The Mysterious Child: An Adventure Tale Beginning with Numerology

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Author Notes:

  [Today's two updates. 1/2

  The second update is planned for noon.]

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Elenora's adventurer registration went through without any particular problems.

Compared to my hometown where I registered, this Adventurers' Guild was quite small, with only a few adventurers scattered about. I guess towns with dungeons are indeed more prosperous than others.

No one looked down on us for being children. Rather, the receptionist and the adventurers who happened to be there smiled warmly as they watched us stretching to peek over the counter.

"Master, can we take a quest today too?"

"Sure. Go ahead and look."

"Thanks a bunch!"

I rushed to the sparsely populated quest board. Elenora followed behind, her footsteps pattering.

G-rank quests are basically all odd jobs. Delivering documents, emptying toilets, mowing lawns for private homes... Anyone can do them, but there's almost no danger involved.

F-rank quests sometimes involve going outside the town. However, they're all tasks that can be done nearby and the rewards are small. In this town, monster subjugation quests seem to start from E-rank at the lowest.

Well, if we diligently complete F-rank quests, we can get promoted. We'll start by steadily working our way up.

"Herb gathering, nut gathering, fish catching in the river... Outside the town, it's mostly gathering quests."

"Mm, good at gathering."

Elenora peered at the quest board and said.

"It's our first quest, so Elenora can choose if you'd like."

"Mm... then this one."

She pointed to "Gather 5 Red Kakishimeji Mushrooms."

Kakishimeji is famous as a poisonous mushroom in Japan. I wonder if it's different in this world.

...Ah, at the end of the request it says "※Please provide specimens with minimal damage for research purposes. Caution: contains poison." So it is a poisonous mushroom after all.

"It seems to be a poisonous mushroom, is that okay?"

"Mm. No problem."

Elenora nodded firmly.

With that decided, it was time to depart.

As we accepted the quest, the receptionist approached us with a worried expression.

"Are you two sure you'll be alright? This quest requires going outside the town."

"Yes, we'll be fine. Just in case, our guardian will accompany us."

"I see... Well, if that's the case. But be careful, there are lots of beasts and monsters in the forest during autumn. And don't touch the poisonous mushrooms with bare hands, make sure to put them in a bag to bring back. Promise me, okay?"

What a kind receptionist.

She has a gentle atmosphere, but she's beautiful and kind to children. If there was an Adventurers' Guild receptionist competition, she'd win for sure. No, no, I shouldn't start wanting to settle down in this town.

"Mm, Ruruk making weird face."

"It's your imagination. *stern face*"

After making the promise with the receptionist, we explained the quest we had accepted to Roze, who was waiting near the entrance.

Roze took out leather gloves and a small hemp bag from her item box and handed them to us. Once Elenora had put them away in her pouch, it was time to set off on our quest!

□ □ □ □ □

...How did it come to this?

I was dumbfounded.

It was supposed to be just a simple poisonous mushroom gathering quest. We came with a light heart because they were said to grow near the entrance of the nearby forest.

Of course, we had studied how to identify the mushrooms, so we found and bagged five specimens without much trouble—up to that point, everything was fine.

The first cause was Roze, who had been waiting behind us the whole time.

I should have thought about it.

How Roze intended to teach us mystic arts and magic in the first place. I should have been able to guess her method somewhat from yesterday's incident with the thieves.

"'Threshold Compilation'"

Behind us, as we were happily gathering the poisonous mushrooms, Roze used the familiar mystic art towards the depths of the forest.

By the time we noticed, there was no time to ask what she had done.

From deep in the forest, a red-brown furred bear monster—a Bloody Bear—appeared majestically.

A Bloody Bear. A C-rank monster.

In other words, it's strong enough that a C-rank adventurer could defeat it. By no means is it an opponent that 9-year-old novice adventurers and a little girl should be fighting.

Yet what do you think the Mystic King—no, the Demon King—said?

"Look, here comes your practice dummy."

I couldn't believe my ears.

