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I departed from Buranikka together with Kureha.
Since I left Buranikka, I restored my Kearuga face.
Because a star rabbit spy was sent out to the town, I needed to change my face apart from when I was inside the inn.
As I thought, my real face fits nicely… well, my Kearuga face is also fake, but since I have used it for a long time, I"m attached to it.
I don"t like my Kearu face. It"s too cute and isn"t manly.
Above all, it makes me remember unpleasant things.
And now, we are currently fighting monsters in the forest.
I sense monsters trying to attack Kureha from her blind spots with detection magic.
I tried to urge caution into Kureha… but I stopped.
She should properly be able to "see". She doesn"t have any weak spots, so even if she"s attacked from a blind spot, she should be able to deal with it without any problems.
She has the【Sword Saint"s】ability【All-seeing】, that makes her skin feel everything in her sword distance.
… She displays that power.
A leopard with purple body hair rushes on Kureha from her back. The leopard has perfectly erased its sound and presence.
Far from ordinary, not even an elite adventurer would be able to notice that approach.
The name of that monster, is Sion Leopard.
A monster that is feared as the professional killer of the forest.
Once it reaches her sword range, Kureha is able to feel the monster"s approach with【All-seeing】, but on the contrary, Kureha will not be able to notice it until it reaches a distance of a few metres.
She ended up allowing it"s approach up until just two metres. On top of that, it"s from her back, which is hard to deal with. It should be impossible to deal with the overwhelming speed of the Sion Leopard.
… If she was an ordinary person, that is.
The next moment after it sprung onto Kureha"s back, the Sion Leopard"s head and body was divided.
And then, it was struck on the ground.
… Tremendous sharpness. I could only see it as a flash of silver.
"That skillfulness in the sword is amazing." (Kearuga)
I did well getting off safely after being attacked at by her in the past.
Let alone one step, if I made even half a step of a mistake, it wouldn"t have been strange if I turned out like this.
Her strength does not come from the powerful abilities peculiar to a sword saint, like【All-seeing】and【Divine Sword】, nor does it come from her powerful skills.
It comes from her the strength of her mind and her sword technique that makes the best use of those abilities and skills.
"Kureha, that skillfulness in the sword is amazing." (Kearuga) (TL Note: He had to say it twice?)
"No, it is still not enough. I can still only see my sword distance after all. I want to extend my awareness outside of this range." (Kureha)
That is one of Kureha"s few weaknesses.
When it surpa.s.ses the range that her sword can reach, her enemy searching ability suddenly falls.
She"s at a disadvantage against opponents with long range attacks.
"If it"s just an arrow or a thrown stone, can"t you just cut it away even if it"s after it enters your sword range?" (Kearuga)
"That"s true, as long as it’s slower than the speed of sound, I should be able to do something about it." (Kureha)
This is why the【Sword Saint】is troubling.
Carefully trained techniques. Sharpened senses.
These aren"t compensated for by her status or abilities. In a sense, they can be called true strength.
"Even though you say that, you are the real amazing one… I only have the sword, but you really can do anything." (Kureha)
"I guess. Now we won"t be bothered for our dinner today." (Kearuga)
There is a badger monster in my hand. I killed it with a throwing knife after finding it with detection magic.
Kureha is surprised by my skill in throwing knives.
Kureha is surprised, but it isn"t something that I can be that confident about.
… No matter how far I go, I"m a【Healing Magician】. Apart from the skills I have from being a【Healing Magician】, even if I can copy abilities, I can"t copy skills, so I can"t go any further than first-cla.s.s, and I"m no match for the best.
Even if I can copy the experience of sword techniques, the experience I copy is specialised for the body of the owner of that experience, and so it degrades when it is implemented with my body.
For this reason, combination and cleverness is important.
"The sun will set soon. Let"s make preparations for camping… monsters in the demon"s territory are strong. It"s better to just rest at night." (Kearuga)
"That"s true. I have gotten hungry as well after all." (Kureha)
We laugh together.
Today has been a calm day.
I feel at ease with Kureha.
