Shadow Lizards Ravaging the Crops

Spartia had an organization similar to the Adventurer's Guild back in the Kingdom.

It specialized in monster extermination, and work was never in short supply.

The building's interior was simple, but it bustled with adventurers.

Moreover, every single one of them looked like they could handle themselves in a fight.

Many of them were probably also participants in the Ocelot Colosseum.

Alexia had ended up wearing the battle dress for the extermination after all.

She'd sighed about it just a little.

It suited her, but it drew stares.

The closer you got to the Demon Den on Spartia's outskirts, the more monsters there were.

Monsters that actually reached Spartia were dealt with by the nation's warriors, but they didn't have the numbers to cover the surrounding areas.

That gap was filled through cooperation with adventurers.

The reward rates themselves weren't much different from other countries, but the sheer volume of work made up for it.

There were also monsters with valuable materials and magic stones to harvest. If you had the skill, supposedly you could make a fortune just hunting monsters here.

Master had no intention of staying long, not with his shop to run.

In the meantime, his employee was still managing the store in his absence.

The employee had recently started handling procurement as well, which had let Master make this trip with peace of mind.

Azu surveyed the available quests with Elza and Alexia in tow.

Thanks to Elza's lessons, she could now read and write.

Her writing was still limited to simple characters and her own name, but she could already read quest postings on her own.

Master preferred monsters with good per-unit value, but if the destination was too far, Alexia would object.

Hmm, Azu racked her brain.

"How about this one, Azu-chan?"

Elza pointed to a Shadow Lizard extermination.

They were crop-raiding monsters that inhabited Spartia's surroundings.

The materials weren't worth much individually, but there were plenty of sellable parts, including the meat.

Apparently they were delicious when deep-fried.

"That looks good. Close enough for a day trip."

"Shadow Lizards… sigh. Takes me back. They used to ravage the crops on our territory too."

"Then let's take out some of that frustration on them."

And so the Shadow Lizard extermination was decided, and they set out immediately.

Shadow Lizards were basically large lizards, but true to their name, they had the ability to sink into shadows.

During the day they had fewer places to hide, and for a reasonably skilled adventurer, they weren't particularly dangerous as long as you stayed alert.

But once it got dark, the threat level spiked dramatically.

You could be ambushed from anywhere, so leaving their habitat before nightfall was strongly recommended.

And yet Spartian warriors, unbelievably, had a coming-of-age ritual where they camped solo in Shadow Lizard territory for several days.

If you died, it simply meant you'd had no future as a warrior.

Unable to sleep properly, responding to attacks from all directions at any moment, killing Shadow Lizards and eating their flesh.

Azu couldn't begin to imagine doing that herself.

Master probably wouldn't allow it either. Far too dangerous.

They reached the wasteland where the Shadow Lizards lived before long.

Normally, the lizards fed on insects and the like here, or ate fruit from the nearby forest.

When that food ran low, they'd venture into farmland and devastate crops.

That was why keeping their numbers down periodically was important, according to the posting.

As Azu scanned the area, she spotted an adult Shadow Lizard sinking into the shadow of a rock.

The shadow showed no change whatsoever. You'd never be able to tell just by looking.

"Alexia-san, can you detect them with magic?"

"I could, but there's no need. This works best on Shadow Lizards."

With that, Alexia conjured a sphere of light at her fingertip.

It was a lighting spell, but far brighter than usual.

Elza, standing right next to her, yelped "Bright!" and shielded her eyes despite it being broad daylight.

Alexia hurled the light into the shadow where the Shadow Lizard had hidden.

The shadow rapidly shrank to nothing, and the moment the Shadow Lizard came scrambling out, Alexia crushed its head with her battle axe.

Flawless work. She was clearly experienced at this.

Azu broke into applause.

"Amazing! You took it out just like that!"

Alexia let out a satisfied "Heh" and preened at Azu's earnest praise.

"Let's keep this up. They're never going extinct no matter how many we kill, so let's go through them one by one."

With that, Alexia forged ahead.

Azu and Elza hurried after her.

The extermination proceeded more smoothly than ever before.

With the Shadow Lizards' greatest weapon, hiding in shadows, rendered useless, they were just oversized lizards.

Azu cut them down without even using magic power, Elza smashed their heads with her mace, and Alexia felled them with her battle axe.

"Could I learn that spell too?"

They'd finished a round of extermination and were taking a break.

Alexia had placed lighting spells around the perimeter to keep Shadow Lizards from approaching.

"Oh? Interested, Azu?"

"Yes, it looked really useful."

Hmm, Alexia studied the lighting spell.

Azu's magic power had grown considerably since the beginning.

Between the benefits of monster hunting and the constant magic drain from the sword she wielded, she'd been developing steadily. She was probably at apprentice mage level by now.

But Alexia could tell that Azu had an utterly fatal lack of talent for casting magic.

She could channel magic through equipment like the Sealed Sword Grungaus, but generating magic on her own required innate aptitude.

Azu had talent as a warrior, but virtually no aptitude as a mage.

Elza actually had far better prospects in that regard.

After mulling over her words for a while, Alexia gave up trying to sugarcoat it.

"You can't, Azu. Give up."

"Oh, really…"

Azu deflated at Alexia's blunt verdict, and Elza knelt down to her eye level to pat her head.

"Once you have more magic power, there are body-enhancement spells you could use. You could probably manage those, so wait until then."

"Okay."

Azu perked right back up.