chapter 21
21. Hunting requires preparation (4)
“…It’s an unusual armor.”
“Is it strange?”
“What golem? Alchemists seem to like it when they see it.”
It’s a pity that I can’t see it because I don’t have a mirror. I couldn’t be this sad that I couldn’t see myself. I think it looks pretty cool, like the fancy heavy armor from a game I played a long time ago. The deer antlers, or horns, are also attached to the helmet, and the tree bark is well processed, so it does not look shabby and crude, but has a design like a knight wearing heavy rust-colored gloves.
“But can I move while wearing it?”
“No problem.”
Although it looks heavy, it is lighter than expected. If I made it into a real full plate level, I would have collapsed from exhaustion while walking. I’m not the one who made the armor without considering that. Because I’ve made something similar before. At that time, I didn’t even consider my corrupt body condition, I fell in love with skill pong and almost ended up wearing it, but now I’m different.
“Can you fight? It must be very uncomfortable to fight wearing that.”
“It’s okay. There are ways.”
This isn’t the first time I’ve made armor like this. Of course, I have prepared some means to use on my own.
Anyway, now I have to wear Lenny too.
“Come here. You should wear them too.”
“That looks really hot… Whoops. I can’t help it.”
“Take off that half-dented armor.”
That’s enough to stop me, and if I get hit, I’ll get hurt even more. Lenny followed my words and threw off the cumbersome armor. When the armor that covered Lenny’s body disappeared, Lenny’s well-trained body was revealed.
Well, it’s not easy this way either… It’s not like Karina’s prominent big breasts, but the slightly exposed belly and faintly exposed six-pack and healthy tanned skin were quite attractive. Literally, she is a beauty full of health. Is it because the bloody image of the game still comes to mind?
“What are you staring at so intently! Put it on quickly!”
“…Stand still for a moment.”
You should check the size. To check the activity of her armor, I circled around her and examined her body. Roughly 1/3 of the ingredients seemed to be less. Lenny’s strength is much stronger than mine, so if it’s possible, she can make it a bit thicker.
I went over Lenny’s body, refining the drawing over and over again in my head. Lenny was trembling as she had taken off her armor. Was it because it was cold? Other than that, the weather here stays above 20 degrees all year round. I need to quickly make armor and put it on.
“Open her arms. Until it is square.”
“Like this?”
Lenny spread her arms as if measuring her waistline and looked at me with a somewhat uneasy look. What is the problem? I’m not sure.
I just have to do something.
“Production.”
The necessary materials are brought to me. It was fortunate that I didn’t have to exert any effort at times like this. The materials slowly began to take shape as I had designed in my head. It is lined with leather, put bones over it, and covered with bark over it. The armor, which was made after about a minute, appeared in front of me with a green light.
“Not bad.”
“Isn’t this stuffy?”
“What is frustrating?”
“…A bit of a chest.”
“Okay. Repair.”
This should be enough. I looked down at Lenny in the little golem…Or rather, the armor. Contrary to what I thought in my head, I couldn’t help but sigh at the appearance that really reminded me of a golem.
Is it a small bone or a large bone?
Is this my only aesthetic sense?
“…Why are you drooping? I have to go scouting!”
“…I got it.”
I nodded weakly.
————————
“Ah, the smell is terrible. I think it’s more poisonous than the smell of sulfur…”
Lenny grumbled and ran across her puddle. Fortunately, the armor I made withstood the poison in the puddle. I followed her and looked around.
It’s still.
Why is it quiet?
It bothers me that it is still, even though I have entered the most dangerous part of this forest. Are all the snakes… Dead? Or maybe not. I don’t want to have such an ominous imagination. Because that’s the worst possible outcome. This means that the level of difficulty increases unnecessarily. I tried to turn my head away from my thoughts and focus on reconnaissance.
But the snake didn’t even poke its nose until we passed the fifth puddle.
What is it?
“Are there really snakes here? I don’t see anything alive, let alone a snake.”
“…The snakes should come out at this point.”
Even if all the other snakes have melted away, why is the hydra so quiet? He’s not the kind of guy who would ever like to have uninvited guests on his territory. Is he tired of stopping the zombies too? Or is there another reason? There were too few clues to judge. This all-purple forest was frighteningly quiet.
It was a time when I couldn’t even guess how much I had walked.
Lenny and I stopped almost simultaneously and looked at each other. All he could see was his slightly exposed eyes, but he seemed to know what he was trying to say.
Hiss-
Shik-
We quietly raised our arms. An eerie sound of friction spread through the quiet forest. It was clear what the source of the sound was.
Due to the helmet covering the face, the angle of view was narrowed, so there was little information that could be obtained visually, but the hearing, which became extremely sensitive, caught the sound once again.
Sweat soaks into the leather covering his hands. It’s unpleasant, but that wasn’t the problem now.
That sound.
The sound of those reptiles sharpens my nerves. They must be aiming for us somewhere. It is a certainty, not a doubt.
You have to kill it.
