*****

"Hunter of the Beol Mountains! I, Finn Deimne, challenge you to a duel!" The girl was woken up by the loud voice of a man. It sounded childish yet also matured.

"What is wrong with these people? And where is Bird? He would usually just scare these bandits away whenever they would get too close to our house, is he out hunting? We should have enough for the next two weeks, what is he doing? "

The girl grumpily stood up from her woolen bed and changed out of her sleeping garment into a more combat-oriented outfit. It was a simple combination of her first hoodie over her inner dress she looted from a group of bandits that wanted a piece of her, and a nice dirty white¹it's a color: E8E4C9 robe on top of it all to cover from either the sun's heat or the cold winds. Magic is amazing, just a little bit of magic allows items to do things they should not be able to do.

Having lived as a girl for around half a decade now, she learned quite a lot of things, from how to deal with simple things to slightly more problematic things that come along with having a biologically functioning female body. 

Wearing simple dresses doesn't give any more conflicted feelings or resistance, although she still wouldn't wear any of those sexy outfits or swimsuits, those are just too much.²Author's opinion. Honestly, I neither see nor feel anything attractive about those swimsuits. Nothing different from underwear, except maybe the former is more aquadynamic or something compared to the latter.

After arming herself with the usual things she would hide under her robe, which consists of a few knives, a leather pouch, and a wand, she ran out of her room to her front door and grabbed her favorite pair of winter boots. She stole these boots from a child the bandits had with them.

Seriously, they're even involving children³Prum/pallum, obviously into their dishonest business? They're the absolute worst. I was poor too, but I made it through life without resorting to robbery! Theft maybe, but I never hurt anyone! And that was when I was younger!  I never touched that world ever again after being able to earn my own money! 

Sighing in disappointment, she walks for the door and prepares for yet another confrontation with these people who keep trying to rob her.

Although in reality, these people are simply her challengers. People who seek the strong to prove their own strength. The first ones were indeed bandits but the rest are just people who heard about her from those bandits whose lives she spared, they work in groups after all, and gossiping is one way of ridding of boredom. But she doesn't know and doesn't need to know that.

After fixing her hair for a little, she opened the door and stepped out. In front of her yard was a dozen group of people wearing all kinds of armor and carrying weapons on their sheathes. She looked at them with wary, these people felt strong, much stronger than all others she have fought before. Alive and dead.

Are bandits of this world usually this strong? If you're that powerful, why not apply for a military position? Surely an army job is a better source of income than stealing, yes? Or maybe they're deserters?

No matter, she will just scare them like usual. Maybe hurt them or eliminate one or two in order to push them away. Although the thought of ending another person's life is still a disgusting thought for her, sometimes she would find herself fighting against really persistent people and would be forced to either strike them down or leave them to their own deaths. She would even offer healing, but thankfully only some would continue attacking her again after. Is stealing really worth sacrificing your life for? The girl couldn't understand.

Her thoughts were cut off when she felt something, or rather, someone grabbing her head from the top. She looked up and saw some white-haired man with wolf ears? Dog ears? She couldn't tell. Shouts here and there could be heard from behind the man and he soon let her go and backed off. Not used to being suddenly touched by anyone, the girl glared at the man like he was a mistake and a disappointment, before a blond boy stepped forward, said some things, and bowed.

What is he doing? Is he apologizing? Does that mean they're not bandits? Then what else are they here for if not to rob me?

Her thoughts were once again cut off after the same white-haired wolf shouted at her. He said some things she couldn't understand. But his tone made it obvious that he was demanding something from her.

Oh, I guess they're bandits still. Maybe they're just more civilized than the others. She remembered those times when bulky men would rush into her backyard and into her warehouse. That was the first time when she had taken her first life. Although accidentally, she still took someone's life.

She was pulled out of memory lane when the wolf man charged at her. Out of reflex, her mana, as she have come to call it, rapidly exited her heart directly into the field.

She intends to summon spikes in front of the charging wolf to stop him in his tracks but she miscalculated his speed. She might have severely injured, if not killed, the man if it wasn't for the green-haired woman shouting at him from behind.

Although she didn't show it on her face, she was relieved when she saw the man narrowly dodge the spikes.

But her relief was short-lived when he charged at her for the second time, this time much faster. She immediately pulled her wand out of its holster hidden within her robe. She willed her mana to forcefully increase his weight and the force of gravity around him, pushing him to the ground with a loud thud. Her left eye started glowing, and the faint shape of a three-pointed star appeared on it.

Please let this be enough to scare them away!

Imagine her surprise though when her magic was canceled and her mana flew back into her heart. Looking around, she noticed the same green-haired woman holding up a long silver… Was it called a staff or stave? I don't remember, I wasn't into fantasy… and I had too little time to explore other genres besides comedy. One of her hobbies to past time while waiting for work was watching comedy shows airing at night on the television.

Dragging herself out of her head, she turns her focus back to the rampaging wolf. He's charging at her again for the third time. Annoyed, she threw him away into the back of her house with a huge earthen pillar, wherever he landed didn't feel right but that was not important right now.

The rest of the bandits pulled their own weapons out of their sheaths.

Well look at that, the usual happened. They think they can win because they have more people. If only they knew…

She kept her wand raised, but before she could set up her usual trick to deal with crowds, the blond child stepped forward. Said and shouted some things and the people behind him lowered their weapons.

What's going on? What is he up to?

The blond picked his spear up and took a stance. Oh, he's attacking… and this is the first time that I'm fighting someone both short and wields a spear.

