Chapter 114

Investigating the Southern Valley

The south gate where I was to meet up with Daniela was crowded with other Adventurers. For a second, I wondered if they were going to investigate the area too, but from what I could hear, they were just on a hunting quest. I could hear ‘orcs’ being said several times.

But more importantly, where’s Daniela? Where’d the lovely girlfriend go…

“Asagi.”

“Woah!?”

I jumped at the sudden voice from behind me and turned around to see the familiar face.

“Don’t scare me like that… Do you want to kill me?”

“You walked right past me, so I stopped you.”

Oh. I hadn’t even seen her. Maybe I was too focused on trying to hear what the others were saying. In any case, we were reunited again, and so we started to walk towards the gate. Even now, I could hear them going on about orcs.

“They say that orcs have appeared on the other side of the valley.”

Daniela began.

“Five days ago. A village was ravaged by them. An Adventurer who was visiting home discovered the site and quickly came back and asked the guild for help.”

“So they’re going out to deal with the orcs?”

“It seems like it.”

I see… So that’s why there were so many of them. The number of orcs must be pretty bad. I fought against the orcs a while ago, but the thought of going against a horde of them made me shiver.

“Did you hear anything interesting about the valley itself?”

“A few things about these mysterious shadows. First of all, sightings only started to increase one week ago. The valley is usually shrouded in mist, but the mist had thinned that day, and a merchant who was crossing the bridge saw several wriggling figures.”

“A misty valley, huh? Isn’t it likely to be mist goblins?”

“Apparently, not. Because mist goblins do not show themselves when the mist is thin. And the merchant claimed that these figures were ‘large.’”

Large… The mist goblins were quite small.

“And they never investigated it until now?”

“The orc attack was reported just two days later. The guild had to assemble a party to hunt down the orcs, and the investigation was delayed. But there have been other sightings in the meantime.”

“I see, and those guys are what they assembled.”

“Yes. As an Adventurer’s City, Replant has a sizable fighting force. And so their connections with the empire’s military is kept at a minimum. So the army will not be involved here. At most, there may be someone for sending messages.”

I looked around us as I listened to Daniela, and saw that there really were only Adventurers here. No one was dressed in a military uniform. Not that I even knew what the empire’s uniforms looked like…

We were now just in front of the large gate. We told the gatekeeper that we were going to investigate the valley, and showed him our status cards. We didn’t have resident cards, because we weren’t Replant citizens. When that was finished, we were allowed through. We thanked him and went on our way.

Flatlands spread out beyond the south gate. There were a few trees here and there, but it was mostly a clear, unobstructed view. There was a rocky area that could be seen near the horizon. The village that had been attacked by orcs would be somewhere over there.

“It is a five days journey to that village. And three days to the valley.”

“That’s far…”

“Well, we will take it easy. We are not going to be slaying any orcs.”

True. I turned around and saw the noisy clanging of the Adventurers party behind us. I highly doubted they would even make it in five days. And I didn’t like the idea of a large group of them tailing us. And so Daniela and I decided to gain some distance from them, by walking faster than we normally would.

And so we were able to arrive a whole day early. Two days after leaving Replant.

“So this is the valley.”

“It really is shrouded in mist…”

We stood above and looked down into the valley. The mist was so thick that you could not see the valley floor.

“Well, Daniela. Let’s move as planned.”

“Understood.”

Daniela prepared to use her magic. A jade colored magic. Wind attribute. She also used the power of the wind spirits to enhance it further.

This was what we decided to do upon reaching the valley. First, Daniel would use her wind magic to blow away the mist. Now that I knew that Daniela could cause a tornado, I would fully rely on that. Daniela had been out buying potions while I was getting the other supplies, and there were also potions that replenished your magic if you ran out. I didn’t think we would be using them so early on, but then again, we came up with this idea because of the potions.

We assumed that whatever it was that was wriggling on the valley floor, did not have the ability to fly. And so we thought of a bold plan to ‘blast the mist away and use Legs of the Forest Wolf to move to the center and expose it.’

“Alright, here we go. Support me.”

“Leave it to me!”

“Hey!? Where are you touching, you idiot!”

I was so pumped up that I had made an error. I quickly fixed it, and Daniela coughed before stretching both arms out towards the valley and unleashing all of the stored up magic.

“Galestorm!”

As it was a great spell, she shouted the name as she activated it. The strongest wind magic were these ‘gale’ types, and it was actually difficult to cast them with just saying the name. But that’s Master Daniela for you.

The jade tornado that she created moved along the rim of the valley, it’s point directed down toward the mist. Daniela’s outstretched arms moved to the side, and the tornado began to move in that same direction. I watched as the mist was pulled in by the strong winds, and the valley slowly became clearer. I wanted to move forward to get a closer look, but I had to stay here and support Daniela.

After only a few minutes, the galestorm had completely cleared the valley floor of all mist. Daniela was drained of magic, and she collapsed on the ground, her face eerily pale. And so I quickly opened a magic recovery potion and brought it to her lips. Daniela drank it slowly and sighed. But she had no strength to stand, and so she lay, her head on my lap, and rested.

“Ahh… I would recover much faster if this was the lap of an adorable girl…”

“Sorry, only ugly boys here.”

She was at least well enough to crack a joke. I brushed away her sweat covered hair from her face and she smiled. Her silvery hair was thin and soft. It was straight and felt like a luxurious cloth. Daniela’s hair was on the short side for a woman, but it wasn’t because of the trouble of taking care of it. It was short for ease of movement. She actually cared about it a lot.

“Now that I think of it, your hair is quite different.”“It is?”

It was in this world, anyway. As a modern man…it wasn’t too unusual. I suppose you would call ‘asymmetrical.’ Women in this world generally kept it short or long and tied it up.

“I looked in the mirror after cutting my own hair once, and I like the results enough to keep it.”

“Is that right.”

Oh, so she was just incapable of cutting straight… Maybe she cut one side too short and kept trying to fix it by cutting the other side. I could imagine her frantically fighting with the scissors already. Thinking about her look of shock when she looked in the mirror was enough to make me start laughing.

“What is so funny?”

“Hehe, uh, it’s nothing.”

“Hmph…you are mocking me!”

I stroke her hair as she scowls at me. Then she immediately closes her eyes quietly and relaxes. Too easy.

We rested like this for a few minutes until the potion’s effect had fully kicked in, and Daniela felt better. I felt a slight feeling of remorse when her weight left my lap, but then I picked her up and activated Legs of the Forest Wolf, jumped, and hovered over the edge.

“Hmm, I did a fairly good job.”

“I doubt anyone’s ever had such a clear view of this place.”

The mist was completely gone now, thanks to Daniela’s magic. It was impressive. But from what we could see here, there was nothing unusual lurking below.

“Well, let’s go down a little.”

“Do not descend to the floor. We should investigate while looking down from above.”

“I know, I know.”

Slowly, I allow myself to fall towards the center. The valley seemed much bigger when we were this close. And it was deep. We were already below ground level. When I looked up, I could see the sky getting narrower as the valley walls pushed in. Still, it was clear and blue.