Published: August 25, 2025
Today, two chapters posted simultaneously.
This is the second chapter.
The next morning
“Oraa!!”
We were relentlessly walking through the dense jungle again this morning, but our pace was faster than yesterday. The sole reason was that Mr. Glen was in top form. I was a bit worried since he drank quite a bit last night, but he actually seemed more energetic.
“As expected, eating delicious food and meat until you’re full, drinking as much alcohol as you want, and then sleeping well really puts you in good spirits!”
He said that first thing this morning, and I understood. Although there was food prepared with magic tools, even he must have had to limit his eating and drinking inside the Tree Sea. For someone like him, who constitutionally requires large amounts of food, that would have made it difficult to perform at his best.
Yesterday, I let him eat and drink as much as he wanted and, on top of that, sleep in a proper room. That’s why his true power could come through. It’s surprising that he wasn’t at full strength even yesterday.
“Wait a moment.”
Suddenly, Mr. Glen stopped walking. It was rare for him to stop without trying to avoid or hide from an enemy, especially since he usually just charges straight ahead.
I heard while eating yesterday that there were two reasons he reached the high level of S-rank: one was his constitution-based physical enhancement, and the other was his “Intuition” skill.
“Intuition” isn’t that rare a skill; some ordinary people who aren’t adventurers have it too. But in his case, because he isn’t the type to think deeply, his experience of continuously surviving life-or-death situations by brute force physical specs honed this skill so well that now he can “somehow understand” most situations with high accuracy.
“Looks like it’s going to be troublesome ahead.”
“Troublesome means there aren’t any strong magical beasts, right?”
“Yeah, it just feels annoying.”
Maybe there are lots of weak magical beasts? But if they were raptors, there would be more movement, and if there were nests, Glen would probably just charge in. So it must be some other kind of magical beast.
“Can we avoid them by detouring?”
“Probably.”
“Then maybe the ones ahead are Gluttonous Flies.”
“What’s that?”
“In simple terms, they’re large carnivorous flies. Large means about 5 centimeters at most, but they have sharp, toothed jaws. When they spot an animal, they swarm regardless of whether it’s alive or dead, tear chunks of flesh, and return to their nest. They repeat this until the target is reduced to bones.”
Imagine flying piranhas.
Each wound is small relative to the fly’s size, so it’s hard to kill the victim, making it easy to be eaten alive. They let what’s left rot in the nest to feed their young, so bites are risky due to bacterial infection. Even if you escape, blood loss can drain your strength or attract other magical beasts, making them arguably more terrifying than piranhas.
They don’t attack unless you enter their territory centered around the nest, so the safest way is to avoid the territory. Fortunately, this time we noticed early enough and can prepare in advance. It shouldn’t be hard to pass through.
I set up another lightning-elemental magic barrier inside the rain shelter’s barrier magic, targeting living creatures. Then I placed a stone slime here for emergencies, and we were ready.
“That was too easy. Is this really enough?”
“Gluttonous Flies’ jaws are threatening, but their bodies have normal insect durability, so their endurance is average.”
They attack with hit-and-run tactics: approaching fast, quickly biting flesh, then fleeing. Our countermeasure is to exploit this behavior—bait them into our bodies and the lightning barrier to self-destruct. It’s like one of those old electric insect killers in convenience stores.
“Even if we fail, we can use spatial magic to return here somehow. And Mr. Glen seems fine even if bitten.”
“Well, it’s just a hassle, not too dangerous.”