Fortunately or unfortunately, since it was a nightmare that once tormented her daily, she immediately recognized it as an illusion.

“No, I used the dispelling spell as soon as it started and broke through it. I also pulled you out that way, Sir Lindhart.”

At her words about pulling him out of the illusion, he asked with a surprised face.

“You pulled me out? Did you perhaps see what kind of illusion I was experiencing……”

“I didn’t see it. I just noticed you seemed entranced, so I dispelled it right away. I don’t know what illusion you were seeing.”

Since it was absolutely something she couldn’t admit to having seen, Natalie had no choice but to feign ignorance. However, she found it difficult to hide her increasingly awkward expression, which was uncharacteristic of her usual self.

McClain didn’t seem to fully believe her words either, nodding reluctantly with a disgruntled face.

“Ah…, I see.”

“But where did everyone else go? I don’t even know where we are, and I have no idea where to look for them.”

“They’ve probably been scattered throughout the corrupted area. In such cases, the protocol is to move to the previous stopover point.”

“So we should go to the Deloa lord’s castle?”

“Initially, yes. However, if the corrupted area’s expansion rate is deemed too fast for the lord’s castle to be safe, they would gather at the previous lodging. In any case, we should get moving, so please get in the carriage. Huh–.”

“What’s wrong? Oh my!”

McClain’s face showed dismay as he turned toward the carriage. Natalie followed his gaze and gasped in surprise.

They had discovered black vine-like growths tangled all around the carriage wheels.

“I’ll cut them away quickly, so please wait a moment.”

“No, let’s do it together.”

However, removing the vines gripping the carriage wheels took longer than expected.

No matter how much they cut away, the vines kept growing back and entangling the wheels again.

“This is troublesome. We’ll need to cut both sides simultaneously. Would you take the opposite side?”

“Yes, I will.”

As Natalie was about to walk to the opposite side following McClain’s instructions—

Suddenly, the hair on the back of her neck stood up and a chill ran down her spine, causing her to hunch her shoulders and rub her arms. She wondered if it was fatigue from using magic repeatedly to escape the barrier, when McClain suddenly turned his head and shouted.

“Wait, stop right there, Natalie.”

His gaze was directed toward an area where dried black trees formed a forest.

“Why? Is there something……”

But Natalie couldn’t finish her sentence. Following his gaze, she saw black shadows rising from within the forest. Dozens of silhouettes, obscured by the shadows of the black forest, looked like black stones emerging from the ground.

Thump thump, crack crack.

With the sound of dry branches breaking and the ground faintly rumbling, massive monsters began to emerge.

Bipedal monsters with burly bodies that looked like they had wild boar faces grafted onto them. They were dozens of orcs.

“Variant orcs, I see.”

Though they often appear in groups and are sometimes classified as minor mobs or weak monsters in games, the orcs that actually existed in this world were different.

They were born warriors, muscle-bound monsters obsessed with battle.

Though only slightly taller than adult human males, their mass could easily be considered more than twice that of humans. Since that mass was mostly muscle, the nickname “muscle pigs” suited these monsters perfectly.

Each time they took a step, the ground vibrated with a thump-thump.

McClain narrowed his brow as he examined them and warned:

“Seven in total. I can handle this many on my own. You should step back as it’s dangerous……”

Though she had mentally prepared herself after experiencing goblins firsthand, orcs were different.

Thinking it fortunate that McClain’s gaze was directed at the creatures so he couldn’t see her pale complexion, Natalie pretended to be brave and said:

“No, let’s do this together. I wouldn’t have come this far if I only intended to be protected.”

“All right… then. Please provide cover fire.”

“Yes, don’t overdo it. If things get bad, I could probably escape with you. Of course, we’d have to abandon the luggage and carriage……”

However, McClain, a high-level player, couldn’t fail to notice her tension as a combat novice.

As she clenched and unclenched her fists, feeling her body stiffen, he responded with a slight smile:

“Don’t worry. At my level, there’s no way I’d need to flee from orcs.”

Then he strode toward the approaching monsters.

Natalie also concentrated, spreading her hands to draw up magical power.

