Dabi, who had been silent up till that point suddenly grinned, pulling a map from storage and laying it across the table. “The marks are where we have found traces. Objects include a knife, a sword, a few sets of clothes, and the armor we showed you.”
“Who loses their sword?”
Roaren leaned back. “Yeah well… Who takes a bath in a monster-infested forest…”
“They what…”
Ted pointed to the lake. “We found the clothes next to the lake, I guess we don’t know, but the assumption is that they were taking a bath and had to make a quick escape… It’s not like spiders undress you and neatly fold your clothes…”
“So… We're looking for… How many young girls that are running butt-naked through the woods? If they get hit by webbing they're screwed…”
Roaren slowly rubbed his hands down his face, resting them over his mouth, turning slightly red as Taggart stood up and leaned over the table. “I highly doubt they’re naked. They had plenty of supplies packed when they left, too much even. That’s why we keep finding things. Most of it is getting scattered around though so there isn’t a real trail. If they really were running through the cursed graveyard naked we would have found their bodies by now. There was an ogre with them, if I had to guess I’d say she’s keeping them all alive, although it’s not unreasonable to say a couple of others are skilled as well. As you said, making jokes about women can be fun, but I’ve gotten beat by them enough to know they aren’t all useless. I’d hope they at least had some skill behind their arrogance. What worries me is that they keep pushing deeper without actually weeding out any monsters along the way. Essentially speaking, they’re surrounded and advertising their position.”
I slowly swallowed… ‘I’m starting to think maybe it’s a good thing they don’t know I’m a girl…’ Taking a deep breath I looked back at the map. ‘Cursed Graveyard huh… I forgot they called it that.’ I stood up as well, taking a pen and drawing a large circle. “Alright, well, I killed everything in this area this morning. It’s not that far off from where you were, but I didn’t see anything. Granted I didn’t look very hard.” ‘I feel like Zeph would have said something right? Maybe? It was hard to read him, but as a member of one of the 10 greats he would be obligated to help if he knew.’
“Looking at the pattern here, and from what I know about how the spiders move… I’d say it’s highly likely they are in this area right now.” I circled another section, much deeper next to a smaller lake that was more like a mountain spring.
“You really think that after they lost all this they kept going further in?”
I pointed back at the map. “I killed 30 spiders… None of which showed any signs of previous combat. It is possible they got lost, or that one of them got captured and they went to save her… To be honest, it also sounds phisable that they think they are doing fine and only headed to the spring because they got dirty while hunting… Whatever the reason though, that’s our best bet.”
Ted let out a long groan. “Right… Tomorrow We will use our new gear, if we are going that deep we will be up against soldiers, casters, and possibly even a knight.”
“Huh?” I looked at each of them again. “New gear?” ‘You mean you chose to wear those piles of junk?’
Roaren smirked. “You didn’t think we’d be the same after how much time has passed, do you? We were just wearing this old junk because we didn’t want to wear out our shiny new toys on the small fry.”
‘Where is this sudden confidence coming from? There’s no way they can afford gear that great after hunting spiders for a month.’ I slowly stood up. “Alright, I take it we're leaving at dawn then? If we are planning on going this deep… Three days?”
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
“Right, three days should be enough. Four at most.”
‘Honestly, I’m not sure it matters… The only reason I rent a room is for the bed and the privacy to take a bath, but it’s not like I need those things… Although… After my hair and skin got fixed with holy magic it would be a waste to let them get ruined again right? Well, whatever. I can worry about that later.’ I sighed, stepping away. “I’ll see you tomorrow then. If I don’t wake up, just come pound on the door or something.”
They chuckled, waving goodbye and ordering another round, their spirits having lifted considerably.
