Lenis, who was left alone with me, put both hands on her waist and asked,
“Hmph, I don’t know what you’re trying to do, but do you think I’d be scared of anything? I’m the esteemed daughter of the Valentine Count family, Eluyt! Unlike you, Alvis, I’m a true noble in both status and mindset, so my dignity is on another level!”
“You sure talk big for someone who always puts on airs and desperately tries to build achievements just because you hate being treated like a fake noble. Wasn’t the whole reason you charged into Liberta in the first place just to rack up achievements and ended up causing trouble?”
“Wha—?!”
“Don’t mess up this time trying to gain achievements. Besides, you have to hide your identity anyway, so even if you do something noteworthy, no one will know it was you.”
“W-What kind of person do you take me for?! Anyone hearing this would think I only care about achievements for my reputation! How insulting!”
“Isn’t that the case?”
“It is not!”
Yeah, right.
As if I don’t know you inside out.
Watching Lenis huff in anger, I gestured toward the city with my chin.
“Follow me. Time to work.”
“Work?”
“Yeah. We’re going to have a rough time on this journey, so I need to strip that noble lady softness out of you first. I’ll teach you how real men of the wild survive. Oh, and keep your face covered like last time. A pretty woman showing her face around here will only cause trouble.”
Lenis must have thought I was casually flirting with her like I did back at the academy because she promptly kicked me in the butt.
Lately, Ravi and Elfin had been giving me rather lukewarm reactions, so now that we had someone with a more lively response joining us, I figured things would be more entertaining.
With that in mind, I led her to a mercenary rest stop within the city.
After realizing where we had arrived, Lenis looked at me with a slightly uneasy expression.
“Why are we here?”
“Why do you think? We’re here to work.”
“Are we taking on a request? Then why not just go to the official quest office instead of coming to a place like this?”
“You want to reveal our identities? You do know that to take a quest from an official office, we’d have to register every member of our party, right?”
“Uh…”
“We can’t go to places like that right now. And compared to Ravi and Elfin, you barely have any real combat experience. You need to toughen up by working as a mercenary here first. From now on, cover your face and talk as little as possible. With your skinny build and the fact that you’re a woman, you’re bound to attract trouble.”
I grabbed Lenis by the hand and pulled her into the mercenary rest stop.
The first floor of the rest stop, which doubled as a tavern, was filled with rough-looking mercenaries drinking, gambling, and shouting even though it was still broad daylight.
For a moment, their gazes turned toward us, but they quickly lost interest and returned to their own business.
We wove our way through the mercenaries and reached the counter, where a burly man was polishing a glass with a worn-out rag.
He gave us a brief glance before turning his attention back to the glass and speaking in a blunt tone.
“You lot look like pampered folks. Whatever you came here for, this isn’t the place for people like you. If you’re looking for a group to join, try the knights’ order or the mage tower.”
“No, we’re not looking for a group. We need work.”
“Then you’ve still come to the wrong place. The quest office is two blocks down.”
“Hey.”
I placed an arm on the counter and spoke.
“I’m not some pampered noble, and I’m not looking for some cushy, safe job for cowards. I need a gig that pays well, and I heard this place deals with those.”
“Just leave. I’m saying this for your own good.”
“Yeah? That’s a shame. I heard this was the place to find high-risk, high-reward jobs. Hm…”
Leaning back, I shrugged my shoulders.
“Looks like I heard wrong. So this place only deals with ‘safe’ and ordinary jobs that guarantee security, huh? My bad. I’ll just go check out another mercenary rest stop—”
“Oi, hold it right there.”
Not just the bartender but also the other mercenaries at the tables, drinking and gambling, all turned their gazes toward me with sharp eyes.
Lenis, whose face was covered, pressed herself against my side, clearly intimidated by the attention.
Meanwhile, the bartender’s temple twitched, and a vein bulged on his forehead as he leaned forward.
“Who the hell said we only handle ‘safe’ and ‘ordinary’ jobs, huh? You trying to make fools out of us, the Iron Wolf Mercenary Corps? I was being considerate, telling you to leave, but now you’re insulting us? Fine, tell me what you’re looking for.”
“Something dangerous. The higher the risk, the better the pay. And the reward has to be in cash.”
The man shuffled through some request forms before slamming one onto the counter.
“Risk level 6. Three experimental creatures from a nearby mage tower have escaped and fled into the mountains northwest of here. The villagers are terrified. Seven previous extermination attempts have all failed, and every single participant has died. The reward is 5,000 gold. You in?”
I picked up the request and skimmed through it.
[… These experimental creatures possess extraordinary endurance to survive the mage tower’s experiments. They have extreme resistance to magic, rapid regeneration abilities, and physical durability that makes them nearly impervious to attacks. The mage tower strongly advises anyone attempting this request to be thoroughly prepared!]
“Sounds good. What do we need to bring as proof?”
“A claw or tongue will do. The mage tower can immediately verify their authenticity.”
“One participant, then.”
“Huh? What about her?”
“Oh, she’s just my servant, so no need to register her.”
CRUNCH—!
Enraged by being called a servant, Lenis stomped down hard on my foot.
The man handed over the contract and a pen, pointing to the bottom right of the document with his finger.
“Sign here. The usual reward distribution for a successful request is 8:2, but…”
He looked at me and let out a sly chuckle.
“Judging by the way you talk, you seem quite confident in your skills. That means you don’t need any personnel or material support from our mercenary group, right? You and your servant can go handle it on your own. If you return alive, I’ll make an exception and set the reward distribution for this request at 10:0.”
The other mercenaries snickered, convinced that I was doomed.
I grabbed the pen, checked that the reward distribution was indeed set to 10:0 on the contract, and signed it before handing the paper back.
