TN: Please read my translations only on my website nyx-translation.com since I never give my permission to any site to host my translations. And if you like my translations, please support this site on Ko-fi and Patreon to read several chapters ahead!
Enjoy~
TL: ALT
Chapter 71 – Day 16 of Exploration
In the early morning, the plants and trees around us had grown thick, even though we had slept in the desert.
“If we could collect the morning dew here, would that be enough to get us across the desert?”
Chel asked, touching a large leaf nearby.
“I don’t know. We don’t even know where the desert ends.”
“Isn’t there a country of bird people at the end of the desert?”
Jennifer rubbed her eyes and looked out into the desert.
“I’ve heard of it, but I’ve never been there. What are the bird people, anyway?”
“I think they’re bird-beastmen. I’ve only read about them in books.”
“S-s-so they’re a race that can fly?”
Sylvia asked Hel, who had read the books.
“I don’t know. I’ve never seen them either.”
The sand was stirred by the wind.
As if that was the signal, the surrounding plants and trees began to move toward the forest. As the plants and trees moved, the monsters also began to move. Birds chirped as if they were leading the way.
The monsters in the forest that had been slow to flee were fighting with the monsters in the desert, and the sand was flying.
The monsters also attacked us as we prepared to leave. A monster about 20 meters long, a giant earthworm. It suddenly jumped out of the sand and took our luggage.
“Hey, are you guys okay?”
I asked everyone, and they all said they were fine.
“But it took our food!”
Jennifer immediately reported.
“Give me back my bread!”
Chel attacked with fire magic, but the flames were repelled by the creature’s hard skin.
The earthworm monster, which had once disappeared into the sand, began to move around us. It was slow and seemed to be waiting to see what we would do.
“I hope we have some kind of poison for earthworms in our luggage, but I think we only brought healing potions!”
Hel reported, following the movements of the earthworms with her eyes. It seems that the luggage that was eaten was Hel’s.
Jennifer sets up a defensive barrier to protect everyone. The mouth of the big earthworm seems to be bigger than my height, so it might be able to eat me whole.
Sylvia rummages through her belongings, looking for a large weapon. Her backpack doesn’t seem to contain any large weapons.
“Makyo, lift the ground!”
Let’s ignore Chel’s unreasonable request and deal with it calmly.
Since earthworms burrow in the sand, they must use heat, vibration, or magic to locate their prey. When I tried to unleash magic power on the ground, it moved away from us while remaining cautious. Does it really have a sense organ that detects magic power?
I wished that it would just go away, but the earthworm came back, circling as it undulated just below the ground.
“No one moves…”
I rolled the Wild Bear’s magic stone to the ground, warning everyone to stay still. I hoped it would think it was food and devour it, but the earthworm passed right by the magic stone and swallowed the shoiko, who was lying all alone in the desert, and then burrowed into the ground, making a crunching sound.
The shoiko didn’t even move, and it had no heat. There was no magic power at all.
“What is it sensing?!”
“It’s a shadow!”
Hel shouted at me, who was confused.
It was true that our shadows stretched across the sandy ground in the morning sun. But even though it was underground, it was using its vision to locate its prey?
“We’re going into the forest!”
Chel pulled my arm and started to run.
Jennifer and the others were already on the move, rushing into the forest.
Noticing our movement, the giant earthworm came after us, wriggling as it surfaced.
The sand in the desert is quartz and clear, if it’s close to the ground, light can reach it, and it’s not only the eyes that can sense light.
“Skin?”
Once I understood the theory, the threat immediately faded, and I shook off Chel’s hand and stopped.
“Makyo, what are you doing? Run!”
When the giant earthworm monster is chasing our shadows, it’s not that difficult to dodge its attacks. I just have to time my jump right.
I jump, concentrating my magic power on my legs, and the giant earthworm follows me. It twists its whole body as it leaps high into the air and then falls. Smashed into the sandy ground, the earthworm writhes around, twisting its body from the impact.
“Sylvia, give me a weapon!”
