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Chapter 4 – How to Travel in the Great Sea of Trees
“–Well then, here’s today’s goal. Go to the herb patch. Collect the ingredients and make two kinds of medicine with them. If we find a monster — well, you’re right. If you think you can handle it, I’ll leave it to you, but if you can’t, I’ll avoid it.”
Rona said as she put a small herb-collecting bag over Clare’s shoulder and headed for the door with light steps, as if she was going for a walk in the area.
“…Monster… Can I use thread magic?”
She asked using ventriloquism. Clare expresses her emotions and self-expression through angles and gestures, even though the facial expressions of people and dolls do not change. It’s true that giving her a doll actually made communication with Clare much easier. It was amusing for Rona that Clare was more fluent and talked more when using ventriloquism with a doll.
“It’s your power. You can use it however you like at your own discretion. However, if you show your trump card or your last resort, you should think about what happens afterward.”
“I understand. I’ll think about how to show and discard my cards.”
Rona’s teaching was that if you miss a strong monster, it will be firmly remembered, and it will cause trouble later. Clare follows Rona, with the glow of magic in her hands.
The fence surrounding the hermitage is made of ordinary wood. However, the entire hermitage is surrounded by a strong barrier to ward off monsters, and it is like a castle wall in the sense that it separates the inside from the outside.
On the other hand, if you step outside the fence, you are already in the Great Sea of Trees. Clare must protect herself with the barriers and magic she has deployed. Rona had told her that.
“Well, today is my first time in the Great Sea of Trees. Follow me and imitate what I do.”
Rona deployed several spells and performed them on herself. Clare followed Rona and activated the same spell. After watching, she urged Clare to open the wooden gate.
Clare nodded, closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and opened it.
And then – the moment she stepped outside the barrier, she felt the change in the surrounding air.
It was the first time for Clare to lose her sense of direction even though she could see the scenery clearly, even in her previous life.
The path continued into the dense forest.
“Well then.”
“Anytime.”
Recalling the way of walking in the Great Sea of Trees that she had been told, Clare followed Rona. The bushes that had been blocking Rona’s path split into two to create a path. It was a forest walking technique. Clare is also using the same technique, although it’s meaningless since it overlaps with the previous one.
On the palms of both of them is a compass of light and a small dot. The needle indicates the direction. The dot of light indicates the direction of the hermitage, and its color indicates the distance from the hermitage. A normal compass is useless in the Great Sea of Trees, so this technique is used to determine the current location. However, Rona says that this technique is not necessary.
To avoid fighting monsters, a hidden barrier is also necessary.
There are several types of this. First, the recognition-blocking type, which makes it seem like there is nothing there.
This type is also known as a person-repelling technique. It makes people feel a vague sense of aversion or makes it difficult to pay attention.
If this is a strong monster-repelling technique like the one deployed around the hermitage, it will not only make people feel aversion, but even a sense of danger, driving them away.
There is also a mimicry type that makes the monster invisible, or covers them with illusions or hallucinations.
What Rona and Clare are currently deploying is a composite barrier centered on themselves.
It affects the recognition of objects outside the barrier, preventing them from noticing moving bushes as they move through the forest. It also silences sounds and smells, preventing their presence from being detected. Although it is a covert barrier technique, Clare, who is inside the barrier, can also see Rona.
It also has detection-type magic to avoid unexpected encounters with monsters.
These are not activated all the time, but once cast, they will be maintained according to the constructed program for a certain period of time.
All the spells used in this exploration have this nature, but while this reduces the burden on the caster, it may not be possible to respond to unexpected situations.
“Well, it’s for beginners walking through the sea of trees,” is what Rona says. Common sense is different, though.
So what happens when you’re a full-fledged user as Rona says… it’s a form of multiple activation of spells that can respond flexibly. Rona was actually able to do this. When a monster approaches that cannot be handled with the normal stealth barrier, it changes depending on the type and situation.
