Fluden’s mother had a gleaming, dark tanned face.
When we handed her the letter and asked to borrow the boat,
“You guys want to be fishermen? N~ Your legs and hips seem sturdy! Feel free to use our boat if you need it! Also, if my son’s going to be there, won’t you tell him to come home from time to time!? That idiot, he won’t show his face at all; If I find him, see if I don’t get him to a marriage interview! Have you heard if there’s a girl he likes? That’s right! That guy’s someone who doesn’t have any gate with love, so there’s no way I can just quietly kick the bucket over here!”
Fluden’s mother made complaints almost endlessly about Fluden, hardly taking a breath. She even had time to slip in an explanation on how women could go for a long time without breathing when they’re really going at it in between her complaints.
We’re limited on time, so we asked where the boat was, ended the chat there, and headed to the boat.
Fluden’s family’s boat was rundown.
Even so, it looked like it would float on the sea, so we’ll use it.
In order to allow the hull to absorb impacts, I drew the magic circle that can give magic power the characteristics of rubber on it. In the event of a collision, I think we can pretty much avoid taking any damage if I coat the hull with my magic power. Continuing on, I drew the wind magic circle on the stern. I feel like it can help us move faster than the magic circle that can produce a water current, so this time it’s the wind magic circle. I’ll try testing everything.
“Seth. I’ll leave the rudder to you. Ayl, keep an eye on the map and compass.”
I concentrate on the magic circles.
“Ok-ssu!”
“N, Roger.”
When we reached the open sea, pointing the boat east, I suddenly pour a little magic power into the magic circle.
Boom
With a sound like an explosion, the boat advanced from the wind shot from the stern. I coated the hull with magic power, and it bounced off the sea’s surface many times, further increasing the speed.
We overshot East End in a split second, and land was unable to be seen in all 360 degrees around us.
Receiving Seth’s complaint of, “The rudder won’t respond,” I eventually stop pouring magic power into the magic circle. Even after stopping the magic power, the boat continued advancing by momentum. When the speed feel, I’d just add a little bit of magic power at a time, keeping the speed at the level where the rudder would still work.
Monsters didn’t appear much. Ayl swung her wooden sword at monsters that looked like they’d be in the way, threatening them with wind pressure, and they immediately dove back into the sea.
Was it 2 hours later? We were able to see the shadow of land ahead.
“There, I think that’s probably the western most island!”
Ayl yelled as she pointed with her finger.
We disembarked once the boat reached the island, but no matter how you looked at it, the map and the terrain were different. It seems the westernmost island should have a cove, but there’s no cove on this island.
Ayl ran vertically up into the sky, looked at the surrounding islands from above, and returned.
“It’s the wrong one!”
Unfurling the map, Ayl pointed at the southernmost island in the island groups,
“We’re here-ish. I wonder why? We were going dead east the entire time, though.”
“We were set askew by the ocean currents, right?”
If we reached the southernmost island after hitting the ocean current from the north, then I predict that the boat with the tutor’s body in it might have drifted in from a more northern island.
When we were going to return to the boat, a round green monster came walking unsteadily from the forest. No matter how you looked at it, this green monster looks like a bird monster, with its face like an owl. Can it fly or not? I’m not sure, but using its two legs jerkily, its round body swayed as it walked. I even thought, doesn’t it seem to be unsuitable for walking? It has an unhateable adorableness, so the three of us kept looking at it.
Next, a monster with four legs and long tail appeared from the forest. And its body was as large as the cat monsters we often see at the port city, and it seems to be chasing the green bird monster. It’s similar to the weasels or martins from my previous world. I thought that the weasel monster would catch the green bird monster in the next moment, but suddenly a single arrow descended from the sky, piercing the weasel monster’s body.
I immediately deployed my Search Skill, being cautious, but there weren’t any signs of people. Can a monster fire an arrow? Was it ghosts?
“Be careful of our surroundings! Watch out for attacks from above! If it gets bad, we’ll get on the boat immediately and run away.”
I gave the two of them orders and inspected the arrow that pierced the weasel monster. It’s not an arrow made from magic, but there were traces of magic power on the arrow’s feather. It seems that the magic power was used to increase the force. Just when I was thinking it would be quite the threat if it was a monster, my Search Skill picked up signs of a person. If he fired the arrow outside the range of the Search Skill, then he brought down his prey over 1 kilometer away. Is he a monster?
That ‘monster’ seems to be coming this way, so I waited.