As I yelled, Sylvia threw P.J.’s knife at me. I caught it in the air and cut off the earthworm’s head. The reddish-black blood oozed out and soaked into the sandy soil.
“It’s over!”
I said as the sand flew up, and everyone nodded in amazement.
We waited for the dust to settle and then set about dismantling the earthworm.
“I should have used this knife from the beginning.”
I grumbled as I sliced the large earthworm lengthwise.
“Can you eat earthworm meat?”
“I’m sure you can! It’s just really smelly.”
“I-I-I want the fire-resistant skin.”
“Hey, there’s something that’s been eaten!”
Hel pulled out bones and the monster’s fur that couldn’t be digested from inside the earthworm’s belly. There were also scraps of cloth and metal fragments, but the most surprising thing was a human skull.
“It’s definitely a skull. That means there’s someone else in this desert besides us, right?”
“Makyo, you have to collect the rent!”
Chel said with a laugh.
“Seriously though, all joking aside, how long do you think it would take a worm this size to digest a human?”
I asked Hel, trying to ignore Chel’s words.
“I think it would take less than a week, maybe four or five days.”
“So if we could move through the desert at the same speed as the giant worm monster, we could get to where the person is in four or five days, right?”
“That’s right, but do you want to go?”
“Not now. I’ll go after I make the necessary preparations. Let’s go home today.”
When I ate the lightly fried earthworm meat for breakfast, it had a sandy taste. It wasn’t the same as the smell of the earth, but it was a mixture of sweat and rain. If stewed with some herbs, it wouldn’t be completely inedible, but it wasn’t a taste I wanted to eat.
Chel washed Hel’s bag, which had been swallowed whole, with magic. The shoiko was beyond repair.
“My magic is recovering, so I can go on a bit on my own.”
Hel said, but we still had to take precautions against the strong forest monsters.
“Let’s make a staff, Makyo. We won’t make it back to the cave before noon anyway.”
There are branches in the forest, and there are also giant earthworm magic stones that slow down speed. We can hunt monsters at will in the forest.
“Okay, if we’re going to do this, let’s kill the treant and get the magic stone and the branches.”
If we know how to defeat the monster, then Chel and I can easily hunt it. All we have to do is hit it with magic power. After that, we can cut the branches with a knife and fashion them into a staff.
Sylvia had collected vines in the forest and had Jennifer make a simple basket for her.
“I-i-it’s just for putting the skin in, so it doesn’t have to be that big.”
Sylvia, who wanted to make armor from the skin, would hold the basket. The meat was not tasty, so it was thrown away.
After preparing food and making weapons, we headed north, each equipped with a staff.
“We have a party with a bad balance because all five of us are mages.”
But thanks to that, if one of us is attacked by a monster, we can fight back immediately. The monsters attacking us will retreat if they’re hit even a little bit, so we can escape while they do that.
When a house-sized poison scorpion attacked, I thought, “Someone might die,” but Sylvia, who had drunk my blood, let out a strange cry like “Wakya!” and cut it in half with P.J.’s knife.
“Sylvia, I wouldn’t make such a sound.”
“M-m-my power is overflowing. I-I-I’m coming up with all kinds of weird magic, and my head is a mess.”
Sylvia held her head.
“Jennifer, why don’t you calm her down with some mental magic?”
Hel asked Jennifer in a whisper.
“But mental magic is forbidden in the demonic land.”
“What? I thought mental magic was just for exciting or confusing people?”
“If Makyo-san gives permission, I can calm the excitement. After all, I’m still wearing a priest’s robe.”
Jennifer said with a puffed chest, so I temporarily allowed her to use mental magic.
“T-t-that’s enough. T-t-that’s too much.”
She used mental magic while listening to Sylvia’s voice so as not to overdo it.
After that, we were attacked by a swarm of mantis monsters the size of humans and dragonfly monsters that came out of the water, but we dealt with them by slowing their movements with the staff.
After a lunch break, I jumped up into the trees and checked our direction, then we headed north. Unlike the way we had come, the danger level of the monsters gradually decreased, so Hel didn’t run out of magic power. Once you know how to pace yourself, you can relax a bit.
