Chapter 44: Hunting Strategy: Portable Hestia Rifle.

Proficiency requirement fulfilled. [Presence Killer Lv. 8] evolved into [Presence Killer Lv. 9]

[“Target found. 45 degrees turn. Aiming gun muzzle at monster’s head, now. Steadying arms. Ready, Hestia,”] Saori said.

[“Ice Spike. Ready, Princess Hestia,”] a cool breeze was flowing from my left side, where Tasianna was flying around.

["Surrounding ice in a pocket of air. Inserting object. Compressing air around bullet to form a rifle bullet. Deep breath…Wind Blast!”]

With the Activation of the spell, the wind bullet carrying the frozen spike was launched out of my wind rifle, plopping through the muzzle silently. The bullet pierced through the air like a soundless owl flying towards its prey, eventually piercing the skull of the target.

“Ikimasu!” with a determined voice, Saori threw me into the air and melted into her shadow in one movement. (I’m going!)

Forming a circle with my fingers around my left eye, I strained it hard enough to watch Saori jumping out of the shadow of just killed monsters and chugging its corpse into her storage.

While my body was now freefalling, Saori pushed her legs to the limit, rushing her body through the rough terrain of the forest, jumping from tree to tree to avoid bushes.

She was doing all of this to reach our location before my body touched the ground. It was a race against time and another of Saori’s weird training ideas.

It’s too far. She won’t make it.

The moment I said that, Saori cast [Dark Tendrils] on a branch’s shadow, made it grab her arm to pull her towards it, and then had it release its grip just before she crashed onto the branch.

The momentum generated by this action launched her through the air like a rocket. The trajectory was completely wrong but the distance she was able to overcome saved her a lot of time.

Once her momentum slowed down, she made her body dive to a tree's branch, landed roughly on it. She then aimed her body in my direction and kicked the branch to boost her forward once she locked onto me.

Just before I could use [Aerokinesis] to soften my fall, Saori caught me in her arms like a superhero. Lying on my belly in her arms, I readjusted myself and then said, “nice job” with a thumbs up.

[“…This might be the most excessive training routine since that giant boulder, Madam Saori,”] Tasianna said incredulously.

Both of us nodded to her statement and then resumed our hunt for the next monster, with Saori carrying me around.

After we had that fight yesterday, we rested for a bit before extinguishing the forest fire that I caused. If you were to look down on the Belzac forest from the sky, you can actually pinpoint where I have been just from the burned down trees.

After we did that, we continued walking north towards the Belzac mountains. We might have exhausted ourselves from the fight but making progress towards our goal, the elven kingdom, was important. We wouldn't be able to reach it before winter came so we decided to take it a bit slower. Enjoy the forest while we were still in it.

This place was my birthplace, after all, and chances are high that I won't come back to it any time soon after we meet the elves. Call it anxiousness or possibly homesickness, I still wanted to explore this place a bit more before we left it behind us. This place is so gigantic that I'm pretty sure that I barely scratched the surface.

Think about it. How much have I actually seen? In these six months that I have lived in this place, the only worthy places that I could call memorable were the two times I saw the forest from above and the place that the garm's called their home. Otherwise, I've only been single-mindedly walking through this forest from one place to the other, always on the pursuit to fulfill a specific goal.

That's why we're enjoying this place by going hunting. We needed food and also more experience, and as our Idol concert strategy hasn't been successful lately, we decided to go back to the classics.

That's when it came to me. I had a gun, right? Well, I can make myself a gun using [Aerokinesis] so it kinda counts. Well, why not use it more often then?

Looking through my spells, I had a ton that could do a lot of damage to monsters but, unfortunately, it would cause collateral damage to the forest. I also thought killing something from a certain range would be great practice to control my magic.

Fire spells could easily cause another forest fire, which I wanted to avoid as it would scare away the wildlife. Earth spells are too clunky to use from afar and if they hit a monster, they would make a mess out of the meat. That's why only holy and wind spells are useful to snipe things from afar, however, holy spells are too slow for my liking so that left me with only [Wind Magic].

That’s why my air rifle was the perfect weapon for the job.