The ‘monster’ that came out of the forest is a red-headed human with a long goatee and a nose ring-like piercing. He has deep wrinkles on his forehead, and his age is probably in the 40s or 50s. He isn’t overly muscly, but his body is well built. His clothes are dirty, but he’s not dressed too differently from the people in East End. He’s carrying a curved bow on his shoulder.
“You guys haven’t brought some weird monster here, have you?”
The man asked us without even a greeting.
“We haven’t.”
“Really? These beasels and masmascarl hide in the bilges of ships. Bringing them here is really troublesome!”
Seems like the weasel monsters are called beasels.
“It’s okay. I can use [Search], so I can tell if there are monsters on the boat.”
Is this man protecting the island’s ecosystem?
“-! I see … sorry for suspecting you. I thought you were the usual pirates.”
The man apologized to us as he pulled the arrow out of the weasel monster. The green bird monster had already disappeared into the forest.
“Are you protecting this island’s ecosystem?”
“Eco what?”
So he doesn’t know about ecosystems?”
“Are you protecting this island’s monsters?”
“Aah-! Well, it’s the gagapo. Did you see it? The round green monster. I was thinking about protecting them however I can.”
“Are you a monster researcher?”
“Self-asserted. It’s not like I want to be recognized as one. I’m the self-styled monster researcher, Shiose.”
“I’m the cleaner and exterminator, Naoki.”
“Same job as him, I’m Ayl.”
“Same job, I’m Seth.”
Each of us gave our introductions.
“What’s a cleaner and exterminator?”
“We’re people who clean houses and exterminate masmascarl and bugroaches and the like.”
“There’s a job like that?”
“We created it.”
“I see.”
“Again, why is Shiose-san protecting the gagapo?”
“The ones who originally lived on this island are the gagapo. Even so, when people arrived by boat, beasels and masmascarl also disembarked with them, eating the gagapo. Not only can the gagapo not fly, they’re also terrible at running. They’re the quintessential prey animal.”
It’s amazing they can live despite being unable to fly and sucking at running.
“It’s just, see. Gagapo meat is incredibly delicious! Originally, I took boats to all sorts of places, and I believe I’ve eaten all sorts of monster meat, but among those, gagapo meat is the most delicious!”
It seems that Shiose-san gets fired up when talking about the gagapo.
“I’d like to protect them so they can breed if possible, but it’s not going well. It’s been 7 years since I’ve come to this island, but the only things I’ve done are make some cages and somehow guard them.”
“Do you have a skill to tame monsters?”
“Aa, I don’t think anything will change even if I have it. I haven’t taken it.”
I see. It’s not like taming them will raise a gagapo’s fundamental abilities, huh?
“That archery seems to be quite a nice skill though?”
Ayl asked.
“Aah, well, just on this island. You can perform long-ranged attacks by raising the Bow Skill, but if you don’t understand the direction and strength of the wind, you won’t hit. Within these 7 years, I become able to read the wind on this island.”
“Even so, I don’t think your skill is normal if you can hit a moving target 1 km away.”
“It’s experience. Experience.”
I wonder if experience somehow becomes Level. I think that Shiose-san has talent for for the bow no matter what he thinks, but, well, what you like isn’t necessarily the same as what you’re good at.
“As an exterminator, can you exterminate all of the beasels on this island?”
“I wonder. I don’t know of any poison that’s only effective on beasels, so I could only set some traps. Even so, I don’t think I can exterminate all the beasels on the island.”
“I see.”
“Even so, would you like to try using these? They’re called sticky traps, traps that can catch monsters.”
I took a sticky trap out from the item bag and handed it to Shiose-san.
“If you put magic power into it, it will get sticky.”
“Ooh-! This isssss! I want to try using this with gagapo as bait!”
Shiose-san said as he felt the sticky trap.
“Should I sell it to you?”
“Is that okay? Wait a second.”
Shiose-san turned his own wallet upside down. Silver and gold coins clattered as they came out.
I haven’t thought of selling the sticky traps before, so I haven’t decided what to price them at. In actuality, I just need to draw a magic circle on a plank of wood, so it doesn’t take a lot of capital.
“How is 10 sticky traps for 5 copper coins?”
“Th,that cheap?”
Huh? Is that too cheap?
“In that case, I’ll take these please.”
Shiose-san handed my 3 silver coins, so I handed him 60 sticky traps. I didn’t run out, but I like to carry quite a bit with me so I’ll have to replenish the stock later.
“Maan, what a great deal. Please come again.”
