Published: August 2, 2025
Today, nine chapters are released simultaneously.
This story is the second of those chapters.
A month has passed since the Founding Festival ended and the Semiroid troupe left this town.
Since the festival, the summer heat has gradually eased over the past month. I’ve been spending my days catching and sorting slimes to donate to the church. During that time, I also evolved a slime that prefers wind-attribute mana. It’s been steady, quiet training every day.
And today marks exactly half a year since I parted ways with the Duke's household. When I stopped by the Adventurers' Guild, Mr. Wogan called me over.
“Ryoma, seems like you’ve been doing well lately. At one point, I thought you might have just stuck to being a merchant.”
“Ahaha... well, I’ve been taking it easy.”
“Well, when you’re leading others, it doesn’t matter if you’re suited or not; you still have responsibilities and work to handle. …So here’s the main point: Are you free for about two weeks starting next week?”
I had a stock of waterproof cloth ready and no urgent jobs.
“I’m good.”
“Good. Then I have a request for you. It involves gathering materials, but the volume is large, so we need someone skilled in spatial magic. Your job would be to help with transportation. By the way, the place you’ll be collecting from is home to the magical beast you’ve wanted to fight.”
“Really?”
“Yeah, the target is the treant. We want you to gather treant materials.”
Treants!
Treants are plant-type magical beasts that look like trees, camouflaging among surrounding trees to ambush people and other magical beasts. They’re common in the Shurus Great Tree Sea—a dangerous magical beast specialized in disguising and surprise attacks.
“They’ll explain everything in detail after gathering the rest of the members, so if you’re interested, come to the guild tomorrow at noon. If you decide to accept then, you’ll register your participation.”
“Understood. I’ll be there tomorrow at noon.”
“Alright, be careful.”
Having made up my mind, I knew I had to let others know I’d be heading out...
The next day.
When I arrived at the guild as promised, Miya was already in the room.
“Meow? Ryoma, you were called too?”
“They want someone with spatial magic skills.”
“To collect that much—what exactly do they plan to use it for?”
“Who knows...”
As we chatted casually, Wellanna, Reipin, and Asagi arrived one after another, and finally Mr. Wogan came in to give the explanation.
“So, that’s the situation.”
To summarize, the request is to secure timber. We’re to hunt down treants and bring back their materials. The minimum is 300 treants, and if we bring back more, the rewards go up accordingly.
Since we don’t know how big one treant is, the total amount is unclear, but it will definitely be quite a lot. It makes sense why they called me and Reipin, who can use spatial magic.
The plan is to depart in two days.
Since there seemed to be no issues, I decided to join. Looking around, it seemed the others were joining too.
But after everyone had accepted the request, Wellanna asked a question.
“Why collect so much treant wood? Is there a reason?”
“Ah... you know the town’s population has been dropping, right?”
“Of course. One of the mines closed, so with less work, some folks left.”
“The previous town official wasn’t very earnest about this. He didn’t do much. But the new official is serious about it—population growth, increased revenue, and improving the town’s environment. Lots of initiatives underway.
This project came from a staff proposal aiming to create a specialty to attract people. …But this town has no attractions besides the mines and iron.”
What about a place where limule birds gather? That could be a tourist spot, right?
“That idea came up, but it conflicts with the grell frog hunting season, so it wasn’t suitable for tourism. And if hunting stopped, the town would lose income from grell frogs, so that plan was scrapped. Besides, it’s all temporary. The officials want something permanent, something always available year-round as a specialty.”