As if waiting, he just stood there looking straight into her eyes. And she returned it with her own stare.

Now!

Immediately she felt the heavy shift in the atmosphere and quickly leaped up. The blond man sliced the air where she had previously stood.

He's so fast, that could have cut me in half! Although this strains my eye and heart, I'll have to do it!

She willed her magic into reducing her weight, the opposite of how she would increase an object's weight. Once she was light enough, she controlled the wind around her near vicinity with her absurd control and hovered in place.

Doing this forces her to absorb mana with her whole body, store it in her heart, and control it with her eye. For her heart, it's fine even if she did this for a whole week, but for her eye? Not so much, for some reason when she would control a large amount of mana her eye would start to heat up. She guessed that was because it was what allows her to control her mana with such precision. If that were true then it is a weakness that must not be exposed at all costs.

If any form of enemy learns of this weakness, she will be forced to focus not just on her vitals but also on her eye.

With her flight magic, she flew way over what the man could reach with his spear. The look of surprise on his face was quite satisfying to see and to rub in the wound, she started to bombard him with small projectiles. He would either deflect or dodge whatever she threw at him, leaving annoying-looking damage to her neat grass yard.

This one-sided trade of attacks continued on for around a dozen minutes until he looked to be aiming for her.

Did he think I would run out of mana? I don't think I'm the right person for that strategy, though…

After swiping all of her attacks to the side with a large swing, the blond jumped toward where she was hovering. Anticlimatically, she just sharply dashed to the side and blew him away with a gust of wind after he hit the dirt. Toward where she sent the other man.

Wait! No, please no!

She immediately flew toward her backyard and hoped for the best.

"Nooooo! Stoooopp!" But alas, her hopes were torn to shreds when she saw how the two fools ruined her warehouse as well as her very nice garden.

"No, not that barrel, those are my chilies!" She shouted in desperation to the wolf, hoping that her intentions would somehow make it through the language barrier.

She looked at the other man and gasped in fright. "Stop! Not those! They're just about ready to start producing, nooo! Stop already!" with a fling of her wand, she sent the two of them behind her before they could do any more damage. She ran up to a cabbage covered in dirt with a punch mark on it.

Why, what did I do to any of you to do this? Do you know how hard it is to even grow anything on this cold foresty mountain? Do you know how long it took for those to even sprout? Do you even know how much time it took me to collect all the seeds for that garden? Other than grass, everything else I know and have is incompatible here! You even destroyed my barrels, were my vegetables not enough!?

While she was grieving her loss, she heard footsteps beside her and glared at the person they came from.

"What else do you want, you monsters?" She said before locking her eyes on the pouch hanging on her belt. "Pay me! Replace these!" She pointed at the pouch.

They looked and talked at each other, the wolf man even shouted before he kicked a small barrel that rolled out of the warehouse. It broke and spilled…

Pepper… my pepper!

She was really angry now, to the point that her mana has started seeping out of her heart to seek and destroy what has caused its master so much anger.

The three of them froze in place, the blond man lost his smile and the wolf man started to pile the pepper into one place. But instead of helping with the situation, he just further angered her.

She stood up, with the cabbage still in her arms, she kicked the pile of pepper into the wolf's lowered face before following up with a kick to the side of his head, sending him sliding across the ground.

Are you trying to insult me or something? You do this to me, to my ingredients, and then try to fix it when it's already irreversible!? Some of that pepper may be fine but you cracked most of it with your kick! Even if I washed the dirt off them, they would lose their flavor and make them basically useless because of the water! Even if I dried them quickly enough with the use of magic, the cleaning process itself would rid them of their flavors!

The two remaining conscious people talked to each other. After their short discussion, the woman untied her pouch from her belt and offered it to the girl.

The girl roughly grabbed the pouch and instantly froze it solid. She then threw it at the wolf's head and shouted again, gesturing towards her warehouse, which was now littered with ruined vegetables.

"I don't need your valis, I have too many of those! Replace my ingredients!"

That was true. A lot of the bandits that came for her would offer her huge sacks of gold coins after they lose a fight with her. She assumed that these were offering for sparing them their lives. She just took them, which might be useful in the future.

The two of them started conversing again, the wolf chose to wake up at that moment and shouted at the three of them again.

This person is noisy, can I maybe create a vacuum around him to shut him up? But that might suffocate him, sigh…

The woman harshly reprimanded the man, and that shut him up.

Huh, maybe there was no need to think about something like that.

They continued their conversations and healed the wolf man while at it. After their short conversation, the woman nodded at the girl, which calmed her down, and walked to the warehouse.

Is she listing off what they need to replace? That's good, she can do that while I prepare for travel. I will personally make sure that you replace my ingredients.

Giving the three people one last glance, she stepped inside again and started packing up. She has once made a huge leather swing for her and Bird to sit on and enjoy the outside wind together, but he didn't like it. So she scrapped the whole thing into a huge backpack in frustration. Who knew that it would be so useful now? Or that it would be useful at all?

The sun started setting and they all were ready to head down the mountain. The girl chose to cling onto the green-haired woman's coat when they all started heading out, on her back was a huge backpack that she made lighter with magic akin to telekinesis.

She glared at them. I'll be the one to carry all of my ingredients back home.

And with that, they started heading down.

Oh right, before I forget…

The girl stopped walking for a moment and focused on her mana. She let it leak into a trail for Bird to track later.

The woman noticed but decided to ignore it.

Here begins their true descent down the mountain.

*****