Chapter 8: Towards the Forest of Death

While leaving the guild, deciding we would pick up the money (that they needed to prepare) together with the Magic stone I hastily ordered, my new card and plates for Azu and Syl, we returned to the inn for diner.

"Haaah… that was a long day… Azu stop standing there and take a seat next to Syl."

"C-can I really?"

"I said it, so yes."

Azu pulled out the chair and climbed on, her legs were hanging free in the air.

"So, I was thinking…"

"You did?" Syl smiled provocatively.

"Shut it Syl, I'm trying to be serious here, but I can say it teasingly too," I placed my index finger on her mouth.

"O-okay…" Syl turned bright red and drink her soup.

"So, what I was talking about. I think we should give this town a goodbye."

"Yeah, people might get rowdy when they find out about our haul so I think we should leave too, but to where?"

"That's a hard question, there are no major cities around here other then this one," Azu spoke out and recieved some mean looks from other clients.

"Well, who said it have to be a town? We can use our survival abilities and live in a forest."

"Like when we met, right?" Syl smiled and finished her soup and bread.

"Well, Mayaleensian jungle is out of the question so I was thinking of heading north."

"The forest of Death, eh? Sounds good with your magic we could even cultivate the land so let's give it a shot. I actually know about a good place there. It's a little way from the forest, but if we made it there before sunset then we can get to the place by the next evening. Especially if we use your magic Tarumi."

"I see, any thoughts Azu?"

"Y-you are asking me?"

"Who else?"

"B-b-but I'm—"

"If you say 'Becouse I'm a slave' I'm gonna flick your forehead."

"Th-then if I could ask. Could we get a portable furnace? Even human made is good for me, I won't be able to cast ingots, but I should be able to maintain your weapons."

"That seems logical. Okay, once we get Azu all the equipment she needs and the magic stone, we will head out for the forest of No return!"

"You just made that up as a cover right?" Syl whispered and I retured her look with a nod.

As we ended our conversation and decided our next location, I was faced with another great problem. Two girls plus one bed plus me… this doesn't look good.

"Right, you girls take the bed I will sleep—"

"Master, I'm a slave, so I will sleep on the floor. Plus I don't want to step between you two," Azu blushed a little.

Just who do you think I am in your eyes, Azu?

"Don't we have enough space on the bed though? It's really big so I think we could get on it all three."

"Syl?!" my voice skipped an octave and Azu turned even redder.

"I mean, look at the bed! Even if I lay down vertically or horizontaly, I still have enough space! And I'm the tallest here!"

Syl rolled around on the bed, showing us. Though I must say, when she lay on her side supporting her head with a fist, she looked really alluring.

"You know what, I'm really tired so let's just go sleep," after calming myself I resoluted myself to my fate and once I put on my sleepwear, I fell to the bed.

Wait, is Syl turning red now? Did she thought I wouldn't do this? Well, too late for that! If you want to get embarrassed then I shall help you!

I shifted my position to centre of the bed and smiled at Syl same way as she did before, "Let's get a good night sleep, shall we?" I said with big confident grin on my face.

"Uh, y-yeah…"

As red as beetroot! Ha! Gotta serve you your medicine!

"Um, excuse me for being late…" last one to join us was Azu, just like Syl she was dressed lightly, but you could still get the outlines of her figure. She's really skinny, we better make sure she eats up a lot and gain some musle.

A second later Azu slipped under blanket, completly red in face looking up at me.

"We… only have two blankets, so… please don't hesitate to use mine…" Azu got even redder as she throw her blanket over me.

However, becouse her hands were short, only a half of me got covered.

"D-don't worry Azu, I got this half covered!" Syl, most likely trying to get back at me threw her blanket over me too, though her voice betrayed her embarrassment.

"Um… maybe if I get closer it would help?" Azu started crawling closer to me. Syl on the other side did so as well.

"Um, sorry to say, but I guess you got too close…" I tried to protest as I felt my hands sink intorocky cliff on one side and fluffy clouds on the other. True manifestation of heaven and earth.

"But we were like this yesterday too," Syl smiled at me fiendishly.

"Y-y-y-you were?!" Azu shivered.

"O-only becouse Syl moves around too much in her sleep," I tried to defend myself, but one look at Azu's eyes told me she did not belive me.

"Okay then, let's turn of the lights now, okay? Fuuuuuuuuu," Syl, still red behind her ears blew on the candle to put it out.

Once darkness enveloped me, my other sences got sharper. I could hear and feel Syl's soft breath near my neck as well as Azu's just below my shoulder.

***

In the morning, I was as tired, if not more, as in the evening. Syl on the other hand beamed like a morning sun. Azu looked more like me, but I guess she was more refreshed then me as well.

"Good morning you three. Would you like your breakfast and tea?"

