The Starving Beast 4

Charlotte Cavendish — noble lady, mage, and adventurer — was an ambitious woman.

As the daughter of a middling noble house, she refused a future of being sold off in a political marriage and instead wanted to succeed as a mage. She wanted a life as Mage Charlotte, not Lady Charlotte. To someone like her, Han Se-ah's party must have looked like an awfully tempting lifeline.

A junior mage talented enough to catch an upper-grade adventurer's interest. Proof of that: not long after becoming an adventurer, she had tracked down and dealt with a Full Moon Wolf, then rapidly broken through the twentieth floor — and been the first to report the floor's anomalous phenomena on top of it.

"I'm more interested in a reputation as a mage than as an adventurer. Miss Hanna, you have no intention of submitting a paper to the Magic Tower, do you?"

"Nope. Of course not."

Hanna was a woman who valued her work as an adventurer over her work as a mage, so she hadn't claimed the research topic related to the Full Moon Wolf. In a way, wasn't a player basically a magic pot that kept spitting out fresh research material?

"I'll pay a bit more than the average commission rate. I'm also willing to help the party as a mage. My maid will handle the menial work. In exchange, the research rights regarding the orc settlement would be mine…"

"Sure, go ahead. I have no plans to enter the Magic Tower."

"My, your resolve for adventure is firmer than I expected."

Charlotte's eyes went round at Han Se-ah's declaration that she would absolutely never enter the Magic Tower. For a commoner-born mage of outstanding talent, joining the Magic Tower would do far more for social advancement than grinding it out as an adventurer — so of course it struck her as strange.

As a player, Han Se-ah was burning with the twin ambitions of holding the number-one ranking and devouring the game company itself. To Charlotte, though, it must have looked like she was throwing away the right to climb the social ladder purely for the sake of adventure.

And so Charlotte joined the party as their observer, with Mary coming along as their meal handler.

"…I said I'd help, but it doesn't seem like you need much of my help at all."

"We've got an upper-grade adventurer in the party."

Of course a single 2★ wedged in among a 4★, 4★, 5★, and 6★ wasn't going to get much of a chance ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠to shine. When they casually wiped out a pack of charging orc warriors, Charlotte's voice genuinely trembled with shock. Apparently the sight of orc warriors obligingly flopping onto the ground the moment someone held up a shield was rather different from what she'd imagined.

They pushed forward along a forest path bathed in pleasant sunlight. Whether the earlier racket had driven them off, there was no sign of helmet deer or moss wolves.

From the safe zone toward the opposite end of the passage, they ran into packs of orc warriors about three times before the forest ended and a clearing came into view. More precisely, a place that had been forcibly turned into a clearing. Trees with their trunks snapped clean through at the waist, and orc mana stones scattered across the ground.

"Could this be another anomaly?"

"Whoa, what is all this?"

The bracelets on the ground were byproducts from the orc warriors. Recognizing them, Charlotte and Han Se-ah's eyes lit up as they surveyed the surroundings. The devastation looked for all the world like some giant-type monster had gone on a rampage against the orc warriors.

Of ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠course, no new boss monster or giant monster had appeared. Kayden seemed to find the traces familiar; she brushed a hand over a broken tree and spoke up.

"No. This isn't an anomaly — Lady Rebecca seems to have come this way. I think we'd be better off heading in a different direction."

"…You're saying a person left these traces?"

Charlotte startled at Kayden's words. Apparently she still hadn't properly seen what an upper-grade adventurer looked like when they went berserk; her eyes went wide at the claim that a person had made this clearing.

Dirt cratered as if hit by an artillery shell, the shattered remains of a boulder that had been kicked into the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠air like a pebble and smashed through trees, massive trunks shoved and shattered and toppled one after another like dominoes. Hard to believe a human had made these marks, sure.

But the rest of the party just nodded — yeah, that checked out. They'd watched me shatter the ground leaping at a horned wolf that appeared in the city, and smash a whole stretch of grassland in a single blow against a Full Moon Wolf.

"Well, looking at Roland…"

"This direction's already been claimed by Rebecca, and from the looks of it she's not even bothering to collect the byproducts — just moving fast. How about we head all the way past the twentieth floor's passage?"

"Go the complete opposite way? Not a bad idea."

