*In a royal palace of a human kingdom

Hitomi Yamashita

Race

Human

Class

Martial artist

Level

1

Strength

60

Vitality

90

Resistance

80

Agility

87

Magic

40

Magic resistance

30

Skill

Language comprehension, Close combat (Lv 5), Endure Pain (Lv 3). Focus (Lv 2), Combat instinct (Lv 1), Limit break (Lv 1)

“Oh, my goddess!!!” A person who makes the identification process for the heroes who are summoned from the other world suddenly shouts in surprise.

“Eh!? Is there something wrong with my status?” The girl Hitomi Yamashita who is standing nearby is startled by the sudden shout. She takes the status plate back and looks at it with a confused face.

"Identification": It is a process where one measures his/her own status through an intermediate and has it recorded in a device called "status plate". The status plate is a divine artifact which allows oneself to check the status without having to go through an intermediate anymore.

Before her turn, quite a few people finished their identification process already. Among the entire class, her status values only belong to the below average group. Many classmates are stronger than her, not only in number but also the skills. At the beginning, the priest who performs the process already shouted out in surprise when knowing it. She does not get why the priest got surprised when seeing hers,

(To think that this class finally appears again. Even though I have already prepared for it, seeing that class again brings shiver to my spine. My majesty, we are currently making a very big gamble here. Will we be able to fulfill our wish or perish under a name of a new sect? Ohhh, ancestors of the kingdom Vahalad, and goddess Tristina, please guide us to the path of glory) The priest silently prays in his mind.

“Priest?” Hitomi worriedly asks.

“Oh! Sorry, I was so baffled by your status. Don’t worry about it. You are very amazing in a lot of ways. I will explain it to you and everyone else later.” The priest assures the girl.

“Eh!? Me? Amazing?” Hitomi is now taken by surprise with the sudden development.

………..

* In a certain forest

“Basically you pull all the skin toward the ankle. Pinch it hard, there, then strongly twist the skin and tear it. That’s it. Do it to the other leg too. Through the gap between the skin and the meat, put your hand around and pull it strongly…” Lexar slowly instructs Yuuko on how to skin the rabbit.

After having a good sleep, the trio has recovered the stamina from the fighting back in the old world. Perhaps it was due to the power of awakening, they can still move around normally despite not eating anything for a whole day, even Yuuko, who was heavily injured yesterday, had the wounds completely healed. However, the hungry stomach still impacts them severely. They cannot concentrate on fighting with their full capacity. In a world full of unknown, it is very dangerous to fall in such state.

In the early morning, Lexar moved out of the cave and scouted the surrounding. There was no road nearby or sign of settlement in the vicinity of five km. Disappointed with the finding, the cat decided to hunt a rabbit hiding a tree not so far from the cave.

Despite being in another world, rabbit is still a harmless creature. The cat quickly hunted it down without any resistance and brought it back to the cave.

“I expected that this would be more difficult. The rabbit skin is easier to pull out than I thought. It feels like chicken skin.” Yuuko says as she finishes separating the skin and the meat.

“Now for the deboning part,” Lexar says.

“Ah, there is no need for that. I have experience with deboning in the kitchen already.” Yuuko interrupts.

“Then you handle the rest. How is the stove so far, Makoto?” Lexar turns to the other girl.

“Almost done.” Makoto says.

By controlling the earth with magic, Makoto digs two big holes connected together by a tunnel 40 cm diameter. One hole has many small branches spreading out. The branches are later covered with soft wet soil and leaves above. What Makoto is making a variation of Hoang Cam stove, a stove used by the Vietnamese in the Vietnam war.

The main idea behind the design is to hide away the fire and smoke during cooking. In the Vietnam war, to conceal from the American’s bombardment, the Vietnamese army constructed this kind of stove in their secret bases or while marching. Even at night the night, it was very hard to detect the fire and smoke in the stove, thus making it hard for the American to discover the army.

Although it is quite troublesome to construct and normal bonfire is often more useful during camping out in the wild, Lexar still decides to teach the girls how to make it. Being able to use the fire while being chased by the enemy is an important matter. Being able to cook and have hot water in the emergency state can significantly increase the chance of survival. Not only that, since the stove is reverted back to the original state with the flame buried underground, it will leave very little trace for the enemy to follow, creating higher probability to escape. Currently, Lexar is explaining to Makoto how to cover the tract.

There is a meaning in teaching this knowledge to the two girls. Surviving in the wild is no joking matter, even for those who receive the training to do so, especially so in another world where monsters may exist. Not only that, they are the ones who will face very strong enemies in the future.

Lexar does not know what kind of situation they will face in the future. Never once did he imagine that they would be brought to another world. It makes him worried that the stages the magical girls fight in the future will be varied. He wants to equip them as much preparation as possible for when the situation requires.

The separation with Hinami also weighs heavily on his mind. When thing happens once, it will repeat in the future. Sooner or later, either Makoto, Yuuko, or he may separate from the group by accident and have to survive by oneself. For the two girls who live comfortably in modern city, lacking the survival skill can be very fatal. Although they are strong, they can still get into many troubles that strength cannot solve such as finding direction, securing a good safe place, and maintaining themselves. Yuuko and Makoto understand this too, so they willingly listen and comply to his teaching despite the empty stomach.

With the stove and meat prepared, the trio finally starts cooking and have their first meal in the other world.

