"What is that..."
The leader of Winter Castle seemed annoyed by Marcella and her party's conversation.
"...Um, the way that Orc fought just now. Is that normal?"
"Hmm? Ah, it's always the same... What do you mean?"
That seems to be normal after all...
It seems like it would be tough for a party without a magician.
That means the competition to recruit us wherever we go will intensify...
Aaaahhhh.... (All WT's mind)
Marcella and her party whispered and sighed.
"...But that's not true! It seems we were mistaken..." (Marcella)
Monica and Aureana nodded in agreement at Marcella's words.
"It's not that the Hunters are weak..." (Marcella(
"The monsters are strong!!" (All WT)
The Wonder Trio finally realized the truth...
"Their physical abilities haven't changed, but they have the intelligence to use tactics! At this rate, they'll be too much for a low-ranked C-rank party to handle..." (Marcella)
"Well, that's what I've been saying since the beginning! What's the big deal now..."
"......" (Marcella)
The leader interjected this in response to Marcella's muttering, but since it was true, Marcella was unable to refute it.
"...Then next time we will hunt by ourselves, so I ask you all to escort us just in case." (Marcella)
"Ah, yeah, that's fine, but..."
It had already been confirmed that the physical defensive capabilities of the orcs were no different from those on the old continent.
So why would Marcella go out of their way to reveal their cards?
If we don't prove our fighting ability here, we won't be able to accept any extermination requests in this town, and there won't be any young parties willing to join us in accepting them.
Even older veteran parties, unless they are as kind-hearted as these two parties, will not accept a troublesome and low-paying request like guarding a young girl...
Marcella was thinking about this, but what she failed to remember was that if people found out about their storage magic, they would be inundated with requests to join forces.
Even Marcella could be a bit silly sometimes.
"Okay, next... ah, storage!" (Marcella)
And then the three orcs disappeared.
The members of Winter Castle and Goddess' Heroes stood there in shock, their mouths agaped
"...Oh? Did I mention my storage magic?" (Marcella)
"You didn't!!" (Everyone)
After that, Marcella was asked a lot of questions about the storage magic, and she told them that it had quite a large capacity.
Although it wasn't specifically stated that only Marcella could use it, to begin with, the fact that there was even one storage magician was enough to astonish people. It seemed that the question of "Can the other two use it?" hadn't even crossed his mind.
"An insanely large capacity storage magic... So that's the reason why you guys are moving around without carrying much luggage... Other than your staff, dagger, and water bottle, you only had a small bag, so I was wondering what you would do if he were to camp out overnight... If you can calmly bring in three orcs, you should be bringing in some tarpaulin and furs for overnight camping..."
The leader muttered such things, but...
"Yes, I have tents, beds, blankets, etc." (Marcella)
"B-bed..."
Even if they gave in, maybe they could understand the need for tents and blankets.
But beds.
…That’s not true…
After hearing Marcella's words, the members of Winter Castle and Goddess' Heroes just stood there with blank eyes...
This time, Marcella and her party did not use any searching magic.
This was merely a test of the local Hunters' abilities, and with so many veteran front-line warriors, they would be able to survive the first blow from a surprise attack... an attack from a monkey-type monster from the treetops, or a charge from the shade of a goblin or kobold... and if they could buy themselves that much time, Marcella and her party could handle it with their defensive magic, so they judged that there was little danger.
Furthermore, since they intended to keep their exploration magic a secret, even if they detected a monster, they could not tell the rest of the party about it.
That's why…….
"It's ogres! Four of them... This is bad, they've noticed me!"
Ogres often moved in pairs.
And with the current two-party system that included mages, even if the burden of the Wonder Trio was there, it wouldn't be a problem as long as there were only two ogres.
That's what they were thinking, but there were actually four ogres. And the ogres had already noticed them.
Even if they wanted to retreat, there was no way they could shake off the ogre in the forest.
The members of Winter Castle and Goddess' Heroes turned pale, but...
"This is one of Adele's favorite lines, 'I was standing downwind, but what a fool I was!'" (Marcella)
"It's the other way around, Marcella. We're upwind..."
The Wonder Trio had absolutely no sense of crisis.
"We'll buy you some time. You guys run away..."
"Rock Javelin!" (Marcella)
"Water Cutter!" (Monica)
"Hot Mist!" (Aureana)
They unleashed a chantless spell at almost the same time.
In order to pierce the Ogre's muscles, which were stronger than those of an Orc, Marcella chose the more difficult Rock Javelin over the Ice Javelin.
The method for making an Ice Javelin varied depending on the person—some people condense the moisture in the air into the shape of a spear and then freeze it, while others freeze it first and then carve it into the shape of a spear—but as an offensive spell it was not particularly difficult.
...By the way, the latter was stronger.
However, with the Rock Javelin, if there was no solid rock nearby, it was extremely difficult to create rock from earth or to retrieve it from a distance.
The water cutter that Monica chose was not just a water stream; it contained silicon carbide as an abrasive, dramatically enhancing its effectiveness; but similarly, creating silicon carbide required a highly advanced level of imagination.
And to begin with, aside from ice, the idea of "cutting something hard with water" was something that the people of this world would never even consider.
Aureana chose Hot Mist, which was the most effective offensive spell Aureana could use given her weak magical powers.
A hot mist made with capsaicin, developed by Mile... Adele.
The low cost of chemical weapons had been a common theme throughout the world.
Two ogres that had been attacked by Marcella and Monica but were not yet dead, and the remaining two were unharmed.
It was a ranged attack spell to steal all of their fighting power and confuse them.
This gave them enough time to attack again.
"Rock Javelin!"
"Water Cutter!"
"Ice Arrow!"
"Lock Javelin!"
"Water Cutter!"
"Ice Arrow!"
A barrage of attack magics that skipped the chant.
To prevent fires, it was common sense not to use fire magic in the forest for anything other than cooking or keeping warm.
However, the Wonder Trio also placed other restrictions on the magic they used.
Unlike orcs, ogres were valuable not only for their meat but also for their other parts as materials.
Therefore, in order to preserve the value of the materials as much as possible, they had the luxury of avoiding attack magic that would tear them to shreds.
"What is it with these guys..."
And with a mutter from the leader of the Winter Castle, the four ogres sank to the ground.