“Sure. We’ll drop by next time we pass the archipelago. I also want you to meet our monster researcher.”
“You have a monster researcher?”
“Yes, among my employees.”
While we were chatting pleasantly like that,
“President, haven’t you forgotten our original goal?”
Seth said.
“Oh that’s right. Um, actually, we’re searching for someone, so have you seen this person?”
I asked as I showed Shiose-san the Prince’s portrait.
“Nope, haven’t seen him.”
“I see.”
“He’s a good-looking blond man. Try asking at the dried goods store.”
“Dried goods store?”
“Yeah, they live on a boat and come selling dried goods. If it’s them, they go around the archipelago from corner to corner; I’ll ask next time they come.”
I don’t know when next time will be, but it doesn’t seem like it will be tomorrow. Even so, isn’t that fine? Let’s ask him to as insurance in case we can’t find the Prince.
“Thank you, I’ll ask you to do that. Then, we’ll be going.”
“Ou! Thanks for the traps! Be careful of pirates! Those guys are idiots!”
“Oka-y!”
We set off to the islands to the north. We departed without even unfurling our sails, so Shiose-san was surprised with his mouth open.
On our way to the northern islands, we encountered pirates. They came pulling up alongside our boat in order to pillage, but Ayl and Seth turned the tables on them. There were 16 pirates in total. All of them were captured. It seems their base is the cove on the western island.
I made them sit in seiza and showed them the Prince’s portrait.
“Have you seen this guy?”
I tried asking them.
“H,hell if I know!”
“I see, then should we shave everyone’s noses off?”
Ayl said mercilessly.
“W,w,wait! Wait! O,o,our boss might know!”
The pirates told us to try asking their boss at their bass. They even went as far as to say they’d guide us, so we followed them. I think that it’s 80 or 90% likely to be a trap, but if they displease us we’ll destroy their pirate ship and throw all of them into the sea.
It’s already dusk. It seems like the sun will have already set by the time we reach the pirates’ base.
“Hurry it up! We’re going far out of our way, after all!”
Ayl is merciless to the pirates.
“Y,yes ma’am!”
We’re going out of our way for our own circumstances, but the pirates seem to have gotten used to the unreasonable situation and replied accordingly.
Fluden’s mother had a gleaming, dark tanned face.
When we handed her the letter and asked to borrow the boat,
“You guys want to be fishermen? N~ Your legs and hips seem sturdy! Feel free to use our boat if you need it! Also, if my son’s going to be there, won’t you tell him to come home from time to time!? That idiot, he won’t show his face at all; If I find him, see if I don’t get him to a marriage interview! Have you heard if there’s a girl he likes? That’s right! That guy’s someone who doesn’t have any gate with love, so there’s no way I can just quietly kick the bucket over here!”
Fluden’s mother made complaints almost endlessly about Fluden, hardly taking a breath. She even had time to slip in an explanation on how women could go for a long time without breathing when they’re really going at it in between her complaints.
We’re limited on time, so we asked where the boat was, ended the chat there, and headed to the boat.
Fluden’s family’s boat was rundown.
Even so, it looked like it would float on the sea, so we’ll use it.
In order to allow the hull to absorb impacts, I drew the magic circle that can give magic power the characteristics of rubber on it. In the event of a collision, I think we can pretty much avoid taking any damage if I coat the hull with my magic power. Continuing on, I drew the wind magic circle on the stern. I feel like it can help us move faster than the magic circle that can produce a water current, so this time it’s the wind magic circle. I’ll try testing everything.
“Seth. I’ll leave the rudder to you. Ayl, keep an eye on the map and compass.”
I concentrate on the magic circles.
“Ok-ssu!”
“N, Roger.”
When we reached the open sea, pointing the boat east, I suddenly pour a little magic power into the magic circle.
Boom
With a sound like an explosion, the boat advanced from the wind shot from the stern. I coated the hull with magic power, and it bounced off the sea’s surface many times, further increasing the speed.
We overshot East End in a split second, and land was unable to be seen in all 360 degrees around us.
Receiving Seth’s complaint of, “The rudder won’t respond,” I eventually stop pouring magic power into the magic circle. Even after stopping the magic power, the boat continued advancing by momentum. When the speed feel, I’d just add a little bit of magic power at a time, keeping the speed at the level where the rudder would still work.
Monsters didn’t appear much. Ayl swung her wooden sword at monsters that looked like they’d be in the way, threatening them with wind pressure, and they immediately dove back into the sea.
