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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: FusionX
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“…It’s a unique armor.”
“Is it strange?”
“What kind of golem is this? Alchemists would love the look of it.”
It’s a bit disappointing that I can’t see it without a mirror. I never thought I would regret not being able to see my own appearance directly. I think it looks quite impressive, like the stylish heavy armor from a game I played long ago. I even attached antlers, no, horns to the helmet and processed the tree bark well, so it doesn’t look shabby and crude, but like a knight wearing a green-tinted heavy armor.
“But can you move while wearing that?”
“No problem.”
Although it looks heavy, it’s surprisingly light. If I had made it like a real full plate, I would have collapsed from exhaustion while walking. I’m not the kind of person who would make armor without considering such things. I had made something similar before. Back then, I got caught up in the skill and made it without considering my skinny body condition, and I almost died while wearing it, but I’m different now.
“Can you fight? It seems like it would be incredibly uncomfortable to fight while wearing that.”
“It’s fine. There are ways.”
This isn’t the first time I’ve made this kind of armor. Naturally, I had prepared means to make use of it to some extent.
Anyway, now I need to have Renny wear it too.
“Come here. You need to wear it too.”
“That looks really hot… Phew. I have no choice.”
“Take off that half-crumpled armor.”
That level of armor wouldn’t protect her; it would only hurt her more if she got hit. Renny followed my words and threw off the cumbersome armor. As the armor that had been covering Renny’s figure disappeared, Renny’s well-trained body was revealed.
Hmm, this side is not bad either… Although she doesn’t have eye-catching large breasts like Karina, the faintly visible six-pack on her slightly exposed stomach and her healthily tanned skin were quite attractive. She was literally a beauty overflowing with a healthy charm. The reason it wasn’t emphasized was probably because the brutal image from the game still came to mind.
“Why are you staring at me like that! Hurry up and put it on me!”
“…Stand still for a moment.”
I need to check the size. I circled around her once, examining her body, partly to check the flexibility of the armor. It seemed that about one-third of the materials would be less needed. Since Renny’s muscular strength was far greater than mine, it would be better to make it a bit thicker if possible.
I kept revising the blueprint in my head and scrutinized Renny’s body from top to bottom. Perhaps because she had taken off her armor, Renny was shivering. Was she cold? Even though the weather here maintained a temperature above 20 degrees Celsius all year round. I should quickly make the armor and have her wear it.
“Spread your arms. Until they’re at right angles.”
“Like this?”
Renny, who had spread her arms as if measuring her waist, looked at me with somewhat uneasy eyes. What was the problem? I didn’t really understand.
I should just do what needs to be done.
“Crafting.”
The necessary materials were drawn towards me. It was fortunate that I didn’t have to put in effort at times like this. The materials began to slowly take shape according to my mental design. Making the lining with hide, wrapping bones over it, and then covering it with tree bark. The armor, created over the span of about a minute, revealed itself in front of me, imbued with a greenish hue.
“Not bad.”
“This feels a bit stuffy?”
“Where is it stuffy?”
“…The chest area is a bit.”
“Got it. Repair.”
This should be enough. I looked down at Renny, who was wearing the small golem… no, the armor. I couldn’t help but sigh at the appearance that reminded me of a golem, unlike what I had imagined in my head.
Is it a small golem or a large golem?
Is this the extent of my aesthetic sense?
“…Why are you drooping? We need to go scouting!”
“…Understood.”
I nodded my head weakly.
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“Ah, the smell is really foul. It seems worse than the smell of sulfur…”
Renny grumbled as she crossed the pool. Fortunately, the armor I made withstood the poison in the pool well. I followed behind her, examining the surroundings.
It was quiet.
Why was it quiet?
The fact that it was quiet even though we had entered the most dangerous place in this forest was concerning. Were the snakes all… dead? Or… No way. I didn’t want to imagine such ominous possibilities. That would be the worst outcome. It meant a sudden increase in difficulty level. I tried hard to turn my head and shake off the distracting thoughts, focusing on scouting again.
However, until we passed the fifth pool, there was no sign of a snake.
What’s going on?
“Are there really snakes here? I don’t see a single living thing, let alone snakes.”
“…The snakes should have popped out by now.”
Even if the other snakes had all melted away, why was the hydra so quiet? That guy wasn’t the type to like uninvited guests entering his territory. Could it be that he was also exhausted from blocking the zombies? Or was there another reason? There were too few clues to make a judgment. This purple-tinted forest was eerily quiet.
It was when we had walked for an immeasurable amount of time.
Renny and I almost simultaneously stopped and looked at each other. Although only our slightly exposed eyes were visible, I felt like I knew what she was trying to say.
Hiss-
Hiss-
We quietly gripped our weapons. The unpleasant friction that had spread through the quiet forest. It was obvious what the source of the sound was.
Although the field of vision was narrowed due to the helmets covering our faces, reducing the information we could obtain visually, our highly sensitive hearing caught the sound once again.
Sweat seeped into the leather covering my hands. It was unpleasant, but that wasn’t the problem right now.
That sound.
The sound of those reptiles made my nerves sharpen. They were definitely targeting us from somewhere. It wasn’t a suspicion but a certainty.
I had to kill them.
Listen carefully.
My heart was pounding. The sound was getting closer and closer. The moment of choice was short.
