It takes us a week of walking through the plain to reach the forest, but we meet a tribe along the way, and we spend the night with them.
They welcome us guests, and take apart one of their livestock to treat us to dinner. Hikari in particular loves that meat.
We thank them by giving them potions, and ask them if they want vegetables or tools, so I end up giving them kitchen knives and pots that I make with Alchemy.
◇ ◇ ◇
“There’s something moody about this forest.”
It’s dim, and the wind passing through makes the sound of leaves rustling echo.
As far as I can see on Map, there aren’t any monsters or harmful beasts nearby. I enlarge it by infusing it with magic energy to confirm, and see that it’s not like there are no monsters in this area.
“There aren’t that many monsters ’round this forest to begin with, but the few monsters here are strong so… Well, it’s not like we need to worry.”
Says Ryuryu while looking at us.
She’s got a point, we have A rank adventurers and everything.
The only issue would be sneak attacks, but we have people with high enemy search abilities.
Still, with Elsa and Alto here, we can’t afford to be lax. We can’t afford to be lax, but…
“Ryuryu, can we eat that?”
Hikari’s in her own little world, pointing at trees with fruit and berries. Then again, she can tell if there are monsters nearby.
She picks what Ryuryu says is edible, and gives it to Elsa and Alto too. The rest of us also try them, and pick more of the tastier ones.
There are also a lot of mushrooms, so we pick those too, but we have to be careful because a lot are poisonous. Although it’s not a problem for me, because I have Appraisal.
Siphon says with an expectant expression that these mushrooms go well with alcohol if cooked in a pot, but Yuno pulls him back with a smile.
W-well, I’m sure they’re still tasty when eaten normally.
“Are you two tired?”
I ask Elsa and Alto. It’s been ten days since we left Siffert.
Ryuryu says it should take us three more to reach Fuxto, but Elsa and Alto are looking a little tired, so we stop for the day, and decide to spend the rest of the day here.
We fought monsters yesterday, so that contributes to the mental exhaustion too.
Since we’ve stopped, one thing we can do is take apart the monsters we hunted yesterday, but…
“Can we eat this?”
“Yes. Haven’t you eaten a spider monster before, Sora?”
Yes, we took down sword spiders, magic spiders, and cockatrices.
Cockatrices have a breath attack that’s trouble, but it doesn’t work on me, and Chris can block it with wind magic, so we didn’t have trouble with them.
Argo and the others have experience fighting them too, so that party made quick work of them with coordinated attacks.
Sword spiders and magic spiders are more troubling, because they use their strings to move freely through the forest.
Multiple monsters appeared at the same time too, and their coordination made things trickier.
They can also use the strings to make traps and disturb our movements, so it’s not as simple as I imagined.
Geitz, Hikari, and Rurika were the stars there. Geitz blocked attacks with his shield, while Hikari and Rurika used their skills to take them down one at a time.
The sword spiders and magic spiders ran away when there were only a few left, and I watched them on Map until they were out of its range.
I think that danger has passed, but I’m making sure to check Map just in case.
“No, never…”
I haven’t fought many spider monsters to begin with. And I would’ve never thought to eat them anyway,
Well, they’re at least meaty enough that I might have ended up eating them if they were cooked and I didn’t know what they were.
“Then… Well, you don’t have to eat it if you don’t want to.”
Siphon definitely understands that me and Naoto’s party have a different food culture where we came from. Kaede and Miharu look particularly relieved.
We let Siphon and the others take apart the spiders, while we turn to the cockatrices.
Once we’re done draining their blood, we retrieve the poison glands, and follow Chris’ instructions.
Elsa joins us, while Alto joins the others.
That’s amazing, Alto.
We start cooking right after we’re done, but suffice to say, I pass on the spider meat.
It definitely smells and looks tasty, but I’m not having it this time. Although seeing Hikari stuff her cheeks with it kind of makes me want to try it some other time.
There’s also the fact that I’ve eaten snake and frog in this world too.
After lunch, we decide the girls will cook in the afternoon, and we will tend to our equipment.
I store the cooked food, so we can have something ready to eat when we don’t feel like cooking.
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Thanks for the treat.