The day after Mile had registered as a Hunter she started right away with her first job.
Since the setting she had made for herself included being able to use Storage Magic, there was no need for her to carry any luggage. But since people would look strangely at her if she went out empty handed, Mile decided to take at least a backpack with her. It’s contents will only be the prey she hunted though. Bread for lunch and her water canteen were inside her Item box where they wouldn’t spoil.
Her armaments consist of a leather breastplate, leather boots, and the Mysterious Sword at her waist. It made her look like a novice Hunter for the most part.
Since this was a rural town, the way to her hunting grounds, the forest, was short. An adult would take about an hour to reach it. Mile reached it in 15 minutes. Since she slowed down when she happened upon other people it took her this long. Since it wouldn’t be environment-friendly if she ran at her full speed she wouldn’t ever do it.
「So this is the forest where I’m going to hunt…」
She followed the instructions and had even been handed a map. This should be it. To the unpopular and dense forest, she spoke her thoughts. Since only silently thinking them would make her feel kind of lonely.
「Aside from beginners, everyone else probably either headed further in or went to another forest altogether…
Since it’s a place meant for beginners, there are probably no monsters here that give high rewards…」
Mumbling this, Mile entered the forest. After walking for a little, she found a bird perched on the branch of a tree. Even though the forest was fairly dark, Mile’s eyes could see perfectly fine for some reason.
Despite detecting it, there was nothing she could do with just her sword while the bird was all the way up in the tree. But since the bird was fairly big, Mile was sure that it would be bought by the Guild if she hunted it. If not, she would just have it plucked at the inn and eat it herself.
Mile looked around the ground and picked up a stone about the size of her fist. She then extended her arms backwards, aimed for the bird, and threw with her full power.
Doooon!
A deafening noise resounded.
And the figure of the bird had vanished. Along with the bird, the upper part of the tree was also missing.
Apparently, it was quite unlikely for the bird to have escaped.
Due to Mile’s slightly too good eyes she could see specks of meat, feathers, and blood splatters clinging to the tree’s remains.
「Ahhhhh….」
After a few minutes, Mile had regained her motivation and started walking again. In the pockets of her tunic were several pebbles around the size of her fingertips.
With that size they’d only penetrate her target. It would probably be best to aim for the head.
Mile is a girl that can learn from her errors. It might have been caused by the earlier noise, but there was no sign of any prey. Thus Mile decided to focus on collecting herbs in the meantime.
But since barely found any by searching earnestly, she decided to cheat. Of course, Search Magic. Mile wouldn’t even think of doing something strenuously if there was an easy way to get it done. She could justify this level of cheating.
「Search Magic! Show me the location of herbs!」
『Please take seventeen steps forward, then turn left, and finally take another six steps forward.』
「What are you, a sat nav!? Aren’t you just guiding me? What about this is magic!?」
『Fundamentally, the thing called magic is all our doing though…』
「Right….」
Since she had expected something like a radar to pop up in her vision with blue or red points indicating the herbs, or pillars of light to indicate the position of the herbs, Mile sunk to her knees in disappointment.
『We could arrange that if you would like us to…』
「Then say that!」 (TL: I suck at translating Tsukkomi…)
Not wanting to rely on the nanomachines too much, Mile refrained from talking to them when she wasn’t casting spells. But right now she couldn’t not reply.
If someone were to see her, they’d certainly think she was strange in the head for rebutting herself.
Having changed the Search Magic from voice directions to radar mode, Mile steadily collected herbs. Apparently her optical nerve gets stimulated directly to make her see the radar.
When she had harvested enough of a certain herb she switched to the next kind, stuffing all of them into her Item box. Mile thought that it wouldn’t be good to forage too much of only one herb.
While she was busy collecting plants the effect of the earlier noise seemed to have run out and the animals came out of their hiding spaces.
In reaction to a Horn Rabbit that showed itself a short distance away, Mile flicked one of the small stones from her pocket at it.
There apparently are techniques to shoot coins or metal balls with your fingers on earth too, but they ultimately aim at the opponent’s face and eyes or only serve as a distraction. But in Mile’s hands…
Woosh!
It penetrated.
Since she accurately hit the head, it’s meat and pelt were unharmed as was its horn. Nothing that would lower its value. Motivated by this success, Mile switched from harvesting plants to hunting. Horn rabbit. Bird. Fox-like animal. She hunted them without discrimination. After restocking on her pebbles on the go, she continued shooting them like a madman.
The prey would disappear if you got into range for sword or spear and the hit rate for bows wasn’t too good either. Accordingly, a normal Hunter couldn’t hunt that many birds and small enemies.
And finally a big one appeared: a boar!
Woosh!
She had made a big catch.
Mile returned with a happy and relaxed expression on her face.
But then she noticed it.
「Ah, I didn’t use magic even once despite being a magician…」
As it would seem, Mile didn’t recognise using Search Magic as “using magic”.
Certainly, it didn’t leave the impression that she had “hunted with magic” if she didn’t use any Attack Magic, but this was too hard on the standing of Search Magic. Although the fault for this probably lies with the first impression of “sat nav”…
And in conclusion, Mile had used neither Attack Magic nor her sword. Mile had come to the Hunter Guild to turn her prey into money.
She carried a part of it in the bag she had slung over her right shoulder.
For the sake of convenience she wouldn’t hide that she could use Storage Magic from now on, but returning empty handed would make it look like she failed to hunt anything, so she wanted to show that she successfully hunted something.
Since she only wanted to turn in the Horn Rabbits and herbs from the continuous commissions as well sell off other animal parts, Mile headed directly towards the material counter without stopping by the reception counter. Before reaching it though, a man approached her.
「Do you have a moment?」
Does he want to flirt or does he want to nag me about something?
When Mile took a slightly defensive stance, the man, no the boy, quickly continued.
「I’m nobody suspicious! I just want to recruit you into our party!
Our party has five people, but we are lacking a bit of offensive power. And so we’re looking for a new member. These guys are the members.」
Behind the boys were two other boys and two girls.
「I haven’t seen you around here, are you from another city? Judging by that full bag you seem quite skilled, but when you go solo there’s nobody to help you in a tight spot. There’s not much of an age gap between us and you could be at ease since we already have two girls in our party. Would you be interested in joining us?」
Mile’s intention to join a party was zero. If she formed a party her irregularities would come to light immediately and her teammates would probably either try to use her or even sell information about her to some nobles.
But having this conversation in the middle of the room, while still carrying her stuff, take any longer would stand out and it would be even worse if he got stubborn about it.
「Is it okay if I turn in my goods first?」
「Ah, sorry. We’ll wait here」
The boy obediently stepped back.
Mile then went to the material counter, recited her name and identification number, and took out her prey.
By doing this her accomplishments as a Hunter, such as the continuous commission or the delivered materials, will get recorded and count towards raising her Rank.
「Oh, little girl, you seem quite skilled despite your youth. Not to mention there’s quite a lot and the pelts are essentially undamaged. I’ll add in a little bonus for you.」
The middle aged man behind the counter said while admiring the fruits of her work.
「Really? Thank you very much! Ah, but I still have more…」
Mile then started pulling out the remaining animals from her Storage Magic and lined them up on the counter. Meanwhile the clerk’s eyes had grown to the size of saucers.
「S-Storage Magic…. And what’s with that amount….」
「Eh? Is something the matter?」
「Is something the matter, she says….」
When Mile took out the boar at the end, the man’s jaw dropped to the floor.
