After leaving my birthplace, or rather, my reincarnation birthplace, I headed south for the time being. I had encountered adventurers once before when I was in my Miasma form. At that time, I followed the adventurers and found a road, so I was confident that there would be a town where people lived further along that path.
The journey that took about a week in my Miasma form only took two days to reach the road using Flight. From there, I flew southwest along the road. Since it was near the road, I flew quite high up to avoid being seen by humans. After flying for about half a day, a town enclosed by wooden fences appeared in front of me… or rather, a settlement that looked like a “village” at best.
I used Life Detection from the sky to check the village’s condition. It seemed that about 100 humans lived in this village. There seemed to be many elderly people, but there were also a fair number of young people and children.
(I think I’ll gather information near this village for a while.)
With that in mind, I landed in the forest near the village.
As soon as I landed in the forest, I confirmed that Life Detection had picked up Monsters. It seemed that a pack of Forest Wolves had settled nearby. They would be a bit of a nuisance for me, who was planning to gather information here for a while. I guess I’ll go out of my way and defeat them.
If that’s the case, the sooner the better. I immediately scattered the ten or so Forest Wolves with Wind Magic and Earth Magic. After easily annihilating the Forest Wolves, I looked for a tree that produced sap and secured a place to eat.
Even though it was in the forest, the village was nearby, so when I rested on a tree, people who seemed to be villagers would occasionally appear. They would collect medicinal herbs and nuts and return to the village. By eavesdropping on their conversations, I learned that the village was called “Myra” Village, and that there was a town called “Weber” to the west and a town called “Maurice” to the south.
I also saw the adventurers I had met when I was a Miasma. They were named Eric, the swordsman, Thomas, the shield bearer, Mary, the mage, and Helen, the healer.
They were adventurers based in the western town of Weber, but all four of them seemed to be from this village, and they would occasionally take on requests from this village and hunt the surrounding Monsters. Their rank was still F, and they were still not strong enough as a fighting force, but it seemed that adventurers who would come to a remote village like this were rare, so they were a blessing to the villagers.
It seemed that they had come to take on a Forest Wolf subjugation quest, but they were tilting their heads, unable to find the Forest Wolves they were looking for.
Sorry. I took care of them as soon as I arrived.
If things continued like this, they would be in trouble, so I left the corpses of ten Forest Wolves on their way back. They were very surprised by the sudden appearance of the Forest Wolf corpses, but they chose to take the corpses back to inform the villagers that the threat was gone.
It had been a week since I came to this forest, and I gradually learned about this world from the conversations of the villagers who came to collect herbs from time to time and Eric and the others who patrolled regularly. It seemed that this place was located at the northernmost tip of the Gruebal Continent. The area was ruled by a country called the “Verdelin Kingdom,” which seemed to control the northern half of this continent. By the way, the southern half was the territory of a country called the “Tronbalen Republic.”
However, even though villagers and Eric and the others would occasionally appear, they didn’t come to the forest where Monsters were very often, and I wanted to get information somehow, so I gradually started to perch on trees near the village. I made sure to perch quite high up, so I didn’t think I would be found so easily, but…
“Hey, there’s something on that tree!”
I heard a lively voice from below, so I looked down and saw a group of elementary school-aged children looking up at me.
“Whoa! It’s true! Isn’t that a Beetle?”
One of them was pointing at me.
It seemed that the village children had come to explore the forest. However, even if it was close to the village, it was still a proper forest. The probability of Monsters appearing was not 0%. I wondered how the adults had allowed them to come.
“Hey, hey, let’s go back. That Beetle is weird, too. I mean, it’s perched so high up, but we can see it so clearly, doesn’t that mean it’s really big? It might be a Monster?”
While the boys were excitedly pointing and kicking the tree to try and knock me down, the girls were surprisingly calmly analyzing the situation. It seemed that girls grew faster in this world as well.
“Let’s go back soon. We’ll get scolded if the adults find out.”
Judging from another girl’s words, it seemed that these children had come to explore this forest without the adults knowing. Considering the common sense of this world, it seemed like a rather dangerous action, but well, it was okay now since I was here. Even if Monsters approached, they would be the kind that I could defeat with a single magic attack in this area.
Ignoring the girls’ worries, the boys’ excitement didn’t subside. I understand how they feel. I was also obsessed with Beetles and Stag Beetles when I was little.
After making a fuss for a while, the boys realized that they couldn’t knock me down no matter what, and they reluctantly returned to the village. Watching their retreating figures, I worried, “Maybe the villagers who heard the children’s stories might come to check,” but I reconsidered, thinking, “Well, I can just run away then.”
However, contrary to my worries, the adults showed no sign of coming. Rather, the children came every day after that. And every time at the same time. Since such days continued for many days, I somehow felt like I had to be there at that time, so I was perched on the tree from morning today as well.
That being said, I’ve gotten quite a bit of information from these children, so it’s a give-and-take relationship. The girls, who were initially wary, had gradually gotten used to me, and now they were eagerly trying to catch me along with the boys. However, there was no way they could catch me, who was perched on a tree over 20 meters tall. After making a fuss for a while, the children were about to return to the village as usual, but they seemed to have found something else, and everyone was excitedly looking at one point.
(Let’s see, is there something over there?)
The other trees were blocking my view of what the children were looking at, so I used Life Detection to check.
Species: Bewitching Butterfly
Name: None
Rank: E
Level: 22
HP: 51/51
MP: 45/45
Attack Power: 41
Defense Power: 29
Magic Attack Power: 39
Magic Defense Power: 33
Agility: 42
Skills
Flight Lv6
Scale Powder Lv5
(Whoa! There was still a Monster like that nearby!? And the children are so interested!)
Unlike Beetles, beautiful butterflies seemed to be popular with the girls. The two girls who initially weren’t very interested in me were taking the lead in chasing it. I was a little envious of that butterfly.
(Could this be that thing? If I had chosen Worm, would it have been one of my evolutions?)
I couldn’t help but think that, but I quite liked this form, so I had no regrets.
More than that, I was concerned, so I expanded the range of my Life Detection and sensed another danger.
(This is bad. There’s another Monster where that Bewitching Butterfly flew. Maybe that butterfly is the type that makes stronger Monsters defeat its prey and then tries to get the leftovers.)
I had detected a stronger Monster where the Bewitching Butterfly had flown.
Species: Poison Spider
Name: None
Rank: E+
Level: 31
HP: 98/98
MP: 49/51
Attack Power: 76
Defense Power: 54
Magic Attack Power: 48
Magic Defense Power: 44
Agility: 87
Skills
Sticky Thread Lv8
Poison Fang Lv7
If it were just the children, honestly, that Bewitching Butterfly would be enough to wipe them all out, but this one seemed to be quite intelligent. It probably knew that the adults would come quickly if it was near the village. It was targeting children who seemed interested in it and leading them deeper into the forest. And by deliberately leading them to a stronger Monster, it was preventing other Monsters from taking its prey. This Bewitching Butterfly and Poison Spider seemed to be clearly symbiotic.
(I messed up, I was careless because I had hunted most of the Monsters in this area. I didn’t realize that a Monster like this had come nearby.)
While I was thinking that, the children were going deeper and deeper into the forest. They were completely engrossed in the Bewitching Butterfly, which was fluttering around where they could reach, rather than me, who was completely out of reach.
(I can’t help it. As a former human, I can’t just stand by and watch children get attacked by Monsters.)
I quietly took flight and followed the children.