Chapter 74
We had used a total of 35 points:
Four points to get one water bottle each.
One point for the jerky that we were all going to share.
And just in case, one potion.
In addition, we had received a small sand timer and a map for free.
“Naturally, the map is a map of the forest... but what’s the sand timer?”
“It’s probably the time limit.”
“Ah.”
In any case, when I showed the items I’d bought, Sharyl objected.
“Why did you buy a potion!”
“We might need it!”
“Ugh...!”
Sharyl looked devastated as she shouted, “If we don’t get into the top ranks on this test—or worse, have even fewer points than before—because you bought this...!”
“You look at things too negatively.”
“I’m just preparing for the worst-case scenarios!”
“And you go too far when you do. Here, let’s think of this a bit more optimistically.” I tapped the potion as I said, “There’s no saying that we need to use this potion. Let’s say we meet with another team in the forest and they have someone who is severely injured. What then?”
“Uh...? Ah!” Sharyl clapped her hands together. “We could sell the potion!”
“That’s right. For at least twice the price, maybe even three times.”
Even though points were important, lives were even more important. In that situation, they would take the trade even if we asked for all their points.
Sharyl’s expression finally brightened, albeit only slightly.
“W-wait for me...”
At this point, another team walked past us.
Three of them were walking ahead while the fourth struggled to keep up with them...
The thin and weak-looking person who was carrying more than his body weight in baggage was Skull.
“Hey! Try to keep up.”
“Can’t you even act as a carrier properly?”
As the other team members shouted at him, Skull mumbled to himself, “B-but... I’m holding most of our stuff...”
“So what? You can’t?”
“You should at least be useful if you don’t have any points.”
Even as the team members spoke down to him, Skull couldn’t refute them.
This wasn’t unexpected, nor was it happening just to Skull.
The other young heroes who had sold their points for benefits were being treated similarly.
“...”
Maybe it was because he also saw this scene, but Evan’s expression was bitter.
There was nothing we could do about it at this point, though.
“Let’s get going as well.”
There was no telling what this goody-two-shoes would do if we stayed around, so I hurried everyone up.
Evan nodded...
And we walked into the Forest of the Butterfly with nervous expressions.
***
The Forest of the Butterfly that surrounded the main house of Bednicker was unbelievably large—enough to be called a jungle.
It was so large that even if we stood atop the Gem Mountains, which were rather far from here, we would be able to see the Forest of the Butterfly.
And since it was so large, the probability that we would meet anyone else was low.
On top of that, when we began, each team left in a different direction.
But that didn’t mean we absolutely wouldn’t encounter another team, so we still needed to keep our guard up.
Sharyl glanced at me as she asked, “What monsters exist in the Forest of the Butterfly?”
“I don’t know.”
How could I know? The Forest of the Butterfly was forbidden even to members of House Bednicker.
I didn’t know the types of monsters that lived here or any of this forest’s characteristics.
Sharyl let out an obvious sigh.
It felt like I was being judged pretty harshly.
Even though his name is “Bednicker,” he hasn’t provided anything useful despite being asked so many times.
Something like that?
But from my perspective, she was making up expectations and then becoming disappointed all by herself.
“...Let’s decide on the formation first, then,” Sharyl said as she looked at us.
“Formation?”
“The formation we’ll use when we fight. Tell me your blessings.”
“Ah... uh... my blessing—”
Evan was distracted. When he reflexively started to answer, I interjected, “Reveal your blessing first, then we’ll give you ours.”
Evan seemed to realize his mistake.
Only now did he process what he’d been about to do.
It was an unwritten rule to hide your blessings.
Blessings were a hero’s identity and a secret they could use to trump their opponents...
Some especially wary individuals even hid their blessings from their own houses.
She glanced back before shrugging.
“Hmm... Well, it’s not as if we need to know everyone’s blessings to create the formation.”
I nearly laughed.
It wasn’t that she was wrong; she was just sly.
...Now that I thought about it, wasn’t House Rubyeta a house of politicians?
Even though Sharyl seemed to want to become a hero, she’d likely seen and learned a few things.
But I don’t think she needs to be this careful about it either.
I could tell from the way she’d “fought” with Mir, she also seemed rather immature mentally.
In any case, following Sharyl’s suggestion, we created our formation.
Since all four of us were melee fighters, it was pretty simple.
“...The forest is really dark. I think I’m going to lose track of time,” Evan muttered as he looked around.
He was right.
Generally speaking, the Forest of the Butterfly had many large trees and was packed with tall grass, so it felt like we were walking in the middle of the night.
We could at least discern our position relative to our surroundings...
“There’s a butterfly here as well!”
“They’re everywhere.”
“Aha...! So that’s why this is the Forest of the Butterfly! I didn’t know since we’ve always been in the camp.”
...Because of the butterflies floating around us.
These butterflies were the reason the forest was called the Forest of the Butterfly.
They were bioluminescent, so the entire forest was covered with a dim light.
They made it feel like we were walking through a dream, and also like this was a land of fairies rather than monsters.
In the past, the black fairies had lived in this forest.
Like this, while looking around, we walked for about an hour.
Around when our nervousness from entering the forest for the first time had finally settled down...
Sharyl furrowed her brow as she examined our surroundings.
