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The next day, we go to the adventurer’s guild in Bamel to meet up with Mir, and we head to the forest right away.

“Why are you two living inside the forest?”

Mir asks us as we walk. Anyone with common sense would think that living in a forest that runs rampant with monsters is an insane idea. Even I think that.

“There are a lot of useful magic ingredients in the forest, so it’s easier for my research to live closer.”
“Ahh, I understand now.”

Mir nods, understanding Ophelia’s reasoning. Watching them is a bit comical, like a child trying to talk on equal terms with an adult, but that’s only because she’s a small dwarf. Apparently Mir is already an adult (anyone above 15 is considered that in this world though).

We continue talking about random things as we walk, until we get close to the place where I had run into a Clamp Boar before.

“Mistress, we’re about to reach the place where I fought the Clamp Boar before. How shall we proceed?”

Ophelia tilts her head as she thinks about it.

“The other monsters probably got scared and are avoiding this place, so a luring spell probably won’t work. And if we want to hunt a Clamp Boar specifically, I know a better place further ahead.”

What she said makes sense. Anyone would avoid a place where one of their kind had been killed. On top of that, on our way here we hadn’t encountered any monsters, or even heard any of their cries. I guess this means we’ll have to keep going further in.

Ophelia seems to have a plan, so she takes the lead and guides us deeper into the woods, our surroundings slowly getting filled with more sounds.

“Monsters should start appearing soon. Always look around, you two.”

Mir and I weren’t slacking off, but hearing that we became more careful.

“If a fight breaks out, I’ll stand ahead and you two can help me from behind.”

Mir said that with courage, but her hand is trembling on the hilt of her sheathed sword, and a drop of sweat rolls down her cheek. We haven’t seen any monsters yet, but she is clearly very nervous.

“Understood, we will support you, so try to relax.”

With Ophelia’s unfair magic and my unfair gun, Mir has nothing to worry about when fighting. We might be inexperienced, but I’m sure we can somehow defeat a Clamp Boar.

“Careful you two, there’s a monster to our left.”

We instantly unfasten our weapons and hold them ready. A group of goblins come into view. I can kill all of them in an instant alone.

“Yahhh!”

But as I raise and aim my gun, Mir charges at them with her sword.

“Natalia.”

I decide to shoot the other goblins that Mir isn’t engaged with, but Ophelia stops me.

“There’s no need for you to butt in right now. If you want to maintain a healthy friendship with her, that is.”
“What do you mean?”

We aren’t here to train, but to hunt monsters, so killing them as fast as possible should be the best idea. I can’t understand how killing or not killing the goblins will affect my friendship with Mir.

“I know you can take care of all those goblins effortlessly with your current skills, but you need to think like a party. Can you really call yourself her comrade if you don’t know her strengths and weaknesses, or her fighting style? Can you trust her to have your back when you need it?”

I feel like Ophelia just dunked a bucket of cold water on my head. I thought everything would be over faster if I shot all the monsters, but my thinking was flawed. If I killed everything, I would never know how Mir fights, or how to properly support her. That would make her just a person traveling with us, not part of the party. In the worst case Mir could end up feeling like a parasite feeding off our success, and not a true friend.

“My apologies, I’ll stand back.”
“Don’t overthink it either now. Anyway, let’s see what we can do to help. If she goes too crazy, we can help make it work, so just observe carefully.”
“Got it.”

Mir is crossing swords with a goblin. Her dwarven blood gives her plenty or raw strength to overpower goblins, but her skill with a blade is still lacking. All she’s been doing this entire time is swinging her sword broadly and aimlessly.

If she lands a blow, the effect will be powerful, but her defense is full of holes, and easy to target. Even the dumb goblins noticed that. Essentially she’s a wildcard. On top of that, she’s using a light single handed sword. She lacked the strength and speed for her attacks to be lethal.

She misses again.

A goblin decides to use that opening and swings its own sword. Mir manages to evade the attack, but everything repeats itself again. I shoot a regular bullet to the goblin’s sword. There’s a high pitched cling and the sword flips in the air a few times before landing on the ground a distance away.

“Gya gya!”

The goblin holds its hand, probably from pain to his fingers. I had given her a big opening, and Mir knew what to do.

“Yaahh!”

She runs and swings at the goblin’s torso, red blood oozing from its green skin.

“Alright!”

Mir turns to her next target and holds her sword ready. Just in case, I shoot the fallen goblin’s head, and then look at the one Mir is fighting against now. Before it can do anything, I shoot its shoulder and leg. Unable to hold his weapon and stand up, it easily falls to Mir’s blade.

I look beside me and see Ophelia also start to work, using simple spells to blast goblins away. Though she did that chantless and without magic circles. Maybe there’s no need to worry anymore.

“Gagyaa!”

The last goblin falls, and we finally get to relax.

“Natalia, thanks for the help. It got much easier thanks to you.”
“It was all you, you really cut through them with your sword.”

Though I wish her aim was more accurate.

“Mir, are you sure you want to leave this behind?”

Ophelia picks up the sword from a goblin she defeated. It was longer than a regular sword, but shorter than a great sword. It was almost the same size as Mir when she held it.

“Isn’t this a cavalry sword though?”
“It appears that way. But I think it might fit your fighting style better.”

As an A rank adventurer, it’s easy for Ophelia to understand Mir’s way of fighting.

“Thank you very much, I’ll try it out.”

Mir bows deeply, then sticks her current sword into the ground, and fastens the longer one to her back with a leather belt.

“Ah, what should we do with my old sword though? It feels like a waste to leave it here.”
“Let me take care of that.”
“Hwha-?”

I put her sword in my magic storage.

“If there’s anything else I can carry just tell me, okay?”

For some reason Mir’s eyes were round, and her mouth kept opening and closing like a fish’s. Ophelia shakes her head.

“I’m sorry about that, she still lacks some common sense.”
“I never thought Mistress would be the one to say that. And anyone can do this if they practice enough, it’s nothing special.”
“Not anyone, ever.”

She might have cheat-level skills, but I didn’t want to be the same as her. And it was her who told me the magic storage spell was one of the simplest there is.