Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear Vol. 1

by Kumanano

  “Then let’s go,” I said. “I’ll walk ahead, so you follow behind.”

  I pulled my hood down, engaging bear detection. There was a dense cluster of something in one direction. It was inconvenient that I couldn’t use a map, but it was useful to know our bearing. Pressing forward, I detected something hazardous. I resolved to press on right through them.

  “Uhh, you seem to be doing okay walking blind,” Rulina said, “but I think you should be a little more aware of your surroundings.”

  “It’s okay. I’m using detection magic, so I know there aren’t any monsters nearby.”

  “There’s magic like that?!”

  “But there are a lot more than I expected.”

  “More than expected?”

  “I think there might be around a hundred?”

  “Wait, a hundred! Really? We definitely can’t defeat that many.”

  “Why not? That’s just a hundred Deboranays.”

  “Are you serious about that?”

  “I’m saying it, aren’t I?”

  Rulina sighed. “I’ll tell you this now: if things get rough, I’m going to leave you and run, Yuna.”

  “I wouldn’t mind.” I could outrun her anyway.

  “Ahh, are things really going to be okay?” she said. “Maybe this was a mistake.”

  One hour later, we’d killed about twenty goblins as we walked through the wooded foothills of the mountain. All we had left to do was wipe out their nest.

  “You called that trick detection magic, right?” said Rulina. “It’s pretty useful to know where the goblins are. It almost feels like cheating. You could pair that with a long-range spell and wipe them out all at once.”

  “Make sure you take the mana gems.”

  “I know.”

  She cut into the goblins collapsed in front of her, pulled out their mana gems, and finished things off by burning the bodies to make sure they wouldn’t attract scavengers—monster or otherwise.

  “Looks like the goblin nest is up ahead,” I told her.

  I’d learned from WFO that surprise attacks were most effective on groups. You’d slip in under their aggro, attack with the strongest magic you could in one blow, then keep the pressure on with faster, lower-level spells while they were too surprised to do anything.

  I figured I needed to keep going forward until I reached a place where I could confirm them by sight, at least.

  “Looks like it’s that cave.”

  “You’re not telling me we’re going in there, right?”

  Even I didn’t want to go into a cave containing a goblin horde. There were about five goblins around the cave entrance—probably the guards.

  “I’m going to check on something, so wait here.”

  I incanted a wind spell, aimed at the cave mouth, and released. The spell coaxed the wind into every nook and cranny of the cave.

  “Confirmed it. That’s the only entrance. I’m going to go over, so wait here.”

  “Wait, are you really going?”

  Before they could react, I decapitated the guards with an air cutter. After that, I imagined a burning red bear.

  “Bear Fire.”

  I threw bear-shaped fire into the cave and incanted the next spell.

  “Bear Wall.”

  A bear-shaped boulder blocked off the cave entrance. Now it was done. All we had to do was wait.

  “Yuna, what did you do?”

  “I threw a thermobaric blast into the cave and closed off the exit. All the oxygen in there should be burning off, so the goblins that don’t vaporize will probably suffocate.”

  “Oxygen? Suffocate?”

  Do they not know what oxygen is in this world? I thought.

  “To put it simply, there isn’t any air in that cave.”

  “Really?”

  “When you put a fire in a sealed-up place, the air disappears. So the goblins probably aren’t doing so great without anything to breathe around now. This is easy, right? Or did you want to fight them in the cave?”

  Rulina shook her head energetically.

  “We’re going to have some time to kill, so after you handle the goblin guards, how about we have lunch?”

  “We’re eating here?” she said, seeming unhappy about it.

  She probably didn’t want to have a meal in a place where she wouldn’t be able to tell when a goblin could come to attack us, but I was fine as long as I had detection magic.

  “We could go back to the village, but it’d be kind of a pain.”

  “It would be, but how long do we have to wait?”

  “Normally a few minutes, I think? Anyway, I’m planning on using detection magic and waiting until they’re all gone.”

  For the time being, I had Rulina take care of the goblin corpses in front of the entrance. Afterwards she sat down with me and pulled out lunch from the bag that was hanging on her hip. So that’s a bottomless bag, I thought.

  “How much can fit in that bag?”

  “In this? It won’t fit as much as your bear, Yuna. I think it could fit about five wolves.”

  If that was the standard, this bear was a deeply OP item. I ate the meal she had prepared, but it wasn’t that great, just dried jerky and lukewarm water. It seemed that time progressed like usual in normal bottomless bags. I should have prepared my own lunch.

  After lunch, I pulled my hood back down.

  “Huh?” I said.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “One of them is still alive.”

  “One of them…it couldn’t be.”

  “What is it?”

  “Yuna, you said there were about a hundred goblins in total, right?”

  “Yeah.”

  “That might be a goblin king.”

  “The goblin king…”

  A goblin king…the leader of the goblins, and no doubt stronger and smarter. They were early-game bosses in WFO, too.

  “Well, it doesn’t seem like it’s going die, so I guess we have to fight it.”

  “You can’t! A goblin king is C-class; you’d need an entire C-class party.”

