Vorpal Bunny and Fortress Uncle – Episode 11

Deep into the Unexplored Forest

Since then, every monster that had entered our field of view had been given no quarters and we’d been knocking missions out one after the other. Whether it was because we had experienced the <Forest of the Beasts> first, or because the <Meadow of the Beginning> was the starting area, the mice and chickens hadn’t been a match for us.

“What’s the plan? Wanna try the forest again?” I asked Letty.

“Ah, good idea. I just completed all the missions I had for the prairie.”

Of one mind, Letty and I made our way to the dense forest that extended beyond the grassland.

Even though the sun was still high, the trees stretched their branches as if competing against one another, making the inside of the forest gloomy. But I had a reliable scout called Letty on my side.

“There, found one. Forest Wolf ahead, Ledge.”

At the sound of her voice, I readied my camera. I didn’t have a camera yesterday so it was a good opportunity to get a few shots of the wolves.

Letty took the lead and, a few meters later, we spotted the wolf sluggishly making its way through the forest, still unaware of our presence.

Slowly and silently, I went to hide behind a thick tree and aimed my lens at the wolf. Once the beast was into focus, I snapped the shutter. With a satisfying clack, the gray-haired wolf was added to my collection.

“All right, it’s showtime.”

“<Intimidate>! Uryaaah!”

I fell in a run behind Letty and brought my spear out from the inventory.

Today, we were aiming for wolves’ [Furs] so Neva could make us armors.

“Yah!”

I managed to catch the wolf in its flank while his attention was on Letty. As I withdrew the spear in a spurt of blood, its HP dropped considerably. Compared to my miserable pokes from yesterday, the damages I inflicted now were on a whole different level.

“This <Beast Slayer> bonus sure is nothing to scoff at.”

The damage bonus was probably applied on the mice and chickens we encountered earlier in the meadow, but the effect was more apparent now that we were fighting an enemy we encountered before.

“<Double Thrust>!”

I quickly followed up on my initial hit with two consecutive thrusts.

The poor Forest Wolf met its end before it could even counterattack.

“All right, I’ll go and dismember it. Keep an eye out, will you?”

“Got it~”

Like a good soldier, Letty saluted and went on to scan the forest for any incoming enemies.

In the meantime, I switched to my knife and went to work.

Because the wolf was larger and higher in level than the mice or chickens, the red lines traced a more complex path. Still, I somehow managed to finish the dissection with a good success rate and some colored drop items rolled into my inventory.

“There, I’m done. Let’s get the next one.”

“Yessir!”

The wolf’s corpse crumble into red dust and scattered in the breeze. After seeing it off, we resumed our march towards the heart of the forest.

“The forest is actually beautiful in the day.”

“Well, we could not really afford to enjoy the scenery yesterday.”

We threaded on a trackless path so I had to focus on each step.

Although the forest was dense, the scenery was far from the monotonous green one would expect. Flowers with vibrant colors blossomed here and there, and little streams sparkled in the few rays of sunlight that made their way through the thick canopy.

Bright green; dark green; and the occasionally light blue that dotted the canopy— the more I paid attention to the details, the more I forgot how dangerous the forest could be.

“I suppose this forest is not only wolves though, right?” I asked.

Since our emergency landing, the only creatures we had faced were wolves.

However, if you really paid attention, you could hear the light chirps of the many birds that roamed the branches, and if you looked closely enough, you could discern tracks that had not been left by wolves.

“There might even be a bear,” joked Letty.

“Well I sure hope not. That wouldn’t be good for us right now.”

If we were to actually encounter a bear now, we’d probably get wiped out in a flash.

“Still, we did level up our skills quite a bit, right?”

“Well sure, our attack power has improved quite a bit. But we still don’t have any armors and there’s nothing we can do about our low LP pool.”

Letty nodded at the evidence.

We’ve been on a roll since we left Susanoo so it had been easy to forget that we might have as well been naked and that we still had a low LP pool. On top of that, because we were killing wolves before they could even react, it was even more easy to forget that if we were to take actual hits, our LPs would not last long.