After all, I constantly have to be on my nerves when I"m with Eve, Freya and Ellen.
Ellen is a complete amateur, and I have to pay attention to both Eve and Freya who are careless.
They are only amateurs that possess powerful offensive abilities. They are extremely weak against surprise attacks. They might easily die from some small mistake, so I can"t let my eyes off of them.
However, Kureha can handle it by herself without me having to worry about her.
Thanks to that, it has become quite an easy trip.
… Even after we meet up with Setsuna and Co., I feel like it will be easier with Kureha there. I will no longer need to cover everyone after all.
We began making preparations for camping.
I pour a monster protection potion onto the fire.
This is a special potion that once evaporated, will release a smell that monsters instinctively hate.
And then, I begin cooking.
Today"s main is a hedgehog monster. I remove the poison with【Purification】, peel off the skin and disa.s.semble it.
"You can even cook huh." (Kureha)
"If I couldn"t, it would be hard to go on a journey. There are few times when you can stop by towns after all. It"s generally just camping, so if you want to eat something good, you have to make it by yourself." (Kearuga)
The amount of times you camp when going on a journey can"t help but increase, and there are no decent things like restaurants.
"That is true. My journey after slipping away from the Dioral Kingdom was tough…" (Kureha)
"What exactly did you eat?" (Kearuga)
"Bread, salt and dried meat." (Kureha)
"That must have been a tiring journey. Having that kind of meal everyday sounds depressing." (Kearuga)
I wryly smile, and replace my abilities with【Transformation Heal】.
It"s the【Offensive Magic (All)】ability I copied from princess Flare.
I prepare water with my water attribute magic.
I"m glad I copied princess Flare"s ability.
Being able to use the four great attribute magic in one slot is basically foul play.
In a journey, water and fire magic is extremely useful.
There aren"t many times when you are fortunate enough to have a water source nearby, and even if you obtain water, you will get diarrhea unless it"s distilled. Furthermore, it"s necessary to carry heavy and bulky water during a journey.
Water magic will let you easily obtain cold and hygienic water.
With just that, a journey will become considerably comfortable.
Fire is also important. Live trees are hard to burn, and dried wood or other things that can be used as fuel aren"t quite easy to obtain. Having the firepower to get rid of the moisture in live trees and forcefully burn them is appreciated.
"That smells delicious." (Kureha)
"We"re having soup today." (Kearuga)
I dissolved hardened and dried dice-shaped lards that has seasoning kneaded into it into hot water.
With just this, a delicious soup can be made.
I cook the hedgehog"s meat, and throw it into the soup.
After enough heat has pa.s.sed through it, I throw in wild plants that I harvested from the forest. Since I luckily obtained naturally growing potatoes in the mountain, I also put those in.
While taking out the sc.u.m, I taste it when the heat pa.s.ses through it all. I take out salt and seasoning from my bag and adjust the taste.
Alright, it"s finished.
I put in a big serving, and pa.s.s it to Kureha.
"It"s done. Eat up." (Kearuga)
"Thanks, Kearuga." (Kureha)
Today, we are just having this soup.
Before leaving the town, we prepared for our journey, so we have hard baked bread and the like, but since I harvested some potatoes, we secured carbohydrates.
I"ll preserve the bread.
"Delicious! I didn"t think I would be able to eat such a delicious meal in the forest! The potato is soaked in the soup"s flavour and it is fantastic. There is plenty of meat as well, so it will give me strength." (Kureha)
"There"s still another serving. It seems like your body has weakened, so eat as much as you want." (Kearuga)
"Yes, I will do that." (Kureha)
Because of her poor eating habits these past few days, Kureha"s body has weakened. I need to have her get nutrition.
"Can I have another serving?" (Kureha)
"This is the last one. Eat it while savouring it." (Kearuga)
The soup I made in a larger portion to use for tomorrow"s breakfast has become empty since Kureha had many servings.
I will need to think up a different menu for breakfast.
… Well, she ate it that deliciously. I can accept this much labour.
Using water magic, I wash the cookware and tidy it up.
And then, while I"m putting away the seasoning, Kureha makes a curious face.
