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Chapter 47




I stare quietly at the orc while remaining hidden.
The orc was checking its surroundings, section by section.
…Was it searching for prey?
No, it’s movements were too unnatural for that.
It looked like it was wary of something.
Its nose twitched now and again.
“Sniff! …Oink!”
And then, it’s gaze moved towards me.
Could I have been–caught?
“FFFGHAAAAOOO!!”
The orc brandished its weapon and started moving towards me.
There was no hesitation in its movements.
…There was no doubt about it. This guy knew that we were here!
Now that I think of it, don’t pigs have a superior sense of smell compared to dogs?
Maybe that also applies to orcs as well.
Damn! It wasn’t just shadow wolves, but ‘Conceal’ didn’t work against orcs either! This is the worst.
I cursed in my heart, but I had made my decision.
Thankfully, ‘Scout’ told me that there were no other monsters nearby.
Even the ‘Danger Detection’ alarm was not that bad.
Orcs should probably be equal to shadow wolves, or maybe a little stronger.
And it was only one orc as well.
I had a chance of winning if I kept my cool and fought.
“FFGHAOOO!”
The orc started to run faster as soon as it saw me.
The distance was shrinking by the second, he was now within reach of my skill.
Now!
“Momo!”
“Bark!”
Momo’s ‘Shadow’ shot out and stretched towards the orc. It would try to capture it if it could.
“FFGWAAHOO!!”
But the orc used the knife in its hand to forcefully fight it off.
Impressive. But at least it was keeping him busy.
Now I can finish him!
I unleashed some heavy machinery over its head.
“!?”
The orc stood in shock at the sudden appearance of the object.
He makes a desperate attempt to run, but it’s too late.
Momo’s shadow gets in the way and blocks his path.
The orc is resisting with all of its strength, but there is no escape now.
This was the end for it.
Judging by what I witnessed of the fight with the defense force and the people at the shopping center, normal orcs are not that resilient. Unlike ‘him.’
I should be able to crush this one.
I was confident in our victory.
“…Huh?”
However, at the moment, ‘Danger Detection’ started going off.
The orc had thrown his knife at me.
He was clearly aiming it towards me.
The blade shoots forward at an incredible speed.
Damn…damn!
I knew that I wouldn’t be able to dodge it in time, so I tried to create a wall from the Item Box instead.
“–(shaking)!!”
But Aka moved before I could.
Aka had been disguised as my clothes.
His body had now swollen up! It caught the knife that was flying towards me.
The knife lost all momentum, and it stopped when it was enveloped by Aka’s body. And then Aka let it drop to the floor.
The orc looked at this with shock.
And then the huge mass above him crushed him.
<<you earned="" experience="" have="" points="">></you>
The voice announced the death of the orc.
Ah, that was a close one… I barely made it out alive.
My heart was beating loudly, an uncomfortable sweat was dripping from my back.
“Thank you, Aka. You saved me…”
I said as I petted it. Aka shook with visible pleasure.
“Ahhh…”
…I had let my guard down.
And the orc had seen it and moved.
I was reminded that these were real monsters that I fought against, and they had their own will.
They were just as desperate as I was.
They didn’t want to die, and they would fight back until the last second.
I retrieved the heavy machinery and picked up the fallen magic stone and the knife.
When I put them in the Item Box, they were displayed as ‘Orc Magic Stone(small)’ and ‘Orc Knife.’
“Sorry, Momo. But can I give this one to Aka?”
“Bark.”
Momo nodded, and so I gave the stone to Aka.
It wasn’t much for a reward, but I still wanted to give it to Aka.
Aka’s body shivered with joy as it took the stone into its body.
“Now, shall we keep moving…?”
Just as I was about to stand up again, ‘Scout’ started to react to something again.
It was the same direction that the orc had come from.
But this time, there were many.
“Could it be that orc’s pack…?”
I used ‘Telescope’ and looked in the direction that Scout indicated.
And what I saw, was a pack of shadow wolves.
There were so many of them. More than ten.
The shadow wolves were sniffing at the ground as they came towards me.
…Had the orc been running away from the wolves?
That would at least explain why it was moving so strangely.
Was it a fight between monsters then?
No, I’ll think about it later.
I needed to get out of here as soon as possible.
I had no intention of fighting that many shadow wolves here.
“Damn…I guess I have to return the same way that I came…”
It took me so much time to get here, but now I had to go back.
We all felt quite solemn, as we turned around and walked in the direction that we had come.
At the same time, on the roof of the apartment–.
Natsu Ichinose was staring at her Mail screen.
He wasn’t replying.
What on earth was happening here?
