8 - The Way of Walking in the Little Devil's Forest: One of them all

"Watch me very carefully."

Thor began to stamp his foot a few steps before the tree, and Sola watched him intently from a little distance, holding his stick.

The wooden sword had already been removed from his sword belt and was in Thor's right hand.

Both of his arms were slouched down, and his strength was not concentrated anywhere.

It is as if he is walking with ease through the streets of the city.

But we are in a forest, and there are no waves of people buzzing about.

There is only the sound of the wind rustling through the leaves and branches, and the sound of people stepping on the undergrowth as the sun flickers through the trees.

The tip of a sword swayed.

The tip of the sword swayed as if in time with my footsteps.

The tip of the sword, which had been moving back and forth, gradually begins to move in a circular motion.

Spinning around and around.

It came out of nowhere.

Sora was so caught up in the movement of the wooden sword that he missed the moment.

The next thing he knew, something had jumped up to Thor's thigh.

It was a brownish mass the size of a human head.

There is a large hole at Thor's feet before he knows it.

The mass emerged from under the ground and came toward Thor's chest at a frightening speed.

Thora can barely see that the front part of the lump is sharply pointed.

If he continues to hold it, it will pierce him....

The girl grips her stick tightly, but realizes in the next instant that it was an unnecessary worry.

Without a sound, Thor's body retreated, and he had brilliantly dodged the attack from directly below.

His dangling arms flexed like a whip, and the wooden sword struck the tip of the mass with a mighty crack.

It was as if the movement to pull back and the movement to raise the sword were connected by an invisible thread.

The sword pointed at the sky, spun around, and swung down.

Once more, the sword roared up and down, back and forth.

Thor took a half step back, and in that short time, he had struck the sword four times.

Unable to duck in mid-air, the brown mass was sent flying through the air, scattering earth and sand.

The creature hit the ground and twisted its head to face Thor.

The creature was stocky, with abnormally large paws and long claws.

Its entire body was covered with dark brown fur, and although the details were not clear, the sharp horn-like horns protruding from its face stood out.

There was one more thing.

Red blood was pouring out of what appeared to be both of the monster's eyes in a tearful stream.

The beast let out a sharp cry as if it was trying to breathe out, and in a flash, it disappeared into the earth, digging up the soil with its long claws.

Thor, having seen it, shifts his position a few steps and begins to stamp his feet again.

"I'll be back, you'll see."　

"That's great, Thor. You hit it in the eye three times!　That's amazing!"

Thor glanced at the excited Sora and continued in a blunt tone.

"You watched well, didn't you? If you think you can do it next time, go for it.

"Yes, sir."

Almost as soon as he replied, the earth beneath Thor's feet rose again.

This time, Sola, who was concentrating on the move, did not miss it and her eyes widened.

The earth-clad monster leaps out of the ground with tremendous force and challenges Thor again.

The girl's eyes perceive this series of movements as if the entire space around them were cut off.

--

The impact that was to be produced changes direction and is returned to its owner.

With a crumpling sound, the tip of the earth-colored mass is suddenly distorted in the empty air.

Thor, who had been waiting for it, slashed it sharply with the wooden sword he had re-gripped in both hands.

The skull is shattered, and whitish fragments of blood are scattered in the air.

The monster, its brain smashed into pieces, fell to the ground, bounced, and stopped moving.

"Yay, Thor!

Sola, who was about to run up to him, shouted out involuntarily at the sight of Thor.

It could not be helped, though, as he had been exposed to a lot of brain plasma and blood at close range.

Thor crouched down and grabbed the hind leg of his just killed prey and lifted it up, while using to remove any traces of the battle from his clothes.

"Is this the horned mole?"　

"Yeah, that was a bit much."

"Really?"

"You're losing your horns."

The monster's face, which had returned the force of the rush to itself, was concaved inward in a spectacular manner.

The tip of its horned snout was crushed without a trace.

The majority of an adventurer's income comes from the fee for killing monsters.

However, you cannot receive the money without proof of defeat.

For this reason, you must bring back the specified parts of the body.

"......Sorry, Thor."

"No, I'll manage."

Thor touches the monster's head, remembering that he was able to return the spilled slime mucus to the shell.

The suspended body of the horned mole is back to its original, unscathed state in less than a blink of an eye.

It looks as if it is about to start moving, and Thora hurriedly grabs the sleeve of Thor's clothes.

