CH 29

[Actually, This is My First Time to Collect Materials]

The place we got off is where Mana Wood densely grows and thickly covered in Mana Mist.

We were on the opposite side of the place where I went through with Lloyd and co the other day.

As expected, there are also many presences of monsters in this side.

In such Demon Forest, Gawain was humming and cutting through the grass.

“Ooh, there it is. First of all, pull out the Mana-Absorbing Grass and collect it.”

Gawain, who was in the lead, was pulling out a grass with lots of large purple fruits.

Since Alfine and I were adventurers specializing in monster subjugation, actually, I had never done this kind of collection request.

Adventurers can be divided into three types.

‘Hunter’ adventurers who specializes in subjugating monsters like me.

‘Searcher’ adventurers who specializes in picking and collecting rare plants and minerals.

‘Excavator’ adventurers who specializes in investigating, exploring, and excavating ancient ruins.

However, most of the adventurers are ‘Hunter’ who subjugate monsters, and the number of adventurers who were aiming to become ‘Searcher’ and ‘Excavator’ was small.

The reason why the number of ‘Searcher’ and ‘Excavator’ was small is clear; the number of requests is smaller compared to ‘Hunter’ and it is not possible to earn a living because the reward is cheap.

Adventurer lives by completing basic requests each day to earn their meals.

Therefore, so they don’t have to worry about not earning money and tomorrow’s meals, many people become ‘Hunter’ which had a lot of requests.

When both Alfine and I were equipped with equipments and became adventurers in the Royal Capital, we had exhausted the funds we received from the orphanage, so we took requests to subjugate monsters as the profitable ‘Hunter’.

That’s why, I have very little knowledge about collecting plants and minerals.

“What effect does the Mana-Absorbing Grass have?”

While searching for the grass with a lot of purple fruits, I asked Gawain about the effect of the Mana-Absorbing Grass.

“This? Its fruits have a property that amass Mana Mist. When you grind those fruits and mix it with other materials, it can become a magic stone that reduces the consumption of magic power that was fixed on mage’s staff.”

“Magic stone? Ahh, like the one on the tip of Noelia’s staff, isn’t it?”

“That’s right. You can also use magic after all. I’m thinking of adding in the magic stone so it can reduce your magic power consumption when you use magic. I’ll add other interesting gimmicks, so look forward to it.”

While pulling out the Mana-Absorbing Grass, Gawain laughed heartily.

My magic power is enough even without a staff.

However, I would appreciate it if I can reduce my magic power consumption by having a magic stone in my sword.

It’s just, I’m really worried about those other gimmicks.

I have seen Lloyd’s sword, if Gawain would forge the sword the normally, it would result in a first-rate sword, so I feel that the interesting gimmicks that he said are unnecessary.

“I think the sword that was forged normally is fine…”

“Something like that is boring right. Frick is a swordsman with magic talent. I think it’s definitely better to make a sword that suits you. Okay, I’ll only use the Mana-Absorbing Grass’ fruits. But the grass part seems to be the ingredient of the magic recovery potion y’know.”

“Hee~, so this grass is the ingredient of the magic recovery potion.”

Gawain collects the purple fruits from the Mana-Absorbing Grass that was full in both of his hands and pack them in his bag.

Hundreds of Mana-Absorbing Grass’ fruits was collected.

“I will leave the grass because it is bulky, but it is better for you to remember that eating it raw can recover your magic power to some degree.”

Saying that, Gawain began stuffing his cheeks and munching on the grass that had been plucked off of its fruits.

I was half suspicious, but I picked up one Mana-Absorbing Grass, and threw it into my mouth.

Immediately, a grassy taste spreads throughout my mouth.

I couldn’t stand the grassy taste, and immediately spit it out of my mouth.

“Peh, peh, this isn’t something you can eat, isn’t it?”

“It’s obvious, right. It’s a grass after all.”

Gawain, who said that, was eating the grass normally.

It’s incomprehensible, but the other party is Gawain, so I can’t help but to think that it can’t be helped.

“Well then, next is Blood-Sucking Mushroom. Since it’s parasitizing on Madness Boar, let’s get rid of them. Their habitat is this way.”

I followed after Gawain, who walks through the dangerous place, the Demon Forest, as if it were his own garden.

After a while I walked behind Gawain in the forest, I heard a cry of monsters coming from ahead.

“Gaff, gaff, gaff!”

“It seems the enemy has come to welcome us. Frick, you might as well use it as a practice partner for your Body Strengthening magic. I’ll take a little break.”

Gawain said, and he sat down on the nearby stump and started drinking water from a canteen.

As if replacing Gawain, a huge Madness Boar rushed in from ahead.

“OHHH!!”

I grab the tusks of the Madness Boar that suddenly plunged toward me, and stopped its charge.

By increasing my muscle strength with Body Strengthening magic, I even managed to stopped the charge of the huge Madness Boar.

“Gaff, gaff, gaff!”

The Madness Boar, whose tusks got caught, tried to shake me off and rampaged by stomping on its front leg.

However, it was unable to get free in the face of my increased power.

“Keep going~. Do your best~.”

“Bumooooo!”

The Madness Boar, who was pinned by me, cries as if annoyed, and pushes with more power.

I let go of my hand which was holding the tusks, and cut off the head of the Madness Boar with my dull sword.

Only the Madness Boar’s head fell down to the ground first, and then the body that stopped moving collapsed to the ground.

To think that this sword can make a cut like that…

As I expected, the Body Strengthening magic seems to be able to raise my sword skill.

Because both the swinging power and the speed increased, it was more like the sword itself was torn apart by the shock wave.

“What a beautiful cross section. I can tell that the sword has no sharpness at all just by looking, so it seems like you cut it purely with your skill.”

Gawain, who was sitting and resting on the stump, murmured while looking at the severed head of the Madness Boar, which was still squirting blood.

“I think this is also the effect of the Body Strengthening magic created by Gawain-sama. I think I can cut a monster of this size without damaging the sword.”

“…I see. Then, please take care of all that. I’m going to collect the Blood-Sucking Mushrooms on the head of the Madness Boar, so I’ll be counting on you.”

In front of the pointed finger of Gawain who said so, dozens of Madness Boar rushed towards me.