This was to ensure she could use magic immediately when cover was needed.

McClain walked toward the orc pack with his sword lowered to the ground.

Seeing a faint light shimmer over the lowered blade, it seemed he could already use sword energy. She had seen his sword dance when clearing out the goblins, but hadn’t noticed this then.

Whether it hadn’t been visible then because it was brighter, or whether his sword energy had become more intense after leveling up since then, she couldn’t tell.

Didn’t they say that later, when facing the Demon King, his sword would scatter dazzling light like a laser sword?

Recalling the descriptions from the original novel made her feel strangely excited.

As he approached, the creatures also increased their speed. Despite their massive bodies, they moved incredibly fast. Finally, the one at the front confronting McClain swung a sharp axe fiercely and shouted.

“Kwaaaak! Die!”

McClain leaped high into the air toward the charging orc, rotating in mid-air and swinging his sword in a wide arc. A faint circle formed along the sword’s trajectory, simultaneously severing the heads of the lead orc and the one right behind it, which rolled on the ground.

Thud-thud-thud, clack clack.

The remaining creatures threatened with pig-slaughtering shrieks.

“Kwak! Kwaaaak! Everyone attack at once!”

“Die! Human!”

“Kwaaaak!”

He immediately positioned himself for a second rotating leap.

Natalie had no intention of just watching.

As she slightly moved her lips, blue flames erupted from her raised hands.

Whoosh!

It was just like when she had killed the wolf-type monster. The firepower was strong enough to instantly reduce creatures in the flame’s path to ashes.

The expectation of a skill acquisition message, forgotten due to the original male protagonist’s counterattack, bloomed in her heart once again.

And as if responding to her expectations, a completed skill message finally flashed in the corner of her vision.

〈Skill ‘Flame Stream Lv.1’ has leveled up.〉

〈Skill ‘Flame Stream Lv.2’ has leveled up.〉

“What?”

While Natalie was distracted by the system message—

McClain approached her after confirming the orcs had been completely eliminated.

Judging by his raised eyebrow, he seemed quite surprised by the power of her magic earlier.

“We wouldn’t have needed to flee at all. The power of a mage approaching the seventh circle is truly impressive.”

“Ah, that……”

He remembered that detail well.

Natalie smiled awkwardly and tried to brush it off, but suddenly lowered her voice and asked:

“Hey, I’m really curious about something……”

“Go ahead.”

At McClain’s calm response, Natalie nibbled her lips before continuing.

“I just had some kind of message appear in front of my eyes?”

McClain’s brow furrowed slightly at Natalie’s words, but his reaction wasn’t as bewildered as before.

Instead, he returned a somewhat cautious question.

“Hmm…, do you mean the status window I mentioned before?”

“Not so much a status window as a kind of…, system message, I’d say…. Let’s see…, it says skill ‘Flame Stream’ has leveled up to level three……”

Silence filled the surroundings for a moment.

After furrowing his brow for a while, McClain asked in a voice of disbelief:

“Really? Do you see anything else?”

“Anything else like what…?”

Having never played RPG games before her transmigration, Natalie found it difficult to immediately understand what he was asking.

McClain then began explaining in an unexpectedly gentle voice:

“If you’re not joking, you should see a small person-shaped icon in the upper left of your vision.”

“Upper left? Upper left, upper left……”

Natalie’s gaze immediately turned to the left.

As he said, there seemed to be something like a faint symbol in the upper left.

“Oh! I think there is something there.”

“Try staring at it for a long time.”

Show yourself, please show me something. Quickly show me definitive proof that this is indeed a status window.

Just as Natalie was repeatedly muttering like an incantation while staring at the faint symbol—

Making her concerns about hallucinations seem foolish, the faint symbol instantly expanded and covered her field of vision.

〈Natalie Pereira〉

The only daughter of the Pereira comital family residing in the Central Empire’s capital.

Thanks to Count Pereira’s excellent business acumen, she enjoyed a wealthy childhood, but recently, due to the expansion of the northern corrupted area, accumulated business failures have put the family on the verge of bankruptcy.