Until then, she would focus on leveling up.
“The owner, this Kudou guy seems nice. And I do want to join them ”
In her mind, she hadn’t had the best opinion of the owner. But her opinion had improved slightly after messaging him a few times.
Loners tended to become fond of people who gave them attention.
But she didn’t even remember what he looked like. She remembered Momo very well.
“Ah, there ”
She found a monster through the scope of her rifle.
It was a goblin.
There was only one. This was perfect.
She aimed carefully and then pulled the trigger.
The bullet went right between its eyes as she had intended, and it fell dead.
“ Mmm, good.”
After that, she continued to kill goblins and lesser wolves to gain experience points.
“This gun is so powerful ”
She stroked her beloved friend with much affection.
“ It has more than enough strength to make up for my weak stats.”
Her status was lower than average.
Most of them were in the single digits, the only thing that was in the doubles was her MP.
The reason had everything to do with the job that she chose.
“Ahh, why did I choose ‘Shut-in’ ”
She had only chosen it out of curiosity.
But the moment that she selected this job, her stats dropped to a tremendous degree.
She wasn’t sure if it was because of this job, but now, her stats would barely change even when her level went up.
“But on the other hand, I wouldn’t have gotten this gun or my other job skills if I hadn’t chosen this job ”
‘Shut-in’ caused your stats to be dramatically lowered.
But it gave you two special skills in return.
“I’ll do another one to cheer me up.”
She chose a certain skill from the skill table.
It was one of the skills that she acquired when she chose Shut-in.
When she selected it, a box materialized one meter away from her.
It was a clear case that was full of balls.
They were capsule toys. The ones that were inside of gacha machines.
The voice sounds in her head.
She selects yes.
The Gacha skill allowed you to use 1 point of SP in order to turn the gacha 3 times and win various prizes.
The prizes could be anything from food to daily supplies, and sometimes even new jobs or skills.
She had even acquired the Mail skill through this gacha.
“Hmm, what will I get this time ”
She turned the lever and a white capsule came out.
“Looks bad ”
White capsules usually didn’t contain any rare items.
When she opened it, it transformed into cup ramen.
There was a red type and a green type. Three of each were stuffed into a bag.
She was happy to have food, but it wasn’t what she wanted right now.
She tried again.
This time it was a blue capsule.
“Oh, this might be good.”
She opened the capsule, and the voice sounded in her head.
She did a mental fist pump.
You could sometimes get SP and JP like this with Gacha.
Now that she had gotten 1 point, it meant that she was getting stuff for free.
“Last one ”
She felt the mounting excitement as she turned the lever.
A black capsule rolled out.
Her smile widened.
Black capsules were the most likely to contain rare items.
She eagerly opened the capsule, and then the voice played in her head.
“Yes !”
She expressed her happiness with her whole body.
She had finally got the skill that she wanted.
When she checked her status, she could see that her strength and endurance had increased.
“Now it will be easier to move around ”
This time the gacha had been a great success.
She hadn’t gotten any status increase skills the last time.
What she did get, was pencils, nail clippers, vitamins, and other things she didn’t care about.
Thanks to that, she had had a very hard time up until now.
But now that she had this skill, things should be easier.
She was in a good mood as she continued her level grind.
And then something strange appeared in her scope.
“ What’s this?”
It was a group of orcs.
There were more than ten of them. So many.
Not only that, but there was one among them who was clearly different.
Its skin was a bronze color, and it was bigger than the others.
“I don’t think I can take that one ”
She could probably manage to hunt a single orc, but a whole group was too much.
And then there was this bronze orc. It would be much stronger.
She was no match for it.
“But where are they headed?”
It didn’t seem like they were wandering aimlessly around.
It looked like they had a destination in mind.
“The building over there ”
She opened her map and checked the surrounding buildings.
And then her eyes landed on it–.
“-The home center ?”
CH 48
48. The Footsteps of Destruction
We were going back the way that we had come in order to escape the pack of shadow wolves.
It did not feel good to retreat when we had come all of this way, but it wasn’t worth risking our lives.
Just like the orcs, the shadow wolves had a keen sense of smell.
They would have likely followed us if we stayed any longer, and I just couldn’t do anything risky at this point.
“I feel like I have some sort of connection to the shadow wolves ”
And not in a good way.
For some reason, they had specifically targeted me at the home center.
It made me wonder if running over that first shadow wolf, in the beginning, had caused them to hate me more than usual.
“Let’s rest a little for now.”
I sit down on the ground and lean back against a vending machine.
Scout and Danger Detection were not showing anything nearby.
As my mouth was feeling dry, I took out a sports drink from the Item Box.
Momo looked like she wanted some, so I put some in a plate.
Of course, it was her personal plate.
Now that my thirst was quenched, I took out the butcher’s knife I had got through my fight with the orc.
“An orc knife huh.”
That’s exactly what it was.
It was about 80 centimeters in length.
It wasn’t rusted at all and looked like it would cut cleanly.
I try swinging it around.
Yeah, this amount of weight shouldn’t be a problem.
I think I would replace my kitchen knife with this from now on.
I wasn’t going to avoid using it just because it was a monster’s weapon.
Still, my main method of attack was ambushing enemies with the Item Box. So I shouldn’t get into any real sword fights, I think.
I mean, I would be in trouble if I did.
But it was still good to have a strong weapon.
It might help me improve my Swordsmanship and Vital Strike skill.
Now that I think of it, the female student in Nishino’s group had a weapon like this too.
But hers was a billhook.
“Oh, I guess I should check my Email then ”
I open the Mail display, and as expected, there were even more Unread messages now.
I’ll just reply to the most recent one.
“Mmm ?”
As I skimmed through the text, there was something in the latest message that caught my eye.
“She saw a pack of orcs ?”
The text said that she had seen a pack of orcs and that I should be careful.
I had received the message a few minutes ago.
Around the time that I was running away from the shadow wolves.
A pack of orcs.
The first thing that I thought of, was the orcs from the shopping mall.
When I read the message further, I saw the words ‘bronze-colored orc.’
There was no mistake. It was him.
Were they moving to find new prey?