Volu 3 Chapter 19
The next day.
Today, we’re hunting treants again. But because I’ve gotten used to it already, the fighting’s been going smoother compared to the first day.
If everything goes as planned, we’ll be finishing the hunt by tomorrow, and then we can go ho to Gimuru. This morning we filled up Raypin-san’s ’Dinsion Ho’, so we’ve been using my ’Dinsion Ho’ to store the treant lumbers.
"Ha!" [Ryouma]
I swung my sword down, cutting a treant’s face from its forehead down to its chin in one stroke. Then with another swing, I cut another treant’s face that was on its right, diagonally up, cutting it into two parts. At that mont, a different treant’s branch whipped towards . Quickly, I dodged to the left, and then I lopped its face off from the side.
No matter how many tis I do this, I can’t help but think of its face as a mask every ti it falls off like this.
While thinking of useless thoughts like that, I killed another three treants. Then after looking around , I confird that there were no more treants left.
"Looks like Ryouma’s gotten used to fighting treants already." [Wereanna]
"Ryouma has trained his body well in the way of the sword. That training also reflects in how fast he can learn new thods to defeat new opponents, de gozaru.” [Asagi]
“There are no wastes in your movents, nyaa.” [Miya]
"Thank you very much. My martial techniques were thoroughly beaten into by my grandfather. I’m quite confident in it." [Ryouma]
The area we’re in right now might be a bit dangerous, but we at least have the luxury to talk like this. Of course, letting our guard down too much is bad, but being too tense is just as bad. Sothing on this level is just right.
But then when we went deeper into the forest, the atmosphere suddenly changed. Using ’Magic Detection’, I detected a great number of treants, almost uncountable.
"Raypin-san." [Ryouma]
"I know. There’s a lot of them... Unfortunately, it’s not possible to know exactly how many, de aru. Asagi.” [Raypin]
"There’s most likely an elder treant ahead. Let’s proceed while keeping our escape route open. In the worst case, we’ll have to retreat and just return to the guild with the information we’ve gathered, de gozaru." [Asagi]
And so, we proceeded with our guards up.
"Ha!” [Asagi & Ryouma]
"Nyaa!" [Miya]
"--!" [Mizelia]
"Ei!" [Syria]
"Wind Cutter!" [Raypin]
Before us were the forests of treants. They creeped slowly, and they ca whipping their branches at us. But with our efforts combined, we managed to subjugate them.
The won attacked the treants’ faces with their axes and hatchets. Asagi-san slashed with his long sword, striking towards an area beneath the treants’ faces, killing them. Raypin-san supported us with his magic, while I killed all those behind to keep them from surrounding us.
We struggled like this, killing one treant after another, but the treants kept pouring in from deep the forest. Fortunately, the treants weren’t that strong. Moreover, because the treants are walking and are uprooted, when we kill them, they just fall over, keeping our field of vision clear of obstruction.
"We’re killing them just fine, but there’s no end to them!" [Syria]
No one replied to Syria’s remark, but deep inside, everyone agreed.
"According to ’Magic Detection’, all the trees here are treants! Cut them all, de aru!" [Raypin]
"Don’t push yourselves too much, alright? Rember, there’s no sha in retreat!" [Asagi]
"I know!" [Wereanna]
"Life’s more important!" [Mizelia]
Although everyone was saying that, they weren’t really serious. They were just saying it to remind everyone. And after that, they all went to welco the flooding forest of treants. As expected of A ranks and B ranks, sothing of this level can’t even faze them.
I should also focus on my work. The treants headed here have also increased.
I put my sword away, and instead I ordered the sheath that was a big tal sli to separate. In the next mont, 100 tal slis appeared at my feet. I took two from those, lifted them up, and ordered them to transform.
What the two slis transford into were throwing axes. Then I strengthened my body with ki, and motioning my body in full, I threw the axes.
"O..."
"O... Oo..."
The two axes flew through the air, drawing a beautiful arc in its trajectory. Two nearing treants tried to get into their range, but the two axes flew into their foreheads, striking them dead. The two axes had successfully shot down the two treants.
After that I imdiately took another tal sli, had it transform into an axe and threw it. Then i took another one, and another one, throwing the axes one after another towards the endless wave of treants.
After fighting with the treants all this ti, I’ve finally co to understand that there’s a deviation in the distribution of magic power within the treants’ bodies. The distribution is generally equal, but there is one place that has a greater concentration of magic power compared to the rest of its body. And that place is its weakness, its face.
Apparently, within the physiology of treants, the face serves as an important cornerstone for the circulation of magic power. In terms of human physiology, it would be the heart as it gathers magic power for the treants. Hurting the treant’s face, causes that gathered magic power to leak out, thereby causing its death. If one takes the face of a treant as the heart, and its magic power as blood, then it’s really not that much different from humans.
