Chapter 81: The Magic Tool’s Magic Stone
“Kiih!”
A magical beast’s shrill cry suddenly rang out, and Ren spun around with a start.
A Horn Ferret was peering through the open window.
“Ah!”
“Kiih!”
With a light thump, one Horn Ferret leapt down into the cabin.
“W-Wait—”
Ren instinctively reached for his bow, only to realize he couldn’t use it inside the cramped cabin.
“Kiih!”
“Kiih!”
“Whoa! Another one!”
A second Horn Ferret scrambled into the cabin. When Ren looked back at the window, he saw a third one waiting there.
“Aah! Small Box! Small Box! Small Box!”
He blocked the window with a “Small Box” shield, then desperately formed another shield in front of the Horn Ferret charging toward him. He slammed yet another “Small Box” shield into the second beast.
“…Phew.”
After somehow trapping both Horn Ferrets inside “Small Boxes,” Ren let out a long breath and sank into a crouch.
“…So magical beasts come here too… Well, it’s in the middle of the forest…”
The hunting cabin stood in a forest crawling with magical beasts. Of course they would come near it. If he tried to stay here overnight, he would be exposed to the threat of magical beasts at all times.
“…That thing… the magic tool…”
Ren stepped outside and went to inspect the small, stone pillar-shaped magic tool.
Gripping the heavy stone lid with both hands, he shifted it aside. Inside were the same rusted, tube-like objects and magic stones wound round and round with thread that he had seen before. Only the larger magic stone in the center flickered faintly as it released traces of mana. The stones surrounding it looked as though their mana had been drained away. The thread around one had snapped, leaving the magic stone dangling loosely.
“…If this really is a Simple Barrier magic tool, would repairing it keep magical beasts from coming inside?”
Ren returned to the cabin and checked the note written on a scrap of parchment that he had found in the wooden box.
“Simple Barrier. Wind magic stone, water magic stone, dark magic stone.”
“A wind magic stone… I don’t have one. I have water and dark magic stones, but they’re small…”
He took out the drawstring pouch where he kept his magic stones and peered inside.
He sold most of the magic stones he obtained to the Adventurers’ Guild. The few he still carried were simply ones he had happened to keep on a whim.
“Magic stones, huh…”
Ren turned his gaze toward the forest.
“I’ll have to hunt more…”
Murmuring with determination, he checked the simple arrows in his quiver, left the cabin, and retraced his route.
“Kiih!”
Three Moss Rabbits burst from the undergrowth.
Ren immediately created a “Small Box” and fixed it in midair. Its almost transparent plane became a shield that caught the creatures’ charge.
Boom!
A dull impact shook the barrier.
“…Next one’s on the right!”
One of the rabbits that had bounced off the shield changed course and charged again. Realizing he had no time to draw his bow, Ren grabbed a spare arrow from within reach.
“Hah!”
He drove the bare arrow into the Moss Rabbit’s neck like a dagger. He killed the first one, but when he tried to knock the second rabbit down with the arrow shaft, an unpleasant crack sounded and his handmade arrow snapped cleanly in two.
“Ah! …Small Box!”
Panicking, he hurriedly formed another “Small Box” shield.
“…I guess using an arrow directly like that really is asking too much of it…”
He somehow managed to finish off the remaining Moss Rabbits, but he stared at the broken arrow and sighed.
What he truly wanted was a sword. Iron swords were expensive, however, and he had no easy way to obtain one.
Ren picked up the broken arrow.
“…Would it be harder to break if I used a thicker branch?”
For his arrows, Ren had selected thin, straight, springy branches he found beside the river. He remembered that there had been thicker branches there as well. A thicker branch, he reasoned, should be sturdier and less likely to snap.
He immediately headed to the riverbank and gathered branches thick enough for him to grip firmly in one hand.
After heating them inside a “Small Box,” he used “Small Box Division” to cut them to roughly the length of a sword. He tested one by swinging it and striking stones with it. It was light, but not so light that it felt insubstantial.
Ren warmed some animal glue and inserted the horn of a Horn Rabbit he had hunted earlier into a split in the end of the branch.
“I need to fasten this part securely…”
He wound sturdy cord tightly around the base of the horn. Then he coated the bindings with more animal glue to reinforce them further.
The glue hadn’t yet dried completely, but Ren held the finished weapon up before him and tilted his head as he examined it.
“Isn’t this… a spear?”
He had fixed the horn to the tip in the same way he did when making arrows. His intention had simply been to make an arrow with a sturdier shaft and no fletching, only using a thicker branch. Yet the result looked like a short spear.
It was far from a refined spear and looked more like a crude poking stick.
“A spear, huh… I’ve never used one before.”
Before receiving his skill during the Blessing Ceremony, Ren had been told to practice with a sword so that he would obtain the “Swordsmanship” skill. He had also trained with a bow, but he had never practiced with a spear.
His father’s skill was “Spearmanship,” but his father had never taught him how to use a spear.
That was because everyone had always insisted that Ren would receive the “Swordsmanship” skill. He had only begun practicing archery because watching his eldest brother Ryan train with a bow had inspired him.
Ren thrust the newly completed makeshift spear forward with a sharp whoosh. He didn’t even know whether his stance was correct.
“…Well, I might as well try it…”
He had no idea whether he would be able to use it properly, but he was still a little pleased to have gained another weapon.