GILF Hunter

Dozens of swarms of bees flew in from the direction of the forest sky.

The Stingers, having flown in an instant, covered the sky with the loud sound of wings as they soared over the campsite.

Moreover, the sky was darkening as the sun set.

As the sun dipped behind the mountains, darkness settled in, making the incoming monsters invisible.

It was a monster raid targeting the night.

’Light the torches!’

The mercenaries hastily lit more torches, but that was insufficient to spot the monsters hovering high in the sky.

Only the threatening sound of wings echoed everywhere in the invisible darkness.

’Don’t split up, huddle together!’

The mercenary groups, caught in the sudden raid, were scattered here and there, huddled only with their own members.

The problem was that these were groups hastily gathered from the surrounding areas.

Since they had only just settled in and set up camp, they lacked the coordination for large-scale group combat.

’I’m using it!’

’Spread it as wide as possible!’

Mika hurriedly raised her staff.

Feeling a substantial amount of mana radiating from her, Hamel and Clea turned their heads.

Immediately, a massive barrier enveloped the entire campsite.

─!!

A few Stingers, who were diving toward isolated mercenaries, were blocked by the suddenly deployed barrier and hurriedly took flight again.

The Stingers, looking for a chance to ambush, circled overhead and attacked, but all were repelled by the barrier.

Taking advantage of the time gained, Ian quickly called out to Tanya.

’Tanya! Lights! Use everything we brought!’

’Yes!’

The high-grade light orbs Tanya had packed were scattered in all directions via the fairies.

As the spheres of light emitting a brilliant glow were shot into the sky, the dark campsite became as bright as midday.

The Stingers, seemingly flustered by the sudden light, retreated into the distance.

The mercenaries were equally taken aback.

’No, exactly how many of those expensive things is he carrying around?’

’Those are usually saved for an invasion...’

Regardless, thanks to that, visibility improved significantly and monster access was blocked, allowing everyone to reform their ranks properly in the meantime.

Hamel and Clea, who were among the mercenaries, approached Ian’s side.

Clea urgently asked Mika.

’How long can you maintain this barrier!’

’Ugh, well... at this rate...’

Mika replied with a face that looked a bit strained from maintaining such a large barrier.

’Probably about 15 minutes...’

’....’

That’s... more than enough.

Clea’s urgent heart felt a bit more at ease.

Everyone had already quickly settled the confusion and was taking up positions.

Clea, taking a spot near the Ian Mercenary Group, shouted.

’We’ll signal when ready, so drop the barrier then!’

Stingers circling in the sky lunged at the barrier, but sporadic attacks from a few monsters couldn’t cause any damage to it.

In the meantime, Clea, having finished preparations, shouted to Mika.

’Now!’

With the signal, the barrier vanished, and the Stingers, noticing this, charged toward the ground all at once.

Even faster than that, the mercenaries’ ranged attacks poured out.

Arrows, crossbow bolts, and several spells were fired into the sky, overwhelming the monsters. Among them, Clea’s magic was the most conspicuous.

Sparks flew from Clea’s hands along with a brilliant flash.

The spell Clea cast was a simple low-tier magic, Lightning Bolt, but from the hands of Clea, who possessed B-rank lightning magic, dozens of bolts were fired simultaneously.

It looked as if thunder was surging from the ground into the sky.

’...!’

Mika watched that in awe.

It was lightning magic, the second most frequent thing to appear in her dreams.

Caught in the simultaneous ranged bombardment, a large number of Stingers plummeted to the ground.

The remaining Stingers, still not losing their momentum, charged toward the ground together.

Unlike Harpies, who looked for opportunities from a distance, Stingers actively engaged in melee combat by approaching close to the ground and flying low.

Ian shouted to the members.

’There must be a monster giving orders! Find it!’

’What does it look like?’

’It’s slightly... larger in size!’

’What? How are we supposed to find it among these with just that...’

Before Rin’s flustered words could even finish, Lia shouted.

’Found it!’

’What? Already?’

As everyone turned their eyes in the direction Lia pointed with her sword tip, they saw a fellow that looked slightly bulkier than the other Stingers looking down at the area from the sky.

’Is it that one?’

’Right!’

’It’s too far...’

Rin, looking up at the sky, began fumbling to take something from her belt.

