Ulbazar Swamp (1)
Once the swamp entered the rainy season, it became an entirely different place from the dry months.
The barren ground that had been so parched it seemed to breathe only dust and drought was now pooled with rainwater, and where not a blade of grass had been able to grow, fresh green life had begun to spread.
Even the sight of branches bearing blue-green leaves felt strangely unfamiliar.
He had never expected to see scenery like this in a swamp that seemed to know nothing but lifelessness.
What surprised him most of all was that the insects, which had once clung to them wherever they went, were nowhere to be seen.
Had the torrential rain washed them all away?
Or had they fled to some dark corner to escape the downpour?
Either way, the wild animals had filled the vacancy they left behind.
The creatures that had been sneaking glances at the two of them scattered at the sound of his movement.
After checking the surroundings one last time, Lawrence returned to camp.
A small tree by the riverbank, just enough to shield them from the rain, would serve as their camp for the day.
“I don’t see any monsters nearby. I think it’s safe to say we’ve secured at least a minimum level of safety for now.”
“We’re still at the swamp’s edge. Since so many mercenaries have come out for the extermination contract, there are far fewer monsters than usual. The wild animals have also run off to avoid people. We don’t need to worry for the time being.”
That did seem to be the case.
They had been in the swamp for only two days now, and somehow they had run into mercenaries far more often than monsters.
When he had taken the request to escort Ulbaniaro, there hadn’t been a soul in sight besides their party.
“And the jaguars that were everywhere before are gone, too. So this is what you meant when you said the swamp changes in little ways between the dry season and the rainy season.”
“Jaguars?”
“Yes. When I traveled with Ulbaniaro, they came at us day and night, so often it was hard to keep my wits about me.”
“That was the time of year when the jaguars were at their worst. They’re still here. They’re just hiding from the others, which is why you don’t see them much.”
Neil pointed toward the river.
The stream that had barely reached their ankles had already swelled, and the low ground around them was completely submerged.
“Not the water. Don’t you see it? There’s a jaguar over there, keeping its head down.”
“A jaguar? Where is it— ah!”
This time Lawrence saw it too.
A jaguar had hidden its body beneath the water, leaving only its head peeking out.
It was a clever creature, concealing itself among a collapsed mound of earth and thickly tangled reeds. Unless one looked closely, it would be almost impossible to realize it was there at all.
He met the catlike gleam of those sharp eyes.
A chill ran down his spine, and the boy grimaced.
“So jaguars can swim, I guess.”
“Of course they can. This is a swamp where the dry and rainy seasons alternate. If they could only adapt to one climate, why would they be called the swamp’s predators? Everything here changes itself to survive, and the jaguars are no different.”
Neil lifted the fishing rod he had been preparing.
At the tip of the rod, which fit easily in one hand, a wormlike insect wriggled.
That well-fed creature would make excellent bait for catching tonight’s meal.
“During the dry season, wild animals roam the swamp looking for food. If they stay in one place, they’ll die along with the drying water. That means the jaguars have no choice but to keep moving in search of prey.”
“Ah. So it’s the same as the Ulbaniaro herders letting their cattle wander.”
“Exactly. If you want to live, there’s nothing you won’t do.”
The larger the group, the faster the available food disappeared.
Even if a hungry stomach could be endured to some extent, water was another matter entirely.
In the dry season, water vanished even if one simply stood still.
There was no way a swamp could provide enough water for an entire herd to drink.
“But in the rainy season, they don’t need to do that. Once the rain starts, the wild animals settle down in one place. And when the prey settles, there’s no reason for the jaguars to keep roaming all over the swamp.”
Just looking at the growing vegetation made that clear.
The swamp’s edge was already this lush.
Deeper inside, the growth would only be denser, not thinner.
“That’s right. But it’s a hard season for the jaguars. It’s not much different from the dry season, when they hunt animals that have grown weak and fallen behind the herd. Now they have to fight prey that’s well fed and healthy, so in the worst case they can fail to hunt at all.”
“Even so, they’re magical beasts. Surely they can still catch ordinary wild animals?”
“Numbers are violence. How many wild animals do you think travel in herds? By comparison, a jaguar hunting party is no more than three or four at most. And plenty of them move alone, so they can’t always succeed. Sometimes they even end up falling to other natural enemies.”
The apex predators of Ulbazar Swamp were not the jaguars.
Bugbears.
Eligators.
Both would surely possess power that far surpassed the jaguars’.
“So that’s why it’s keeping quiet and waiting for a chance.”
One wrong move, and the hunt would be ruined.
A skilled hunter would stay still until the moment came when the prey could be taken for certain.
“They’re impressive creatures. Sometimes they wait hours; sometimes days, without eating or drinking a thing, just for the moment to strike. Since they’re magical beasts, they’re tougher than most wild animals, too. And they’re not picky about prey. They like the cattle the Ulbaniaro raise best, and if it lives in the swamp, they’ll eat it. Sometimes they’ll even eat people.”
