In <FoS> too, the easiest means of raising your level is hunting.
Beat down monsters by whatever method, and your level rises.
If there's a difference from other games, it's that the time available for hunting is extremely limited?
That's because putting effort into hunting is fine, but if you get too absorbed in it, you can't secure time to explore.
"Mr. Kaindel."
"What."
"Until when did you say we have to keep this up?"
"A week."
"A-a week……."
A week.
The time I'd allotted to Woodman grinding.
It wasn't a figure I'd set without thinking. There was clear reasoning behind it, namely Seed farming.
The Seeds one Woodman drops come to roughly 500 or so.
Then to earn one million Seeds, we'd need to kill about 2,000 Woodmen……
And dividing that by seven gives the rough number we have to beat down per day.
'About 300.'
Once the target was set, we kept roaming the entrance, killing Woodmen wherever we found them.
This kind of repetitive hunting was fairly tedious in the game, but now that it was reality, that wasn't necessarily so.
"K-Kazen!"
"Aaaagh! Mr. Kaindel!"
Ones lurking sinisterly, unusually strong individuals, big ones, ones that moved even in the dead of night…….
There were almost no fights with the same flow, and every fight brought crises large and small.
Of course, it never reached the level of endangering our lives, but inwardly it felt like walking on thin ice.
Because we didn't have a single potion prepared.
"Ow."
"What's wrong? Are you hurt?"
"I-I got scratched by a branch."
"Use the antiseptic. Wrap it with a bandage too."
"It's just a light scratch, though?"
"……Just use it."
It's the era that it is.
Leave even a trivial wound alone and it could turn into tetanus, or with bad luck, spread into sepsis.
I'd actually lost a key companion once by dismissing an abrasion and leaving it be.
"How many was that……?"
"That last one made 155."
"O-only halfway……."
Judging by the groaning, he seemed to think the hunting tempo was fast.
'Such theatrics…….'
I was checking the two's stress levels in my own way and adjusting carefully.
Because if a mental illness debuff manifested from rushing, that would be the end. They couldn't even function as party members until returning to the Royal Capital for treatment.
[Level up.]
[Companion 'Kazen' has leveled up.]
[Companion 'Kria' has leveled up.]
For drinking water we used <Blueleaf>, and for food, we finished off what we'd taken from the train first.
Occasionally, when we found tree fruits, we made do with those.
Perhaps because it was the entrance, we sometimes spotted forest animals, but making them into food was difficult.
'To make proper food, you need the <Butchering>, <Dismantling>, and <Cooking> skills.'
It seemed like the skills might manifest after a few tries, but with even the daily quota being a grind, there was no room for that.
'Eating like this, we could end up with the <Malnutrition> status, though…….'
A week or so should be fine.
……Probably.
[Magic Beast 'Blade Weasel' has leveled up.]
The most fortunate thing was that there was almost no risk of being attacked while camping.
Thanks to the help of the nocturnal weasel.
The trade-off was that it became unusable in daytime fights, but compared to the benefit of securing safe sleeping hours, that was well worth bearing.
[Companion 'Kazen' has leveled up.]
[Companion 'Kria' has leveled up.]
The two's levels rose quickly. Their growth curve was certainly far steeper than mine or the Blade Weasel's.
'They'll rise fine up to around 20, roughly.'
Most things went smoothly, but not without problems.
'Mental fatigue.'
That's because physical fatigue can be shed quickly, but mental strength doesn't recover easily.
It's a place where a minimum of vigilance must be maintained at all times, so there's no help for it, though.
"I'm sorry! I missed!"
The more we repeated the hunting, the more I felt our movements and reaction speed growing sluggish.
Kazen, who had been killing at least one and as many as three with his ambush shots, began missing more often at some point, and the Sylph's speed at finding enemies slowed too.
Actually, it wasn't just the siblings—it was me too.
A strange feeling of stiffness in moving my body.
And so, the morning of the sixth day.
"Kazen. Get up."
"Ugh……. Just one more minute……."
"Enemies."
At the brief warning, Kazen sprang up.
"……"
You really do look a mess, huh.
Kazen's mug, which had once exuded a certain refinement, now looked like nothing but a vagrant's from any angle.
'Not that I'm one to talk?'
My appearance was probably no better than his.
Only natural, since we'd done nothing but repeat hunting and rest without even washing properly.
Still, it wasn't without gains. My level had become 19, Kazen and Kria 18, and the weasel 20.
'……Filthy slow to rise.'
Honestly, this pace in six days was tremendously fast, but since I was doing it with my own body now that it was reality, it felt strangely sluggish.
Only natural, since when <FoS> was a game, time ran dozens of times faster than reality, though.
'Seeds…… about 800,000 gathered by now, maybe?'
I'd only know for sure by visiting the shop, but the margin of error shouldn't be large.
At this pace, it looked like we'd fill one million Seeds by today at the earliest, or tomorrow morning at the latest, though.
"Uuuugh……."
As I watched Kazen make zombie noises, it seemed his mental strength was gradually reaching its limit.
[Stress: 67]
Cutting it close.
'No help for it, I suppose.'
Originally I'd wanted to secure one million Seeds…… comfortably 1.2 million, but losing a companion out of greed would defeat the purpose.
Counting the shortfall in Seeds as time gained instead, I opened my mouth.
"Let's stop the hunting here."
"Pardon? Is that all right?"
"Yes. You've worked hard."
"Ah……!"
Kazen's expression brightened instantly.
She didn't show it much, but Kria seemed the same.
"Then do we move on to another region now? Or do we begin exploration in earnest?"
Has he lost his mind?
As if there's any map in the Forest of Eternity safer than the <Woodman Colony>.
"……Well. Something like that."
