“Uh, Sector 3! It’s a bit far from here, hehe.”
“You’re planning to take public transportation? That’s too far.”
That was the question she’d been waiting for.
Iris fidgeted with her sweaty hands clasped behind her back.
“I was thinking… maybe I’ll take a taxi. It was nice when I could get a ride from you, senpai. Sector 3 is quite a long way by public transport.”
“I see… so you’re taking a taxi.”
She tried to express her difficult situation, but maybe borrowing a car was still too much to ask.
That made sense.
A car isn’t something you can just casually lend…
Iris slowly nodded, hiding her disappointment as she bowed slightly.
“Okay, then I’ll be off now…”
“Wait. Iris, do you know how to drive?”
At Teresa’s words, Iris immediately lifted her head.
When she eagerly nodded, Teresa gestured to her.
“Yes. I got my driver’s license as soon as I turned twenty.”
“Then come here for a second.”
Something felt promising.
Following Teresa led her to a modern garage that didn’t suit the temple surroundings.
When the garage opened, Iris saw the car they had used on missions.
Teresa smiled meaningfully and rummaged through her pocket.
Could it be…?
It was.
She handed Iris the car keys.
It was what she had hoped for, but taking them right away felt a bit shameless, so Iris pretended to be surprised first.
“Huh? These are car keys? Are you really giving me this car?”
“Of course. It’s an old mission vehicle. Use it as much as you like. I’ve got plenty of other cars.”
“Ah… Thank you so much.”
Iris didn’t hesitate any longer and put the keys right into her pocket.
Teresa gave her a calm, confident smile, then clicked the garage remote.
The shutter lifted, revealing several more cars—red, yellow, black, and more.
Iris let out a gasp at the sight.
“Wow! Senpai, you have so many cars!”
“Of course. I saved up a lot before I retired as a hero. You can use this one freely.”
Teresa tapped the old car.
Iris was tempted by the expensive cars parked nearby, but resisted the urge.
She’d learned from experience that older cars were better for missions, and asking for a fancier one might have made her seem ungrateful.
“I don’t know if I really deserve this… Thank you. I can’t imagine how stuck I would’ve been without you.”
“No need for that. I’m just happy to help a fellow hero. Train hard at the annex, and take this car when you go on missions. I’ll leave the garage open. You have a place to park it at your home, right? Don’t bother bringing it back—just use it freely!”
“Wow, senpai! Thank you. Thank you so much!”
Goodness.
Even if she’d been asked to return the car afterward, she would’ve been grateful.
But to be told to use it as she pleases?
Teresa truly lived up to her name—like a saint.
Iris bowed so deeply her head nearly touched the ground, expressing her gratitude repeatedly.
Teresa smiled with satisfaction and left for the exorcism shop near the house to meet a reserved client.
“Phew, that was a good warm-up. But honestly, the real issue is driving… I haven’t driven since I got my license.”
After stretching a bit at the annex, Iris got into the old car.
It was her first time driving since getting her license, and her first step into independence, so her heart pounded wildly.
Thankfully, even though the car looked old, it had navigation and no real issues, so she didn’t get lost.
She did bump into a guardrail and a tree or two, but didn’t hit any people or cars and successfully completed her first drive.
Since Gyodam City is always short on police due to dealing with crimes and villains, small traffic violations usually didn’t result in fines, which was fortunate.
On top of that, the CCTV on the outer highways had all been smashed by villains so many times that none of them worked properly.
Bang bang!
“Ugh, didn’t expect a rookie to have a gun. Just wait till next time.”
“If we meet again, you won’t get off so easy!”
She nearly got robbed on a deserted road, but her grandmother’s pistol saved her.
The robber, bleeding from the arm, fled quickly, and after all that, Iris had safely made her driving debut.
‘So that’s the farm.’
After passing through an area full of factories, she finally arrived in a rural zone with fields stretching out.
She parked the car in an open space and transformed.
‘Is it because monsters have been appearing? There’s no one around. Good—less chance of ending up on the news.’
The entrance to the farm was covered in yellow warning tape.
A giant sign that read “Caution: Monster Sightings” stood out.
Could she really handle this alone?
She had fought solo before at the bakery café, but that had been a sudden situation.
This was the first time she had walked alone into a known monster area on purpose.
Iris tapped her racing heart and ducked under the warning tape.
Looking at the signs, it seemed the farm grew various crops.
Fields stretched out on both sides of the path, but the land was torn up—likely from a monster rampage.
In the pepper field, support sticks were knocked over, and a hoe and rake were abandoned on the ground, as if the farmer had fled in a hurry.
How far had she walked?
Upon reaching the vineyard, Iris heard a suspicious cry and turned around.
A monster that looked like a wild boar charged at her, snorting fiercely.
“Squeeeal!”
“Ahh! Oh my god!”
Up until now, she had only dealt with slow monsters, but this one was incredibly fast.
Iris was startled and quickly activated a skill.
She pulled out her whip and swung it—causing the boar monster to flinch and back away.
She followed up with consecutive whip strikes.
The whip, with its threatening hooked tips, lashed out in a long arc and repeatedly struck the boar monster’s back.
The boar monster panicked and tried desperately to avoid the whip, but since it was within range, there was no escaping the pain.
“Squeee, skreee!”
“This thing’s tougher than I thought. In that case… how about this!”
Unlike the monsters she had taken down in a few hits before, this boar monster was quite persistent.
Meeting such a tough opponent right from the start made Iris raise an eyebrow.
The mission description clearly said “Easy Difficulty,” but apparently this level still counted as easy.
Frustrated by only taking hits without being able to land one, the boar monster snorted furiously and began scraping its front hooves on the ground.
A sign it was about to charge.
Iris bit her lip hard and summoned her claw limb.
As her level had increased, the claw had grown heavier—when it extended from between her legs with a thud, the boar’s button-like eyes widened into saucers, and it squealed like a pig about to be slaughtered.
It backed away in a trembling panic, as if it had seen something it shouldn’t have.
“Skreee! Squeeek!”
“Too early to be shocked, you beast. Claw attack!”
Seeing the boar monster look as horrified as if it had just witnessed a streaker made Iris feel insulted.
She thrust her hips forward with force, and the claw lashed out menacingly in sync.
“Skreee!”
Bitten hard by the claw, the monster seemed to suffer a critical hit.
It staggered, then charged again.
Iris responded with a final flick of her hips, sending a claw punch straight into it.
The boar-type monster collapsed.
While dusting off her hands and retracting the claw, Iris paused.
‘Oh shoot, I need to level up my Scouting skill.’
Hesitating, she placed her hand on the still-warm corpse of the monster, just in case.
A moment later, the scouting results appeared before her eyes.
[Scouting Results]
Clever Boar LV.10
[Skills]
Charge LV.9
Body Slam LV.10
Bite LV.7
Spit Splash LV.8
Zigzag Step LV.10
[Special Skill]
Paralytic Poison
[Status]
Dead / Warm
‘So you can check the status window even after a monster dies. Let’s see then…’
Touching the corpse was unpleasant, but she’d do anything to obtain a skill.
Iris fumbled over the cooling body of the boar monster.
Unfortunately, no message asking if she wanted to acquire a skill appeared.
It seemed you couldn’t acquire skills after the target had died.
‘What a shame. It’d be nice if post-mortem skill acquisition were possible…’
Iris studied the boar monster’s status window again.
Just like her, it had a special skill.
It was likely a skill that activated randomly when casting something else.
The boar monster had tried attacking several times, but because it hadn’t managed to get close, it never got the chance to use it—leading to its death.