Death March — Fixed

“Tek here, there’s a saying that there’s a great difference between hearing about something and doing it yourself, and I have found this to be very true.”

“U-Umm, thank you for the delicious meal.” The red-haired girl from this afternoon, Totono I believe her name is, personally came to our campground to meet me.

“No problem.” I reply to her.

“Also, Uuu, I’m sorry for this afternoon” Her eyes are downcast, but she seems to be taking subtle glances at me.

Then her face becomes determined, she suddenly grasps the bottom of her one piece, and still on her knees, pulls it over her head--she is emaciated, her ribs poking through her skin.

I only get a glance as Lulu covers her with an apron, moving surprisingly quickly--almost like she had expected something like this from the beginning.

It doesn’t seem like Totona will put her clothing back on, but she also doesn’t take the apron off her.

“I don’t have anything of worth, but this is an apology--and thanks--” She raises her eyes, meeting mine.

“You’d pay with your body?”

“Yep, my big sister said, ‘If you’re given something, give something back.’, she said that it’s no good with just words--”

I’m not sure that’s what her sister meant.

“This is my apology--I have nothing to give other than my life, if you choose to accept me.” She looks down again, before aiming a furtive gaze at me.

“I accept your apology, but I don’t need your body--no offence, but I already have a few others who are more than willing to share theirs with me,” I look between Lulu and Liza with a grin, and they both blush a little, “For me, your words--and your determination are enough.”

She looks strangely disappointed.

“You should look after the others, making sure they will all survive--if left in your brother’s hands; I’m not sure how well they’ll do.” I grin at her.

“I see. I will do my best!” A happy look appears on her face again.

Totona gets up, and walks over, sitting next to me--she seems to have forgotten her clothes; Lulu sighs and picks up the forgotten clothing off the ground and comes over, she gives them to Totona.

She looks at me, and then stands up and lets the apron drop to the ground, before slowly getting dressed, looking at me as though she was wanting me to reconsider my decision not to sleep with her.

Lulu goes off to brew some tea.

After all the commotion is over, I notice that Mia--who should have been on watch-- is leaning on my back, asleep. Sleeping even through all this, this girl isn’t fit for guard duty.

The tea seems to be done, Lulu comes back shortly.

When Totona instinctively receives the cup that Lulu hands her, “Um, what’s this?” She asks, looking at the liquid.

“It’s tea.” Lulu smiles reassuringly.

“Is it fine to drink?”

“It is, and it’s delicious too.”

Hearing Lulu’s words, Totona stares at the cup containing liquid she has never seen before--because only nobles or those of a higher-class drink tea--and after subtly bracing herself, she takes a sip. Her intense expression morphs into a pleased smile as she tastes the tea, then she starts drinking it rapidly.

I can’t help but smile at this scene.

“This is the first time I have drunk something like this.” Totona smiles, then looks back at her now empty cup, a flash of disappointment appearing and disappearing again in an instant.

Lulu seems happy at her response, “Yeah, it’s Master’s favourite tea--normally only the rich would drink it.”

Totona smiles happily, before bidding us goodnight, and walking back to her camp--though she looks back a few times--She can’t have developed a crush right?

Oh well, we will be leaving tomorrow anyway.

 

***

Right now, I’m far away from the camping ground, deep in the forest.

At first, I thought about hunting the Spider Bears for the others, but I changed my mind and check the forest’s terrain. The old woman said that a good place for a farm would be beside the river, with a lot of humus, and access to sunlight.

Using the Holy Sword that I take from storage, I quickly cut down the surround trees, and put them inside my storage--since the sword cuts through the trees without resistance, and I instantly put the fallen tree inside storage, it doesn’t feel real--I cleared three hundred meters in ten minutes.

I even forgot to activate the Lumberjack skill.

Next, I activate the Farming Skill--then I begin pulling up the stumps one by one, but it is surprisingly difficult. Well, I can pull them up easily, but the reaction force makes my feet sink rather deeply into the soft dirt ground.

Therefore, I give up on completely pulling the stumps up--instead, I raise it a bit, and then cut away the roots. This work too more time than I had expected, around an hour or so.

The next part, is the removal of weeds and bushes; since the weeds break apart when I use a lot of my strength to pull them, I actually learn a lot on how to delicately control my power.

 

>>Skill: Gathering Acquired.

 

It seems that there are some herbs mixed in with the weeds I’ve pulled.

When I’ve finished removing the weeds, I pull the remaining tree roots--it feels strange, like pulling a string that has been buried in the ground. They are the same as the weeds and break if I use too much force, so I get to practice more with delicate power control.

I found some huge rocks and stones halfway through, and put them inside my storage. Otherwise, they’d become a hindrance to growing crops in the field.

I feel like I’m missing something--this seems to be affected by my Farming skill; I haven’t read or researched much about farming, only knowing the basics from fantasy books and TV shows.

Since I don’t know what it is, even if I stare intently at the ground, I just take out a hoe and try to plow the land. After plowing for about ten meters, I feel the hoe hitting something hard.

There is a fist-sized stone in the ground--after this, as I plow, I begin to hit more and more stones; the edge of the plow is becoming bent.

