Kays Translations

Chapter 4: The Black Bear

Even by autumn, my progress with life magic hadn’t improved much. My Water spell could barely fill seven-tenths of a wooden bucket, and Flame was only about one and a half fists in size. Light had become brighter, but still just a little dimmer than a car’s high beams—bright enough to sting the eyes at night, but nothing extraordinary.

It seemed that, by nature, life magic wasn’t meant to be particularly powerful. Still, my mother was delighted that my Clean spell had become stronger and that I’d learned Refresh. As a result, I’d been officially appointed as the household masseur for both my mother and father.

And since my Flame spell worked well as a fire starter, she made me light the cooking fire every mealtime. By pouring in half of one percent of my mana, the flame could burn steadily for more than thirty minutes in the stove—quite handy, admittedly. Ralph, who worked with my mother part-time at the hotel as a waiter and cleaner, often gave me a strange look whenever he saw me doing this.

I’d already accepted that this was the limit of life magic, but I kept practicing anyway.

As for wind magic—one summer day, I’d tried changing my image from a small whirlwind to a tornado. The result? I accidentally formed an actual tornado outside my window. It almost turned into a disaster.

Thankfully, I’d reduced the mana output to less than one percent as a precaution, so it didn’t escalate, but the truth of what really happened was lost in the dark of that night.

After that scare, I returned to practicing smaller whirlwinds and began learning how to dissipate them.

Every evening after returning home, I’d place my 2,000 Dara helper’s pay on the table, then stare out the window mumbling to myself until dinner, enough to make my mother worry.

But the effort paid off: I discovered that I could dispel a whirlwind by withdrawing mana from it, much like extinguishing my Flame. Relieved, I stopped making whirlwinds altogether and instead began thinking of new ways to apply wind magic.

By November, we’d started venturing closer to the forest’s edge to collect fruits and mushrooms. My detection skill had improved to match Mintz’s, and I could now act as a scout in his place.

Daily practice had clearly paid off. My detection range was now about 60 meters, and I’d gained both the Detection and Presence Sense skills—able to notice hidden beasts within roughly 40 meters.

My Appraisal skill, however, remained unreliable—at best, a fifty-percent chance of correctly identifying whether a plant was an herb or just a weed.

Even so, my helper’s pay had increased to 3,000 Dara per day. Ted told me that if I became proficient with both spear and bow by my coming-of-age, he’d officially recognize me as a member of the party.

Even Marco didn’t seem to object, and the others said it made sense—Mintz and I scouting together had greatly increased our catch.

Only Marco remained unpleasant, driven by pride as a “mage.” He’d been cold toward me ever since I first joined Lynas’s Gale as a helper, so I simply ignored him in return.

If I could master the kind of wind magic I envisioned, I was sure I could surpass Marco easily. Once my coming-of-age day arrived, I planned to take a short break from the party and experiment with those ideas.

I already had several wind spells I could use—but I hadn’t told anyone about them.

I’d learned to adjust the size and strength of my whirlwinds, and since I knew I could form a tornado, I figured it could become a powerful weapon with proper control.

I also had the theory for creating a vacuum by sliding two wind currents against each other, but it was too dangerous to test inside the city.

Once, I even tried trapping a bat flying at dusk inside a bubble of air and expanding it until it dropped to the ground. People got suspicious when it fell mid-flight, so I stopped that experiment immediately.

By February, my second brother, Ralph, had earned recognition for his work at the hotel and began living there as a full-time room and serving attendant.

With both my eldest brother, Morris, and Ralph gone, it was now just my parents and me at home.

They told me to stay as long as I could since they’d feel lonely once I left. My older sister Belinda visited often, so I doubted they’d be too lonely—but she always said.

“You’re small, so be a good son and take care of them.”

Being nine years younger than her, short like our mother, and the youngest of the family, I supposed I did still seem like a child in her eyes.

In four months, I’d reach my coming-of-age, but they still treated me like a kid. Thankfully, they hadn’t told me to move out, so even after officially joining Lynas’s Gale, I planned to commute from home.

The Black Bear attack happened in April, on a warm day, while we were collecting herbs near the forest.

We’d paused our gathering when a group of nine goblins approached. In the middle of fighting them off, we were suddenly ambushed from behind.

We’d already defeated about half the goblins when I felt a chilling presence and turned around—only to see a massive black shape charging at us.

“Run!”

I yelled and leapt aside, narrowly avoiding the black mass as it barreled straight into the fallen goblins.

