Chapter 49: Sea of Trees Part 1

For now, I managed to achieve the most crucial target on my to-do list.

There was this accident of encountering the player Saiga-0 who managed to read me like an open book, but I’m glad that ended up in a peaceful way.

「Fumya, that player seemed to be crazy strong.」

「I wonder how strong she really is? …… Four times? Five times stronger than me?」

「But none can hope to defeat your Vorpal Soul, Sanraku-san!」

「Thanks, I guess.」

Although I had no problems with talking to people, that short exchange we had there, calling that a conversation was a little bit too much in my book, I felt strangely tired for some reason.

「Not even the Night Prowler was so tiring, I must say…… Well, doesn’t really matter right now.」

Interacting with the players was not bad in and of itself, but for now I wanted to focus on exploration and monster fighting. With that particular mindset I set foot in this new area, ready to take on the challenges it might throw at me.

Now, while Thirdrema was full of tension because of me, the Crimson Trees Cave was surprisingly peaceful and tranquil.

「Repairing my equipment and buying items has cost me a lot of money, so let’s find something that we can sell for a nice price.」

Money acquisition would become my number one priority right now, since the amount I have left after all the shopping was an astounding hundred mani. So right now I was so poor that I couldn’t even afford medicinal herbs even if I wanted to. And while gathering seemed boring and repetitive, maybe something fun and exciting was going to happen along the way? Who knows.

But I must also watch out for my inventory space. If that gets filled too much, my Agility is going to suffer because of that.

Once we went through a small tunnel, a truly fantastical sight greeted us. It was as if the whole cave was brightly lit up.

Ahh, what a sight it was! The whole cave was filled with small gemstones that were shining brightly on its walls like shooting stars in the night sky. Except that these gemstones were in fact not really gemstones, but something completely different.

「Wah, this cave is so brightly lit!」

「Glittering moss…… I believe?」

Just as the name would suggest, the whole floor of the cave was covered in a thick blanket of flowers and grass, which were emanating many colors and filled the nostrils with sweet scents. And the trees that were somehow growing inside this cave were so tall, reaching all the way up towards the ceiling of the cave…… A true roof of leaves. All of that illuminated with glittering moss, creating a sight that you would be unable to witness in real life. I’ve heard of a moss that was capable of reflecting the sunlight, but this moss here was producing light all on its own. By the way, was the moss acting in this game like it did in real life? It might prove useful if I ever wanted to decide the direction while being in a hurry.

「Now then, let’s get this party started…… Oh.」

After looking closely, I could already see a monster right in front of me.

It was a…… sphere with butterfly’s wings attached to it? No, looking closely, it was a ball the size of a basketball filled with some kind of golden liquid inside.

「I see…… So we are going to target its stomach……」

It was a fairly logical conclusion from the viewpoint of item drops. I take out my trusty daggers and charge right at the monster.

At that moment the butterfly notices me…… For convenience’s sake let’s just call it a balloon butterfly. It noticed my charge and it started to get away really quick, despite having its belly filled with that golden liquid…… But it was still too slow.

As I overtake the butterfly it loses it balance and almost falls to the ground. I thrust my dagger right in the middle of its belly, and even though it wasn’t a critical hit, the butterfly explodes into the geyser of red polygons while the ball falls down. I manage to catch it before it strikes the ground.

「Hmm, you think this is a rare drop or something?」

「Hoo, let me hold it! Please let me hold it!」

It was a little bit thicker than your standard water balloon. I checked the item description in the menu while carefully watching over Emul, who’s been completely engrossed in playing with the sphere. I was afraid that he might pop the sphere if he wasn’t careful enough.

· Storage Bag of Honey Butterfly

A storage bag of the Honey Butterfly, filled with nectar. The nectar obtained from this storage bag is of the highest quality and it is very hard to obtain.

Eat it or throw it at someone, there is no bad answer here!

「You can actually throw this thing……?」

Now I was really curious and wanted to test it out.

I can collect a couple more of them and then sacrifice one to throw it at someone just to see what happens.

「Right, let’s go further in.」

Butterflies weren’t the only monsters that you could collect the nectar from. You could also collect them from the flowers around the cave. And when it comes to honey, there were also monsters in here that were more compatible with honey than the butterflies.

「I knew it, there are also bee-type monsters in here.」

「Awawa, those are the workers of the Empire Bees……!」

Oh, did you say the workers of the Empire Bees? Compared to the relatively cartoonish butterfly from earlier, the design of this monster was rather hellish and would certainly cause some people to have a heart attack.

Just like the butterfly, it was also collecting nectar…… No, was that pollen as well?

「I see…… so its stingers should be the rare drop, right?」

For the time being, should we hunt them down and see what else we can get out of them?

Then I started to hack, to slash, to poke and to crush…… You know, business as usual.