Chapter 17. Woodman Habitat II
Episode 17.
Woodman Habitat II
In <FoS>, the easiest way to level up is hunting.
Kill monsters by any means, and your level rises.
The only difference from other games is that the time available for hunting is extremely limited.
Focusing on hunting is fine, but if you get too absorbed in it, you won't secure time for exploration.
"Kaindel."
"What."
"How long do we have to keep doing this?"
"A week."
"A, a week......."
A week.
That was the time I had allotted to Woodman grinding.
It wasn't a number I'd picked thoughtlessly. There was a clear basis for it: SEED farming.
A single Woodman drops SEED worth roughly 500 seed.
That meant I'd need to kill about 2,000 Woodmen to earn 1,000,000 seed.......
Divide that by seven, and you got the approximate number I'd have to kill per day.
'About 300.'
Once I set the target, I kept roaming the entry area and killed every Woodman I came across.
This kind of repetitive hunting had been fairly boring in the game, but now that it was reality, it wasn't quite the same.
"Ka, Kazen!"
"Aaaah! Kaindel!"
Ones lurking in ambush, unusually strong specimens, big ones, ones that moved even in the middle of the night.......
No two battles followed quite the same pattern, and every fight brought crises big and small.
Of course, none of them put our lives in immediate danger, but I still felt like I was walking on thin ice.
Because I didn't have a single potion prepared.
"Ow."
"What's wrong? Are you hurt?"
"I, I got scratched by a branch."
"Use the disinfectant. And wrap it with a bandage."
"It's just a little scratch?"
"......Just use it."
Those were the times.
Even a minor wound can lead to tetanus if neglected, or sepsis if you're unlucky.
I'd actually lost a key companion once after neglecting what was just an abrasion.
"What number was that......?"
"155 with that one."
"W-we're only halfway......?"
Judging by the groaning, he seemed to think the hunting pace was too fast.
'What a whiner.......'
I was carefully managing things while keeping an eye on the two of them and their stress levels.
If I rushed and a mental-illness debuff manifested, that would be the end of it. Until we returned to the Royal Capital for treatment, they wouldn't even be able to function as party members.
[Your level has increased.]
[Companion 'Kazen' has leveled up.]
[Companion 'Kria' has leveled up.]
For drinking water, I used <Blue Leaf>, and for food, we worked through what we'd brought from the train first.
Sometimes when we found tree fruit, we made do with that.
Maybe because it was the entry area, we occasionally spotted forest animals, but turning them into food was difficult.
'To make proper food, you need the <Butchering>, <Dismantling>, and <Cooking> skills.'
It seemed like the skills might manifest if I tried a few times, but with barely enough time to fill the daily quota, there was no room for that.
'Eating like this could lead to a <Malnutrition> status.......'
A week or so should be fine.
......Probably.
[Magical Beast 'Blade Weasel' has leveled up.]
The most fortunate thing was that we were almost never attacked while camping.
That was thanks to the nocturnal weasel.
The trade-off was that it became unusable in daytime combat, but compared to the advantage of securing safe sleep, that was a price well worth paying.
[Companion 'Kazen' has leveled up.]
[Companion 'Kria' has leveled up.]
The two of them leveled quickly. They were clearly growing much faster than the Blade Weasel and me.
'They should climb to about 20 without trouble.'
Most things were going smoothly, but there were still problems.
'Mental fatigue.'
Physical fatigue could be relieved quickly, but mental stamina didn't recover so easily.
This was a place where you had to maintain at least a minimum level of alertness at all times, so there was no helping it.
"Sorry! It missed!"
The more we hunted, the more I could feel their movements and reactions slowing.
Kazen, who had killed at least one and up to three with ambushes, began missing more often at some point, and Sylph's speed at locating enemies slowed too.
Actually, it wasn't just the siblings. I was the same.
My body felt strangely stiff when I moved.
And so, on the morning of the sixth day.
"Kazen. Wake up."
"Ugh....... Just one more minute......."
"Enemy."
At that short warning, Kazen shot upright.
"......."
He really did look like hell.
Kazen's once-refined face now made him look like nothing but a vagrant.
'Am I in any position to talk about others?'
My own appearance was probably no better than his.
That was only natural, since we'd repeated nothing but hunting and resting without ever washing properly.
Still, it wasn't without results. My level had reached 19, Kazen and Kria were 18, and the weasel was 20.
'......Damn, it's slow.'
Honestly, this pace over six days was insanely fast, but now that it was reality and I was moving my own body, it somehow felt slower.
Of course, that was only natural, since time in <FoS> when it was a game passed dozens of times faster than reality.
'How much seed have I gathered by now...... around 800,000?'
I wouldn't know the exact amount until I went to a shop, but the margin of error shouldn't be large.
At this pace, it looked like I'd hit 1,000,000 seed by today at the earliest, or by tomorrow morning at the latest.
"Uuugh......."
Judging by Kazen's zombie-like groans, his mental stamina seemed to be nearing its limit.
[Stress: 67]
That was dangerously close.
'No choice, then.'
Originally, I'd wanted to secure 1,000,000 seed...... or comfortably, 1,200,000, but losing a companion to greed would be putting the cart before the horse.
Counting it as having gained time equal to the missing seed, I opened my mouth.
"Let's stop hunting here."
"Huh? Is that all right?"
"Yeah. You worked hard."
"Ah......!"
Kazen's face brightened instantly.
Kria didn't show it much, but she seemed to feel the same way.
"Then do we move to another area now? Or do we begin exploring in earnest?"
Was this kid insane?
In the Eternal Forest, where was there a safer map than <Woodman Habitat>?
"......Well. Something like that."
Of course, it seemed best to hide this harsh truth from a kid who was excited for the first time in a while.
