CH 196

We keep heading towards the staircase, moving during the day and resting during the night.

We destroy a few orc settlements in the meantime, and fight some frogmen too.

Frogmen have smooth skins, and slashing attacks aren’t very effective against them. And they annoy people by moving in a way that looks like they’re making fun of them.

We have to go through orc settlements to move forward. Maybe we could avoid fighting if we walked further away from the lake, but we don’t know what’s out there, so we’re avoiding those detours.

We’ve been finding fruit like on the fifth floor, but we don’t go out of our way to look for it, we just pick what’s in our path. They don’t taste bad, but there isn’t a lot of it.

Joshua is at his wit’s end as members of his party and Hikari keep looking at it like they’re sad about not picking more.

“I think we’re almost at the point where the encounter rate for undead goes up. What should we do?”

We saw quite a few of them in the forest last night too.

Maybe we’ve just been lucky, but we’ve managed to avoid fighting them. But as we get closer to the staircase, I feel like there are more and more of them.

“Yes…It would be good if we could eliminate them all before they came to us, but… They’re said to be strong.”

“I think we should fight them at least once.”

“Yes, I think that was a mistake. I guess we were too careful too, but I really didn’t think we’d make it this far without fighting any of them.”

“…It would be no problem if we could keep going without ever fighting them, but I don’t think that’s going to happen.”

I think back to what I saw on Map last night.

“Master, then how about we go look for small groups to fight?”

Proposes Sera.

“Can it really be that convenient?”

“Depends on how lucky we are. And we can move out around dawn and take advantage of the rule that makes it so orc zombies vanish when the sun starts shining.”

“That could work. Even if we can’t fight them all night, we can fight at full power for a short period of time.”

“…Now the problem is where we’ll be when the change happens. Anywhere near a settlement is probably dangerous, right?”

“Yes. We’ll just have to look for it while moving through the forest. And orcs don’t always appear in settlements.”

It’s true, that period when day turns to night and vice versa is a blind spot.

I didn’t think about exploiting it like that.

“Thanks, Sera. Then let’s shorten each shift’s time keeping watch, and move out a bit before dawn.”

And we do just that, we get ready before the sun rises, and move out.

But there’s a problem just before we leave, although not a serious one.

The problem is, should we eat before we go? We are split into two groups, one that says fighting while hungry is no good, and the other that they can’t fight with a full stomach.

I’m in the what are you even talking about camp, but the others are all very serious about this.

In the end, the side that says they can’t fight while hungry (Hikari), and its heartfelt arguments wins.

We have a small meal, and then we really do move out this time.

Joshua is holding his belly. I’m pretty sure that’s stomach pain caused by stress.

It all started when Hikari got ready quickly and started asking for a light meal. I was about to take something out of the Item Box (while pretending I was using an item bag), and one of Light of Hope’s members stopped me, saying a full stomach would influence how we move.

It’s not like I completely disagreed, but we weren’t going to eat that much anyway. But for some reason, this person started to really argue, with logic that I didn’t really understand. And then two more members of Light of Hope joined in.

Joshua looked on, dumbfounded. When I turned his way, he shook his head, like he was saying he didn’t understand either.

Well, neither did I. And then Hikari pulled on my sleeve.

“Four.”

She said, so I gave her four light meals.

Hikari then approached three people of the opposite side, and gave them three steamy light meals.

They were surprised, but started eating right away. Then they said it was just because they wanted a warm meal.

Joshua just looked up at the sky when they said that.

I’ve served them meals that retained their heat a few times already, and they didn’t notice?

I guess it’s because I always start a fire to heat them up a bit more before giving them to them.

“It’s tough, isn’t it?”

“No, it was never like this before.”

Says Joshua with an awkward smile while focusing his eyes far away, and probably wondering how this happened.

Be strong.

“But Sora, I think it’s really great how well prepared you are.”

This time I’m the one with an awkward smile.

“Well, it’s hard to say no to Hikari.”

I know I’m too soft on her, but it’s really hard to say no when she looks at me with a sad face.

“Ah… I think I get it. I have a hard time saying no to my little brother and sister too.”

We nod at each other, with a strange feeling of camaraderie.

We eventually fight orc zombies, about an hour before sunrise, and experience how tough they are.

They’re a little slower than regular orcs, and go down without much issue if we know how to deal with them. The real problem is their numbers. Even if we take them down quickly, they just keep coming and attacking.

We get our fill of fighting them before the light ends them an hour later.

After that’s over, Rurika senses the presence of orcs and takes the lead, as we leave quickly and avoid fighting them.

Everyone’s tired, except Hikari who is all business as usual, demanding food. I quickly prepare soup and give it to her, and of course she says she wants meat too, so I also cook some meat.

Some people have disbelieving looks on their faces, but they enjoy the soup too after resting a little, although they don’t feel like eating meat now.