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Chapter 5 – First Hunt
She took a deep breath and poured the magic power she had been working up inside her into her hands. A pale blue glow appeared in Clare’s crossed hands. Lily, the girl doll she usually holds dear, lowered to the ground and prepared for battle with Clare.
When she had enough magic power, Clare swung her arms and cast a spell in all directions. Fine lines of light spread all over the tree, then the light faded and disappeared as if it had vanished.
Threads of magic. It was Clare’s unique magic.
She stretched out her crossed arms as if lifting them into the air, her fingers spread, and stopped moving, waiting for the right moment. And then…
The sound of rustling branches was approaching. So was the cry of an animal.
They were jumping from branch to branch, a flock of white monkey monsters. They had shining red eyes, sharp fangs and claws, and were a species of monster called Blood Apes.
They move in groups and are warlike in nature. When they find prey, they hunt by attacking from the trees in groups. They are dangerous monsters that can cause great damage to humans and livestock in small settlements such as villages.
Although their individual strength is not that great, they are a troublesome opponent in the environment of the Great Sea of Trees.
Normally, a child like Clare would not encounter them in the forest and be saved by them. Fighting them is out of the question.
They are within visible distance. But Clare does not move. She takes a slow, deep breath. She waits, looking up at the group of monkeys approaching without seeing anything clearly, as if they are looking into the distance.
“…Not yet. Just a little longer.”
And then the time comes.
“–Here.”
Clare says quietly, grabbing both of her raised arms and swinging them down at the same time. At that moment.
Arrows of light were fired at the group of monkeys from all directions. One of the variations of the thread magic that she developed with Rona based on Clare’s idea. It’s a [string bow].
It changes the properties of the string to form a hard part. This is used as a pseudo-arrow, and the string stretched between the trees. After that, the string is manipulated to tighten and release at the appropriate time.
Countless screams were heard all over the trees. The monkeys had practically jumped into a group of archers who had been waiting with bated breath.
Crossfire. But it wasn’t a method of precise aim for each individual. Most of the group were pierced by the arrows of light and died, but two missed the shot and three escaped death.
The survivors howled at the sudden attack and looked around. Once they realized they were under attack, the effect of the hidden barrier on the monkeys was limited.
They immediately recognized the girl standing near the bushes and rushed towards her without hesitation.
For Clare, this development was within the realm of expectation. She stretched her hand out in a different direction, bent her index finger, and with that movement, she and the doll flew into the air.
There was no preparatory movement at all. It was an extremely unnatural movement. Even the agile monkeys were unable to predict it and couldn’t keep up.
The strings that were stretched all over the place were magic. The connected trees were manipulated as if they were dolls, and the trees themselves pulled Clare, which was the source of the movement.
Clare flew into the air, avoiding the branches in her path, and stood above the monkeys, glaring down below.
The monkeys were attacking where Clare had been, jumping from the branches. In other words, they were still in the air and defenseless. She had used herself as a decoy to lure them back into the kill zone. At that moment. The monkeys’ faces showed clear shock, and fear of death, having already seen the fate of their comrades. But Clare didn’t hesitate. I won’t do that if I’m on the battlefield.
“It’s over. Become my food.”
Clare grabbed her raised hand, and arrows of light rained down on the space again.
A second crossfire. The Blood Apes who survived the first attack were wiped out without even being able to scream.
Clare floated in the air, used her detection magic to check if there were any surviving monkeys, then reinforced the hidden barrier again and descended to the ground.
After seeing that, Rona, who had been invisible, appeared and nodded quietly.
“You’re a Blood Ape, right?”
“Yeah. That’s pretty good for your first real battle. I thought there would be no problem with our compatibility, but when we got there, there was no danger. Well done.”
If someone saw the hunting scene and heard their conversation, they would be shocked to learn that Clare was only about 10 years old.
Even though she was in a favorable position to hunt, her use of magic, the magical power she possessed, and the lethality of her spells were far beyond the level of an average apprentice magician of her age.
