I would’ve hated this were I in the Wendigos’ position.
—You leveled up!
—You leveled up!
—You leveled up!
Oh nice, my level went up.
My leveling had come to a halt around level 20, since I’d already gotten every bit of EXP I could from the monsters that surrounded the northern city. I was glad to see that the supposed strongest monster outside of the city really was strong.
I looked around at the fallen Wendigos. They had no idea what happened to them. Their pole-like frames made for the perfect targets for my machine gun.
Unfortunately, by this point, the ones still standing had figured out what was going on. The more hotheaded ones settled on a full-frontal attack, rushing toward Ms. Isabella’s team.
This move made them even better targets for me.
“Eeek!”
“Bwaff!”
The rushers fell while screeching. They didn’t matter anymore, so the real issue was the ones who’d escaped into the forest in all directions.
“Grade 2: Normal Fire!”
“Grade 2: Wall of Flame!”
The mages sent magic after their backs. Some of the Wendigos toppled, while the others kept running, so the effect wasn’t perfect. They weren’t known as magic-resistant mage killers for nothing.
I’d finished sweeping away the forthcoming Wendigos, so I swapped my weapon on the tripod for an anti-materiel rifle.
Precise long-range shots followed.
“Gwuh!”
“Ab... Buh...!”
One kill per shot. I pulled the trigger at each head I saw between the trees, which were barely even obstacles to me. There was no need for me to falter, since this was the exact situation I’d been training for this entire month. All I had to do was disassociate while fervently shooting each and every head I could find.
The melee team that had been hiding in the forest finally came out and confronted the Wendigos. There were fewer than a tenth of the monsters left, so the only thing I would need to do was support them during their scuffles.
A few minutes after repeating my brain-blasting work—
—You leveled up!
Mission complete.
As soon as the last Wendigo’s head was blown off, I took my eye away from the scope.
†
Now that most of the monsters were defeated, we just had to survey the area for any stragglers. Then the only thing left would be to wait for Master Shinobu.
After I removed my gun from the tripod and climbed down from the tree, Ms. Isabella called out to me.
“That was amazing! You suppressed them with such power!”
I had to laugh bitterly at her sighing in awe. “No, I’m not amazing at all.”
The real amazement here was these weapons that Master Shinobu had granted me. They could fire way more consecutive shots than bows could, with more power and precision. My own abilities didn’t even really come into play. Anyone could become a high-level warrior if they used these weapons after they were powered up by Master Shinobu.
“I should’ve expected nothing less of a servant of Master Shinobu Iijima. You’re just as humble as he is.”
“I’m really not being humble. I’m just telling the truth. Anyway,” I changed the subject. “I’m going to go look for stragglers now.”
“But aren’t you more suited for mid- to long-range combat?”
“It’s definitely dangerous for me if anything gets too close, but I don’t think that’s likely to happen...at all, to be honest.”
Master Shinobu had instructed me to use the midrange heavy machine guns to scatter the small fry. My real strength would be the super long-range shots the anti-materiel rifle was capable of. But even if the machine guns were just for small fry, I couldn’t think of them as anything less than tools of the gods.
“Hmm... You may say so, but Master Shinobu Iijima tasked me with taking care of you. Mr. Nathan, Mr. Joachim!” Ms. Isabella clapped her hands together, bringing two adventurers running to us. “These are the most capable melee fighters on our team. They’re A-rank adventurers, so they’re perfect as guards.”
One of them was the man who’d heckled Master Shinobu during the selection exam. To be frank, as soon as he’d insulted my master, he’d already been categorized as the type of person I dislike most in my brain.
Naturally, I didn’t want to work with him either.
But since I was leaving the unit assignments to Ms. Isabella, it wasn’t my place to complain.
And so, about an hour had passed since we had separated from Ms. Isabella and the others and walked deeper into the forest.
I couldn’t sense the Wendigos or any other monsters, so it was probably safe to assume we’d successfully completed our city protection mission.
“So, Little Miss Alice?” One of the men sneered down at me.
“Yes, sir?”
“You don’t have to answer so curtly,” he said with a fake pout.
“We’re currently tracking down monsters. We don’t know when they’ll come at us, so please keep the personal talk to a minimum.”
“Again with that. You’re so boring, Ali-girl!”
“Could you please stop with the nicknames? I don’t believe we’ve gotten that familiar.”
Nathan and Joachim shrugged at each other and rolled their eyes.
“Aw, come on, Lil Alice! Do we really look that scary to you? Is it because we’re adults?”
“Or maybe it’s because we’re A-rank adventurers? You’re so intimidated by how great we are? No need to hold back around us, girlie. If you want, you can come play in my bedroom tonight, how ’bout that? We’re very respected by our juniors as their dependable A-rank older brothers, see?”
“Yeah! We’re just laid-back, powerful big bros who’ll smile and give you some pocket change if you pour us some drinks.”
I couldn’t listen to them anymore. My hair was already standing on edge after their gross nicknames. The words they were saying, the leering gazes... Everything was just so unpleasant and disgusting.
“Hey.” With a sudden, rough change in tone, Nathan blocked my path, his hand stretched out toward me.
I lightly jumped back to put some distance between us. “What are you doing?!”
“You’ve been ignoring us. Don’t think you’re so high and mighty just ’cause we think you’re cute. We were just pampering you to get your legs open.”
What scum. I didn’t think there were any good men in this world aside from Master Shinobu. I felt like I’d met nothing but people like this since I’d left my Domie family in the forest.
“It seems I made a mistake working with you two. Thankfully, I’m done scoping out the area, so let’s part ways here and return to Ms. Isabella.”
Nathan smiled gleefully. “We’re not going back to her. Neither are you.”
I couldn’t even ask what he meant before I was hoisted in the air and thrown backward.
My back hit the ground. Joachim was cackling disgustingly over me.
“I snuck up while Nathan was distracting you. Silent step techniques, suppressing my presence, handless combat techniques... Melee may be my forte, but my skills make me geared more toward assassin work.”