Chapter 9

Fox

My gun goes off, the jacketed round tearing straight through the turtle-like creature's front shell, and the last water demon falls to the ground.

"So these are kappa, huh?" I ask, walking over to it as I holster my weapon.

"You really don't have them, either?" Ayre asks with disbelief. "They're nearly as common as wild slimes when it comes to larger bodies of water."

We're standing alongside a big, beautiful lake of crystal blue water. Scattered across probably thirty meters of its beach are numerous corpses of bipedal turtle monsters. The land has been getting warmer and drier as we head south, so the excuse of a hunting quest had been a wonderful opportunity for a small detour.

I jab one of the corpses now defiling the vista with my toe. "We should dispose of the bodies, too. If we leave them here, they'll rot and sully the water."

Ayre nods in agreement. "There are some valuable components on them that we should remove before doing so, but then we can just burn the remains in a pyre and be done with it."

I help with the harvesting as much as I can, but Ayre is the one who knows what parts are valuable, so he has to keep pointing out which ones I'm after. The kappas aren't exactly laid out like a deer, either, so I'm constantly losing track of where I am in the body.

I make up for it by insisting to see to the pyre. If there's one thing I'm confident in, it's my firebuilding. I go full out, building it out of whole logs of driftwood that have dried in the sun, sheltering a bed of tinder the size of an actual bed.

We team up again for getting the bodies actually up on the pyre, then Ayre steps back as I use Spark to start the fireworks.

Making sure it doesn't spread makes for a good excuse to pull out chairs for us to relax on the shoreline, upwind of the fire, of course. It's a pity we've got to get back to the local guild branch office before sundown, it'd be a lovely time for a camp-out.

Still, we enjoy some goulash I made, kept hot courtesy of my storage container. Ayre is amazed by the sauce, how it's sweet and tangy with a bit of spice. After all, the elf had never eaten a tomato before I started growing them in my garden. We chase it with a glass each of ice-cold milk, preserved in the same manner, over the bonfire's last flames, toast a job well done, and pack back up.

This isn't the first mission we've taken since starting our journey, but it's one of the last. Before we get to the next dungeon, anyway. We agreed to take missions like this along our route as we went. Since we're both getting point multipliers, me for being a Hero and Ayre for traveling with me, we can afford not to be picky about the rank of the missions, either. So long as they're Silver or below, of course.

Except Wood. Wood-rank missions are banned from even being considered.

Completing all of these missions is helping our reputation with the guild tremendously, but they're also raising another issue to my attention. I've been holding off on spending my points so as not to pull too far ahead of Ayre, but my total is starting to pile up.

More troubling, I don't think Ayre has noticed it yet, but the archer is starting to be the one pulling ahead. The bonus from traveling with me is clearly no joke; he's basically been in a minor dungeon ... well, ever since we met, and it's really starting to show. On top of it, since Ayre's points are still spent automatically, he can't help but continue to grow while I keep idling.

I bring it up as we enter the village, a little one like Dabun, this one named Meritori. It's strictly a farming community, though, so most of its population live outside the town walls on sprawling farmlands. Any township above a minimum size is required to have a guild branch office, however, and the Inuya-Meritori office is where we'll be reporting the successful completion of our mission.

"Ayre, I'm thinking of spending some more points," I broach.

The elf looks surprised. "Already?"

"They're piling up," I explain, then grimace as I admit, "and so are yours."

"Oh?" Ayre's eyes go out of focus as he stares at something somewhere in the air between us. "Oh! Oh, Remmi, my Archery has gone up! I didn't even notice!"

"Uh-huh. I figured it was something like that. And how are your stats?"

The excitement dims into guilt as those get checked. For an Archer, Agility is their primary attribute, and Strength is their secondary one. For me, aside from Agility, the only one that seems truly relevant to my abilities is Intelligence, though I can't say for certain it's really a secondary as recognized by my class.

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"Oh ... Yeah, those are up, too ... How did you know?"

"Because you're leaving me behind," I answer with blatantly false fury, drawing a giggle from the elf.

"Well, we can't have a Hero falling behind a regular adventurer, can we?" Ayre asks. "Have you decided how you're going to spend them?"

"I'm thinking of upgrading my pistol," I suggest, "but I haven't settled on it. I'm considering waiting until after we clear the Desert Cove before setting anything in stone. I just wanted you kept in the loop."

The elf nods in understanding. "Sacred Yorin did say that you should invest in it now that you've got a strong foundation. If it gives you jumps in performance like you got from picking up a couple combat skills, you won't need levels to pull ahead of me again."

Ayre tilts his head to the side and taps his chin with a finger, an entirely too cute pose with his looks for anyone claiming to be male. "But you probably shouldn't go completely without levels, either, or you won't be able to keep up with the increased performance. You just probably won't need a whole extra ten. You should see where it lands you, and then adjust what you need."

I give a nod of agreement. "That's good advice, Ayre, thank you."