However, blood is still different from magic power. Because magic power can be located with ‘Magic Detection’. That’s why as long as one knows how to use ‘Magic Detection’, it’s easy to spot its weak point. And just like now, one would be able to easily kill the treants. And at tis when the face isn’t visible, using ‘Magic Detention’ to locate it would easily take care of it.
That’s why with all things considered, treants are easy to defeat. While I still think it’s not good to let my guard down, the truth is that I’m really not being pressured much in this battle.
I’m also not using magic power, so I won’t suffer the symptoms of magic exhaustion. Moreover, I’ve strengthened my body with Ki, making it hard for to get tired. Now, if I was using normal throwing axes, then I wouldn’t be able to attack once I run out of axes, but since I’m using tal slis for throwing axes, the slis can just co back on their own after being thrown. Which goes to say that I will never run out of ammo. In fact, I don’t even have to pick them up.
On top of that, I know the position of their faces, so I can easily kill them in one throw. Moreover, when the slis co back, the treants try to attack them. But at that mont, because their slow legs co to a halt, they beco easy pickings. And I can then defeat them before they can get into their attacking range. Honestly speaking, this is more work rather than actual fighting.
By the way, all the tal slis that were attacked are all fine. They are basically lumps of tals, so the treant’s branches’ attacks, which are of course wood, have no effect on them.
Like this I one-sidedly subjugated all the treants that tried to surround us from behind. While the others, on the other hand, completely trampled on the treants in front.
In the blink of an eye, the treants’ numbers had been greatly decreased, and the surrounding forest has been turned into nothing but a vast field of scattered fallen treants. The only thing left growing, were the few, normal trees.
“For the anti, it looks like we’ve mostly cut them all done... Still, though, it’s quite weird, de aru.” [Raypin]
“What is?” [Ryouma]
At Raypin-san’s mutterings, I asked him why.
“First of all, there’re way too many treants. In fact, I’ve never seen this many treants yet. Second, although treants are trees that beco magical beasts from the influence of magic power, it’s my first ti seeing such a wide scope of mutation into treants. Lastly, is that one.” [Raypin]
To the direction Raypin-san had pointed in was nothing but a big tree from a distance. But as I could feel a large amount of magic power from that tree, it’s most likely...
“Is that an elder treant?” [Ryouma]
“I think so, but... It’s my first ti seeing such a big elder treant with that much magic power. But on top that, I’m concerned why it’s not attacking us, de aru.” [Raypin]
Right after Raypin-san spoke, Miya-san ca back at just the right ti, and she asked Raypin-san a question.
“Isn’t it possible that it just hasn’t noticed us yet, nyaa?” [Miya]
“We’ve killed so much of its fellow treants, so no. It could also simply be afraid of us, thinking it can’t win. But then in that case, it’s strange that it’s not running away, and is instead just remaining there.” [Raypin]
Then in that case...
“I suppose there must be sothing there to explain why it’s not moving.” [Ryouma]
“That way of thinking is correct, de aru, but there’s no precedent. At the very least, I’ve never heard of a situation where an elder treant neither runs nor attacks.” [Raypin]
“It’s a bit dangerous to leave it alone like this... So we should subjugate it, or if not, at least bring back information to the guild... Raypin, Ryouma, how’s your magic power?” [Asagi]
“No problem, de aru.” [Raypin]
“Sa here; I an to begin with, I didn’t even really use all that much magic power.” [Ryouma]
“Now that you ntion it, that certainly seems to be the case, de gozaru. Who would’ve thought that slis could actually be turned into axes and thrown... Well since that’s how it is, let’s keep our guards up, and rest for a bit before we go and hunt the elder treant, de gozaru.” [Asagi]
With us hunting the elder treant having been decided, we confird the special characteristics of the magical beast again, and kept it in our minds to take care of its wood attribute magic. And then we took a short break.
During break, everyone seed to show interest with my sli axe throwing. Especially Syria-san, who generally uses the bow.
But then just as our break was about to end and we were to head over to the elder treant, while still so place away from it, the tal sli acted weird.
“Please wait a mont.” [Ryouma]
“What’s wrong?” [Asagi]
“The tal sli seems to be... afraid? ...It’s started to panic.” [Ryouma]
I can tell its status because of the contract’s effect, but it’s actually scared enough to want to run away at this very instant. This is the first ti sothing like this has happened.