Of course, hiding such a harsh truth from someone excited for the first time in a while seemed best.
"First of all, from now on we avoid combat as much as possible. Unavoidable cases can't be helped, of course."
I said this, but in the <Woodman Colony>, there'd hardly be any fighting if we could help it.
Woodmen are dull mobs.
They aren't non-aggressive monsters, but unless you approach quite close, they won't attack first.
'Same goes for camping.'
These things are generally docile at night.
Occasionally some do move, so you can't fully relax, but the frequency isn't high.
'I never did find out the reason for that.'
Being <FoS>, there might be some hidden lore or the like, but…….
Either way, the <Woodman Colony> is nothing but a map you briefly pass through in the early game.
Meaning it's not a zone of very high importance.
"Kria. I'd like to continue scouting the surroundings—would that be all right?"
"It's fine."
"Good. Then if you find any unusual discoveries other than enemies, tell me."
"Unusual? Specifically?"
"Fireflies that give off a red glow. A lizard with two tails. A squirrel with white fur. And……"
I recited in detail the characteristics of the major discoveries in the <Woodman Colony>.
For the remaining two days, let's secure the <Exploration Crystal>'s exploration rate.
***
[The discovery has been registered in the <Exploration Crystal>.]
⁝
[Current Exploration Rate: 17.3%]
***
"Mr. Kaindel, how many explorations is this for you?"
"……"
I wet my throat from the canteen, then answered Kazen's question.
"Same as you two."
"Pardon?"
"This is my first."
"R-really? No, more than that, how did you know it was our first……?"
"Wouldn't it be stranger not to know?"
"I-I suppose so?"
What's he so surprised about, honestly?
Ask a hundred people. They'd all give the same answer.
"……Setting us aside, it's surprising that this is your first exploration. Honestly, if it had been just Kria and me, we'd have died without lasting a day."
"……"
To be more precise, they'd have died without even entering the forest.
Because even having played <FoS> thousands of times, I'd never once heard the names Kazen and Kria.
"That's why I was certain you were a veteran Delver, Mr. Kaindel."
"Would a veteran Delver look like this? You should have a rough idea of what real Delvers are like to begin with."
"Pardon?"
"Your original party, I mean."
"Ah……."
Kazen replied with a slightly bitter expression.
"……That's true."
"Were you close?"
"Not really. We were bound by a contractual relationship to begin with."
"What kind of contract?"
"Pardon?"
Kazen faltered slightly.
His face looked like he'd made a slip of the tongue.
"That's……."
"If you don't want to say, forget it."
At times like this, it's best to back off first.
Prying by force would only lower trust anyway.
As written in the status window, he'd tell me himself once the relationship progressed.
"……Thank you."
"Anyway, it's an honor to have a mere stoker compared to a working Delver. I'm just well-versed in theory."
Not wrong.
Playing it as a game can't be called real experience.
"Where did you learn that theory?"
I gave the excuse I'd prepared in advance.
"I read books."
"Books?"
"Yes. In places like libraries, you can often find books about the <Forest of Eternity>."
"A library!"
Kazen's eyes went round.
"Which library was it? The <Natalin Royal Library>? Or the <Milliham University Library>? Ah! Wait. If it's about the forest, then surely the <Gulson Magic Library>?"
The names of famous libraries in the Royal Capital came tumbling out. Of course, with our current Renown, entering them wasn't even possible.
'What on earth is this guy?'
The university library or the magic library aside, the Royal Library is a place you can't get near with ordinary Renown.
Not an illegitimate child but an actual noble? Or is he just spouting things he's heard of?
"……You wouldn't know it even if I told you. It was just a nameless old bookshop."
"An old bookshop?"
"Yes. Surprisingly, there are a lot of hidden treasures in places like that."
That's true as well.
Old bookshops, general stores, or pawnshops. They're places where you can often get books with precious information dirt cheap, so whenever I go to the Royal Capital, I stop by if I can.
"Ohh……. I'd very much like to visit an old bookshop like that myself."
"Sure. When we return to the Royal Capital, let's stop by together."
"Wonderful!"
[Trust of 'Kazen' rises.]
What an easy guy.
Anyway, today makes the seventh day at last. According to my plan, it's about time to leave the <Woodman Colony>.
'Smooth so far.'
After I'd declared a halt to combat, we'd barely fought, and we'd gotten hold of a good many reasonably usable discoveries.
The <Exploration Crystal>'s exploration rate had passed 20% and was heading toward 30%.
But…….
'Something feels strangely off.'
An anxiety difficult to explain in words came over me.
<FoS> was always like this.
It hurls a giant turd at you the moment you're most off guard. That's why I don't let my guard down until I've fully left this region.
"Kaindel."
At Kria's words, I stopped walking.
"What is it?"
"There's something strange ahead."
A conversation similar to the ones before.
She'd often called me like this when she found something usable, or an enemy.
But.
"Strange how?"
Kria's voice being slightly stiff bothered me.
"……There's a tree with black bark. Really tall, and big. But there's not a single leaf on it,"
Fuck.
The curse nearly came out on its own.
"Fruit?"
"Huh……?"
"There should be fruit? How many are on it?"
"W-wait a moment."
Kria fell silent.
I waited anxiously.
One. Please, it has to be one.
"……Two."
"Goddamn."
Kria flinched, startled, and read my face, but right now I had no room to look after her.
Immediately raising my guard to the highest level, I said.
"Kazen. Kria. Enemies. Get ready."
"Pardon? D-didn't you say we'd avoid all combat from now on?"
"Yes. Combat we can avoid, that is."
Meaning this fight can't be avoided.
So pull yourselves together, you punks.
Because one wrong step, and we could all drop dead right here.