172-156 Cave (1)

The next day after returning from the hunt, I took the day off again.

Partly because I was tired from hunting until a little late, but the main reason was the dismantling of the large amount of prey I had acquired.

Although not dismantling them on the spot saved us a lot of time, it was a bit troublesome to do it all at once after we got back.

Of course, it is more efficient than dismantling in the forest, both in terms of space and the use of well water.

Another reason is the distance and time constraints.

If it were nearer, I could go for a quick hunt after dismantling, but at the current hunting ground, I might end up losing the day just by traveling.

So, it may be time to leave home a little earlier in the morning and hunt a little later in the evening to rest each day, or to consider a full-scale overnight hunt.

I'm not sure what to do.

The atmosphere of the forest is changing, isn't it?

It's a little darker, or ...... more shady plants, or ...... more shady plants.

It's cooler than I thought it would be, thank goodness.

At my suggestion, we've been exploring the forest every other day for a little over a month now.

Our nominal income was increasing steadily, but the season was getting hotter and hotter, and it was getting a little hard to wear underwear, armor, chainmail, and clothes and leather armor on top of that.

If there was one thing I could take off in this situation, it would be the clothes I was wearing over the chainmail, but I don't recommend taking it off, because the light reflection from the chainmail would bother me, and the sound of metal clashing would easily come out, and if exposed to direct sunlight, it would easily heat up.

If you think of the hood of a car, it is easy to understand that it is suicidal to go out on a sunny day with a plate mail. Unless you're wearing a surcoat, you'll burn to death, no pun intended.

Haruka and Yuki are researching ways to make the armor have a temperature control function, so I'm hoping they'll be able to figure it out by the time summer comes around. Very serious.

At this rate, I'm going to have to take a real vacation during the summer to keep my strength up.

Incidentally, the reason why I'm only earning "nominally" is because Diora refused to buy it from me, saying "Please don't do this.

The magic stones can be bought as usual, but the other materials are not easy to process, so I'm holding off on them.

Since we have a good supply of meat, we have the largest stock of skins. It seems that the capacity of the tanning workshop has been exceeded.

We haven't finished the processing of Dahl's Bear yet, and I guess this is unavoidable in a town the size of Raffan.

If you have a chance to visit another town, you may want to sell it to the adventurer's guild there.

Does the change in vegetation also change the types of monsters that appear?

"I don't know.　I think there are more undead types.

As Yuki said, the proportion of undead has been increasing since we moved further into the forest.

They are still skeletons, zombies, and shadow ghosts, but they seem to have gotten a little tougher. For some reason, they have weapons.

The weapons remain even after they are killed by the Purification, but they are mostly scrap iron and leather trash, so they don't benefit us much.

Other enemies include ogres, killer gators, and orcs.

The newer monsters are the Forest Hide Spider and the Stub Burrows.

The former is a dark green spider over three meters long, and when it first appeared, the women screamed in horror.

I suppose it was partly because it got past my [search] and suddenly came down from the top of the tree, but I guess it was because it was a spider.

I was also a little creeped out.

The latter was a rabbit about 50 centimeters long with long, sharp fangs.

The latter was a 50cm rabbit with long, sharp fangs. It jumped out of a hole it had dug in the ground and tried to tear off my legs with its huge fangs, but I was able to detect it beforehand with my [Searching for Enemies], so it wasn't much of a problem.

Moreover, it looked too fierce and not at all cute, so Natsuki and the others just chopped off its head without a care in the world. However, its meat was delicious and its fur was beautiful, so it could be sold at a high price.

Undead, there's nothing I can do, so I'm kind of bored.

"Oh, you can fight if you want.　You can fight if you want, but stay away from me afterwards.

Jesus Christ!　No, I don't want to fight a zombie either. The smell is too strong.

It's not easy being a beastman, is it?

You know what I mean?　I don't want to fight zombies either.

When I asked him about it, he said that in Toya's case, the sense of smell may have an effect on the effectiveness of his [spotting] skill, but unlike me, his accuracy is much lower when he has his nose plugged.

It's a little strange that even demons outside the range of sound and vision are affected.

It's a little strange that even demons outside the range of sound and vision are affected.　I got a hit on a place with a lot of undead.

"Ugh. How many?

...... Over 50 of them.

...... Seriously?

Seriously.

"You're kidding, right? I nodded deeply to Toya, who gave me a look like, "You're kidding.

It's true. Relentlessly.

Judging by their reactions, not all of them are zombies, but there are definitely a lot of them.

If they're all here, does that mean there's something there?

Maybe.