“Is it alright, nyaa?” [Miya]
“My apologies, but my tal sli won’t be able to fight in this state.” [Ryouma]
“I think it’d be best not to force it, de aru.” [Raypin]
So since the tal slis weren’t in any state to fight, I stored them inside my ‘Dinsion Ho’. But it’s curious... the tal slis have never been scared in this way before. For a mont, I thought their natural enemy might be around, but after looking around, there wasn’t anything around here but a single elder treant. And I’ve never heard of elder treants being the natural enemy of slis.
Moreover, the only ones afraid are the tal slis. The iron slis seed to be completely fine. So what exactly is wrong with the tal slis? ... Well, in any case, I’m happy that the iron slis can fight. I do have so weapons I’ve prepared in my ‘Item Box’, but the iron slis’ blade is still better.
After that, we walked nearer towards the elder treant while paying attention to our surroundings.
“The left tree!” [Raypin]
“Nyaa!” [Miya]
We were heading towards the elder treant, and we walked over one of the trees from the sparsely scattered trees. According to my ‘Magic Detection’, that tree was nothing but a normal tree.
And Raypin-san most likely thought the sa thing, but as soon as we stepped over that tree, the treant suddenly gained magic power, and attacked us. But then, Raypin-san quickly reacted, and Miya-san was able to kill it...
“What’s the aning of this?” [Raypin]
“Raypin?” [Asagi]
“This tree wasn’t a treant just a mont ago, de aru. But just now, it suddenly beca a treant. Sothing like this should be impossible, de aru.” [Raypin]
While treants are magical beasts that beco so after being influence by magic power, this is not sothing that happens instantaneously. It’s sothing that normally happens only after so period of ti.
But while that may be so, I felt so of the trees around gain magic power again.
“Raypin-san.” [Ryouma]
“The treants are being born one after another.” [Raypin]
“Well this was unexpected...” [Wereanna]
“Being caught unprepared with a situation like this is really out of our hands.” [Asagi]
Well it’s less than a while ago, so it won’t be a problem, but still... this strange phenonon is quite concerning. While thinking that, I focused on my ‘Magic Detection’ in order to subjugate the treants. But while doing so, I suddenly felt the presence ofmagic power in the ground.
At the end of that magic power’s flow was the tree that had just turned into a treant. Seeing that, I focused once more, and this ti, just as it did for the previous tree, I felt the flow creep in near my feet. Is this the source?
“There’s sothing inside the soil! ‘Break Rock’ Breeze’ !” [Ryouma]
I used ‘Break Rock’ to tear down the area I felt magic power, and using the wind magic, ‘Breeze’, I used a strong wind to blow away the fallen earth, revealing roots from which I could feel magic power flowing within!
Raypin-san, having noticed the sa thing, yelled.
“It’s the root of an elder treant! ...Could it be that the elder treant is using its roots to inject magic power into the trees, transforming them into treants, de aru? Co to think of it, it’s said that treants greatly increase in numbers when an elder treant is spotted. This is a discovery worthy of surprise, de aru!” [Raypin]
“Subjugate first! Research later!” [Syria]
“In any case, does this an there’s no other way to resolve this situation other than to subjugate the elder treant?” [Mizelia]
“The possibility for that is quite high, de aru. If we leave this one alone, the treants will most likely increase even more, de aru.” [Raypin]
“The elder treant is approximately 500m from here... I will close in to it in an instant, and finish it, de gozaru. Ryouma, please watch the back. We’ll take care of the elder treant, so please stop all the treants from behind, de gozaru!” [Asagi]
“Understood!!” [Ryouma]
At my response, we imdiately moved. Wereanna-san, Miya-san, Mizelia-san, and Asagi all went forward, deforesting the forest of treants that flooded from in front. Following that was , Raypin-san, and Syria-san as we all continued towards elder treant.
Fortunately, the treants moved slowly, and we didn’t receive any difficulty from the treants. But then the elder treant finally made its moved, and it started directly attacking.
We’re still too far to get hit by its branches, so it instead pulled its roots from under the ground, and attacked us. Moreover, it was able to use wood magic just as ntioned in the info. It’s roots extended, and it tried to catch us with it.
Raypin-san used ‘Wind Cutter’, and I along with everyone else used our weapons to cut the opponents down, but there’s just too many of them, especially the ones coming from my feet. Dodging this isn’t easy... If it’s going to be like this, then!
“ ‘Pavent’ !” [Ryouma]
Using the sa ‘Pavent’ I did when creating my store, I pressed together the ground, and turned it into pavent. The treants’ growth might be able to break through that, but I’m just using it to buy ti. And just as expected, I was able to stop the treants from attacking at my feet.
“I’ll cover you!” [Ryouma]
“Thanks!” [Asagi]
Like this we charged towards the elder treant.
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