TWEM Vol. 7 Chapter 4 Part 2
――Let me tell you the results.
Three ogres were lying in front of the exhausted Tendo.
Unable to move like before, he dodged the ogre’s attacks and attacked them, but was unable to inflict any fatal injuries.
But somewhere along the way, he probably got the hang of how to move his body, and rather than relying on his status to dictate anything, he was able to use the combat techniques he had cultivated up until now to take down the enemy.
I walked up to Tendo, who was on his back, and called out to him.
“You did a good job, Tendo. Tell me what you thought of the fight.”
It was quite challenging and fun, wasn’t it?
However, Tendo’s answer was different from what I expected.
“I thought I was going to die!”
Tendo stood up and grabbed me by the chest.
“Oh, calm down. I was also planning on intervening if the need ever arose.”
He glared at me, but I looked away again.
“You didn’t mean to help me after all!”
“Ah, there they are!”
While Tendo was making such noises, my presence detection and magic detection sensed the presence of monsters.
Those monsters were moving to surround Tendo and me.
The monsters were the same ogres as before, and this time, there were fifteen of them.
Apparently, this was the territory of ogres.
Tendo noticed it too late, took his hand off my chest, and declared with a big smile on his face.
“It’s Haruto’s turn now, right?”
“…Huh? Hey, wait!”
Ignoring my attempts to stop him, Tendo quickly moved to the top of the tree and disappeared.
The approaching ogres ignored Tendo, who had fled, and turned their hostility toward me in front of them, slowly closing in.
When I appraised them, I found that they were all around level 30.
Normally, they would have been no match for me, but now that my status had declined, I don’t know what would happen if I were to deal with this many monsters.
The weapon I was using was not my beloved black katana, Benizakura, but a simple, sturdy sword with no abilities of any kind.
It would be unfair if I didn’t do this, since Tendo also used a similarly sturdy sword and not the sacred sword in his earlier battle against the ogres.
I drew my sword and prepared for battle.
“Damn it, Tendo. Next time I’ll make you fight.”
Well, I deserved it, but I didn’t like the fact that Tendo was watching the battle alone, even though I was facing more than five times as many opponents as he did earlier.
As soon as one of the ogres moved, all the other ogres started moving as well and attacked… but I defeated them easily.
I did not use any skills and only fought using combat techniques, but even so, perhaps because of my overwhelming level, I was able to fight against fifteen ogres with ease.
Tendo smiled as he came down from the tree tops.
“So, Haruto. Tell me what you thought of the fight.”
He said exactly what I said earlier.
“I fought without using my skills, but the gravity on my body was heavier than I expected, and it was difficult to move. However, this was much better practice than I expected.”
Tendo agreed.
“I was using my skills in combination, but I have the same thoughts as you, Haruto.”
“I see. But next time, let’s do it together.”
“Yeah.”
In this manner, Tendo and I proceeded through the sea of trees while defeating monsters near the demon territory.
～
A week after we walked through the sea of trees.
Something came into view.
“Hey, Tendo. What do you think that is…?”
“Maybe…”
Steam rising from the crevices of the rocks.
I and Tendo looked at each other and nodded, then looked at the steam rising in front of us and shouted at the same time.
“It’s a hot spring!”
We rushed to the rocks to check it out.
There, water— no, a hot spring —was gushing out in a hollow that could fit about ten people.
“What should we do, Haruto?”
I nodded and smiled at Tendo’s words.
“Hot spring. There’s no way a Japanese person wouldn’t go in, right?”
“I knew you would come to that. I was tired of using magic to cleanse my body.”
“What a coincidence. I was thinking the same thing.”
There’s a bath in my subspace, but since I’m wearing a bracelet, I couldn’t go inside and enjoy myself, so I’ve been camping as usual so far.
That’s why I used magic to cleanse my body.
But Tendo and I were also Japanese. We wanted to soak in the bath slowly.
“But before that, let’s clean it up a bit.”
“Yeah. That’s right.”
Tendo and I pulled out the swords that were strapped to our waists and turned around.
