We somehow managed to defeat the jet-black unicorn (whose name and race I was still clueless about), but we were forced to change our plans at this point.

“K-kuuofan…”  (M-my foot hurts…)

This was perhaps the correct time to retreat, as my sister had sprained her foot, and it was not like Buster and I had come out of the fight unscathed either.

“Gurua, garuo guruvoafa uruaon”  (Chief, the whole place smells like this guy’s blood.)

“Wafuh, gaokuruuu varuouu”  (Yeah, other beasts will probably be lured by its scent.)

Buster and I directed our eyes down and looked at the corpse of the jet-black unicorn we just brought down. I felt like it was a bit of a waste, but we had to leave it and retreat for now.

“Waaguoru guruoon…”  (I guess we could at least take its horn…)

I checked the horn and found that it had not suffered a single scratch from my sword strike earlier. Crouching down, I placed the unicorn’s head over my lap and tried to break the horn off from the roots with all my might.

“Uoooooooooooooonnn!!”

My roar echoed through the forest, but… the unicorn’s horn did not even budge an inch. And, for some reason, a little magic left my body the same time as I roared.

“Au? Kuuofa wuru kuroaan!?”  (Huh? The pain on my foot became a little better!?)

“Gaoa guruuan!!”  (My power is rising!!)

The pain on Dagger’s foot subsided by a bit, and Buster’s power rose, and even my own body was filled with vitality. It seems that the roar earlier was imbued with magic that enhanced my companions’ basic abilities.

(However, it activated simply by putting effort into my roar… gotta be careful from now on.)

Nevertheless, our goal was accomplished as a result.

“Gurua, won! Guuguruu wooann!!”  (Chief, leave it to me! I can do it now!!)

As I moved away from the jet-black unicorn, Buster carried the Great Sword on his shoulders and took a crouching stance. His target was the base of the unicorn’s horn.

“Guou, guruuafan. Guouaoou…… gaaoruu!!”  (One strike, otherwise, it’s uncool. A single blow is an extremely…deadly move!!)

For a moment, the muscles on Buster’s arms that were wrapped in fighting aura instantly bulged as he executed a single blow with his Great Sword! 

Clanggg!!

A clear sound like metal colliding against metal rang out, and the monster unicorn’s horn was cleanly severed from its roots, falling on the ground with a ‘clunk’. That is how we acquired a valuable item called the unicorn’s horn and headed home, but because the magical effect of my roar wore off, the pain in my sister’s foot returned, and we journeyed back at a slow pace.

“Wafuou, gaauru woa kuuoaau”  (In a while, we will reach the riverside, let’s cool our legs by the river then.)

“Woann, kuon”  (Okay, big brother.)

“Guruua guruau warufau”  (Chief and I will both walk, one ahead and one behind you.)

As he suggested, we walked back on the road with me in the lead while looking at the compass we stole from the adventurers, followed by Dagger, and Buster at the rear.  As a result, we didn’t reach the mountain range until five days after we left the settlement.

Still, bad things kept on occurring one after the other.

When we reached the riverside, we quenched our thirst with the river water, and Dagger cooled her legs in the river, but the sound of rustling leaves alerted us that something was approaching us from upstream.

“Gua, garufu, guruuah!”  (Tsk, it’s coming, be on your guard!)

“Guuoah, gurua!!”  (Got it, Chief!!)

Getting into formation, Buster and I acted as vanguards and Dagger acted as a rearguard, and we waited. With my sister being unable to run, we had no choice but to be prepared to defend.

What we could see in between the trees was a red-haired girl in mage’s clothes who had a desperate look on her face as she ran toward us while being chased by a huge lizard whose skin was covered with ore.

……………

………

…

Muriel Vest (17), was a novice mage who graduated early from the Royal Capital’s Magic Academy this year with excellent results. Also, since only magic users who have graduated from a formal institution can publicly call themselves mages, the title was considered as a kind of status.  

Moreover, she majored in biology, which included the study of magical beasts.

It was a field where one had to travel to various areas to investigate the ecology of the monsters and the flora and fauna in the surrounding area and publish those findings or conduct research through commissions from the guild. She might still be a novice, but she aimed to be someone who earned a living as an adventurer, and, eventually, with her accumulated knowledge in the field, be recognized as a scholar around the world.

Currently fleeing from the threat that is a C+ class monster, the Rock Lizard, she earnestly runs to be able to fulfill her dream of becoming a great biologist in the future!!   

“Geez, no, stop following me already!!”

My current situation originated from events that occurred several days ago.

To the East of Warren, the core city of the Ferias Territory is a woodland area, and I chose this city as my first base of operations because I was interested in the vegetation and the monsters that live there.

Two days ago, I received a quest to collect medicinal herbs and materials from low-level monsters in the forest. And yesterday, I, along with four of my colleagues, left the city and traveled along the Steele River to reach the forest. 

We then spent the night at the forest’s entrance, and today, we collected the medicinal herbs and hunted low-grade squirrel and boar-type monsters to fulfill the quest.

The process went smoothly, and, by mid-afternoon, we had already collected the items on the quest, so our leader, the warrior Ares, consulted, and asked for everyone’s opinion.

“It’s still early in the afternoon, and we still have energy to spare, so I would like to move deeper into the forest to accumulate more experience, but…”

I faintly remember feeling uneasy at those words.

In our case, since we entered the forest through the Steele River from the City of Warren, the boundary to the danger zone known as the “Balberra Forest” was nearby. If one were to carelessly step into that boundary, then they ran the risk of encountering C+ grade monsters, whose danger class is incomparable to the E grade monsters in the surrounding area.

The scary thing about this Balberra Forest is that it has a “low probability” of spawning a monster with a strength that surpasses the other monsters in the area and it is known for taking the lives of countless careless and unsuspecting adventurers. In case you were wondering, the rest of my companions were on board with the idea, and I, having joined them just recently, could only nod vaguely as I did not have enough say to hold them back on my own.