Ignoring us completely, the monster tore into the corpses, devouring them in a frenzy—it was a Black Bear. Ted motioned for everyone to retreat quietly, and we slowly backed away, holding our breath so as not to provoke it.

Then—〈Paan〉!—a sudden explosion.

A fireball had burst right in front of the bear’s nose.

“Ha! Did you see that? My Fireball stopped the Black Bear cold! I’ll finish it off with another one!”

Marco’s smug voice echoed—and the bear turned from its meal toward us, bellowing in rage.

Another fireball struck—〈Paan〉!—but it didn’t even flinch.

The Black Bear slammed its paws into the ground and charged, roaring furiously.

“Run!!” 

Someone shouted, their voice overlapping with terrified screams.

We broke formation and scattered, fleeing in all directions. Behind us came the bear’s roar, followed by shrieks and crashing noises.

I tripped over the grass and tumbled into a hollow in the ground. From the smell, it seemed to be an abandoned Horn Boar den. Holding my breath, I listened carefully—no sign of the bear nearby. I exhaled in relief.

My throat was parched, and my clothes were soaked in cold sweat. I gulped down water from my Water spell and tried to think.

I’d heard two, maybe three screams—so at least half of us must have escaped.

Detection magic was useless in the chaos of battle, but I never expected a Black Bear to appear this close to the forest’s edge. It had been too busy feasting on the goblins to notice us—until Marco’s idiotic fireball.

If only we’d followed Ted’s command and withdrawn quietly…

That damn fool Marco did he really think his flimsy little fireball could kill a Black Bear?

Anger simmered in my chest as I calmed myself with another gulp of water and scanned my surroundings. No beasts nearby.

I didn’t know exactly where I was, but the spot where we’d fought the goblins was a familiar herb-gathering area.

I could run back to town now, but after nearly three years of working alongside these people, I couldn’t just abandon them.

Some of them might be wounded.

I decided to go back and check.

＊＊＊

Using my detection and sense skills, I carefully made my way back to the scene of the goblin subjugation. There, I found Henry’s body—his back slashed deeply by claws and his body crushed.

Beyond the half-devoured corpses of the goblins lay Edgar, his face frozen in terror, eyes staring blankly at the sky.

Their armor had kept them from being eaten too much, but even so, their arms and legs had been torn off.

I couldn’t possibly carry their bodies back on my own, so I thought at least I could collect their belongings. Just as I was thinking that, a faint voice called my name.

It was Ted. He was lying in the grass, his right leg blackened with blood.

“Ted! You’re alive!”

“I managed to keep my life… but thanks to Marco, I ended up like this. Who didn’t make it?”

“Henry and Edgar are dead. The rest seem to have gotten away. Are you alright to move?”

“When Henry fell, I tried to pull him up—then that claw strike sent me flying. Lucky to still be breathing… but with a guild potion, all it could do was stop the bleeding. I’m done as an adventurer now.”

Looking closely, his thigh had been deeply gouged open. The bleeding had stopped, the wound closed up, but it was jagged and twisted.

He’d never walk properly again, not without a cane—and adventuring was out of the question.

“Leon, make me a splint. We’re taking the two of them back to town.”

He handed me a knife. I cut some suitable branches, wrapped his thigh with herbs and cloth, then lashed small sticks around it with rope.

Helping him stand, using a broken spear shaft as a crutch, was tough work even for me—small as I was, even with magic reinforcing my strength.

We stored the two bodies in the magic pouch and began making our way toward the main road. But with Ted losing blood and limping badly, our pace was painfully slow.

By the time we finally reached the road, the sun was already sinking. Luckily, a passing wagon came by, and the driver let us ride in the back to town.

At the Adventurers’ Guild, we got off the wagon. Ted pressed a silver coin into the driver’s hand in thanks.

From inside the guild came the sound of angry shouting.

“I was fighting that Black Bear head-on! Everyone else just abandoned me and ran for it!”

“You really think your little Fireball could hurt a Black Bear?! If we’d just quietly retreated like Ted signaled, no one would’ve died! He told us to fall back when it was eating the goblins!”

“Lies! We were preparing to attack in formation, but the moment I launched my Fireball, everyone turned tail and ran! Don’t you dare blame me for your cowardice!”

Returning adventurers, hearing the commotion, stopped to listen in, then began filing curiously into the guild hall.

Previous chapter | TOC | Next chapter