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The Otherworld Conquest Method of a Reincarnated Porter Chapter 172

To the Western Forest 3

「Everyone, we’re retreating. I’ll act as the rear guard. Even if you take some attacks, don’t look back, just run straight towards the town.」

「Sei, that may be a bit difficult.」

「We’re surrounded.」

「Damn it.」

The pack of flame-skinned wolves cuts off our retreat and starts to surround us in a circle. This is bad, so many of them have gathered that I can no longer tell how many of them there are.

It can’t be helped, we’ll go for a battle of attrition. I have potions, so we should be able to manage one way or another.

「I’ll move around and reduce the number of monsters. Michie, Mian, you focus on defense.」

Hmm, the magician adventurer uses her staff as a medium and starts to circulate her magical energy.

I don’t know how strong she is, but if she can help us even a little, I can’t ask for anything better. Not good, the flame-skinned wolves are shooting fire magic at us. Each of us defends against it with the shields we’re holding.

「Kyaa.」

「Ahh.」

Since we’re blocking the magic with our shield, we don’t take much damage, but if this continues, the situation will gradually get worse or worse.

Oops, several monsters jump out at us. Instant step!

I swiftly move and swing my sword at the legs of the charging in flame-skinned wolves. I’ll finish them off later. For now, I’ll focus on cutting down the monsters’ mobility.

No good, there are so many of them that can’t do anything about it. As expected, it’s probably best to retreat. I have no choice but to open a path and have the three of them to follow me. It’d be impossible to return unscathed, but I can just heal them with potions and healing magic when we make it back to the town.

No, wait a sec. This magician, she has been circulating a considerable amount of magical energy this whole time. I don’t know what level of magic it is, but depending on her magic, it might make it easier for us to escape. Let’s hold our ground here until she can activate her magic.

For a while, we hold up our shields and continue to withstand the monsters’ attacks. At that moment, the magician’s magical energy swells up explosively. What’s with this feeling? The flow of magical energy of this magician, it’s somewhat weird.

「O spirit of earth… please…」

Immediately after, her magical energy starts to interfere with the surrounding ground.

Rumble rumble rumble rumble rumble rumble rumble.

Spears of earth begin to rise one after another from the ground, skewering the surrounding flame-skinned wolves in an instant.

What incredible magic. The earth spears pierce the flame-skinned wolves surrounding us from all directions, even the ones behind the magician, which she can’t see, and the ones further in the back. This firepower and this accuracy, what is this out-of-place feeling? How on earth does she aim her attacks? Does she pinpoint the positions of all the monsters with earth magic and fire the earth spears so accurately? Is such a thing really possible?

「Huh, amazing, is it for real?」

「So many monster are pretty much wiped out….」

No, there are still two flame-skinned wolves that are unharmed. And there are others that are still breathing. We can’t let our guard down.

「Michie, Mian, finish off the monsters that aren’t dead. They might use magic, so be careful. Leave the unharmed ones to me.」

「「Roger that.」」

This may be a stroke of luck for Michiyopuana and Miancrawler. It’ll probably allow them to gain a lot of experience points. I’m sure their levels will go up too.

I sense the presence of monsters behind the earth spears, but they seem to be running away as fast as they can. Well, in the surrounding area, their brethren are skewered and losing their lives. I can understand why they would want to run away.

「Sei, with this, we’ve got all of them.」

「I see, that means all that’s left is to dismantle them.」

Alright, looks like there are no monsters that are still alive. For a moment, I was worried what would become of us, but with this, I can be at ease.

Still, who on earth is this magician? From the fact that she’s pulling her black hood down over her eyes, she probably doesn’t want her true identity to be known. It seems she has some special circumstance, but she’s indeed a woman, huh. How should I put it, she’s giving off the vibe of a pretty good woman. At any rate, we have to thank her.

「Hey, you really saved us there, thank you. If it hadn’t been not for you, we might have died.」

「Yes, at the very least, we wouldn’t have been able to return in one piece. Thank you very much.」

Yup, yup, it’s admirable that these beautiful sisters are capable of offering their thanks properly.

「Yeah, thanks to you, we were saved. I’ll properly give you my thanks later, but for now, let’s dismantle the monsters. The furs may not be saleable, but the meat and fangs should be.」

「… I see, umm, if you could just give me a portion of it, that would be good enough for me. I don’t know how to dismantle monsters, though.」

「Ah, no need to worry. I’m good at dismantling, after all. Michie, Mian, bring the bodies over. I’ll dismantle them.」

「「Roger that.」」

A female magician who can’t dismantle, huh, without a doubt, she’s from a noble family. I don’t think there’s any need to hide her face from us, but by any chance, is she a wanted person?

Still, this woman, I wonder how old she is. From the sound of her voice, I’d say she’s around mid-twenties to early thirties. No, she can use that level of magic, so it won’t be strange even if she is in her forties or fifties. I have the urge to appraise her, but she’s probably a high-level magician, so there’s a good chance it’ll get repelled. Moreover, it would be ungrateful to do such a thing to her, who is my benefactor. I’ll refrain myself from doing so.

With my craftsmanship, I quickly dismantle the monsters that are brought to me. I peel off their skins, take out the magic stones, and put them into my storage one after another.

「Wow, so you can do anything, Sei. I might fall for you for real.」

「That battle prowess and this storage capacity. Who on earth… Ah, no, it’s nothing.」

Michiyopuana praises me without holding back, and even though Miancrawler is curious about my true identity, she doesn’t pry into it too deeply. How should I put it, you two are really perfect in every way. I wonder if they’ll be willing to form a party with me from now on, too.

