Yaritsukai to, Kuroneko Chapter 17

Seventeenth Episode 〜 Dangerous Hunting and a Mysterious Experience

It has been several months since I first came to Goldiba village.

The secluded scenery that can be seen from the top of the cliff deep in the mountain has changed considerably, summer welcoming its end has become moderate and russet leaves cover the mountain surface.

Considering to time I lived underground, two years may have pa.s.sed since I first came to this world.

The clear weather of the autumn season when cool and cold air mixes.

It could be said that the climate here is j.a.panesque. Even if the season has changed, training in the spear continues.

Recently I’ve been separating from s.h.i.+sho and Raguren, going off by myself to hunt alone as part of my training.

And thus, today seems to be the same.

“Shuya, may I leave hunting and harvesting to you today?”

“Eh, I don’t mind.”

“Yos.h.i.+, then I’ll ask you to gather, degoza fruit, perri herb, some gra.s.s suitable for netting, rasento, and for collecting some honey, hunt some Buzogu bees.”

“Hai hai. Roger.”

“Nn, nya!”

Rollo the black cat interrupted us there.

“Rollo.”

“Divine beast-sama. It’s no good to go together. This is training for Shuya.”

“Nya…”

Rollo’s ears lay down. Even without touching her feelers, I understand how she feels. Rollo wants to go with me.

“Rollo, I’ll play with you when I come back.”

“Nyanyanyaa.”

Rollo purrs in response to my promise.

Extending a feeler to my cheek, feeling are conveyed.

『I’ll wait』『Play』『Love』『Play』

Mostly it is just the fact that she wants to play.

Aside from Rollo, as always I have my black spear and two magic bags tied to the belt on my waist.

After I fix my equipment I climb down the ladder.

I walk across the small rocky place where I came down. Pa.s.sing over treacherous footing, a forested area spreads out and a river is visible.

I continue deeper into the forest beyond the fast flowing rapids of the river.

The place where gra.s.s can be harvested is further ahead.

Because I’ve been many times with s.h.i.+sho and Raguren I’ve completely memorized the route.

So, I’m able to easily gather the ra.s.sento gra.s.s.

Later is the degoza fruit.

I must be careful about the bear…

The degoza fruit grows thickly in this area.

I arrive at the place where the degoza fruit grows.

The red fruit is spread all over. Pinching the red fruit lightly I place it in the magic bag hanging at my side.

Then, suddenly, I’m worried about my surroundings.

–I activate grasping police. There’s a magic essence reaction.

It is a bear. Chi〜, you showed up in the end.

This reaction must be the bear…it seems to have been disturbed, I’ll throw this bag to the side…

When I throw the magic bag the bear begins the growl.

“Fugogaaaaaaaa! Guooooooooo!”

The bear’s eyes become blood shot.

With a growl which shakes its throat, pus.h.i.+ng out a chest swelling with muscles and covered in fur, the bear spreads its arms out to the left and right.

Standing on two feet

the bear raises both arms.

The body of the bear brings together form a gorilla and skilled karate pract.i.tioner.

The bear is big, almost as big as the dark red monster I saw underground.

It is a little over four meters, I can’t tell if it is male or female from the height…

A huge mouth, and claws that look brutal.

The bear looks at me with an incredibly furious gaze…

White breath coming from its mouth dripping with saliva.

It’s extremely agitated.

Do you not like that I’m taking the degoza fruit?

“Gaa.”

It turns to face me. Using its bulging muscles, it charges at me with tremendous speed.

Facing the direction of the charging bear, I hastily extend my black spear towards the bear’s chest.

However, there is a hard sound and the black spear I thrust out is repelled by the bear’s claws.

“Gafa-”

As the bear roars intensely it swipes at me with its other set of claws.

Quickly I turn the black spear and block with rear of the metal bar, but the bear’s claws are unexpectedly heavy.

Furthermore, the bear’s claw is caught on the black spear, stopping the left half of its body.