"First, from now on we'll avoid combat as much as possible. Though if it can't be avoided, there's no helping it."
I said that, but in <Woodman Habitat>, there would rarely be any need to fight.
Woodmen are sluggish mobs.
They aren't non-aggressive monsters, but unless you get extremely close, they won't attack first.
'Same when camping.'
These things are generally quiet at night.
Some individuals do move occasionally, so you can't completely let your guard down, but it isn't common.
'I never did find the reason for that.'
Since this was <FoS>, there might be some hidden setting behind it.......
Anyway, <Woodman Habitat> is just a map you pass through briefly in the early game.
Meaning it isn't a particularly important area.
"Kria. I'd like to continue scouting the surroundings. Is that all right?"
"It's fine."
"Good. Then if you find anything unusual besides enemies, let me know."
"Unusual? Specifically?"
"Fireflies giving off red light. A lizard with two tails. A squirrel with white fur. And......."
I listed the characteristics of the major discoveries in <Woodman Habitat> one by one.
For the remaining two days, let's at least build up the <Exploration Crystal>'s Exploration Progress.
* * *
[Registered the discovery in the <Exploration Crystal>.]
⁝
[Current Exploration Progress: 17.3%]
* * *
"Kaindel, how many expeditions is this for you?"
"......."
I wet my throat with the canteen, then answered Kazen's question.
"Same as you two."
"Huh?"
"I said this is my first."
"R, really? No, more than that, how did you know it was our first......?"
"Wouldn't it be stranger not to know?"
"I, is that so?"
What was he so surprised about?
Ask a hundred people. They'd all give the same answer.
"......Setting us aside, it's surprising that this is your first expedition, Kaindel. Honestly, if it had been just me and Kria, we wouldn't have lasted a day."
"......."
To be more precise, they would have died before even entering the forest.
Even after playing <FoS> thousands of times, I'd never heard the names Kazen and Kria.
"So I was sure you were a veteran Delver, Kaindel."
"Would a veteran Delver be dressed like this? You should already have a rough idea of what real Delvers are like."
"Huh?"
"Your old party, I mean."
"Ah......."
Kazen replied with a slightly bitter expression.
"......That's true."
"Were you close?"
"No, not really. We were bound by a contract from the start."
"What kind of contract?"
"Huh?"
Kazen looked slightly flustered.
His face said he'd made a slip of the tongue.
"That's......."
"If you don't want to talk about it, forget it."
At times like this, it's better to back off first.
Pressing the issue would only lower trust.
As it said on the status window, if I advanced the relationship, he'd tell me on his own eventually.
"......Thank you."
"Anyway, it's an honor to have a mere stoker compared to an active Delver. I'm only well-versed in theory."
That wasn't a lie.
Playing something as a game couldn't be called real combat experience.
"Where did you learn that theory?"
I gave the excuse I'd prepared in advance.
"I read books."
"Books?"
"Yeah. In places like libraries, you can often find books about the <Eternal Forest>."
"Libraries!"
Kazen's eyes went wide.
"Which library was it? Was it the <Natalin Royal Library>? Or the <Milliham University Library>? Ah! Wait. If it's about the forest, then surely it was the <Gulson Magic Library>?"
The names of famous libraries in the Royal Capital came pouring out. Of course, with my current reputation, those were places I couldn't even enter.
'What the hell is this guy?'
The university library or magic library I could understand, but the Royal Library was a place you couldn't even get near without considerable reputation.
Was he not a bastard but an actual noble? Or was he just name-dropping to show off?
"......You wouldn't know it even if I told you. I saw it in a nameless antiquarian bookstore."
"An antiquarian bookstore?"
"Yeah. Surprisingly, places like that hide a lot of treasure."
That was also true.
Antiquarian bookstores, general stores, or pawnshops. They were places where you could sometimes get books containing valuable information for a pittance, so whenever I had the spare time on trips to the Royal Capital, I stopped by.
"Oh....... If it's an antiquarian bookstore like that, I'd love to visit one too."
"Sure. When we return to the Royal Capital, let's stop by together."
"Great!"
[Kazen's trust has increased.]
What an easy guy.
Anyway, today was finally the seventh day. According to my plan, it was about time to leave <Woodman Habitat>.
'So far, so good.'
After declaring a halt to combat, we'd barely fought, and we'd picked up a decent number of useful discoveries.
The <Exploration Crystal>'s Exploration Progress had passed 20% and was approaching 30%.
But.......
'Something feels off.'
I felt an unease that was hard to put into words.
<FoS> is always like this.
The moment the player lets their guard down, it drops a huge pile of shit on them. That was why I couldn't relax until we'd completely left this area.
"Kaindel."
I stopped walking at Kria's words.
"What is it?"
"She says there's something strange up ahead."
It was a conversation similar to the ones before.
She'd called me like this whenever she found something useful, or an enemy.
But.
"Strange how?"
It bothered me that Kria's voice was slightly stiff.
"......There's a tree with black bark. It's really tall and big. But it doesn't have a single leaf."
Shit.
A curse almost slipped out on its own.
"Fruit?"
"Huh......?"
"There should be fruit. How many are on it?"
"H, hold on."
Kria fell silent.
I waited anxiously.
One. Please, it had to be one.
"......Two."
"Goddammit."
Startled, Kria glanced at me, but right now I didn't have the leisure to look after her.
I immediately raised my alertness to maximum and spoke.
"Kazen. Kria. Enemy. Get ready."
"Huh? Ah, didn't you say we'd avoid all combat from now on?"
"Yeah. Combat we can avoid."
Meaning this fight couldn't be avoided.
So get your heads in the game, you bastards.
If we screwed up here, every one of us could die.