Chapter 9
The words I'd said without thinking had become reality.
‘.. Even in the game, there were few cases where we went into the forest..’
Even in the game, we usually followed the river upstream in most situations.
It was only natural.
The option of going into the forest itself often didn't even exist.
Of course.. there were times when things went wrong and we had to go into the forest.
Anyway, we'd almost never gone straight into the forest like this.
But.
My party had three named characters in it, making it an insanely overpowered party.
There was no way our group project could fail.
“You don't get rained on as much in the forest.”
“I suppose that's because there are so many trees.”
“But.. it's awfully dark.”
“It's a good thing we have the lights Professor Naia gave us.”
But then, a thought suddenly occurred to me.
Was this.. actually a pretty decent decision after all?
Thinking about it.
You didn't really need lights like these if you followed the river upstream.
Trees didn't grow in the river.
No matter how overcast the day was, there was still enough sunlight to make the lights meaningless.
So everyone had stashed their lights away.
But.. once we entered the forest, the lights became useful.
‘.. Were these lights given to us for when we went into the forest?’
I shook my head without realizing it.
No. Don't overinterpret it.
Even if that was true, it would just be a case of blind luck.
There would be plenty of times to use them by the river, too.
If the sky grew dark.
It wouldn't be easy to start a fire with wet firewood.
In that case, the fire Professor Naia had given us would have been more useful.
Of course.. the light had been growing weaker bit by bit, so it seemed like it would go out when night fell.
But.
My prediction—the one I'd hoped would be wrong—
was gradually turning out to be correct as time passed.
“The situation isn't good.”
Kanghan stopped while breaking a path at the very front.
The rain was a much bigger obstacle than expected.
On top of that.. we'd had to set out suddenly, leaving us unprepared.
Our movement speed was far too slow.
The destination was far away.
“We'll have to.. rethink our plan.”
Everyone nodded at Mizha's words.
A frustrating situation had arisen.
“Everyone, do you think it's possible to reach the destination today?”
As we continued moving forward,
Kanghan spoke from the very front.
Everyone shook their heads at his words.
Absolutely impossible.
“Impossible.”
“We're too slow because of the rain.”
Kanghan seemed to think it was impossible, too.
He had already lost the will to keep going and was looking around.
The forest itself wasn't the problem.
We hadn't been moving at such different speeds to begin with.
It was simply physically impossible.
‘.. Even in the game, it usually took two days and one night when the weather was bad.’
I'd anticipated this from the start.
Not that I'd done anything about it just because I'd expected it.
Still, I'd thought about what we needed to do.
“We need to find food.”
I said it in front of everyone.
Food.
It was only natural, really.
None of the students had prepared food.
No one had expected to set out on an expedition in the first week.
At most, they had a few snacks with them.
“And.. we need to find somewhere to sleep.”
A small cave.
Or at the very least, beneath a rock.
We needed to find somewhere like that, at minimum.
“And.. it would be nice if we could find some dry firewood, too.”
Everyone nodded at my words.
They were necessities anyone would recognize.
“Right, we need a campfire to maintain our body temperature.”
Kanghan also accepted it with a deep sigh.
Still.. he wasn't happy about accepting it.
Everyone looked miserable.
The mission was harsher than expected.
We had to find dry firewood on a rainy day.
On top of that, we had to find food.
We had to find somewhere like a cave where we could avoid the rain.
Normally, an expedition was just about killing a few monsters that appeared nearby
and making our way to the destination.
But how had things ended up like this?
“.. I hadn't heard it was normally this difficult.”
“When you do it in Week 2, everyone is at least somewhat prepared..”
Everyone could only sigh.
Their bodies were heavy from being soaked by the rain.
Their body heat kept dissipating into the sky above.
“At least.. it's fortunate that we entered the forest ahead of time.”
“Exactly. Fortunately.. we managed to find a few things to eat while moving, too.”
There were several kinds of wild fruit in the forest.
There weren't all that many fruits in spring..
Still, there was enough to serve as a snack.
On top of that, we'd caught a few wild animals like squirrels that were on the move.
“We should've brought monster meat.”
“Ugh. Have you ever eaten it? I could never eat that.”
Monster meat was said to taste awful.
The flavor was described as resembling fish right on the verge of rotting.
No matter how little food the people of this world had,
monster meat was something only people driven to the absolute brink would eat.
They were seriously considering eating that?
I suppose they were taking this more seriously than I'd thought.
“For now, let's try to find as much as we can.”
“Are all ten of us going to move together?”
“No, let's split up into groups of three, three, and four, not too far apart.”
Everyone nodded.
If we spread out even a little,
wouldn't we find something faster?
“I'm going with Bin~”
Ena quickly came over and stuck close to my side.
“I'll go with this group.”
The groups formed fairly quickly.
I suppose it was because everyone had become anxious.
“Let's meet back in an hour. Even if you find nothing, come straight back.”
And so, our expedition into the forest began.
By then, it had already started to grow fairly dark.
“Ah~ The weather really sucks~”
Ena grumbled as she moved forward.
I understood.
I hadn't understood it well when I'd only seen it on the game screen, either.
Why the penalty became so severe when it rained.
After experiencing it myself, I understood.
This was.. an insane mission.
“So, it looks like the rain might let up a little if we can somehow endure until tomorrow.”
“Really? How do you know?”
“The rain is weakening.. and the air changed completely. It got colder. That's a sign the rain will stop soon.”
The air had grown quite chilly.
Rain came from low-pressure systems, and there were warm and cold fronts.
When a cold front was passing through, the air grew colder.
The rain would probably stop at night.
Of course, that would be the most dangerous time.
