"My hair? What for?"
"Second instruction. From now on, don't ask pointless questions. Ah, Kria. I need yours too."
"Ah, okay."
Kria's action was swift.
In an instant, she tore out a lock of hair as if ripping it free and handed it to me.
Seigrena, on the other hand, hesitated until the last moment, then flinched at the sound of Woodmen scraping the tree, and only then plucked her hair.
"Gyaaah! My hair……!"
Can't she do something about that screaming? It drains the strength out of me every time I hear it.
"……Giving my hair to someone else, and a commoner at that. Is this really right?"
"D-don't worry. In situations like this, Kaindel's judgment has always been right……. Hmm. Mostly."
Even at Kria's words, Seigrena couldn't fully erase her doubtful look.
Ignoring her, I glared at the object I'd taken from my breast…… a doll.
Baldi's Cursed Doll
Those without intelligence cannot distinguish this from a person.
I tore open the bellies of the pair of dolls side by side, then stuffed Kria's and Seigrena's hair into each.
At that, the dolls trembled as if alive, and marks were branded on their foreheads too.
Hisssss—
A familiar mark. The brand of the sacrifice stamped on the nape of Kria's neck and the back of Seigrena's right hand.
"……"
The Woodmen that had closed to within arm's reach faltered. They began craning their heads this way and that, as if unsure whether to go that way or this. Just like a broken tin can.
"Why are they…… mmph!"
After clamping a hand over Seigrena's mouth as she tried to say something, I threw the dolls in my hand into the midst of the Woodmen.
"……!"
At that, the Woodmen's attention swung that way in an instant.
In a flash, every Woodman rushed over and roughly seized the dolls.
"……What on earth is that about?"
"Stay still. Don't move."
Two Woodmen kept climbing the tree with the dolls in hand.
Climbing even past us, each of them arrived at the spots where the fruits were.
THUNK!
"Hik."
Then the two dolls were skewered like kebabs on branches whose tips were unusually sharp.
"……"
Originally, that's how the sacrifices get impaled.
Meaning with bad luck they die instantly, and with good luck they bleed to death before long.
"Whew."
But the dolls being lodged on the branches meant we'd bought at least a minimum of time.
Because for the time being, at least, they'd treat those dolls as the 'sacrifices.'
Of course…….
['Baldi's Cursed Doll' activates.]
[Time Remaining: 0:29:59]
Not that we had that much leeway.
***
Before long, the Woodmen stopped moving.
They didn't vanish—they drove their root-legs into the ground beneath and dropped their heads.
"……"
A strange silence settled.
Right on cue, a chilly wind blew, and Seigrena's body trembled faintly too.
Kria, who'd been blankly watching the dolls skewered on the branches, opened her mouth.
"……They mistook those dolls for us?"
"Yes."
"Then is it solved with this, or……"
If only it were.
"It's only buying time. What really matters is from here on."
"I see……."
As we shared the situation briefly, Seigrena said.
"Wait a moment……. Aren't your voices too loud? Those things are still waiting down below."
"Trees have no ears."
"Huh?"
"Those things have nothing like hearing. If it's just talking, you can chatter as much as you like. As long as you don't shout, that is."
"I-is that so? Then can I sit for a bit—"
"Stop."
This brat, seriously…….
Seigrena, startled, read my face and then shouted right back.
"Wh-why, what now!"
"……Look down."
"Huh? Hiik……!"
Checking below, she nearly toppled over on the spot.
Because the Woodman group that had dropped their heads was all staring up at us as one.
"Wh-what? You said they couldn't hear just now……."
"They can't. A Woodman's only sensory organ is touch."
"Touch?"
"Those things have their roots down right now, don't they? Through those, they sense the vibrations transmitted to the ground."
"Ah."
Seigrena nodded as if she understood, then asked again.
"Then we have to stay still like this? You said those dolls were only buying time?"
"We just move slowly. Slowly enough for a snail to yawn."
So the problem was landing from up in this tree.
"Kria."
"Yeah."
"Can you use your spirit to land us one at a time?"
Kria thought for a moment, then answered.
"I think I can manage me and that person, but Kaindel would be difficult."
I suppose so.
My weight is probably half again heavier than theirs.
Sighing, I said.
"Then you two land first, and walk slowly toward the roots on the opposite side of the tree."
"Toward the roots? Not running away?"
"Run where? Even if we ran, completely shaking these things off is impossible. And now there's no more doll to offer in our place."
