No Way.

“Um… can I ask something?”

“Hm?”

“What’s wrong?”

At Eil’s words, Kikori and Kuon turned their gaze to her.

“It’s just a small question… but veteran adventurers far more experienced than us must have gone past here, right? So why is that settlement peaceful, and why are there no guards here?”

Hearing that, Kikori and Kuon looked at each other in shock.

Indeed, she was right. The scene was far too peaceful.

If that settlement lay beyond the Adventurers’ Route, and senior adventurers had passed through here—

Then at the very least, a strict alert system should be in place.

There wouldn’t be anything strange about an orc army being stationed here.

And yet, there wasn’t.

“Kuon. Could the destination be random?”

“No, I’ve never heard that. Beyond the goblin territory is orc territory. So… but this…”

“From an alchemist’s perspective… assuming something happened and created these ‘spatial distortions.’ Even if it stayed stable for a long time, there’s no guarantee it would last forever.”

If that were the case—

Then the “orc settlement” they saw now might be completely unknown… something that had never been exposed to raids before.

“If that’s true! Kuon! Eil! Let’s go back once!”

Kikori grabbed their hands and entered the spatial distortion in the direction they came from.

But the place beyond was not the original forest.

Instead, what spread before them was some kind of plain.

“W-what is this…”

“No way… the rules of the spatial distortion changed now…?”

“Um… does this mean… the way back…”

For some reason, the rules of the spatial distortion had changed.

Since when? Why? They had no idea.

If this hadn’t been reported, it might mean no one had returned to the original place yet.

This was bad. Kikori’s brain warned him of just how dire the situation was through rising panic.

They no longer even knew what kind of enemies they might face.

Existing monster distribution meant nothing anymore.

Unless they kept diving into spatial distortions, they couldn’t even plan a return.

And that was the same as cutting straight through monster territories.

Even monsters might not understand this situation.

“…!”

With a thunderous buzzing sound, a giant bee approached.

A massive yellow-and-black bee flew toward them, colored as if to clearly declare its danger.

Armed with a stinger that looked lethal in one strike and clacking jaws.

“Mjolniiiir!”

They didn’t even know how strong it was.

If it was the kind of monster that meant defeat once it got close, then the only option was to keep it away.

Until they understood anything, they had no choice but to deal with it using long-range firepower.

Kikori’s thrown Mjolnir attack was unleashed with a roar from the very first move.