TENKEN 483 (1232 words)

A Walk in the Forest of Exhaustion
枯渇の森散歩

After parting ways with Alistair. We went to the Forest of Exhaustion.

I was a little nervous going in, but that was about it. Apparently, I was less traumatized by this forest than I thought I was. Well, maybe, because it was also the place where I met Fran.

『How is it, Fran?』

「Nnn....Feels weird」

Although it can't absorb magical power in our body, but we can't recover our magical power in here. In addition, skills such as presence detection doesn't work well.

It also feels different from before, and it feel strange. When she met me in here, she couldn't control her magic power yet. So, she must not have been able to sense the abnormalities in this forest before.

『It would be difficult to use our magic and skill in this Forest of Exhaustion. Be careful』

「Nn」

『How about you, Urushi?』

「woof....」 

Urushi, who was currently walking slowly in his original huge size, let out a pitiful whine.

In Urushi's case, it must have been more of a burden on his body than Fran. He unconsciously uses magic power on his own body for his daily life, but now he has to do it manually.

First of all, he can't use his body change and shadow diving skills well. He can barely activate the body change, but he can't seem to maintain it for long periods of time, and he can't seem to adjust his size properly.

In addition, it seemed that he had unconsciously strengthened his body with magic power to support his large body, but since he could not use it, he could not control his huge body well too.

『It didn't drain magical power in me and Fran's body though.....』

In Urushi's case, it seems that his magic power is constantly being drained. Not only is he unable to activate his abilities to strengthen his body, but he is constantly losing his magic power. If I hadn't supplied him with magic power, he would have been unable to move long ago.

Maybe there is a part of us that we don't understand were unconsciously using magic, and the cycle of that magic being drained is repeating.

It seems that Urushi himself cannot stop it even if he tells it to stop. I guess it's like skin respiration in humans, a kind of life activity that happen on its own.

「woof...」

『Come on, we're almost reached the end of this forest―Fran』

「Nn!」

Even if we can't use presence detection, we could clearly tell by the rustling sound. There was something big approaching us.

「Ghroaaa!」

A bear with two heads jumped out of the bushes.

『Twin-headed Bear huh』

「I remember this one」

『Oh, really?』

「Nn. The first beast I defeated using Master」

As expected of Fran, she remembered it huh. Well, it was killed instantly by Urushi in front of the motivated Fran though.

No matter how weak it is, their status is different. There was no way that Urushi could lose. However, looking at the bear's vitality, I guess lower level magical beasts that can live without relying on magic power are better suited for activities in the Forest of Exhaustion.

「Woof―!」

Urushi puts his foot on the twin-headed bear, which is knocked down by a blow from his paw, and looks triumphant. However, Fran's face is dissatisfied as she watches.

「Guh....」

「woof?」 

「Even though I was going to take it down myself....」

「Wo-woof...」 

Well, it was a nostalgic opponent huh? Fran, who had intended to take down the twin-headed bear she hadn't seen in a long time, puffed out her cheeks when her prey was snatched from her.

Fran glares at Urushi with jealous eyes as he hurriedly slips away.

「Woof...」 

「Hmph」

「Kyain!」 

「...Next one is for me」

「Woof!」 

Fran was still upset, but she seemed to have forgiven him by pulling his tail.

『Just bear with it for now』

「Nn」

『Yosh. We're good to go then』

I put the bear away in my dimensional storage. It is still possible to activate it for a moment in this Forest of Exhaustion. However, the effect of the magic absorption phenomenon is stronger when the bear is lying on the ground, so I had it lifted a little. No, it can be stored even while it lying on the ground, but that would unnecessarily consume more magic power.

『But then again, normally, magic beast in this area won't attack us』

「What do you mean?」

『You know, with Urushi's smell and presence around us, no small fry magic beast would come near us』

They would rather run away. However, we already had several battles in this Forest of Exhaustion. We had encountered the Twin Headed Bear we had just defeated, twice with goblins, and once with a kobold.

「Nnn....They don't know how strong their opponent is?」

『That was―possible huh』

Because they can't use skills like presence detection, they can't gauge the strength of their opponent. However, not all of the magic beast that attacked us had those skills.

No, even if they don't have any skills, can they have similar abilities as long as they have their magic stone? I've heard that even if they don't have magical power manipulation skills, they can still use magic and other magic technique thanks to the magic stones that take the care of those skills.

If that was the case, it would not be surprising if they had abilities similar to skills such as presence and magic detection. They could tell where their opponent was, but they might not be able to measure its strength.

『Also, it seems magic beast that live in this Forest of Exhaustion are only small fry, so their ability to sense danger has been greatly weakened』

「I see」

This might be a bit of a hassle to set up a tent in this Forest of Exhaustion. We have to be constantly on the lookout for attacks by magic beasts.

Well, it’s not like we're going to stay in this Forest of Exhaustion for a long time. The outer perimeter of the Plains of the Demon Wolf is inhabited by higher level magic beast.

It is said that there have been confirmed sighting of magic beast with a threat level of A. In such cases, there is no choice but to flee. In any case, a threat level of A is the same level as that Lich. Even if we had become stronger, we couldn't say that we could beat him. It was unlikely, but if there were a large number of magical beasts of that level, we would not be able to enter the Plains of the Demon Wolf without a fight.

『Well, lets leave it until we reached the Plains of the Demon Wolf. Come on, we're gonna get out of here』

「Nn!」

「Woof!」

We are going to the nostalgic Plains of the Demon Wolf. Well then, I wonder what its current state is?

__________________________________________

<<<Chapter 482    Table of Content    Chapter 484>>>

This is the only tenken chapter for today

---

Support the translation on Patreon!

---