Clare can’t do that yet. No. It’s not impossible to reproduce the spell itself, but it would be difficult to do it while exploring because maintaining it would be too much work. Rona thinks that they won’t be heading deep into the forest, so that should be fine.
There aren’t that many valuable herbs in the shallower parts of the sea of trees. The deeper you go – the closer you get to the center, the stronger the magical energy becomes, and it becomes easier to obtain valuable materials, but the danger increases accordingly.
However, today’s goal is to practice gathering materials.
As they head in the direction of the herb colony, Rona points out with her Wand what they might find along the way, as if it were the most natural thing to do.
“Your detection system is also picking up small magical energy. Now that you understand how it reacts, you’ll find and collect it next time.”
“Yes. It’s a small reaction, so you might miss it if you’re not careful.”
“Well, you’ll just have to get used to it.”
This is one of the reasons why Clare can’t explore without a beginner’s magic set. If you’re too busy maintaining your magic formula, you won’t be able to detect the reaction of small materials.
Medicinal herbs and mushrooms. Small animals like insects and lizards. Clare collects them.
Rona closely supervises to make sure she’s not collecting them incorrectly.
For example, some of the medicinal herbs that are used to make wound medicines often grow wild and are mixed with poisonous plants that have similar characteristics, so to tell them apart, you need to dig up the roots and carefully check their shape.
Clare and Rona quietly make their way through the Great Sea of Trees. Occasionally, the compass detects a strong magical reaction, and Clare’s expression becomes tense, but Rona responds by stopping or slightly changing her direction with a nonchalant look.
The monsters detected are too much for Clare to handle. Or perhaps she judges that there is no margin of safety. From Clare’s point of view, Rona seems much stronger than the monsters she has detected so far, but if she were to hunt them herself, it would be a different story.
–And they safely arrived at the herb patch. Combined with the materials they had collected along the way, they estimated they would have enough for the compounding.
Clare collected some herbs and told Rona that they were done.
“Hmm. Well, I guess so far it’s passable. Not only the collecting, but also the walking.”
“Walking?”
She had learned how to walk, but with Rona as an example, Clare wonders if that would be an evaluation point, and she looks puzzled–or rather, tilts her head to show that she is in doubt. The doll tilted its head to the side.
“You sensed the monsters and understood the difference in their strength, right?”
“Yes. I felt that Rona’s way of bypassing them was a good example, just like she learned it.”
“That’s right. You probably can’t connect the monster’s magical reaction to its type, but you can check it out when you think you can hunt it. I’ve already taught you about its appearance and how to deal with it.”
“If it looks dangerous or troublesome, there’s no need to fight it, right?”
“Neither you nor I are soldiers. If you don’t absolutely need materials right now, you can hunt whoever you can. …So, this way.”
After saying that, Rona pointed in the direction of the Great Sea of Trees and grinned.
“There’s something up ahead that even you can defeat. Now that I’ve found it, I’m going to hunt it. Are you ready?”
“…Yup. This is my first real battle.”
Even though we use the same magic, Rona’s detection range is wider than Clare’s. Rona stopped and changed direction after Clare had properly detected the monster and understood the difference in their strength.
Then, together with Rona, they moved in the direction of the monster.
After moving forward a little, Clare’s detection range also picked up a monster-like reaction. When Clare reacted with a twitch, Rona asked.
“It seems to be in the detection range. What can you read?”
“They’re on the tree. And there are several of them. They’re moving like they’re jumping from branch to branch… and they seem to be moving towards us.”
He nodded to Clare’s answer, saying “That’s enough.”
“It’s a monster I’ve already told you about. I won’t touch you, so hunt it by yourself.”
“I understand.”
Clare’s eyes half-closed as she answered Rona briefly.
Being able to detect the monster first while hiding yourself with a hidden barrier also means that you can prepare for battle before you come into contact.
If the monster is coming towards you, you can wait and hunt. The situation was in Clare’s favor.
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