Death March — Fixed

“Tek here, people say that carelessness is one’s greatest enemy. I agree completely, because one doesn’t realize that they are careless, I feel that they would fail. Things that you are accustomed to the most, can be the most dangerous, in any world.”

Now then, shall I pay a visit to the Mage after the others fall asleep?

I’d hate for him to make an almost unending army and send it out for us--attacking with uncountable numbers in the dark--Even I would struggle to keep the girls safe in that situation.

I gently move Arisa, and then stand up, going into the wagon alone. Hmm, I expected Arisa to peek, but is that Lulu’s face I see near her sister--oops, she went brilliant red when she noticed that I saw her.

Heh, I don’t mind.

I shrug and take off my pants as well, leaving my underwear on. I change into thick trousers, and a longer shirt, as well as knee-high leather boots. Since I will be trekking around a mountain, it’d be inconvenient to wear my cloak.

Arisa is blatantly staring at me, and seeing that I finished changing, she speaks, “How come you’re changing clothes?”

Lulu let out a little squeak and quickly darted away when I turned and faced Arisa.

“I have to do some reconnaissance.”

Liza apparently heard my words and walked around the side of the wagon, “I will accompany Master.”, she proposed with a determined look on her face.

But I persuaded her to defend the camp, then she tried to insist that I take Tama and Pochi as bodyguards, but I convinced her I will be back by sunset. Arisa patted Liza on the shoulder and insisted that I’d be fine by myself--Liza finally stood down a little, relaxing; since both of us were saying that it’d be alright.

***

Truthfully, I won’t be going straight to the Mage’s place; I want to enlarge the search area before the next pursuing armies come towards us, so I’m going to retrace our course until the location where the Ratmen died.

I should be able to reach it before the sun sets if I sprint.

After walking out of the camp, I reach a place where they can’t see me anymore, and then I run--gouging small holes in the ground with every footstep.

In just five minutes, I’ve reached the place where Arisa massacred the Flying Ants with her unique skill.

The Ants, which pile up on one another, are obstructing the road; I lightly jump over it.

A lot of small animals were gathered, quickly scattering as I land--perhaps the Monster corpses taste good.

Even so, with this many Monster corpses, it will interfere with any traffic.

If this was a game, then they would disappear is a cloud of pixels, but this is reality.

I stop moving and looked back at the mountain of Monster corpses--and when I think about it, it will be very suspicious; a pile of hundreds of Monster corpses piled up--corpses which died without any external injuries, and corpses which died from a single arrow--with all the arrows missing--People would want to know more.

The guards, or people with enough power, such as nobles, would be able to find out that the only wagon that has come through this route was ours.

If it’s not someone really dumb--they would easily be able to connect the corpses with us.

Since I don’t particularly want to be pursued by nobles, I just make a folder in my storage called: ‘Ants’ and store all the corpses.

Since the corpses aren’t displayed on the radar, I have to rely on my sight--it was easy to remove the corpses that lay on the open road, but the ones stuck in the thickets a distance away are more difficult.

Nevertheless, because of working hard, I manage to clear the road before the sun set.

I also cleared up the puddle of blood using storage--I can select and store blood--It may be a very useful skill later.

I notice movement on my radar and notice Pochi and Tama have woken up and seem to be heading out from the camp to look for me.

My cleaning took much more time than I thought, so I couldn’t carry out my original goal.

***

With Pochi and Tama hanging from my arms, I walk down the highway in the dim red glow of sunset.

I’m hearing chewing sounds from the small animals somewhere in the bushes at the sides of the road. It seems that there are probably some corpses, or pieces of corpses I missed.

It was also unexpectedly difficult to keep Pochi and Tama from running off after the sounds, but with a grip on their hands--I kept them still, though their ears and tails fluttered madly, their eyes darting about as they hung off me.

In a place around ten minutes walking distance from the camp, I see a Monster on the radar. Checking the details, I find out that it’s a Gargoyle, a level 5 flying stone statue.

