Chapter 3 – Why Do You Do This to Me?

I thought the first road to forming a party was smoother than expected.

“Eh, so I heard that the Poison Tentacle appears in the swamp below the territory. Let’s go that way!”

“Oooh!”

The young lady with dark blue hair seemed to be more meticulous and clear-headed than expected, so she clapped her hands in admiration as she checked the map she brought with her and found the correct route.

The dark-haired girl seemed to be caught up in the atmosphere and clapped her hands.

“Big, hmm! This is the basics of the basics! It’s not something worth applauding that much, is it?”

She cleared her throat and spoke calmly with a red face, as if she was embarrassed by their admiration and applause, but the raised appearance of her nose and waist showed that she was quite excited.

As she said, it is true that the life of an adventurer is not easy to applaud and admire every single thing, but he couldn’t help it.

‘A noble lady who knows how to read maps!’

She thought it was too much, but this was very touching for him, who had already had a similar experience in the past. Because his colleagues couldn’t even read a map properly, maps and compasses were always his responsibility.

The presence of a young lady who knew how to read a map was admirable as his expectations for his colleagues had already become lower.

As he was walking along the road, thinking that this would be better than expected, he suddenly saw something standing near the corner of the road at the end of his field of vision.

“Huh? Isn’t that a totem?”

“Where? Is this true? Animal bones and trees were tied together using leather. Any monster that erects a totem like this…”

The black-haired girl also spoke as if she had discovered it, and the blue-haired girl seemed to be checking and observing it, and then raised her finger upward as if she realized something.

“It’s a goblin! There must be a goblin nearby.”

“Ohh.”

“Ugh, no more applause! You’re so polarizing!”

This time, when she applauded in admiration, her face turned red, and she must have thought she was being made fun of!
She turned her head.

“Anyway! It’s not our request, but leaving a totem on the street like this could cause harm to other people. Let’s take care of it, right?”

As I followed behind the girls who were taking the lead, I was relieved to think that fortunately, they were not really bad-tempered girls.

“The totem should be broken like this, right?”

“That’s right. It’s to mark their territory.”

If left like this, the goblins might get angry and block the road. The blue-haired girl listened to his words and held the totem with both hands.

“Off!”

“Huh?”

When he saw her whimpering, he wondered if he was using some kind of magic, but he realized that he was giving strength to her struggling to the point where her face turned bright red.

“Lucia, if it’s hard, should I do it?”

‘That girl’s name was Lucia.’

I unintentionally heard his name as the dark-haired young lady spoke as she came forward, but I ignored it and pretended not to hear it.

“Ugh, I’ll ask you a favor.”

“Yes. Kkeuncha!”

The young lady who received the totem from Lucia broke the totem pole instead.

“Whew, really. No matter how hard I try, I won’t be able to keep up with you.”

“Leave this to me.”

Tiaran gave a strange look as he watched the two people having a conversation.

‘Monga. ‘Mongande.’

I had been feeling déjà vu for some time and wondered where I had seen these girls before, but I shook my head. There’s no way he’s ever met these girls.

“Does Lucia know how to deal with goblins?”

“Of course! You better keep an eye on it!”

‘This is your first goblin?’

When you look around outside the territory, aren’t goblins one of the most abundant monsters? These are monsters that you can easily see even if you are not an adventurer.

‘Maybe you didn’t see it.’

A village of goblins who arrived convinced that they were nobles. Now that he was thinking of showing off his skills, the girls each held out their hands towards him.

“Huh?”

“What? That’s not true. Let’s check how useful your marker is, right?”

“Yeah, right?”

Yes. That’s right. I don’t know why I have a stronger feeling that something isn’t right. The girls frowned when I had no choice but to put candy in their hands one by one.

“Ugh! I can’t get used to this taste.”

“I think I’m okay…”

They left him alone and went out of the bush where they were hiding.

“Kick! Kick!!”

“I’ll ask for the front!”

“Yes!”

As the goblins noticed them and gathered their comrades, the young lady rushed over and Lucia started looking around as if she was checking something.

‘How long has it been since you watched someone fight from behind?’

