’My and Marien’s entrances are on the opposite sides of the Growlgrove... Damn. How co she’s the only person I can ally with here?’ Reynard thought as a teacher led him and a flock of two dozen students to their respective entrances.
While others were talking to each other, grouping into pairs and exchanging promises of no hostility, Reynard ended up with a ring of exclusion around himself.
Every half an hour, their group would reach another entrance, and a student would enter the forest. Technically, those whose entrances were closest to the starting point had a slight advantage—but realistically, it didn’t matter. This wasn’t a race.
"Sixty-one!" the teacher announced, pausing near a stone pillar with a number etched on it. "Here you go."
Reynard turned to look at the other students. By now, there were only a handful of them around, and they all glared back.
"I hope I won’t see any of your ugly faces in the Growlgrove. Especially yours!" Reynard pointed at a pair of students who liked to follow Markus before a bullet crippled him. "You think I don’t rember your sycophant stench? Ha! Don’t even try to do anything stupid like revenge!"
"I can’t sll anything here except pig manure, peasant!" one of the forr Markus’ cronies shouted back. "Go into the forest and die!"
"Stop talking and keep moving, students!" the teacher interrupted them.
Reynard grinned and turned into the forest.
Soon, the sounds of other people disappeared behind, and the sounds of his own footsteps beca impossible to ignore.
Thunk, thunk, thunk.
Not only the backpack, but also the other gear that Reynard was wearing has been causing this noise. Birds cried in alarm at his sight, and scared rabbits dashed through the underbrush when he walked past.
But Reynard was unconcerned. He had a week to think about a plan and even find out more about Growlgrove from Oscar and Marien.
Neither had been here personally, but they had heard plenty of stories.
’This place is sothing like a nature reserve. There won’t be any truly powerful beasts or any other surprise monsters. All I need to do is travel toward the center of the forest until I stumble upon a stream, then search for tracks of the beasts. They will lead to their nests eventually.’
With that thought, Reynard travelled forward, unhurried and entirely carefree, although one of his hands was always near the hilt of a gun.
***
Five hours later.
’Wow, this hunt thing is sure fucking boring! A third of the daylight is gone, and I found almost nothing of note,’ Reynard thought. ’I think a break is in order.’
He sat on a convenient-looking tree stump and took off his backpack. From there, he pulled out a couple of wild apples, a loaf of bread, so cheese, and a flask of water.
In the past five hours, Reynard has seen not a single creature worth hunting or a herb worth gathering. There were a lot of wild apples—quite delicious ones—but they wouldn’t sell for much.
’I guess we had a week because it’s impossible to find sothing in such a large area in a single day. But I made sure I’m not walking in circles! I even left markings on the trees! I should just get moving.’
***
’Oh! Finally, sothing worthwhile!’
Reynard changed his previous route and approached a fallen tree lying on the ground. In the grass near its trunk, he sensed strong Earth Mana, and that always ant sothing valuable.
’This looks like... Oh, they are definitely them! The Tiny Fingers!’
The mushrooms with that na looked only slightly like fingers. Their beige coloring and small caps made them look much more like an assortnt of finger-sized penises.
And for fingers, the "Tiny Finger" mushrooms were actually perfectly average-sized.
Breathing through his mouth to avoid their pungent sll, Reynard cut the mushrooms and put them into a jar prepared just for forest plants.
’These should fetch a great price. dicines that make a man’s dick larger always do! If I make an extract out of them, they will go even better. Or maybe I can plant them in my own garden?’
Behind his back, Reynard heard approaching thuds and an angry grunt.
He jumped to his feet, leaving an open backpack to lie around, and turned around.
Ten paces away from him was standing a black boar so tall that his eyes were on the level with Reynard’s. Fire was coming out of the beast’s nostrils with every exhale, and smoke was coming from its ears.
It sniffed the air, then grunted again.
Reynard recognized the beast imdiately.
’A Forge-Boar! One of Blue Bismuth School’s forges has a tad one. They can be taught to slt ores in their stomachs better than an average crucible does! But they have to be fed plants and ats with Earth Mana... Most importantly, right now, they act like ordinary boars, and they are Nigredo-stage beasts. An adult one like that should be on the Final Cycle level!’
The Forge-Boar sniffed the air again and made a step forward. Its glowing red eyes were focused on Reynard’s backpack.
’It wants the mushrooms! Do... Do boars also need potency cures? I thought pigs had it all great and had orgasms that lasted half an hour!’
Without hesitating anymore, Reynard pulled out his gun.
In response to a sudden movent, the Forge-Boar charged at Reynard like a freight steam train. Behind him was a trail of thick smoke.
BANG!
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