Was he fighting monsters now?
Or did he simply forget to answer her?
“…Maybe, did I send too many messages?”
It might have been overkill to send 45 messages to someone she didn’t know.
While it was a bit late, she finally realized this.
“I hope he doesn’t find me annoying to deal with…”
It would not feel good to lose this potential party member and that adorable doggy.
She wanted to be friends with them if possible. And she wanted to pet the doggy.
It would probably be best to slow down with the messages for now.
“I guess I will just wait for a reply…”
She would only check her Inbox once every few minutes.
Until then, she would focus on leveling up.
“The owner, this Kudou guy seems nice. And I do want to join them…”
In her mind, she hadn’t had the best opinion of the owner. But her opinion had improved slightly after messaging him a few times.
Loners tended to become fond of people who gave them attention.
But she didn’t even remember what he looked like. She remembered Momo very well.
“Ah, there…”
She found a monster through the scope of her rifle.
It was a goblin.
There was only one. This was perfect.
She aimed carefully and then pulled the trigger.
The bullet went right between its eyes as she had intended, and it fell dead.
<<you earned="" experience="" have="" points="">></you>
“…Mmm, good.”
After that, she continued to kill goblins and lesser wolves to gain experience points.
“This gun is so powerful…”
She stroked her beloved friend with much affection.
“…It has more than enough strength to make up for my weak stats.”
Her status was lower than average.
Most of them were in the single digits, the only thing that was in the doubles was her MP.
The reason had everything to do with the job that she chose.
“Ahhhhh, why did I choose ‘Shut-in’…”
She had only chosen it out of curiosity.
But the moment that she selected this job, her stats dropped to a tremendous degree.
She wasn’t sure if it was because of this job, but now, her stats would barely change even when her level went up.
“But on the other hand, I wouldn’t have gotten this gun or my other job skills if I hadn’t chosen this job…”
‘Shut-in’ caused your stats to be dramatically lowered.
But it gave you two special skills in return.
“I’ll do another one to cheer me up.”
She chose a certain skill from the skill table.
It was one of the skills that she acquired when she chose Shut-in.
When she selected it, a box materialized one meter away from her.
It was a clear case that was full of balls.
They were capsule toys. The ones that were inside of gacha machines.
<<use and="" gacha="" sp="" the="" turn="">></use>
The voice sounds in her head.
She selects yes.
The Gacha skill allowed you to use 1 point of SP in order to turn the gacha 3 times and win various prizes.
The prizes could be anything from food to daily supplies, and sometimes even new jobs or skills.
She had even acquired the Mail skill through this gacha.
“Hmm, what will I get this time…”
She turned the lever and a white capsule came out.
“Looks bad…”
White capsules usually didn’t contain any rare items.
When she opened it, it transformed into cup ramen.
There was a red type and a green type. Three of each were stuffed into a bag.
She was happy to have food, but it wasn’t what she wanted right now.
She tried again.
This time it was a blue capsule.
“Oh, this might be good.”
She opened the capsule, and the voice sounded in her head.
<<you acquired="" have="" sp="">></you>
She did a mental fist pump.
You could sometimes get SP and JP like this with Gacha.
Now that she had gotten 1 point, it meant that she was getting stuff for free.
“Last one…”
She felt the mounting excitement as she turned the lever.
A black capsule rolled out.
Her smile widened.
Black capsules were the most likely to contain rare items.
She eagerly opened the capsule, and then the voice played in her head.
<<you acquired="" have="" skill="" strengthening="" the="">></you>
“Yes…!”
She expressed her happiness with her whole body.
She had finally got the skill that she wanted.
When she checked her status, she could see that her strength and endurance had increased.
“Now it will be easier to move around…”
This time the gacha had been a great success.
She hadn’t gotten any status increase skills the last time.
What she did get, was pencils, nail clippers, vitamins, and other things she didn’t care about.
Thanks to that, she had had a very hard time up until now.
But now that she had this skill, things should be easier.
She was in a good mood as she continued her level grind.
And then something strange appeared in her scope.
“…What’s this?”
It was a group of orcs.
There were more than ten of them. So many.
Not only that, but there was one among them who was clearly different.
Its skin was a bronze color, and it was bigger than the others.
“I don’t think I can take that one…”
She could probably manage to hunt a single orc, but a whole group was too much.
And then there was this bronze orc. It would be much stronger.
She was no match for it.
“But where are they headed?”
It didn’t seem like they were wandering aimlessly around.
It looked like they had a destination in mind.
“The building over there…”
She opened her map and checked the surrounding buildings.
And then her eyes landed on it–.
“—The home center…?”