Since he had always been at the forefront of the fight, he looked at them with a sense of wonder.

-Chaeng!

“Haaa!”

“Keeek!?”

The black-haired girl immediately picked up a crude dagger and cut one of the goblins who was attacking her into pieces in an instant.

‘That young lady, her posture is a bit off, but her movements are good, right?’

It felt like quite a waste of strength, but even so, cutting the body of a creature with muscles and bones in half was more difficult than you could imagine.

“Mmm, good!”

As the young lady was struggling at the front, Lucia murmured as if to confirm. Then something appeared above her head and she screamed! And blue and pale lightning began to flash.

“Oh.”

That was the magic of this world. One for each person, called by the strange name of Maca. Although similar, few markers have exactly the same function.

Some people’s maca is limited to making small fires and can be used in daily life, while others’ maca has amazing killing power.

The magic of this world was that anyone could use it, but the variation was so great that even good markers had to be combined with the luck one was born with.

‘Someone didn’t even know it existed and suffered for over 30 years until they found a marker that wasn’t even there.’

It was true that I felt a little jealous. I thought so because I had already realized throughout my life that it was a useless idea.

‘Why do you want something that I don’t have?’

There was something like that, but the pale, blue rays of light radiating from all directions above Lucia, centered in the air above her, combined with her beautiful appearance created a picture worthy of admiration.

“It’s cool.”

As I was muttering those sentiments without realizing it, the beam of light that had gathered around her somehow disappeared.

‘What is it?’

Lucia shouted as she tilted her head, wondering if something was wrong.

“Get out of the way!”

“Huh? Yes.”

The dark-haired girl was embarrassed when she heard her cry, and when she saw her back, she jumped in surprise and threw her body away.

“[Quito Fulguetra]!”

As Lucia shouted, a bright blue flash covered her eyes.

-Qurrrr!

Tiaran gasped at the sight that caught his eye just as the thunder that followed him had stopped. I whistled.

Not only was the ground charred black from the heat, but even the goblins that had been hit directly by the attack and the houses they had built were completely charred and scattered.

‘If this is the case, would you believe it to be a high-ranking Makashia?’

You can roughly think of Makashia as a wizard of this world. In the first place, it is difficult to classify them as magicians since everyone can use one magic at a time, but it was a general term for those who specialized in wide-area attacks.

“Wow.”

Lucia, who was looking at the scene with admiration at the dark-haired girl who was somehow dazed, suddenly began to shake her hands.

‘Is there some problem?’

I wondered if I should at least take her medicine, but she shooed him away. As she looked back, her thoughts changed.

“Mmm! Da, you really are!”

I wondered if it was possible to see her lightly biting her lip and her ears and face turning bright red.

“Did you forget to applaud?”

“No need!!!”

As she clapped, she screamed and stamped her feet.

“But I was surprised. Don’t you usually just aim for the right target?”

For some reason, that girl also looked surprised, so I guess that was the reason.

“Ugh, that is. So…”

Lucia glanced at him and seemed to mutter something, then shook her head and said.

“Today I was just curious about how much maximum power there is! Isn’t this the best way to check how effective the buff is?”

“That’s right. It was awesome.”

I thought it was really unusual, but it was a good method.

“It was great, lady.”

“You shut up!!”

Even though I praised him, I didn’t get a very positive response. In the end, she was unable to speak to Lucia, who had been fussing alone for a while until she calmed down.

“Ha, anyway, if we do this, we won’t be able to retrieve the goblins’ machia.”

Then, when she regained her senses, she checked the corpses of the goblins, which had turned to black ashes and were scattered to dust even in the breeze, and touched her forehead.

Makia can simply be thought of as the Maka of monsters. I wonder if it’s a pun, but I heard she has a different form and mechanism.

First, she collected things that looked like magic stones and used them as evidence for subjugation.

“It’s a buff, it’s good that the power has become stronger, but I need to put more effort into controlling it. If I’m not more careful, the cost of living…!”

“Well, the young lady is amazing.”

“So you shut up!”

‘Why are you doing this to me?’

Tia Ran asked the dark-haired girl with her eyes, but she just shook her head.