Chapter 5: F-Rank Hunter, Yoschua Verdi

I’d partied with someone else before.

Not the bastard I broke things off with at the end—someone else. Back when I was still a greenhorn.

It was called a party, but looking back now, that party was basically me carrying everyone on my back.

Taking a bunch of useless E-Rank Hunters into a D-Rank dungeon… but the profits were split evenly.

I was pissed that my share was the same even though I did all the heavy lifting, so I tried to leave the party.

They knew they couldn’t manage without me, so of course they tried to hold me back.

I brought up the profit split and refused. Then they treated me like some money-crazed bastard.

That party lasted about half a year. Back then, I learned you shouldn’t waste your feelings on people.

Feelings or not, I should’ve just walked out right away. If I had, I could’ve challenged higher places sooner.

But what made my blood boil more than the wasted time was how people changed.

The moment I left the party, they started badmouthing me to everyone without holding back.

Ungrateful bastards…

After that, I didn’t party with anyone until I met that guy.

* * *

As I stepped into the boss room, the atmosphere was completely different.

First, I carefully scanned the inside and spotted goblins—unlike the ones outside that only carried clubs, these were armed and formed up in ranks.

In front, goblins with clubs and shields; behind them, goblins with bows.

The sight made it feel like mindless creatures had gained intelligence.

“Looks like picking them off one by one won’t be easy.”

Moras, who’d been surveying the front, spoke.

“Kid, can you burn all those goblins? You torched the ones outside in an instant with your magic.”

“…”

I answered with a nod.

“Hmm… no. They’re armed, so it won’t be that simple.”

“I can do it.”

When Moras sounded doubtful, I spoke up in a low voice this time.

I didn’t blame him. We’d just met, and I was an F-Rank Hunter—the greenest of the green.

“Oh? You sound confident.”

I nodded firmly.

So what if they’re armed? They’re still just goblins.

“Then I’ll take their attacks from the front. Can you handle the archers in the back, kid?”

“Sure.”

I answered this time. This guy had some nerve, trusting an F-Rank Hunter even though he was D-Rank himself.

It’d be rude to just keep nodding at someone who trusted me.

“Then I’m going in first. Hraaah!”

Moras let out a Lion’s Roar and charged forward. The goblins inside all turned their eyes to him.

“Grrrk! Grrrrk!”

The goblins’ attack began. The archers started shooting from a distance, and the goblins with clubs and shields rushed at Moras.

Moras raised his shield high. A green-glowing field spread around him.

‘He’s worth his D-Rank.’

A Barrier. The field Moras created blocked the goblins’ arrows flying in from afar. He handled the goblin warriors closing in with his sword and shield directly. With plenty of experience, Moras didn’t seem to be pushed back even against multiple goblins.

‘Alright, let’s do this.’

Normally, I wouldn’t need to chant.

“O flames…!”

But now I wasn’t Verdiol, and there was someone watching, so I had to play the part thoroughly.

[ Flame Element — Fireball Lv.1 ]

[ Flame Element — Fireball Lv.1 ]

[ Flame Element — Fireball Lv.1 ]

There were quite a few of them, so this time I loaded multiple spells at once.

An ordinary mage would have to chant for each spell, but I didn’t need to.

What a convenient ability. Hooray for Incantationless Casting.

I thrust the staff in my hand forward, and a red magic circle formed.

WHOOSH—!

The magic circle burst into flames, and the fire shot out, blasting toward the goblins.

“Kyaaahk!”

The flames clinging to the goblin’s body instantly burned the goblin archer. Unable to bear the searing heat, the goblin archer thrashed around and ended up crashing into the goblin next to it.

That’s when the fun started. The flames spread from one goblin to the other as they collided.

“Kyaaahk! Kyaaahk!”

“Grrrrrk!”

The goblins screamed in agony. Then, when they bumped into other goblins, the flames spread like a contagion. In that way, the goblins’ back line was cleaned up in an instant.

‘No matter how well they form ranks, a goblin is still a goblin.’

Even with some intelligence, they’re nothing but the weakest of Demon Beasts. The sight of the boss room, practically a goblin nest, going up in flames was quite a spectacle.

“Hehehe…”

Watching the goblins burn like trash, a smile crept onto my face.

“K-kid, you’re pretty good, huh?”

Ah, um. Did I get too carried away?

“I think only the boss is left now.”

I’d only used a lowest-rank spell, but Moras, who had finished off the goblins in front, was staring at me with a strange expression, so I quickly wiped off my smile and spoke.

“Seems that way. The nest is burning, so what’s the boss doing?”

Right after Moras finished speaking.

“Graaah!”

A roar came from deeper inside, and soon the one who had roared revealed itself.

“A Hob Goblin.”

A goblin larger than the others, its entire body heavily armored in plate, appeared. Its face looked especially ferocious.

I held out my Artifact.

[ E-Rank Demon Beast, Hob Goblin (Boss) ]

The bastard’s information appeared on the Artifact. As expected, it was the boss of this dungeon.

“I’ll buy time like before, so leave the magic to you, kid!”

“Yes.”

Moras took the lead. The Hob Goblin, realizing an intruder was there, charged toward us.

