The next day.
We’re hunting treants again today. If there’s anything different, it would be that I’ve already gotten used to fighting them. Because of that I was able to beat them a lot easier compared to when I first fought them during our first day.
Thanks to that, the quota that would’ve originally taken one week could now be finished much earlier. If our hunting rate were slow, it would’ve taken us two weeks to meet it, but considering our hunting rate today, we might be able to finish up by today or tomorrow and be on our way back to Gimuru the next.
“Ha!” [Ryouma]
With a stroke of my blade, I cut the face of the treant from the forehead to its jaw. Continuing, I slashed upward with my katana and cut the face of the treant to the right in half. A different treant came whipping at me with its branches from above, but I dodged it and cut its branches down.
I’ve been thinking this for a while now, but when I cut the treants from the side, their faces really look like a mask.
While I was thinking something dumb like that, I finished defeating the third treant. When I looked around me, there were no more treants nearby.
“Looks like you’ve already gotten used to hunting treants, Ryouma.” [Mizelia]
“Ryouma has always been good with the sword, so it didn’t take him long to get used to them, de gozaru.” [Asagi]
“There’s no waste in his movements, nyaa.” [Miya]
“Thank you very much. My grandfather throughly beat my martial arts into me, so I’m actually quite confident with it.” [Ryouma]
Although the forest is a bit dangerous, we can still talk casually like this with each other. It’s not good if we’re too relaxed, but it also won’t do us any good to be too tense.
As we progressed deeper into the forest, the air changed.
Mana Perception…!
“Raypin-san” [Ryouma]
“Umu. There’s a lot of them, de aru. Unfortunately, I can’t tell how many of them there are exactly from here, de aru. Asagi.” [Raypin]
“There’s probably an elder treant at the end of this, de gozaru. Let’s proceed while making sure we have a path of retreat. If it’s too much for us, we’ll retreat and bring back information to the guild, de gozaru.” [Asagi]
We paid attention to our surrounding as we advanced.
“Ha!”
“Nyaa!!”
“—!”
“EI!”
“Wind Cutter!”
A new forest of treants appeared from the direction we were advancing in. The treants that noticed us moved toward us and attacked. There were so many of them that we couldn’t deal with them all.
The women attacked the faces with axes and nata hatchets, while Asagi-san cut below the faces with his long sword. Raypin-san supported with his magic, while I made sure to take down the treants that tried to go behind us to prevent us from getting surrounded.
“…”
There was no end to the treants that came from the forest depths. Fortunately, the treants weren’t strong individually. Moreover, the treants we were fighting had unrooted themselves so they could move, so whenever we beat them, they would tumble to the ground and free up our line of sight.
“We’re still holding on, but there’s no end to them!” [Syria]
No one responded to Syria-san, but everyone knew that we all agreed with her.
“From my mana perception, almost all the trees in this area are treants, de aru! Let’s cut them all down, de aru!” [Raypin]
“Don’t push yourselves! It’s not a shameful thing to retreat!” [Asagi]
“We know!” [Wereanna]
“We can only enjoy our life while we have it!” [Mizelia]
Despite what everyone was saying, they weren’t actually all that serious. After glancing at the enemy, we would quickly move to the next treant and fight. As expected, everyone was either an A Rank or a B Rank, and this level wasn’t anything to them.
I decided to focus on my job, as the treants coming my way increased a little.
I sheathed my katana and ordered the Big Metal Slime, who was acting as a sheathe, to separate themselves.
“Mu!? What are you doing, de aru?” [Raypin]
“I just thought I’d up my pace!” [Ryouma]
There were 100 metal slimes on my feet. I picked up two slimes and ordered them to transform.
The metal slimes transformed into throwing axes.
Throwing axes are projectiles, so naturally, I strengthened them with ki and threw them.
“O…”
“O… Oo…”
The two axes cleanly drew an arc and struck the face of the two treants that approached. In the next moment, the treants fell. I took another metal slime, turned it into a throwing axe, and threw it. Like that I just kept throwing one metal slime throwing axe after another!
From my experiences until now, I know that the mana of the treants isn’t distributed perfectly equally.
The mana throughout the body of the treant may seem equal at first, but there’s actually one spot where there’s more mana than anywhere else. That place is none other than their weakness, their ‘face’.
Apparently, the face of the treants is necessary in order to distribute mana throughout its body. In other words, it’s the equivalent of a human heart to them. And when that spot is damaged, their mana would quickly leave their body, and they would die… If you liken their face to the heart, and their mana to blood, then they’re really just like humans.
But unlike blood, the flow of mana can be grasped with Mana Perception. Which means that as long as you can use Mana Perception, you can find the weak point of the treants. That’s why I know exactly where to aim.
By attacking them from outside their range, I could take them down in a single blow.
And since I’m not using mana, I won’t run out of mana nor will I get tired easily since my body is strengthened by ki. …Honestly, treants are actually pretty easy now.
Even better, had I been merely using normal throwing weapons, then I’d eventually run out of axes and be unable to attack anymore. But what I’m throwing are metal slime throwing axes. After throwing them, they can pick themselves up and roll themselves back to me. Therefore, my ammo is infinite and I don’t even have to waste my time gathering my axes.
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