"Even though you are on a journey, you carry various types of seasoning huh." (Kureha)
"It"s because I"m on a journey." (Kearuga)
What I had taken outside, was the solid soup base, salt, and a spice called Qalam.
"Apart from this, I have various other things as well." (Kearuga)
It"s troubling if she"s surprised from just this.
I take out honey, the salty fermented seasoning – corn miso – that I bought from Buranikka, and different types of dry herbs from my bag.
"I am surprised. I thought you wouldn"t have the room to care about taste while travelling." (Kureha)
"That"s wrong. Travelling doesn"t just take one or two days. Travelling is painful and has
no amus.e.m.e.nts… and you would feel depressed if tough days where even your meals are bad, right? It would be fine if you just became depressed, but at the end even your mind will give in. Tasty meals make those tough journeys enjoyable. It"s the greatest medicine for journeys." (Kearuga)
I smile at her, and Kureha mumbles "I see".
"That is true… it made a deep impression to my body when I was travelling by myself. I don"t want to see hard bread and dried meat that I have to soften with my saliva." (Kureha)
"It"s not just the taste, nutrition is important as well. Since honey is high in calories, it can even be used as a separate item. It raises your body"s power of resistance, and warms you up. When you have insufficient salt, it becomes hard to move. These spices erase the smell of the animal meat that is so smelly that it"s inedible, and it also has a counteraction effect. A human"s body is unexpectedly weak. Especially when they are on a journey, without enough knowledge and cooking skill, you will break in the blink of an eye." (Kearuga)
I learnt that after having it pierced into my mind.
However, it"s useless if you just fill your stomach. In the first world, I had a perfect support until midway, but from then, it seems I was carried by Bullet.
… Apart from Bullet, the only one that was able to earn a living was the broken me.
Even with that appearance, his survival techniques and cooking techniques were excellent.
"That is true, if for example I were to go on a journey by myself, I probably wouldn"t even last a month… I thought my food would be supplied by the army." (Kureha)
"When you"re on a journey, being able to procure food locally is the basics. The method of handling beasts, the way of distinguis.h.i.+ng between edible wild plants and mushrooms, and the way of finding them… and this is the important part, but animal flesh that is native to the forest is generally unappetizing. To eat unappetizing food deliciously, cooking techniques and this much seasoning is necessary." (Kearuga)
If you don"t seek flavour, just salt is fine, but having just that wouldn"t make a decent dish.
When that happens, instead of your body, your mind breaks.
To have an enjoyable journey, even if it"s slightly heavier, I don"t let go of seasoning.
"Fufu, you"re amazing, Kearuga. Hey, could you teach me various things while we travel? How to provide food for yourself in the forest, and how to cook. Apart from that, how to set up camp as well." (Kureha)
"Of course. It will definitely become useful if you remember it after all." (Kearuga)
Like that, I drove various survival skills into Kureha.
Kureha enjoyably listened to my story.
It had completely become dark.
When I looked up at the sky, I could see the stars s.h.i.+ning.
The movement of the stars are exactly as I had calculated.
If it"s like this, the singularity point should be born tomorrow, just as planned.
… And as long as it"s not a trap from Bullet, Kureha should become a【Hero】, becoming stronger than she is now.
While I am looking forward to that, I am also scared because it feels like I am dancing on the palm of Bullet"s hand.
Bullet"s letter shows that he knows Kureha"s personality well.
Thinking about her personality, there"s no way she wouldn"t become a hero after being told that.
TL Note: I’ve always wondered about this, but how does Kearuga fit everything in his bag? Unless he has a ma.s.sive bag (which probably shouldn’t be that big be cause he was even able to fit another backpack for the G.o.d bird egg), I don’t see how he can fit a pot (for making soup), seasoning containers, potion making equipment, chopping board (unless he cuts the meat on the ground), frying pan (unless he just uses a stick and fries the meat above the fire) and his Georgius… unless his Georgius can change back to it’s gem shape? Well, I don’t know, I think I just found the idea of him bringing a pot in his bag strangely funny.