by Kumanano
“What? What’re you saying? A hundred goblins? A goblin king? That’s not even funny.”
“It’s not a joke.”
Thanks to Lanz’s big mouth, all the adventurers inside the guild were looking at us at this point, whispering among themselves. “A hundred goblins?” “A goblin king?” “They must be kidding.” “There’s no way they could have beaten a goblin king.” “But it’s that bear.” “It is that bear.” “Maybe that bear really could do it?” “Yeah, I mean, it’s a bear.”
Seriously—did they think it was because I was a bear?
Helen drew us aside at this point. “I’d like to ask you a few questions. If you could come this way…”
She led us to a desk off to the side, away from most of the people. “Now, I’d like to hear what happened. The quest you accepted was to defeat a group of goblins that had appeared near the village of Touz, was it not? A group of about fifty?”
“Yes, but when we got there, there were a hundred of them.”
“Excuse me for saying this, but do you have the mana gems as proof of defeat?”
Rulina pulled the leather pouch she’d shown the chief out of her bottomless bag.
“Would you allow me to examine these?” Helen accepted our mana gems and operated some equipment inside the desk. “Ah—yes, there is no mistake. They are mana gems from creatures slain today. I also heard something about a goblin king. Was that true?”
“Yes, the nest was run by a goblin king.”
“Is that true? In that case, you should have sent an urgent quest for a C-rank party…”
“It was fine. Yuna defeated them.”
“She defeated a goblin king all on her own…” “The bear defeated a goblin king.”
“The bear…”
“The bear…”
Echoes of those last two words spread across the guild.
“Is that really true? If you have the mana gem, could you please show me?”
“Well, we brought the corpse instead.”
“Ah, so it must be in your bear of holding, right Yuna? Um, it must be quite large. If you could make your way to the room next door…”
The adventurers trailed behind us like goldfish poo.
“Could you take it out here, please?”
I held up the white bear and pulled out the corpse. Gasps, shouts, groans, and all kinds of sounds came from around us.
If looks could kill, everyone laying eyes on the face of the goblin king’s corpse would have dropped dead then and there. Our entourage cringed at the sight of it. They could see the many wounds on the goblin king’s flesh, which spoke to the fierce battle we had.
“Thank you very much. May we buy the corpse from you here right now?”
“You can use it?”
“Yes. Unlike goblins, a goblin king’s skin is tough and durable, so we can use it to make protective gear. Its bones can also be used for weapons and enchanted items, as can its mana gem.”
“I’m fine with that, but what about you, Rulina?”
“I’m fine with it too.”
“In that case, would you return to the front desk with me?”
We returned to the desk, still trailed by our goldfish poo string of onlookers.
“Rulina’s party accepted this quest. Since Yuna helped, how would you like to proceed?”
“Please count this as a collaborative quest with my party and Yuna.”
“Rulina?” I questioned.
“You’re the one who defeated it, and we can’t take credit for that. All I did was harvest the mana gems and talk to people.”
“Understood,” said Helen. “Then we will treat it that way. Could all of the party members, Ms. Rulina included, please present their guild cards?”
“I’m fine.”
“Lanz?”
“I didn’t do anything. I actually thought she’d come running back here and was just watching. All I did was laugh at her and think she could never defeat a whole goblin horde all on her own.”
“Gil?”
“I don’t need it either. I didn’t do anything.”
“Understood. In that case, we will process this quest as being fulfilled by Ms. Rulina and Ms. Yuna. Are you fine with that?”
“Yes, please do that.”
“Then this will be the sum for buying back the goblin mana gems and the quest fee. In addition, this is the bonus money for buying back the goblin king.”
She handed us two bags. Rulina handed the goblin king bonus to me, and also divided the quest fee money in half before handed that to me, too. I accepted it modestly and put it in my bear storage.
“Sorry for what happened before. I’ll talk to Deboranay for sure. Lanz, too.”
“No, it was fun for me! Plus I got to practice magic on a goblin king.” That had been an enlightening experimenting.
When we left the guild, Rulina invited me out to dinner with the party. We ended up eating at a restaurant she liked with Lanz and Gil. Lanz finally lowered his head and apologized. Gil also apologized for not coming along to slay goblins. I accepted their apologies and paid for the meal.
“Are you sure?” they asked.
“Yeah. I got the goblin king bonus, and you can think of it as Deboranay’s medical treatment fees.”
“I see. In that case, we’ll gladly accept the meal.”
“Thank you.”
The four of us enjoyed the food and went back to the inn. I told Elena that I didn’t need dinner, went back to my room, and climbed into bed without even taking a bath.
Chapter 15:
The Bear Takes a Rainy Day Off
Part One
IT STARTED RAINING the next morning and didn’t stop, so I holed up in my inn room and read my bestiary to pass the time. Most of the creatures in it were the standard fantasy fare you’d expect to find in RPGs, light novels, and manga. Maybe I could travel the world trying to find as many of them as I could.