That's when we decided on the current strategy the "Portable Hestia Rifle". I would carry my wind rifle and snipe monsters from a range, acquiring the experience. Saori would continue being the scouting for monsters, while also carrying me around to reduce the lag between kills. Tasianna would use [Ice Spike] to create the ice bullets that I will use to kill monsters, as ice wouldn’t mess up the meat's edibleness. It also doubles down as magic practice for her, improving her control and magic stats.

It was a great idea. Saori even thought of using this as training, by throwing me into the air to fetch the monster before returning to catch my falling body. It was a fun way to hunt but everybody benefitted from it, training-wise.

["I must say, you are quite comfortable with shooting, Hestia. Did you do a lot of shooting back in America?"] Saori asked while looking for the next target.

["Nah, I never held a gun before. My parents were no fans of guns and they forbade me to ever try one out,"] I answered. ["They would probably take away my credit card if they saw me now, but that's in the past."]

They might be American citizens but that didn’t change the fact that they grew up in different cultures. Germany and Japan weren’t so free with gun ownership and both of them didn’t like the thought of me becoming a gun enthusiast.

["Some of my students mentioned that sort of punishment also. Honestly, I envy that taking away money was enough of a consequence to prevent you from misbehaving,"] Saori said with a wry smile.

That's true enough. I wasn't a high maintenance girl, but I still liked buying delicious drinks and food, not to mention all the fiction. With how massive my unread library was, I really regret wasting all that money on books just to die sometime later. I should have realized that I didn't have enough time considering all I did was dancing and singing practice.

Good thing I stopped buying video games and started mobile gaming. The prices of some games and the number of good ones, oh my! I'm glad to have not wasted all my parent's money on that. Can't play games as a corpse, ha!

["Target found,"] Saori reported after finding another monster.

["Ice bullet ready, Princess Hestia,"] Tasianna responded after Saori adjusted my position towards our prey.

I coated the bullet in wind and inserted it into my gun, ignoring it's stinging cold aura, [" Bullet ready. Fire!"]

Proficiency requirement fulfilled. [Wind Magic Lv. 8] evolved into [Wind Magic Lv. 9]

Magic gained: [Featherfall]

Featherfall

A wind spell that applies a one-time use mana field that protects the user only from falling down from a certain height, preventing all damage. One-time use only

Hey, that's useful.

Once the bullet ended the monster's life, my [Wind Magic]’s level increased and Saori, once again, threw me up in the air and used [Shadow Dash] to teleport to the monster. To test my new spell, I cast it on myself believing that Saori wouldn't make it back in time. Contrary to my expectations, she did make it back, catching my body that was only a few centimeters away from the ground.

"Synergist's Oath, apply all buffs," once I was back in her arms, I applied my [Featherfall] on Saori.

["Huh? That is a new buff spell. Did you just get it?"] Saori asked with a quizzical look.

["Yup, [Wind Magic] just leveled up. The spell prevents fall damage, but it didn't activate just now,"] I explained to my friend. ["Could you try it out? I want to see if [Synergist's Oath] decreases its effectiveness."]

Synergist’s Oath

Allows the transfer of all current active parameter boosting spells on the owner towards a target. All spell effects will be removed from the owner and will be transferred with a mana blast towards a designated target. Effectiveness of buff applied to others = [Synergist’s Oath] Level / 10. Aiming required

As [Synergist's Oath] the effectiveness of buffing spells once I apply it to others, I also wanted to confirm if it affected [Featherfall]. It would be an amazing supportive spell in case my allies were freefalling down, preventing them from dying from the fall. I just had to make sure that it retained its maximum effectiveness.

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["Alright, sounds good,"] understanding what I meant, Saori immediately agreed to my experiment.

["Hold on, please! Isn't that too dangerous?!"] Tasianna intervened by waving her arms in panic.

["You do not have to be alarmed. Hestia only needs to heal me if our experiment fails,"] Saori rebuked Tasianna's worry. ["It is the same principle why we are mutilating ourselves with spells just to increase our resistances."]

["I have to make sure that I understand my spells correctly, Tasianna. It would be problematic if I made a mistake during an urgent situation,"] I further added to Saori's argument. ["Besides, you have been with us for a whole week now. Cast away your common sense while you're in this forest. I mean, you might be complaining about our training methods but aren't you also participating in them?"]

Tasianna groaned, knowing that her worry was unwarranted, ["I apologize, Princess Hestia, Madam Saori. It just feels a bit...surreal. Especially with how you two are training your skills."]