It was the same with the thieves yesterday, but this master seems to think it's natural to make unreasonable demands on her apprentices for the sake of teaching.

So that "Threshold Compilation" from earlier must have been to spread information to lure monsters. She skillfully wrote into the forest that there was bait here.

The Bloody Bear came running, drooling.

Suppressing the urge to run away, I stood my ground and glared at the Bloody Bear, keeping Elenora behind me.

We must look like small animals to it. It came straight at us without stopping.

There was no choice.

"'Stop'!"

When I hit it with "Word Soul," the Bloody Bear stumbled and fell.

Good, it works on a C-rank opponent.

But my joy was short-lived. The Bloody Bear quickly regained its footing and started running again.

The effect time was shorter than I thought.

It's a C-rank monster after all. Not an opponent we can be optimistic about.

But I don't have any other techniques for long-range combat besides "Word Soul." It might be possible to confuse it with "Illusion," but it's a gamble—

Just as I was thinking that—

"'Fireball'!"

A mass of flame shot out from behind me.

Fireball, a beginner-level fire attribute magic.

It's supposed to be magic that throws a palm-sized ball of fire at the enemy...

But the Fireball that Elenora released was clearly bigger than my height.

"Grrr?"

Even the Bloody Bear made a face that said "Seriously?" as it took the mass of flame head-on.

This was the second cause.

Behold the terrifying little girl mage.

The flames quickly incinerated the Bloody Bear, and sparks scattered all around.

The fire spread throughout the forest in the blink of an eye.

Oh no... it's a forest fire.

"'Aqua Shower'!"

And once again, the presence of magic.

This time, a large amount of water was released into the sky, turning into a downpour that rained down on the forest.

Of course, we were under it too, getting completely soaked.

When the rain stopped, in the scorched forest stood a drenched me and Elenora, and for some reason, a completely dry Roze.

"Elenora," Roze said in a stern voice.

Yeah, this is surely going to be a scolding.

"Your precision in kneading mana is low. If you're going to scale up a beginner-level magic to that size with your abundant mana, it would be more mana-efficient to use an intermediate-level magic from the start. Also, if you restrained the power of release a bit more, the potency would increase."

"Mm, understood."

Huh? No comment on this situation? Is this really the time for normal instruction? And by the way, you completely skipped the incantation in the middle, is that normal? Even Verugana needed at least two measures of words!

"Ruruk."

"Ah, yes!"

"Try not to use 'Word Soul' as much as possible."

"Huh?"

But that's my only lifeline that I can safely use in battle!

If I seal this away, there's only one thing I can do. Be bait.

"Listen, I didn't expect your Level 1 technique to work on a C-rank monster either. Certainly, 'Word Soul' seems versatile for a mystic art and can be used in various situations... but when something is easy to use, it reduces ingenuity and other skills don't grow. When the effect of 'Word Soul' wore off instantly earlier, did you think of your next move?"

"...No, nothing."

I was just panicking.

"Then train in other techniques. Since you can create your own techniques, it seems you have a good affinity with Ideation Method, so polish that and the still few Substitution Methods you have. From now on, make 'Word Soul' your last resort. That's the best choice for you."

"Yes, I understand."

As expected of the Mystic King, her words were too persuasive.

Despite everything, she's truly a master standing at the pinnacle of mystic arts. It shouldn't be easy to point out weaknesses and areas for improvement after just one battle, but I guess that's the power of experience.

As I was nodding, impressed at least by our master's teaching ability,

"Alright, next one—'Threshold Compilation'!"

"Wait a minute!"

Coming from deep in the forest was a tiger with large fangs.

It's a Saber-toothed Tiger. Another C-rank monster.

"Come on Ruruk, it's time to learn a new technique."

"There's a limit to how Spartan this should be!"

And so, while trying to succeed with new techniques, we repeated a cycle of being chased by monsters, running away, Elenora unleashing beginner-level magic of the wrong scale, the forest getting destroyed as collateral damage, and then being chased by different monsters.

At least we managed to complete the poisonous mushroom gathering quest.