Was it 2 hours later? We were able to see the shadow of land ahead.
“There, I think that’s probably the western most island!”
Ayl yelled as she pointed with her finger.
We disembarked once the boat reached the island, but no matter how you looked at it, the map and the terrain were different. It seems the westernmost island should have a cove, but there’s no cove on this island.
Ayl ran vertically up into the sky, looked at the surrounding islands from above, and returned.
“It’s the wrong one!”
Unfurling the map, Ayl pointed at the southernmost island in the island groups,
“We’re here-ish. I wonder why? We were going dead east the entire time, though.”
“We were set askew by the ocean currents, right?”
If we reached the southernmost island after hitting the ocean current from the north, then I predict that the boat with the tutor’s body in it might have drifted in from a more northern island.
When we were going to return to the boat, a round green monster came walking unsteadily from the forest. No matter how you looked at it, this green monster looks like a bird monster, with its face like an owl. Can it fly or not? I’m not sure, but using its two legs jerkily, its round body swayed as it walked. I even thought, doesn’t it seem to be unsuitable for walking? It has an unhateable adorableness, so the three of us kept looking at it.
Next, a monster with four legs and long tail appeared from the forest. And its body was as large as the cat monsters we often see at the port city, and it seems to be chasing the green bird monster. It’s similar to the weasels or martins from my previous world. I thought that the weasel monster would catch the green bird monster in the next moment, but suddenly a single arrow descended from the sky, piercing the weasel monster’s body.
I immediately deployed my Search Skill, being cautious, but there weren’t any signs of people. Can a monster fire an arrow? Was it ghosts?
“Be careful of our surroundings! Watch out for attacks from above! If it gets bad, we’ll get on the boat immediately and run away.”
I gave the two of them orders and inspected the arrow that pierced the weasel monster. It’s not an arrow made from magic, but there were traces of magic power on the arrow’s feather. It seems that the magic power was used to increase the force. Just when I was thinking it would be quite the threat if it was a monster, my Search Skill picked up signs of a person. If he fired the arrow outside the range of the Search Skill, then he brought down his prey over 1 kilometer away. Is he a monster?
That ‘monster’ seems to be coming this way, so I waited.
The ‘monster’ that came out of the forest is a red-headed human with a long goatee and a nose ring-like piercing. He has deep wrinkles on his forehead, and his age is probably in the 40s or 50s. He isn’t overly muscly, but his body is well built. His clothes are dirty, but he’s not dressed too differently from the people in East End. He’s carrying a curved bow on his shoulder.
“You guys haven’t brought some weird monster here, have you?”
The man asked us without even a greeting.
“We haven’t.”
“Really? These beasels and masmascarl hide in the bilges of ships. Bringing them here is really troublesome!”
Seems like the weasel monsters are called beasels.
“It’s okay. I can use [Search], so I can tell if there are monsters on the boat.”
Is this man protecting the island’s ecosystem?
“-! I see … sorry for suspecting you. I thought you were the usual pirates.”
The man apologized to us as he pulled the arrow out of the weasel monster. The green bird monster had already disappeared into the forest.
“Are you protecting this island’s ecosystem?”
“Eco what?”
So he doesn’t know about ecosystems?”
“Are you protecting this island’s monsters?”
“Aah-! Well, it’s the gagapo. Did you see it? The round green monster. I was thinking about protecting them however I can.”
“Are you a monster researcher?”
“Self-asserted. It’s not like I want to be recognized as one. I’m the self-styled monster researcher, Shiose.”
“I’m the cleaner and exterminator, Naoki.”
“Same job as him, I’m Ayl.”
“Same job, I’m Seth.”
Each of us gave our introductions.
“What’s a cleaner and exterminator?”
“We’re people who clean houses and exterminate masmascarl and bugroaches and the like.”
“There’s a job like that?”
“We created it.”
“I see.”
“Again, why is Shiose-san protecting the gagapo?”
“The ones who originally lived on this island are the gagapo. Even so, when people arrived by boat, beasels and masmascarl also disembarked with them, eating the gagapo. Not only can the gagapo not fly, they’re also terrible at running. They’re the quintessential prey animal.”
It’s amazing they can live despite being unable to fly and sucking at running.
“It’s just, see. Gagapo meat is incredibly delicious! Originally, I took boats to all sorts of places, and I believe I’ve eaten all sorts of monster meat, but among those, gagapo meat is the most delicious!”