Listen carefully.
My heart beats. The sound is getting closer. The selection time is short.
Where will it come out?
Left? Right?
Both sides are heard alternately. That means…
“Lenny. Take the left.”
I swung the shovel to the right. Immediately, a heavy shock was transmitted to his hand. My shovel is stained with snake fluid and blood. A terrible stench squeezed through the helmet and entered my nostrils. Pain. But you have to be patient
You can’t just throw away your life because of the smell. As always, I aimed for the snake that was running towards me with a familiar motion. Despite the half of its mouth being cut off, the snake, about the size of an adult man, was slowly approaching, ignoring the mouth that was torn by the blade of a shovel to eat me.
I wondered why these snakes are so quiet…
“A snake zombie. The end of the world.”
“It’s the first time I’ve ever seen a snake become a zombie.”
It rips open the jaws of the rotten snake, whose mouth has been ripped apart to make it look hideous. The pressure on the shovel eased a bit as I tore open my mouth to the point where I wondered if my facial muscles were working properly. I removed one hand from the shovel I was holding in both hands and placed my hand on the snake’s nose.
“Production.”
The snake’s forehead was pierced by the sharpened bear bone. The snake zombie, spurting purple blood and losing its strength, lay on the ground as I removed the shovel and kicked it with his foot.
Fortunately, you succeeded in piercing the brain with one shot.
“Deconstruction.”
As expected, it’s good that you brought the boss’s bones. The bones are strong, so the effect is awesome. I returned the bone awl that was decorated around my wrist to its original state.
Looking back, Lenny was in the middle of blowing off the snake’s head and brushing the blood off his sword.
“He’s so big.”
“…That’s only you.”
“Anyone who has been appointed a knight will be able to do this. Ah, it would have been a warm meal for the ignorant youngsters.”
The knights are scary. To cut the neck of a guy who seemed to be 5 meters long with a single knife.
Okay. I’ll have to check it out once in a while.
I lifted the snake’s half-melted head from the poison pool. It was a terrible visual that I was afraid to appear in my dreams, but I have to do what I have to do. I carefully rotated the snake’s head and observed it.
“You’re quite young.”
“This?”
“Some adults are close to 20 meters long.”
The snakes here only eat rabbits, but they are filthy big. I think most of them are probably dead…But if there’s one alive or they’ve turned into zombies, it’ll be very annoying.
“It’s a zombie snake…It must be very annoying.”
“What are you going to do? Return here? Or further in?”
“A little more. It’s just the beginning.”
I answered while picking up King William I from the leather pouch. Having confirmed the existence of snake zombies, it was necessary to raise one’s vigilance now.
I threw William I as far as I could. The rabbit flew in a parabola and fell into a puddle and melted in an instant.
“Looks safe over there.”
“Okay.”
We have changed our movement policy. By tossing the rabbits into a dangerous-looking area and moving after assessing the situation. That’s how we succeeded in blowing off the heads of five snakes that appeared after endless bait throwing.
…Yes. There were snakes everywhere.
I tried to analyze the situation, feeling the weight of my pockets, now palpably light.
Fortunately, not all snakes became zombies. So maybe Hydra became a zombie.
So we need to check the Hydra’s condition.
It’s hard to be sure that a monster the size of a hydra could easily become a zombie.
After looking around the forest, I headed towards the cave where the hydra was staying.
By the time we stood on the rock where the hydra’s cave was visible from afar, the leather pouch full of rabbits was empty.
“I should have brought more.”
“If you kill that much, it won’t come out any more. Even if I couldn’t do it, I caught about 10 of them…”
There was an unconcealable tiredness in Lenny’s voice. It was natural. Fighting across a forest full of acid poison, even though she wasn’t fully healed. And I was pretty tired too. Looking at only the visually poor things made my mind tired.
His head was cut in half, but the guy running at me was terrifying to think about again.
After all, human zombies were the weakest.
“I will rest here and wait for the hydra to reveal itself.”
“Okay. Ugh, that’s embarrassing…”
I spent hours sticking my head out from behind a rock.
10 Minutes, 20 minutes, 30 minutes… Time flies by.
It was hard to spend the time without taking off the armor because of the miasma. Whether it was because of my mood or for real, the soles of my feet were sore. Perhaps the benefits of the bark have run out of life.
I don’t like the fact that bad situations are accumulating one after another, but there is no particular way.
How long have I waited behind a rock,
The sun, which has begun to set, now scatters vermilion and casts a mysterious light in the forest full of poisonous pits.
“…Withdraw.”
“Yes. Let’s go back quickly.”
Let’s go back and wash up and get some rest. It might be okay to bring a bunch of rabbits and deal with the remaining snakes.
I turned around, taking care of the plans that came to my mind little by little.
No, I tried to turn it around.
If you haven’t found nine pairs of eyes looking at us from inside the cave.
How did you know?
“f*ck.”
Nine heads open their mouths. I know the meaning of that action.
That’s…
The world began to be dyed purple.