Survive

With a thud. The thrown Magic Axe cleaved through the bee, charring it black with a surge of electricity.

That bee, far larger than Kikori himself—was it the ruler of this area?

Kikori looked away from the bee that fell to the ground with a dull sound and slowly checked his surroundings.

He didn’t understand. This was a plain, but where in the world had it come from?

Squinting and looking carefully, he spotted something like smooth green trees… no, that was wrong.

They were flowers—unusually large ones. And there was nothing resembling a beehive. So why?

Looking around even more closely… he noticed it. Bees were poking their heads out of the ground.

“Underground…!? Is the nest beneath the ground!”

If that was the case, this was bad. On a plain lush with grass and flowers, searching for holes in the ground was hopeless.

Going further from here… would be outright suicide.

“Let’s go back. This place is too dangerous.”

“Yeah, I think so too.”

“I agree as well.”

The orc settlement from earlier was still better than this.

Thinking that, Kikori and the others jumped back into the original spatial distortion once more.

The place they arrived at was… a plain with a river flowing right beside it.

“H-ha ha… what is going on here?”

“This is bad. It’s not just that existing maps are useless—this is…”

“We can’t memorize the route. This is the worst…”

If the destinations caused by the spatial distortions had become completely random, that meant returning would be difficult… but it also meant their limited food supplies had become a serious problem.

Starvation. The word surfaced in Kikori’s mind, and he shook his head to drive the thought away.

“…A boar.”

Spotting a boar monster grazing in the grass ahead, Kikori muttered quietly.

He recalled hearing that monsters from the Contaminated Region were inedible unless properly treated, but…

“Kuon. Do you know why monsters from the Contaminated Region can’t be eaten?”

“Huh? Um, you have to remove the mana before they’re even remotely edible… wait, don’t tell me—”

“By that logic, we can eat them. I’ve got this.”

As he spoke, Kikori lightly tapped his armor.

With this armor that absorbed the mana of anything it touched, removing mana could be done quickly.

“That’s true… haha. Yeah, we have to consider that possibility too.”

“Yeah. Since there’s a monster here that looks edible, let’s stock up on preserved food.”

He didn’t know how they would get back.

But he had no intention of dying for nothing.

With Kuon the priest, they could heal injuries.

With Eil the alchemist, they might even identify edible wild plants.

And Kikori… could fight until he collapsed.

He might not be useful for living well, but he could be useful for not dying.

“…Let’s survive. All of us.”