Ah, This Won't Do (2)
The deeper they pressed into the forest, the heavier the air became.
The rustle of birds taking flight grew sparser by degrees, until the only sounds left in this untouched wilderness were the thin cries of insects. Through that hush, a small group advanced, snapping aside the branches and undergrowth that barred their path.
At their head walked a blonde swordswoman. Shield in hand, ready for anything that might burst from the trees, she kept her body low and picked her way carefully forward.
But holding that kind of tension for long exacted its price. After conferring with her companions, she stopped at a stream, splashed the cold running water over her face a few times to rinse away the sweat, and spoke.
"Every time we wander a mountain like this, I feel it… not having a ranger is such a hassle."
"What can you do? Every decent ranger already has a party."
A ranger who could truly track, scout, pathfind, and reconnoiter was elite personnel on par with a mage. Mages depended on innate talent and secret arts, but a finished ranger was the product of countless hours of hard-won experience. Anyone who could honestly call themselves one was almost always attached to a Bronze-rank party or higher — or something far more prestigious.
In some ways, they were even rarer and more valuable than mages. That was a ranger.
"I hear the really successful ones get recruited by parties way above their own rank."
"Any proper ranger is Bronze-rank or higher to begin with. Rojo, the village chief of that frontier settlement we stopped at before — he made Silver as a ranger."
They were people judged not by personal combat prowess, but solely by how exceptional they were at being rangers. The virtues the work demanded — deduction, a sharp eye, a broad store of knowledge — were all things essential to an adventurer's trade.
"Just one competent ranger makes the whole party's life easier. They keep you out of fights you shouldn't be in, for one."
"See? Life's all about having a specialized profession."
Jina, who had been giving Ain a strange look as he said that, suddenly put a thought into words.
"But is a grizzly bear's gallbladder really so precious they'd hire adventurers just to get one? What's it even used for?"
"…Tonic."
"Tonic?"
Haru, perched on a rock and swinging her feet, answered Jina's question in a vacant voice.
"Works well. That's why it's expensive."
"…Works well for what?"
"Virility."
The moment she heard that, Jina's mouth snapped shut in disbelief — then opened again.
"Wait. So if we just ditch the request and keep the gallbladder for ourselves…?"
"Abandoning a request we've already accepted like that would do wonders for our reputation."
As she said this, Er confirmed that her companions had caught their breath and began to rise.
"Haru, take a look at this."
"…Why?"
"This… isn't this an animal footprint?"
She pointed to a nearly vanished print near the stream. The running water had washed most of it away, but the remaining outline was unmistakably that of a beast.
"…It is."
"If there's still a trace left, it should be around here."
The two more experienced members of the party were of one mind.
"Let's move. I think it's nearby."
At Er's words, the others rose from their rest. Silencing their breathing and their footsteps, cutting conversation to the bone, they cut through the mountain once more — and before long, they found it: a massive bear with gray fur.
Its bulk was enormous. It stood nearly twice as tall as an orc, and its mass was incomparably greater. The gray coat covering its body still gleamed with its original color despite a life spent in the mountains, and every step left a heavy print in the earth. Just as the tracks by the stream had suggested, it hadn't been long since it left the water — it was roughly shaking the remaining moisture from its fur. This was the grizzly bear Ain's party had been searching for.
Luckily, they had found their quarry sooner than expected. They exchanged glances in silence.
And immediately after—
Icicle Arrow
Several ice arrows of Haru's making streaked toward the grizzly's torso.
With Haru's skill, she could have ended the beast's life in a single strike. She could have incinerated it, or carved it to pieces. But they were hunting this grizzly for its hide and the gallbladder beneath its flesh — so they had to be careful not to damage those. That was why she had chosen ice arrows. Even if they lacked power, it was no problem. She had companions who could make up for whatever her magic lacked.
GROOOAAR!!
Thanks to its thick hide, the magic only scraped away a bit of skin. The grizzly bellowed in rage. Its intelligence had risen in the process of becoming a magical beast, and it looked straight in the direction the spell had come from — spotting two humans charging toward it.
"Jina! You're the one who has to finish it!"
"I know!"
