Chapter 3
Elena lowered her sword and caught her breath only after cutting the scarecrow twice more.
Bordeaux stroked his beard and nodded.
"You're quite skilled, girl. Cutting this cleanly in a single stroke is surprisingly difficult."
"Is that so?"
"I don't know who taught you, but they taught you well."
"No one ever taught me."
"Hmph. Are you trying to say you're something special? Fine. Put the sword away."
Bordeaux cleaned up the scarecrow.
His skepticism was understandable.
Anyone could cut a scarecrow if they could wield a sword, but cleanly severing it in a single stroke like that was not easy.
With enough sword practice, you developed a feel for where and how to cut for the cleanest result.
The world seen through Eck's eyes was as if it were covered in lines.
A thread that told me it would cut cleanly if I struck like this. I had inherited intact the sensation of Eck, who had cut countless things.
What Eck had learned through at least three years of hard experience, Elena grasped in barely a day.
'So a genius really is a genius.'
She crossed in an instant a realm that took others years of training merely to reach.
A true genius was someone like that.
"Let's go."
I lightly tapped Elena on the shoulder and headed for the door.
"Ah, yes."
Elena sheathed her sword and followed. She raised a hand in something like a farewell to Bordeaux, then left the smithy.
The sun had fully set.
The magic-stone lamps beneath the smithy's eaves began to cast a faint light over the road.
"You said you'd never learned swordsmanship, right?"
"Yes."
"You must have planned to learn swordsmanship. Where were you going to learn?"
"I heard there's a swordsmanship instructor at the guild. They say she accepts female adventurers for free, so I was going to visit her tomorrow."
My memories and Eck's memories intersected.
'Swordsmanship instructor.'
Darko, the guild-affiliated swordsmanship instructor.
A talented former C-rank adventurer who had earned the guild's recognition through a respectable list of accomplishments.
In the game, he was used to evoke the scenario of an academy student being sexually harassed by an instructor.
Even in Eck's memories, the bastard was the perfect human scumbag for Eck to get along with.
He pretended to adjust female adventurers' postures while teaching them techniques, and put his hands all over their bodies.
On the surface, he was a diligent instructor with a wife and daughter, but behind the scenes he drank with Eck and talked about female adventurers' bodies.
Whose waist had been like this, whose breasts had been like that, and how he'd grabbed them to correct their posture, only to find them firm, then sniffed them.
It was obvious what would happen if I left Elena with that bastard.
A talented woman.
A woman with no backing.
From his perspective, she was an easy mark to prey on.
"Don't go to that guy."
"What? Why?"
"If you're going to learn swordsmanship, I'll teach you."
Elena stopped walking and looked up at me.
Suspicion, wariness, and confusion mingled in her eyes.
Well, it was a natural reaction.
Since my words and actions didn't match.
But that very contradiction was the direction I was aiming for.
Wasn't suspicion supposed to be a step toward trust?
The more she suspected me, the deeper her trust would be once those suspicions were dispelled.
"Of course, there's a condition in exchange for teaching you."
"Another condition?"
"What do you mean, another? This is only the second time. It's not a difficult condition."
I pointed at the sky with my index finger.
"Don't go out tomorrow."
"What?"
"You don't need to come to the guild or go to the hunting grounds tomorrow. Spend the entire day at home doing nothing but resting."
"But I can't do that."
Elena looked at me with flustered eyes.
Soon, she looked up at the sky I had pointed to.
The moon was hanging there.
"What makes you say that?"
"A Red Moon will rise tomorrow."
"Oh..."
Elena's expression changed.
"If you're going to call yourself an adventurer, remember the cycle of the Red Moon."
The Red Moon would rise tomorrow.
The day monsters went berserk.
"The Red Moon is a calamity that occurs once a month and lasts all day, from dawn to dusk. The sky stays red all day, and a blood-red mist settles over the forest like a heat haze."
"And the monsters..."
"That's right. The monsters go wild too."
I looked up at the moon.
The full moon hung round in the sky.
"Even monsters that normally rest peacefully in their own territory leave it and roam around. They even attack docile herbivores indiscriminately. Even high-ranking adventurers avoid forests under a Red Moon."
The monster-infested wilds became a literal road to hell.
Elena swallowed dryly.
"Of course, some adventurers are exceptions. Materials from monsters hunted under a Red Moon are saturated with magic. But only A-rank adventurers or higher can pull that off. Don't even dream of it."
I looked straight into Elena's eyes.
"Resting is training too. I don't know why you need to earn money for medicine, but if someone's life depends on your activities, you don't have only yourself to worry about. Keep that in mind, and get some rest."
"...I understand."
Elena fell silent.
"Get home safely."
"Yes... Thank you for your hard work."
Elena bowed deeply, then went her separate way at the fork in the road.
***
After confirming Elena had disappeared at the end of the alley, I returned to my lodgings as well.
'The Red Moon.'
I'd told Elena to rest, but I had no intention of resting.
The Red Moon was dangerous.
But it was also an opportunity precisely because it was dangerous.
In the game, the Red Moon was an event where rare materials could be farmed.
'Besides, I need money too.'
Red Magic Stones.
They were magic stones mutated after absorbing the Red Moon's energy, and traded for several times the price of ordinary magic stones.
Elena's growth would cost money.
To progress at the pace of her growth, it would be better to start saving money now.
The materials used for growth came pouring out one after another—things that would make Eck's eyes bulge.
