Edit: Sorry! I accidentally uploaded part 9 into the WN portion of Novel Updates instead of the LN page. I’ll try and contact their staff to fix it ASAP. Wait. Or maybe someone else uploaded it? Or maybe there was a site error? I don’t know. All I know is that there was something went wrong. Hopefully everything will end up fine soon.
This is the end of chapter 1. There will be a short delay as I compile and revise the entirety of chapter 1. I should upload the full version soon. Though this is mostly for new readers, not readers who’ve read all the parts already. The prologue and chapter 1 are approximately 30% of the book. This means, at this rate, I should be done in about three months. So my goal is to be done before school starts.
Oh! And for those of you going to Anime Expo in LA, who knows, you might see me there!
『Okay, then what should I do now?』
I had planned to go back to the pedestal after I was done fighting, but…
The sun was still high up in the sky.
And the mysterious forest was right in front of me.
The forest area that surrounded Area 5.
I thought it was too early to investigate, but…
『What should I do?』
I’m not damaged, and I have time. It’s okay to go there, isn’t it?
『I’m already all the way here and going back without doing anything would be wasteful.』
I spontaneously decided to explore the outer portion of the Area.
I examined my situation before suddenly flying into the forest.
I used Sense Danger and Sense Heat.
『Hmm, is nothing there…?』
It seemed like there were lots of animals but nearly no demonic beasts.
There were goblins at least, but…they’re not worth chasing around.
『The only demonic beasts here are small fries.』
This place did give me an Area 6 feel, so I kept on guard on the off chance that any mythical creatures that appeared.
But it wasn’t any different from Area 1.
It felt like this was all pointless.
『Geez, I got all excited for no reason.』
I felt stupid for being so on guard and ready to run away.
『That’s enough for now. I’m going to go back.』
I flew through the air with the Telekinetic Catapult.
Below me was a normal forest. I couldn’t feel any traces of any large demonic beasts.
『Oh, open place found.』
I saw an area bereft of trees in the middle of the forest.
I changed the direction I was going with Telekinesis and landed in the meadow.
And——I stuck my blade in there.
『Great, landing successful!』
Sometimes when I use the Telekinetic Catapult Movement Technique, my body tilts and I end up landing hilt first or cras.h.i.+ng side first into the ground.
When that happens, it doesn’t do any damage to me, but they are failed landings.
And the times when I sink my blade into the ground are successful landings. It somehow made me feel better.
It was easy to use Telekinesis right before landing to land cleanly. But whether I landed successfully or not, for the fun of it I usually let gravity take over as I fell. It was one of the few forms of entertainment I had besides hunting.
The ground on my blade felt like clay. I could feel the clay sticking wetly onto my blade.
『Okay, I should go fly again… Huh?』
My body wasn’t moving.
Was the clay-like dirt sticking to me more than I thought?
I activated Telekinesis with a little more force.
『N-no way… Telekinesis won’t activate?』
At the same time that Telekinesis activated, it was forceably canceled.
With things like this, I needed to use all of my strength.
I put in all the mana I possible could and used Telekinesis.
Fwwwp.
The soft sound of steam escaping.
And nothing happened.
『d.a.m.n, is it impossible?』
I could tell that my mana was being absorbed by the ground.
The huge amount of mana I used disappeared almost instantly.
『Then how about this?』
I used a skill.
My plan was to use Vibration Fang to shake my blade and make some s.p.a.ce between my blade and the earth.
But Vibration Fang didn’t activate either.
Then what if I shoot Air Missile from my blade and use the air pressure to send me flying?
No activation whatsoever.
I’ll send myself flying from the ground with fire magic!
No, it did not activate.
『Ah…what the heck~』
I stopped trying to escape for now and looked around the area.
But the demonic beasts from the plains must not enter the forest because of this mana absorption. The stronger the demonic beast, the more important mana was to their daily activities, so if they come into this forest carelessly, they might not even be able to move. Like me.
『My only solace is that I don’t feel hunger…』
I did a few more tests later, but none of my skills that could move me activated.
It wasn’t absorbing the mana from my blade, so as long as I didn’t use skills for no reason, I wouldn’t be stuck in here for lack of ability.