My center of gravity lowers and my posture collapses. Then the other set of claws comes around and slashes into my right shoulder, cutting into me.

“Iteeeee-”

On the side of my right shoulder, the claws cut deep into upper back part, I fall and stagger back, to roll back.

My blood is scattered across the plants and roots of the degoza trees.

I taunt the bear that hasn’t had enough to come at. Without eating its favorite red fruit, I walk while smas.h.i.+ng them.

Do I look tasty like this…

Such a bear leans its body forwards and showing its fangs prepares to release a roar.

-I can’t be eaten so easily!

I roll to the ground avoid the bear’s head.

The bear hits its head on the ground, hard.

Having hit its head, the bear releases a rough unsteady breath. However, the bear shakes its head back and forth and again springs at me.

I thrust while sitting on the ground, without letting go I move the black spear vertically. To the jaw of the bear that jumped I swing up the b.u.t.t end of my metal spear like an upper cut. The sharp teeth of the bear slam together with a clank and it staggers leaning back.

The bear is bleeding heavily from its mouth.

Its jaw seems to be broken. It’s from the shock of the b.u.t.t end of my spear.

Eh, success.

Seemingly shocked by the impact the bear lets out a “guoo” while shaking its head back and forth.

The Degozabear shakes its head back and forth.

Scowling at such a bear, I stand up quickly while using the black spear like a walking stick. Blood streams down my arm from my injured shoulder and flows over the black spear. The wound seems to be deeper than I thought, it is regenerating but blood is still flowing out.

Right now looks like a good time to test it.

It’s a chance to use my blood.

I stretch out my injured arm. I activate at the same time. The moment I activate the skill, the blood flowing from my wounds change into a chain. The blood becomes two big chains spiraling around the bear.

The blood chains both move differently.

From a bystander’s perspective they seem to move in a spiral, the blood chains seem to move in a spiral together to form an intense rotation inside.

The degozabear which repelled my black spear with its claws earlier is probably going to do the same with my blood chain, with no such trouble the blood chains is shot to attack from the beginning. Far from the blood chain stabbing through the bear’s hand, it stabs through and pulverizes the bear’s arm.

“Guyaaaaaaaaaa-”

The Degozabear issues a shriek of pain.

I understand the response well. The blood chain caves in the bear’s arm, grinding up the bear’s flesh inside while chunks of flesh fly out. Chainsaw, making a sound similar to a lawn mower, the blood chain plunges into the bear’s arm.

With the sound of its flesh and bone being destroyed, the right hand of the bear swells. Finally the main steam of the blood chain penetrates the bear’s thick right shoulder.

What wonderful power.

Mm? Ara, the rotation is slowing down.

Ah, it’s gone.

Thinking the momentum of the blood chain was slowing, the blood chain disappears.

I look at my own damaged right shoulder. I can’t see too much, but the wound in my shoulder seems to have closed up.

The wound has completely recovered and the blood has stopped flowing.

Once the source of blood is gone, the blood chain seems to disappear.

“Gigaaaaaaaaaaa!”

The bear roars while scattering its blood.

“Annoying-”

While coolly swearing I shoot at the bear from my left hand.

The normal fired chain penetrates through the head of the roaring bear.

The degozabear falls back and collapses.

It would be easy if I normally used from the start.

However, because I’ve become good at handling the spear I wanted to defeat it that way.

However, such a thing does not matter.

Blood chain is too strong. The power of firing the normal chain is already adequate, the power of the blood chain earlier was ma.s.sive. The power enfolds everything and pulverizes it.

will become a power weapon.

Since it can’t be used without receiving an injury it’s still not good enough…

Ma, it’s a fact that the bear was strong.

It’s still a hard fight one on one.

While complaining I let the chain disappear. I take a knife out from my bag and retrieve the magic bag I threw aside earlier.

And now, it is time to dismantle it.

There should be a magic stone.