I can only detect the reactions of demons and creatures, not the terrain.

Unfortunately, if you don't see them, you can't know what the situation is.

As long as your line of sight is clear, you can use the【Eagle Eye】skill to see from a great distance, but this is a skill that I have hardly used since I started working in this forest. The trees block my view.

It might be useful if there was some kind of clairvoyant magic, but there is no such magic, at least as far as the general public knows.

But in a way, it's a good thing, isn't it?　If they were undead, we could still get our hands on them, but if there were fifty or so ogres gathered, it would have been suicide for us.

That's right!　I'll be relying on Haruka and Natsuki, but they're the easiest to deal with out of all the demons around here!

I see. I'm sure you'll be able to find something that works for you. ...... Do you want to go check it out?　It's not as dangerous as it sounds.

That's what we did.

I'm not sure what to do.

"Wow, there's so many of them ......

Yuki shouted, half in surprise, half in disgust.

As expected, there was a large number of undead at our destination.

One-third zombies, two-thirds skeletons, and a few ghosts.

It didn't smell that bad because of the direction of the wind, but Toya, who had a good sense of smell, had been picking her nose for a while now.

"Oi, Skelton Night is here.

Toya, who has a very good sense of smell, has been holding her nose for some time now.

I also hurriedly [break] down the skeleton and found .......

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Race: Skeleton Knight

Status: Healthy

Skills: [Sword Art] [Shield Art

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...... Is it right that the undead are 'healthy'?

Oh, no, it's not .

I'm not sure if this is a good thing or not, but it's a good thing.

Some of the other skeletons with swords were labeled as Skeleton Soldiers, so they must be tougher than the skeletons we've seen so far.

But even so, if you can trust your "see through" skills, they don't seem to be much of a threat.

I wonder if the undead are 'healthy'?

Oh, it seems that Haruka was caught in the same place as me.

I'm sure you've heard of them.　"Isn't it 'healthy' the way they live - or die?

"It's fine, it's just that the damage isn't done.

No, Toya, why don't you take your hand off your nose?

You're not going to be fighting with one hand, are you?

...... Well, yeah. I'm curious about that cave.

In the back of the place where the undead are hanging out, there is a rock wall with a cave opening in it.

It was a little creepy in combination with the rather gloomy atmosphere of the area.

"Nao, are there any undead in there?

"I don't know. I don't think there are any near the entrance. ......

As far as I can tell, I can't detect any enemies, but it's not that I can't detect them, it's just that I can't seem to find them.

If it were a simple distance, the range of [Search] would be deeper, but perhaps it is not a simple distance because of the location of the cave.

The undead are wandering around the entrance of the cave as if to protect it, but the general tendency is to have a higher level of skeletons in the back, skeletons in front of them, and zombies in the outermost part.

You can't really purify that much at once, so we'll focus on the zombies.

The skeletons and ghosts that were omitted from the target will be approaching, so I'll ask the three of you to deal with them.

"Understood, Ryokai.

Toya with his sword, me with my spear, and Yuki with his nostalgic iron bar.

My weapon and Yuki's are for use against skeletons that are useless even when cut.

Iron rods are sometimes useful, aren't they? They're strong.

Let's go, shall we?

"Purify!

With that, most of the zombies, a few skeletons, and a shadow ghost disappeared.

At the same time, the undead went into battle stance.

They were quicker than I thought.

A skeleton soldier and three normal skeletons came in a set, slipping through the slow-moving zombies and approaching us.

Are they going to work together?

He stopped picking his nose once the battle broke out.

Toya lunges at him with his sword.

But it's pointless, right?

"Yes!

It may be a form of Forman Cell, but with only one of them having a decent weapon, there is little point in working together.

It's a good idea to take a look at a few of the things that are available.

In the meantime, Haruka and her team unleash their second purification, and the remaining zombies and half of the skeletons disappear.

And then...!

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The same attribute steel is used for the pike, so I'm sure it's effective, but the amount is different.

With a few slashes through the magic power, the Shadow Ghost easily disappears.

As long as you have this weapon, you are a small fish.

Yuki hasn't been hit by the ...... ghost.

Yuki also has a small attribute steel sword on her hip, but she's using a regular steel rod. I thought I might need backup, but it looks like there are no ghosts left.

The only ones left are the ...... Skeleton Knight and Soldier.

There are four Skeleton Knights and seven Skeleton Soldiers to protect them.

In the event you're not sure what you're looking for, there are a few things you can do.

"Purify!

The third Purify.

The third purification. Haruka and Natsuki's spells overlapped, and the last skeletons in the area were shattered at once.