Kria fell silent for a moment, then abruptly muttered as if to herself.
"……I wonder if Kazen's side is all right."
Is this the time to worry about others?
The words rose to my throat, but.
"Who knows."
I couldn't know the situation over there either.
Of course, Laurent had known about <Wood Revenge>.
He might know some other trick for escaping this Calamity.
I shook my head.
Infuriating as it was, now was the time to set thoughts of Laurent aside for a while.
"Behind the roots, there should be a hole leading beneath the tree. You just need to get inside it. Then the Woodmen won't be able to follow any further."
"What about you, Kaindel?"
"I'll manage on my own, so go first."
Kria nodded, then summoned the Sylph.
First, Kria's body rose.
Her floating body soon drifted slowly downward like a fluttering feather.
"……"
Landing complete, without leaving so much as a sound.
Excellent control.
Next, Seigrena.
"Uwaaah……."
But this one was somehow precarious.
Unlike Kria, who'd floated stably, her body rotated as if drifting through some zero-gravity space.
At first she just spun left and right like a displayed artwork, but at some point she ended up in a state like a ball rolling up, down, left, and right.
"S-stop. I think I'm going to throw up…… urp."
"Relax your body……. The Sylph says you're hard to control……."
Kria said in a strained, squeezed-out voice.
When I looked closely, she was sweating profusely.
"R-relax? Easy for you to say……! If I'm defenseless and fall face-first, my neck could snap and I could die……!"
Her delusions were a bit excessive, but it wasn't something I couldn't sympathize with at all.
Entrusting your body entirely to someone else is harder than you'd think.
Either way, even I, just watching quietly, had my heart in my throat.
If she landed wrong like that, we'd be screwed……. Come to that, there'd be no operation or anything else.
Tok…….
At last Seigrena's feet touched the ground, and unlike with Kria, a faint landing sound rang out.
"……!"
The two of them, startled, surveyed the surroundings.
A nearby Woodman did twitch, but…….
"……"
Safe, just barely?
Letting out a sigh of relief too, I said.
"Good. Now move slowly. Understood? Absolutely no hurrying. Avoid the Woodmen…… bit by bit toward the opposite side of the tree……."
At my instructions, the two moved slowly.
It looked ridiculous, like watching slow motion, but those two might suffer muscle pain tomorrow. That's how extreme a state of tension they must have been in.
Fortunately, the tension seemed to draw up their concentration well too, and the two moved smoothly.
"Kaindel……."
Up to a certain point, that is.
The Woodman group was blocking the path leading behind the tree.
Like that, they could advance no further.
"Whew."
So that's the limit.
"When I count to three, run."
"Huh……?"
"One, two—"
Right after seeing the two hurriedly prepare to run, I leapt down from the tree.
"Three!"
THUUUD—the instant I completed the landing, the ground seemed to ripple.
It actually did.
Because the Woodmen that had driven their roots down all rose at once.
"Run!"
After shouting words that could have been meant for me or for those two, I ran too.
GROOOOOOO—!
The Woodman bastards immediately reached for me, but that was fine.
Because the majority were still ones with their legs jammed into the ground.
Meanwhile, I wove between the Woodmen, vaulting over the ones blocking my path and pressing forward by stepping on their heads and shoulders.
"Kaindel!"
The two had already safely reached the opposite side of the tree.
The destination was in sight too.
A pitch-dark entrance—
A tree-root cave leading down beneath the ground.
Somehow it looked far bigger and gloomier than when I'd seen it in the game.
"Jump in!"
"What? There's a foul smell here somehow…… uwaaah!"
After shoving Seigrena, spouting nonsense again, inside, I too leapt into the hole.
KRAAAAAAAK—!
I saw the grasping hands of the Woodman group that rushed in after us, but those things didn't dare enter the hole.
Of course not.
This isn't a place Woodmen can enter.
[You have discovered a hidden location.]
[The hidden map, <Corpse Pit>, has been opened.]
Fortunately, we'd somehow made it this far.
***
We walked through a damp place reeking of stench.
The temperature seemed to have dropped far more than before, and that probably wasn't my imagination.
"What on earth is this place……?"
At Seigrena's question, I told her the map's name.
"The Corpse Pit."
"Th-the Corpse Pit, you say?"
"Yes. Can't you see?"
At my words, Seigrena blinked both eyes as if trying to adjust to the dark—
"Hiik……!"
And only after checking the surroundings did she have a fit.
