DAY 18: MORNING

DAY 18

MORNING

Why couldn’t he understand? There must be a language barrier here.

THE CAMPSITE

IN FRONT OF THE TENT

 

UNFORTUNATELY, I hadn’t acquired either Flight or Missile Launch skills. On the upside, I didn’t get Stall or Crash Landing.

Everyone dithered in the morning, going to the river to rinse their faces when they finally got out of bed. We had fish for breakfast. I savored it while I still had the chance. I didn’t want to leave the river and go back to eating nothing but mushrooms.

We finally made it out of the forest. Everyone was thrilled to get this far. We could scout easier out here, but all the hills still made it difficult to spot things in the distance. The hills blocked Clairvoyance, too.

Should I send myself flying again? It was pretty fun, after all, even if I couldn’t really call it flying if I plummeted to the ground at the end. If only I could find a way of not falling down. Even if I didn’t stall out on my first flight, I still would’ve crash landed in the end. But I wanted to learn to fly, not land!

Even in a thousand years, human beings would never be able to fly. Fantasy worlds should let us break those rules!

Okay, there had to be a way to pull off a safe landing. Learning an actual flight skill would’ve been great, but even that probably wouldn’t let me land safely. I considered my options while reviewing my stats.

Walking, Movement, and Weight magic helped me take off, and I used Packing and Magic Infusion to land. Flight was a type of movement, so Movement might give my flying a boost—maybe I needed to keep using Movement Magic after I took off? I could soften my landing with Wind Magic, and then I should be able to keep my landing stable?

Now that I thought of it, what about using Wind Magic while in midair? Now that was flight!

“Hey! Hellooo. Haruka-kun, listen to me!”

Huh? Am I already flying? Could those be the dulcet tones of the Galactic Fairy?

“Did you even hear a word I said?”

Whoa, she startled the crap out of me! The Class Rep sounded just like Sheryl Nome from Macross Frontier!

“Don’t you hear the strange sounds over there?” she continued. “Can you check it out with Clairvoyance…like I’ve been asking this entire time?”

“Sure, just a second. Whoa, I think some people are being attacked by monsters! A bunch of old men in armor, archers, and magic users. Six humans total!”

“Do you think they’ll be fine?” she said. “Are they winning?” The Class Rep was visibly worried about the old men. I regarded them with trepidation. Just because they were being attacked by monsters didn’t mean they were necessarily friendly.

If they were thieves, they might turn around and rob us after we saved them. I was worried about the girls. Despite the dangers, they kicked the delinquents out instead of killing them. Naturally, those delinquents retaliated and chased the nerds off. The Class Rep and her friends were too quick to forgive villains.

That was the main reason I was accompanying them to town: humans are more dangerous than monsters.

“Haruka-kun and anyone fast, let’s go help them!”

“We won’t make it in time from here. Besides, what will we do if they’re bandits or thieves?”

From what I could see, there was an armored old man, a sword user, a spear user, a long-haired archer taking cover behind a carriage, a hooded mage, and one other. They looked respectable on the surface, but who could say what they were really like? In fact, we shouldn’t trust them precisely because they looked too trustworthy. There was no reason to help them.

The monsters attacking them resembled wolves or dogs—they weren’t dog-headed humanoids like the kobolds but creatures we hadn’t seen before. There were thirty of the beasts, and they moved like they were using Pack Tactics. If the men dropped their guards for a moment, they’d be torn to shreds. Even if our fastest members charged straight into battle, the humans were still brutally outnumbered.

“If they try to hurt any of us, I’ll take them out myself,” the Class Rep said. “But we don’t know that they’re evil, so I still want to help them. We can’t do it by ourselves, so please help us!”

I figured she’d say that. Heading to town would be pointless if she couldn’t trust anyone she met. That was why I wanted to avoid people altogether—I’d rather err on the side of trusting people less.

Her reasoning seemed a bit naive to me, but she was also resolved to do this. I didn’t know how things would turn out, but I figured we’d be fine as long as we learned from any mistakes we made. That’s why I’m here, after all.

“Fine, I’ll help, too,” I said. “Just be on guard at all times.”

“Of course. We’ll stay safe!”

There was no way I could make it in time if I ran normally. Honestly, it was a toss-up whether I’d reach them even if I used my quartet of Movement, Walking, Magic Infusion, and Weight magic.

As I ran, I used Magic Infusion to strengthen my body and Weight Magic to lighten myself. I applied Movement and Wind magic and aimed at the sky. Yesterday this felt like shooting myself into the sky, but it was really more like running through the air.

It all happened in a flash. The scene that I had been watching with Clairvoyance appeared faster than I could blink. Oh crap, I can’t stop! I slowed myself by crashing through a dozen wolves, sending them flying, getting tangled up, tumbling, smashing into wolf after wolf and scattering them wildly. Why haven’t I figured out how to actually stop safely?

“You folks okay?” I called.

“Are—are you okay?!” they cried.

They seemed to be unhurt. The wolves weren’t so lucky, though—over half were out of commission.

An unfortunate traffic accident, I thought.

I hadn’t been able to see the attack from where I started, yet I covered the distance there instantly. My speed must’ve been in the thousands of meters per second—making a conservative estimate, I’d covered around five miles in ten seconds. That meant I flew faster than two thousand miles per hour—way beyond the speed of sound. Shouldn’t I have made a sonic boom?

No wonder the wolves died when I collided with them. The ones I directly ran into blew up like gory fireworks. This caused a chain reaction, as their flailing body parts still had enough momentum to kill yet other wolves. Though those other wolves also burst, their bodies didn’t quite kill the few wolves remaining. Maybe I did cause a sonic boom? A cloud of dust billowed out around me.

