Published: August 2, 2025
Today, nine episodes were released simultaneously.
This story is the sixth episode.
The next day.
Today, as usual, we continued hunting treants. The only difference was that, thanks to getting used to fighting, we were able to defeat them more efficiently than on the first day.
Originally, the plan was to spend about a week, or two weeks at most if the treant wood was hard to collect. But considering the amount gathered up to now, the job would be finished today or tomorrow, and then we would return to Gimul.
“Ha!”
With a single slash, I cut a treant’s face from forehead to chin. Then, I sliced another one’s face beside it from the lower left, splitting it in two. I dodged a branch swung down by a third treant and cut it down from the side.
I’ve done this many times, but I keep thinking—when you cut from the side, the treant’s face looks just like a mask...
Lost in this silly thought, I finished off three treants and confirmed there were no others nearby.
“Ryoma seems to have gotten quite used to treants,” someone remarked.
“Ryoma was originally well-trained in swordsmanship, so he adapts quickly,” another added.
“No wasted movements at all,” they said.
“Thank you. My grandfather drilled martial arts into me thoroughly, so I’m fairly confident,” I replied.
Though this is a dangerous place, I had enough leisure to chat lightly with everyone. It’s not good to be too careless, but being overly tense is also problematic—this felt just right.
However, as we ventured deeper, the atmosphere suddenly changed.
I concentrated on mana sensing...!
“Reipin-san.”
“Hmm. There are quite a lot... Unfortunately, I can’t grasp all of them from here. Asagi.”
“Probably there’s an elder treant ahead. We’ll proceed while securing a retreat route, and if it becomes impossible, we’ll return to the Guild with the information.”
We advanced cautiously, paying attention to our surroundings...
“Ha!!”
“Nyaa!!”
“—!”
“Ei!”
“‘Wind Cutter!’”
Ahead, a new group of treants appeared. They noticed us and began crawling slowly, attacking. Their numbers were so many that we had no choice but to deal with them all at once.
The women aimed at faces with hand axes and machetes. Asagi-san severed treants below their faces with her sword in one strike. Reipin-san supported with magic. I took on treants trying to sneak behind us to avoid being surrounded.
“...”
There seemed to be no end to the wave of treants coming from the depths. Fortunately, each treant wasn’t very strong, and since the treants we were fighting were moving and hadn’t rooted themselves firmly, they fell to the ground when defeated, keeping our vision clear.
“No problem yet, but it’s endless!” Syria-san said, though no one responded, everyone seemed to agree.
“Based on mana sensing, almost all the trees around here are treants! We intend to fell them all!”
“Everyone, don’t overdo it! Retreating is no shame!”
“Got it!”
“We live to fight another day!”
Despite the serious conversation, no one seemed overly worried. They just confirmed and immediately moved on to the next treant. After all, everyone here is A-rank or B-rank. This is nothing to them.
I focused on my task. More treants were coming this way.
I sheathed my sword and had the big metal slime I had been using as a scabbard separate.
“Hmph!? What are you planning?”
“Let’s pick up the pace!”
At my feet were 100 separated metal slimes. I lifted two and instructed them to transform.
The metal slimes transformed into throwing axes.
Of course, being throwing weapons, I strengthened them with ki and threw them!
“Ah...”
“Oh... oh...”
The two axes arced beautifully and pierced the foreheads of two approaching treants, taking them down. Then I immediately transformed the next metal slime into an axe and threw it. I repeated this, throwing axes nonstop!!
From experience, I had learned treants’ mana distribution was uneven.
Mana seemed evenly spread overall, but there was one spot with more mana than others—the weak point: the face.