Chapter 36. Forest Shelter VI
Episode 36.
Forest Shelter Ⅵ
A Small Favor from Pashu Haarim
Grade: D
Today, Haarim must once again carry out her duty as shelter manager: "Supply Route Cleaning." But her innate laziness is always her greatest obstacle.......
Respect for her nature, or fulfillment of her duty. Did the ancestors take pity on Haarim as she stood at the crossroads of a lifetime? A reasonably trustworthy guest visits her shelter.
Let us exterminate the "Antworms" in place of poor Haarim and clean the Supply Route thoroughly.
'Antworm' Kill Count
0 / 33
Rewards
Haarim's Trust, Part of the Forest Map
'A map? For real?'
It was only a map of certain areas, but that didn't make it any less valuable.
In <FoS>, maps are items you have to buy first no matter how expensive they are.
'Quest grade is D.'
Our party's average level was around 20 to 30, so the difficulty was relatively high.
On top of that, I couldn't know right now exactly where this <Supply Route> was, or what level and strength the Antworms I had to kill were.
"What do you want to do?"
"......."
Even so, as long as a map was on the line as a reward, I didn't want to refuse.
In the first place, if the difficulty were completely impossible to clear, she wouldn't have given the quest at all.
"Let me ask one thing."
"What?"
"If I feel like I'm out of my depth during the request, can I give up midway?"
"Do whatever. I'd be a little disappointed, though."
"Disappointed enough to never accept me as a guest again?"
"I'm not that cold-hearted."
Hmm. So failing the quest would lower her trust, but not to the point where I couldn't use the shelter anymore.
With conditions like these.......
"I'll accept."
There was no reason not to.
Haarim smiled softly.
"That's what I like to hear."
* * *
As I explained to Alto, countless <Shelters> exist beneath the Eternal Forest.......
Each shelter differed in everything, not just location but also its manager, size, effects, and goods for sale.
'I heard in the lore that there are passages connecting the shelters.'
That was probably this <Supply Route>.
"Here. Take this."
Haarim held something out.
Looking closer, I saw that it was a specimen container.
I mean, a specimen container big enough to hold insects like butterflies or dragonflies.
There was actually something inside it.
Haarim's Specimen Container
A crudely made specimen container for storing insects. It breaks easily, so handle it with care.
Currently Stored Insect
Moonlight Butterfly
Haarim spoke.
"It's a <Moonlight Butterfly>. They have a habit of being drawn only to the moonlight of a Moonstone they've memorized. The one it's memorized now is the Moonstone in my shelter. When you come back, release the butterfly and follow it. There's no other way to return, so absolutely do not lose it, got it?"
"......."
I never expected a trick like this.
It was an excellent mechanic. In the lore, no one except the Pashu could find their way through the underground passages.
I'd gained new knowledge, but realistically, it wasn't very useful. Without knowing the <Moonlight Butterfly>'s habitat and how to store moonlight, the information wasn't worth much.
"Before we go, I want to buy a weapon."
"A weapon? What kind?"
"Do you happen to have a scythe?"
Haarim snorted.
"I don't sell stuff like that. Just use a sword or something. A scythe? What's with a scythe? It's all show."
"......."
This is why it's miserable to learn a non-mainstream weapon mastery. Just getting the weapon in the first place is a pain.
Most shops don't carry them at all.
Well, the trade-off is that they outperform equipment of the same grade.
"If you don't have one, another polearm like a spear or staff is fine."
"I do have one spear."
"Let me see it."
"Where did I put it......."
Haarim headed to the storage room and returned a moment later carrying a weapon as tall as she was.
"Take a look."
Pioneer's Glaive
Grade: Normal
A glaive made of low-quality iron. It's light but not very durable, so handle it with care. The crescent-shaped blade is fairly sharp.
It was literally a glaive.
A weapon with a crescent-shaped blade attached to the end of a pole.
Whoosh.
I immediately gave it a swing.
It certainly didn't have a heavy feel, but there probably wasn't a better weapon available right now. This was also a polearm meant for cutting.
"How much?"
"330,000 seed by surface standards."
"......Knock it down a little."
"Ugh, fine. Just give me 300,000."
Even discounted, it was outrageously expensive.