“That’s why we have to make sure we get enough materials today to craft our armors and find some [Source Stones] to increase our max LPs.”

LPs―or Life Points—were the energy needed for every actions. They’re produced by the blue [Magatama] located right in the middle of our chest and stored in it. For now, our current maximum LP was 100. To increase the total LP and accelerate their generation, we machines needed an item called [Source Stone].

“But no one knows how to actually get [Source Stones] yet, right?”

“Yeah. I couldn’t find anything on the forum.”

And that was the problem.

There should be a lot of players investigating it right now and yet there was absolutely no information whatsoever on the matter. I had guessed it would most likely be a reward for a difficult mission or a drop from an area boss, but again, no one had reported one or the other.

“In any event, the top priority is to increase our defense. We’ll stay in the forest as long as we don’t have the materials we need.”

“Anything you say! I don’t like thinking too much, and I’m having fun moving around anyway!” she said, spinning fiercely and widely her hammer around.

Clear and simple, I can’t say I hate it.

While we were talking, Letty seemed to have found our next target. She readied her hammer, throw me a quick glance, and charged.

“<Intimidate>!”

***

We defeated wolf after wolf, occasionally resting to then kill even more wolves. Living up to its name, the more we closed in on the heart of the <Forest of the Beasts>, the more wolves started to appear. And the more we fought, the more our skills leveled up, making fights smoother and smoother.

It was nice and easy; like taking a bone from a puppy.　

We were engrossed in the fights and drunk with the exhilarating feeling of getting easy loots when we started to notice our field of view getting smaller and smaller. And so—

“Crap!”

“It’s pitch dark, Ledge!”

When we came back to our senses, the sun had set for quite some time and we were in the deep, unknown part of the forest. I hurriedly brought my map on display to confirm our location only to realize that there were no data available for that part of the forest.

***

“Okay, that’s bad. We might actually be in a pinch.” I stared at the burning <Bonfire> while considering.

Luckily, we could be counted among the Refugees; players who had already survived an unforgiving night in the forest. We knew that, making alternative use of the lantern and the portable stove, we could easily keep wolves packs at bay.

Although there still was a bit of a problem.

“What do we do? We’re out of fuel, Ledge!”

“There’s nothing we can do about it!”

That’s right. We were completely out of fuel. The lantern’s <Brilliance> ability had a fairly long cooldown, and even if we used both our lanterns alternately, we’d still end up with a downtime. To make up for said downtime, we’d normally use the <Bonfire> ability from the portable stove but, unfortunately, it appeared we had omitted to stock up on fuel before leaving Susanoo.

“Damn, we should have replenished our reserves… That said, I had planned to be back in town before night…” I said, looking at Letty who hanged her head and ears in complete hopelessness.

I didn’t even know how much distance we would have to cover to make it back to Susanoo. The only thing I was sure of was that our remaining fuel would clearly not be enough whatever the distance.

“Dammit, what a waste that’d be.”

“That would mean all we did today was for nothing! Our level ups, items, every-thing! …Waaah!!”

“Don’t cry, don’t cry. I’ll think of something.”

Letty sniffed a few times, wiped her eyes, and nodded. Seeing her like this, I started racking my brain hard.

Once our last light is out, the wolves will come at us. We had lost all advantages now that the dark had settled. And while we may have leveled up our skills considerably, the wolves would most likely just swarm us.

Now, what should we do.

“… I don’t think there’s anything we can do,” I whispered to myself.

I let out a faint sigh and gathered my resolve.

I turned to the frail red-eared bunny that seemed to wait for its sentence.

“Letty.”

“… Yes?”

“I’m sorry,” I said, looking right into her ruby-like eyes. “I’m afraid our trip ends here.”

Tips

◇<Forest of the Beasts>

The forest spreads to the west of the grassland that surrounds Susanoo, and its luxuriant foliage and vegetation make for poor visibility. Although many different ecosystems can be observed, most of the inhabitants are easily frightened and will scamper away at the faintest unusual sound.

But among the cowardly wildlife, one predator stands out: the <Forest Wolf>.

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