Episode 4.3

"Gee, I'm amazed you could keep up with me."

Shira spoke like usual, while Lecan could do nothing but gasped for breaths for a while, unable to even make a voice.

"Y-you've got an awful lot of stamina."

"I mean I used <Acceleration> on myself, and also <Recovery>. My stamina itself isn't actually that great."

What convenient magic. Lecan couldn't help but feel truly envious.

"Now then, here on out is the herb paradise. Many types of herbs are growing here. Be sure to knock everything I'm going to tell you into your head."

Then Shira pointed and called names of grass on the ground, and explained where in their root, stalk, leaf, and flower could be turned into medicine. She also explained which herbs grow their roots sidewards and which whose thick roots grow straight down.

"I think that about covers it. You're going to start gathering all the herbs I've just explained to you as the night falls. As gathering herbs within that time zone yield the best medicinal effects. Take everything, dig them out thoroughly to the root, you hear me. Right. Let's go with a hundred of them each."

He has been taught 22 kinds of herbs. 100 of each means 2200 herbs. Locating and then gathering all of them during the night in this forest is impossible no matter how you look at it.

"I'll show you how to collect a few of them. First, the way to pick up herbs with a thick straight root, where the root itself is the medicinal part."

Shira took a curved knife out of nowhere, and dug out the herb. Her hands showed no hesitation.

"Look. There's this lanky beard-like root growing out of the thick root, see. If you keep these beard on, its medicinal effect won't go down easily. You'd want to shave it off when you're making medicine though. And if you let soil stick on it, even a little will do, it'll last surprisingly long. Here, I'll give you a weeding knife like this one. Take it."

After gathering about six herbs, she cut up a nearby ivy and coiled the herbs in it.

"By doing this when you put the herbs inside <Box (Loof)>, it'll be easier to take them out, and they won't get damaged easily."

"Loof?"

"You've got one on you too, don't you. It's the tool that can hold lots of stuff without you feeling the weight."

<TLN: If you're reading this novel at any other site than Sousetsuka.com you might be reading an unedited, uncorrected version of the novel.>

"Ah, I see."

"I've brought two of them with me for collecting and carrying stuff. Neither is that big though."

Shira put the herbs inside the smaller of the two bags she held.

The way it got inside was weird. Despite having the herbs put inside the bag, the bag's shape does not change nor swell out, even though it should. It's like it's carrying air.

"That luggage bag is a <Box (Loof)> then."

"Yep this sure is. Something wrong with it? Though I guess it's expensive and not so common."

"Is it possible to enchant an item with <Loof> in this world?"

"Eh? Now that's a weird thing to ask. What other things besides bags and boxes should <Box> be put on?"

"Men."

"Eh?"

"In my world, <Storage> is an ability awarded to men by dungeons."

As Lecan said that, he demonstrated taking his sword in front of his chest out of <Storage>.

Shira opened her eyes wide.

"I see. So you yourself is a <Box>, is it. But really, I'm surprised it could store such a big sword. How much can it hold?"

"Apparently that depends on the amount of mana the possessor has, I have never tested my limit."

Shira presented the bigger bag of the two she held forward.

"Can you take in a hundred of this?"

"I can."

"Dear me, that's staggering. Then, how about a thousand?"

"It maybe could if I take out everything that's inside right now... No wait, I'm not sure. It might not fit."

"That's just, unbelievable. The capacity of your <Box> is probably the highest in this world."

"Fumu. Possessing this ability is not abnormal in itself, but I would garner attention if people knew about the amount of stuff that can fit inside, is it?"

"You got it. Oh and, enchanting <Box> on someone is also not normal, so you'd better make it look like you're taking your stuff out of a bag or something."

"I see."

"You've already got many stuff inside, no?"

"Daily necessities, arms, medicine, jewels, pretty much everything I own."

"Which means, we can't have you store the herbs we collect, do we now."

"No, I don't mind."

"Mud will stick on your other belongings then."

"What are you talking about?"

After exchanging words, both Shira and Lecan understood the difference between <Box> and <Storage>.

<Box> contains a space inside, stuff put inside it get in contact with each other. There's a lot of cases where those things get pushed around and crushed.

However, everything put inside <Storage> won't ever touch each other. When you take them out, there is no need to grope around for the thing you want either, you can simply find it by picturing it in your mind.

And the biggest difference is the fact that <Box> can be used by anyone, while <Storage> is usable exclusively to the possessor. However, it is possible to make <Box> usable only to the one who uses it for the first time by having a magic engineer works their trick on it.

"Humm. You definitely can't let merchants and nobles find out about your <Storage>."

"I guess they'd be envious."

"This world will be filled to the brim with people who'd try to make you into their slave no matter the cost."

"That sounds awful."

It was evening as they were talking.

Evening sunlight peeking between the trees flutters down between the two. Even someone quiet and not so social like Lecan felt that it was a fun time.