It has some noteworthy Skills such as complete immunity to Mind Magic, and Night Vision, it is also hard--since it is a stone statue.

While there is a tiny chance that it could be an independent Monster--I am pretty sure that it is a familiar of the Mage.

It’s flight speed is slightly faster than a normal person, it’s destination seems to be the place Tama, Pochi and I are just leaving.

 

“Master?”

“What’s wrong?”

 

Tama and Pochi tug at my hands with tilted heads, I accidentally got distracted and stopped swinging them on my arms.

 

“Tama, do you have the throwing stones?”

 

“Aye!”

 

Then I should drop it with a stone.

 

“I forgot something, let’s go back.”

 

“Yes.”

“Aye.”

 

***

The three of us are hiding behind shelter.

Well, I say that, but all we are doing is hiding behind a rock that’s as tall as a fully grown man, and three times as wide.

The Gargoyle doesn’t seem to see us as it flies over the road next to us.

After a moment’s pause, I throw two fist-sized stones at it--then one more a beat later. All three stones hit the target and it becomes a broken statue.

 

“Co, reco, co, re!”

“Core.”

 

Is that some kind of Core retrieval song?

While listening to the strange song, I watch Tama, who’s singing with strange intonations and Pochi who’s singing with her--while both of them are retrieving the Magic Core.

Just like with the Flying Ants, and other Ant species in the labyrinth, low level Monsters have a small Magic Core with a pale colour--they sell for cheap too.

 

“Aye!” Tama says as she presents the Magic Core to me with both hands, and a pleased grin.

I put it straight into storage, making sure that it looks like I’m putting it into my pocket.

With this small diversion over and done with, we go back towards the campsite.

Needless to say, the two don’t ask me what the ‘something’ that I forgot was.

***

Since I don’t want to worry Lulu and Mia, I only tell Liza and Arisa about the gargoyle.

And since the probability that the Mage will attack the came when I next leave, I decided not to go out and talk to the Mage tonight. If he still attacks, I will just talk to him from here--and probably erase him since he dares to try and hurt my girls--

I saw Liza twitch slightly from where she was sitting next to me, almost as though she detected something from me, her tail made a swooshing noise as it moved slightly through the grass.

The night watch tonight will be in three shifts.

The first is Liza and Arisa, the second is Tama and Pochi, the last are me, Mia and Lulu. They’re allotted according to their abilities with searching for enemy and how well they fight.

I’d be okay if Lulu was with Arisa, since they get along better--Lulu still seems shy around me--but I don’t know what to do with just the taciturn Elven girl and I, so I had Lulu join us.

Since I have time, I lay on the sheet.

 

“Together!”

“Together.”

 

Tama and Pochi say as they lay down on either side of me--pressing their soft and warm bodies against me with pleased noises--before sniffing my scent a few times, their tails and ears moving. When in the labyrinth, we slept together like this.

 

“Good night, Pochi, Tama.” I smile at each of the girls, one after the other.

 

“Aye!”

“Nighty.”

 

Although I didn’t sleep, both since I didn’t need to, and because I had both my map and radar open, being on guard.

I heard Arisa mutter the word, “Lucky”, from the distance, and couldn’t help but smile.

Lulu and Mia were at a loss finding a place to sleep, but at Arisa’s suggestion, they also sleep beside us. Lulu cuddling Tama, and Mia curled up next to Pochi.

It’s a bit crowded, but since it’s warm--and smells nice, I have no issues.

The comfortable warmth, and strange feeling of security, almost make me sleep without meaning to.

There’ll be three shifts of night watch, but since it’s almost certain that there will be an attack, I’ll be careful not to sleep and to keep watch.

While keeping an eye on the radar, I’m reading through the travel journal using the Menu to help me prevent drowsiness--the light keeping my eyes open from the habit ingrained into me because of many nights spent staying awake programming.