The next day, Neon and I immediately set out for Mount Semen. We climbed steadily while questioning Metis and avoiding monsters. Mount Semen was a lush mountain covered in trees.
Neither of us had much stamina, so even without the monsters, the climb was grueling.
“We should be approaching the white mushroom colony now—which means we’re near the gang-pteranodon nest. Keep watch for them at all times.”
Neon’s tension was obvious now that we were close to the nest.
We had prepared for all sorts of unexpected situations. Surely we would be all right.
“Yes. I know.”
‘Metis, are there any gang pteranodons near the colony?’
‘No.’
‘Will they return within an hour?’
‘No.’
‘Will they return within five hours?’
‘Yes.’
After questioning her in more detail, I determined that they would apparently return to the nest in roughly three hours.
“Neon, it seems the pteranodons will be away for about three hours. Let’s search until then.”
“Understood.”
At last, we reached the white mushroom colony at the summit of Mount Semen.
White mushrooms blanketed the ground as far as the eye could see. It looked as though a white carpet had been spread across the mountain. Nothing but white mushrooms was visible for several kilometers. I knew it was dangerous, yet the strange scenery appealed to me.
“It certainly is an amazing sight, but let’s start looking.”
“Just as we planned.”
Normally, finding one mushroom among ten thousand would be impossible. But with my Metis—and the strategy I had already devised—it could be done.
Together, we used sickles to draw lines through the mushroom-covered ground, forming a square roughly ten meters on each side.
‘Is there a white opal mushroom inside this boundary?’
‘Yes.’
Bingo on the first attempt. An excellent start.
“There’s one inside. Divide the square in half.”
“Got it!”
Neon drew a line splitting the square into two rectangles. I moved to one of them.
‘Is there a white opal mushroom inside this boundary?’
‘No.’
If it wasn’t in this rectangle, then it had to be inside the other one.
“Neon, it doesn’t seem to be here. Divide the other half again!”
She split the other rectangle in two, producing a pair of squares, each one-quarter the size of the original.
‘Is there a white opal mushroom inside this boundary?’
‘Yes.’
In this way, we repeatedly narrowed the location of the white opal mushroom by half. Eventually, we reduced the candidates to about ten mushrooms.
All that remained was to check them one by one.
‘Is this a white opal mushroom?’
‘No.’
‘Is this a white opal mushroom?’
‘No.’
‘Is this a white opal mushroom?’
‘No.’
‘Is this a white opal mushroom?’
‘No.’
‘Is this a white opal mushroom?’
‘Yes.’
Finally!
“Neon, I found it! A white opal mushroom!”
I excitedly held the mushroom overhead. When Neon saw it, her face crumpled into a broad smile.
“We did it! Now we’re comfortably well-off!”
Neon leaped for joy. The fact that she said “comfortably well-off” instead of “rich” made the moment feel rather realistic.
“We still have time. Let’s keep looking!”
“Leave it to me!”
Our excitement grew a little excessive, but we threw ourselves into gathering white opal mushrooms. By the time we found the fourth, more than two and a half hours had passed.
“Four of them will bring us 2,000,000 G… Hee hee.”
Neon grinned at the white opal mushrooms. That amounted to two hundred silver coins—an enormous sum for paupers like us.
We still had a little time. What should we do?
As I considered our next move, I heard the sound of something trampling the earth behind us.