In Another World With My Smartphone: Volume 16 (Premium)

by Patora Fuyuhara

  We decided to split it with two people on watch, then two people on watch, then three. We did not just want one person on watch, because if they fell asleep then there would be nobody keeping an eye out on the situation. With two or more people, we would have our bases covered.

  I briefly wondered how we were gonna get paired up, but Rose just dragged me and Mew-san into a group of three with her... I certainly was not complaining.

  After that, it came down to deciding how to split up the men. We figured it would be troublesome if Abert and Garron joined up together, so we decided that Dom-san and Garron should be one team, while Abert and Surges-san would be another team.

  Then, we had to decide the order. We settled on the girls guarding first, then Abert and Surges-san, then Dom-san and Garron. Abert and Surges-san got the worst of it, since they had to wake up in the middle of the night.

  The night dragged on, which meant it got a lot colder. The others took out heavy fur capes and draped them over themselves as they settled in for sleep.

  We three girls took out our capes as well, draping them around our shoulders.

  We would be able to reach the weed we were after by noon the next day, assuming all went to plan. Ideally, there would not be any Fire Lizards or anything, either. Adult Fire Lizards could reach pretty huge heights, and they liked to move in big groups.

  I looked up and found Rose scanning the area.

  “Mm? Something wrong?”

  “No, I’m just wondering if that guild invigilator might be out there... I can’t sense anyone, so I was wondering if they’re actually watching us.”

  She is. Fufu... You fool! I might not be the invigilator, but I am right here!

  Tsubaki is definitely out there too, but she would never let a novice adventurer like you detect her presence.

  “I bet there’s one out there, yeah. Probably from Brunhild’s intel corps... Someone way beyond adventurers-to-be like us.”

  Mew-san voiced her suspicions. She was certainly perceptive. Rose responded by quirking a brow and tilting her head in surprise.

  “Why would someone from Brunhild’s government be involved in this? Isn’t this just a guild thing?”

  “One of our examiners is related to the grand duke of Brunhild. That’s what I’m basing my suspicion on, anyway. Plus, we’re doing the mission on Brunhild territory. I imagine they’ll have someone keeping an eye on us in case things get dangerous.”

  ...You are very keen-sensed, Mew-san. Rose glanced around a few more times, but ultimately gave up on looking for anyone else. She turned back to Mew-san.

  “So that means if things go bad, we’ll be saved?”

  “Maybe. But that means we’d fail the test. No rank increase, no reward, no glory or satisfaction.”

  “That’d be bad... But I’m honestly a little relieved. That means we’ll be okay no matter what.”

  “You should not put all your stock into being saved by invisible others.”

  I interjected a bit into their conversation.

  “Yeah, you’re right. If someone is watching us, then they’re probably just tasked with monitoring us. They’d probably only step in if things were extremely dangerous. Maybe they’d cut in if we were gonna lose a limb or have permanent damage done to us, but I’m not so sure they would swoop in if some mediocre level of danger appeared. Maybe if a monstrous beast of unprecedented strength appeared, but we shouldn’t rely on them.”

  “You have a point. There’s no guarantee they’ll save us, so we shouldn’t count on it.”

  Mew-san and Rose nodded. There was still a chance we could suffer major injury before Tsubaki stepped in. Then again, that was why I was there to begin with. I would be able to buy precious time in an emergency.

  “Mm... Adventuring really is dangerous, huh?”

  “You can make a lotta cash, though. If we succeed here that’s two whole platinum.”

  “That is definitely nothing to sniff at... Wonder what I should buy.”

  I briefly fantasized about spending my money.

  The knight order wages were not exactly luxurious, but we definitely got a lot of perks to make up for that. We could use the gaming room whenever we wanted, and we were even fed for free. The grand duke provided our basic living needs, so the relatively low pay did not really bother us since we could use it for disposable income.

  Now and then the grand duke put extra cash in our pay packets as a bonus, too.

  I wondered if the reward for this quest was his way of paying me a bonus...