After reading a while, my stomach told me it was time for food, so I went downstairs to get lunch. Despite the rain, there were tons of customers in the dining room. When I asked Elena about it, she said, “Oh, it’s because the rain apparently did away with all the street vendors. The customers gather at places where they’re protected from the downpour.”
I looked around the dining hall and couldn’t seem to find a place to sit. I didn’t really want to share a table, so I was about to leave.
“Ms. Yuna, sorry, but it seems we don’t have seating, so would you be able to eat in your room?”
“Yeah, that’s fine. Please bring me the special for today.”
“Understood. I’ll bring it to your room right away.”
About five minutes after I got back to my room, there was a knock at the door. That was faster than I expected, I thought.
“Ms. Yuna, could you open the door?”
When I opened it, Elena was carrying a steaming meal. Because lunch fees weren’t included in the cost of rent, I put the meal on the table and paid Ms. Elena.
“Thank you.”
“Break a leg out there, Elena.”
“Yes, this is the time for making money,” she answered me lightheartedly before going back to work.
I gratefully ate the meal on the table. It was a veggie stir fry with meat in it, and warm soup with freshly baked bread. I nibbled at the bread, though I was starting to yearn for rice. I wanted to have ramen, too, but I didn’t know whether they would have it in this world. Next time, I’d try asking Elena.
I finished my meal and started thinking about what to do with my afternoon. I pulled up my status screen.
Name: Yuna
Age: 15 years old
Level: 18
Skills: Fantasy World Language, Fantasy World Literacy, Bear Extradimensional Storage, Bear Identification, Bear Detection, Bear Map
Magic: Bear Light, Bear Physical Enhancement, Bear Fire Magic, Bear Water Magic, Bear Wind Magic, Bear Earth Magic
EQUIPMENT
Right Hand: Black Bear Glove (Nontransferabl
e)
Left Hand: White Bear Glove (Nontransferable)
Right Foot: Black Bear Shoe (Nontransferable)
Left Foot: White Bear Shoe (Nontransferable)
Clothing: Black and White Bear Clothes (Nontransferable)
Underwear: Bear Underwear (Nontransferable)
I’d gained a new skill. Bear Map? Seriously, you can’t just tag “bear” onto everything.
Bear Map
Any area seen through the bear’s eyes can be made into a map.
Bear Map invoked a map with me at the center and indicators of the town’s surroundings, the eastern woods, and the area around the village where the goblins had appeared. All the other areas were pitch-black and showed nothing. It felt like a feature ported right over from WFO. It was useful, but I could only see places I’d already been to. I supposed it would have taken the sense of discovery out of things if a map of the whole world had suddenly unfolded before me.
Something came to mind after I saw the goblin king’s cave marked on my map, and I pulled the sword the king had been carrying out of my bear storage. It didn’t seem as sinister in my hands as it had in his. It had turned into an elegant sword with a silver glint to it.
I used Bear Identification on it.
Goblin King’s Sword
Skills: Boost Physical Strength, Supplement Magic
Boost Physical Strength: Increases the strength of the user.
Supplement Magic: The sword can be supplemented with magic.
The sword’s previous ominous vibe was probably a direct expression of the goblin king’s power. When I sent mana through it, it glittered a pretty silver. Maybe I’d try it out when the rain was gone.
But it didn’t seem like the rain would be stopping anytime today, so I went over my to-do list. I was used to being alone at home, but I always had something to play, or read, or watch. Minus all of that, I ended up super bored. The only other thing I could do was sleep, but if I slept in the afternoon, I wouldn’t be able to sleep at night. All the things I’d spend a sleepless night doing back in Japan were things I couldn’t do here. I needed to get creative.
It bugged me a little to see myself holding the goblin king’s sword with my flabby jelly arms, so I decided to try working out. It might have been because of the bears, but no matter how many times I did push-ups—whether it was ten or a hundred times—I didn’t get tired. I’d never be able to bulk up my arms like this.
With that thought in mind, I took off the bear equipment and stripped to my underwear. Well, I was wearing a shirt on top, but the only bottoms I had on were the bear underwear. The underwear I’d bought the other day felt so scratchy that I didn’t wear them. Maybe I’d go to the high-end store next time.
I tried doing a pushup. I couldn’t even do ten. Nothing had changed since when I was in Japan. I gave up on my jelly arms and obediently decided to wear the bear. Scary as it was, I was starting to become more and more at home in the peculiar outfit.
Chapter 16:
The Bear Takes a Rainy Day Off
Part Two
I GAVE UP ON WORKING OUT and I decided to look for things to do downstairs. The dining room was packed like it was during lunch, but right now no one was eating. Elena sat at the counter, looking tired.
“Oh, Ms. Yuna,” she said, “sorry about earlier.”
“I didn’t mind.”
“So, what do you need?”
“I’m just trying to kill some time.” I sat down at the counter.
“We don’t really have anything for that.”
“Well, could I get something to drink?”
“Yes, you may.” She went into the back and came back with two glasses, one of which she handed to me. “Here, try this. It’s mira fruit juice.”