The jaguar’s other name was the predator of the swamp.
It was a name that fit their habit of devouring everything in sight.
“The name means to sever the breath in an instant. There’s a reason our ancestors gave them that name.”
The fishing line was cast out over the riverbank.
Neil began fishing from a spot shielded from the rain.
“And whatever you do, watch out for snakes. I chose this tree because it’s one snakes hate, so our camp should be fine, but with water snakes we’ll just have to be careful ourselves.”
“I know. What else can we do? We’re the outsiders here, so we have to be as careful as possible.”
Lawrence moved a little away so he wouldn’t disturb Neil’s concentration.
From here on, this was precious training time.
Just as Neil had said he was confident as a guide, the two of them hadn’t fought a single monster since entering the swamp.
There had been no situation serious enough to count as a crisis, so naturally there had been no chance to use magic, either.
Come to think of it, it had been the same when he had worked as a medicinal herb gatherer.
To avoid provoking wild animals or monsters, magic had been the final trump card, something to be saved until the very end. Most of the time, they had simply taken a wide detour or used camouflage to avoid needless fighting.
If you could win without fighting, that was best of all.
He could now understand why Neil had been alone when they first met.
He had confidence that he could survive even this harsh swamp on his own.
For now, he had been avoiding pushing himself to his limits in case of the smallest possibility of trouble.
This was nothing like the Ulbaniaro escort request, where they had moved as a group.
If they were exposed to monsters here, Lawrence would be the only one able to fight.
If he couldn’t use magic when it mattered, who knew what might happen?
That was why, above all else, he made caution his first priority.
Shadow Light.
He hid the Shadow Light that had floated into the air beneath the ground.
It could not be allowed to leak out.
During the dry season, Shadow Light had been useful for driving insects away.
But in the rainy season, the same magic had become the worst possible thing, a lure for blind snakes.
It had been an unforeseen change.
The spell that had helped him most while traveling through the swamp had become a nuisance instead.
And so, on the very first day, ignorant of the danger, he had used Shadow Light and been thoroughly punished for it.
He had no excuse at all.
He had handled the magic with complete confidence, and the result had been a disaster.
Lawrence had burned the painful lesson of that first day into his body. Now, before he used Shadow Light, he always searched for a place where the light could be hidden first.
Training magic could wait until he was sure none of the light would escape.
Shadow.
In the shade of the tree, Shadow rose.
Its shape was rather different from the one he had formed before.
Simply a Shadow that had risen from the darkness.
For now, he had succeeded in casting a Shadow that was unaffected even after Shadow Light had been activated.
He moved on to the next step.
Lawrence focused on the Shadow, hazy like smoke.
At its end, he shaped it into the form of a spear.
It was different from Shadow Spear.
This looked more like the single lance he had recently bought.
Still, perhaps because he could not quite escape the image of Shadow Spear he used so often, the spearhead had to remain rather similar.
Was he too used to it?
It was harder to shape something that was truly outside the image of Shadow Spear.
Cold sweat trickled down Lawrence’s forehead as he carefully worked the spear’s tip and shaft.
There was no pain radiating from his chest, but this kind of focused training exhausted him mentally very quickly.
He released the tightly held spear shape.
The Shadow, returning once more to smoke, he changed into a simple geometric form this time.
A square. A triangle.
He played with shapes like circles, lightly loosening his mind.
Now came the long-awaited final step.
Lawrence stretched both hands forward and concentrated on the Shadow.
The first shape was a circle.
Holding the image of separating a smaller circle from a larger one, he slowly split the Shadow into two.
From the trembling circle, a black shape began to peel away at a crawl.
It was not something to be torn apart in one breath.
He had to be able to maintain the Shadow as two separate forms.
He held his concentration.
He could not let his tension slip until the circle had fully separated.
Like a woman enduring the agony of childbirth, sweat beaded on Lawrence’s forehead.
How much time had passed?
A smaller circle appeared beside the larger one.
They were about the size of a mother and her child.
All that remained was to separate the child from the mother’s side.
With a sudden clench of both hands, Lawrence pulled the smaller circle away from the larger one.
“…….”
The large circle and the small one.
The two separate Shadows stared back at the boy.
He had done it.
The Shadow separation he had practiced for nearly a month had finally succeeded.
Instinctively clenching his fist, Lawrence felt a smile spread across his face.
No.
It was too early to celebrate.
Now he had to see whether he could control the two Shadows independently.
It was impossible to look left and right at the same time.
But what if they were siblings born from the same spell?
The time to answer that question was just ahead.
“Hoo….”
After taking a deep breath, Lawrence first controlled the larger circle.
He spun it around once in place.
Then shifted it left and right, over and over.
Good.
No problems.
Next was the smaller circle.
He spun that one around in place as well.
Then moved it up and down, repeatedly.
This one was fine too.
He handled it even more carefully than the larger circle, just in case, but it seemed that caution had not been necessary.
Now it was time to control both circles.