There were nearly twenty monkey-like monsters there, and they were threatening us.
“Tendo, this seems like the monkeys’ bath, right?”
“I guess so. But I don’t want to throw away my Japanese pride!”
“I agree. As a Japanese…”
““If you see a hot spring, you should go in!””
And so began the battle between me and Tendo versus the monkey-type monsters.
In this sea of trees, the level of the monsters increased as one got closer to the demon territory, and the monkeys we’re currently fighting were relatively high at level 55 on average.
However, even though we had become weaker, Tendo and I had fought well this far.
The battle ended in a few minutes.
This monkey monster has almost no usable material, so I decided to burn it down with fire magic.
“Well, now that we’ve finished cleaning up, let’s go in.”
“Yeah.”
After taking off our dirty clothes from the battle and cleaning them with magic, Tendo and I took a soak in the hot spring.
The hot spring was so comfortable that it made you let out a carefree “ah~” sound.
The hot spring healed our tired bodies.
“Anyway, I didn’t think there was a hot spring in a place like this, Haruto.”
“Certainly. It’s said that there are many naturally occurring hot springs in volcanic areas…”
“Maybe there’s a volcano nearby?”
“Hmmm~”
When I opened the map and checked, it seemed like there was magma running deep underground here.
There was no volcano, but this magma probably made it a hot spring.
When I told him this, Tendo nodded his head in admiration.
“I see. I understand. Come to think of it, if we do an appraisal, will we be able to find out its efficacy?”
“I don’t think an appraisal would be that convenient.”
Having said that, Tendo and I activated the appraisal on the hot spring we were currently soaking in.
.
|
Name: |
Hidden Hot Spring for Healing |
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Notes: |
A hot spring created by magma heating underground water that contains a lot of magic power. In addition to healing physical wounds other than defects and fatigue, it also restores magic power. |
.
“…Well, this was no ordinary hot spring.”
“Yeah, I kind of knew that. Because the wound I got in the battle just now has closed up.”
If you asked me, it certainly seemed that way. I didn’t notice it because I didn’t have any wounds.
“But I want this.”
When I muttered that, Tendo looked at me and said, “What?”.
Well, even I wouldn’t be able to take the hot spring home with me.
I could probably take this hot water home with me, but there’s a good chance I’d lose the benefits of the hot spring.
“…Well, that’s impossible.”
“Ha, haha.”
Tendo laughed nervously.
Did he really think I would do it?
“Let’s enjoy this hot spring today. It’s almost time to enter the demon territory”
“Is that so?”
“Ah, I looked at the map, and it looks like we’ll be able to enter the demon territory tomorrow. It will take a little longer to get to the demon castle, though.”
“I see, we’re finally in demon territory…”
When we were summoned here, we were told that if we defeated the Demon King and saved the world, we would be able to return to our original world.
But there was no basis for this.
For the time being, I had Ellis, the persona with the auxiliary function of my extra skill, All of Creation, analyze the summoning magic circle that was used at that time… but I wondered how much it had progressed so far.
《Master. We are currently continuing to investigate the summoning magic circle. Progress level is 50%》
When I thought so, Ellis answered me.
Really. Then just keep going.
《Understood.》
It’s taking longer than I thought, but I guess it can’t be helped.
Speaking of which, Ellis, do you know the current situation of the demon territory?
《Yes.》
As expected, you know everything. Then please tell me.
《Understood.》
According to the information Ellis gave me, it seemed like the demon territory was currently in a state of chaos.
It seemed that Gheel and Damnatio, whom I defeated, and the other two Four Heavenly Kings, were running rampant, refusing to listen to the Demon King.
The Demon King apparently added two successors to Gheel and the others as his loyal subordinates, but the original two Four Heavenly Kings rebelled against it.
The other demons were said to be divided between the Demon King’s faction and the Four Heavenly Kings’ faction that did not follow the Demon King.
I felt like the situation was becoming troublesome.
In any case, it’s great that we got the information. Let’s have Ellis proceed with the analysis of the magic circle.
With that in mind, I decided to enjoy the hot spring for now.