Chapter 244: The Forest Children's Guidance

44 – The Forest Children’s Guidance

Aro is finding it a bit difficult to move her newly evolved body. As a result, I’ve put off resuming our exploration and am watching over her.

It looks like that her earthen body is tricky to move in. Each time she moves her joints, flour-like dust drops.

She’s D-rank now. That’s the same rank that the ball rabbit got too. Raising her level in one go is going to be difficult now. Personally, I’ve come as far as I have both because I got double experience, and because I had an objective I pushed myself to near death for – both factors are important. Even with unlimited healing, it’s going to take some time.

Though saying that, going from E to D, she suddenly went from bone to (earthen imitation) flesh. [Revaana] long for a body of flesh, God’s Voice said. She’s on the right path for an undead to become more human, I think. That is me being optimistic, though. I would be happy if C rank puts her in a form even closer to a human. It’s a bit hard to imagine what B rank would do though.

“Ah… Ah, oh”

While I’m lost in thought, I hear a hoarse voice. Breaking off my train of thought, I break I look towards the voice’s owner, Aro.

Through her creaking joints, she’s gradually gotten used to moving, it seems. I think she’s finally become able to walk without discomfort. After confirming she can move adequately well, we resume our travels.

We give the Lithovar village a wide berth, heading in the direction the manticore fled. The dragon-god’s miko, Hibi, said something along the lines of 『it went in that direction, so it’ll be fine. 』. So she had some idea of where manticore was going.

Which means it’s probable that it ran in a straight line, without turning. If I walk in that direction, I should be able to find it.

I walk, feeling around with [Presence Perception]. Because of the grass, there aren’t any footprints for me to see, and all the trees have too many cuts on them already. All I’ve got to go off of is [Presence Perception] in the end. Only knowing its rough direction is tough. But I think I should be able find it this way all the same…

I walk around for a while, but don’t pick up on any signs of it. I try sniffing the ground, but there’s no smells that remind me of the manticore. At best, all I can make out is soil and pollen.

As we continue to walk through an unfamiliar area, I gradually lose my sense of direction. Now that it’s come to this, should I turn to my last resort, [Flight]?

However, searching for the manticore was only ever meant to be a bonus to do while grinding Aro. If I can’t find it, then I can’t find it. Should we head home now? Hibi asserted that the manticore wouldn’t be a problem. There’s no need to carelessly spread [Dragon Scales] around.

It’s also true that I have no idea how to catch it even if I do find it. Its speed can’t be underestimated. If I mess up, I could end up just forcing it into human habitation again.

I pause and take a look around. My eyes meet Aro’s, who’s been laboriously following behind me. Traces of my passage trail behind us. It’s mixed with other monster’s, but by combining it with my memory we should be able to go back easily enough.

I examine Aro’s expression. I don’t know if it’s because of her earthen flesh, but her facial expressions hardly change. She’s nervously looking back the way we came and to the sides of the path.

Though incomplete, I think Aro has some memories left over from her past life. Could it be that she remembers something about this placee? Though it is quite far from the village. There are monsters about, so I don’t think it’s somewhere they’d let children come freely. Aro wouldn’t have come here before, I don’t think. It’s a bit hard to imagine.

Should we retrace our steps? Go back? As I’m fretting over what to do, I notice three lumps of clay sitting in the branch of a tree. They’re forest children, rarans. They really are present all over the forest.

One of the three’s eyes meet mine. To be precise, it doesn’t have eyes so much as eye-like features… It gestures, scratching its head. Its actions make it clear that it’s aware of me. It stands up, clasps the branch it was sitting on in its hands, then dangles beneath it.

Wh-what’s it doing? It’s strange behaviour, but the other two don’t seem to pay it any mind.

It swings twice, three times, then drops straight down. A small cloud of dust raises where it lands. When that clears away, I see the raran recovering from its failed landing. It then starts walking in the opposite direction from me. After taking three steps, it suddenly disappears.

While I’m looking in the direction it was walking, the two that should have been on the branch still also disappear.

I get the feeling it was telling me to follow. No, that’s not quite right. My impression was that its attitude was more along the lines of ‘If you’re coming, then come’.

…I kind of want to take a look. It felt like the Lithovars were keeping something a secret, so I’m a bit anxious. I want to dispel my distrust.

I head in the direction the raran went, but it doesn’t show up again. Just as I’m wondering if they weren’t just running away from me, Aro’s footsteps suddenly stop. I turn around to see her stopped, observing the surroundings. It looks like she is cautious of something.

I focus on [Presence Perception], spreading out its range. A good distance away, I pick up on a human presences. I don’t know if they’re a traveller from outside, or a Lithovar. They’re fairly tall. Probably over twenty.

Though saying that, there shouldn’t be any Lithovars here. We’re quite far from the village, and besides, the manticore fled this way. I can’t imagine anyone from that village would come all the way out here just to hunt. If there’s some sort of ritual that needs doing out here, then it can’t be helped, but if there was an altar or something then Hibi wouldn’t have said it’s fine.

But a single person, huh. I can detect tension from their presence, but they don’t seem to be injured. They’ve got to be a completely unrelated traveller, I think. I’d like to take a look, but I can’t exactly let Aro be seen.

As I’m wondering what to do, I pick up on another person through [Presence Perception]. As I’m trying to make sense of it, the person multiples again and again.

In the end, I detect a total of five people with my [Presence Perception] radar. They’ve split up into two groups of one and one group of three. Th-this doesn’t feel like just a traveller. Have they split up to search for something? It seems like they know the lay of the land…

The group of three suddenly stops, then one of them takes the lead and heads straight towards me. This is bad, they found me. They must have some sort of perception skill as well.

Sh-should we run away? No, shouldn’t we check who they are first? If they know the lay of the land, then there’s a good chance that they’re Lithovars, in which case they won’t attack me on sight, probably. I’d like to hear why they came all the way out here. Of course, I’ll need to hide Aro somehow…