  I got where she was coming from, but I figured we could handle a boss with strictly physical attacks. It was dangerous if we got hit, but I didn’t intend to let that happen.

  “We should go back to the guild and get reinforcements.”

  “Hmm, I think it’ll probably be fine.”

  “Yuna, please. Please listen to me on this.”

  “In that case, I’ll go into the cave to fight alone. If I don’t come out, get reinforcements from the guild.”

  “Are you telling me to let you go to your death?”

  “Like I said, it’ll be fine. Okay, I’m moving the rock.”

  “Yuna!”

  I ignored her shout and made the boulder in the entrance disappear. Hot wind blew out of the cave. I cycled out the air inside the cave with a wind spell, but the entrance was still hot.

  “I can’t go in when it’s like this.”

  “Then let’s go home!”

  “Hm? It looks like the king is coming out himself.”

  “You’ve got to be joking…”

  “You hide behind me, Rulina.”

  A goblin several sizes larger than usual came out from the cave. He held an ominous sword in its hand. When it saw me, he howled loud enough to make the ground rumble.

  So, I thought, this is the goblin king. I loosed an air cutter, but the king brought down his sword and cut it aside. Then he fixed his gaze on me and charged, bellowing. I pulled my sword out of my bear storage, blocking the goblin king’s sword as it came down on me. The blow forced me back, and the goblin king swung his free arm.

  I was still sent flying, even when I defended against it with my white bear, but I circulated some mana to my shoes and closed the distance again.

  Maybe my level wasn’t high enough? I thought. If normal magic didn’t work on him, then how about bear magic?

  “Bear cutter.”

  I imagined a bear’s sharp claws as I a
imed at the goblin king and brought my bear glove down. Three wind blades slashed at the goblin king. He swung his sword in the same way he had earlier, trying to destroy what I conjured, but this time the bear cutter kept up its assault.

  “Huh?”

  It didn’t bring him down. Though the goblin king was bloodied by my bear cutter, it didn’t cut through him.

  “He’s tough.”

  Still, now I knew I could damage him. Perhaps frustrated that he was hurt, the goblin king cried out and glared at me again. He started running.

  I guessed we’d decide the match soon, now. I loosed an earth spell, and a deep hole opened in front of the goblin king. His anger had made all his blood rush to his head. Too busy looking at me to watch his feet, he tumbled right in.

  I was afraid that if I dropped bear fire on him I’d melt him, mana gem and all, so I aimed several bear cutters into the hole.

  “Bear cutter, bear cutter, bear cutter, bear cutter, bear cutter.”

  He was a lot more tenacious than I thought. I could hear his bellows from the bottom of the hole. He might have been trying to climb out, but my bear cutters were probably keeping him down.

  After a while of throwing bear cutters, I stopped hearing his shouts. When I looked through my hood, the goblin king’s signal had disappeared. I stopped casting, and Rulina came out from the shadows of the trees.

  “Is it over?”

  “He’s dead.”

  “I can’t believe you could actually beat a goblin king.”

  “I was a little surprised—he was stronger than I thought. I’m going to make sure he’s dead, so move away from the hole.”

  I used earth magic to raise the ground at the bottom of the hole. The goblin king that came into view was dead, his body frozen in a silent scream. His face still struck fear in me.

  “He really is dead, right?”

  “Yeah.” Just to dispel Rulina’s fears, I hit the goblin king’s motionless body with an air cutter. “So, what should we do with this?”

  “Yuna, he’ll fit in your bottomless bag, right?”

  “He would.”

  “Then, could you do that? His mana gem would be proof enough, but if we can, I’d like to bring home the corpse.”

  I put the goblin king in the bear storage, taking care to pick up his sword separately, then cooled the cave with a couple wind and water spells. “The cave should be fine to go in now, I think. Could you do the rest?”

  “Uhh, I’m going to just confirm, but is the cave safe?”

  “It’s fine. But there are a lot of dead goblins, so I think hacking them up is going to be a lot of work.”

  “Yuna, what would you think of helping—”

  “Nope.” I was absolutely not going to cut open goblin corpses to harvest their mana gems. Having turned Rulina down flat, I then conjured up a bear-shaped light. “It’s dark in there, so here’s a present. You can take it with you.”

  “Thanks? I don’t really get why it’s bear-shaped, but I’m grateful.”

  Rulina went into the cave alone. The work of getting a mana gem out of a goblin took a minute per goblin at the fastest, and there were probably about eighty in the cave. Factoring in how long it would take for her to move around the cave, I was probably looking at a two-hour wait.

  I erected a small house with earth magic and gave it a little window for ventilation. Once I was in, I sealed the entrance behind me to keep out any monsters that might happen by. Finally, I made a pallet of earth and laid down. It was hard, but not impossible to sleep on. I’d have to buy myself a blanket.

  I was worn out, so sleep came to me quickly.

  Chapter 14:

  The Bear Reports

  “YUNA! YUNA! Wake up.”

  “Rulina, you’re being too loud.” I rubbed my sleepy eyes as I roused.

  “You’re finally awake,” said Rulina, peeking in through the tiny window. “I was out there working my butt off prying these out while you were making a house and taking a cat nap? That’s so unfair.”