Moreover, Clare is still developing. Her ability to use various practical spells without chanting makes her seem like an experienced magician, but her unique magic doesn’t require chanting in the first place. Clare had always had a knack for that.
As for Rona’s opinion, there were some concerns, but she didn’t think there was any problem with her ability.
As long as she didn’t flinch in a real fight or stop fighting out of temper, allowing a counterattack, there wouldn’t be a problem. That’s why she taught her the mindset for hunting and fighting, how to switch between them, and how to concentrate, and explained the necessity of doing so that such things wouldn’t happen.
Fortunately, Clare had already experienced situations where she couldn’t tolerate such mistakes, as she had shown her skills to others. Clare’s high mental age, which allows her to understand the meaning of these teachings, makes it easy for Rona to teach her.
The rest is just a matter of how to apply what she learned on stage to a battle scene.
“Ah… I was nervous.”
Clare said without changing her expression or moving her mouth. It was the doll that patted her chest. It was Clare’s skill that made the doll look relieved.
“Your concentration and ability to change your mood during the performance were impressive. A moderate amount of tension is also necessary for concentration. Well then, let’s get the materials from the monkeys and go home.”
“Understood.”
The doll nodded its head and began to work on collecting materials.
Magic threads stretched out from Clare’s fingertips and connected to trees and bushes here and there, and they began to move like people, efficiently carrying out the work of skinning here and there.
Being able to make improvised weapons or human hands using the surrounding environment, such as trees and earth, is a convenient and powerful unique magic.
Clare herself has already learned how to skin the monsters Rona has hunted, so she is used to it.
“I’ll accompany you to the Great Sea of Trees a few more times, but once you get used to it, I’ll let you go alone to gather materials and hunt in the Great Sea of Trees.”
“That’s something I’ve been warning you about for a long time.”
It’s also something that Rona has declared as a future story. Perhaps because Clare has also experienced the Great Sea of Trees once, the doll nodded vigorously in response, as if it was more prepared.
“Yeah. But this one’s just in case. Take it.”
And with that, Rona lightly tossed Clare something… a pendant with some kind of black glassy stone set in it. Clare didn’t know what it was, but she could sense that it contained strong magical power.
“What is this?”
“It’s like a charm. It’s something that will help you out when you’re in a situation that you can’t handle on your own.”
“Hmm… Thank you, Rona.”
Not ventriloquizing… Clare said this with her own mouth, carefully holding the pendant.
“…Well, if you gain some more experience, it shouldn’t be a problem. I’ll say it again, don’t go near the interior.”
“The interior is… a domain lord, isn’t it?”
“That’s right. It depends on the personality, but even if you don’t enter their territory, if they sense you, they may attack you as a hunt.”
“Okay. If they sense you, I’ll hide and run away while keeping my distance.”
“That’s fine. That’s because of their enormous magical power. They’ll wake you up even if they’re deep asleep.”
Domain lord. A general term for particularly powerful monsters that had been confirmed in the interior of the Great Sea of Trees. They are lords who reshape the environment around their territory and hide there.
The area, called the realm, has not only changed slightly, but has changed so much that it can be called another world.
Since only a few people have entered and returned alive, many details are unknown, but the environment and magical power have changed enough that it is at least obvious to those on the outside. That’s why, according to Rona, there is no chance of anyone accidentally getting lost or approaching it.
Of course, Clare has no intention of going out of her way to get close to those places.
She is learning various skills such as potion making, alchemy, fortune-telling, and rainmaking. She has no reason to enter dangerous areas in the hope of getting rich overnight, and she is not the type of person who would enter such places out of a desire for fame.
For now, her hobbies and pastimes are limited to making and playing with dolls. She does think it would be nice to show them to people other than Rona so that they could enjoy them, but it’s not something that is connected to the Great Sea of Trees.
Other than that – there are things she wants to protect and things she would like to cherish.
While Clare was working, reminiscing about the past, the work of collecting materials was finished. After burying the remains in the ground to prevent them from attracting monsters, the two returned to the hermitage.
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