The Water Magician

After switching places with Ryo as the lookout, Abel sat down in front of the campfire.

Beside him lay the corpse of a lesser rabbit that Ryo had caught.

It seemed that blood had flowed from its ears.

(A stab from a knife to the ear, huh? Not bad skill... Wait a minute, a stab to the ear against a lesser rabbit? With a knife? It’s not just not bad skill; it’s a bit hard to understand. If he approached normally, it would have run away, right? Is he exceptionally skilled at suppressing his presence or something? Wouldn't it be better to say he’s more of a knife expert than a mage? I guess it makes sense that he’s been living alone in this forest.)

While tossing dry wood into the fire, Abel picked up the ice water pitcher and cup that Ryo had prepared for him.

(Speaking of things I don’t understand, there’s this too. This pitcher and cup that he prepared without me noticing. He said I could drink if I got thirsty while he was sleeping… but is his magical power all right? He poured water over my head like a shower under the pretense of replacing a bath before eating… but I think he used quite a bit of magical power for that… He doesn’t seem to be experiencing mana depletion, though… Hmm, I really don’t get it.)

Glancing briefly at Ryo, who was wrapped in a robe and sleeping, Abel thought to himself.

(That robe… is definitely not ordinary… It’s likely something that can’t be created by human hands. Was it a parting gift? What kind of master gives something like that? When he said he would be away for a while, I thought he might be going to greet the spirit of someone he used to live with who had passed away… But if he received something like that, it’s definitely not a spirit… but it’s not human either… What on earth is it? A dragon or some kind of legendary creature? No, if it can’t be created by human hands, there’s also the possibility he received it from a spirit or something… No, no, but…)

It was a circular reasoning that was unlikely to lead to any conclusion.

Well, since it was just a lookout time with no particular tasks, it wasn’t a problem.

As he pondered, the eastern sky began to lighten.

Around the same time, Ryo woke up.

“Abel, good morning.”

“Ah, good morning.”

In the end, Abel was not attacked by any monsters that night.

After eating the lesser rabbit that Ryo had caught, the two began to walk north.

Of course, there was no road in the forest.

There was barely a path that looked like it was made by beasts, but it was certainly not easy to traverse.

The formation was Abel in front and Ryo behind.

This arrangement was due to Abel’s offer to quickly respond to any unexpected monster attacks since he was a swordsman.

Well, for Ryo, who was following along while creating tiny Tokyo Towers in both palms, it was fine to only have to pay attention to the back.

If he walked ahead, he would have to pay attention to whether Ryo was keeping up, which would lead to quicker exhaustion.

That day, starting from the morning, they were somewhat frequently attacked by monsters.

The monsters that attacked were all weak ones, like lesser rabbits, lesser boas, or lesser snakes.

“Ryo, leave the defeated monsters as they are. When it gets close to noon, we’ll have the ones we defeated for lunch.”

“Understood.”

From the lesser rabbits and lesser boas, they could extract magic stones from around the heart.

These would be used in alchemy, but the magic stones from weak monsters named "lesser" were small and of poor quality, making them nearly useless.

Because of this, adventurers do not bother to collect the magic stones from lesser monsters.

They can't even sell them, so collecting them would only waste time.

Once it becomes "greater," they can sell for a decent price, but… at least on Ryo and Abel's journey, they had yet to encounter any greater monsters.

Abel took charge of all the battles.

Ryo observed Abel's movements from behind.

The existence of "combat techniques," which he learned for the first time yesterday, was something he was very curious about.