Well, of course. Rotting corpses lay strewn in every direction.
"Urrp……. This time I really think I'm going to throw up."
"Do it now, then."
"I-it's a figure of speech……. Anyway, what on earth are these corpses……?"
"Every corpse of someone who dies in the colony gets carried here. Only humans, though."
"They carry corpses? Why would they do something so disgusting?"
"Who knows. Probably to use as nutrients."
"N-nutrients……."
Seigrena's face went wan, and she followed behind me as I moved forward at a brisk pace.
"W-wait! Let's go together!"
"……"
This root cave was quite spacious, and if you met specific conditions, escaping <Wood Revenge> through here was possible too.
'Regrettably, meeting those conditions now would be impossible, though.'
So the way to use this place right now was the same as the strategy I'd used on the train.
I rummaged through the corpses lying around.
[You have acquired 'Torn Leather Gloves'.]
[You have acquired 'Rusted Forearm Shield'.]
[You have acquired 'Hole-Riddled Cloak'.]
"……What are you doing?"
"Can't you tell by looking? Taking anything usable. You look too."
"You want me to strip clothes off corpses?"
"What's wrong with that?"
"B-but if we don't show at least a minimum of respect to the dead, the wrath of the god Abel……"
Abel is the name of the supreme god worshipped by the Abel Church, the kingdom's state religion.
'So this girl's a religious type?'
Then her aversion was only natural, but…….
Unlike Seigrena, Kria moved nimbly.
"Kaindel. This tunic, can we use it?"
"Looks too big for you to wear."
"Ah…… you're right."
Come to think of it, this girl had seemed strangely free of aversion toward corpses when she saw the archer's body too.
"Ugh……."
In the end, Seigrena also joined the corpse looting, if only passively, by poking at the corpses.
Still, this was a far better farming spot than the train.
If luck was on our side somehow…….
[You have acquired 'Lower-Grade Ring of Protection'.]
Because you could get your hands on Rare-grade items like this.
It's natural lore-wise too. Equipment items are worthless to Woodmen, so they mostly get tossed into the Corpse Pit and left there.
Of course, the items you can salvage are random.
'The only thing immediately usable is the ring, I suppose.'
A bitter taste.
Because with good luck, you can sometimes get three or more.
Still, a <Lower-Grade Ring of Protection>'s value is quite excellent even among Rare items, so I'd have to take that as consolation.
Lower-Grade Ring of Protection
Grade: Rare
When you take damage beyond a certain threshold, the protective magic built into the ring activates.
▶ Uses: 3/5
Two uses had been shaved off, but not bad.
I slid the ring onto my finger right away.
Lower-grade or not, it was an artifact, and it was fascinating how the size adjusted itself.
"……"
And before long, I stopped walking again.
Because I'd found a familiar corpse.
A skeleton draped in a robe. The robe looked quite valuable, and in fact, the corpse's condition was astonishingly good.
The reason is simple.
Because that's a mage's corpse.
"……"
A mage's bones don't weather easily due to the influence of mana in life. Even exposed to the air, they can maintain that form for quite a long time.
That's why the bones of races like dragons are especially valuable, by the lore…… but that's not what matters now.
"Whew."
I ended up smacking my lips in regret.
I know who that corpse belonged to.
The <Pyromancer>, Karen Hogbal.
A mage who'd been quite promising even in the kingdom, killed by a companion's betrayal, by the lore.
Actually, the reason I visited the <Corpse Pit> in the game was never something as trivial as corpse farming.
'Seeing it in person, what a waste.'
If I had the aptitude of a <Necromancer>, an event would occur here where I'd encounter Karen's soul.
And depending on my choices, I'd be able to raise the Pyromancer's corpse.
'No help for it, I suppose.'
Obsessing over a method that won't work is meaningless.
Nothing to do now but think of other means.
Whoosh…….
That was the moment I heard the sound of flames flickering.
I faltered and looked again at the Pyromancer's skeleton I'd just passed.
"……"
Blue flames. A blue fire was burning.
That's the unique flame a Pyromancer wields.
And then—
-You, all…….
The blue flame soon became the faint form of a man.
-Can you…… see me……?
The Pyromancer's soul? How on earth?
Flustered, I examined the Pyromancer…….
And only then realized this soul's gaze wasn't directed at me.
"……!"
Where the Pyromancer's gaze pointed—
At its end, Kria stood frozen, her face gone past pale to bone-white.