The time had come to immediately use what she had struggled to learn last time. Rin gripped throwing daggers in both hands.

’You’re going to hit that from here? Just tell Miss Clea...’

’I can do it!’

Rin, shouting confidently, checked the distance to the target while carefully looking up, and threw four daggers held in both hands at once.

The daggers Rin threw soared up with incredible momentum like arrows.

──!

The large Stinger flying in the sky moved hurriedly to dodge as something flew up from the ground, but one of them grazed its wing.

The Stinger, its wing torn by the sharp blade, immediately plummeted to the ground.

’Hit it!’

’...I think only one grazed it?’

’...I mean, it hit, right?’

Since she took out four, they thought she would show some acrobatic skill. It seemed her strategy was simply to throw a lot and hit something.

Hitting a dagger at this distance was certainly quite an impressive feat, but Rin received gazes from the members that said, ’Well, that figures...’ even after doing such a thing.

Once the largest individual giving the orders was caught, the other Stingers stopped descending from the sky and flew away, scattering in all directions.

The mercenaries finally lowered their weapons after confirming all the monsters had retreated.

’Phew...’

’Is anyone hurt?’

Fortunately, since the battle began with everyone properly prepared, there were no major casualties.

Clea, looking around, finally arrived at where the Ian Mercenary Group was gathered.

’Phew... I’m glad Leader Ian arrived early! Everyone gathered in a hurry while returning from other requests, so we had almost no proper supplies.’

’Oh dear, is the food situation okay?’

’There’s food prepared for the farm workers in the warehouse, so that’s fine.’

Unlike Ian, who had prepared in advance, the temporary subjugation force gathered after receiving messengers while out nearby lacked supply preparations.

The monsters likely didn’t intend it, but it was a raid that struck a short gap just before Labyrinth’s supplies arrived.

’Ah, Miss Mika! Thank you! The damage was greatly reduced thanks to you! That was barrier magic, right?’

’Ah... yes.’

Clea spotted Mika nearby and squeezed her hands.

Being a fellow mage, she seemed to have developed a great interest in the rarely seen barrier magic. The effect of the barrier magic she witnessed personally seemed to have been quite impressive.

Clea muttered with an envious expression.

’Barrier magic... I’m jealous. I wish I could have learned magic that is more helpful to the mercenary group, rather than this kind of magic that can only attack...’

’....’

Then let’s swap!

If that were possible, Mika wanted to say so.

But there was no such way, and even if it were possible, she couldn’t do that now. She had already come too far for that.

Since the mercenary group’s party had already adjusted their strategy to Mika’s magic, Mika also knew that if she left now, the party would have to be completely restructured.

Objectively, Mika’s barrier magic was a much higher rarity, so it was natural for Clea to be envious.

Mika had no choice but to swallow her grievance and nod her thanks.

＊　＊　＊

The next day, early morning.

Ian and the members, who had caught some sleep after wrapping up last night’s battle, gathered at the table in the hut early in the morning.

’Rin. You’re ready, right?’

’Yes. I’ve packed everything.’

It was decided to depart for the scouting this morning as scheduled.

There was a monster raid last night, but fortunately, the damage wasn’t that great, and both Hamel and Ian agreed that finding the monster nest as quickly as possible was urgent.

Ian marked several locations on Rin’s map.

These were suspected candidate sites for the Stinger nest, found while looking at the map with Hamel last night.

Rin had also spent the night looking at the map to grasp the terrain for her movement.

’It will be visible from a distance even if you don’t go close. There will be a massive number of Stingers near the nest.’

’You said it looks like a castle made of mud, right?’

Ian had also provided a simple drawing, but to be honest, it seemed it would be hard to recognize before seeing it in person.

If it was the size he mentioned, she would likely recognize it at once even without a drawing.

Rin, having heard all the precautions before departure, stood up after checking her equipment one last time.

’Well then, I’m off!’

’Ah, wait a second. And by any chance...’

Ian called out to stop Rin as she was about to depart.

And from between the map and memos placed on the table, he handed Rin a note with something drawn on it.

’If you happen to find a place that looks like this while traveling, mark the location.’

Rin checked the note Ian handed over.

Something strange and hard to recognize was drawn on it.

’What is... this?’

’A treasure warehouse.’

’...?’

Rin quietly tucked Ian’s note into her notebook with an expression that had given up on understanding.