Wet bodies.
Chilled air.
This was a shortcut to hypothermia.
“Ah.. I see? I didn't know that.”
I snorted softly.
It was only natural.
This wasn't knowledge from this world.
It was modern-day knowledge based on the concepts of cold and warm fronts.
“It's not exactly common knowledge.”
But since I couldn't explain it, I glossed over it.
“When the rain stops and the cold air blows in, it'll get much colder. Let's move faster.”
“Okay!”
—-
Ena looked at Bin's back.
Bin was smart.
He possessed knowledge that ordinary people wouldn't have.
‘Knowing that kind of advanced survival knowledge.. isn't common.’
‘But.. he doesn't know much about mana exhaustion, either..’
‘He can be clumsy, yet somehow never frustrating.. It's a strange feeling.’
In that moment, a face she'd kept buried in her heart came to mind.
It was someone she missed.
Bin's figure seemed strangely to overlap with that face.
Thinking about it.. their personalities were remarkably alike.
‘Ah.. shit.. I went and remembered her.’
Ena shook her head.
Seeing another person's face in someone you're looking at.
That was disrespectful to the person in front of her.
But.
The memory had already surfaced.
And trying to forget it would only make it more painful.
“Ah.. I feel like having a smoke.”
“Why don't you just smoke, then?”
Bin said it unconcernedly.
Ena was startled by that.
No one liked cigarette smoke.
But how could he seem so unaffected by it?
Even that was so similar.
“Should I?”
She had been incredibly smart.
So, so confident.
Yet she had also been full of weaknesses and clumsy.
She resembled her older sister.
A small smile bloomed on Ena's face.
——
“Found it!”
A party member who had come with Ena and me shouted.
There was a small pile of black rocks where they pointed.
And..
Behind it was a huge entrance.
“A.. cave?”
I tilted my head as I looked at the enormous cave.
It was too large to believe it was a cave.
Its entrance looked to be a good five meters across.
“Let's take a look first.”
I held the light out toward the cave.
Then something inside began to react.
- Flap!!
A swarm of bats began emerging at the sight of the light.
Of course, after getting rained on, they immediately crawled back inside the cave.
But that wasn't important.
“It's really a cave, isn't it?”
It was an enormous cave.
Not just ten people.
It was large enough for dozens of people to sleep in.
But there was a slight problem.
“It's too deep.”
Its interior was so deep that it looked dangerous.
The enormous cave sloped steadily downward into the depths.
And we couldn't see the end.
“Could it be.. a dungeon?”
“It could be..”
“Let's head back for now. Mizha might know.”
We hadn't found food.
But we had found a cave.
And there were plenty of fairly dry branches inside the cave, too.
Wouldn't that be enough of an achievement?
We were almost out of time anyway.
So we quickly returned.
“We came back empty-handed.”
Kanghan said with a sigh.
He had a few small fruits in his hands.
That was all.
“We caught quite a few wild animals.”
Mizha set down the rabbits and deer slung over her back.
“Whoa, I guess you're good at catching things like this because you're a marksman.”
“What about you?”
Mizha said, looking at Ena and me.
“We found a cave. There were lots of dry leaves in there, too.”
“Oh.. We should go check it out right away.”
Kanghan's eyes lit up, and he asked us to lead the way.
The group of ten quickly reached the cave entrance.
“Here it is.”
“.. Is this a cave?”
Kanghan looked at the enormous entrance and turned to us.
But I merely shrugged.
“A cave is a cave.”
Mizha also looked at the cave as if she found it absurd.
“If you think about it, a dungeon is a cave, too.”
Everyone smacked their foreheads at what Mizha said.
Please, let it not be a dungeon.
She had just gone and declared it a dungeon.
“Still, sleeping at the entrance to a dungeon has to be better than sleeping in the rain, right?”
I pointed to the dry leaves and branches on the ground.
At least with these here, we wouldn't freeze to death.
“Right.. Though we'll have to take turns keeping watch.”
Everyone sighed.
A good night's sleep was out of the question.
- Sizzle.. hiss..
We prepared the wild animals
and started roasting them over the campfire.
Maybe because we'd gone without food all day, our hunger was unbearable.
Once everything was cooked.. I felt like we'd devour it in an instant.
“.. Mr. Bin.”
Mizha spoke to me as she roasted meat over the campfire.
I glanced at her expression.
It didn't reveal any particular emotion.
“What is it?”
“Um.. do you feel lucky right now?”
Huh?
What was she suddenly talking about?
Mizha looked at me with serious eyes.
‘Could this be.. because I said we were lucky when we set out?’
I'd only said it offhandedly.
And she'd taken it that seriously.
I'd better gloss over it somehow.
“I'm not sure.”
“Hmm.. I see.”
“Well.. I suppose this isn't so bad. At least.. we can eat.”
I calmly took a piece of meat from the campfire.
It was perfectly cooked.
“It's done! Let's eat!”
I shouted to the others.
At my voice, the others came running.
“Wow, that looks delicious.”
“It sure does.”
I looked at Ena's face.
After spending all day rolling around in the forest, she was a complete mess.
“What's wrong?”
Ena tilted her head.
I just gave her a slight smile.
“It's nothing.”
“You're no fun.”
It was then.
- Rustle. Rustle.
From inside the forest,
we began to hear signs of someone approaching.
“Who is it!!”
We quickly drew our weapons in the middle of the meal
and saw a group of people.
“Could we.. could we take shelter from the rain with you for just a little while..?”
Silver hair.
Silver armor.
Mist.
No, a beggar had appeared.
In an instant, Ena looked like a noblewoman.
Ah. She is a noble, isn't she?