  “The pay’s so good it’s almost suspicious...”

  “They probably want us to buy good equipment with it afterward. Because if we get promoted, then we’ll be getting quests that are higher in difficulty, so we’ll need—”

  “Kin a dwarf not git some shuteye roond ‘ere?! Ye lassies gotta stap yer jibberin’!”

  Dom-san’s irritated yelling overpowered Rose’s voice. The three of us sighed quietly and looked at each other. Perhaps we had been a little too loud.

  We continued looking out for danger, quietly this time. Eventually, we started up a conversation again, but made sure to use gentler voices.

  ◇　◇　◇

  “It’s morning. Time to get up.”

  “Mh...?”

  I opened my eyes to find Mew-san gently tapping my shoulders. After passing off the watch to Surges-san and Abert, I immediately laid down. It still took me a while to get to sleep, so I did not really feel all that well-rested.

  I woke myself up by splashing river water in my face. The sky was already fairly bright.

  Abert checked everyone was in the area before speaking.

  “Alright, team! We need to find that weed before nightfall.”

  “We should pay attention to our surroundings as we carry on. We’ll have no idea where to expect the weed.”

  The spinfire weed was found in mountainous areas, so we were honestly pretty close to places where it could be found.

  We needed to keep our eyes peeled because we did not want to accidentally walk past any.

  We carried on along the mountain path, keeping our eyes wide open as we went. After about a three-hour walk, the forested area parted and the path ahead became considerably rockier. We had a much higher chance of finding the spinfire weed in a place like this.

  There were a few plants here and there, but it was not what we were after. There were boulders taller than Garron all over the place, so it was kind of hard to see. It was proving quite the hassle.

  “What should we do, gang? Split up and search for clues?”

  “Oh aye, an’ end up Fire Lizzie chow? Not on my nelly we ain’t.”

  “If we keep going as a group we’ll waste time. We’ll cover more ground apart. We’re not gonna make the quest deadline at this rate!”

  Surges-san and Dom-san gave different answers to Abert’s proposition. It was true that we might end up wasting time, but still...

  “I’ll go find it myself! You idiots! Are gonna waste all our time by arguing?!”

  Garron grunted before heading off on his own. He did raise a reasonable point, though.

  “What a selfish guy...”

  “True, but he’s still not wrong. The longer we stand worrying, the less time we have.”

  Surges-san split off from the group and began looking on his own as well. The rest of the group all shrugged and sighed before separating.

  I headed up to the tallest rock in the area and started scanning the area with my mystic eye. Then, I stopped because I had actually forgotten to get permission. Finding the weed was part of the quest, so I did not know if I was actually allowed to help them find it or not.

  I had no idea, so I decided to ask the boss-lady.

  Beep

  ▼Boss, can i find the grass 2 or iz that bad?

  After a few moments, I got a reply.

  Beep

  ▽Weed is good. Continue mission.

  Guess it is fine, then! Time to look around!

&nbs
p; I could not find it at all...

  I had spent hours searching, but it yielded nothing. I began to wonder if there actually was any spinfire weed at all.

  Maybe the spinfire weed is the friendship we forged along the way... Maybe they just wanted to see how we would act in pursuit of spinfire weed... No way, that cannot be it at all. I bet the grand duke came to the island earlier and picked all the spinfire weed in the easy-to-find places. That sounds exactly what he would do...

  I did not think he would be so evil as to make us hunt for something that was not there... It was probably just in a really hard-to-find area.

  “Oof... My back kinda hurts... I bent down too much.”

  I stood up straight and stretched a bit. My back was sore, which was not too surprising. I rested my hands against my waist and bent backward.

  The world turned upside-down. I had a pretty flexible body, so bending backward and looking behind me was not that big of a deal. Suddenly, I froze up. Something was standing behind me.

  A large, scale-covered body, a rusty copper color... Thick tail, sharp claws... Slit-like eyes that stared at me unblinking.

  We made eye contact.

  I quickly righted my body’s position as the Fire Lizard jumped at me.