I continue dismantling the bear with my knife.

I don’t forget to suck its blood either.

Unfortunately, there are no magic stones in the bear’s meat. If I’m not mistaken, the fat from the internal organs can be used as materials.

I put it to the side like that with my hand, dividing up the parts from the internal organs to the eyes, I fill the bag with its hide and any of the meat that seems edible.

Because I haven’t collected all of the degoza fruit yet I finish collecting them before moving on to the next location.

I walk through the forest until evening is near.

The objective is the ra.s.sento herb, white leaves that grow in bundles in the trees.

Around this ra.s.sento herb a buzoku bee seems to have made its nest. I look for the points s.h.i.+sho told me about.

Oh, I find a white leaf.

I continue collect the ra.s.sento herb. That means, there is…a large buzoku bee. It’s much bigger than an asian giant hornet. I remember an unpleasant memory when I hear the sound of its wings. The nest is visible too…

If I could use fire magic, I’d be able to get rid of it easily.

Ma, I’ll crush them one at a time.

Buuun, buuun I aim at one of the flying bees-

I eject my chain. After I make it disappear I fire it again. Consecutive ejection.

The large bee that drifted around its nest is penetrated through the stomach by my chain, striking the head, a wing falls to the ground. Until a bee doesn’t come out of the nest, I continue ejecting the chain, killing bees.

After confirming no more bees were coming out of the nest I aim at the root of the nest connected to the tree and shoot it down with

Ah, there are more bees left.

Bees larger than the others from before comes out of fallen nest.

I’m surprised by the sudden large swarm of bees.

I begin firing again. I dismiss the chain and eject it repeatedly. Furthermore, I stay calm and use the black spear in my right hand to get rid of any that approach me, I throw multiple bees to the ground.

Fortunately, I’m able to hit the bees because of their large size.

I shoot down a big fast bee in the distance while striking down another bee that gets close with the black spear. However, I miss several large bees, and I am stung through my clothes by them.

I feel a needle stab into my skin.

It’s painful, but if I endure it I’ll recover, so I do not mind it and continue striking down the large bees. For a moment, anaphylaxis from the poison crosses my mind, but I continue without minding it. After a few minutes I successfully kill all the bees.

Finally, it is over.

I remove a wing from the large blake bee and collect them too.

I retrieve the sweet honey from the nest.

Having gather a good amount I have a happy face.

Once I finish the day has become completely dark.

Yet, I intend to travel through forest a little more today.

I go to prepare a torch and step across flowers.

A lot of a certain tree grow around the entrance to a hollow.

Becoming a little hill, it is the origin of the big tree.

I’ll camp here.

My body natural moves when I decide so.

I collect dry gra.s.s and wood in the surroundings, using a flint I start a fire.

I have a torch so there’s no need to start a fire this way, but I wanted to try starting a fire with a flint.

I take out jerky and hard bread meant for camping from my magic bag and take a rather light dinner. I have the honey from earlier to subst.i.tute desert. It tastes of various honey. (TL: This is what it says.) Is the honey collected from various flowers like j.a.panese bees do?

It is sweet and delicious.

Like that, in this pitch-black forest, many hours pa.s.s.

The only source of light is my camp fire.

The strength of the fire slowly dwindles, and I return to the world of darkness.

As the darkness deepens I come to feel slightly cold.

I remember the time I wandered underground.

But, I shake my head and change my thoughts. I look around the area.

I don’t use the night vision skill.

There’s already a little light.

I look up the night sky.

Two moons float in the night sky.

The moonlight is bright.

The fragment where the moon is broken s.h.i.+nes.

The moment it was broke it probably could be seen on this world. It must have been an amazing sight to behold.

Maa, it is good it isn’t now.

It would surely create abnormalities in the ebb and flow of the tide, it must have caused abnormalities in the weather as well.

Or, gravitational pull might not have had any effect on this fantasy world rooted in magic. The two moons share their names with G.o.ds……

So, I close my eyes.

