by Funa
“Unfortunately it’s not that simple…”
“I’ll do it!” Mile volunteered.
“Wha…?”
Reina was dubious.
“No matter how fast and strong you are…is it really safe?”
“Yes. Probably.”
“………”
“Very well. Let’s start with that next time. However, if it starts looking dangerous, pull back immediately. It’s not like we don’t have other options… come to think of it, Mile, you still owe us an explanation. Why didn’t you get hurt?”
“F-family secret?”
“WILL YOU LAY OFF WITH THAT ALREADY?!”
In the end, Mile explained that her sword cut some of the power from the lizard’s blow and that she’d flown back of her own accord. She was fairly light, and since the tail hadn’t broken bones, when she landed she was able to use wind magic to cushion her impact.
Thankfully Mavis, who had been nearest, had been preoccupied with her own concerns, so she hadn’t watched Mile closely.
Mile had already worked out why she was thrown back so easily, against her own expectations. No matter how strong she was, there was no way that a girl weighing 40 kilograms could absorb so much kinetic energy and hold her ground.
If the blow came down from above, she might be able to withstand it. However, if it came from the side, or from below, no amount of physical strength could prevent her from going flying, even if she wasn’t hurt.
“Even if we did poorly,” said Reina, “the two of you managed to avoid grave injury while facing a rock lizard, a creature that an average party of C-rank hunters couldn’t take down unscathed. Perhaps we got a little carried away with minimizing injuries to the lizard…”
The other three nodded meekly.
Having covered all there was to discuss, the girls set to work handling the heap of lizard meat.
Thanks to its time inside the maelstrom of Reina’s fiercest fire magic, the outside of the lizard was in a piteous state, black and ashen. However, the intense heat hadn’t made it all the way through, so once the outer parts were removed there was plenty of meat that was barely cooked at all. Now that they had the chance, they took some of the more delicate cuts of meat and roasted them over a gentle flame.
Mile decided to eat hers rare, as she generally did. In truth, though Mile’s mother in her past life was not a particularly bad cook, she was the sort of person who always cooked meat well done. She came from an old family and likely inherited the technique from when it was dangerous to eat rare meat. Regardless, no matter how high quality the meat was, she always overcooked it until every last piece ended up rubbery and dry.
Because Misato, Mile’s previous self, had eaten that way all her life, she just assumed that was how it was meant to be. Coming to this world and experiencing the delectable tenderness of a rare cut of meat had opened her eyes.
Although the food preservation in this world was far inferior to Earth, the time between slaughter and table was also far shorter. More than that, Mile was aware of her body’s strength and unconcerned with such trivialities as food poisoning. Eating rare meat brought out the most flavor, so that’s what she was partial to.
Even if she did eat something bad, as long as she had healing magic, she could get by. Of course, she still kept an eye out for anything still pale or blue—that was just raw meat. But rock lizard, cooked rare, often looked like this.
At first glance, it seemed that only the outside was cooked and the inside was still raw. However—somewhat like seared tuna—the heat did get through, warming the meat and allowing the fat to melt on your tongue, leaving a lingering savory taste. The only seasoning here was rock salt, sprinkled on just before roasting. It wasn’t like when you went to a strange shop in Japan and asked for rare meat, only to receive something that was raw, still cold, and dripping blood and juices.
Mile cut off a bite-sized piece of meat and placed it gently into her mouth, chewing.
“D-delicious!” she exclaimed.
If you took really high-quality chicken and made it a little firmer… Yes, it had the same toothsome quality as a chicken breast, with almost the same neutral flavor. Yet just a hint of the sharpness of rock salt brought out a truly delicious, indescribable taste.
Most of a meat’s flavor came from its fat composition, but although the rock lizard didn’t have any obvious fat—such as a beefsteak’s marbling—it still melted on your tongue. And with such flavor… No wonder it was such valuable prey, from its rich, leathery hide all the way down to its meat.
“This is delicious.”
“Yeah, it’s pretty good…”
One would think Mavis would be accustomed to eating delicious foods, but, like most nobles, Mavis’s family would never serve monster at their dinner table. All the same, as far as Mavis was concerned, there was no better spice than killing something with your own hands and enjoying it with friends.
In the end, the four of them decided to take some more out of storage and roast up seconds. After that, they settled on a new plan and the magic Pauline would use next. Then they set off again.
Their expressions were resolute. The talking, eating, and subsequent break had prepared them to hunt again.
They continued their search, catching rock rabbits along the way.
“There it is.”
Yet again, Mavis was the first to spot the rock lizard. This one was larger than the first, just under four meters long.
“Let’s do it.”
Reina and Pauline began incanting their spells.
Mile and Mavis drew their swords and readied themselves to attack.
“Condensation!”
“Freeze!”
As they spoke the last words, the spells went flying.
Reina caused water droplets to appear all around the lizard, drenching the creature’s body and the air around it. Pauline’s magic caused that same water to freeze.
“Now!”
