「You’re going to the north woods, right?」
「Careful, there are goblins a little further into the forest」
A human boy and a beastman boy are talking to Nia.
She listened while responding accordingly, gathering information about the area.
「Don’t worry, the forest is like our yard. We’ll keep you safe. Hey, can you tell the girl there I said that?」
「Hey, stop that. Don’t use her, just talk to the girl directly.」
No, I mean…」
The elf boy with a sword, who looked like the leader, tried to get Nia to deliver his word to Euphy, but another elf boy with a staff stopped him.
Speaking of Nia, she seemed to glance at Euphy, then ignored the request.
They’re local adventurers, born and raised in the town, and have been in this work for three years now.
According to them, they don’t want us-a single sword party- to die, so they gave us some pointers.
「Daiki-sama, are you sure about this?」
Euphy, walking next to me, spoke at a volume that they couldn’t hear.
Her sulky attitude with her mouth pouting is rare and cute.
I pinched her pouting cheeks and replied to her complaints.
「They say that they’ll give us the game they hunt, so why not? We’re going into the woods for the first time so let’s have them serve as our guide. Besides, let’s mingle with people to some extent. We may not need them, but they could be useful for Nia when she goes hunting」
「If you say so…」
Euphy showed her dislike on her cheeks, but her mood softened up when I explained the rationale to her.
Yeah, I get you.
An unknown companion is just a source of anxiety.
But if something goes wrong, we can handle it so that’s fine.
I don’t sense any ill intent, and I’m sure they’ll be useful.
For example, carrying luggage.
Boys like this, two of them are elves and one human, and the other one is a beast man, they’re the representation of the typical party in this country.
As far as I know, elves make up half of the population of this country, the remaining 40 are shared between humans and beastmen, and the remaining 10 are filled with various races.
That’s why I have seen elves everywhere since coming to this country.
I’ve seen them in Nyhied kingdom, the first place I landed in this world, so I wasn’t shocked to see them.
Well, it’s the same with other species that aren’t on earth, and cute girls too.
Still, they changed my impression of the elves.
I always had the impression that elves are a mentally calm race, so I’m in the process of overriding the perception as there are also elves who are this flirty.
I guess young people of any species aren’t that different.
Still, the environment is bigger than expected.
This city is already a big one in this world.
「This is over! Uryaaa! What a small fry」
The elf boy proudly spoke to Euphy after defeating a lone goblin who suddenly emerged from the bushes with his one-hand sword.
「See what I’m doing? My skill’s at level two. Rest assured, you won’t get hurt when I’m around here. Hey, are you listening?」
Hmm, so you have a skill level two.
However, compared to the knights of Adicilton, who have the same level of combat skills, they seem to move much more poorly and immaturely.
I can confirm that even if skills are useful, your power will increase if you polish it through training.
Also, the party had two sword-wielding elven boys, and a vanguard beastman, both with the same level of swordsmanship skills, but different ways of fighting.
The elf boy was fighting with a hit-and-run dance, while the beast boy was fighting with a one-hit kill.
There must be some kind of difference in physical ability between races.
Still, Euphy’s just ignoring the boy.
I’m starting to feel sorry for the guy.
She doesn’t usually show the attitude where she draws the line when approached.
However, when when the objective is Nia or her, she pulls down her steel curtains.
She shows no interest in anyone but me, so that’s nice.
But still, what happens when dealing with someone who has a bad attitude towards me?
Euphy-chan’s a serious girl.
Well, they’re flexible when I talk to them and that’s their charm.
While the boys are getting ignored, someone’s playing along.
Nia has a curious look in her eyes, talking to a human boy.
「Hey, hey, can that bird fight? Is it strong?」
「This one’s not suited for battle. It can’t solo goblins. But, you have to be careful, you can get hit if you’re not careful」
「I see, it’s small yet so good. There, there」
I heard about this, it seems you call it a training skill.
The bird is about the size of a starling, and when commanded, it does things with great precision.
I’ve never seen that before, that’s a nice skill.
I want a cute pet too.
I envy Nia, petting the bird perched on the boy’s arm.
But you know, if they die in battle, you’re going to suffer intense pet loss.
I hear that some find them disposable, but I can’t seem to be able to make that clear division.
「Hey, Nia-chan. I got the goblin ears for you」
「Ooh, thanks. Are you sure you’re handing them to me?」
「It’s fine. We’re just doing this as we please」
「Really? Oh, I’ll fight next time, just watch and don’t help out okay?」
Nia’s a good talker.