  “Eeek!” I dodged its attack with a hard turn to the side. I took out a few bo-shurikens and launched them at the creature, but they just pinged off its body. It was tougher than I thought! The Fire Lizard roared out in anger after being attacked, and flames erupted all over the surface of its body.

  “...Just my luck.”

  I pulled out my ninjato and held it in a combative stance. I had no idea what to do. If I pulled out the poison like earlier, it would just melt in the heat. I doubted I could even pierce those scales to begin with.

  Man, if only Shizuku was here... She can use water-based ninjutsu really well, so those flames would not stand a chance... I specialize in fire ninjutsu, so what am I supposed to do?!

  “Not like I can run, though... I guess nobody else is around, so this should be fine...”

  I moved upwind of the Fire Lizard, reached into my sleeve, and released a small bag of powder. The powder had been harvested from another magical beast, Noir Butterflies.

  “Greuugh?!”

  The powder hit the Fire Lizard in the face, blinding it instantly. Even if it was a Fire Lizard, it was not as if it could shoot fire from its eyes. That was why I knew it would be a weak spot.

  It could no longer see, so I did not want to squander my opportunity.

  I started picking up heavy rocks in the area and pelting them at the Fire Lizard. Blunt attacks were the way to go against powerful foes, after all.

  “Greh! Gryeeeh!”

  I had thrown a few hefty stones at its head, so it was definitely a lot more dazed than before. I did not like to boast about it, but I was fairly physically strong. I could easily lob rocks bigger than a human head. Some people once tried to tell me that it was not a very womanly trait, but I definitely did not care about things like that.

  “Greuuurgggyyyeeeh!”

  “Ack! That was a close one!”

  The Fire Lizard vomited flames from its mouth in a fashion similar to that of the Blood Liger.

  “Bastard!”

  “Greugh!”

  I picked up a few larger rocks and started hurling those as well.

  Eventually, after a few more choice smacks to the noggin, it stopped moving. The fire on its body also went out. It shuddered and breathed its last atop a stony surface.

  Woohoo! Victory is mine! I do not even care if that was completely un-ninjalike at all! Victory is all that counts, damn it! I poked a bit at the dead Fire Lizard. It was not hot, surprisingly. It was actually kind of cold, which was sorta gross.

  I had no idea what kind of raw materials were best harvested from Fire Lizards. Hopefully not the skin, given how hard I had bruised it with the rocks.

  Mew-san or Rose would probably know best. I briefly considered going back to ask them, but finding the spinfire weed was more important.

  The presence of a Fire Lizard probably meant that the weed I was searching for was nearby.

  Just as I was about to continue my search, a burst of light illuminated the sky.

  It was not lightning, either. It was quite a sunny day. The rapid flashing was coming from someplace to the north.

  It was likely [Flash], a Light spell. That meant Surges-san was the source.

  Is that meant to be a signal? Maybe he found the grass, or... I gulped in fear as my eyes scanned over the dead Fire Lizard. I immediately started running toward the light.

  I reached the location, a small canyon between rocky outcroppings, and found Surges-san, Garron, and Dom-san all surrounded by a group of Fire Lizards. They had clearly been chased into the canyon area and trapped by a pincer formation.

  Garron and Dom-san were bearing the brunt of the Fire Lizard’s intense heat, while Surges-san cast magic from the back lines.

  Surges-san suddenly cast [Light Arrow] from behind Garron’s shield, sending a few projectiles out.

  The beams pelted into three Fire Lizards, but aside from causing them to stagger a little, no real damage was actually done.

  The strength of a spell was determined by a user’s experience, and the amount of magic they poured into it. I felt a bit bad saying it, but Surges-san did not seem like that good of a spellcaster.

  Well, if he poured all of his magic into his spell, it was likely that he would be able to kill a good amount of them, but then he would just collapse from mana exhaustion.

  I threw a couple of bo-shurikens at the Fire Lizards near Dom-san. The shurikens could not hurt them, but it distracted them long enough for Dom-san to take advantage of their openings and slash them with his battleax.