This time, at Mile’s command, both Mile and Mavis jumped forth.
The lizard whipped its tail at Mile, who ran towards it, brandishing her blade.
The water froze, and a thin layer of ice clung to the lizard’s body, but of course this only affected the hide. Since the cooling didn’t reach any deeper, the speed of its tail wasn’t greatly slowed.
However, that was not the point of the plan.
Swoosh!
As the rock lizard launched the tail attack, its feet slipped.
Rather than losing its balance, the beast flailed its tail powerlessly in one direction and then another. Mile swung her sword down with all her might.
From her previous experience, Mile understood that, no matter how strong she was, without the weight to withstand an attack, she couldn’t land a decisive blow. As she could not increase the weight of her own body or her sword, she decided that she would attempt to compensate with speed. Yes, once again, it was the law of ½mv2.
The moment the sword struck, she drew it back toward herself.
Unlike Japanese swords, western-style swords weren’t used for clean cutting, but for hacking with weight and power. But Mile’s sword also possessed a sharp and sturdy blade. Even though there was no curve to it, it could be used like a katana.
Snap!
Like a hot knife through butter, the rock lizard’s tail was detached from its body in a single blow.
The rock lizard did not appear to be in much pain. Instead, it looked around nervously, perhaps distraught to be robbed of both its greatest weapon and its source of balance. Whipping its head away from the girls, the lizard prepared to run.
But—it was too late. Mavis was already leaping toward it, swinging her sword.
Slash!
Naturally, a single blow was not enough to cut clear through the thick protective hide of the neck, but the blow Mavis delivered was more than enough to end its life. With that, the rock lizard perished.
“We did it!”
“We did!!”
Though
Mile accomplished the most difficult task in cutting off the tail, Mavis beamed with pride as well. She had felled a rock lizard in a single blow. What’s more, they hadn’t laid a hand on the lizard’s torso, so they’d be able to collect the full reward.
Reina and Pauline walked over looking satisfied. This time all had gone according to plan, and both the magic and the melee squads had worked together splendidly.
“Well, while we’re in the swing of things, let’s keep at it!”
“Yeah!!!”
Their hunting proceeded splendidly. They bagged one rock lizard after another, snagging plenty of rock rabbits, rock wolves, rock snakes, rock tanuki, and even rock candy along the way.
Sometimes they swapped responsibilities: Mavis taking on the tail and Mile the neck. Sometimes they even slipped and fell on the frozen ground. But they bagged a massive amount, surpassing even the five-lizard maximum stated in the posting. Even if the client didn’t want to purchase the extras, the guild would probably pay. There was no such thing as too many rock lizards.
Besides, if it came down to it, Mile could always tell her companions that the meat in her storage space would never go bad. Then they could store it until the next time there was a rock lizard request and pretend they’d hunted it when they were outside the capital for some other job.
The next morning, they decided they’d depart for the journey back home. They would spend the rest of the day hunting leisurely, until it grew dark. Everyone was in high spirits.
However, after their fearsome fight with the rock lizards, they’d forgotten something.
That something being the entire reason they had taken this job and traveled all this way.
That something, which materialized, quite suddenly, before them.
“It’s a r-r-rock golem…” Reina stammered, staring at the beast.
They’d chosen the rock lizard job partly to earn some money and cover their living expenses. But the real reason they selected this particular job was to test their skills and determine their own limits.
While the first battle had been tough, once the Crimson Vow got into the groove of things, they’d focused all their attention on hunting rock lizards, and the possibility of fighting stronger monsters completely vanished from their minds.
Now, whether they liked it or not, they happened upon just such a monster—one of many that called these mountains home.
A rock golem.
Unlike other beasts of the “rock” type, rock golems didn’t get their name from their rocky habitat. They were called rock golems because they were made of rock. Since they also dwelled in rocky places, they could have been called “rocky rock golems,” but somewhere along the line, someone had probably decided that was too unwieldy. Besides, you never heard about “sand rock golems” in the desert or “earth rock golems” underground.
The minimum requirements for felling a rock golem without injury were: 2 or 3 B-rank hunters; 4 or 5 C-rank hunters if they were skilled; or 6 or more C-rank hunters if they were less so.
That didn’t mean a smaller party couldn’t defeat one of these creatures, only that the chances of making it out unscathed were greatly diminished. They could do it—assuming they were not opposed to the idea of grave injuries or death.
From the beginning, Reina had vastly overestimated their strength—having annihilated the Roaring Mithrils, a top-class B-rank party under the direction of an A-rank hunter, she had assumed that toppling a rock golem would be a breeze.
Now, having slogged through battle after battle with the lizards, she realized that perhaps she’d been a little bit prideful.
“We have to retreat!”
“Huh? But isn’t this what we came here for?” asked Mavis, looking perplexed.
Reina’s mind was made up. “Please, just shut up and do as I say!”
“Got it.”
Seeing the serious look on Reina’s face, Mavis shut her mouth and obeyed.