That prompted me to raise a brow, ["Do people, normally, not actively train their skills?"]

["No, of course, they do,"] Tasianna shook her head. ["It's just that not everybody trains it every day, especially combat skills. You do not have any idea how rare it is to find a [Holy Magic] practitioner. Truth be told, I was quite shocked when I saw you using [Sacred Field] during the troll battle, but it made sense when I learned that you were a champion of the Goddess of Light, Aurena. Having [Sacred Magic] must be expected."]

["Tasianna, please remember. I am no god's champion. Whatever they have planned for me, I don't know,"] I scratched my head in displeasure. ["I admit, a small part of me is curious but you also know my dream. Anything the gods want me to do will probably be annoying and will hinder my progress to spread the Idol culture around Peolynca."]

It also is baffling that they haven't made contact with me yet. What do they want from me? Why did they reincarnate me into this world? Why are my memories in shambles?

There are so many questions that I want to ask them but is it worth it when I can pretty much guess that the task that they will give me will be bothersome? Maybe even life-threatening? At least right now, I can just use the excuse that I'm ignorant and hope that Aurena and Kargryxmor aren't assholes about it. Argh, please, don't be assholes.

Tasianna thought about my statement before speaking again, ["If you want, I can tell you how to make contact...mhmph!"]

["No! No!"] using two fingers, I clamped them against Tasianna's mouth, stopping her from talking any further. ["No, please, don't tell me! I want to stay ignorant as long as possible just to be on the safe side. Please, let's just drop the topic, alright?"]

It might be risky, possibly even deadly, to ignore a god's will but thinking about my objectives, I didn't want to be controlled by them. I might receive their wrath one day, but hopefully, it will happen after my Idol dream has been fulfilled.

Optimistically, when I eventually have to meet them, they will turn out to be nice and excuse me for "wasting" their time. But who am I kidding, most people wouldn't be happy when their plans are being delayed or even ruined if a single cog doesn't want to cooperate. I am one of those people and I wouldn't blame anybody for feeling likewise.

I released Tasianna's mouth once she fervently nodded, agreeing to not tell me how to come into contact with the gods, ["Phew, thank you. Saori, sorry for taking so long but can you try the spell's effect now?"]

["No need to be sorry, Hestia,"] with that said, Saori put me back on the ground and then climbed up a tree to jump off it.

With a heavy thud, Saori landed back on the ground, leaving a deep footprint, ["No pain at all. It actually felt like I landed on a soft sponge that absorbed all the shock."]

With a smile, I gave a thumbs-up, announcing that this experiment was a success, ["Nice, [Featherfall] will be awesome to use with [Air Walk]. You don't have to fear falling to your death ever again, Saori."]

["Urgh, it makes me sick to be reminded of that, Hestia,"] however, contrary to my excitement, Saori caressed her stomach, showing none of the enthusiasm of uncovering a potential synergy between a spell and skill. Her first experience must have been awful. I wonder why? I was pretty careful about it.

["Anyways, there was something that I was curious about, Tasianna,"] Saori now matched her eyes with Tasianna's. ["You mentioned that there were not many practitioners who can use [Holy Magic]. Why is that?"]

["Oh, the reason mostly lies with how people see Aurena, the Goddess of Light, and her ruling element,"] Tasianna continued. ["The church of Aurena, at least the elven one, sees her as the goddess of miracles and healing, so most of their priests and shrine maidens tend to only heal those in the direst need of healing. Healing wounds caused by training is seen to be beneath them and blasphemous to be used on something that trivial."]

It's understandable. If you consider something a miracle then using it to simply close up a small wound would naturally take away from that fantasy. Still, in my opinion, it sounded a bit arrogant and selfish.

["As you must know, arcane corruption is a problem for every mage. Besides the oldest and most venerable priests, most clergymen and women usually don't have a high level in their arcane corruption resistance,"] Tasianna further added.

["Yes, I cannot help but agree,"] Saori agreed. ["The reason for why my [Arcane Corruption Resistance] reached level ten was because of skill points. Training it up meant being on the verge of being inflicted by that status ailment. I can sympathize with anybody not willing to do that."]

Tasianna nodded, ["Correct. As a fairy, I cannot say much more about it as we benefit very little from [Holy Magic] and aren't able to contract arcane corruption."]

