Chapter 27: These Guys Again

This is the first morning that I've woken up at an inn .

Murmuring 『I don't know this ceiling...』 was simply a matter of course . Well, I didn't lie down because I don't sleep, but...

I move Fran who seems like she's weak to mornings, and proceed to change her clothes . I clean her with Purification Magic and wash her face using water — also created by magic . Fran's hair is shortcut with curls swaying often move at the ends, so I don't forget to fix her terrifically disheveled morning hair with water as well .

After I've finished, Fran finally awakes .

「Good morning . 」

『Did you sleep well?』

「Very . 」

Next, we head out to the dining room for breakfast .

「Got it . Please look forward to our morning special!」

A wooden plate is placed in front of Fran with a *don* . The meal consists of an omelet atop a firm piece of brown bread, 2 sausages, and a serving of boiled carrots . There's also a soup with a couple of other ingredients within .

『How is it?』

「Delicious . 」

To Fran who was formerly a slave, this meal must be incredibly delicious — or so I think such while watching her eat with gusto . There, there . Eat a lot to grow big and strong .

(However, Teacher's cooking: more delicious . )

During yesterday's dinner she said the same thing .

『Haha, what a nice thing to say . 』

(It's true . I want Teacher's Cooking . )

Well, my Cooking Skill has reached the counter stop . Because of that, we're now in the mysterious situation of a sword being the best chef in town . In fact, even though Fran has the same Cooking level as me, I'm a better cook — likely due to my memories of my past life . Even with the Cooking King Title and the best abilities, it's impossible to match up to food that's never been seen on this world it seems .

It might really become necessary to give thought to preserving large quantities of food created through my Cooking Skill...

『If we get a request that requires us to leave the town, I'll cook some lunch . 』

「Looking forward . Must go immediately . 」

『Then you'll have to look for a request . 』

「Nn . 」

We left for the Adventurer's Guild after the meal .

「Hello . 」

「Good morning . Have you come to find a request?」

「Nn . 」

「The request board is that one over there . Make sure to remember that G Rank Adventurers can only receive G and F Rank requests . 」

First, we take a look at the G Rank requests .

There're few G Rank Adventurers here early in the morning it seems, so there's no one in front of the board .

『Harvest Medical Herbs, Hunt Wild Boars, Pluck Weeds from around an Estate, and Pick Garbage off the Road...?』

「Dull . 」

『Yeah . The compensation is low, too . 』

Next we look at the F Rank requests .

『They're better, but......』

Subjugate 5 Goblins, Exterminate Fang Rats, and Gather Mushrooms from the Forest .

The fact that they're all dull hasn't changed .

Well, it can't really be helped that only requests of this level are present . Besides, Fran's level is low, so it would be best to raise Fran's level by hunting small fry .

「Then, this . 」

『Medical herb harvesting . It's our first request, so that would be for the best, right?』

In more detail, the request consists of gathering medicinal herbs used for fifth grade Potions: Heal Grass . There're a lot of them grown in the forest, apparently .

「This . 」

「Yes . This request, then . I've confirmed it . 」

「Nn . 」

「Do you know what Heal Grass looks like? There're documents you can look at if you'd like . 」

「I'm OK . 」

「I see . You'll need to complete 5 requests in order to rank up, so do your best . 」

「Nn . Thank you . 」

「Yes . 」

We made a big commotion yesterday, but it seems that the Adventurers' favorability towards Nell was high enough to cover for it . Good, good .

『Alright . Let's go!』

「Nn . 」

After arriving at the gate, we showed our Guild Card and easily passed through . The gatekeeper seemed to remember Fran and was surprised to see that she was an Adventurer .

『So, which way shall we go?』

「Nn...... That way . 」

『Following your heart?』

「Intuition . 」

That's a good answer . There's no hurry to complete the request, so it's fine to behave like this .

『We should pick up medical herbs other than Heal Grass along the way . Then, if another request comes out for different herbs we can complete it immediately . 』

「Teacher: genius . 」

『Hahaha! Praise me more!』

「Teacher: amazing genius . 」

◇◆◇

We continue advance through the forest at a leisurely pace . We've already harvested enough Heal Grass at this point to complete the request, alongside other herbs, mushrooms, and nuts in large quantities .

Using the Harvesting, Herbalism, and Cooking Skills I can distinguish whether any of the herbs will be useful . Danger Perception also helps in the, because it allows me to sense dangerous mushrooms and herbs even without knowing their name or effects . In other words, it allows me to distinguish materials that can be used for poisons .

Everything's stored in Dimensional Storage, so the only thing that could be considered a problem is the fact that we have to harvest them one by one . Fran seems to be satisfied with the meal that I cooked, so she's walking in high spirits .