It seems that Shiose-san gets fired up when talking about the gagapo.
“I’d like to protect them so they can breed if possible, but it’s not going well. It’s been 7 years since I’ve come to this island, but the only things I’ve done are make some cages and somehow guard them.”
“Do you have a skill to tame monsters?”
“Aa, I don’t think anything will change even if I have it. I haven’t taken it.”
I see. It’s not like taming them will raise a gagapo’s fundamental abilities, huh?
“That archery seems to be quite a nice skill though?”
Ayl asked.
“Aah, well, just on this island. You can perform long-ranged attacks by raising the Bow Skill, but if you don’t understand the direction and strength of the wind, you won’t hit. Within these 7 years, I become able to read the wind on this island.”
“Even so, I don’t think your skill is normal if you can hit a moving target 1 km away.”
“It’s experience. Experience.”
I wonder if experience somehow becomes Level. I think that Shiose-san has talent for for the bow no matter what he thinks, but, well, what you like isn’t necessarily the same as what you’re good at.
“As an exterminator, can you exterminate all of the beasels on this island?”
“I wonder. I don’t know of any poison that’s only effective on beasels, so I could only set some traps. Even so, I don’t think I can exterminate all the beasels on the island.”
“I see.”
“Even so, would you like to try using these? They’re called sticky traps, traps that can catch monsters.”
I took a sticky trap out from the item bag and handed it to Shiose-san.
“If you put magic power into it, it will get sticky.”
“Ooh-! This isssss! I want to try using this with gagapo as bait!”
Shiose-san said as he felt the sticky trap.
“Should I sell it to you?”
“Is that okay? Wait a second.”
Shiose-san turned his own wallet upside down. Silver and gold coins clattered as they came out.
I haven’t thought of selling the sticky traps before, so I haven’t decided what to price them at. In actuality, I just need to draw a magic circle on a plank of wood, so it doesn’t take a lot of capital.
“How is 10 sticky traps for 5 copper coins?”
“Th,that cheap?”
Huh? Is that too cheap?
“In that case, I’ll take these please.”
Shiose-san handed my 3 silver coins, so I handed him 60 sticky traps. I didn’t run out, but I like to carry quite a bit with me so I’ll have to replenish the stock later.
“Maan, what a great deal. Please come again.”
“Sure. We’ll drop by next time we pass the archipelago. I also want you to meet our monster researcher.”
“You have a monster researcher?”
“Yes, among my employees.”
While we were chatting pleasantly like that,
“President, haven’t you forgotten our original goal?”
Seth said.
“Oh that’s right. Um, actually, we’re searching for someone, so have you seen this person?”
I asked as I showed Shiose-san the Prince’s portrait.
“Nope, haven’t seen him.”
“I see.”
“He’s a good-looking blond man. Try asking at the dried goods store.”
“Dried goods store?”
“Yeah, they live on a boat and come selling dried goods. If it’s them, they go around the archipelago from corner to corner; I’ll ask next time they come.”
I don’t know when next time will be, but it doesn’t seem like it will be tomorrow. Even so, isn’t that fine? Let’s ask him to as insurance in case we can’t find the Prince.
“Thank you, I’ll ask you to do that. Then, we’ll be going.”
“Ou! Thanks for the traps! Be careful of pirates! Those guys are idiots!”
“Oka-y!”
We set off to the islands to the north. We departed without even unfurling our sails, so Shiose-san was surprised with his mouth open.
On our way to the northern islands, we encountered pirates. They came pulling up alongside our boat in order to pillage, but Ayl and Seth turned the tables on them. There were 16 pirates in total. All of them were captured. It seems their base is the cove on the western island.
I made them sit in seiza and showed them the Prince’s portrait.
“Have you seen this guy?”
I tried asking them.
“H,hell if I know!”
“I see, then should we shave everyone’s noses off?”
Ayl said mercilessly.
“W,w,wait! Wait! O,o,our boss might know!”
The pirates told us to try asking their boss at their bass. They even went as far as to say they’d guide us, so we followed them. I think that it’s 80 or 90% likely to be a trap, but if they displease us we’ll destroy their pirate ship and throw all of them into the sea.
It’s already dusk. It seems like the sun will have already set by the time we reach the pirates’ base.
“Hurry it up! We’re going far out of our way, after all!”
Ayl is merciless to the pirates.
“Y,yes ma’am!”
We’re going out of our way for our own circumstances, but the pirates seem to have gotten used to the unreasonable situation and replied accordingly.
