Ch.160Women’s Hunt (3)

“Look at this! It’s aura!”

Raisha showed me her dagger with a beaming smile, the weapon now emanating aura.

Though much weaker than mine, there was definitely a light of aura surrounding the dagger, signifying that she had transcended death.

I was so proud of my wife that I embraced her and exercised my exclusive rights to her cheeks, while the elf sisters glared at us disapprovingly.

“Geez, anyone watching would think Raisha’s the only one who became an aura user.”

“So you two as well?”

“Hehehe…”

Instead of answering, Lucia gave a mischievous smile.

In front of that sinister smile was the aura forming on the arrowheads she and Casia were holding, and its meaning was clear.

Lucia and Casia had also succeeded in manifesting aura.

With this, every member of our party had officially stepped into the Metal rank.

“Three people manifesting aura simultaneously… the Adventurers’ Guild would faint from excitement if they knew.”

“Hahaha! Someday we’ll reach Diamond rank!”

“Dream big, why don’t you.”

Simon laughed good-naturedly as he handed filled wine glasses to the three, who accepted them with joyful faces and emptied them in one go.

The first taste of alcohol after transcending death must be quite special.

“Kuh! The alcohol tastes good! I thought I’d never drink again!”

Lucia blurted out a typical drinker’s line, but I was willing to let it slide just for today.

Awakening to aura was a cause for celebration of that magnitude.

“So? What happened up there?”

“Well, you see…”

Lucia, full of swagger, told us what had happened up there.

Five trolls had been waiting, and the three women decided to set them on fire to kill them.

After Raisha spent two hours gathering sap and other materials, the elves soaked leaves with it, wrapped them around arrowheads to make improvised fire arrows, and then the battle began when they lit them.

However, even with fire, trolls are basically dull in their senses and equipped with hyper-regeneration abilities, so a fierce battle ensued.

Raisha, being the vanguard, was the first to fall when she couldn’t dodge the clubs coming from all directions. Her legs were severed, and she was knocked unconscious against a tree. While Lucia bought time, Casia managed to save Raisha by feeding her a potion.

But as soon as Raisha’s legs regenerated, Lucia’s head was smashed, and after healing that, Casia’s arm was crushed by a club… In short, after being one-sidedly beaten, they all crossed the threshold between life and death about five or six times, and in that process, they awakened to aura.

It seemed they awakened similarly to how I did, just without the Sun’s message.

“Just curious, but did you hear the voice of a god?”

“Nope! I was expecting it too!”

Saying that, Lucia raised her middle finger toward the sun.

[Such an insolent one.]

Eh, she’s just an elf. Let’s be generous.

[Hmph.]

“Hey. You just made the Sun upset. What are you going to do about it?”

“If lightning strikes, I’ll bow deeply.”

“What do you think would be faster, lightning striking or my fist?”

As I clenched my fist, Lucia, who remembered having her head smashed, hastily swallowed her pride.

“…I’m sorry.”

[That will do.]

“The Sun has forgiven you, so don’t do it again.”

While her sister was acting like she was in a sitcom, her more sensible (relatively) sister Casia handed me a receipt.

The receipt detailed the cost of the high-grade potions consumed during this incident.

Adding up all these costs, it literally…

“Just the cost of high-grade potions could eat up the operating budget of a decent-sized village…”

…or so they say.

Simon clicked his tongue at the news that all those high-grade potions had been used up, but I answered while kneading my wife’s cheeks.

“It’s not a bad exchange rate. We’ve literally saved villages before. Considering that, the cost of high-grade potions is actually cheap.”

“That’s right.”

Setting aside the monetary issue, the biggest gain was that all three had survived and awakened to aura.

To be honest, there was no guarantee that doing this would awaken aura, and if they had been hit in vital spots like the head or heart, they could have gone straight to the Sun’s side, aura awakening or not.

But all three returned with their limbs intact (blessings of the Sun upon the potion makers), and on top of that, they awakened to aura—truly killing two birds with one stone.

“Now we can enjoy more dangerous… or in other words, more thrilling adventures.”

“What if you die young doing that?”

“Surely you don’t think adventurers die in their beds?”

When I asked jokingly, Simon ran his hand over his face and grinned along with me.

“Of course not.”

*

As it happened to be mealtime, we hurriedly finished eating first.

Having departed early in the morning and fought a fierce battle, all three women ate like they were possessed, and we men could only open our wallets with our tongues hanging out at the women’s appetites.

Well, in reality, only my wallet was opened.

“Whew, that hits the spot.”

“Finally feel like there’s something in your stomach?”

“Mmhmm.”

Lucia picked her teeth with a toothpick while rubbing her full belly.

I wonder if this elf girl knows that acting like a tomboy is why men don’t flock to her?

Boys my age think girls don’t burp or fart…

Well, it doesn’t matter… she’s not my woman anyway…

“By the way, what are you going to choose for your second job advancement?”

“I haven’t decided yet…”

There were three advanced classes for Rangers.

One was Sharpshooter, another was Trapper, and the last was Searcher.

Sharpshooter specialized in sniping enemies from a distance, honing archery skills to the extreme; Trapper was an expert in traps, setting up various snares; and Searcher specialized in surveying wide areas to scout enemy movements.

“Wouldn’t it be perfect if you became a Sharpshooter and Casia a Searcher?”

“…You think so?”

“Now that I think about it, that might be good…”

“Hey… it’s your job advancement… have some autonomy.”

“That’s rich coming from the Sun’s errand boy.”

“…”

Though we bantered like this, they eventually decided to follow my suggestion.

The Trapper class wasn’t very useful for our adventuring party, and most traps could be detected by Simon’s detection magic.

In contrast, Sharpshooter had the clear merit of intercepting enemies from a distance, and Searcher could complement that by locating distant enemies.

With reliable vanguards like me and Raisha, they could focus on providing firepower from a distance without worry, and with the support of Simon the mage, it would be perfect.

“What about you, Raisha?”

“I’m planning to advance to Slayer.”

“Slayer… that’s good.”

There were three advanced classes for Battlers.

One was Errentry Knight, which I had chosen; another was Slayer, which Raisha wanted; and the last was Gladiator.

Errentry Knight specialized in balance, Slayer in single large enemies, and Gladiator in crowd control against multiple small and medium-sized enemies. Since Raisha used a spear, Slayer was a more suitable choice.

I could handle crowd control, and large monsters were tricky to take down with a sword even with aura.

“Well… then everything’s decided?”

“I guess so.”

“Let’s walk to the Adventurers’ Guild now. We need to digest what we ate.”

“Noooo… just call a rickshaw for us.”

Lucia, apparently too lazy to walk, lay face down on the table and started acting cute in an awkward way.

Another young man might have fallen for it, but it didn’t work on me, an Errentry Knight who had been through thick and thin.

“Try acting cute one more time and you’re dead.”

“Master… my legs were blown off, so could we please take a rickshaw?”

“Alright. We’ll go by rickshaw.”

The elf sisters looked at me with incredulous expressions.

“What?”

“Don’t you think you’re being too inconsistent for a knight?”

“If your head is smaller than your chest, you should stay quiet.”

“Ugh!”

And so, the petite rebellion of those whose heads were smaller than their chests was suppressed, and we headed to the Adventurers’ Guild in a rickshaw called by the inn’s servant.

Well, if her legs were blown off, of course we should take a rickshaw.

And tonight, I planned to check if her legs were properly attached in bed.