Stabbing it with a blade or burning it with magic would reduce the usable materials they could harvest. If the gallbladder were damaged, they might have to wander another region looking for a different grizzly — or abandon the request entirely. Killing the beast was Jina's job.
GROOOAAAR!!!
The grizzly roared and reared up, lifting a massive forepaw. That paw alone, without any other tool, was a weapon more than capable of ending another creature's life. It was the grizzly's signature.
Shield Wall
The preparations to meet it were, of course, already in place. The shield in Er's hand was wreathed in blue light, then swelled to several times its size — the same mana barrier she had deployed during the robbery incident to block the mana-corrupted bandit leader's attack, now systematized into a proper skill. That shield and the grizzly's claws collided.
SKREEEEECH!!!
Even wrapped in mana, the grizzly's claws gouged the surface of the shield. This was exactly why hunting magical beasts was so dangerous. Wild animals that had absorbed the mana of nature possessed an inherent resistance to it, so even mana-users often found themselves in peril.
But that only applied to solo hunters, or those whose skills were lacking.
"This much…!"
Er angled her shield and deflected the claw that had been trying to crush her, then shouted.
"Ain, now!"
A fleeting opening, born of the instant Er had blocked the claw. Hearing her voice, Ain brought his hands together and scattered his Divine Power outward—
Circle Binding
His voice was barely more than a mutter, as if he were still embarrassed to shout a skill name — but it was enough. The particles of light Ain had scattered around him gathered at their master's will, transforming into a single golden ring that blazed with radiance. It wrapped around the grizzly's body, then immediately shrank, pinning the beast's forelegs tight against its torso.
GROAAAH!!
The immobilized grizzly roared and thrashed, trying to shatter the ring of light around it — but a formless ring could neither be grasped nor broken.
"Ain, hold it!"
Confirming that the grizzly had stopped moving, Jina leaped, gathering mana into her fist. The beast bellowed roughly at the human who had come right up to its face — but that was all.
Smasher!!
The instant her white-burning fist drove into the grizzly's skull was the last thing the beast would ever see.
THUD. The massive body collapsed with a heavy sound. Watching the dust it kicked up, Jina — who had killed the grizzly in a single blow — spoke.
"…Not bad, actually?"
"Right?"
Ain was the one beaming at Jina's words. Watching the ring of light he'd created fade away, he said excitedly,
"They said skills are all about the mental image, so I put some work into it. Since it was supposed to bind things, I pictured something like that golden hoop they clamp onto a monkey's head — and it actually works! At this rate I could try other stuff too. Vines, snares…"
"I have no idea what you're talking about… but you're in a good mood, Ain."
"The performance was pretty solid, and the results were good."
A magical beast with mana resistance hadn't been able to resist at all. A grizzly that could gouge even Er's mana-coated shield had been rendered completely helpless by Ain's binding, unable to put up any fight.
"Ain's Divine Power is different from mana. A magical beast that only has mana resistance couldn't break it."
Haru opened her mouth to explain, watching the particles of light still drifting around them.
"Effect confirmed. Practical enough."
"Really? Then…"
"But still too wasteful. Activation speed too. A caterpillar rolling over is faster. Don't think about other things. Practice."
Looking at Haru's face as she said this, Ain scratched his cheek.
"…Yeah. I'll work on it."
"Anything you don't know, anytime."
"If you two are done talking, mind giving me a hand? Moving this thing or butchering it is going to take more than one person."
Jina, patting the dead grizzly's body as she spoke, pointed out something odd that had caught her eye.
"…Er, is this normal?"
"What is?"
"This thing's been stockpiling a ton of food."
At the tip of Jina's pointing finger, Er found a small pit the grizzly seemed to have dug, packed full of every kind of forage the forest could provide.
"…I've never heard of a grizzly bear storing food."
"Trying to hibernate or something?"
"Hibernate? It's about to start getting hot."
Unlike the other three, Haru was watching the scene with eyes that, just slightly, held a gleam of intelligence.
"…Doesn't look like just one."
"Not just one?"
"Wait. That means…"
"There's only one reason to stockpile food when it isn't winter."
Haru said this, and — rarely — the corner of her mouth curled up slightly.
"It's got a mate. And cubs."