As the sun began to set and the sky turned reddish-brown, we finally reached the river where the rock crocodiles were. From there, if we follow the river, we’ll know the way to the cave that is our home. Feeling confident, we decided to hunt a rock crocodile on the way back.
We all used staff to cast magic and kill it. I remembered that Chel had gotten used to the demonic land the same way when she first came here. Perhaps a little adventure is necessary in the demonic land.
We reached the cave before sunset.
We washed ourselves in the swamp and prepared and ate some rock crocodiles. It was a simple meal, but the women seemed to enjoy it more than usual, perhaps because of the sense of accomplishment they felt at having made it to the desert.
“I’ll take the watch tonight so you can both sleep, Sylvia and Hel.”
“T-t-that would be a big help!”
“I’ll take you up on your offer.”
Jennifer was trying to make a new shoiko, but I told her to take a break today. She was strangely obedient, but that was because she was tired.
“Aren’t you both tired?”
Jennifer asked before going to her room in the cave.
“We haven’t done much.”
When Chel replied like that, Jennifer went into the cave as if she was surprised.
Kyoeee…!
I hear the sound of an imp in the distance.
Staring at the fire, I feel strangely at peace as I add some old branches to the fire.
“So everyone has finally become a resident of the demonic land, huh?”
Chel asks, sitting on the other side of the fire.
“Picnics like this are nice sometimes. Next time, let’s go to the sea and get some salt.”
“That’s a good idea! Speaking of which, Hel was a little concerned about the elf slaves.”
I remembered what Chel had said and looked across the stream to see that the elf slaves and the Eastern Kenyan farmers had built huts on the other side of the stream, outside the demonic land.
“As long as they don’t die in the demonic land, I don’t really care about them…”
I don’t know if they’re still alive.
“If Hel doesn’t say anything, they’re probably still alive, right?”
“Yes. There’s also some leftover rock crocodile meat, so I think I’ll go share some with them. Chel, can you keep an eye on the fire for a while?”
“Sure.”
I wrapped the rock crocodile meat in butterbur leaves and went to the entrance of the demon land.
A light shone from a hut across the stream. I could hear them talking, so it seemed they were alive.
As I jumped across the stream and approached, I saw that part of the hut was broken. It might have been attacked by monsters.
“What are you going to do? There’s nowhere to go if you go back. Runaway slaves are killed, and that’s the end of them.”
“Don’t talk. You’ll make your thirst worse.”
“We can see the water but can’t drink it.”
Apparently, they can’t drink the water from the stream either. Is it because of the slime?
“Hey, you don’t look so good.”
When I called out to them while peering into the hut, both the elves and the farmers were surprised, and their eyes widened.
“What? Have you come to kill us?”
One of the elves asked, his face completely white.
“No, I’ve got some monster meat, so I’ve come to share it with you while I check to see if you’re still alive. Here you go.”
I threw them rock crocodile meat. The elves were surprised, but they took it.
“Can’t you drink water?”
“Yes. Half of us are sleeping here because we ran out of magic power after being attacked by slime. The slime that chased us destroyed our hut.”
“The slime destroyed it? They must really look down on you. It can’t be helped. It bothers me when you die. Is there anything you can use to collect water, like a water bag or a water bottle?”
When I said this, they hesitantly showed me a leather water bag.
“Is that all you have? Well, it’ll do.”
I grabbed the water bag as if to snatch it away and went to the stream to get some water. The slimes came to play with me, but I kicked them away.
I gave the water bag to the elf who had been watching.
“You better get some water while you can. The slimes will only play with you while I’m here.”
With that, the elf and the farmers hurriedly took the leather water bag and empty wine bottles out of the hut and went to the stream to get some water.
“Thank you.”
“Now we can live somehow.”
The elves and farmers thanked me.
“To be honest, I don’t care what happens to you now. Just don’t give us or the army too much trouble. If you want to live here, you’ll have to be strong enough to survive. See you.”
I said that and crossed the stream.
If you like my translations, please support me on Ko-Fi and subscribe my Patreon to read several chapters ahead!