162 – Survival (3)
When the bright light surrounding my body disappeared, the first thing that caught my eye was a green blade of grass.
When I realized that there were not only blades of grass in front of me, but also all around me, I quickly lowered my posture and hid myself.
It wasn’t like anything would happen if they found out I was here, but right now I wanted to hide myself from both the possessors and the other students.
‘… ‘I told you to open the map.’
Following Marina’s advice, I took out the map from my pocket and unfolded it, and while everyone else was glowing blue or red, a lone black dot caught my eye.
Without even having to check with Marina, this black dot was me. It was safe to say that it was clear that there was only one and that it was stamped on top of a symbol that looked like a bush.
However, there was nothing bad about checking, so after walking about ten steps next to her, a black dot slowly moved next to her.
I’m not good at reading maps, so I don’t know how accurate the map is, but first of all, this confirmed that this point was me.
‘But which one is Jessica and which one is Euclid?’
The two people’s moles were marked in red, unlike the other students’, but that was all they did, so it was impossible to tell which of the two was different.
I was looking at the map carefully with the intention of first looking at the closer of the two.
[Ian Student.]
I could hear sound from the communication device she had in her arms, so I put it in her ear and Marina spoke to me through the communication device.
[It looks normal on the map. Did you arrive safely?]
“I’m in a bush somewhere, and all I can see are trees and blades of grass around me. “Is this correct?”
[It arrived correctly. I thought it would be easier to move if I hid myself, so I did that. So what do you plan to do from now on?]
“First of all, we have to watch from the side.”
They weren’t attacking us right now and we had no proper countermeasures, so for now all we could do was watch the two from afar.
First of all, I also have to set up a tent, so I plan to wait until the two people find a suitable base and then set up the base in an appropriate place between the two.
[If you are watching, who starts?]
“I plan to go to the nearest place first. “If anything happens, I’ll contact you again.”
After disconnecting, I looked at the map and the closest thing was the dot on the right, and it was currently moving, but it wasn’t moving very fast, so it seemed like I could easily catch up.
It would have been nice to indicate food locations on the map, but the forest was too large to include each item one by one, making it less accurate and messy, making it less readable.
‘It doesn’t really matter because I roughly memorize it….’
I climbed up the tree and used the tree as a stepping stone to keep going without any obstacles, and soon a familiar bun hair caught my eye.
Perhaps because of what I said before, unlike when I entered the labyrinth before, I acted alone, and the fact that my backpack did not shrink in the slightest seemed to indicate that I had not yet found a place to use as a base.
‘It still looks okay.’
It was only natural that it had only been about three hours since we entered the forest, but I was relieved to see that they were safe.
“Huh?”
Jessica suddenly opened her mouth and bent down, making her want to know something. When she looked closely, she saw mushrooms sprouting near a tree and was hurriedly picking them.
No matter how hungry you were, collecting mushrooms in the wild without any professional knowledge was a very dangerous activity, but it was okay in this forest.
If students didn’t want to get hurt during class, they wouldn’t have planted dangerous mushrooms in the first place.
‘But I feel bad for bending over.’
When I saw him lowering his posture and sticking out his buttocks, I was reminded of that night one night, and for no reason, I felt playful.
I landed on the ground, making as little noise as possible so as not to make any noise, and slowly approached Jessica.
And while Jessica was distracted collecting her mushrooms, he took advantage of the opportunity and struck Jessica’s outstretched buttocks with all his might.
“aaah!!”
Jessica, who was not prepared for the sudden shock, fell forward and after rubbing her buttocks twice more, I quickly left with satisfaction.
“Ugh!!”
Even when Jessica got up, opened her eyes and looked back, I had already left.
There was no evidence left that I had done it, but Jessica shouted my name at the top of her voice because I was the only person in this forest who could do something like this.
“Ian!!! It’s you!! “Can’t you come out soon?!!”
There was no way the hidden person would come out even if she shouted for them to come out, but Jessica kept calling my name.
Jessica cried out my name for a while, but when she didn’t come out no matter how long, she turned her back and muttered briefly, probably because she was tired.