She used to negotiate with adventurers by doing the niche job of picking up the loot, so she’s accustomed to dealing with such people.
Looking at the boys, they’re surprisingly sane, except for the elf boy who’s obsessed with Euphy.
Still, they can’t hide their ulterior motives in front of cute girls.
Well, I can’t really complain since I’d be like that in front of women too.
The conversation between the boy with animal-taming skills and Nia continues.
「Nia-chan, have you fought goblins before?」
「Yeah, why? There are a lot of goblins in dungeons, and I also took down others」
「Huh? Have you already gone into a dungeon?」
「Yeah. That’s where I met Daiki-nii and Euphy-nee.」
「I see. Did you dive into the lower levels?」
She’s wearing good equipment, but I guess he can’t imagine Nia fighting because of her cute appearance and age.
It’s a world where you can’t judge a person’s ability by their looks because of skills, but it means that everyone’s deceived if they see how cute she is.
Her skills are like this now.
Detection 3(2/36), Throwing 3(5/36), Dagger 3(4/36), Archery 2 (5/6)
Three skills have reached level three, and if we obtain one more archery orb, she’ll have a total of four ability values considered advanced in this world.
At this point, she’s not just as good as the top-class adventurers, but she’d beat them in a one-on-one setup.
However, there are times when I get hit by the Adicilton knights with level three combat skills because of the difference in experience, and so she needs combat training, I’m also the same.
The knights are different in their personal skills.
No, I guess the Adicilton knights are just weird.
After raising Nia’s archery skills, I plan on extending her dagger skills in the future.
I’ve been raising them all over the place, but I want her to have one outstanding skill here.
「I see. So everyone wants to be a knight?」
「You didn’t know that, Nia-chan? Most of the adventurers want to be scouted. We’d all like to be knights of the land anyway」
「But, we don’t have connections, and it isn’t easy, so we take on guild commissions, and make a name for ourselves while earning money」
「It would’ve been easier if we had level-three combat skills, but only a few do」
The topic of the conversation between Nia and the boys, as we continue through the forest, has reached their dreams.
Nia didn’t hear it but the Elf boy spoke so Euphy could hear it, trying to show off to her.
Poor boy, it’s totally pointless because he’s talking to a princess who commands them.
Oops, Nia’s ears were twitching, and she pulled out her two daggers.
The boys who had been following her around to protect her also put their hands on their weapons as she moved forward.
Nia’s the only one who detected the enemy, yet they’re doing great matching her.
「Nia-chan, is there something there?」
「Yeah, I think about six goblins are coming here. I’ll do it, just watch」
「Isn’t it too much for you alone? I’ll thin the herd」
The elf boy didn’t doubt Nia and stepped forward with his staff in hand.
He holds his cane with both hands at his chest and concentrates.
Shortly after, Goblins appeared, just as Nia said.
「Stone Bullet!」
The magic, released as soon as the Goblin enters his line of sight, flies as it creates multiple rocks in front of the elf boy’s eyes.
I don’t know how fast they were going, but it was at least as fast as a baseball pitcher’s throw, rocks were hurled at the Goblin who just noticed us, and the two goblins near the front of the pack crumpled to the ground.
NIa smiled as she saw that and closed the distance with light steps, slashing the throats of the four remaining goblins with daggers in both hands, with a sharp snap, she swung her daggers away, sending them flying and staining the ground with fresh blood.
「Huh? In an instant?」
「H-Huh? Is Nia-chan stronger than us?」
「Wait, you didn’t need my magic assist?」
「That’s definitely a level-three skill…」
The four boys look at Nia with their mouths agape and surprised eyes.
They thought they were protecting a beginner adventurer, so, understandably, they made that face after seeing her deal with multiple goblins in an instant.
I feel a little guilty for not saying anything, but I guess it’s mutual since they’ve been getting the most out of it.
Still, it’s the first time I’ve seen others use magic in combat since coming to this world.
The major strategy is to first release magic as the first shot, followed by the nearby player rushing in and using magic again to take advantage of the opportunity.
Hmm, I guess that’s why it’s better to have someone dedicated to magic.
It’s nice to see how these guys fight.
Well then, we already earned thirty-three copper coins for the day.
The lower end of the range would allow one person to live off for a week, which is more than 60,000 Yen.
That’s a fair amount to accomplish her goal, but that’s only when converted in terms of a single gold coin.
The value of copper here isn’t equal when converted to Japanese yen, so I sometimes get confused.
It goes through me, so I don’t have much to do with it.
Okay, since we’re here to hunt, and Nia’s still ready to go, let’s go deeper in the woods.