I adjust the search parameters of the map, searching for stones. First, let’s display the ones that are 30cm deep underground--there’s a lot of them. I activate the Gathering skill, assigning the maximum number of Skill Points, and begin gathering the stones. I am moving so quickly it’s like I am in a superhero comic.

Sometimes, things that look like gemstones or raw ore are mixed in, but I’m no geologist, so I don’t know what they are, or what they’re used for--I store them in the folder called ‘Misc Stones’ for now.

After I’ve completely removed the visible stones, I try again plowing the ground. Since I’ve never actually done this before, I don’t know if I’m doing it correctly.

If I just make the ground soft enough, the old men could probably direct the children in what to do.

I pile up about 10% of the weeds I have gathered, they should be good fertilizer.

Then, I clean some branches from the trees I felled, piling them at three different locations--taking some Gabo fruits from storage, I wrap them in cloth and place them below the timber; they shouldn’t be damaged or stolen by Monsters like this.

My stamina has been decreased by 20%

The removal of the stones was the most severe part of it all.

“Now then, I’ve prepared the land, but what should I do about it?”

Yes, even I, without my knowledge of this world, know that it would look unnatural for workable fields to sudden materialize overnight.

Well, I’m not sure what to do.

So, I’ll leave it alone and hope that the children would find the place when they’re look for food, since it’s only two kilometers away and near the river--by then, we will hopefully be long gone, so even if they suspect that we aren’t what we seem--they can’t do anything about it.

At this time, a Spider Bear emerges from the forest at the edge of the clearing.

It’s coming to get itself hunter, what a respectable Monster--saving me the trouble of hunting it down.

***

Why this Monster is called a Spider Bear?

Well, it has eight, giant hairy spider legs. Eight beady black eyes, and giant, spiked, mandibles--which is where the connection to a spider ends, the rest of the body and head look like those of a huge black bear; with a spiky fur coat--

It’s disgusting.

Oh, it lets out a chittering roar--which sounds as strange as you’d think.

All five of the Spider Bear ‘bosses’ appear, and I lure them back into the forest--I could eliminate them now, but since I wish to train the girls, I’m going to take one of them back to the campsite.

First, of course, I obliterate four of them and put them into storage.

The remaining Monster is chasing me, and doesn’t seem to realize that its friends have disappeared.

Getting a warning from Danger Sense, I leap to the side.

In doing so, I evade the attack from the Spider Bear’s massive clawed paw, which was swinging for my head--the Monster was hanging upside down, moving like a pendulum; It seems that like half its namesake, it can produce thread.

The Spider Bear, which has reached the apex of its swing, separates from the thread and lands ahead of me. The tree that has been used by the Monster as a fulcrum, is beginning to break from the center; falling away from us with a loud crash.

The Spider Bear extends to its maximum height on all eight legs, tilting its body to stand upright, lifting its bear-like forelegs, trying to look threatening.

I carefully kick it, using my new control over my strength, to make sure that I don’t kill it--I run past it and to the highway.

The Spider Bear comes out of the forest a few seconds later.

I dash to the camping ground and call to Pochi, and the other girls who are on guard duty--I’m planning on raising everyone’s level while procuring food, killing two birds with one stone.

“Pochi, Tama, Liza, get read for battle. Nana, after you hit the Monster with Magic Arrow, wake Arisa and Lulu up.” I call out.

 

“Enemy?”

“Enemy.”

“Yes, Master.”

 

The Spider Bear lost a bit of its HP from the Magic Arrow unleashed by Nana. It could cause damage even with such a level difference huh, Magic Arrow seems like quite an excellent Magic.

Drawing out my short staff, I cast shield--stopping the Spider Bear in place.

The Spider Bear tries to reach around the shield using one of its long, surprisingly flexible, spider legs--but Tama prevents it with her shortsword.

 

“Thank you, Tama.”

 

“No problem!”

 

Pochi is charging diagonally at the Spider Bear from behind, thrusting at the joint of the leg with her shortsword--judging from the ‘clang’ sound, it seems that she hit it, but the force of the attack is unable to break the joint.

A red light pierces through the Monster’s body from the opposite side--Liza’s blow manages to take off 10% of its HP with one blow, she is quite powerful.

The Spider Bear changes its target to Liza--I must attract the Monster’s attention.

“Over here you Arachno-Ursine Abomination!” I should the first thing that pops into my head as I hit it with the Shield.

Its HP decreases a lot more than I expected.

If I’m not careful, it might die before Arisa and Mia come out.

 

>>Skill: Provocation Acquired.

 

I immediately maximize and activate the Provocation skill--after which, the battle becomes very simple; after all, the enemy’s attacks are targeting me alone.

With this skill, it would be much easier in the labyrinth.

After Arisa and Mia come out, a little later, and unleash some Spells--it becomes a one-sided battle for the Beastkin girls.

Since we’re fighting near the camping ground, the old people and the children have woken up, and are watching from a distance. The children raise their voices in awe whenever Mia uses her Magic or Liza’s spear lights up.

At last, the Spider Bear lays down, and stops moving after receiving one too many of Liza’s attacks--the children and old people raise loud cheers.