That reminded me of my talk with Tasianna about races with a pure body of mana. Healing spells only restored Health, which is not vital for a fairy. They also can't accumulate arcane corruption inside their body so they could technically cast an unlimited number of spells if their mana was infinite.

To compensate, their stats decreased with their mana and they would die if it reached zero. While I cannot heal her with my spells, I can still keep her alive by donating my mana to her using [Mana Control].

["So...how do most soldiers heal themselves then?"] I asked the obvious question. ["There must be monster hunters or soldiers that go around killing dangerous monsters that are causing problems within elven territory, right? From what you're saying, those holy mages don't show up often enough, so how does that work?"]

The elves lived next to the Belzac forest so monster attacks must be common. A country must protect its citizens and soldiers are trained to do so, however, injuries can happen and considering this world, there must be a way to heal all of them in the field.

If I were a leader, I would do my best to keep soldiers alive. The amount of training and investment that a US soldier receives is staggering, so much so that it would be better to not endanger them too often. The elves couldn't possibly be that stupid to make such a fundamental error, right? Or am I too naive?

["Elf soldiers receive healing potions. The elves are one of the most experienced and wisest alchemists on Peolynca, at least, they are on this continent,"] Tasianna just dropped two info bombs.

Alchemy? Continent? Urgh, more things that I have to ask her about at a different date. Let's just have her finish this first.

Tasianna continued, ["Of course, those are military rations, so if they wish to use some for their private training, then they are required to buy them from alchemists. Potions cost money which means that it wouldn't be worthwhile to train every day, literally using hundreds of potions until they couldn’t train anymore due to their depleted Stamina. It would be better to use your [Sacred Field] on a group of soldiers, than to have them drink potions. That is why your ability, to cast so many spells, is worthy of worship, Princess Hestia."]

Woah, can I buy the skill [Alchemy]? ...Yes, I can! Should I though? Nah, I don't have much SP left and I don't think I want to get into it. Sounds too boring.

["Wait, so does that mean that alchemists are able to earn a great amount of money?!"] as if she were possessed by something, Saori eyes gleamed and she fervently asked Tasianna about the topic.

["Technically, yes,"] Saori's lips curved into a smile, her eyes now sparkling to what Tasianna just said. ["However, most alchemists are trained in specific recipes and that is something I have no knowledge about. Due to the demand for potions, alchemists would pay well for quality ingredients."]

Saori's head snapped to me, making me flinch backward, ["Hestia, my beautiful little dragon. You can already make some fine and... hazardous toxins. Making potions should be right up your alley, correct?"]

Oh gosh, she's looking at me like a predator! Even [Danger Perception] is activating!

["I can buy [Alchemy], yes, but I don't want to do it. It sounds too boring,"] I denied her request. ["Why don't you do it?"]

Saori snapped her fingers in frustration, ["Argh, I can buy it, yes, but hearing Tasianna's description made me not want to do it myself. It's selfish to ask you but it was worth a try."]

After telling me the truth, she proceeded to put a hand on her chin and then walked in circles while thinking. After a few seconds of that, it finally dawned on me why she was doing this. That attitude of hers reminded me when she told me to dismantle the monsters carefully, taking care to not ruin the fur and other pieces that we could sell.

...Which means, she's thinking about making money!

["Aha! Tasianna, do you know which herbs or ingredients can be used in potions?"] Saori's word assaulted Tasianna like a storm, pressuring her to think and respond.

Panickily flying around, she waved her hands before her body, stopping Saori's face from advancing any further, ["As I already said! I don't know about them. I was a simple maid. Nobody taught me about herbology!"]

It is easy to forget that Tasianna is 87 years old, considering how those two are interacting. Well, age doesn't really matter. I was only six months old and Saori was two months old. Our party had no right to talk about how to act your age.

["What a shame..."] Saori gave a sigh in disappointment but quickly shook it off, now standing upright. ["Alright then, if we do not know the plants, then let us just collect everything! We need more spices anyways to save us money for the future!"]

With that settled, we stopped hunting and were now going on a search for herbs.

At that moment, Saori's [Enhanced Enemy Sense] triggered and my [Detection Sensor] showed huge amounts of dots running our way.

Turning around, I saw the source of this.

It was a tidal wave of monsters running towards us...

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