There was no major problem with my use of the mana in my blade to see.
But something dawned on me after a few hours pa.s.sed.
『My MP isn’t recovering at all.』
It must be because the mana in the air here is thin. My MP didn’t recover on its own.
I still had over half of it left, but it seemed best to not waste it.
This is dangerous. There was now no way for me to get free by myself.
Ah, what do I do…
Four days pa.s.sed like that. Of course, nothing changed.
I spent the first day looking for a skill that could help me escape, but I immediately reached an unsatisfactory conclusion.
Because I couldn’t emit any mana to the outside, I also couldn’t use attack-type skills, magic, and Telepathy. (tn: Might be a translation mistake? Why is it Telepathy?)
My only hopes were that either something would pa.s.s by me and pull me out out of curiosity or a natural disaster would send me flying.
The best outcome would be that a human pulls me out.
Ten days pa.s.sed with me stuck in the ground. I am sorry. I was unable to understand reality. Now I don’t care if my wielder isn’t a human. I apologize to all the goblins that I killed. I will no longer call you all experience points. So please, I beg of you, someone save me. If you pull me out of the ground, I will follow you for the rest of my life. Be it a goblin or a zombie, anything is fine. Please.
One month later. Aah, anyone is fine so pick me up. I’m begging you! I’m a high caliber sword. I’m basically a magic sword. I’m saying there aren’t that many swords that can think and move on their own. I can even cook and I have skills. Seriously. If you want, I can also use points to raise their levels. Here, watch. I can get Cooking 10 just like this.
I also have dismantle. It’s conveient. I can level this one up too. Now, level 10!
I also have Appraisal. I can level this one up as well. I increased it by one level. Isn’t that awesome? My attack is high too. And my Sword Wielding and Aurablade are both at level 7. I’ll increase my magic skills too. I made fire magic 10! How’s that?
You see! Even better than I thought. Next are my stat boosting skills!
Now I can make my wielder way stronger. How’s that? Picking me up isn’t such a bad idea, now is it? And this skill is———.
“——…Ack!”
Ahh, I was so starved for human interaction that I had an auditory hallucination. This may be the end for me.
“Hey——! …There’s a——ack!”
Huh? Was that really a hallucination?
Thump thump thump thump!
I could feel slight vibrations from the ground.
What could that sound me?
“It’s still——this way——.”
“Oh…s.h.i.+t! What the——.”
Those were definitely human voices!
All right, humans are here!
Thank you G.o.d!
Come on, I’m over here! There’s a sword stuck in the ground right here. Don’t I look just like a legendary sword? So pick me up! Pu-ree-ju!
Thump thump thump thump!
The vibrations were coming from a wagon’s wheels.
A covered wagon appeared in the forest.
Isn’t it going too fast? If it turns a corner at that speed, it’ll——.
B-b-boom!
Uwah! Are the people inside it okay? But why were they in such a hurry? It seemed like something was chasing them.
Because I couldn’t even use Telepathy, all I could do was watch.
As I was worrying about the people inside the wagon, some people crawled out of it.
Phew, they’re all safe.
Are they merchants? They didn’t look like warriors, but they didn’t look like ordinary people either. They had cloth wrapped around their heads and well-made clothes on. The slightly grubby overcoats must be from their long travels.
A short man that looked like a subordinate came out with a couple of others.
The people the subordinate brought with him looked…how should I put it…awful.
They had on obviously unwashed, ragged cloth tied onto their bodies with string; it couldn’t even be called clothes. Their hair was in a mess and on their necks were big collars.
『They must be slaves. Are there slaves in this world as well?』
“Hey, you and the slaves pick up the bags!”
“Yes sir, I’ll tell them to right away! Hurry up and do what he said! Pick up the bags!”
“Uuuu…”
“Aahhh…”
“Hurry up, you r.e.t.a.r.ds!”
Uwah. He’s trash. Human trash.
The short man had the slaves pick up the heavy bags by whipping them.
It didn’t sit right with me to just watch.
“Hurry! It-it’s coming!”
It? What in the world is chasing them?
The thing that made them hurry so much appeared.
“Heeeek! It’s here!”
“Grrrrrr.”
It was a two-headed bear, a demonic beast.