“I like how bold you guys are, offering such favorable conditions upfront. You better not go back on your word. I’ll be back soon.”
“Hey, just try not to die!”
“If you come back in one piece, we might even give you a round of applause!”
Amid the mercenaries’ mockery, I left the outpost and headed straight for the mountain to the northwest.
Just as the staff at the mercenary outpost had said, the mountain where the test subjects had settled wasn’t too far from the city.
I was already familiar with the general difficulty levels of the requests in this region.
Even if I picked the hardest one, it would still be something I could manage.
Especially now that I had acquired my new technique, Judgment, I was even more confident.
But this wasn’t just about making money.
Money was important, but I also needed to help Lenis grow.
After wandering around the area where the test subjects were supposedly nesting, we didn’t have to look for them—one of them sensed us first and came out for a meal.
It had a rather short torso, one leg resembling that of a lion, and the other like a lizard.
Its lion’s tail split into three separate ends.
Its body was a grotesque fusion of lion and goat, with a serpent’s body twisted around it as if constricting it.
Its heads were also divided into three—one of a lion, one of a goat, and one of a snake.
“… Weren’t there supposed to be three of them?”
“Ugh… T-They’re all fused together?!”
“Did they escape from the Mage Tower, devour whatever they could, and end up merging with each other? It really does remind me of a Hydra… Alright, I’ll name this thing a Chimera Hydra—”
“Stop talking nonsense and get ready to fight!!!”
Water spewed from the snake’s mouth, flames erupted from the lion’s, and lightning crackled from the goat’s.
Lenis and I quickly dodged out of the way.
The fusion of the three creatures made it significantly more powerful.
I activated Truth-Seeking Eyes to analyze its status.
PseudorandomContentGeneratedByCustomAlgorithm[Level 65 Fusion Creature 2-AN-J1]
A monstrous being created from three test subjects used in magical experiments. Driven by insatiable hunger, they tried to devour each other and ended up fused into one entity. Each head controls fire, water, and lightning. Its incredibly durable body grants it high magic resistance. However, the fused parts on its back are its weak points—attacking those areas precisely will deal fatal damage.
“Lenis! There’s a fused area on its back where the different bodies are connected. Aim for that spot!”
“Huh?! Why do I have to fight it alone?!”
“Because this request is meant to give you real combat experience?”
“Ugh…! If that’s the case, we could’ve taken an easier request… Ahhh!”
As some of the monster’s heads targeted me while others lunged at Lenis, she yelped and frantically waved her staff.
A glowing magic circle formed in the air, and once it was complete, it erupted into a massive fireball that engulfed the monster.
BOOM!
As expected from Lenis’s magic, the explosion was large and flashy, but…
“Grrrrr…!”
This monster had been strong enough to endure experiments in the Mage Tower.
A mere explosion wasn’t going to faze it.
Moreover, Lenis’s magic was more about area-of-effect explosions rather than precision strikes, so the fusion creature barely took any damage and immediately counterattacked.
After a few more failed attempts, Lenis realized her usual magic wasn’t effective, so she switched tactics.
She used a basic spell—Mana Blade—to try and land a precise hit, but she had always focused more on flashy spells rather than accuracy. Her attacks lacked both power and precision.
“Ugh… There’s no way I’m losing to this beast…!”
Sweating profusely, she desperately fired off more Mana Blades.
After nearly an hour of attempts, she finally managed to hit the creature’s weak spot.
However, due to her lack of fundamental training, the attack wasn’t strong enough to sever the creature’s body, and she ended up exhausting most of her mana.
Her legs gave out, and she collapsed.
“Alvis! Help me!!”
“Of course!”
Lenis had put in a great effort.
I immediately drew my Light Saber and stepped between her and the monster, blocking its claws.
“Lenis, fall back!”
Still shaky, she crawled backward, while I took a step back to create some distance.
Then, I raised my glowing sword high into the air.
Now it was my turn to test my new skill.
A massive amount of mana rapidly drained from my body, and at the same time, the sky above the fusion creature began to shine brilliantly.
The sudden light distracted the beast for a moment.
I adjusted the technique’s range to slightly exceed the monster’s size, then unleashed the attack.
I swung my Light Saber downward.
A storm of radiant spears rained from the heavens, piercing the fusion creature’s body.
“KRAAAAA!!!”
The monster let out a pained screech.
I had already analyzed exactly where its weak points were when I activated my ability earlier.
The attack lived up to its name—Judgment of Light.
The relentless barrage immobilized the monster completely, and the overwhelming impact sent clouds of dust billowing into the air.
As the light faded and the dust settled, the monster’s corpse lay still, its fused body completely torn apart at the weak points.
“Huff… Huff… Wow, this technique eats up a ton of mana. No way I can use it twice in a row.”
“T-This is impossible… I couldn’t even scratch that thing, but you… took it down in one hit…?”
Lenis, who had spent an entire hour running away from the creature, was visibly shaken.
“Alvis… Alvis… There’s no way I’m weaker than Alvis…! This can’t be happening…!”
“Are you finally seeing me in a new light?”
Lenis, on the verge of tears, suddenly scowled and pointed a trembling finger at me.
“D-Do you think I’m just going to accept this?! Fine, I’ll admit that you were slightly better than me this time! But this is the last time! Next time, I’ll be way stronger! You better be ready!”
“Heh, is that so? Talk is cheap—prove it with results.”
“Grrr… You… You…!!”
I deliberately provoked Lenis, knowing her personality.
In the game, whenever her weaknesses were blatantly exposed, she would feel immense shame—but at the same time, she would throw herself into training like a possessed demon to make up for it.
With two weeks before Ravi and Elfin returned, I would use this time to mold Lenis into a true magician, one with solid fundamentals.