Where would they pop out from?
Left? Right?
The sound alternated between both sides. If that was the case…
“Renny. Take the left.”
I swung my shovel towards the right. Immediately, a heavy impact was transmitted to my hand. My shovel was stained with the snake’s bodily fluids and blood.
A terrible stench squeezed through the helmet and entered my nostrils. It was agonizing. But I had to endure it.
I couldn’t lose my life just because of the smell. As always, with familiar movements, I aimed at the snake that had charged at me.
Even though half of its mouth was cut off, the snake, large enough to swallow an adult male, was slowly approaching to eat me, ignoring its mouth being torn by the shovel blade.
These damn snakes, I wondered why they were so quiet…
“Zombie snakes. The world is coming to an end.”
“This is the first time I’ve seen a snake become a zombie in my life.”
I further tore apart the gruesome mouth of the rotten snake. When I tore its mouth to the point where it seemed doubtful that its facial muscles could function properly, the pressure on the shovel slightly decreased.
I removed one hand from the shovel I was gripping with both hands and placed it on the snake’s nose.
“Crafting.”
The snake’s brow was pierced by a sharpened bear bone. The snake zombie, spewing purple blood and losing strength, was laid on the ground when I pulled out the shovel and kicked it with my foot.
Fortunately, I succeeded in piercing its brain in one go.
“Dismantle.”
It was a good decision to bring the bones of the leader. The bones were sturdy, so the effect was remarkable. I reverted the awl made from the bones decorated around my wrist back to its original state.
Looking back, Renny was in the middle of blowing off the snake’s head and shaking the blood off her sword.
“They’re just big in size.”
“…That only applies to you.”
“Any knight who has been knighted should be able to do this. Ah, young masters who don’t know the ways of the world would have become a warm meal.”
Knights are scary. To cut off the head of a creature that looks to be at least 5 meters long with a single stroke.
Enough. Let’s check it out first.
I picked up the snake’s head that had half-melted in the poison pool. It was a terrifying visual that made me afraid it would even appear in my dreams, but I had to do what needed to be done. I carefully turned the snake’s head and observed it.
“It’s a pretty young one.”
“This one?”
“Adults can be close to 20 meters long.”
The snakes here are ridiculously large despite only eating rabbits. I think most of them are probably dead, but… if there are any alive or have become zombies, it would be really troublesome.
“Zombie snakes… It’s going to be a huge hassle.”
“What are you going to do? Retreat from here? Or go deeper?”
“We’ll go a bit further. We’ve only reached the entrance so far.”
I answered while holding William I, whom I had taken out of my leather pouch. Now that we had confirmed the existence of snake zombies, we needed to raise our vigilance.
I threw William I as far as possible. The rabbit, flying in an arc, melted away in an instant as it fell into the pool.
“That side looks safe.”
“Okay.”
We changed our method of movement. We would throw rabbits into areas that looked dangerous, assess the situation, and then move. In this way, we succeeded in blowing off the heads of five snakes that had revealed themselves after countless bait throws.
…That’s right. Wherever we went, there were snakes.
I tried to analyze the situation while feeling the noticeably lightened weight of the pouch.
Fortunately, not all the snakes had turned into zombies, and it seemed that only some of the larger snakes with higher weight classes had become zombies. So the hydra had probably become a zombie too.
Therefore, we needed to check the hydra’s condition.
It was hard to be certain that a monster like the hydra would have easily become a zombie.
I looked around the forest and set our course towards the cave where the hydra resided.
By the time we climbed onto a rock from which the cave where the hydra stayed was visible in the distance, the leather pouch that had been full of rabbits was empty.
“Should I have caught more?”
“If we killed that many, no more will pop out. We caught at least 10 of them…”
Renny’s voice was filled with undisguisable fatigue. It was only natural. Her body hadn’t fully recovered, yet she had crossed a forest filled with acidic poison and fought. And I was quite exhausted too. Continuously seeing visually unpleasant things had also mentally fatigued me.
It was still eerie to think about the one that charged at us with its head split in half.
Human zombies were indeed the weakest.
“We’ll rest here and wait for that hydra guy to show himself.”
“Got it. Ugh, it’s gross…”
I spent time peeking my head out from behind the rock.
10 minutes, 20 minutes, 30 minutes… Time passed aimlessly.
It was a hardship to spend time without even being able to take off the armor due to the poisonous fumes. Whether it was my imagination or real, the soles of my feet felt tingling. Perhaps the efficacy of the tree bark had reached its lifespan.
The fact that unfavorable situations were accumulating one after another in various ways was displeasing, but there was no particular solution.
How long had we been waiting behind the rock?
The sun, which had begun to set, now sprinkled a crimson hue, casting a mysterious glow on the forest filled with poison pools.
“…Let’s withdraw.”
“Yeah. Let’s go back quickly.”
Let’s wash up and get some rest when we return. It would also be nice to bring a bunch of rabbits and deal with the remaining snakes.
Organizing the plans that were gradually coming to mind, I turned my body.
No, I tried to turn.
If I hadn’t noticed the 9 pairs of eyes staring at us from inside the cave.
How did it know?
“Fuck.”
The 9 heads opened their mouths. I knew the meaning of that action.
That was…
The world began to be dyed purple.
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