  He swung his weapon to the side and held up his shield before getting into a better defensive position.

  After a while, Mew-san, Rose, and Abert appeared. It was now all seven of us versus the Fire Lizards, but the three down in the canyon area were still trapped...

  I knew how to deal with it, but I was told not to stand out too clearly. I just sighed, shook my head, and decided I had to help them.

  “Dom-san! Raise your shield and brace yourself!”

  Dom-san did not really understand why I yelled that, but he held his shield up anyway. I took out a few devices from a pouch tied at my waist and lobbed them at the Fire Lizards near Dom-san.

  In a matter of seconds, a loud explosion rang out. The Fire Lizards were blown sky-high, as well as chunks of rock. Dom-san held his shield up, preventing him and the others from being pelted with debris.

  The Fire Lizards were confused by the sudden explosive attack, but so were Dom-san, Garron, Surges-san.

  “Get over here, you three!”

  “Mm? A-Ah, yeah!”

  Garron and the others ran past the fallen Fire Lizards and regrouped with the rest of us. We quickly decided to move to the exit of the canyon area, so we would not be caught in a pincer attack again.

  “Hey, short stuff! You got more of those?!”

  “Do not call me that! And yes, I do, but...”

  “Then toss them already!”

  “No way, idiot! Do you know how expensive those grenades were?! You gotta enchant them to get them made! It cost me like three silver coins for just one, do you get it?! That is three nice, fancy meals per one grenade! Meathead! Idiot!”

  I started yelling at Garron because I was stressed, which prompted Rose to place a hand on my shoulder.

  “Easy there! I get they’re expensive, but this could be life or death. When we get our reward we’ll reimburse you, okay?”

  ...Oh, you will? You better not go back on that promise. It is not as if regular knights get them as standard issue or anything! I paid for them with my allowance. The grand duke would not just hand them out!

  After everyone agreed to reimburse me, I took out my koga grenades from my pouch. I had three left. It would not be enough to simply k
ill the Fire Lizards alone, but we would be able to weaken them, disorient them, and then finish them off.

  “Take this!”

  I tossed the grenades at various areas where the Fire Lizards had gathered.

  Boom! Kaboom! Shakoom! Three loud blasts rang out, sending more Fire Lizards hurtling into the air. They came crashing back to the ground with considerable injuries.

  “Go! Start with the weakest ones and work your way up!”

  We all followed Garron’s lead and started killing the immobilized ones first. We decided to prioritize killing them over preserving parts we could harvest.

  None of the Fire Lizards were capable of fighting at this point. They were either too disoriented from the blast to fight, or already running away. I leaped from one to the next, stabbing the blade of my ninjato into their soft bellies, or slitting their throats.

  Finally, Dom-san tore the last Fire Lizard in half, and we could finally relax.

  “...Now that was dangerous.”

  “Aye, sure was. Without the wee lassie’s blasters, we mighta been deed.”

  Abert and Dom-san breathed heavily as they spoke. I kind of resented being considered a little girl, though...

  “Thanks, you really saved us.”

  “No worries, honestly...” I gave a dismissive wave to Mew-san’s compliments.

  Honestly this is pretty bad... I took an active role when I should not have... I hope this is okay, I would not want them to make us take the test again because of this or something... I stood up, quietly praying that the boss-lady would not reprimand me for what I did.

  There were various Fire Lizard corpses around the area.

  “Can we profit off these at all?”

  “The Fire Lizards? A little bit, I guess. The skin’s the most valuable thing about them, but there are monsters out there with better quality, tougher hides. It’s cheap, for the most part.”

  I was a bit disappointed with Rose’s response. We’d done a whole lot of work for a whole lot of nothing.

  “Why were there so many Fire Lizards, anyway? Did you guys screw up?”

  “No! We found a buncha Fire Lizards and started fighting them, then more and more kept showing up!”

  They ended up surrounded before they even knew it. That was definitely a screw-up that no experienced adventurer would have made... Minus points...