「Teacher . 」

『Ou . 』

Abruptly, Fran stops . But I'm not surprised . I noticed too, after all .

『Goblins . There're no more than 10 of them . 』

「Nn . 」

『There really are a lot of Goblins around here, huh . 』

Fran's hand is already gripping my handle in preparation for a fight, and I don't stop her . Goblins can be hunted safely, and grant decent EXP, so they're fine .

I wouldn't recommend fighting off these numbers for common beginners, though .

『Is an Adventurer surrounded?』

「There . 」

『3 Adventurers, huh . As for the Goblins......』

「13 . 」

『They're high quality ones, too . 』

A Soldier, Thief, and Archer seem to be leading the flock of Goblins .

Their opponents seem to be only novice Adventurers . Standing against the flock of Goblins dressed in cheap armor, they can only scowl with pale faces .

『A Soldier, a Ranger, and a Magician . The party's balance is alright, but if the rearguard is approached too closely things would easily take a turn for the worst . 』

All of the party's members have received damage to some degree; the Magician in particular seems to have suffered a serious injury .

「I'll rescue . 」

『Understood . 』

「Shave off with Magic, then break through . 」

We both chant spells from Soil Magic in unison . My chant was for the spell Stone・Barrett, which fires off a small stones like a buckshot . Because my MGC is about 5 times higher than the average person, my stones have roughly the same power as bullets . If enemies are grouped up, it's possible to hit multiple bodies at once .

My ability to guide the Skills also seems to be due to Sorcery, but because I can't share it with Fran, she'll have to use magic the normal way .

As for the reason we didn't use Fire Magic, it's because of our location . Forest fires are dangerous .

「Stone・Arrow . 」

『Stone・Barrett!』

Fran's magic defeats one, and mine takes out five, so a total of 6 were defeated — one of which was the Goblin Thief .

〈Fran's Level has risen to 6〉

Level Up has come! Well, we have no choice but to ignore it for now .

While both sides are confused about what happened, Fran rapidly approaches the Goblins .

「Hah . 」

She slides between the Adventurers and Goblins and cuts down two Goblins as she passes by . Of course, I'm also participating in the battle . I take care of the Goblin Archer that would provide the most difficulty for the Adventurers with Stone・Arrow .

「Eh? A child?」

「S-Strong!」

The Adventurers are surprised . The Goblins were as well, but recovered and attempted to strike back with the Soldier Goblin as the lead .

「GyaGYAOU!」

Hou . Understanding that their opponent was strong, they attacked with all of their members without hesitation . In spite of being a Goblin, it has good judgment .

『But it's futile! Stone・Barrett!』

I've continued chanting throughout the entire battle . I don't even need to breathe to do so, after all . Because of that, the chant for Stone・Barrett was already complete .

Two Goblins to the right are impaled with stones, causing them to lose their lives after vomiting up blood .

As for two on the left, they aren't even close to a match for Fran .

「Slow . 」

Double・Slash is released, and the final two are cut down in an instant .

The situation had been turned on its head within just 20 seconds, so the Adventurers can only watch with befuddled expressions on their faces . I feel like continuing to stare at their goofy faces for a while longer, but it would be bad to leave the injured person as-is .

『Recovery Magic is already making itself useful . 』

I check over the Magician's status and find that his HP is simply decreased . There're no physical defects or abnormal states .

『Just a regular Heal will do just fine . 』

「――Curing light, Group・Heal」

That spell is the wide-range Lv7 Recovery Magic: Group・Heal . Because the other two were more or less damaged, they were recovered with it as well . What a kind girl, using such a spell for their sake!

「Group・Heal? From such a small child?」

「Uah! This isn't some second-grade Magic!」

Astonished, the male Warrior and female Ranger let out words with wide eyes .

「Moreover, is that a Magic Sword...?」

Ah, I've been noticed . Well, there's a clear difference between my appearance and regular swords, so my identity would be revealed to anyone who sees me . Ahhー, how troubling .

「That aside, Eustace, are you alright?!」

「Huh? My injury was healed?」

The Magician doesn't seem to have any problems . If he tries to coax Fran to buddy up with their group due to this situation, I might get angry, you know?

「Alright?」

「Y-Yeah . I'm saved . 」

「Thank you very much . Hey, you too!」

「Eh? T-Thank you?」

Bowing should come first, that's just the basics . The fools from the other day seemed to have thought differently, however .

「You are...... An Adventurer?」

「Nn . 」

「Um, may I ask your name?」

「Fran . 」

After that word was spoken, the Adventurers turn to each other and start whispering to one another .

(Do you know that name?)

(I don't . But it'd be impossible not to know of such an outstanding child...)

(Yeah . )

(I don't know either . )

Their conversation was probably along those lines .

