A few days of particularly grueling training later,

"Good morning!"

When we entered the guild office, the clerk smiled and greeted us.

"Good morning." Natsuki smiled back. "Anything you want us to do today?"

The clerk stood up and scanned the commission board. "Nothing urgent. Well, this town isn't large enough for there to be many urgent commissions. Other than the matter of the equinox, but that's a matter to discuss next week. Feel free to pull something off the board."

The equinox? The spring equinox was almost three months ago... she must be talking about the summer solstice.

Natsuki and I walked up to the counter, and she pointed at a document with a picture of a wolf on it. "How about the giant direwolf? Yuki, don't you think we could beat it now?"

That's right! With my Peregrine, and Natsuki's improved mana control, we should be able to defeat that wolf!

"Yeah! Let's do that!" Grinning, I held tight onto Natsuki's arm.

"Challenge-dechallenge-rechallenge, as they say. Normally it's against protocol to allow IC1 adventurers to take on IC4 commissions, but you look like you can do it now, so I'll allow it."

The clerk pulled the document off the commission board. She did not push her hand through the board or clone the document like she did the first time. When she pulled the document from the board, it came off the board.

"So, would we like, level up by taking such a high-ranked commission?" Natsuki said, with a tinge of hope in her voice.

The clerk handed Natsuki the document and a managrapher. "Yes, I believe this would raise you to IC2, though if you carve out the direwolf's eyes and hand them over to us, you should be able to get to IC3. Giant direwolf eyes are a valuable catalyst... or something along those lines."

Brimming with excitement, Natsuki and I strode out of the guild office and towards the field were we first saw the direwolf.

---

We arrived at the field, and the direwolf was nowhere to be seen.

Well, that's obvious. It's not like the direwolf is waiting for us or something. That said, if it's the strongest monster in the area, I should be able to sense its presence...

I sat down on the grass and rested my back against a tree— the same tree we had hid behind the other day. And then, I closed my eyes and opened my ears wide.

The ability to detect the presence of living things is most closely associated with the senses of hearing and smell. Humans are comparatively weak when it comes to smell, but our hearing is quite strong— second only to our sight. Thus: if you want to catch the scent of your enemies drifting in the air, close your eyes and open your ears.

Natsuki, standing a few meters away, did not make a sound.

The border of the forest was silent. There should have been some bugs or some birds, but there was nothing but undergrowth too densely packed to bend in the breeze.

On the road we had walked to get here, I could hear the sound of one person's feet hitting the pavement. It's almost noon, which means it's too late for them to be travelling to another town.

In the other direction... to the west, close to the border of the forest, I could hear the sound of something breathing deeply, slowly, but not at the glacial pace of a hibernating animal.

I stood up.

"I think it's sleeping in an area a bit to the west. I'm going to go scout."

"Okay, I'll wait here. Don't fight alone, alright?"

I lightened my footsteps, and carefully made my way over the nearby hill to crumbling stone ruins. Peeking around a wall, I saw the vermilion-colored direwolf wrapped up in a ball within the three yet-standing walls of the ruins. Sleeping, defenseless. I could easily thrust my sword through its head right this moment.

In this situation, it's absolutely obvious what I need to do...!

I put my hand on my scabbard, and quieting my movements as much as possible, I— turned around. Let's go work out a strategy with Natsuki.

"Natsuki, I found the wolf sleeping in some ruins over there. The ruins look like they originally had four walls, but one wall is completely crumbled."

We sat down on the grass and tied our boots tightly.

"So if we attack it, it'll dodge outwards towards the crumbled wall, right?" she mused.

"Yeah, I think. In that case, I could try to attack it while it's sleeping, and then, Natsuki, you could cover its escape route, right?"

"No." Natsuki shook her head. "If you attack it, then it might just attack you instead of retreating. I'll attack it with magic through a gap in a wall. It won't be able to attack me through the wall, so it'll have to retreat. Then you can cut off one of its legs."

"Okay. Let's do it."

We got up, and walked off to the ruins.

I took position hiding next to the crumbled wall, and Natsuki, behind the opposite wall, pulled out a small stone through which she could fire her magic.

Natsuki silently launched her fastest spell, a laser made of lightning, at the wolf's head. But, before the lightning had even crossed through the gap in the wall, the wolf jumped up, as if it had been awoken by a loud sound. It jumped, and the laser passed between its legs. It took a few steps back— towards me— and scanned the area for the source of the attack. Of course, it couldn't see through the wall, and so it couldn't see Natsuki. And it wasn't looking at me. So—

I leaped out from behind the corner, and dashed towards its back right leg.

First, I raised my sword over my head.

Next, I ran mana down to the tip of the sword.

Then, I painted the blade of the sword with mana.

Finally, I brought the sword down upon the wolf's leg.

"Peregrine!"

With my shout, my blade cut through the wolf's leg without meeting resistance. Half of its leg fell onto the ground, and from what remained attached leaked steaming blood with the viscosity of tar.

I took a few steps back to assess the situation. The wolf, howling in pain, shuffled its front legs its to avoid losing its balance. It couldn't move its back left leg, which was holding most of its weight. In that case, the safest place to attack is— precisely that back left leg!

I dashed towards my target, but— before I could reach it, the wolf's cry suddenly went silent, and it collapsed as if its life force had been extinguished. Somewhat confused, I stepped back and took a defensive posture.