Published: July 4, 2025
In a one-on-one situation, and not in a marsh, even the lizard king was no match for Abel.
However, in a place where piles of lizardman corpses were stacked high, there was no opportunity to catch a breath, so they decided to move a little north for the time being.
As they quenched their thirst.
“[Water, come forth] [Cup, arise]”
Ryo chanted in a somewhat cool manner to prepare water in front of Abel.
Abel, while casting a sidelong glance at him, drank water as they walked.
“Hey, Ryo.”
“What’s up, Abel?”
“Wasn’t the chant you used to prepare water in the pitcher last night, [Water, arise], or something like that?”
“Eh…”
Ryo’s eyes darted around.
“W-was it? Isn’t it just your imagination, Abel?”
Ryo's suspicious behavior left no room for persuasion.
“Well, whatever. By the way, what was that ice spear earlier?”
“What do you mean by ‘what was that’? It was the water attribute magic [Icicle Lance], you know?”
“No, you sent four at once earlier, right?”
“Well, yes, I sent four. But that's just how the magic works, so I don't know how to answer that.”
Abel pondered for a moment about what kind of question to ask.
And then he decided to share a fact he knew.
“I have a companion who is a wind attribute mage, and she says that magic can only be activated once per chant. But the [Icicle Lance] you just used sent four; don't you think that's strange?”
However, Ryo confidently responded.
“I don’t know about wind attribute magic, but as far as water attribute magic goes, that was perfectly normal. There’s no problem at all.”
“I-I see…”
Abel could only say that in response to Ryo's overly confident expression.
After walking for about thirty minutes from where they buried the lizardmen, they came upon a slightly open area in the forest.
From past experience, he thought there would be an assassin hawk in such a spot, so they waited for a while, but no sign of one appeared, and thus decided to camp there for the night.
“As for dinner… lizardmen don’t taste very good, do they?”
“Ah, they’re incredibly nasty. That’s why we left all the corpses behind.”
“Right… Then I’ll go hunt something, so Abel, please gather some dry branches and prepare for a fire.”
Abel, having no doubts about Ryo's magical abilities anymore, agreed to the suggestion.
Without a doubt, mages were better suited for this kind of hunting than swordsmen.
“Got it. Please bring back something.”
With that said, Abel began collecting dry branches.
Ryo ventured a little into the forest.
(Sigh… I should unify the chant as [Water, come forth].)
What he was thinking was incredibly trivial.
Ryo easily found a normal rabbit and took it down with a water jet.
Moreover, right where he caught it, he discovered a loquat tree.
“Oh, we’ve added fruit for dessert!”
With both hands full of normal rabbit and loquat fruit, Ryo returned to the campsite.
There, Abel had just come back with dry branches.
“Abel, we have fruit for dessert tonight.”
“Oh ho! But that fruit… I’ve never seen it before…”
“Huh? Is it not eaten around here? Back in my hometown, we called it loquat and ate it.”
“I’ve never heard of that name before. It smells sweet. I’m looking forward to it.”
Setting down the dry branches he had been holding, Abel began to set up a campfire.
“[Water pitcher, arise] [Cup, arise] [Water, come forth]”
As he chanted, Ryo poured water into the cup and handed it to Abel, who was preparing the campfire.
“Here you go, Abel. The chant is [Water, come forth]. Did you hear that? That’s the correct one.”
“Eh? What are you talking about…?”
“The chant is [Water, come forth]. Got it?”
“Ah, yes…”
Ryo had gained a stronger assertiveness.
The next day, the two were making good progress north.
They encountered a challenge just before noon.
“A wall… huh?”
“A wall… indeed.”
A rock formation that could only be described as a wall, so continuous that there was no gap visible from east to west, and standing at a height of at least a hundred meters, was blocking their path.