He giggles again. "Well, I am technically your senior! It's my responsibility to help out new adventurers!"

I openly pout, puffing out one cheek like a chipmunk with a full load. "Oh, come on, I've been an adventurer for months now!"

"Two and a half."

"That's still plural!"

Our back and forth continues until we reach the branch office, which looks pretty much the same as the one in Dabun, so I assume they're built more or less to a given schematic. There's the diner-slash-bar to one side, the reception desks straight ahead, and trophies of battle and hunts all around. Some are fancy-looking weapons, others are skulls or racks of great beasts.

Completing the entire thing is the map full of pins, and like Dabun, most of them are wood and bronze. Even the mission we've just finished up was actually a bronze mission.

The one downside is the man behind the reception desk. I've heard of people who smile like a fox, but I've always assumed it was a figure of speech. Surely, nobody actually looks like a fox when they smile. Well, this guy does, and it's incredibly unnerving. Interacting with him puts my nerves on edge, and I've only done it once. This will be the second time, and I had really been hoping someone else would be on duty.

Unfortunately, while there are two other desks, both are empty, and he's already seen us and put that creepy fox smile on.

"Ladies," he calls in greeting when it becomes clear we're heading for him. "Back so soon? I hope you didn't run into trouble!"

"No trouble," I reply once we're close enough not to have to raise our voices. "We're finished."

His mouth moves as if he's surprised, but his eyes keep the same expression. "Already? We'll require proof that the deed is done, of course."

There are two ways to show you've completed a quest. One is to bring a token back, such as an ear or horn. Often, however, these can be fraudulently harvested without any lasting harm beyond the pain the act brings to the monsters, themselves. There had even been cases of people breeding monsters that were already targeted for overpopulation just to collect the bounty. I shared similar stories from back home when Ayre told me about some of them.

And then there is the simple fact that bringing in bloody, rotting body parts is messy, unsanitary, and just straight up rather barbaric. If it were necessary, it could be excused, but with it only being one of two ways to go, it's no wonder it's fallen out of practice.

The other method is simple, easy, automated, and completely incapable of being fabricated, and that method is ... the System. Anyone who has received a class can mark missions in the System's interface, and it will track their progress. Since you can share your window with those around you, it's become an infallible way to verify the completion of a mission.

Of course, that only works if you have a class, commonly thought to only be granted through a sacred ceremony performed by the priesthood of the Holy Temple. No class, no System interface, no mission tracker. Anyone who's a field member of the guild, however, already has a class, since it's required to even apply in the first place. I can't speak for other occupations, but for us, at least, it's a non-issue.

He has to drop his squint to examine the window I spin around for him to see, but the expression quickly comes back into place. "Ah, very good! What surprising efficiency!"

I frown at his praise. Somehow, it feels backhanded. "I mean, it was just a Bronze-rank mission, and we're both Silvers."

"At a shockingly young age, too," he counters. "But I meant no offense. I merely did not expect two young lasses and no more to have so little trouble, even against kappas and with silver on your chests. I assumed you had a front guard to shield you from attacks, but if so, he must be terribly shy."

If his words weren't so irritating, he'd be insufferably charming. He's quite the looker, handsome and well-dressed, with mannerisms fit for a host club. Oh, but the words that come out of that pretty mouth! It's like he's both flattering and condescending simultaneously.

"There's no front guard," Ayre insists. "It's just us." The elf glances to me for a moment. "Though if we find someone we work well with, maybe we should consider it."

"It would be a tremendous weight off of my mind," the receptionist insists. "I know you're only passing through our little corner of the empire, but I can't imagine how you've managed so far, what with only two ranged specialists."

"A lot of dodging," I answer flatly.

It doesn't even budge his smile. "Ah, I'm sure you both are very graceful in battle. Still, it would soothe my heart to know there was a sturdy shield in sturdy hands between you and such foul creatures."

"Like Ayre said," I assure him, "if we find someone we can work with, we'll consider it, but we're a little too busy to hold a recruitment drive. Can we get this paid out, then?"

"Ah! Yes, of course," he assures us, his expression remaining unruffled. "Give me but a minute, and I'll have you on your way! You no doubt want to refresh yourselves before turning in from a day of labor well spent!"

The moment the door to the back offices shuts behind him, Ayre gives a full-body shudder beside me. "Kyubi," he mutters.

The word doesn't truly translate. If it were actually translated into my own language, it would be nine-tailed fox. If the System is going to pick another language, I'm surprised it didn't choose something better-known, like kitsune or kumiho, but the message gets across all the same. Maybe the mystical creature doesn't have nine tails here?

Still, at Ayre's visceral reaction, I can't help but laugh, even if he makes me feel the same way. In fact, I'm glad I'm not the only one. It will be a relief to be out of Meritori just to be away from him. Even so, I think I'll lock my door tonight, just as a way to soothe my own nerves.