Some materials were valuable enough that a single kilogram could buy a mansion.
If I secured those materials ahead of time, Elena's growth would never stagnate.
Above all, I was the tutorial boss.
The first boss in the game, the first boss the protagonist kills.
At most, I could afford to go easy on her through the early game.
Of course, it would take until the late game for her to catch up to my physical abilities, but the protagonist was someone who could overcome differences in build through sheer skill.
If I did nothing, it wouldn't be long before she stood shoulder to shoulder with me in skill.
'That can't happen.'
Acquiring materials wasn't merely about helping Elena grow. My goals also included verifying my own abilities as Eck and securing sources of materials.
Besides, who knew whether the materials for Elena's growth might become materials for mine too?
'So I need a way to make a big score early on.'
That way was the Red Moon Forest.
At my lodgings, I took out the chest holding Eck's equipment. One magic sword, leather armor, gloves, boots, and various potions. As befitted a tutorial boss, I was equipped with some fairly rare items.
I drew the sword and gave it a few light swings.
The sensation engraved in Eck's body traveled up through the hilt. Before I could consciously recall it, my palm remembered it first.
'Not bad.'
I combined the two sets of memories and experiences, reliving the sensation at my fingertips.
"Phew..."
I let out a sigh.
Entering the Red Moon Forest was not a decision I could make lightly.
And this was reality, to make matters worse.
If I died, it was over.
'Even so, I have to go.'
This was less my own judgment than Eck's opportunistic nature.
Eck's senses, greedily fixated on success, banished even my drunkenness and cleared my mind more than ever.
Greed.
That was the driving force behind the talent that had made 'Black Wolf Eck' into a tutorial boss.
***
Morning came, but the world remained dim.
Even though the sun had risen, the morning mist did not lift. The entire sky was submerged in a reddish glow, as if blood had seeped into the clouds.
It was a scene quite unlike clouds dyed red by a sunset.
The world was stained in hues far more brutal than those of sunset.
A red shadow lay over the sun rising beyond the mist.
The Red Moon.
The Red Moon obscuring the sun looked down upon the world.
The streets were quiet.
Normally, the market alley would have been bustling at this hour, but people were scarce today. No shops had their doors open, and even the occasional passerby hurried along.
Even the city gates had been sealed shut, blocking the road ahead.
A female soldier guarding the city gate controlled entry and exit.
I showed her my adventurer's badge.
"You're an A-rank adventurer. Going out even on a day like this. Thank you for your hard work."
"You'd better work hard too."
Once I left the city, the open ground was affected by the Red Moon, and red mist seeped through the air.
The forest's atmosphere changed completely just from the red mist.
"I never thought I'd come out on a day like this."
That was Eck's reaction.
Eck had never deliberately involved himself in dangerous work. It was true that the Red Moon Forest was a land of opportunity, but that impression stemmed from the certainty I could have only because I already knew the information from the game.
How could an ordinary local possibly know where the most valuable things in the Red Moon Forest were, or how they came to be?
Unless success was guaranteed, even Eck's greed would not kick in,
and hadn't he been assaulted or killed in the game whenever he went in blind?
The Red Moon Forest was silent.
The birdsong and insect chirps normally heard in the forest were absent.
Instead, I heard the cries of beasts.
"Grrr."
A wolf appeared, its eyes glowing red.
The one with a black mane around its neck bristled all over, its fur gleaming with a red luster.
'So that's a Red Moon monster.'
They were known as red monsters.
The wolf, its eyes dyed a vivid red, glared fiercely before charging straight at me.
There was only one wolf.
Even wolves, which lived in packs, were scattered under the Red Moon.
I dodged its fangs.
I twisted my body and slashed its flank.
My body moved as I intended, and Eck's keen battle sense guided my sword.
The wolf rolled across the bare ground.
"Impressive."
Was that really my skill?
After finishing off the wolf, I grabbed its corpse and slit its chest open.
I pulled out the magic stone.
Ordinary magic stones were transparent crystals, but Red Magic Stones had a vivid red hue.
'The essence of the Red Moon.'
The power of the Red Moon dwelled within Red Magic Stones.
I put the Red Magic Stone in my backpack and ventured deeper into the forest in search of my next prey.
Several more battles occurred in the process. The wolves, with nothing to restrain them, spotted me standing still and attacked me without warning.
Each time, I repelled the wolves and made my backpack heavier.
"Kkihik."
A goblin appeared and went berserk when it spotted me. The goblin that charged at me without a shred of fear was especially aggressive.
'How long would it take to bring Elena here?'
Considering the game's time scale, it would take at least several months.
Something that took an hour or two in the game had stretched into several months.
'I have a long way to go.'
As I cut down the red goblin, another battle came to an end.
I checked my physical condition again.
'I think I'm starting to get the hang of it.'
Eck's sensations were gradually becoming imprinted as my own.
Then it happened.
Thud.
A tremor came from beneath my feet.
Thud. Thud. Thud.
Craaack.
I heard a tree snap. A huge shadow appeared through the mist, revealing a massive silhouette.
A gigantic silhouette slipping between the trees emerged into view.
An ogre.
Its eyes glowing red, it smashed everything in sight indiscriminately.
When the ogre swung the log in its hand, something came flying toward my feet.
A wolf with its entire body smashed to pieces.
Its gaze, which had been pursuing prey, settled on me.
"Uhhh?"
The ogre spotted me.