The bears suddenly accelerated as we approached the village where I’d stopped during the goblin slaying. I didn’t want to scare the village out of their skins by dropping in unannounced on summoned bear steeds, so we detoured around it. Our pace dropped once we got into the mountains. We’d climb slowly from there.
“I’m pretty sure it’s somewhere around here.”
The quest slip had said they could be found in this area. I dismounted once we found some level ground partway up the mountain, checked to make sure I had enough clear space, then started taking items out of my bear storage and setting them up.
“Yuna!” Fina yelled, seeing what I was pulling out. She was doing a lot of yelling today.
I’d pulled out a bear house. It was two stories high, complete with a yard. The façade looked like a massive bear standing on all fours. The entrance was the bear’s wide-open mouth and the second story looked like a bear cub riding on its back. It even came with an attached storehouse.
“How about we go in and take a break?”
“Sure…”
I had Kumayuru and Kumakyu wait in the yard while we headed in through the bear-mouth doorway, almost like the bear was eating us. The inside was decorated Japanese-style.
“Oh, make sure you take your shoes off over there,” I told Fina, just in case the customs in this world didn’t match.
The entryway where you took your shoes off led into the living room. The first floor had the living room, kitchen, dedicated bath, restroom, and a mini storage space. My room was on the second floor, along with a few guest rooms. The cub’s head formed the roof. I was thinking I could use it to dry my laundry outside.
“Oh, have a seat somewhere over there.” I pointed at a sofa-like chair.
“Yuna…”
“What?”
“What is this house?”
“I made it for myself with magic.”
My experiments with the bear storage had proved it could handle anything, no matter how heavy or how many things I stored, so I’d made myself a house for travelling. I’d built it with earth magic while visualizing a bear, which, of course, made it a lot more powerful. I used a few low-power earth spells to make the walls and set up the room divisions, bought and installed mana gems for the rooms where I needed water, and even installed a fridge in the kitchen. Since I’d set up light mana gems in each room, I could light the place up at night. If I just had a TV and a computer, my hermit abode would be complete.
I went to the kitchen and brought Fina a cold fruit juice.
“Are you part of the nobility somewhere, Yuna?”
“I’m not.”
“Then are you a princess?”
“No real princess would look like me. I’m just your ordinary adventurer.”
Fina seemed like she wanted to say more, but she kept quiet.
“Once we’ve rested, I’m going to head out and look for a tigerwolf, okay?”
“What about me?”
“You can go out and look for herbs for your mom with Kumakyu. You should be safe as long as Kumakyu is around. I’ve set up a defensive boundary around the house, so if you get in trouble, you should be safe as long as you come back to the house.”
“…”
“Also, there are some monsters in the storehouse, so if you have time, could you butcher them?”
“You mean I can leave butchering them for later?”
“That’s for you to decide. I’ll pay you ten percent of what I get from selling the butchered monster parts, so it’s up to you whether you finish foraging early so you can butcher the monsters, or spend the entire time looking for herbs for your mom.”
“Okay, I understand.”
“How about we head to the storehouse so I can explain things to you?”
I’d set up the storehouse so we could get to it from within the house or from outside. It was about twenty-tatami-mats wide, and was outfitted with only running water and a workbench. I extracted about ten wolves and horned hares from my bear storage and left them by the wall.
“You don’t have to butcher all of these, but once you’re done, could you put everything away in this room?”
The next room over was refrigerated cold storage, much like a walk-in freezer. Though time would stop for the house and everything in it once I packed it back into the bear storage, anyway.
“Okay, I’m headed out. Don’t get into any trouble, okay? Kumakyu will keep you safe if anything happens, so you should be fine.”
Chapter 21:
The Bear Goes Tigerwolf Slaying
ONCE I LEFT THE BEAR HOUSE, I mounted Kumayuru and headed out. The bear shoes were great for getting around, but I really liked riding Kumayuru and Kumakyu. They’d get grumpy if I only rode on one of them though, so I had to alternate.
I used detection magic to scope out the place on bear back. My range had expanded as I leveled up, and I detected tons of monsters.
Aha. Is that them?
“It looks like there are two of them. Maybe they’re mates?”
I pointed the way for Kumayuru. The bear ran, slipping between the trees and parting all the branches and bushes as it went. Way more efficient than running in my bear shoes. There were wolves nearby, but I ignored them for today and kept moving along.
After a while, I could sense the tigerwolves getting closer, so I had Kumayuru stop. I heard the sound of a river nearby. Should I approach slowly on foot, or just charge in mounted? It was cool if they attacked me, but if they fled, chasing