I can feel the moonlight s.h.i.+ning on the back of my eyelids.

Sleepiness comes. Now, let’s sleep.

I’ll just sleep a little…

N? Cold air?

Or, light rain?

The combination of the cold air and moisture wake me up.

It’s still dim.

I look at the hollow below relying on moonlight.

Eh?

Water…The hollow became a lake!?

Is this a dream? The radius extends beyond two-hundred meters.

I try soaking my foot from the edge of such a lake. It’s cold but it feels pleasant.

I slap my cheeks. It hurts. This isn’t a dream.

Then, a dream-like phenomenon happens.

A humanoid creature emerges from the lake illuminated by the moonlight.

The person approaches me, walking across the water.

A-a woman? More than that, she is naked.

…She’s naked, but the skin of the woman is made of light green leaves.

Beautiful green leaves.

The parts wet from the lake water s.h.i.+ne silver. Her hair is also green, made of dense green water. Her hair is like smooth waves to her waist, and she wears a hair ornament shaped like a water drop. The hair ornament is naturally woven into her green hair.

Her silky green hair rustles like silk in the night wind blowing across the lake, and I naturally focus on her hair and face. She stops moving across the surface of the lake and moves her lips, which are silver in the moonlight.

“…Fufu, I felt water in your body.”

Her voice is transparent.

While the moonlight s.h.i.+nes on the lake she takes one step forward, and I too step forward.

“W-what?” (TL: Pickup Line Master and the Black Cat.)

I am natural fixated. Her body is like a circle, a beautiful angel a painter created with his heart, she is clearly a fairy. Unedited information flowing smoother than 60 frames per second pa.s.ses through my eyes stimulating my worldly desires. Well I won’t forget her beauty, every frame is branded into my eyes.

*Goku* I swallow unintentionally.

-Beautiful.

“I’ll become you water…” (TL: Woah woah woah, what?)

The woman says so, and approaches.

Her face is beautiful, I understand she isn’t human, but…

-I don’t care.

Always, I want to see her…

Her two hill jiggle *pururun* as she walks. All too soon, I am hugged by the fairy like being.

“You…”

“I, am just a poor ‘outer spirit,’ Herume, a fairy of water. Once a year, I can live a life only a day long during this season. I am the spirit of this lake.”

Her transparent voice seems to sink into my heart.

“So.”

Saying so, I naturally tighten my arms a pull the head of female spirit into my chest.

Pafupafu. This, pafu pafu?

At such a place, I taste the supreme bliss of the n.o.ble path RPG… (TL: 王道RPGの至福を味わうとは)

The touch of cold water is comfortably soft. Two tiny buds poke my chest. (TL: What is this ero development.)

It’s unbearable.

I’ll start an oppai research society.

“I-it hurts if you squeeze so tight…”

“Sorry.”

“Fufu, But, I’m glad. Please come this way…”

My hand is grabbed. Into the water, I am brought into the lake…

The following day-

When I become aware, I have woken up on the lakeside, naked.

-Achaaa, I did it.

Probably because of all the time I spent training…

The desire that was acc.u.mulating was all intensely vented.

My spirit partner…

“My clothes…”

Ata ata.

There clothes on the side of the lake that I camped at.

I immediately prepare clothes.

Why is my b.u.t.t itchy?

Was I bitten by an insect there because I’m naked?

I check my luggage and confirm nothing is different.

I look at the lake that was in the hollow again.

I hear bird song and sounds of the forest echoing.

Fallen leaves dance in the wind, some dead leaves float on top of the water.

The fallen leaves look like paint coloring the lake.

The spirit woman of the lake, she was beautiful and green.

But, a life limited to only a day…

“It is sad.”

……。

A reflection of the light?

I thought something s.h.i.+ned a bit in the clear lake, but there is no response to my words. It was seen only in the small lake in the ordinary hollow.

Will you come back…