"I would love some coffee, but I can do with tea too…"

"Alright, I will serve it right away! Todays breakfast is porridge with fruits picked just this morning. Also, the tea is Mallin Green."

"Thanks…"

The tea the girl was talking about was quite famous around town as the Mallin was growing pretty much everywhere and it's berries were quite sweet. The leaves were usually dried before autumn started. Right now we were in middle of spring and from what I was told by Syl, the temperatures here didn't change that much except for winter when snow usually got as high as humans if not even more.

The food and tea really revived me so I was at full power when we decided to head to the adventurers guild.

"Oh, Syl how long will the enchantments take?"

"It depends on the magic intake. I will have your backpack absorb magic and that Magic stone at the same time. Sadly I don't have enough magic to do it quickly so I will return to our lodging after we have the stone and by evening it should be done."

"I see, and if I helped you suply magic?"

"That should take some time off, yes," Syl nodded with a big smile.

The city was bustling with life today even more then yesterday, but that may be due to us waking up earlier. A lot of adventurers were going to and from the city and I even saw a noble-like carriage heading to the south.

Soon we entered the guild and the girl that registered me came over.

"Lord Tarumi! Welcome! I have your rewards and everything here, so please follow me!" she was all excited as she lead me to a private room in the first floor.

"Good morning to you too. I haven't seen guildmaster is he out?"

"Yeah! He set out for the capital with Aide and his second in command in tow."

"Hm? What happened?"

"You don't know? Yesterday a low ranked adventurer was accused of crime he did not commit and when the guildmaster found out, he blew off in such a rage that he went personally to the governor of the city to report it. And it wasn't all. It appeared that the governor was investigating on her own and collected enough evidence to get both of those imprissoned!" the girl beamed a smile filled with excitement.

Hey, that was me. Not like I can tell her that.

"I see. I hope the newbie stays in the bussiness then," I gave her aamused smiled and headed upstairs. Hey Syl I can hear you snickering back there.

After sitting down in the room where I copied the spells yesterday, we had to wait a little before the girl brought the pouch with money and the magic stone on a tray.

"Here it is. One magic stone and fifteen gold coins. I exchanged them for silvers so you have her eone hundread and fifty silver coins."

"Um… thanks," I nodded a little as she did more then was asked of her, "Can I study some magic before checking on the jobs?"

"Of course. However I have to take my leave for now," the girl bowed and left the room.

"So, should we get the show on the road?"

"I'm ready," Syl nodded to me, holding the stone in her hands. I placed my backpack on table and opened it as Syl instructed me.

"Now, I will start chanting. Once I do, place your hands on mine like when we were training magic sence. I will warn you now, if we fail for whatever reason, there is a chance this thing explodes."

Given how cute Syl's pouting face was, I answeared with "I understand" while having a huge grin on my face.

"You don't look like you get it at all!!!"

"Okay, okay. I understand, I won't do anything inapropriate or make jokes," I errased my smile and gave her a serious look.

"Alright. I'm starting now. Azu go on a look out."

"Yes, miss!" the little girl, shaken by Syl's seriousness nodded and trodded outside the room.

"In name of primordial darkness and infinite skies, I beseach thee…" Syl started chanting and I suplied her with my mana. Somehow, it was now that I notice how small her hands actually were. Her fingers are long and thin, I can make out with touch how strong they actually are. "Come down and envelop this holder in everlasting emptiness [Magic bag creation]."

Once the chant was done, some five minutes later, the backpack changed color from blue to black and when I looked inside, I could not see anything.

"And it's done. Now try storing something in," Syl smiled smugly and wiped her forehead.

Obediently I took the things I placed on the sofa I was sitting on and started packing them. However, once the darkness enveloped the items they disappeared like if they never existed.

"Heheh, it's a huge success. Remember that the items inside can fall out if you turn it upside down. Also, don't store in living things or liquids. That thing isn't waterproof, right?"

"Give it one minute and water comes through it like if nothing was there."

"Guess so. Anyway, you can praise me as much as you want. I think it's job well done!" Syl smiled at me with happy look in her eyes.

"Yeah, yeah. Good work Syl, what would I do without you," I patted her head and went to fetch Azu.

"H-hey!" Syl got really flustered, but did not say anything more.

Once we left the guild we headed for craftsman district bought portable furnace that Azu picked and several other smithing equipment. With this we could get proper maintainence while on the move. Of course we would need bigger furnace for real smithing, but that would have to wait.

"I must say this enchantment is amazing. We put so many things inside and it feels like there was nothing in my bag."

"Right? Once we get to the forest of Death we should tackle the dungeons in there."

"Dungeons?"

"Dungeons are caves filled with Magic stones. However the magical powers of the stones lure in monsters that absorb the powers and becouse of that those monsters get stronger."