*BANG!*

Moras’s sword and the Hob Goblin’s sword clashed, kicking up a fairly intense gust of wind.

The battle between the bandit-looking Moras and the Hob Goblin looked less like a fight between a man and a Demon Beast and more like a duel between two monsters.

A fierce duel staking each other’s survival…!

Watching, I felt my heart surge with excitement for the first time in a long while.

How long had it been? My memory of the last time I hunted a Demon Beast was already hazy.

—You killed them!

But at the same time, those words I didn’t want to hear surfaced, and my boiling emotions instantly cooled.

‘Let’s finish this quickly.’

Bad memories could be forgotten for a while if I focused on something else or drank.

I immediately began chanting.

[ Flame Element — Fireball Lv.2 ]

Since it was a boss-rank Demon Beast, I raised the spell’s level by one.

“O flames.”

Again, a magic circle made of flames formed at the tip of the staff.

This Fireball was level 2. It might look the same, but its power far exceeded level 1.

“Get back!”

I shouted to Moras before firing the spell. Hearing my warning, Moras quickly retreated.

WHOOSH—!

The gushing flames instantly engulfed the Hob Goblin.

“Grk?!”

The Hob Goblin was startled at first, but its vitality was superior to the other goblins, so it didn’t burn to death right away. But that was only for a moment.

“Grrrk…”

About five seconds after being enveloped in flames, the Hob Goblin, along with its armor, was charred black.

*THUD!*

The massive goblin, unable to withstand the super-high heat, collapsed to the floor.

“No way, a Hob Goblin in one shot? Kid, just who are you…”

“Please don’t talk about today’s events anywhere.”

I said to Moras, my face expressionless as he stared in shock.

Moras was silent for a moment, then nodded.

* * *

“You know, I was planning to hunt alone today.”

On the way back, Moras started the conversation again.

“Then I saw you, kid. I used to have a daughter, and the moment I saw you, she came to mind.”

I listened to Moras’s story in silence.

“So, I don’t know, I just wanted to help. Truth is, an old man like me doesn’t get taken into parties easily. How should I put it? I guess I’d ruin the mood?”

It seemed Moras was being ostracized among other D-Rank Hunters because of his age.

The fact that he, a D-Rank Hunter, came to an E-Rank dungeon was probably because he couldn’t party with anyone and had to hunt alone, and E-Rank was the only place he could do that.

The Hunter profession didn’t exactly have a long lifespan. It took a heavy toll on the body. At Moras’s age, it wouldn’t have been strange for him to have retired long ago.

“I saw you were alone, so I figured I’d join you. But I ended up being the one getting help. I’ll keep today’s events a secret, just like you said, miss… no, young lady. It’s been a while since I felt my pride as a Hunter rise like this.”

Whether it was the duel with the Hob Goblin coming to mind, Moras spoke with a satisfied smile.

The bonus was that my title changed from “kid” to “young lady.”

After closing the Gate, we immediately visited the office run by the Hunter Association and exchanged the Magic Stones and materials we’d gotten from subjugating the goblins for cash.

Thanks to taking down a Boss-Rank Demon Beast, the income was pretty decent. Of course, compared to what I earned back in my Verdiol days, it wasn’t even a drop in the bucket — not even a hundredth of it.

Let’s just be satisfied with the fact that I earned anything at all today. If I keep subjugating Demon Beasts like this, I’ll eventually reach where I used to be.

“You take more, young lady. I think your share of today’s work was higher… How about 70-30? That alright?”

“Let’s make it 50-50.”

I shook my head as I spoke.

Like Moras said, my share in this party was much higher.

“Huh? You sure?”

I nodded.

I’m not that stubborn a person.

And…

At first, the way he looked at me felt kind of shady and made me uneasy, but listening to what he said, Moras was surprisingly just a decent guy. So I felt a bit sorry about it, too.

“Thanks. If there’s another chance, let’s party up again. I’ll be rooting for your future, young lady.”

The party disbanded in a fairly peaceful atmosphere.

I gave Moras a light wave as he left.

Just as I was about to turn around and head back to the lodging…

‘Ugh…’

A signal came from downstairs.

‘I-I gotta hurry.’

The, the bathroom…!

Unlike when I had a man’s body, it was hard to hold it in.

* * *

When I got back to the lodging building, I saw Mr. Luca sitting at the counter.

“Oh, you’re back?”

Mr. Luca greeted me with a happy face.

*Swoosh-*

But in my hurry, I ignored Mr. Luca’s greeting and dashed straight to my room.

Now wasn’t the time to return a greeting. I felt like I was about to burst!

I entered the lodging, tossed my stuff aside carelessly, and headed straight for the bathroom.

A moment later.

“Hoooh…”

I let out a pleasant sigh at the refreshing feeling.

The most inconvenient thing about becoming a girl’s body is definitely the bodily functions.

Since I used to be a man, I can’t help but feel reluctant about going into a women’s bathroom.

It’s oddly nerve-wracking too… Anyway, I just don’t want to go in.

But I can’t exactly take care of business in the dungeon, so I chose to hold it in until I got back to the lodging… and this is tougher than I thought.

If I’d been even a little later, it might have leaked out.

…

…Fucking hell.