It was excessive spending for a temporary stopgap weapon, but I couldn't risk running into enemies without one.
'......So I have about 40,000 seed left now?'
My heart felt hollow.
It was only natural, since the roughly 800,000 seed I'd scraped together had evaporated in an instant.
'It can't be helped.'
Spending in <FoS> is always like this.
Still, I could confidently say I hadn't spent a single coin on anything useless.
"If you're ready, shall we head out?"
"Yeah."
I followed behind Haarim out of the shelter.
Then a dark underground passage I'd never seen in the game graphics came into view.
"Whoa......."
"To think there's a space this wide beneath the forest......."
The underground passage, rounded as though a giant earthworm had burrowed through it, was far wider than I'd imagined.
The ceiling was dizzyingly high, and the diameter looked to be dozens of meters.
Of course, large and small holes leading who knew where had been bored into the passage here and there.
"Follow closely."
Haarim navigated that maze-like space with ease.
I tried to memorize the route a few times, but soon realized it was pointless and silently followed behind Haarim.
"Okay, we're here. From this point on, bugs called Antworms appear, got it? Just beat down a reasonable number of them and then come back. Don't go too far. I'm off."
As soon as we reached the destination, Haarim rattled off the explanation and disappeared in a flash.
"What's with her, all in a rush like that? Does she have urgent business?"
"No. She probably just wants to rest quickly."
"No way."
Seigrena, who had been looking around, spoke while staring at rails laid into the ground.
"What's that?"
"Probably rails for a mine cart."
"Where's the mine cart?"
I pointed a finger at a corner.
In a spot that was hard to see, a half-destroyed mine cart was lying around haphazardly.
"Why is it broken......?"
"It must have been attacked."
"By what?"
"By the things we have to clean up from now on. They don't look like easy enemies, so don't let your guard down."
Meanwhile, Kria, who had been quietly looking around, asked.
"Antworms, was it......? Kaindel, have you ever fought one?"
"No. But from the name, I'm guessing they're roughly a subspecies of 'Deathworm.'"
Besides, thirty-three was a relatively small kill count. Considering the quest grade, that meant each Antworm was fairly strong.
I looked at Seigrena and asked.
"How's your condition?"
"Mm. Not bad, but using holy power seems like it'll be hard."
"That's good. We can't create light here anyway."
"Oh, right?"
Just because there were no Pashu here didn't mean we could break the rules of the underground world.
Of course, if we were pushed to the brink of death, we'd have no choice.
"You just draw aggro from the front. And Kria—"
"Hmm......!"
Kria looked at me with a strangely confident expression.
Her gaze was more intense than usual.
Almost intimidatingly so.
"Should I just roast them all......? Just give the order. If I raise a Pyromancer's corpse, I can wipe them all out......!"
"First of all, summoning the Pyromancer is forbidden."
"Ugh."
Obviously, the flames a Pyromancer creates also produce light.
When I slowly explained this fact, Kria deflated in an instant.
"How could this be......."
Seeing how shocked she was, she must have believed without a doubt that she would play a big role this time.
"Ah......! B-but still, if I take down one and then revive it to use as an undead......."
That is actually a Necromancer's main combat method: creating expendable undead on the battlefield and fighting with them.
Undead that can be stored separately in slots, like the Pyromancer, are extremely rare.
That was only natural.
There are a lot of factors to consider, such as the corpse's grade, condition, and compatibility with the Necromancer. Above all, it needs to have a named attribute.
"We'll see about that for now."
"Okay......."
Now that this had come up, I realized anew that our current state was a mess. Our overall combat strength was probably cut in half?
But.......
Rumble......!
At that moment, a strong vibration came from the ground.
"Wh-what?!"
"It's the enemy. Prepare for battle."
A moment later, a worm-shaped monster revealed itself from one of the holes.
[Lv.33 'Antworm']
So this was the bastard.
Its thickness was roughly that of a human torso, but its length was impossible to gauge.
Judging by its size, I estimated it easily exceeded ten meters.
'Level 33.'
It was higher than expected, but either way, I'd only know how strong it was by clashing with it directly.
"Seigrena!"
"W-wait a second. You didn't tell me they looked this disgusting!"
Seigrena whined for the first time in a while.
Its grayish-white hide was slick with unpleasant bodily fluid that kept dripping down.