“The taste is so bland.” Yuuko complains while eating the roasted rabbit leg.

“You will need to get used to it soon. We do not have any flavoring ingredient with us.” Lexar says.

“We worked so hard early in the morning, yet the reward is only this much.” Makoto makes a deep sigh as she gazes at the meat skew in her hand.

“If that’s the case, welcome to the world. You are now set on the path to becoming a grown up. Reward sometimes does not compensate up to the effort.”

“I know. I know. But knowing that does not help me enlighten my mood a little bit.” Makoto stuffs the meat into her mouth. “Once I get to the human town, the first thing I want to get is the flavoring. Tasty food is the only comfort in life that can help you in any situation.”

“Let’s hope that we can at least find a road or any sign of human by the end of today. We do not have a lot of time to stay idle in the forest.” The cat stands up after finishing its portion.

“Un” Both girls nod.

After covering up the stove with the soil, Yuuko prepares the water canteens made of bamboo while Makoto warps up the leftover meat in leaf. Their first destination is a small lake two km away from the cave. The objective is to secure the water supply for traveling before heading out to the further area.

The formation is as follow: Yuuko leading the front, opening the path with her sword; Lexar is next to her, scanning the surrounding with clairvoyance; and Makoto at the rear, supporting when necessary.

In less than 15 minutes, the group finally reaches their destination. However, they are still standing behind the trees, not coming out to the lake bank. Because on the river bank, a horde of about 50 green skin creatures is resting there.

With the height about 50-60 cm, these green skin humanoid monsters are called goblins. As suggested by their name, they are commonly known as one of the weakest monsters in fantasy worlds. Their strength is only slightly above a normal human child, thus even a normal farmer can chase them away with their tools. If there is anything impressive about it, it is because it is quite cunning, unlike normal beasts.

In Makoto’s world, where fantasy genre proliferates, an avid reader can come across myriad of variation of goblins. Though they are generally described as weak monsters, they are still considered to be dangerous, especially so in story revolving around goblins. The cunning tactics that goblins use can even kill an experienced party of adventurers if they are careless. Not only that, their proliferation rate is not losing to cockroach very much. They can just spawn everywhere, and then suddenly grow into a large horde if they go by unnoticed. However, the most frightening aspect is their potential to develop.

The trio does not know whether race evolution exists in this RPG world. However, if such feature exists, these weak looking monsters cannot be underestimated. In some stories, goblins can evolve to many forms such as hobgoblins, orcs, or even orges. In addition, some goblins can have their own class, giving them the ability not losing to any human class. Examples can include goblin swordsman, goblin shaman, and in extreme case, classes such as goblin champion, goblin king can exist.

Although Makoto can check the goblins’ status from afar with “Analyze” skill, the group does not let their guard down even after knowing their weak stat. Lexar double checks the surrounding for any possible ambush troop or hidden trap. Yuuko stimulates in her head how to take them by surprise and quickly finish them as soon as possible, while Makoto silently thinks about something.

“It looks like they are really resting without scheming anything. No trap. No ambush.” Lexar relaxedly says.

“I see. Even so, we must be careful. I will quickly clean up these creatures so we can resume our journey. You guys stay at the rear and support me if there is any unexpected.” Yuuko readies the katana in her hand and readies to step out.

“Wait. Let me do it.” Makoto stretches her hand on Yuuko’s shoulder. “There is something I would like to confirm.”

“Are you sure you want to handle this?” Yuuko asks.

Makoto silently nods. Seeing her serious face, there must be something important that she needs to know. Yuuko steps aside and leaves the way for her friend.

As Makoto steps out from the hiding, the grasses make a shuffling sound as she steps on them. It seems she intends to do so. However, before the goblins can stand up and react to the sound, Makoto snaps her finger.

A torrent of white air suddenly blows to the goblin horde. In only a second, the goblin figures quickly disappear in the thick white cloud.

Because of how dense the white air is, everything around the goblins is covered in white. Some goblins which had their eyes wide open end up with irritation in the eyes. Unable to see anything, their only course of actions is to yell out to call their friends or run out of the smoke. However, the latter choice cannot be done.

Under their feet, the water suddenly rises high and covers their ankles. The temperature at the same time also drops down quickly to the freezing point. The water surrounding the goblins’ feet freezes quickly and turns into ice shackles, binding their legs. Some green skins are turned into ice statues while struggling to move.

Being bound at one position while covered in a white mist, the monsters scream out in many types of emotion: despair, angry, fear, helpless, worried, terror. Some smart goblins realize these strange phenomena are results of spells, indicating that there is a human spellcaster nearby. They start making miserable whipping sounds as if they are begging for forgiveness. This is one of the few tricks that the smart goblins learn to use toward humans, as human is the only creature that significantly drops their guard when hearing this sound. If their opponent was a different creature, they would not use this trick as the other species will not show mercy to goblin no matter what.

If a girl hears such diversity of emotions mixed with the whipping sound, she may flutter and hesitate to kill the goblins off. However, the master of these magic, Makoto, just walks toward the white cloud with only a straight face, unfazed by those sounds. Her walking pace is steady without any hesitation.

Right in front of the white mist, Makoto comes to a stop. Her tight mouth suddenly relaxes and makes a small grin, excited by a voice in her head.

New skill obtained. Wind magic (Lv 4)