RESULTS OF TRAINING ③

“Lain nii-chan, the next area’s going to have that black-wolf, right?”
“…Yeah, that’s right.”

Once we reach the next area, we’ll be facing-off against black-wolfs.
One of which had attacked the village before.
Milia and Aria didn’t seem to know about the black-wolf, so we’ll tentatively call it “blackwolf”.

It wasn’t all that big in size, but if you thought of black fur coat, that would be the first thing to come to mind.
I was unsure of its strength though.

Even though I did try fighting one that I coincidentally spotted.
However, it ended up dying on the first blow.
Now that I think back, the one that attacked the village also died like that.

The blackwolf I defeated inside the forest, didn’t drop a magic stone the same size as the one outside.
It might have been a variant, or it could have become that big after cannibalizing a lot of greywolves.

“Well, I don’t think it’s impossible for Reno and the rest to defeat one though.
At worst, you might have to carry back a limb or two.”

“I don’t like that~.”

In reality, I don’t think there’s a significant power-gap between a greywolf and blackwolf.
Of course a blackwolf would win one-on-one, but if five greywolves bunched together, they might just turn the tables.
That large blackwolf must’ve been really lucky.
If not, it might been defeated before it left the forest.

“Well, tomorrow’s a holiday in any case, so that’s going to happen day after tomorrow.”
“Yeah.”

Reno nodded strongly with expectation and restlessness on her face.

“That remind me, Sieg-san never came back did he?”
“Sieg-san? Ah that trader person.”

Aria spoke as if she suddenly remembered.
That reminded me, a trader of good-built visited us right as it began snowing, and took various orders from us.

It’s been pretty long since the snow stopped falling, but there was no presence of them yet.

“Snow has pretty much stopped falling around here, but that might not be the case for the town.
It rarely falls near the Demon Forest, after all.”
“…That may be so.
It’s been so pleasant lately that I forgot this was the border of the Demon Forest.”
“Well don’t forget that.”

The climate near the Demon Forest is often warm year-round.
Thanks to magic, it’s a relatively pleasant spot to stay.

That’s why, while we might be going through the thaw period, it might not be the same where Sieg-san was living.
Even the closest village to us might be still getting snow.

More importantly, Aria’s lowering sense of crisis might be more of a problem here.

“Well, all we can do is wait patiently.
Or did you order something urgently?”
“No.
We even found an alchemy pot in the ruins so we’re good.
Just, I was on the verge of forgetting he ever came here.”
“That’s true…”

This village is completely self-sufficient.
The only thing it would be lacking in was clothes.

Recently, Milia had started sewing on her days off, and although her clothes were becoming cuter day by day, apparently she was still far from the state-of-the-art fashion of the royal capital.
I didn’t really get it.

“Yes, you’re right.
I want him to visit us as well.
Even Kili-san had finally become able to make intellect-raising bracelets, but that would go to waste like this.”
“Hahaha, yeah.
I also want him to visit quickly.”

Kili had succeeded in producing a bracelet.
As expected, her magical power had reached a bottleneck, but once it crossed 20, they could be easily made.

“I also became able, to read the ancient language, and want to make new things.”
“Sui’s so lucky.
I also want to be able to read it.”

Sui and the others had finally decoded the ancient civilization language.

In fact, it was thanks to Sui that we figured out why they weren’t able to read in the first place.
It was the same as with the bracelet.

Apparently, if your intellect was below 10, it was impossible for you to read it.
Sui was able to read the ancient language as long as she held the grimoire.
Once the grimoire was sealed, she became unable to read it at all.
She even became unable to read the parts she already had read once earlier.

That’s when Sui started recording her magical power as well as other stats while continuing to read the book on ancient magician civilization every day.
Once her intellect reached 10, she found she was able to read the words again.
Milia and Kili were also able to read it once their intellects reached 10, so I’m sure of it.

I was trained in the Demon Forest before I even became aware.
So I had never experienced an intellect below 10.
I didn’t even know there was such a hidden mechanism.
Well, all the books in my possession had [State Preservation] magic on them, so I guess it isn’t too surprising for such a mechanism to exist as well.

Perhaps the other book which I thought of as a translated version, just didn’t have that spell cast on it, or someone had released it.
There’s always someone that tries to jailbreak in any period.