"You brought him back to life?

"That's impossible. Souls are the domain of the gods of creation. The most I can do is to make the corpse the same state it was in before it was born.

However, it can only be applied to monsters defeated in battle, and natural death seems to be excluded.

Also, as I tried later in secret, it was impossible to restore the monster itself to the state it was in before the miasma caused it to mutate.

This is probably because it was the power of the god of destruction that was exercised when the monster was transformed.

Thor cuts off the horns of the re-grown mole with a dismantling knife.

He quickly it and next cuts it off deeper than before.

Around the third time, Sora looks at him.

"Thor, are you cheating?

"Just checking. Besides, I've got a new family and I need to make a little extra money. Don't worry, I'll do it in a way that won't look suspicious."

"Uh, yeah. Well, can't we just go around killing monsters?"

Sola nodded her head, unable to hide the smile that came to her face at the word "family.

"The number of horned moles in this forest is one per hour," he said.

"Yeah!　That few?"

"It's right next to the city. The miasma is less of a threat here, and more importantly, there are a lot of people in the same line of work."

It was only a short time ago that we had just passed a group of adventurers we did not know.

While the girl is still convinced, Thor binds the back legs of the decapitated horned mole with a hemp rope, hangs it from a tree, and begins draining its blood.　

"Wow, its claws are so big!

Sola, who had peeked in from the side, voiced her interest.

"I'm going to use this to dig my way through the ground."

"Oh, that's why it's so bumpy around here."

Sola points out that the soil around the roots has been raised.

"They live by the trees, and when you approach them, they hear your footsteps and attack you. Don't go near a tree whose roots are in disrepair.

At Thor's words, Thora backs away, her face scrunched up.

"Yeah, monsters have territories. Once you see one, you can rest assured that there are no others nearby. And horned moles are slow. If you can avoid them at first, you can easily escape by just running.

"It's hard to avoid that first one!"

Thor pokes Sola in the chest with a knack that makes her look reluctant.

"That's what the breastplate is for, isn't it? Moles are pretty easy to lose since they aim for the heart.

"I see. I was surprised how fast you moved just now, Thor.

"Yes, I've done some restoration here and there. When you get used to it, you will be able to move more.

"That's why I was touching myself today."

"...... really, you're looking good."

"Of course, I look at it a lot. Thor is too cool."

Thor was thinking about something completely different as he gazed at Sola, who was making a casual show of love for him.

In the previous battle, Sola had easily adapted to the situation after seeing it only once.

Thanks to this, what would have taken Thor alone twenty minutes ended up taking only three minutes.

Even though he had grown up in the countryside, Thora would never have had such good eyesight before.

Was it because of his near-death experience, or was it something to do with the fact that he had been for so long?

Thor, curious, reached out his hand gently to Sola's shoulder.

As he kept his eyes on the area above the girl's head, a pure white trunk emerged.

The tree was as straight as a pillar, unlike Thor's spiraling tree.

The branches, though still short, are also growing horizontally.　

At the bottom of the trunk, Thor spots a small white fruit that bulges slightly.

As soon as he notices it, words flow through his brain.

- Thor grasps the space of an object in detail.

Activation: Automatic / Effect: Small / Scope: Visual

It appears to be a spatial version of Thor's .

From its position, it is difficult to distinguish whether it is an innate root characteristic or a stem fruit characteristic obtained by defeating special monsters.

As I touched the tree while thinking about it, the entire technical tree of Sola began to blur strangely.

Thor is once again convinced of the unfathomability of his .

"What's wrong?　Thor-chan."

"No, don't worry about it."

Thor, who had his eyes closed and his cheeks upturned at Thora's words, removed his hand from his shoulder as if nothing had happened.

He touched his right wrist this time.

When he had slashed at the horned mole, he had not been able to make it more limber than he had expected, so he it to the point where it was twenty-five years old.

At the age of 20, the muscles were taut, but they seem to be overstrained.

The 18-year-old's waist is in good shape as if he were a different person, but it too tends to be too light and moves too much.

I am thinking of making him five years older to give him more weight.

In this way, we will try and adjust each part of the body at a time when the muscles and experience are interweaving perfectly.

Hopefully, Thor's body will be able to move more than in its prime.

Thor mutters to himself as he checks his impossibly light body.

"...... this is going to get us deeper into the forest faster than I thought."