The Cabin in the Woods
Rustle rustle… “Ugh, this is such a pain in the ass.”
Wild grass in the forest was far more annoying and stubborn than any modern person could imagine. Neither Oh Ji-o, who had never served in the military, nor the noble Helio knew anything about it, so walking through the undergrowth turned out to be more difficult than expected.
'At least the silver lining is that all this walking is helping me get used to it pretty quickly.'
The Pilgrimage was a technique that let you walk up even vertical cliffs. As long as I didn’t trip or get my foot stuck, the rest was just a matter of acclimating. The real problem was right here.
“Hehe, what’s the matter?”
“...My neck’s ticklish.”
“Oh dear, how unfortunate.”
Diana, riding on my back, spoke in a sweetly syrupy voice. Ever since the confession last time, she had been acting noticeably more proactive.
“If you’re really that sorry, how about putting some actual emotion in your voice?”
“…………”
“And not saying anything at all is a bit much, don’t you think?”
At my words, Diana let out a soft giggle before murmuring in a low voice.
“So… do you hate it?”
“………”
“If it’s uncomfortable or tiring, just tell me. I’ll get down anytime.”
She wrapped her arms around my neck and whispered into my ear with a voice like a fairy. Naturally, I couldn’t possibly answer that.
“…………”
I kept my mouth shut and simply walked through the grass exactly as she wanted. Diana let out a faint laugh at my silence, then continued.
“It’s not like I only came here aiming for this. Shall we head in a little deeper?”
“So you were aiming for it a little.”
“Hehehe.”
Anyway, Diana was the one in charge of planning our Pilgrimage schedule. We walked for a while, clearing a path with a mattock formed from Agatram, until we soon spotted something.
“There’s a trail.”
It wasn’t a professionally maintained road, of course. Just a narrow footpath where frequent use had worn the dirt bare. Still, it was a path, and a clear trace of people.
“We just need to follow it.”
“Okay.”
Not having to swat away irritating grass was already enough for the trail to do its job. Even while carrying one person on my back, the hike wasn’t particularly difficult. If anything, light anticipation and curiosity bubbled up about what might lie beyond the endless line of trees.
“Oh.”
And it didn’t disappoint. At the end of the trail stood a small forest cabin. Both the modern-day Oh Ji-o and the noble Helio only had vague preconceptions of such a place, so it felt almost romantic.
The moment I saw it, I instantly understood why Diana had wanted to come here.
It was the Herb Gathering quest.
“Wh-whoa! Eek!”
When we opened the cabin door, sure enough, two people were inside. One was a small girl curled up in fear.
“Haa… haa…”
The other was an older girl lying on the bed, breathing heavily. It was the classic setup. And that classic setup was exactly where the true value of the Herb Gathering quest lay.
“What’s going on?”
“M-my sister… she’s sick.”
“I can see that.”
“Eek!”
I’d spoken as gently as I could, yet the child still shrank back in terror. Why?
“It’s probably because your muscles are too massive, don’t you think?”
“Hey, these are compressed…”
Thanks to the pseudo body reformation I’d gained through my training, my muscles were considerably compressed. Even so, I apparently hadn’t reached the level of internalized muscle yet, because I still gave off an oppressive aura.
“Haa… I’ll leave it to you.”
“Leave it to me.”
Diana slid smoothly off my back and approached the smaller girl.
“My name is Diana. And yours?”
“I-I’m… Melu…”
Aside from her eyes, Diana’s appearance was like a fairy’s. Thanks to that, the girl kept glancing nervously at me but still managed to start a proper conversation.
“Melu, we just happened to be passing by. What happened here?”
“My sister’s sick… We need herbs! But I can’t leave her alone right now, so…”
Just as expected, it was the herb quest.
“Five stalks of pare, two leaves of sage, and two bulbs of cocon should do it.”
Since Melu lived on the mountain, she listed exactly what was needed with impressive competence.
'The required items aren’t any different from the game.'
All three were relatively rare plants that only grew in specific areas, making them hard to find. In the game the locations were roughly marked, but since this was reality, we couldn’t count on that kind of luck.
“If you find them for us… I’ll give you this. It’s all I have.”
What the small girl held out in her tiny hands was a single silver coin and a dirty little rag doll. It was the kind of reward that stabbed at your conscience. Objectively speaking, though, it was still a poor reward, so among heartless gamers there were quite a few who ignored her on first meeting.
And the ending was almost always the same.
That was why it had been designated a must-do quest. It was a repeat quest that popped up probabilistically when traveling, but once you got burned, the solution wasn’t that hard. The more experienced the player, the more likely they were to avoid the trap.
'The problem is that I didn’t consider any of this.'
Some of the smaller details in Oh Ji-o’s memories had been glossed over. But there was an even clearer reason.
“What will you do?”
Diana asked with a smile in her eyes. Of course she knew the workaround too.
“We should help.”
“R-really?! Thank you! So, the herbs are found in…”
“No, there’s no need for that.”
I cut off Melu, who was trying to explain where to find the herbs. The core of this quest wasn’t the herbs.
“Will this do?”
The real key was that the sister was sick.
“One sip should be enough.”
Glug.
Whether Melu was flustered or not, I carefully brought the glass bottle to the sister’s lips. The liquid inside slowly slid down her throat.
“Huu…”
Soon her breathing grew noticeably calmer.
“A detox potion…?”
“That’s right. It’s an official detox potion made at the academy.”
A single low-grade detox potion (thirty silver coins, purchasable twice per month, academy exclusive) made gathering herbs completely unnecessary. Just like physical strength, wealth could solve most problems with ease.
With that, the quest was cleared!
…Or so I would have liked to say, but there was more to the story.
“Thank you so much for helping us. My name is Mary.”
“I’m glad the medicine worked. I’m Helio. This is Diana.”
“Nice to meet you.”
“Thanks to you both, I survived. Even so, I’m ashamed to ask one more favor…”
Mary, who had barely opened her eyes, spoke to us in a timid yet firm voice.
“Tell us first, then we’ll see.”
“…Thank you for listening even though it’s shameless. The truth is, the poison I was afflicted with wasn’t from a plant.”
I already knew, but I played along for the sake of conversation.
“Then?”
“It was a monster. A monster that uses poison has taken up residence in a cave on the mountain ridge. That’s what got me.”
“So you want us to go kill it?”
Mary shook her head at my words.
“No, no matter how shameless I am, I could never ask for something like that.”
“Then?”
“Could you please inform the patrol soldier on the main road about this?”
It was the start of the linked quest.