Chapter 45: Monsters Appearing One After Another

Ren’s strategy was to bury small boxes along the edge of the path every few steps. He was a bit worried about getting lost in the forest.

From the second one onward, he made the small boxes appear directly in the dirt. He could produce many small boxes if they were small. He would bury them as trail markers.

“This way, I should be fine finding my way back… Yeah.”

Treading on damp soil, he proceeded along the narrow, gently curving path. He heard the sound of bird wings flapping from a short distance away. Advancing cautiously with ears strained, he buried small boxes as he went.

Whoosh

Feeling a presence while walking, he produced a small box shield.

Thud

What hit the transparent shield and fell to the ground was a monster with a weasel-like appearance. Yellow-green fur with horns on its head. The name of the demon beast he learned about at the guild archives flashed through his mind.

“Horn Ferret?”

“Kyii!!”

He hastily pushed the small box he was using as a shield down onto the Horn Ferret. The Horn Ferret, which had been trying to regain its stance, was sucked into the small box. He immediately changed the small box size to barely fit the Horn Ferret, stabbed his knife into its neck, and stood the small box upright so the head faced downward.

“Interesting colored fur, I wonder if they’ll buy it for a good price… Ah, another one!”

Thud

“Kyi-kyii!”

Unlike the Small-Fang Rats that fled immediately after being repelled, the Horn Ferrets seemed to attack without hesitation.

“Haa. Somehow managed…”

Finishing the blood draining of the third Horn Ferret and wiping his knife, Ren muttered.

Suddenly, he felt a presence from above and looked up.

There was somehow a strange atmosphere atop a high tree branch. However, he couldn’t see any silhouette.

“Hmm? A bird…? Should I leave it alone…? But if it’s dangerous…”

Both Small-Fang Rats and Horn Ferrets had suddenly attacked him. With that in mind, Ren took his bow and nocked an arrow.

Thud

“Gih…”

With a short cry, something fell from the tree.

“Sm-small box!”

He created a small box at the falling point. When putting effort into it, he would unconsciously shout like a technique.

Flap-flap

Inside the small box, struggling and moving its wings, was a gray bird with a long beak. About the size of a pigeon. Ren furrowed his brows.

“…Hmm… Doesn’t look tasty…”

It was ruffled and strangely shiny. At first glance, he somehow felt it wasn’t suitable for eating.

Come to think of it, when he looked up at the sky, the sun had risen quite high.

“Is it about noon? …Should I head back…”

Thinking about whether the bird was edible, he somehow felt hungry, so he decided to return to the village.

After draining the blood of the mysterious gray bird, he tossed it into the hemp sack.

As usual, after burying the drained blood, he headed back the way he came. While he didn’t think he would get lost, he tried making the small boxes he had buried along the way glow.

Along the forest path, which was shaded by trees and dim even during daytime, five points of light appeared.

“Huh?”

He had imagined light points continuing far into the distance, but he could only make the nearby small boxes glow. When he walked a few steps further, a light appeared at a position further ahead. It seemed that while he could make more distant small boxes glow if he concentrated, the range where he could make them glow without concentrating was limited.

“Oh, they don’t all glow at once… What about behind…”

Walking along the line of light points, he suddenly became curious about the light points behind him and turned around, when a green, furry mass jumped over the light points.

“Ah!”

Panicking, Ren grabbed a stone from his bag, wound up, and threw it at the green furry mass.

Thud

“Kyii!”

When the stone hit its back, the green furry mass let out an angry-sounding cry. It immediately changed direction and charged at Ren.

Ren had readied his bow immediately after throwing the stone. The arrow he fired at relatively close range pierced the front leg of the green furry monster.

“Gyii!”

As the furry monster stumbled from the arrow wound, Ren slammed the small box down on it.