: Normal
【Attributes】
HP: 40/40
MP: 36/36
SP: 0/12
STR: 16
ATK: 16 (+30) (+2)
DEF: 16 (+15) (+5)
AGI: 15
INT: 17
DEX: 18
PER: 24
RES: 14
LUK: 14
【Skill】
※Acquisition Not Possible※
EXP: 188
NEXT: 240
Equipment
Iron Sword
ATK+30
Bear Leather Breastplate
DEF+15
Safety Shoes
ATK+2 DEF+
O-oooh. All of my attributes got to two digits.
My level went to 5 from 2. Just how much exp points did that bird have.
Hmu, these values, do my attributes follow after my level?
They were all 0 at level 1, does this mean I'm a late bloomer type. Meaning, by level 20, my stats would be decent enough. A long road ahead.
And next.
"Alma, mind if I check your Status?"
"Un. I leveled up after beating the big goblin earlier, and the option to Job Change came up in my head, I chose Paladin. I want to see how it's like now."
So you can Job Change on the spot once the conditions are met huh.
I thought you need to go to a Church or something.
"Oh, well done! Let's see here..."
Almatina
Lv10
Age: 16
Race: Human
Job: Paladin
State: Healthy
【Attributes】
HP: 211/211
MP: 126/126
SP: 70/90
STR: 100
ATK: 100 (+30)
DEF: 92 (+20) (+10)
AGI: 105 (+16)
INT: 133 (+5)
DEX: 64
PER: 106
RES: 85
LUK: 45
【Skills】
Swordsmanship Lv4 - Offensive Magic Lv4 - Martial Arts Lv3 - Throwing Lv1 - Magic Swords Lv2
EXP: 2034
NEXT: 2500
Equipment
Iron Sword (Buff: Int Up)
ATK+30 (INT+5)
Lizard Leather Body Protector
DEF+20
Boots of Wind
DEF+10 AGI+16
Bwoh!?
W-what the heck!
Had no idea you got a bonus with Job Change, these are incredible!
"Y-your attributes saw a huge increase. Skill levels too, Swordsmanship and magic at lv4, Martial Arts at lv3 and Magic Swords at lv2 now..."
"...That's a huge change. It's like I'm not me."
I gotta stop fooling around or else I'm gonna drag Alma down.
Gotta proactively level up and reduce the gap between our stats.
Let's get this reporting to the guild thing over and done with and prepare for magic beast hunting for the sake of my level. Destroy.