I’m also curious about this woman’s true identity, but she clearly gives off an aura of not wanting to reveal her true identity, so I’m hesitant to even ask her name. I’d like to get closer to her, but what should I do?

「Um, do you, by any chance, still have some storage space left?」

「Yeah, I can still fit more in.」

「I see, if it’s alright with you, I’ve left the monsters I took down in another place, so could I ask you to carry those as well?」

「Yeah, that’s an easy thing to do. For you to leave the monsters’ corpses alone, were you by any chance looking for medicinal herbs or something?」

Yes, what on earth was this woman doing in this forest? All the adventurers who enter this forest are after the flame-skinned wolf materials. Let’s probe around little by little in a natural way.

「No, umm, I heard I could make money if I came here, but I just couldn’t hire a porter. I had no choice but to come to the forest alone, but as expected, I couldn’t dismantle the monsters, so I was at a loss.」

Hmm, looks like she’s a bit out of touch with the world. Judging from the way she speaks, her mannerisms, and her actions, she’s without a doubt of noble birth. And due to some circumstances, she has to make money. Perhaps she’s the wife of a fallen noble.

Still, this woman, she has a waist and huge breasts that are perceivable even from over her robe. Regardless of her age, she’s without a doubt an incredibly good woman. My intuition is telling me so. I would like to get closer to this woman at any cost. However, even after getting to this point, she’s still hiding her face with her hood, and I can sense a strong desire to keep her distance from us. Hmm, what should I do?

I go to the place she leads me to and start to dismantle the fallen monsters.

「Heh~, so you took down the monsters without damaging their furs.」

「Yeah, well… For better or worse, I took them down with the intention of selling them, so…」

She probably doesn’t want to show her cards. However, there are clean cut marks, so she must have used wind magic. There are blow marks here and there, so I wonder if she attacked them with her staff. I can’t tell.

After finishing dismantling all of them and putting them into my storage, we head back to the town.

「Ooh, this is the first time I’ve seen such a large quantity of flame-skinned wolf material and meat. You dismantled them properly, so although some of the furs are unusable, we’ll buy the rest at a high price.」

After selling all the materials and magic stones at the Adventurer’s Association’s trading center, we got one large gold coin and six small gold coins. Result-wise, we were able to take down a large number of flame-skinned wolves in one go, so we made a good profit. Now then, all that’s left is the splitting, but…

「Amazing~, I’ve never seen such a large amount of money. How should we split it?」

「Magician-san and Sei should get the most.」

「Ahem, let’s see, it’s thanks to you, the magician, that we were able to make it back safely. What do you say about you getting one large gold coin, and Michie and Mian getting two small gold coins each?」

「That much… that would be much appreciated, but are you okay with that?」

「Yes, that sounds good.」

「I feel like we’re getting too much.」

I feel like my share is a bit small, but I’m not really troubled with money, so let’s go with it. Besides, I’ve shown the three of them how capable I am, so there’s a chance I would be able to get into a deeper relationship with them in the future. For now, I’ll try to act like a good guy without getting too greedy.

「Right, let’s all have dinner together.」

「Yes, we’ll pay for it.」

Alright, that’s a great suggestion. If we can get her to open up as we eat and drink, she’ll surely tell us her name at least.

「Um, I’ll pass. Thank you so much for today.」

Damn, what a tough guard. Well, it can’t be helped. When it comes to adventurers, it’s a once-in-a-lifetime encounter. Things like this also happen.

In the end, we part ways with the female magician and head to the inn.

「H, hey, Michie, Mian.」

Someone calls out in a voice that I feel like I’ve heard somewhere before, so we all turn our eyes in the direction of the voice.

Ah, isn’t it Rancebeat? This guy, he got back safely, huh. Well, he left us behind, so I guess it’s only natural. Still, who does this guy think he is? After pushing a pack of monsters onto someone else, how on earth does he still have the face to talk to us?

「You’re the worst───」

「Please don’t talk to me.」

「Don’t say that. I was worried because you guys didn’t follow me, you know.」

「So, what business do you have with us? We have no intention of forming a party with you ever again, though.」

「Um, you see, it’s a bit hard to say, but I’d like to get my share…」

「「Huh?」」

Yikes, what a thick-skinned guy. No, if you’re not this shameless, perhaps you won’t be able to survive as an adventurer.

「Rance, do you even understand what you’re saying?」

「Can you imagine what we went through?」

「Well, I’m also swallowing my shame as I say this, you see. But I don’t have much money left, so, umm, please.」

「「…..」」

The atmosphere is starting to get a little tense. It’d be bad if they get too emotional, so I should do something about this.

「Ah, wait, wait, let’s see, Rancebeat, how about we settle for two large silver coins?」

「Ooh, I see, that would be much appreciated.」

「「…..」」

When I hand him two large silver coins, perhaps unable to endure the cold stares of the sisters, he hurriedly leaves.

Alright, with this, we can part ways without any hard feelings.

「Sei…」

「Michie, Mian. You two are going continue your adventuring activities in the stone tower labyrinth, right?」

「That’s true, but…」

「Let’s say you part ways with Rancebeat after having a fight with him. Not only is there the possibility that he would start spreading funny rumors about you, he might even hold a grudge and attack you from behind. You were able to sever your relationship with him with just two large silver coins, so it’s a small price to pay, right?」

「…That, may be true.」

「You have a point.」

「Now, let’s go to an inn and have some food.」

We don’t want to meet Rancebeat, so we head to a different inn than yesterday and have dinner.