Itai no wa Iya nanode Bōgyo-Ryoku ni Kyokufuri Shitai to Omoimasu 25

Defense Specialization and Resuming the Search

After the two walked through the grasslands for an hour.

Finally they caught a glimpse of the forest ahead.

They gathered their energy and picked up their walking pace.

「W-we finally made it!」

「That’s quite a thick forest…」

The two stepped into the forest.

The thick forest was dimly lit, with almost no light from the sky passing through.

Moreover, there were many bushes, making it a terrain perfect for a surprise attack from a monster.

「I’ll protect you!」

「Really, you are the most up-to-the-task of anyone.」

If an attack could damage Kaede, no one would be able to withstand it. Risa advanced through the forest, hiding behind Kaede, cautious of her surroundings.

30 minutes later.

In the end, a surprise attack, which the two of them feared, never happened, and their exploration continued peacefully.

「Nothing is coming up, is it?」

「It’s creepy that nothing is.」

「Ahaha… that’s for sure…」
*Silence*, complete and utter was over the forest. Just as Risa said, it was creepy.

The deeper they went, the less sounds there actually were.

「Hey, can’t we talk about something!?」

Risa shouted out of inexpressible anxiety.

「Eh!? F-fine, why not? Um…」

At the moment when Kaede was about to force herself to start talking in order to change this atmosphere.

The two of them heard a sound of something igniting.

Since it was the first sound that they had heard since coming here, the two reacted sharply and turned towards the direction of the sound.

And they saw a few blue flickering hitodama approaching.

「This is a game, this is a game, this is a game…! Yes, it’s okay, it’s okay…」

Risa muttered to herself.

「It’s not okay at all, is it!?」

「Run away? Should we run away? Should we?」

It definitely wasn’t okay.

「Well, it would be a waste to use 【Eating Inedibles】, and…」

「T-then take off your equipment! I’ll give you a ride! I-it’s getting closer!」

Kaede rode on Risa’s back with only New Moon equipped, just in case.

At that moment Risa started running silently.

After the hitodama appeared, the monsters also seemed to become more lively.

Floating skulls, hitodama of various colors, zombies, semi-transparent humans, and all sorts of ghosts and specters began to appear.

「Ugh…! We shouldn’t have gone into this forest!」

「Oh! What a pretty flame! There’s even a green one and everything!」

The difference in enthusiasm between the two was like the difference in temperature between the desert and the tundra, and they ran through the forest without fighting.

Finally, they found a crumbling abandoned house and jumped in for emergency shelter.

「It’s crumbling… you want to search around?」

「I’ll leave it to you.」

「Well, you’ve always been bad with ghosts, I guess.」

「They are impossible to get used to. It’s better in-game, since you can just escape, but…」

Risa, seemingly exhausted, sat down on a chair that was in the abandoned house. Kaede began to search around, but to begin with, there was hardly any furniture in this abandoned house.

The only things that were there were a battered table, a battered chair that Risa was sitting on…

A dirty carpet under the table…

And an old chest of drawers.

There wasn’t even a bed in this room, and it’s doubtful anyone lived here.

The windows were cracked in places, with some glass chipped, barely holding up.

「In the chest of drawers, there is… nothing, huh?」

Kaede was a little bit hopeful that there would be a medal, but it didn’t work out that conveniently.

Kaede opened her status and checked the current time on the attached clock.

「What do we do now? It’s past six o’clock in-game time… it’s almost evening.」

「Ah… so maybe that’s why the ghosts came out… going in with the wrong timing… I brought some food with me, so I can handle it. I hate having to stay here… but hey…」

Risa gently looked out the window.

The outside was crawling with figures of people that clearly weren’t players.

Since no monsters entered the abandoned house, it seemed safe.

However, walking outside would definitely be hell on earth for Risa.

「It can’t be helped… we should just put up with it…」

Kaede also sat by Risa’s side after finishing her search. There was no chair, so she sat directly on the floor.

「I’ll put the equipment back on, just in case… I’ll use Snow White as my great shield… and then, do you want to play cards?」

There were a few simple entertainment items in the game. This was one of them.

「It might take our minds off things for a bit, but… with just two people, whatever we play it’ll be over pretty quickly, right?」

「Ah! I-I see! I haven’t thought of that!」

*Tee-hee-hee* Risa giggled when she saw Kaede like that.

She seemed to be getting back into the swing of things; she stretched out, took the playing cards Kaede was holding, and began to deal them.

The night had just started.

「Alright… there!」

「Well, sorry, it’s a joker.」

「Uggh…」

Kaede groaned.

The two were playing cards, chess, and other games that Kaede offered.

In the middle of it, they ate dinner, and continued playing.

Since they were in the game, there was no problem even if they didn’t eat, but Risa said she had to eat just like she did in real life when she spent time in the game, or she wouldn’t be in the best shape, so they brought a lot of food with them.

Risa gave Kaede some food as well and the two ate together.

The only thing Kaede brought with her were entertainment items.

「Hmm… this one! Alright, I won!」

「Damn i-it…」

The scene looked as if it had been taken straight from a school trip room, except they were surrounded by a sea of trees and it took place in an abandoned house.
TL note: people playing in a school trip room. More info about what a “school trip” (修学旅行) is here.

「It’s been quite a while… it’s already ten o’clock.」

Kaede checked the time and put the playing cards and other things away into her inventory.

「They’re still going strong outside, and… well, I guess we’ll be staying the night here…」

「I think that’s fine. Maybe there are some medals or equipment in this forest, so… it would be better to wait until after the monsters disappear in the morning.」

「I’m sorry we couldn’t explore.」

「It’s all right! However, you should do your best tomorrow!」

「Gotcha!」

The two took out their sleeping bags and spread them out on the floor.

The two exchanged a few words with one another and took their places on the floor.

Since the chance of a monster attack was not zero, they took turns sleeping for two hours each.

It was Kaede’s turn to sleep first.

「It’s so quiet…」

In the abandoned house where all one could hear was Kaede breathing in her sleep, Risa sat alone in a chair, wary of her surroundings.

Her worries were unfounded though, as the monsters did not attack.

And when it was twelve o’clock and she was about to get up to wake Kaede up.

She heard a low, noisy voice from near the table.

It was intermittent, but could certainly be heard.

「Uuuwwaaaaaaaaahh!!」

Risa stood up to wake Kaede up and collapsed towards her.

Kaede was sleeping, not caring about such things because of her characteristic defense power, but she was awakened by the triple combo of a loud noise of armor hitting the floor, Risa screaming, and the low voice.

「What’s the matter…?」

「I-it came out! At table! At table!」

Kaede approached the table, leaving Risa, whose vocabulary shriveled from her fear and anxiety, alone for the moment.

There was definitely a low voice coming from there.

Kaede listened carefully, trying to locate the source of the sound.

「The table… under it?」

There was a tattered carpet laid out there.

Risa was curled up in a corner, so, with all the strength she could muster, she moved the table.

That was the 【STR 0】 life.

Then she turned the carpet over and checked underneath.

「This is… is it a basement?」

The floor had a cut-out in it and it had a handle.

Kaede immediately opened it.

「That opened so easily! …a staircase, huh.」

The voice was getting louder, so there was no doubt its source was down there.

「I’ll go search around, okay?」

「I will… also go. It would be bad if you got hurt, Kaede…」

Risa slowly stood up and snuggled up to Kaede’s back.

「Leave the front to me-e!」

「Thank you… okay…! Let’s go!」

Risa regained her spirits; the goal was to get to the owner of the voice coming from the basement.

The two went down the stairs.