Chapter 266: The Second Day

The following day, I woke up feeling depressed. Finia told me it would feel a bit better if I kept myself warm, so I slept while casting Warm on the blanket.

It was certainly better while I slept, but the dull pain that hit me when I woke up was even worse than yesterday.

“Ugh, looks like the rumors I heard about the following day being harder were true…”

Maxwell’s cottage was quite big, so there were leftover rooms even after we got assigned one per person.

Given my condition, Finia decided to take up the position in the neighboring room, but I didn’t have to worry about her sneaking into my room while I slept.

She was right next to me, while Maxwell was there to treat the symptoms that accompanied the blood loss, so she wasn’t that worried.

“Oh, you are awake, Reid.” “I can’t sleep properly due to pain.” “Hmm, let me examine you for a bit.”

Maxwell came from the nearby room, seeming to have sensed that I woke up. Judging by the fact that he called me Reid, the others had yet to wake up.

He promptly grabbed my wrist and measured my pulse. He then measured my temperature along with inspecting my pupils and throat.

“It does not seem that your condition is that severe. It simply feels worse than it actually is due to not being used to it.” “Either way, I still feel extremely sluggish, so I don’t want to work today either.” “That line makes you sound like a lazy person.” “Stop joking about it. I’m being serious here.”

The pain in my abdomen was shaving off my concentration. In this state, I couldn’t expect my scout instincts to work as intended. I whined while feeling like crying, or rather, I was actually crying. My emotions were in quite an unstable state.

We caught the Floating Wakame and made the shampoo, but I wanted some more of it for continuous use. Besides, I wanted to bring an additional gift, so I wanted to check some other places if I could. Given my state, however, that didn’t seem to be an option.

“Oh well, do rest obediently today. We also found something we have to do, so we shall work on that for now.” “Something you have to do?” “The countermeasures against the Floating Wakame. We need more of them if we wish to keep using the shampoo, right?” “Well, yeah.” “However, the first battle already ended up in that state. We have to prepare some spaces for clothes.” “Can’t we just go back and buy them?”

We didn’t expect our swimsuits to get devoured. I think it should be okay to go back to resupply things we lacked, wouldn’t it?

Maxwell seemed to guess my thought process and replied with a grin.

“Were you not the one who said there would be no point in a training camp if you relied on me?” “Ugh… Yeah, but what else is your plan?” “The reason the swimsuits got devoured was because they were made of plant-based fiber. In other words, it would be fine as long as it was different.” “So you mean cloth that’s not plant-based.” “Yes, in simpler terms, something like animal skin or insect threads.”

As he said, Floating Wakame had the characteristic of eating wood materials, so using the commonly used cotton-made ones would just get them devoured.

However, as it did not eat living things or even corpses, there was no problem in using their skins.

There were also insect-made threads like my own mythril ones. These were made by absorbing the nutrients inside the body and then spitting out threads made from that material, so you couldn’t confidently say that they were plant-based.

They were planning to use these methods to make swimsuits exclusively for Wakame hunting.

“However, animal skin shrinks when it gets wet, and it also rots easily. It’s not suitable as swimsuit material. And making clothes out of threads needs a lot of cutting and sewing, things that is too much for us now.” “We are of course aware of that. For now, we are simply planning to procure the threads and decide after that.” “Are you sure you’d be fine without me?”

Maxwell wasn’t that great at presence detection. In our entire party, Michelle was a bit ahead, but the rest weren’t that sharp.

Honestly speaking, they weren’t the type of people I could safely entrust the securing of thread-spitting monsters in a mostly deserted island like this. However, Maxwell seemed to be quite at ease about the matter as he replied with a puffed chest.

“You can leave it to me. I have familiars for that. I am quite good at detecting things inside the forest. It is you who is simply too good at it.” “Is that so?”

I answered quizzically and then noticed the lack of one person.

“Huh? What about Finia? Wouldn’t she be qualified for venturing into the forest?” “She will be staying back to nurse you. She seemed to be restless all night as well.” “Is that so…”

True, if Finia went away, there would be no one left to care for me. It was my first time going through this, so I was thankful for her to remain behind.

“Besides, I gave her some homework too. You should help her solve it too.” “Homework?” “The fundamentals of magic. Given her Elven lineage, her magic power is quite big. As she’s training every day, her sword skills are quite good as well. It would be interesting to raise her as a magic swordsman.” “Finia, huh… Looks like I have an unexpected rival now.”

Even if I couldn’t become an orthodox swordsman like Lyell, I thought I could add magic to my repertoire and become a magic swordsman. That was my current objective.

If she was to enter the same stage as me, she could very well become my rival.

“You are already fully complete in terms of battles, though. At any rate, is it not about time you got up? Everyone will wake up soon, so come and eat something.” “Oh, time sure flies.”

As Maxwell spoke, I sensed someone outside of the door. It seemed that Finia was already up and was getting ready to make breakfast. She probably didn’t come to see me right away because Maxwell was already here.

That aside, for me not to notice it until Maxwell mentioned… Looks like I was more exhausted than I expected.