“Isn’t everyone too relaxed? It wouldn’t be odd for a monster to pop out at any—”
“Stop.”
“Hah! You dare command me?”
She kept walking.
After taking another step forward, Sharyl’s body fell.
“Kiek!”
What a funny scream.
“Wh-what is this!”
“Swamp.”
“Do you think I don’t know that!”
“You’re being quite rude. You’ll have a hard time trying to get out of there on your own.”
“...!”
Sharyl’s body was slowly starting to sink.
I crouched down next to her and tilted my head.
“Should I help you?”
“...Hah!”
At that, Sharyl’s expression changed as she suddenly stretched her arms.
At this moment, something translucent flowed out from her palm and attached itself to a tree.
So that’s her blessing.
I couldn’t tell what it was even as I looked at it.
It looked to be related to the soul...
In any case, the translucent thing began to contract, and Sharyl was pulled out from the swamp without much issue.
I clapped for her at the unexpected performance...
“...Hmph!”
But Sharyl just snorted after glaring at me.
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[Translator – Jreaming]
[Proofreader – Gorm]
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About three hours had passed since we’d entered the forest.
We hadn’t encountered any monsters and were just walking forward.
Even though this forbidden area was so infamous, it felt so empty that we naturally began to lower our guard.
Mir was even yawning now, but it was understandable since she’d stayed up last night.
I didn’t let my guard down as much, but I couldn’t avoid feeling bored.
“Now that I think about it, what would be best to take back?” I mumbled to myself as I looked around.
Unexpectedly, Sharyl was the one to respond.
“Whatever’s rarest.”
“But will it be easy for us to tell?”
It wasn’t easy to look at an object and determine its price.
If that were true, appraisers wouldn’t be needed.
“Can’t we just hunt a strong monster?” asked Sharyl. “The higher their level, the better the material we can get.”
“Hmph. What a stupid thing to say.”
“...Huh?”
The same words could have different effects depending on who said them.
Sharyl’s jaw dropped in shock at having been called stupid by Mir.
“You bean-sized giant... who are you calling stupid?”
“You don’t know anything about hunting, so you are stupid! A strong monster doesn’t mean we’ll get good materials! And if we want to get good quality materials, we need to keep that goal in mind while we hunt, but that’s impossible for novices like us!”
She was right.
As an example, to obtain high-quality leather and wool, one needed to be wary of using blades.
In any case, judging by Mir’s words, it seemed she had experience hunting.
“It doesn’t have to be a monster,” I noted. “Although the Forest of the Butterfly is Bednicker territory, there are a lot more unexplored areas than explored areas. If we’re lucky, we could even harvest materials for an elix—”
I stopped talking.
“What is it?”
“There’s a monster.”
“What?”
Sharyl looked around.
“But I can’t see anything?”
“Not here.”
“...Not here?”
“Just hide your presence and slowly follow me.”
Sharly didn’t seem to trust me. Thankfully, she seemed to choose to listen to me just in case.
I could see that she was pouting.
In any case, after a few minutes of following my orders, we arrived near a creak and found a monster next to it.
It was a spider.
At least, it looked like one.
It was as big as a bear.
“...What should we do?” I asked my team members.
“I don’t think it’s noticed us, so we can just walk past it. And I don’t think it’s going to give us any valuable materials.”
After thinking for a moment, Sharyl said, “...It doesn’t seem there are any other monsters nearby, so let’s fight it. It’s an opportunity for us to try fighting together.”
Good idea.
With our skills, killing one spider shouldn’t be that difficult.
“All right. Then should we use the formation we decided on earlier?”
“Sure.”
Our formation was simple.
Mir stood at the very front to attract the enemy’s attention, and the rest of us looked for openings to attack from behind her.
Honestly, this was the only formation we could take since our team didn’t have a good balance of roles.
The most important role here was naturally Mir’s...
“...”
I looked at Mir, who was gripping her weapon with a nervous look on her face.
“Mir, you can do it.’
“...Yeah. I’ll try.”
“I’m not expecting much. Just hold its attention.”
Mir didn’t reply to Sharyl’s remark and instead stood up.
And then...
“Uwaaaah—!”
She screamed as she charged the spider.
...Well.
If she’d been able to overcome it this quickly, it wouldn’t be trauma.
Still, she was doing her job: grabbing its attention.
The spider skittered its mandibles and let out a roar.
“Let’s go.”
“Ah. Yeah.”
“Sigh...”
We also joined the fight.
However, I didn’t actively participate.
I acted like I was attacking with my Sword of Seven Sins while I observed my teammates.
First, Mir.
She was wildly swinging her ax, and her attacks were extreme, not just to her target but to herself as well.
The reason she didn’t suffer any injuries even while attacking like that was thanks to her giant heritage.
Sharyl fought well; I couldn’t find any outstanding faults in her. She was using a mace as her weapon, and in addition to how proficient she seemed to be with her weapon, she also seemed to have experience fighting monsters.
And Evan—
...Huh?
I was surprised at how much Evan was struggling.
He was the one I trusted the most, so this was unexpected.
Was he lacking in real combat experience?
No, it’s not that...
After observing Evan for a little longer, I realized what was wrong.
This guy, he isn’t using Raven at all.
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