"I see. We better be ready to fight in small spaces too. Let's get Azu some equipment."

"Yes, that's good idea."

"Th-thank you master, I will make sure to work hard to compensate for it," Azu pumped up her hands before her chest. Though she looked like a chimpmunk and I give in and patted her head.

"Just don't work yourself too hard."

"Yes!!!"

We entered the shop we came to yesterday and the girls went to pick their clothes.

"I must say I never thought I would see such happy looking slaves," the shop owner said to me as he smiled towards the girls.

"It's not that weird is it?"

"Oh, it is weird. I never saw a slave laughing, just how in the world did you do that?"

"Easily. I just treated them as I would any other human."

"What?!"

"I mean, even though they are slaves, they have feelings. I just treated them a little nicely and they opened up to me."

"I never thought something like that is possible."

The mentality of this world is that slaves are tools to be used, so I'm not that surprised about his comments.

"Hm, are these magic rings?"

"Oh, yes, are you interrested? The one with pearl have increased acurracy and toughness…"

I stopped listening to him and picked a pair of simple looking rings.

"Thank you for the purchase," the shop owner bowed lightly and I tucked the two rings in my pocket.

Not even a minute later, the girls returned. Azu now had brown leather vest as armor with same colored gloves, tassets and greaves. Under it she had black trousers and pink long sleaved shirt. On top of her head were goggles with light blue glasses. Her hairs were held by a string in two side buns. On her belt were several pockets for some small items. She also had a giant axe on her shoulder.

Small girl big weapon… I always liked this trope in anime…

"So? How does she look?" Syl grabbed Azu's shoulders and gave me a wink. One look at her face told me that she was really nervous.

"It looks great. Quite lovely too," I give Azu honest smile as I paid for the armor.

So far we only spend four gold coins, that's quite low.

"Th-thank you…" Azu blushed and played with her loose hairs with her free hand.

"Okay, do we have everything?"

"We still need water and some provisons, but we should be okay. The place I have in mind is relatively close. It should take us at most half a day with your magic Tarumi."

"I see. That's good to know. Oh, speaking of magic, do you know why I can use other magics appart from those you said I have affinity for?"

"Well, there is no real reason for not being able to use some particular type of magic. After all magic comes form one source so what we mean by affinity is which element in your body is stronger then others. Also, humans who tends to use one element they have affinity for tends to be stronger then those who use all magic."

So it goes down to time you spend perfecting your craft huh?

"Thanks it helps to know that. Look something is happening at the gate."

"Um, what could it be?"

As we walked without rising our speed significantly, we made it to the gate just as as the commotion ended. From what we could see, a dainty looking woman with a child in her hands. What was bizzare however was the sight of knight captain Kork getting dragged by her.

"What happened here?"

"Hahahah, just the usuall. Miss Kork came to get her husband for lunch," a knight in the gate laughed as he told me.

"And why did she had to beat him for that?"

"Well… his shift ended hour ago but he stayed behind to lecture newbies… hahah, no need to worry by tomorrow he will be as fresh as a daisy!"

Seems people in this world are tougher then I thought.

"Well, let's get going. Wind spirits envelop our legs and grant us speed!" as I comanded the spirits, our pace hastened.

"Huh?!" the people seeing us leaving let out surprised yelps, but we could no longer hear them.

We were going through the plains to the north. The wind felt really nice in my hairs. I had my helmet in my bag becouse, like it or not, when wind blew through it, it really hurt my eyes.

Not even an three hours into our running we got to the borders of the forest.

"Let's take break here."

"Haaah-haaaaaaaaah… what the hell… how do you have so much energy master?" Azu, who was the entire time lagging behind heaved and spoke hoarsely as she fell to the ground.

"You're not normal Tarumi. Even I am a little tired and I was moving constantly up until now. How are you doing that?"

"Hmmm… maybe it's becouse of my training? I told you my grandfather was a hunter, but that was my grandfather from mothers side. The grandfather from my fathers side however was a soldier."

"A soldier?"

"Yep. Former soldier from special forces. My two grandfathers were close friends so when I asked them to train me… well, let's say they were thorough."

"Is that why you are so tough?"

"I wouldn't say so. I actually never landed a hit on gramps."

"You're kidding!" Syl punched the grass as she tilted forward to take water bottle from Azu.

I guess my gramps look like undefeatable monster. Well, to be honest I did won some competitions in the past, but after that incident at Westpeak mall… yeah, let's not remember those times

BURAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!

We all heard a bear's roar. Azu and Syl stiffened and even I felt chills run down my back. Looking over my shoulder I saw a giant black bear with red eye glowing with hatered. The bear only had one eye, the other was destroyed most likely by flame.

"Heheh, seems like it's time for round two."