Chapter 4.3

“Ah, finally, finally got it…”

After ten hours of hunting squirrels, the hunt that started early in the forest was finally yielding results. Incidentally, it took me a month to get the Mai Mai, so the luckier squirrel hunt was faster due to the freedom of movement compared to being confined near the city walls for security duty.

Moreover, the luckier squirrel is just a slightly bothersome common monster, not a rare monster like the juvenile Mai Mai.

“Ah, it’s a shame it’s not a juvenile skill, but I’m so happy I can almost forget about that.”

The skill I obtained is incredibly convenient for solving my current situation.

When I looked behind me, the ground was strewn with the pelts of luckier squirrels spilling out of my backpack, and the pouch I made by stitching together the skins from my lunch break was stuffed full of squirrel pelts.

While I could easily discard them based on their value, I felt guilty about wasting the pelts of the squirrels I had killed, so I couldn’t bring myself to throw them away.

“Finally, I can dispose of this annoying stuff.”

I leveled up by defeating other monsters I encountered—enemy monsters like goblins and kobolds—and used my accumulated skill points to expand the slots for monster skills I could set to five. I quickly set the skill I obtained from the luckier squirrel and activated it.

“Item Box!”

Upon activation of the skill, my MP was consumed, and a strange hole appeared in the air.

As I placed the squirrel pelts and high-value nuts dropped by the squirrels into the hole, the items were sucked in and disappeared.

—Item Box.

This skill is one of the essential “three sacred treasures” used by protagonists in web novels.

(Three sacred treasures; the others are Identification and Taming, right? Although Taming may differ for each person. Also, Heal, Gacha, or Mail Order could be candidates?)

As for why the luckier squirrel possesses Item Box, it’s because their cheek pouches are said to be filled with an infinite amount of nuts, which makes it a convenient skill that can be obtained through taming them.

Because of that, wild luckier squirrels occasionally have this skill as well. I’ve never seen a wild luckier squirrel utilizing it, though.

That said, since I have it, I find myself harvesting these creatures en masse to get a head start as a Bounty Hunter and Hacker.

“All I need now is to get the juvenile version of Item Box, and I’ll be all set.”

The complete Item Box from an adult luckier squirrel has a decent capacity, but it’s insufficient for serious dungeon exploration, so obtaining the juvenile version of Item Box that can grow by hunting young squirrels is urgent.

“Well, I guess that’s it for today.”

I had almost used up all the poison smoke bombs I had packed in my backpack.

On top of that, even though I was enhancing my physical abilities and using multiple skills to improve my efficiency in walking through the forest, today’s hunting expedition was tiring.

Perhaps it was mainly mental fatigue. I was getting too emotionally invested in the results of the Magic Stone Hack.

The emotions that could be skipped during the game era are now affecting my efficiency as an adventurer; this is likely a real-world bug.

It was easy to play in a game. I could ignore these things because it was a game… but here, where everything is real, I can’t simply disregard these trivial matters that are causing me distress.

“The sun is starting to set.”

Looking up at the sky through the gaps in the trees, I could see the sun beginning to dip, and darkness was about to envelop the forest.

Even with my cheat-like offensive abilities, I had no intention of staying in the dark forest at my current level.

(Even though it’s not the depths, there are scary monsters that come out at night.)

While I have the Dissolve skill, which penetrates defenses, I wouldn’t be guaranteed survival against strong enemies, and there are many monsters I’d rather not encounter at my current level.

The fortress city of Exus, which is my current base, is a city from the early stages of the Job Hero story, but I suspect the free scenario mode of Job Hero, which sets the standards for this world, is a hardcore game that requires memorization.

Not all monsters that appear are manageable by even the early-game protagonist, or so I believe.

(But that’s just how reality is…)

I don’t know who the protagonist of this world is, but the world doesn’t revolve around me.

If I let my guard down, I could die. That’s just common sense.

“…Time to head back.”

Having lightened my load by packing the fruits of my efforts into the Item Box, I followed the direction-sensing feature of my Adventurer skill to return to the city.

Along the way, I switched from Tracking to Gathering skill to easily collect the bounties of the forest.