  “But butchering is your work, isn’t it? Are you done?” I straightened and stretched my joints.

  “Yeah. I came out of the cave and was shocked to find a house. And when I looked in, you were asleep! And I couldn’t get in, because there isn’t a door!”

  I parted the walls to make a door and exited the house with magic. The sun was starting to get low in the sky, so it was probably around three?

  “There were way too many goblins. It was so hard—all because you didn’t help.”

  I ignored her and changed the subject. “Do you need anything else from the cave?”

  “Don’t think so.”

  “Then I’m going to seal it up, since we wouldn’t want any other monsters holing up in there.”

  I plugged it up with an earth spell.

  “So,” I said, “guess we can go home now.”

  “Well, I’m tired.”

  “That’s fine. I’ll carry you.” I didn’t want to take my time getting home.

  “Yuna…you’re not thinking of…”

  “We’re in the mountains and the roads aren’t great, so hush.”

  With a grin, I scooped up Rulina, who looked like she had given up, and started heading down the mountain.

  Jump! Jump! Jump! Every time I leapt, Rulina would scream, which was kind of noisy right next to my ear, but I ignored her and kept running. Once we neared the village, I let Rulina down and we headed to the gate. Rulina seemed a little unsteady on her feet, but it was probably my imagination.

  We greeted the gate guard and headed to the village chief’s house.

  “Uhh, it seems you’ve come back early. Was it an impossible endeavor?” The village chief’s face seemed to say, I thought so.

  “No,” said Rulina, “we defeated all the goblins.”

  “What was that?” His expression changed to shock.

  “We’ve completed your goblin slaying quest. These are their mana gems.”

  Rulina pulled a leather purse out of her bottomless bag. She untied it, showing the village chief its contents. It was probably filled with the goblins’ mana gems, but I wasn’t about to look in there. I didn’t want to see a bunch of bloody mana gems. That would spoil my dinner.

  “It seems you have slain the goblins. But isn’t this a bit more than expected?”

  “There were about a hundred there.”

  “A hundred?!” The village chief was beside himself. Fair enough, given he’d just found out there were twice as many goblins threatening his village as he’d thought.

  “Please be at ease. We defeated all of them. We also found the nest the goblins were using as their base, cleaned it out, and sealed it up, so we don’t think any new monsters will take up residence there.”

  “Th-thank you so very much.” The village chief bowed his head. “Please allow us to prepare an inn for you to stay in tonight.”

  “Yes, thank you.”

  “No, we’re heading home.”

  Rulina and I spoke at the same time. We looked at each other.

  “Yuna, it’s getting late.”

  “We can get home before sunset.”

  “You’re not planning on carrying me again are you?”

  “Two times, three times, what’s the difference?”

  “But they’re being so kind to us.”

  “I believe in getting bothersome things over with quickly.”

  “Oh, fine,” Rulina conceded reluctantly. “I have to report on the goblin king anyway.”

  Once the villagers were done thanking us, we left. I must have scared the living daylights out of Rulina after taking all those death-defying leaps on our way down the mountain, because this time, she grabbed hold of me herself. “Please be gentle when you’re running. Also, no jumping—at all!”

  “Okay, okay.”

  “I hate to say it, but it’s really comfortable in this bear thing’s arms.”

  Rulina patted the sleeve of my onesie. I wasn’t thrilled about being touche
d like that, so I grabbed her and broke into a sprint to forestall any more petting. The ground was even here, so it was easier to run than on the mountain.

  I detected monsters far off but ignored them and ran past. Occasionally, we passed by some adventurers and carriages, but I ignored them too. They were raising kind of a hubbub as they traveled, but at the speed I was going, I’d be out of earshot in a second.

  I caught sight of the town’s gate.

  “This is kind of embarrassing,” said Rulina, “so could you let me down soon?”

  She started to say something into my ear, but I ignored her and kept running.

  “Y-Yuna? Please?”

  Rulina clutched me tighter, but it didn’t hurt. I just went straight to the west gate, taking the guard by surprise with my arrival. Rulina was red in the face as I let her down and silently handed over my guild card. The guard silently checked it, and we went silently into town.

  “Uh, so, want me to carry you to the guild?”

  “Stop!”

  Rulina was still flushed as we headed to the guild together to give our report. There were quite a few adventurers loitering around the guild entrance, but just when I was wondering how we’d get through them, they noticed me and a path opened up, like the sea parting for Moses.

  When we entered the guild, the front desk was crowded. Someone called to us as we tried to get in line.

  “Rulina, what happened?” Lanz and Gil were sitting in chairs, watching us.

  “Lanz, why are you here?”

  “Why? Because we thought you’d come back, and it looks like we were right. If you’re back this early, you must have come running home with your tail between your legs because of how many goblins there were.”

  Lanz smirked, clearly pleased by the prospect. Did he realize that us failing the quest meant that he’d be failing it. too?

  “Lanz,” said Rulina, “we finished the quest. Unfortunately.”

  “Wha?!” His dumb face grew even more vacant looking.

  “We finished the quest. A hundred goblins, plus a goblin king to boot.”