Chapter 6

It was difficult to navigate.

Breaking through 5,500 PVs and surpassing 1,000 unique visitors, thank you very much.

「……………」

A tense silence filled the air.

The target, which should have been the goal, remained motionless, hidden in the fallen leaves.

On one side, a hunter equipped with a giant bow as tall as herself. She aimed precisely at the invisible target hidden in the fallen leaves, advancing millimeter by millimeter with sliding steps, moving forward.

Breathing sounds could be heard from somewhere. The moment she moved to that area, the massive body hidden in the fallen leaves sprang up like a spring.

It then lunged at the unsuspecting prey with sharp fangs.

... It was supposed to.

If the target hadn't instantly leaped up and slipped under the attacker's feet.

"Lightning Arrow!"

The final warning mercilessly pierced the soft skin of the abdomen, and the forest's threat, with its nerves seared, met its end.

"Phew, that was scary. And what's a Reverse Boar doing here?"

Beside her, a ten-meter-long snake, pierced by a dissipating arrow and emitting electrical discharges, lay on the ground.

This monster, resembling a rainbow snake, is a type of snake with inverted patterns on its top and bottom.

It feigns death by lying on its back to lure prey, then ambushes the unsuspecting victim with its sharp fangs. The part that looks like its belly is particularly hard, so it's easier to target the patterned underside.

When she came to gather herbs, the surrounding trees kept whispering "Be careful" and "It's scary," so she used the active skill "Exploration" and found a long, writhing body in the fallen leaves.

She waited for the arrow to disappear, then coiled the snake like a hose, bundled it up, and tied it with a rope.

Although she felt a pang of conscience about gathering herbs, she had secured enough to ensure she could go anywhere. However, each time she gathered, she would apologize, saying, "I'm sorry, just a little, please?" which made her heart feel a bit worn out...

"By the way, there are quite a few monsters around here..."

The prey hanging from the rope in Kena's hand was not just a Reverse Boar.

There was a Fowizard, a type of chameleon that shoots needle-like teeth to defeat enemies.

Three Leechbirds, which look like hummingbirds but drink blood instead of nectar.

A Hornbear, which she disassembled into horns, fur, and meat and stored in an item box.

And so on. Just by venturing a bit deeper into the forest, she achieved these results. It was a mystery how the village had remained safe until now, but the reason was clear.

The fence surrounding the village was enchanted to repel monsters. Kena, who didn't have such a spell in her skill set, understood that it must have been a skill created later.

It had been nine days since Kena woke up at the inn in the border village.

Since then, she had visited the tower three times and nearly filled her accumulated magic power. She had planned to head to the location of the other surviving guardians after pinpointing it through communication.

However, according to the guardian of Kena's tower, communication with all the towers seemed to have been cut off, so she needed to find information about a tower-like structure.

If she could reach it, she could use the ring's spell to enter the interior. The problem was that among the thirteen towers, only Kena's tower had the shape of a tower, making it difficult to find. Kena regretted not familiarizing herself with the towers of other skill masters.

She also decided to use hidden flight magic to map the areas around the village and the tower, similar to exploring the action range in a simulation game.

She contributed to the village a bit.

As Maleer had suggested, she did it her way. The guardian of the Silver Tower, upon hearing this, sighed and muttered, "Skill Masters shouldn't sell themselves short."

What she did was create a public bath made entirely of cypress.

Using skills she didn't use often. She built two cabins with the "Cabin Construction" skill she obtained from an offline quest, one for men and one for women.

She created another well and installed a water pump using the "Water Vein Detection" magic. She placed a rock in the center of the partition and cast "Mineral Spring" (which turns water into hot spring water), "Insulation" (which maintains a certain temperature), and "Effect Permanence" (a higher-level preservation magic) on it.

The villagers would take turns managing it. The hardest part was finding cypress-like trees. She had to beg the trees to be cut down, which turned into a tearful task.

She couldn't make soap (lacking the skill), but Kena explained the importance of bathing, which was well-received by the elderly women in the village.

After finishing the day's exploration and presenting the prey to Maleer, Lotte came and was taken aback.

"You've brought so much again... What are you going to do with all this! The whole village can't eat it all!"

"Really!? Can we eat all of this? The birds are one thing, but lizards and snakes!?"

Even the person who brought them back was surprised by Maleer's words. To her, they were all things she hesitated to eat.

"Hey, what's with this amount and variety..."

Lotte, facing the six creatures and a mountain of frozen meat behind the inn, dropped his shoulders.

It seemed as if he was thinking, "Is this a plot to crush the pride of a hunter?"

"What's this mountain of meat? It looks white and cold..."

"That's a Hornbear. It's huge, so I cut it up. I didn't want to carry it as raw meat (in the item box), so I froze it with magic. Oh, here are the fur and horns."

Every step into the forest brought something, whether a monster or a normally living animal, so she switched to flight magic to return. Even in the air, she was attacked by eagles, which made her frustrated.

She managed to defeat them, but the high encounter rate was a concern. In the game, even active monsters wouldn't attack if they were lower level than her. In normal times, active skills wouldn't activate unless consciously used, so she was exasperated by animals that attacked instinctively.

