It was now night time in this dangerous forest. I was resting on the branch of a tree in just my underpants.
It"s been a few hours since the sun went down. Judging from my growling stomach, I would say it"s about 8-9PM.
My surroundings were pitch black so I was relying on the moonlight to see. Fortunately, compared to my former world"s moon, the moon here was several times larger and gave off more light as well. I could hear piercing cries in the distance, possibly from nocturnal monsters.
"…Guess I can"t start a fire."
There was a possibility of monsters noticing the fire after all. Then again, I did consider that some might be afraid of it instead.
Inside the rucksack was portable food, a canteen the size of a PET bottle, a knife with a 20 cm blade, and lastly, a pen and notebook. That is to say, there weren"t any tools for starting fires.
Even so, I never expected that it would mainly be portable food inside… I won"t have to worry about hunger with this much, but was this really okay?
"No, it"s not okay."
Lost in my own thoughts, I ended up talking to myself.
I was sitting on a very thick branch. It was certainly very strong since it could support both me and the heavy rucksack.
I had to run for about 3 hours before I could get away from the Grand Grizzly and Blue Grizzlys. I was able to hide but I wasn"t able to completely lose the bears. I was wondering why but I arrived at the conclusion that they were following me by my scent.
With that in mind, I considered was.h.i.+ng away my scent and began searching for a place with water. Before long I found a place with a waterfall and jumped in without hesitation.
As a result, the bears scattered but my clothes were drenched.
What should I do now? The goal was to hunt a Grand Grizzly, but no matter how confident I was in my physical ability, I still didn"t feel capable of making full use of it.
If that"s the case, what should I do?
"At the moment, I can use…"
A knife, a notebook, and a pen. For the time being, I put on my still-wet trousers and holstered the knife on my belt.
"To defeat your opponent, you must first know them… The pen is mightier than the sword, or so they say."
For now I should make some plans, the place where I am at right now will be my basecamp. Fortunately, there"s a river close by this place. I was concerned there might be parasites but in these circ.u.mstances, I can only pray that it isn"t the case.
"It"s a bad omen… but… I"ll show that I can overcome it."
I used some lesser healing magic on my body and started to get some rest. Oops, before that I should— I pulled out the knife from my belt and plunged it onto the tree I was on.
"The first day…"
Being thrown into the forest, one lone man"s fight was about to begin.
The next morning, I rose early and had tough, chewy portable food for breakfast, was.h.i.+ng it down with water from the canteen. After putting on a T-s.h.i.+rt and long pants, and making sure my equipment was in order, I set off to the depths of the forest while keeping my head down.
My pen and notebook was also tucked away such that I could easily take them out at any time.
"…Where is this?"
Marking the trees I pa.s.sed with my knife, I inspected my surroundings. Right before I set off, I washed my body in the river again so wouldn"t need to worry about scent… Or at least I"d like to think so, but it"d be pointless if I got spotted again.
There were many monsters in the forest besides the Grand Grizzly and Blue Grizzlys. I haven"t seen any monsters besides those two yet. Well, even if I didn"t want to, I"ll probably encounter others soon enough.
"…! This is…"
There were three deep gashes on a tree; a trace of a large creature with claws. From the size of the claw marks, it"s highly possible that the Grand Grizzly from yesterday made these. I"ll have to be even more careful in this area then..
A gasagasa sound rustled from the bushes in front of me.
Is something there?
Carefully approaching the bush, I pulled out my knife as a precaution. I briskly wiped the sweat from my forehead. If it"s something really ferocious, I"m running away immediately.
Gulp. I held my knife in a reverse grip and pushed my way through—
"Kyuu…"
A black furball appeared.
"What is thi… is that a rabbit?"
The furball before me was in fact a wild black rabbit, its ears stood up like antennas. This type of rabbit wasn"t mentioned in the book Rose pa.s.sed to me.
It was lying down on the ground and looked at me with its big red eyes. Large, round… cute eyes. Its adorable appearance swayed my heart but I could also see that it had difficulty moving.
"Are you hurt?"
"Kyu."
The rabbit nodded in a.s.sent.
I won"t bother asking why you can understand me. This is another world, there"s no point bringing over common sense from my former world.
Let"s see where you"re injured.. I approached the rabbit"s side, on its foot was a gash, possibly done by a monster.
"Stay still alright?"
A pale green light emitted from my hand, I held it close to the wound on its hind foot. A few seconds pa.s.sed and I moved my hand away, the wound disappeared without a trace. These are the results of my training. Although I mostly used it on myself, it would seem that healing someone else was much faster.
Considering this, I was once again surprised by how unbelievable this magic is.
"It"s been healed. Don"t get yourself hurt like this again."
I left the rabbit alone. I considered bringing it back home because of its adorable appearance but my objective was to subjugate a Grand Grizzly— I don"t have the luxury of getting too distracted.
However, the rabbit approached me as I left. Without saying anything, the rabbit just kept following me… Eh, what"s this?
"Hey hey, if you stick with me you"re going to get attacked by a Grand Grizzly, you know? Or do you know where the Grand Grizzly is?"
"…Kyu."
The rabbit shook its head but indicated me to follow and took off. I followed it, there"s no harm seeing where it was leading. Somehow, I felt like I could place my trust in this rabbit— there wasn"t any reason for it, I just felt that way.
"Kyu—!"
Pyonpyon. As the rabbit made such sounds jumping and advancing through the forest, I noticed both of its antenna-like ears were pointing in a direction.
…Those ears, do they act like a radar or something?
While thinking that, I chased after it for a good 10 minutes. Suddenly, the nimble rabbit came to a halt.
"What"s happening?"
"Kyu kyu."
"Uwa! W-what is it?"
The rabbit abruptly landed on my shoulder with its feet.
Its black fur tickled the bottom of my neck. Other than that, there was its weight, well it wasn"t particularly heavy. What"s with this little one? You"re way too cute.
The rabbit"s ears bent forward and seemed to be hinting at something.
"Kyu."
"…Take a look in front?"
As expected, this rabbit seems to understand my words. But since you"re cute, I"ll forgive you.
Pus.h.i.+ng my way forward through the vegetation, I saw two Blue Grizzlys in a dark cave.
…Eeh!?
"OH—"
I held down my own mouth. If I shout here, I"d give away my position. That cave seems to be their den.
To the rabbit on my shoulder, I said to it in a small voice,
"…Thanks for the help."
To my words, the rabbit acted in an embarra.s.sed manner and started grooming itself. You shy little thing…
Seeing as I"ve found their cave, I took out my pen and notebook.
"Kyu?"
"Nn, you"re asking what this is?"
It"s unlikely I"d easily win if I fought a bear head on. If that"s the case, there"s no choice but to aim for the opponent"s openings. If so—
"Observation diary."
Come, the diary where one risks their life begins now…!!
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