“I’ll see you later at home…” .”
Oh my, you’re so scared….
After watching Jessica get angry and leave along the road until the end, I followed the map to Euclid to take a look.
As I got closer to where Euclid was, I saw Nana wearing armor covering her entire body, which was even more noticeable because it was a forest like this.
Then, despite killing my presence, Nana noticed me hiding behind a bush and turned around.
As expected, since he was in charge of protecting the prince, he seems to be at a high level in detecting someone’s presence.
[You’re here, did you find anything suspicious?]
“I’ve only been here for less than 30 minutes, but if I already find something strange, I have to withdraw immediately. “But what are you doing now?”
Euclid looked around in search of food, with his hands full of plants that looked like mushrooms or herbs, and he seemed to be in a hurry, like a person being chased by something.
It’s something that has to be done someday, so there’s no harm in doing it quickly, but even so, I still felt like I was rushing too much.
[That… It’s a shameful story, but His Majesty says he can’t starve me and is looking for food for me.]
“Ah….”
Nana’s voice sounded happy and nervous. Although she was happy that her master was taking care of her, she seemed ashamed that she had caused trouble to Euclid.
“If you have a Euclidean personality, of course you will. Would you like me to tell you where a lot of food is distributed?”
[Even if I tell you, Your Majesty will say this is cheating and will not listen to my advice.]
“But you can probably do judo, right? For example, ‘Mushrooms grow a lot in places like this.’ “I have two mouths, so wouldn’t it be fair to give this much advice?”
[…] … Please.]
When I showed Nana one of the places she had memorized, Nana immediately told Euclid.
Euclid seemed to hesitate for a moment, but as Nana continued to persuade him, he nodded with an expression that made sense.
“Um… “Is this kind of advice okay?”
“Your Majesty has one more mouth than anyone else, so I’m sure no one will be dissatisfied.”
I wonder if this academy, which values authority above all else, would ever complain to the royal family, but it was true anyway.
Euclid was easily persuaded by Nana’s words and headed to the place Nana taught him.
I watched the two people leave for the place I told them about, and only when I could no longer see their backs did I come out of the bushes.
‘Then what should I do now…? .’
What comes to mind right now is building a base and gathering things that can be used as food, but neither of these are urgent.
The base had to be built close to Jessica and Euclid’s base, so it wasn’t ready yet, and the food they had brought was still there.
‘Shall we check the status of other students? Or should I just take a look at the demon beasts Marina mentioned?’
They know me well.
I know very well that I don’t care how high the family’s prestige is, so I won’t necessarily take an ordinary student hostage.
Then, there was only one thing I had to do now, so I set out to find the demon beast that was wandering around somewhere in this forest.
Only the students’ locations were shown on the map, so the location of the demon beast was not known, but there was no great difficulty in finding the demon beast.
I don’t know if it would be appropriate to describe this as a footprint, but it was because there was a trace left on the ground that was clearly that of a demonic beast to anyone who could see it.
‘What is this?’
The traces that covered the ground with a thick liquid looked like traces of an extremely large snake.
Once I bent my knees and touched the floor, my hands were covered with a moist and thick liquid. The viscosity of the liquid was unusually high, so it was difficult to remove my hands.
I hid in the bushes and walked in a straight line along the marks, and soon I discovered the person who had created these marks.
‘Slime?’
I couldn’t help but be surprised because the giant slime, similar in size to the ice giant that attacked me at the training ground, was a magical beast that had never appeared in the original work.
First of all, there is no way that Marina is a possessed person like me, so she is probably just an accidental result of Marina deciding to do something in her own way.
‘I understand why Marina said not to deal with me.’
If it rejoins or splits even if it is cut, it is the prosecutor’s worst enemy.
But I didn’t think this slime would be helpful against Ganryu.
He never showed fire-making skills when fighting me, but he also uses a Japanese sword, so he could easily start fire if he wanted to.
Still, it would be better than nothing, but if the wizard I saw at that time also came along, there was a possibility that it would be stolen and become a burden instead.
‘… ‘Isn’t this ruined?’