Normally I would have clicked my tongue and stepped up myself, but.......
"If not you, who's going to handle that thing?"
"Huh......?"
"If no one stands on the front line, we can't kill it. In this situation, you're the only one I can count on."
Seigrena, who had been flinching, changed expression and stepped forward.
"Fine, I guess I have no choice!"
As expected. It was a good thing I'd checked her status window before coming.
Name: Seigrena Montrier
Level: 31
Class: Monk
Trust with Target: 50
Stress: 49
Stats
Strength: 26
Agility: 20
Endurance: 14
Magic Power: 9
Talents
Body: C+
Mind: E
Art: C
Intuition: D+
Skills
<Divine Release>, <Consecrated Fist>
Traits
<Need for Recognition>, <Battle Maniac>, <Flexible Body>
People with the <Need for Recognition> Trait are easy to handle. Rely on them even a little, and they'll bring out more than 120% of their potential on their own.
Of course, the mental care was a bit annoying.
'She has the <Consecrated Fist> skill, too.'
<Consecrated Fist> is an advanced close-combat martial art that characters devoted to a religion can learn only by paying a large fee.
I thought learning it cost at least several million seed, but as expected of a noble family's daughter, she'd picked it up as if it were nothing.
Smack!
The spot Seigrena struck with her fist dented deeply, then quickly sprang back to its original shape.
The sound was like striking a hard tire.
[Activating skill, <Wild Force>.]
[Designating 'Ember Lizard Alto'.]
First, I used <Wild Force> to take Alto's stats.
Skills like <Last Ember> wouldn't help against the Antworm, but the bonus stats alone were enough.
With this, my physical abilities temporarily exceeded those of level 30 Seigrena.
[A whisper of the wind settles upon you.]
[Your body becomes slightly lighter.]
After adding <Haste>, which was better than nothing, I launched myself into the air.
'Whoa.'
The passage ceiling rushed up to my nose in an instant. Was this really my physical ability? Experiencing it sober left me dazed, but.......
This wasn't the time to bask in the feeling of having become a superhero. Right below me, an Antworm was lurking with its maw gaping.
I fell downward and swung the glaive down.
Keeeeeeeeek—!
Its body was severed and green blood sprayed out. As expected, it was more vulnerable to blades than to blunt strikes.
"Whoaack!"
Seigrena, who was nearby, got drenched in green, but there was nothing to be done about that.
The Antworm, despite having spectacularly spewed blood, still looked lively.
It was thrashing like a freshly caught live fish.
'What a troublesome bastard.'
Instead of having high attack power or speed for its level, it seemed to be the type with an unusually large health pool.
In other words, this quest might be a race against time.
'If two or more of them swarm us with our current party, it'll be hard to handle.'
Even so—
Slice!
SCREEEEEECH.......
Killing it wasn't particularly difficult.
Fortunately, this thing was classified as a forest Magical Beast, because at the moment of death, its entire body scattered like ashes.
"I-I'm alive......."
Seigrena, who had naturally been soaked in blood, also had her appearance restored. As the blood that had drenched her whole body vanished, she let out a sigh of relief.
And then—
[Your level has increased.]
My level went up?
'Didn't I just level up not long ago?'
How much experience did I have? There had been so much to check that I hadn't been able to keep track.
I narrowed my eyes and spoke to the two panting figures.
"Let's kill one more."
"Huh? Oh, okay."
We wandered around like that, and before long another Antworm appeared—
SCREEECH.......
This time I could see the experience exactly.
'10%.'
I almost let out a hollow laugh.
So...... did that mean killing ten of these things would level me up once?
'Of course, the required experience will gradually increase as my level rises.'
But until the first digit changed, the increase wouldn't be that large.
In other words, until I hit level 30, I could level up at about this pace.......
"Huff, huff....... I'm dying here."
"Kaindel. How many of these do we have to kill......?"
"......."
"Kaindel?"
I looked at the quest window.
'Antworm' Kill Count
2 / 33
After finishing the calculation in my head, I spoke.
"Two hundred."
"Ugh."
"What?"
I looked at the two of them and said.
"Let's just kill two hundred."
"......."
Both of their faces went pale at the same time, but I felt no guilt.
This was all for their own good.