The Records of an Overpowered Herb Hunter

7.2 Falling Lights

- Before -

A small fire burned and crackled in the middle of the forest, where 5 members of Magician Extraordinaire rested. Heiki, as usual, was cleaning up the party's equipment while paying special attention to Takeshi's magic staff. Beating the Cricet directly with it dealt it a lot of damage... to the magic staff as well.

Yuki was preparing the meal, boiling a stew with pre-packed ingredients that every adventurer would have eaten at least once. Not horrible, but none too pleasant as well. But it would have to do as no one had the energy to look for edible fresh prey after an entire day of hunting. Luna and Tsukasa were looking over the map, still not giving up on the bonus test card. Takeshi was just supervising the stew or rather banished by Heiki to not do anything.

"We had hunted only one Cricet today, found no herb and no card."

Tsukasa announced sullenly, as if the group did not know their progress already. Although it seemed like Cricets were easy to find, they were hard to find or lure them alone. If one Cricet posed such difficulty to the group already, imagine needing to defeat 5 at once. Cricket was a pack monster and often moved together in groups.

"Well, don't worry! We will be at least able to hunt down two more Cricets and find the herb! After all that was the team's plan!"

Tsukasa frowned after hearing Takeshi's optimism. If the party carried on like this, he felt that he wouldn't be able to complete even half of the assessment, let alone score the best.

"If not, why don't we split the party? Tsukasa and I will go hunt for the herb and the card while the others go to hunt the Cricet?"

The stew was distributed out by Yuki and while eating their own portions, no one replied to Luna's suggestion. Everyone knew that was impossible. With Class A monsters roaming around, being in a group will be the safest.

The fire crackled just like the tension in the air.

"No."

Tsukasa turned to look at Heiki, the leader of this expedition and who had the final say.

"No. It's not a good idea to split. We will not be able to protect each other. And our invigilator won't be able to grade us separately either. Remember we are always tested. Even right now."

Volunteering to take the first shift for the lookout, Yuki and Takeshi went to scout the perimeters while the others rested for the night.

"Where are we going Takeshi? We are moving too far away from the camp."

Takeshi was looking upwards and figuring out where there would be an opening gap among the tree leaves where the moonlight was able to fall. He came across it earlier in the afternoon and it should be around here somewhere....

"THERE! Yuki let's go!"

"W- wait!"

Takeshi dashed up and emerged into a clearing where the moonlight shone down. In the field of shimmering blue flowers, there was one that stood out the most: the Ocimum. It looked like an ordinary daisy but when moonlight shone on it, it would emit a bright silver shine.

"How did you know it was here? We were even wrecking our heads over it just now."

"Well, I have a friend who is a Herb Hunter. She was memorizing and reciting some herbs when she told us to take note of some useful ones, quite forcefully actually. Glad we listened to her. Let's see... What was it again? Ah! Ocimum when grinded into paste is able to stop bleeding and is good for emergencies."

Yuki bent down to help Takeshi unearth the Herb while listening to Takeshi talk about Aki. When Yuki met Aki before, she seemed like a cold beauty who was hard to approach. Aloof and quiet. But as she listened to Takeshi's stories, and the fun adventures that they had together, it made Yuki want to get to know Aki as well.

"She sounds like a very good friend."

"Of course! Aki is one of the sweetest people I have met! Although many people say that she looks cold, just see how she treats the Hase who is following her around, you will see her gooey soft center! She didn't even sign a familiar contract with it and yet fed and pampered him like one."

While chatting, they made their way back to the camp. But as the conversation was so engaging, with Heiki even adding his take on their adventures as they were changing shifts, they forgot to report that they had found the Ocimum.

-

Blood splattered onto the forest floor as the Cricet screamed. Finally, this was the last Cricet that they needed to hunt down. Rain poured as the group was at a stalemate with the Cricet. After the hunt for the second Cricet, they were exhausted and even though the sky has turned dark, they had chanced upon this lone Cricet that was too good to let go.

But they never thought that it would pose too much of a challenge until one of their party members began to hold them back.

During the hunt, Luna caused Tsukasa to have to bear the full frontal assault of the Cricet because he had to cover for her which cause him to become heavily injured.

Yuki managed to heal him and with several bottles of high grade potion, he was about 80% good. Tsukasa was even in a better state physically than Takeshi who had to deal with the Cricet while both Luna and Tsukasa were down.

It might be due to the blood loss, the shock, or simply being too overly concerned about Luna, it resulted in Tsukasa being unable to fight as well as before.

"PULL YOURSELF TOGETHER! THIS IS THE LAST ONE!"

Takeshi shouted, trying to rally the party's fighting spirit. Yuki tried to heal Takeshi who had technically become the tank as Luna, who was supposed to be the warrior class, was technically useless. Instead of tanking the Crivet's attack to create openings for the team, Luna kept avoiding them, which made other party members suffer instead. She has also started to drag Tsukasa back, as Tsukasa was trying to protect her instead of focusing on the Cricet.

Gritting her teeth and though she was already exhausted from healing Tsukasa, Yuki over-stretched herself to heal Takeshi as well. Halfway through reciting one of her spells, Yuki spat out a mouthful of blood, but kept continuing.

As Heiki evaluated the situation and thought that it would be bad if this continued, he rushed up and forcefully pushing through to the Cricet without cover to deal a finishing blow. However, because of this, Heiki received several gashes which were openly bleeding. As the monster collapsed, the whole team also collapsed in exhuastion.

"Wh- what are you doing Luna?"

Turning to look at Tsukasa, they saw Luna who was supposed to be down, pointing her sword at Tsukasa. Tsukasa looked up at Luna in disbelieve as she was still looking at him with her sweet smile and adoring gaze.

"What am I doing? I'm doing my job of course."

Luna stabbed towards Tsukasa. Bearly avoiding it by rolling on the forest floor, Tsukasa looked as if reality had not registered yet. It was the same familiar Luna, and yet...

"Just stop running away, it will make this easier for everyone."

Tsukasa and Heiki tried to get up to interfere but their injuries kept them down. Tsukasa tried to throw a fireball and Yuki too tried to cast a shield on Tsukasa but suddenly their spells were canceled halfway through and were unable to use magic.

As Tsukasa was still trying to dodge Luna's attacks in confusion, the ground trembled as a huge roar vibrated through the air.

"Hear that? You should also not count on the protectors to save you as they now have a bigger problem to deal with. No one is coming~"

Luna grinned even wider as she cornered Tsukasa as he scuttled backwards with his trembling hands. Just as she was just ready to eliminate her target, she froze. A slit appeared at her throat as blood spluttered out, soaking Tsukasa's face and body in blood.