I blew it away with Wind Magic and walked over to the old guys.

“Are you folks injured? Need a potion? It’s mushroom-flavored, unfortunately.”

They appeared unhurt. I lost more health than any of them… That’s what I got for causing such a gruesome pileup.

I took a reluctant swig of the mushroom potion myself. Disgusting.

The old man with a sword was the first to speak.

“Please, allow us to give our thanks. You saved us. We were on the verge of destruction. My name is Ofter, and I’m the leader of this party. Thank you for saving me and my comrades.”

“Thanks a bunch, kiddo,” the fighter with a spear said. “I thought that was curtains for us. You’re headed to Omui City, ain’tcha? I can thank you all proper-like once you get there. Name’s Gatek. I’ll buy you a pint in town.”

The men bowed and thanked me. They were all armored, and three of the rear guard were behind the carriage, healing. The two men who had come to greet me went to check on them.

So there really is a town. Ennui City? Whatever the name was, these folks must’ve come from there. I lacked the conversational skills to gather any more intel from them, so I just kept my mouth shut. The girls were probably much more capable of gathering useful info.

Speaking of which, they were running toward us, but they were still a long way off. Hang on…even without Clairvoyance…I can still see them bouncing?! The Class Rep can glare at me from this distance, too! The warriors called me over to continue the conversation.

Apart from the two old guys, the rest were young women. One of them looked like a European supermodel even in full plate armor. When the archer turned around, I realized she was an elf.

“The Adventurers’ Guild put up a bounty for the Greenwolf Clan, since they’d been attacking traveling merchants. The official listing said there were only six to eight beasts, not more than thirty. We would’ve definitely been killed.”

“One of them was a Dire Greenwolf, too. Look, the first one that burst.”

“A Dire Greenwolf? The hell was the guild thinking?!”

The spearman was incensed. That made sense; the guild’s bad information had almost gotten them killed.

Their carriage was broken, its wheels torn from their axles. Their horse was dead. We righted the carriage, but it had to be abandoned in the end.

“We’d planned to use that carriage as a barrier, but we didn’t imagine that we would cross paths with a Dire Greenwolf! Damn that beast!” the swordsman said.

The brusque warrior, What’s-His-Name, said, “Damn, it’s a total mess. Ain’t no way I can pay off my bar tab after today!”

In the end, the six divided up the carriage’s supplies to haul back to town. I didn’t want to reveal my Bag of Holding to strangers, so I simply watched in silence.

I was pretty bored, so I grilled some stamina mushroom skewers and handed them out. Even if they weren’t heavily injured, they had probably still taken some damage, and at the very least they were exhausted. They relished the mushrooms and eagerly shared their thoughts.

“Oh man, that’s the good stuff!”

Uh, are these mushrooms legal?

“Delicious! Stamina mushrooms, huh? Those are worth a pretty penny, y’know. Thanks for sharing ’em, kid!”

“Wait a second—it really is restoring my health! Wow, they really are HP mushrooms!”

“Stamina mushrooms?! Unbelievable! I feel better already. You already saved our lives, and now you’re feeding us—I don’t know what else to say. Thank you.”

I was surprised by all the fuss over the mushrooms. Were they really that valuable? The forest was overflowing with the things.

Seeing the young women relax and enjoy the food, I felt increasingly jealous of their male companions. Just have to get rid of the guys! The women probably don’t like them anyw—

“Haruka-kun! Wait a second! What are you doing?” cried the Class Rep. “You looked like you were about to attack! Why are you glaring at Ofter and Gatek?”

Why am I in trouble? I don’t know an Ofter or a Gatek! Of course, the Queen of Glares knew why I was scowling immediately. I expected nothing less from someone with that title!

“Oh, you finally made it. Good hustle.”

“No, we’ve been here for a little while now. We were just busy keeping watch.”

Oh, that’s right, she was keeping an eye on the group behind me. How did I forget? I felt waves of murderous intent emanate from her when one of the armored supermodels affectionately squeezed my hand in thanks. Glaring at a stranger, the Class Rep was definitely looking out for me. Wait…did she stare daggers at me by mistake? That’s ridiculous, must be my imagination.

Once the rest of the girls caught up, we resumed our journey. Before too long, the town lay before us, bordering the river exactly as the nerds predicted.

Omui City. I’m never going to remember that name. I’d probably forget it long before we got there.

I’d forgotten the names of the old guys almost immediately, so there was no point even trying on that front.

The armored girl’s name was Akemi, but she told us her friends called her Kemi or Ami. She worked at a little pub in town. I want to go! Do they let high schoolers into bars in a fantasy world?

The elf was known as Kirikiru. When the girls saw her, they babbled excitedly: “Oh my god, she’s so beautiful! She’s a real elf! A living work of art!”

Akemi was pretty popular among the girls, too. Vice Rep C said to her, “Oh! So dashing…please shake my hand!” What was it about that aloof, androgynous style that got some girls so excited?

The other two women were Iyebgyiek the Mage and Guventié the Bishop.

They were both more cute than beautiful, but I was too anxious to talk to them at all. They’re way out of my league even if I could remember those names, let alone pronounce them. Even their own party members referred to them by the nicknames Eb and Ti.

The women mingled with the other girls as we walked. Meanwhile, I was stuck keeping the two old guys company. Twenty-four beautiful girls and I’m stuck with two stinking geezers? How unfair is that?!

Nonetheless, I tried to make conversation. “Your companions have some pretty unique names. They must be tough to remember, right?”

What is that sensation?

I felt the baleful gaze of twenty pairs of eyes stabbing into my back. When I turned around, the intensity of their contempt almost did me in.