The most difficult part was butchering the bear. The first time she hunted one, she watched it being cut up at a party and tried to mimic it. She felt resistance, the smell of blood was intense, and it took a long time. She even vomited at one point but managed to dismember it and freeze it with the "Freeze" magic.

Either way, if she wanted to survive in this land, she had to get used to it.

"Also, since the caravan is coming, I think it's time to leave this village."

Kena, who had straightened her posture and bowed, was met with silence from Maleer and Lotte.

"Is that so, it will be lonely..."

"Well, Kena is an adventurer, so she can't stay in one place for long..."

The atmosphere became somber, and Litt, who looked curious, joined them.

She had come to fetch water and saw Maleer, Kena, and Lotte facing each other, creating a funeral-like atmosphere. It would be strange not to have questions.

"What's going on?"

"Ah, Litt. Well, you see..."

Before she could speak, Maleer stopped her, shaking his head at Kena, who met his eyes.

"Maleer?"

"It's okay, Kena. Don't say anything. It's enough to do it on the day."

"Huh? But..."

"This is the nature of the business. When you meet, you must part. The child needs to get used to that."

Seeing Kena, who was about to speak, stopped by her mother, Litt, who judged it was not a conversation for children, started turning the handle to fetch water as usual.

Because Maleer stopped her, Kena couldn't bring it up, but unexpectedly, the parting came sooner than expected.

The next day around noon, a caravan of five wagons arrived.

It was heard while they were having lunch.

The neighing of horses. The rough sound of hooves. The wheels of the wagons rolling heavily on the ground. The noise of a large crowd. And a vague sense of rising expectation from the village.

To Kena, it sounded like "Oh, a lot of people have come," but to Maleer, it sounded different from usual.

"Hmm? They seem to have come in a hurry?"

"Ha... In a hurry?"

"They're not the type to come in such a hurry. Did something happen on the way?"

As Kena, with a question mark in her mind, looked towards the entrance of the dining room, a man rushed in. A man armed with leather armor and a spear ran to the counter in a panic.

"Landlady! Wine! Or hot water or water!"

"What's the matter, you're in such a hurry. What's going on?"

He immediately placed his order and started stomping his feet on the spot, clearly in a hurry.

Maleer, while fetching a bottle of wine from the back and calling Litt to "teach her how to use the well," handed the wine to the man, who ran out. Kena, noticing his sigh and curse, "Damn it," stuffed the remaining lunch in her mouth and decided to follow him.

Outside, Kena saw a scene she had never seen before.

Two four-horse box wagons and three two-horse canopy wagons lined up in a corner of the village field, unloading horses and goods, setting up shops. She watched in amazement as the people who got off the wagons quickly turned the area into a bustling market.

Then, from a group of about ten armed people, a desperate cry was heard. Everyone was tense, and they were shouting, surrounding a corner.

"Hey! Pull yourself together!"

"Kennison!? Hey! If you can hear me, answer me!"

"Bring the herbs quickly!"

"Damn it! The bleeding won't stop!"

From the situation, Kena clearly understood that something serious was happening.

"... Injured?"

"Yeah, well..."

As Kena was about to move, a voice she didn't recognize came from her feet.

A dog-person in a loose brown robe, with glasses, had appeared beside her.

"On the way here, we encountered orcs. The mercenary group managed to retreat, but there were severe injuries. They won't last much longer."

Kena's eyebrows rose at the resigned tone, despite the concern.

"... Are you just going to let them die?"

"With those injuries, it's already..."

Kena glared at the kobold, who seemed to be giving up, and ran towards the group of people shouting.

"Move!"

"Hey! What are you doing, girl!?"

Pushing through the frozen mercenaries, Kena found a young man lying on a blanket on the ground.

His leather armor was torn at the side, and although a bandage was applied, it was soaked in blood, which was still dripping. Most girls would faint at the sight of such bleeding, but Kena had already experienced worse.

Using [Search], Kena could see the young man's HP bar gradually decreasing. When it turned from yellow to red, she exclaimed, "Poison!"

In the critical situation where their comrade's life was slipping away, the mercenaries tried to move the woman who had jumped into the circle. Everyone, not just the mercenaries, was stunned by Kena's next action.

[Special Skill: Load: Dual Casting: Count Start]

Two blue rings suddenly appeared in mid-air.

They crossed at shoulder height from the side and began to rotate rapidly around Kena. A blue grid enveloped her in a spherical shape, with the number [10] floating at the cross points on both shoulders.

This special skill halved the waiting time for casting and allowed multiple magic effects to be used simultaneously. The effect lasted only ten seconds, but with Kena's magic power, it was sufficient.

— [9]

[Skill: Poison Purification: Ready Set]

[Skill: Single Recovery Level 9: Ready Set]

"Heal!"

The young man, whose face was turning from blue to ashen, was enveloped in a pale green light, and glowing particles appeared in the air like fireflies. They were sucked into the young man's body like meteors in a planetarium