There was no time to shoot the breeze, and Reina was the most experienced in their group, so in times of battle, she was the most reliable commander.
But things weren’t resolved quite so easily.
“I don’t think we can…”
When they turned to look at Pauline, they saw yet another rock golem approaching from the rear.
“We’re surrounded!”
“It doesn’t look like we’ll be able to get away without a fight,” said Mavis.
“This can’t be…” Reina murmured, her voice far weaker than usual.
The others couldn’t understand why Reina was shrinking away from a battle they’d all meant to fight from the start. But, because of her experience, they figured she must have her reasons.
Mile, for her part, had never even seen a rock golem outside of pictures.
It truly had a body made of stone, massive and almost four meters tall. It had a tiny head and spherical joints.
That’s right—it had ball joints!
You might expect Mile to remember the jointed doll exhibition she’d attended with her mother and her younger sister, back in her previous life. Instead, what came to mind were the giant, ball-jointed robots from the midnight creature features she watched with her father.
“Their weak points are probably their joints or their narrow legs…”
At least, she recalled learning something like that.
“It looks like we’ve got no choice but to fight! We’re not looking to defeat them, just to clear an escape route! Prioritize protecting yourself from injury, not damaging them!” Reina issued snappy directions, her manner changing completely.
“Got it!!!”
“Pauline,” Reina continued, “hold back the golem in front! Mavis and Mile, attack the rear golem’s legs! Slice them horizontally through the gaps!”
They didn’t reply this time, but nodded as Pauline began her spell. Mavis and Mile both readied their blades. Reina took to the rear, directing a spell at the golem blocking their way out.
There’s something strange here, Mile thought.
She recalled something that had puzzled her during their lessons at the prep school.
Goblins, kobolds, orcs, ogres?
Yes, well, of course those kinds of creatures existed. This was a fantasy world, after all.
Wyverns, land dragons, elder dragons?
Yes, well, those weren’t so strange either…
But, rock golems? Iron golems?
What were they? Were they alive? Were they artificial lifeforms? Did they have a consciousness?
Weren’t they rather implausible in an environment filled with carbon-based life? Had they been specially made by the gods?
No matter how much she thought about it, her imagination only stretched so far.
Surely, if she asked, the nanomachines would have an answer for her. But where was the fun in that? This was a riddle she would have to solve for herself.
Yes, some mysteries just have to remain mysteries, Mile decided. And yet…she was still so curious about them.
I really want to take one apart!!!
“Green Mist!”
Pauline used water magic to conjure a haze, obscuring the golems’ vision.
As always when she heard this spell, Mile wanted to protest that the incantation should be “fog,” but that was probably not something that anyone in this world would understand.
After Pauline, Reina released her spell.
“Flame Orb!”
This was a type of fire spell that exploded on impact. It was a higher-level magic than fireballs, which were simply moving balls of flame. However, since the people of this world had little familiarity with explosions caused by something like gunpowder, their idea of an explosion was only a small thing, lacking in destructive force. Half of the damage came from enveloping flames that erupted after impact, which meant this spell had little effect on monsters such as golems.
Nevertheless, it was more than enough to distract them.
“Now!”
Mile leapt
forth at Reina’s command.
Four meters might not sound like that much, but in reality, the golem was more than twice Mile’s height. Even Mavis could not reach its head with her sword.
A slashing attack would have little effect on the creatures’ sturdy torsos and arms, and any normal sword would be shattered if it came into contact with their rocky bodies. There was no logical place to strike besides at the joints.
If I recall correctly, the spheres of the joints themselves will probably be hard. But if I can damage the area around the spheres, where the rock is thinner, that should make it hard for the spheres to move…
Mile reviewed her strategy, then slashed at the golem’s left knee.
At the same time, Mavis struck the golem’s right knee.
If they’d struck at its hip joints, they’d be able to impair its movements much more, but those were higher up and it would be difficult to inflict enough damage in one blow. And the golem’s hips appeared much sturdier than its knees.
This should be fine. Just damaging the knees would impede its movement and create an opening for them to escape.
Ka-thunk!
Ker-snap!
“…Huh?”
Mile and Mavis said simultaneously.
The golem’s left knee was blown away, and its right knee crumbled as the sphere rolled right out of its joint. It made a spectacular sound as it toppled onto the ground face first.
Having felled a rock golem much more easily than they had imagined, Mavis and Mile were momentarily stunned. They looked down at the swords in their hands.
No matter how sturdy the blades were, just flinging them should not have produced enough power to destroy anything. Destroying objects required specialized power and skill. No one could just simply smash a copper sword with a steel one…besides Mile.
Before the girls could be thrilled with their results, which far surpassed what they were expecting, they were stunned again by the power of their own weapons. Even Mile, the swordsmith, was taken aback.
They hadn’t even swung at full strength, yet they’d smashed through the solid joints of a rock golem in a single blow.
These were nothing less than the legendary blades of a mythical hero…