Looking at it like this, I almost felt like a character in a monster movie. We couldn't just leave money lying in the road, so we scooped up the byproducts and mana stones, then turned right around. A Rebecca gone mad with rage wasn't going to stick to a straight line, so we headed the opposite way entirely.

Mary the maid, true to her thief skills, started walking beside Grace, while Charlotte took a place next to Han Se-ah. Back the way we'd come, past the safe zone, and south.

"…Up ahead — there are vines that have been deliberately tied."

"Yeah. There's an orc hunter lying in wait beyond them, too. Looks like it's watching this approach."

"Ignore the hunter. We keep going."

"Wait, should I disarm…?"

For a thief with even a single star to her name, Mary was sharp — she efficiently gathered byproducts from among the dirt piles and even spotted the orc hunter's trap. Of course, an orc hunter's trap was something I could just tank with my body, but knowing you were about to take a hit and eating one blind were two very different feelings.

I stopped Mary as she moved toward the underbrush to untie the ropes, then strode forward myself. With a whish, a springy tree branch came flying straight at my chest. Same trap classroom somewhere, apparently — a branch with a rock lashed to it, identical setup.

Game-default skin armor that could shrug off a giant's kick wasn't about to take damage from a mere rock. Under the maid's stare — she was looking at me like this was absurd — I kept walking forward.

"You just… with your body…"

"With orc hunter traps, the easiest way is for the frontliner to just tank them."

Even the young lady she served didn't know what upper-grade adventurers were like — how was a mere maid supposed to? I wasn't looking down on her, but getting stared at like some kind of freak still stung a little.

Apparently the sight of someone body-checking the trap was threat enough; the orc hunter bolted out of Grace's detection range in a scramble. The loud, dumb orc warriors charged me, while the slightly smarter orc hunters quietly vanished the moment their traps got smashed.

"That's definitely strange."

"Right? Looks like the orc hunters have been affected too."

At that, Charlotte — who'd been glued to Irene's side — lit up. Han Se-ah, though, seemed to have half-forgotten the earlier conversation about orc hunters. It was Kayden, guarding the rear, who jogged her memory.

"Orc hunters don't care who their target is. They stick to you to the bitter end and make your life miserable."

"…Ah, right! Kayden's mercenary company was a large force, and they still said the hunters kept circling them while setting traps."

The viewers pounced on the opening without missing a beat. Though honestly, most of the ones roasting Han Se-ah had probably forgotten themselves. While I entertained that reasonable suspicion, Charlotte's muttered thoughts rang out almost like an explanation for the audience.

"The orc shamans are building palisades, the warriors are patrolling in packs, and the hunters start fleeing the moment they spot a strong enemy. …So when those orc hunters run from us, do they flee back to the settlement? Or do they just hide?"

"Good question. Think the settlement's been built wherever the orc hunters are running off to?"

"Worth tracking. Next time an orc hunter shows up, let's follow it."

Charlotte didn't have much talent as an adventurer, but she clearly had the makings ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠of a researcher — Han Se-ah made a show of surprise and agreed. The suggestion was plausible enough on its own, and the quest window visible on her stream screen updated immediately as well.

Wording that made it clear the quest had progressed. With both mages in agreement, there was no need to invent any other reason.

We kept walking the forest path, casually taking down a helmet deer and kicking goblins out of the way, until an orc hunter finally showed up again. The moment Grace detected it, Mary the maid found a pit trap.

"Roland — that tree on the right, the one with roots tangled around the rock? I think it's lying flat behind the trunk."

"Then I'll take the lead and follow it. Stick to my trail."

I couldn't pinpoint it instantly the way a scout could, but when someone pointed it out that precisely, there was no way I'd lose it. Nodding to Grace behind me, I sprang into the forest — and immediately heard frantic footsteps.

It clearly hadn't expected me to vault the traps and come straight at it using the trees as stepping stones; it bolted without even trying to hide its presence.

The crack of snapping branches, the thud of trunks shoved aside in a hurry, leaves kicked into the air, gravel tumbling down a slope. Feeling like the killer in a horror movie, I chased after the orc hunter's heaving back, keeping my distance.

I kept my distance in case getting too close made it give up and charge me. And as I chased the orc hunter like that, something came tearing out of the forest at an absolutely monstrous speed.

"You fucking pig-headed bastard!"

"Rebecca? Stop!"

She turned the orc hunter I'd been following into a mana stone on the spot.

Goddammit — she ran all the way across the forest to get here?