Kuro no Maou

Reward: 3-5 gold per head

Deadline: 1 month from the date of acceptance of quest

Client: Daidalos trader guild

Details: We request you to hunt Dortoths which are used for their fur and meat. We also deal and trade with ingredients all the year round so please hunt freely as much as you can.

“ooh, so this is the true identity of that mysterious meat.......”(kurono) (T/N:reference to Ch 21)

That was the first thing that came in my mind regarding our quest.

Well, correctly speaking, my quest is to be a luggage carrier for Irz Blader and hunting for Dortoths is the quest for Irz Blader.

By the way, when monsters are killed for fur or meat, they call it ‘hunting’ and not ‘subjugation/extermination’.

Defeating the monster is not the priority; at the very least they also have to peel off the useable materials from the monster and at times they are even required to catch them alive or catch without wounding them etc., it can be very difficult at times.

The difficulty of hunting quests depends more on the details of the quest and less on the monster that has to be hunted.

By the way, the quests where the main requirement is to kill a monster are called as subjugation quests.

“Listen Kurono, although our objective is hunting Dortoths, we have been asked to hunt freely so we’ll also hunt Windwolfs that have been increasing lately. We are party that focuses on monster subjugation quests after all, since safety of the village was actually our original goal. But to function as an adventurer, money is required. So along with the required material we will also need to gain money from defeating monsters as freelancing as well.”

This was the full explanation Nino had given me yesterday afternoon.

“We’ll leave the village at dawn tomorrow! That’s why stay at the village tonight!”

I was also suddenly told this.

Although I feel bad for Lily, this is also part of my work so I decided to send her a letter that I won’t be returning for around a week. Thank god the postal system exists even in the different world. Of course it isn’t at a level where they could deliver mails anywhere in the country at the same rate and with certainty, but there shouldn’t be a problem if it is to Lily’s house or the neighbouring village.

Aah, I am going to be lonely not being able to see Lily’s face for one whole week. I started feeling sentimental. Looks like I have become quite attached to her. I wonder if it’s the same for Lily.

No use thinking about it. I’ll bring lots of souvenirs while coming back. Deciding that, I slept in the lodge provided by the guild.

The dortoths live in a mountain region known as Gallahad. It was located west of the Fairy Garden, past the cave where the goblins had lived.

Even arriving there would take at least the whole day. Though, we might make it a bit faster since I put their entire luggage in shadow space.

Defeating the small monsters around the village and fairy garden is also one of the objectives but, before that the completion of quest had more priority. So we decided to directly go there first.

Since we didn’t enter the Fairy garden, our journey had rarely been interrupted by monsters.

It felt a bit like hiking. We talked to each other about ourselves.

For example, Harry was Pine-san’s younger brother and Claydor was Grint-san’s son.

Pine-san’s face does look similar to Harry. Although I can’t really find differences in the faces of lizardmen, Claydor also has blue scales like Grint-san. His spearmanship was also similar to his father.

After talking for some time, I more or less understood their personalities as well.

The leader Nino is a straightforward and frank type of person. But he’s also the most talented among them and has also learnt [martial arts].

[Martial Arts] is a technique used by swordsmen and warriors who cannot use magic, to invoke magical energy inside their body to bring out special effects and abilities. It is something like a special move.

During the maneuvering experiments, I was hit by a thin sword that struck with an impossibly heavy blow, cut by a sword clad in flames, pierced by a spear clad in lightning, and experienced many other such martial arts.

Although both magic and martial arts use magical energy, they are differentiated clearly since they follow different set of rules.

Well regardless of what the actual theory behind it was, it is still an amazing skill that can display attack power or defensive power similar to Magic.

To have learnt multiple arts meant that you were a veteran in using weapons and fighting; on a completely different level from beginners.

But seeing him teased by Aten and remonstrated by Harry, I can’t really call it amazing..........well looks like he is properly trusted by his comrades so it’s OK.

Harry was, I had already guessed by his tone and atmosphere, the intellectual member of the party. He uses ’ –san’ honorific for everyone except the party members. Everything except battle has been left on to him.

He is the rearguard with a bow but since he is also meant to protect the magic user Aten, he is also able to fight with a short sword.

Claydor is a silent person, and usually doesn’t participate in the conversation. Yeah, there are guys like him even in a different world. I had a friend like him so I somehow understood. In battle, he is the vanguard along with Nino. Possessing high defensive abilities due to his hard skin and scales, in emergencies, he can even protect his comrades with his body directly.

Aten is the lone woman in the group. But, it seems that people are only attracted to those of their own race, so even if it was someone as beautiful as her, only a lamia would be attracted to her. It seems there is no danger of internal disputes due to a love affair.

A magic user like her is the weakest on her own but with the support of the vanguards she can release wide ranged intermediate level attack magic. She is the attack pillar of the party.

She can also use healing magic somewhat, but she is not expert enough to use it while in battle. So recovery of the party relies on items.

Like this I basically got their personal data.

Rest I’ll understand when I’ll see them in actual battle.

“So what about Kurono?”

“What do you mean?”(kurono)

Aten suddenly asked about me.

“What magic you use, fighting style, things like that? We talked about ourselves but we haven’t heard anything about you.”(Aten)

“That’s right. If you became an adventurer then you should have confidence in your skills right?”(Harry)

“Oh, well I have never compared myself with other adventurers so I can’t really say but at least I’m not stronger at magic than Lily. I can’t really chant and only depend on single action and defensive shield magic.”

Single action refers to magic like [Rifle] or [buckshot].

Solidifying your own magical energy and shooting it out without utilising any other spell or technique. It is fired after a single process, thus it’s called single action.

Which reminds me, my shield is also made in the same way so that will also come under single action.

Anyway, it’s the basic among the basics for a magic user. If you can’t use single action you cannot be called a magician.

“Eeh since you knew spatial magic, I was sure that you would know some amazing magic. Or rather, it’s amazing you decided to become an adventurer even though you could only use single action and shield.”(Aten)

Am I being looked at with a pitiful gaze right now?

It’s true that I can’t utilise complex chants and effects but I can still shoot bullets infinitely, small monsters won’t be any trouble for me.

“Kurono-san is still rank 1 after all and won’t be taking part in combat this time so there’s no need to worry. He’ll learn various magic from here onwards, why don’t you teach him something as well Aten?”

Huh? Could it be that I’m being treated as a super beginner right now?

Well whatever. My job isn’t fighting right now so there is no need to uselessly open my mouth.

“I don’t know anything about black magic though?”(Aten)

“No, well, I never learned magic from an actual magic user so it would be fine if you could just teach me the basics.”(kurono)

That’s actually true.

Lily is also amazing at magic, but it’s a type of race specific magic that can be used from the time they are born which is known as Extra.

If I had to say, it is something similar to how dragons breathe fire. Even if someone of another race wants to learn, it is impossible on the structural level.

So, I had basically no idea what was the thing known as magic that existed in this world.

Chants or rituals, they are all unknown things to me.

“Is that so? But my guidance will be strict you know?”(Aten)

“It’s not like you’re a high level magician that is about to take a disciple though?”(Nino)

“Shut up! I’ll bite you!!” (Aten)

“Stupid!? Stop, aren’t your fangs poisonous!?”

I and the other guys looked at the scene of Aten attacking Nino with a lukewarm gaze. Looking at this stupidly noisy fight, I was slightly reminded of the time I was in my previous world.