As I closed the door to my room the lively voices all became muffled by the thick walls. ‘Seriously… What a pain…’ I sighed, jumping onto my bed and letting my weight bounce me as I stared up at the ceiling. ‘Girls like them… That's why it’s so hard for girls to find a proper party… And why do Guys like Ted make jokes like that… No… I’m sure they would joke about it regardless… This whole thing just pissis me off…’ I sighed again creating a big ball of water above my head and watching it gently move through the air changing its current back and forth. ‘It’s not like there’s anything wrong with what they said, jokes are jokes… The real problem… I don’t know, maybe I’m just mad that they still think I’m a guy… Or afraid of what happens if they find out I’m not… Zeph figured it out right away… Eh… Then again he did some other pretty crazy stuff.’ I let out a long grain. ‘Should I just tell them? No… They don’t take girls into their party, it would cause too many problems at this point. After… we get back… Yeah… For now, we should just focus. After we save the girls I’ll tell them…’
I tossed the water into the bathtub across the room, still lying out because I was too lazy to put it up. ‘No, that’s not what’s bothering me either though… Am I worried about Mochi? I am, but that’s not all of it… Maybe I’m just nervous because I’ve never been hunting with a real team before…’ I closed my eyes and let my mind wander, deciding I was too tired to even care.
Unable to sleep. I eventually got up and double-checked all my equipment and went over the last battle in my head. ‘Lightning runes are powerful, but they have drawbacks… I can draw them pretty quickly now, despite the complexity… But they still take a lot of mana. They last until activated though, which is nice… But not useful if you aren't staying in one area. Still…’ I sighed, flicking my spear to hear the familiar resonating tone of the enchanted steel.
‘Wait… Can I just… Draw the rune on my spear? They would be small, but if I just draw five or six that would be equal in power. It’s less efficient but the convenience would be worth it for sure. Why don’t people do this? Is it going to explode and kill me? Meh… It’ll probably be fine…’
I got to work and sure enough, it went exactly as I suspected. ‘It’s a little unsettling holding this now… Thinking I might accidentally kill myself if I’m careless… It’s not like it’s really possible to accidentally activate a rune though… So it should be fine right?’ I carefully put it back down, nervously taking it back into storage. ‘I’ll just… Have to make sure I’m not touching it when it goes off… Or maybe… Just use it as a ranged weapon from now on… Yeah…’
With my mana exhausted and my mind focused on other things, I quickly fell asleep.
…
Just like we said we left at dawn, making short work of the one or two little spiders we came across as we traveled through the cleared-out areas.
“You weren't kidding, this place is barren. Uh, Chika?” Roaren said softly, sitting in a tree across from me as we kept a lookout.
“Right…” I yawned. ‘It’s good that my mana came back… But I haven't shaken off the mental fatigue yet…’ “We’re moving into new areas now, I’m also less familiar with the terrain. I was only F-rank until recently, so I tended to not go in that deep. Even if I know the forest well, it’s only really part of it that I’m familiar with. We should keep our guards up from here on.”
He groaned quietly, lifting his hand to his chin. “We’ve made expeditions deeper into the forest recently, but it’s all still relatively new to us as well, and it was usually risky because of the chance we might get surrounded.”
“Right… Tell me if you hear or smell anything.” I enhanced my senses and my eyes singled in on a spider in the distance, sitting perfectly still and blending in with the webbing.
“I can–”
I quickly used a wind lance and drilled a hole straight through its head, leaving it plummeting to the ground. ‘What was that just now? Was he saying something?’
“You make me feel inadequate…”
I blankly stared back at him. “Uhm…” ‘Should I apologize? That doesn’t seem right. I… Should say something though right? My mouth isn’t moving though…’
He sighed, smiling as he rolled his eyes and gestured for me to keep moving. “It’s fine, it's fine. I’m just impressed. Loosen up some. “I’m going to the ground to join the others, I’ll be more likely to pick up the girls' scents. That’s usually how we operate too, since it would be risky for me to be alone up here. Are you coming?”
“Sure I’ll…” I paused at the edge of the branch. “I shouldn’t. Tactically, it will be better for everyone if I’m up here. Not only will I be able to provide more support from up here, I’ll be better able to spot their movements… A-and with my magic I would be able to rejoin you guys if anything bad happened, so me being alone is fine…”
He paused for a moment. “Well, if you’re sure. Keep us safe.” He saluted before quickly scaling down the tree in a way only a beast-kin could, using his claws to make his way back to the others.
‘Alone… I guess even when I’m with a party this is how it is…’