"...you idiot...we came here without Mile to hunt..." (Reina)
"Yes. Since we always rely on Mile-chan, this kind of training is necessary. I can't really imagine Mile-chan getting injured, but it's possible that she could get sick or have to temporarily leave the party for some reason. At that time, it would be a problem if we couldn't do anything without Mile-chan. In fact, the last time we acted alone without Mile-chan..." (Pauline)
"It was a terrible experience... Ahaha..." (Mavis)
Hearing Pauline's words, Mavis remembered the previous incident and let out a dry, self-deprecating laugh.
"But, it'll be okay this time, don't worry! After all, although I am nowhere near as skilled as Mile, I can use magic to store things the size of an inn room. So we have everything: tents, blankets, food, a bathtub, a toilet, cooking utensils, and we can easily carry our prey. Now I can make enough money even without Mile!" (Mavis)
"...Kah!" (Reina + Pauline)
While Mavis was smiling and in a good mood, Reina and Pauline looked displeased. That was only natural. They considered themselves first-rate, no, even top-rate magicians, but they were unable to master storage magic no matter what, yet Mavis, who was not supposed to be able to use magic, had easily mastered it. ...And it was a huge volume, probably in the top three on the continent, excluding Mile and Wonder Trio... For Reina and Pauline, their pride had been completely shattered. In addition, that simply replaced a reliance on Mile with a reliance on Mavis' storage magic, which didn't solve anything for Reina and Pauline.
Furthermore, all three members of Wonder Trio_ were users of storage magic.
"Ggggggggg..." (Reina + Pauline)
Reina and Pauline groaned in humiliation, but there was nothing they could do about it. The only thing they could do was quickly master storage magic.
However, this was by no means due to a lack of talent on the part of Reina and Pauline. Wonder Trio was only able to use it because Mile asked the Nanomachinesess to assign each of the three their own personal Nanomachines and to directly assist with the item box. Besides, what the three were using were item boxes, not storage magic.
Mavis was constantly followed by a large number of Nanomachinesess who manage her artificial left arm and Nanomachinesess who were in charge of maintaining her sword. This must be the reason why Mavis was able to master storage magic so easily. Since there were so many exclusive Nanomachinesess attached to it at all times, it seemed like the hurdles to opening and maintaining the subspace were pretty low.
...Also, Mavis was originally intelligent and had read Miami Satodelle's novels, so she had a vague understanding of concepts like other worlds, other dimensions, and spatial distortions. This might have also been a major influence.
In any case, there were very few people who could use storage magic, and even if they could, the capacity was usually quite small. If one could store the capacity of a mountain hut, one would be one of the best users of storage magic on the continent, highly sought after by many countries, and would be welcomed as a noble in any country.
Reina and the other two had fighting power far beyond that of ordinary C-rank hunters. Speed, power, durability, and accuracy. So, assuming that everyone had the fighting ability of two average C-rank hunters, they had the fighting power of two frontline swordsmen, two offensive magicians, and two support/healing magicians. On top of that, they possessed storage magic that gave them an insane amount of storage capacity comparable to that of a small mountain hut. This was no different from a highly skilled party accompanied by a group of porters.
"We'll just have to learn storage magic quickly, right..." (Reina)
"Yes……" (Pauline)
Reina and Pauline were just about there. Pauline had already succeeded in creating and maintaining the subspace. All that remained was to determine its duration, how to ensure that it would remain maintained no matter what—even if the user was tired, upset, or asleep—and to increase its storage capacity.
Although Reina had not yet progressed to the Pauline stage, she had succeeded in forming a subspace. Neither of them was yet at the stage where they could call themselves full-fledged storage wizards, but they had progressed just short of that, to the level of one in ten thousand, so they were just a step away. This might also be due to the fact that, although not as much as Mavis, she had not only received Mile's guidance, but also had been exposed to concepts such as "other dimensions" and "other spaces" many times since she was young through Japanese Stories...
If that was the case, then in the Old Continent, as a result of the invasion from another dimension making the existence of "other dimensions" widely known, it was possible that magical geniuses who had come "almost" to master it on their own would one after another awaken to storage magic. Of course, being overtaken by those people would be a complete loss of face for Reina and Pauline, who had been listening to Japanese Stories for years and had also been receiving direct instruction from Mile. The two of them really wanted to do their best here.
"It's about time we prepared for the night..." (Reina)
Mavis and Pauline nodded at Reina's words. Normally, it would take time to find a suitable place to camp out the night — a place that would be safe even in the event of a sudden heavy rain or a flooded river and that would give them an advantage in the event of an attack by monsters or thieves — and to set up a tent, but with Mile there was no need to set up tents or make sleeping quarters, so they could be active right up until dark, which was a major advantage of Crimson Vow.
Mile was not here right now, but Mavis had also stored a small but still assembled tent, with blankets and other things inside. The blankets were light, and if she put them inside the tent, they wouldn't take up any extra space and strain the capacity of the storage magic. She put the other supplies in the tent and then stored them away.
When it came to choosing a campsite, because they had Reina and Pauline who could produce large amounts of water using magic, and Mavis also had a large amount of water stored in a storage magic spell, they could ignore all the difficulties that a party without a magician would have, such as finding a water source and staying nearby. Tasks like digging drainage ditches around the tent in preparation for sudden rain could be done in an instant with earth magic. There was no problem digging it in advance, they could do it after it started raining. Even just attack and healing magic could determine the life or death of a party member. This was true in every aspect of daily life, so it was not surprising that parties without a magician desperately tried to recruit someone who could use magic.
Mavis took the tent out of its storage magic and laid a waterproof cloth inside it, then put a blanket on top of that. Although it wasn't as comfortable as a regular cot, it was still a world of difference compared to how most hunters sleep, covering themselves with their cloaks on cut grass. So that wasn't a problem at all. To get rid of dirt on the body and clothes, there was cleaning and purification magic that they learned from Mile, and there was a bathtub and a partition inside Mavis' storage magic, so they could take a bath. With Reina and Pauline, it was easy to create water using magic and heat it with a fireball, or they could just make hot water directly. And then, like always, after cooking in the simple stove made with earth magic and having a warm meal...
"Then, we'll listen to Japanese Stories until I get sleepy... ah..." (Mavis)
"Ah……" (Reina + Pauline)
"It gets light just before the first bell (6am)."
"I can't sleep that long..."
They started preparing dinner after it got dark, but the sun rose and set in the mountains, so there were still more than 10 hours until dawn. They slept well last night, so they couldn't sleep that much. Normally, they would fill that time with Mile's Japanese Stories, but...
"... Shall I tell you an episode with my brothers?" (Mavis)
"No thanks." (Reina)
"I'll pass." (Pauline)
They were tired of hearing that story.
"Good night……" (x2)
"...Ah, yeah...good night..."