「I'm Kral . She's Lily, and he's Eustace . 」

The Warrior gives a polite introduction, but Fran seems to have already lost interest in them .

「I see . Then . 」

It seems that she wants to confirm her Status as soon as possible .

『Is that alright? We might get a reward, you know?』

(Compassionate . Want to see Status . )

Is that so . These guys look visibly inexperienced, so we couldn't really expect a big reward from them anyways . However, while Fran was about to leave, the Warrior leader Kral quickly speaks up .

「Ah, please wait . 」

「 ? 」

「These Goblins were the ones that you defeated . 」

「Eh? This girl took down all of these Goblins? What are you talking about?」

「Just be quiet!」

「You've already saved our lives, we can't possibly accept anything more than that . 」

He has good intentions, so a bad impression might be left if we decline him here .

『Perhaps just taking the materials from higher quality Goblins would be fine?』

「Understood . I'll take high quality . 」

「Eh? Highbreeds[1] were mixed in?!」

Hey, hey, you didn't even know that? It might be hard to tell looking at their basic appearance, but they've got bigger physiques and have larger horns .

「Nn . 」

Fran ignores the surprise of the three people, and proceeds to strip the Highbreeds of any usable materials at her own pace . The faces of the Adventurers become a bit odd as we do so .

Fran takes the horns and Magic Stones into the bag hanging at her waist . It's a dummy bag, of course . It's simply used as a cover for the items to be put into Dimensional Storage .

「There were three of them?」

「Isn't that a bit dangerous? We should notify the Guild......」

「No, no, wait . Are those really higher kinds?」

「Probably . Their bodies are obviously a bit bigger than the rest . 」

We seem to have made them more flustered than expected . A problem of some sort seems to have arisen .

「What?」

「Well, three Highbreeds appeared at the same time, so it has to be reported to the Guild!」

「Why?」

「Huh? You don't know?」

「 ? 」

「If Highbreeds are present, there's a high chance a King has been born . 」

「Nn . 」

The Adventurers describe in detail, but here's a rough summary:

When a Goblin King rises to leadership, the combat power of all of the Goblins increases significantly . I knew about this fact as well .

Becoming able to hunt more Demonic Beasts as a group, individual Goblins don't die as often and more Highbreeds can come into existence . In turn, this increases the combat power of the horde and a terrible cycle is born .

In fact, once the horde grows big enough a Queen is born . A Queen was once born in the Plains, too . I suspect that the reason for its existence is to help unify the outskirts of the group when it's grown really big .

Most importantly: children born to the King and Queen Goblins are all Hobgoblins . If the Hobgoblins breed with normal Goblins, their children are Hobgoblins as well .

A single Hobgoblin has a Threat Level of F . A group of them led by a King seems to surpass Threat Level D .

「Things get out of hand if it gets like that . It would become a disaster due to an outbreak of Demonic Beasts . 」

「I can't even imagine how many villages would disappear...」

Indeed, for the local Adventurers this would be a matter of life and death . I can only looks at it it as a clump of delicious EXP, but for the present Fran the situation would pose quite a threat . That being the case, we should nip it at the bud .

「We're going to immediately report it to the Adventurer's Guild . 」

Saying so, they each pick up a corpse of a Highbreed . Without the bodies, there would be no material serving as evidence after all .

「Nn . 」

「Then, please excuse us . 」

「Thank you for your help, really . 」

「It seems like I was saved by you, so thank you very much!」

And so, we helped some young people and ended up getting the rest of the materials from the Goblins for ourselves . It's not a bad result .

『Now to absorb the Magic Stones . 』

After moving away from the novice Party, I take out the Magic Stones and absorb them . I already have all of their Skills, but the accumulation of small things add up eventually . I received them gratefully .

「Hey, Status, look?」

『Yes, yeーs . I'll look now . 』

「Nn . 」

Name :Fran Age :12 Race :Black Cat Beastman Job :Magic Swordsman State :Contracted Status:Level :6 HP :80 MP :71 STR :45 END :34 AGI :46 INT :30 MGC :36 DEX :47

The Status values are raising steadily . In particular, STR and MGC both rose by 4 . That's most likely an effect from being a Magic Swordsman .

Actually, the effects of being a Magic Swordsman are like this:

Magic Swordsman :Intermediate Job Requires Sword series Techniques and one Magic type at Lv6 or higher to acquire . Effect:When leveling up, STR and MGC will be more likely to raise . Acquisition efficiency for Sword and Magic Skills will increase . The power of Sword and Magic techniques will increase .

It's a very well-balanced Job . I'll tell Fran about the rises in her Status values .

「Good feeling . 」

『That's right . Do your best, and it'll keep increasing like this . 』

「Ooー!」

The expressionless Fran punching her fists into the air is too cute~ Alright! Let's put in some fighting spirit and look for more prey!