Hunting
Part 1: Adventurer Ranks
I walked to the canteen as fast as my feet could carry me. Not because I was in a rush, but because I couldn’t wait to tell my friends the good news.
It had already been three months since I’d registered as an adventurer. During that time, I’d spent my days doing what you might call menial work, earning a wage. The jobs that Rank 10 adventurers could accept were hardly fitting of the title “adventurer.”
According to Albert, we were more like “errand boys.” This applied not just to tenth-ranks but to all lower-rank adventurers in general. The time after registration was considered a period during which the guild and the townsfolk could determine whether new adventurers could be trusted, whether they would be useful, and where their strengths were. So we couldn’t even apply for jobs that were especially dangerous or required confidentiality.
Lowly adventurers needed to build up their track record by doing transportation and other grunt work. Then, if they proved themselves trustworthy and useful, they would rank up in no time—thanks to the merit-based system typical of adventurers and merchants.
Adventurers rose in the ranks by receiving evaluations from clients, which they could read after completing the requests. Therefore, clients couldn’t give bad reviews, because it would be a hassle for clients if adventurers didn’t like them. If clients got bad reputations, their requests wouldn’t be accepted in the future. But on the other hand, it wasn’t good for adventurers to be overly critical of clients, or to threaten them. If they did do anything like that, they could have their adventurer registration terminated. The Adventurers’ Guild did a lot of work to balance the interests of clients and adventurers.
Not to toot my own horn, but I had been working incredibly hard. The system of having my work evaluated transparently really suited my personality. In my old world, I’d worked day after day for nothing, never knowing if I was making any kind of difference. In comparison, I really enjoyed working as an adventurer because I could easily see the results of my efforts. The clients often thanked me for what I did, and I found that direct connection especially motivating.
I had also gradually come to realize that my body, despite its slim frame, was quite sturdy and strong. No matter how hard I worked, I rarely felt tired. I was sure the reason I could work all day every day was because of my newfound youth, and I’d been giving silent thanks daily. But it turned out the two things weren’t necessarily related.
One day, while talking with Ellie, she said, “Ugh, I’m so jealous of your physical enhancement ability, Haruka. You can use that and magic like it’s nothing. Not fair.”
“What’s a physical enhancement ability?”
“Wait, you’re doing it unconsciously?” she asked in disbelief. “I’d heard people like that popped up sometimes, but I never thought I’d actually meet one of you…”
Then she asked me if I was joking, and I could only tell her I wasn’t, and that I had no recollection of doing anything like what she said. When she realized I was genuinely confused, Ellie explained what a physical enhancement ability was—looking stunned all the while.
Apparently, when you became good at amassing mana in your body, your physical specs would get a significant boost. The umbrella term for this was “physical enhancement.” It was normally a technique you’d learn from someone or acquire through physical training, but Ellie said I probably just did it without even realizing it.
After listening to her explanation, I finally understood that this was the reason for my strength and stamina, not just my youth.
I’d had an inkling I might be different, but it took courage to ask, “Is something wrong with me?” Most of the adventurers around me were way stronger and more agile than regular people in my old world, so I had no idea what the baseline was. I’d initially assumed that this new body just happened to have outstanding raw specs. That was why I hadn’t asked any questions.
But I still didn’t understand how I was making myself stronger. It was a little scary not knowing what was happening to my own body, but for now, I decided to accept the situation as it was.
According to Ellie’s explanation, most top adventurers (other than mages) had high levels of physical enhancement. But even among high-ranking adventurers, some simply weren’t as good at either magic or physical enhancement. For example, Ralf.
Apparently, his story was pretty infamous. It was also why people’s opinions of him, someone who had risen to such a high rank as he was, were neatly divided. Ellie, too, had originally respected him, but her opinion had tanked after the way he’d treated her friend. Communities of women sure are scary. Now that I had a woman’s body myself, I needed to keep that in mind.
Setting aside the tragic or terrifying stories I’d heard, I felt somewhat relieved to understand why I was so physically strong. Normally, there was no way I would have been able to lift something bigger than my body, for example. Plus, it was strange that I hadn’t suffered a single scratch that time I’d almost sliced my finger off with a knife.
What I found especially curious was that I hardly sustained injuries—but it definitely wasn’t because my skin or body had hardened, or something. My skin was soft and elastic, and my breasts still jiggled whenever I moved. So what was the real reason? Ultimately, I still didn’t really understand how physical enhancement actually worked.
Mana, magic, physical enhancement… As much as I wanted to study all of these topics properly at some point, right now, I was enjoying my work and building new relationships, so I just couldn’t find the time.
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Part 2: The Job Board
HARUKA turned out to be skilled at most jobs. Raised in a country with a compulsory education system, she could do arithmetic, and she’d worked at a big company for so long that she could easily come up with efficient methods of getting work done. The fact that she’d had subordinates at her old job also made her good at supporting the other people she worked with
Even Dennis, Dominic, and Roman—always rowdy when they were on a job—listened to her, which had a domino effect on the rest of the strong but easily influenced people around them. As a result, Haruka drove people to work much more efficiently than before.
At first, Haruka attracted attention as no more than a sideshow, but her clients soon realized there was more to her than that. She rose through the ranks smoothly until it was finally the day that she became one of Oranz’s Rank 5 adventurers, the fastest ever to achieve such a feat.
Haruka was familiar with the merchants in the city by now, and they often tried to recruit her. The various masters of workshops liked her too. In fact, by this point, there were few people who didn’t know Haruka.
She had already paid back her debt to Ralf and was earning enough to lead a normal life. Everything was going well. She was feeling great.