Hurry up and Tell Us Already
“Want to accompany Elma and the others?” Mother suddenly said something outrageous.
“Even if we go with them, it’s just for half a day. We’ll return to the fort in the afternoon. However, we’ll be staying one more night at the fort.” She added.
“If we don’t return as planned, Father will worry.” Said Brother Gerald.
“Let him worry for once. Maybe he should try being on the other side and find out just how nerve-wracking it is when someone doesn’t come back on time.” She retorted.
Brother Gerald and I tried to persuade her, but she was completely immovable.
Still, since Elma and the others were mainly composed of young knights and mages, she did at least agree not to participate in their mission. However, she wouldn’t be swayed on the matter of exterminating monsters near the mid-slope fort.
Since we had no choice, we sent a magic bird notifying them that we’d be staying one more night at the forest’s entrance fort. That message would probably reach Father too.
“If we don’t come across a monster that looks suitable for a familiar contract here, maybe she’ll finally give up.” Brother Gerald whispered to me, making sure Mother didn’t hear.
Suddenly—“Water Cutter!” Mother fired a spell toward the top of a tree, and with a thud, a monster—a snake that looked at least three meters long—fell down.
This snake didn’t have poison. Its meat, hide, innards, and magic stone were all useful. The meat tastes similar to chicken, so it’s popular for things like fried dishes. The innards are necessary for making recovery tonics for people recovering from illness and medicine to help with sensitivity to cold.
“We’re on the mid-slope now. If you don’t watch the treetops, you’ll get taken out.” Mother said.
I’d made it here fairly easily up to now, so I had let my guard down. I had to be more careful.
After that, we kept encountering bears (black bears, brown bears), wolves (silver wolves, brown wolves), and occasionally snakes, and we kept exterminating them.
“Meyer, aren’t there too many bears? Or is this normal?”
“They and the snakes are probably looking for food now that they’ve woken from hibernation. Around here, you mostly get bears, wolves, and maybe orcs. Though today, we’re seeing a lot of snakes.”
I joined the extermination whenever we encountered wolves. When I asked what we’d do for lunch, they said there was a clearing up ahead where trees had been cut down, and we’d probably rest there.
The path ahead was getting brighter. We were nearing the spot Meyer had mentioned.
We arrived—but someone else was already there.
What is this... an army of caterpillars?
The army of caterpillars was about 50 cm to 1 meter long, black with purple polka-dot patterns scattered across their bodies.
Meyer said they were Poison Moth larvae. The purple color meant poison. The fluid they secreted in larval form only caused numbness, but if you were doused in fluid from an adult moth, you’d die without an antidote. So they had to be exterminated.
Since we couldn’t risk being sprayed, the plan was to surround the larvae with earthen walls, soak cloth in oil and wrap it around dry branches, toss many of those inside the walls, then burn them with fire magic. As a precaution, they also sealed the top of the walls with more earth.
Apparently, it was the first time they’d seen such a massive swarm of larvae, so while the extermination was underway, we spread out to explore the surrounding area.
We didn’t find any more Poison Moth larvae, but we did run into bears and snakes several more times and kept exterminating them.
“Captain, there’s a signal from the fort!” One of the members called, pointing to the sky.
A red smoke flare—it meant urgent.
We decided to postpone the confirmation of the extermination and collection of magic stones from the Poison Moth larvae and hurried back to the mid-slope fort.
The fort was in chaos, packed with injured people. It was Elma and her group.
Mother, I, and those from our group who could use healing magic began tending to the injured.
I treated the lightly wounded. Fortunately, there were no fatalities, but everyone would need to rest at the fort for a few days before leaving the forest.
Elma only had a few cuts. The seriously wounded were mostly the younger members.
Once the treatment was done and things settled down, I asked Elma what happened. Apparently, they’d encountered eight Ice Spiders—a species not found around here. If it had been one or two, they might have handled it, but with eight of them, and most of the group being young, panic was inevitable.
An Ice Spider has a body about 1 meter long, but with its long legs, its overall size approaches 3 meters.
They shoot ice magic from their mouths and cold threads from their rears. They leap between trees, weave icy webs, and wrap people up in cold thread. You have to defend against their ice magic too, so it’s hard to respond properly. They must’ve gotten overwhelmed.
One Ice Spider is a C-rank threat. In a group, they’re considered B-rank.
Since the Ice Spiders hadn’t been defeated, there was still a chance they were nearby. Even with a barrier around the fort, having a powerful monster close by wasn’t comforting. So we decided to head to the area where the group had been attacked.
Just in case, I asked Atre if any Ice Spiders were nearby, and he said one was approaching the fort. Probably following the scent of blood.
“Atre, why didn’t you tell us sooner?” I complained.
He replied that with this group, it would be fine. In fact, he said, now we wouldn’t even have to go looking for it.
What kind of smug comment is that?
Atre had gotten a bit bigger, and he was better at magic than me, so he was reliable—but still, I needed some mental preparation...
When he told me I should hurry and tell everyone, I rushed off in a panic to do just that.
What do you think about this chapter?