Slowly, very slowly, he made the large and small circles move in alternating patterns.
In response to Lawrence’s will, the two circles began to approach each other.
They moved.
They definitely moved.
Not just one of them, either; both were moving together.
The small circle leaped over the large one.
And the large circle could spin around the smaller one as though protecting it.
“Ahahaha!”
A burst of delighted laughter slipped out before he could stop it.
Realization came suddenly, all at once.
He had been thinking about it the wrong way all this time.
It was not about looking left while looking right at the same time.
Using two spells at once might indeed be something like that.
But magic separated from a single spell was different.
Like a person with two hands.
He could handle one with his left hand, and the other with his right.
Lawrence stretched his hands forward and laughed wildly as he watched the two Shadows run and dance separately.
“You’re being loud. Do you want to call every single Eligator in the area over here?”
That laughter continued until Neil returned, having finished fishing.
* * *
Avoiding unnecessary clashes was possible only around the swamp’s edge.
The deeper they went into the rain-soaked swamp, the more signs of life faded away.
And in direct proportion, the number of monsters they ran into kept rising.
Even Neil’s ingenuity could only get them around trouble once or twice.
When gathering herbs around a village, one could avoid fights by taking a long detour, but in the rainy season swamp, even that was impossible.
Deep, wide rivers spread out in every direction.
Unlike the swamp’s edge, where the water had barely reached their ankles, the center of the swamp offered only limited room to move.
Even if there was some way around it, it would still take at least several extra days of walking, so Lawrence told Neil they might as well just keep moving forward.
Unless a bugbear pack blocked their way, ordinary wild animals or a few low-numbered magical beasts were no match for him.
“Neil. Behind me.”
It was a goblin pack, long since seen again.
Unlike the goblins they had encountered in the forest, the swamp goblins had a body type that looked somehow gaunt.
If it wasn’t just his imagination, their heads were a size smaller too.
And the equipment they wore was so ragged and shabby that they didn’t seem particularly dangerous.
But there were a lot of them.
Whereas goblins in groups of five or six, or at most ten, roamed together elsewhere, nearly dozens of them wandered the swamp here.
Numbers were power.
Even if the danger posed by a single goblin was low, there was no choice but to be cautious when that many gathered together.
“Goblins, huh. Plenty of them, that’s for sure. They’re cowardly little things.”
Neil, who had fallen back behind Lawrence, said, “I don’t know about goblins in other regions, but the ones that live in the swamp use poison needles.”
“I have to admit, that’s a little surprising for goblins.”
“They make them with poison from the venomous insects that live in the swamp. The poison mixture isn’t hard to prepare, so making an antidote is no trouble at all. But if you’re poisoned in the middle of a fight, it can still be dangerous in a lot of ways.”
“Thanks for the warning. That makes it easier to deal with.”
Goblins using poison needles.
They weren’t carrying bows or crossbows either.
If they used them at all, they would probably be the crudest kind of blowgun-style poison dart.
Sure enough, a few goblins were carrying things that looked vaguely like flutes.
There weren’t many of those.
Only a handful among the dozens.
After memorizing the positions of the goblins with poison needles, Lawrence raised both hands.
Shadow Spear.
The one magic that could be used safely from range rose into the air.
It was no longer merely familiar; it had become intimate, almost second nature.
The formation itself took place in an instant.
Before the goblins realized they were being targeted, he launched the shadow spear.
Kieeek?
By the time they saw something flying toward them, it was already too late.
The goblin caught in the blast of Shadow Spear died instantly without even managing a scream.
He cast the next spell at once.
There was no point giving the panicked creatures any time to recover.
Every time a shadow spear came raining down, five or six goblins toppled over.
The ones who were struck by three Shadow Spears on the spot were so terrified they could only run in circles in a frenzy.
Kieeek!
One of the goblins spotted Lawrence’s position.
At its cry, the goblins around it hurriedly pointed their weapons in his direction.
Another Shadow Spear fell on their heads.
Even calling themselves a pack, they were nothing like a properly coordinated unit.
The area was still full of goblins in the grip of confusion.
There wasn’t a single goblin charging Lawrence.
In the end, by the time the fifth Shadow Spear fell, the goblins had turned tail and started fleeing without so much as a glance back.
Not one of them dared to fight.
They were too busy running from the enemy they had already seen.
Once the frightened pack broke apart, only the corpses of those ravaged by Shadow Spear remained behind.
As expected, goblins were goblins no matter where you found them.
So busy worrying about their own lives that they couldn’t put up even a semblance of resistance.
Was that maybe a little excessive?
Perhaps because he had run into such a familiar enemy after so long, he had ended up venting his irritation by unleashing magic without restraint.
It felt oddly like he had done this before.
It had eased his mind a little, but acting purely on impulse was never a good habit.
He reflected on it briefly.
Then Lawrence looked back at Neil.
“That was simple. Let’s keep going.”
“...Were you actually some kind of amazing mage all along?”
He looked genuinely startled.