I thanked her and accepted the juice. It was a little sweet and sour, if a bit lukewarm, unfortunately. Then again, if it was lukewarm…I just had to cool it down. I put the black bear hand on the cup, called up some mana, and pictured ice forming into neat cubes. There was a plunking sound, and ice floated in the cup.
“Wait, what is that?”
“I just put some ice in the juice,” I said. “I thought it’d be better cooled down.”
I took a sip. I’d made it several levels more delicious.
“C-could you do that for me, too?”
Elena offered her cup to me as I savored my juice. I didn’t have a reason to turn her down, so I dropped some ice into her cup.
“Thank you so much.” Elena swished the ice around in the cup and drank it once it was cool. “It—it’s so good. I can’t believe it tastes so much better when it’s colder! This might be great on hot days. But I don’t really have space in the refrigerator to keep juice cool.”
Refrigerators existed in this world. You could make a basic one with any old mana gem, so long as you charged it with ice magic, but if you wanted a fridge with a freezer, you needed an ice-type mana gem. Up north, my bestiary explained, you could find ice-aligned monsters to harvest them from, but the difficulty and the distance involved meant refrigerators with a freezer compartment were luxury items.
“If only my refrigerator were a little bigger…” Elena sipped wistfully at the iced juice.
“Can you not use magic, Elena?”
“Of course not. If I could, I wouldn’t be the daughter of an innkeeper. I’m jealous you can, Yuna.”
The user’s guide for the bear gear said that you had to channel mana through it, so I knew I at least possessed mana, like all the people of this world. And yet, I couldn’t use magic if I wasn’t wearing the bear gear. Elena also had mana, but she was saying she couldn’t use magic. I didn’t really get what the relationship between mana and magic was in this world, but maybe she was the same as me when I wasn’t wearing the bear gear.
Maybe, with time, I might be able to get to a point where I could use magic without the bears?
In the end, Elena and I chatted until it was time for dinner. I was happy to have found something to do, but Elena got a talking-to from her mom for not doing her work.
Chapter 17:
The Bear Gets into Trouble and
Rises to D-Rank
AFTER SLAYING THE GOBLIN KING, I accepted more quests at the guild and got a lot of experience…
…in applying magic, at visualizing spells, at figuring out how powerful my bear magic was.
…in using the goblin king’s sword and channeling mana through it.
…in using throwing knives.
…in finding out how powerful my bear offense and defense was.
I had verified all kinds of things in the past few days. Most recently, I confirmed how much I could put into the bear storage and how big it was. I put away the wolves that had been my guinea pigs for the day and went to report to the guild.
“Ms. Yuna,” said Helen, “did you just bring back wolves today, too?”
“Yeah,” I said, “that’s right.”
“Really?”
“Why are you asking me that?”
“Lately adventurers on slaying quests have been coming back emptyhanded.”
“…”
“It seems there are no monsters out there to slay.”
“…”
“When adventurers go to slay goblins, the goblins are nowhere to be seen.”
“…”
“If there’s a village requesting orc slaying, the orcs are gone before they know it.”
“…”
“When they go out to slay kobolds, there are none.”
“…”
“Some go to just slay horned hares and find none.”
“…”
“And this hasn’t just happened once or twice. Do you know anything about this?”
She gave me an inquisitive look. The answer was a most definite YES. Everything she named, I’d killed. I still had them put away in my bear storage.
“I see,” I said. “That sure is too bad for the adventurers who took those quests.”
Helen sighed
deeply at my attempt to play dumb. “It seems that they’ve witnessed a girl in a cute black bear costume many times before going out to slay monsters. Is she possibly a friend of yours?”
She silently looked me right in the eyes. I kept myself from looking away, even though I wanted to.
“Maybe my outfit is just trending right now?”
“There’s no way that’s the case! The only one dressed that way is you! It’s only you!”
“If you knew already, then you could have just said so from the beginning.”
“The guild master told me to call you over if you came in.”
“Why? It’s not like I was stealing their quests or anything. It’s just when I happened to head over there, I just happened to defeat some monsters because they were around.”
“Yes, there’s no issue with that. Especially since you haven’t taken the quest money.”
“In that case…”
“But, since you’re registered at the guild, we’d like you to report the monsters you’ve slain as part of your duties. In that case, the adventurers who took those quests won’t be given failures.”
“I got it. I’ll report it from now on.”
“However, I still need you to meet with the guild master today.”
“Seriously?”
“Yes, seriously. I’m going to escort you there right now, so come with me, please.”
Helen dragged me to the guild master’s room.
“Guild master,” she said, knocking at the door. “I’ve brought over Ms. Yuna.”
“Come in.”
Helen led me inside. The guild master was there, working at a desk.
“So, you’ve arrived. You can go back to work, Helen. Yuna, you sit down right there.”
He pointed at a table in the middle of the room. There were about six seats lined up in front of the table. I picked one at random.
“So, what are you up to?”
“What am I up to?”
“Just as I thought, you’ve slain monsters that were part of other people’s quests and never reported them. You didn’t even try to retrieve the quest money. You didn’t try to sell the materials, either. What is your goal?”