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Chapter 397 : Restoring The Forest
『Aa-ahh… Onii-chan, I think your spear barrage was way too much of an overkill. That monster died when a spear pierced through its chest, but you didn’t stop. You felt its Ether flowing into you when it died, didn’t you?』(Nicola)
Seeing the mess I made, Nicola talked to me via telepathy and sighed.
I indeed felt stronger when I shot an earthen spear through the monster’s chest, meaning that its power of soul, Ether, had flowed into me, but I kept shooting.
『Well, I felt that, but, you know, sometimes you thought your enemy was dead, but then it came back to life and started attacking you again all of a sudden. It happens a lot in mangas.』(Mark)
『The moment you felt the Ether, it was already super dead. It wouldn’t come back to life. But I can understand. Being cautious is not a bad thing. However, you caused unnecessary damage to the forest because of that!』(Nicola)
Saying that, Nicola pointed firmly at the numerous spears on the ground.
Diadora pointed her finger too, playing around. She imitated Nicola without understanding why she did that.
Meanwhile, Delica, who also couldn’t hear Nicola’s voice, looked confused to see the two suddenly pointing like that.
『Anyway, I’m not going to help clean up this mess, okay?』(Nicola)
Nicola realized how much work needed to be done to clean up this mess and immediately chose to run away.
『Don’t worry. I made this mess, so I plan to clean it up myself.』(Mark)
『Good. Do it quick so we can go home faster.』(Nicola)
『Yes, Ma’am~…』(Mark)
Ending the telepathic conversation with Nicola, I turned toward the mess, but then Weikel and Luard followed me.
「Alright, let’s do it quickly!」(Weikel)
「Wait, you don’t need to help me. I’ll do it myself.」(Mark)
「I’ve been nothing but a burden. Let me do something useful.」(Luard)
「That’s right! Let us help.」(Weikel)
「No, no. You guys are injured. Just wait with Delica and the others. It will be over soon.」(Mark)
「But I can’t let you clean up this huge mess by yourself.」(Luard)
Luard looked like he really wanted to help, but Delica stopped him.
「Luard, you will only get in his way.」(Delica)
「Huh? What do you mean by that!?」(Luard)
「That means Mark will do it faster without you around, you idiot. Just shut up and sit down.」(Delica)
「Ugh…」(Luard)
It’s not that I can’t understand Luard’s feelings, but as Delica said, there’s not much he can do.
Thanks to Delica, Luard and Weikel stepped back. Now I can get to work.
By the way, I can’t feel any kobolds’ presence nearby. It seems that they ran away the moment I killed the kobold warrior. I hope with this the area around the spring will be safe from kobolds for a while.
The first thing to do is to remove all these stone spears. It would take time if I had to turn them into sand and clean it up, so I just put them away altogether into my Item Box as they were.
After that, I sucked the water pooling on the ground into my Item Box to instantly dry the soil and then fixed the ground, which was full of holes, with earth magic.
During the battle, some of the trees were burned by the monster’s fire breath, and some of them were destroyed by my spears, so the next thing to do is to restore the trees. For this, I need Diadora’s power.
I held my right hand close to my face and whispered to the wooden bracelet I was wearing.
「Diadora, can I borrow your mana again? I will give you one more extra cabbage for dinner later.」(Mark)
Diadora, who was watching me from the distance with the others, then replied to me with telepathy.
『Three cabbages…』(Diadora)
「Alright.」(Mark)
As soon as she agreed, Diadora sent me her wood-attributed mana. I then used tree spirit magic to grow some trees.
The more I grow trees with this magic, the more I’m accustomed to spirit magic, so I consider it as practice.
After all the spears were gone and the surrounding area was restored, Weikel and the others approached me.
「Good job, Mark-bocchan! You’ve restored this forest in just a few minutes!」(Weikel)
「I didn’t know you had an Item Box… I’ve seen people with Item Boxes before, but they can only store a small amount of items. How can you fit all those spears into yours?」(Luard)
Luard looked surprised after watching me using my Item Box.
「Well, my Item Box is special. It’s a Gift.」(Mark)
「A Gift? So you’re a Gifted?」(Luard)
「That’s right! Mark is amazing, isn’t he~?」(Delica)
「……」(Luard)
Delica suddenly puffed out her chest and bragged about me again.
Luard squinted, looking a bit irritated.
Delica, please stop… It only hurts his feelings…
「Anyway, there’s still one thing I need to do.」(Mark)
Now that I’ve done cleaning up the area, all that’s left is the dead kobold warrior lying on the ground.
We approached the body and observed it. It was full of holes and was covered in blood. It looked bizarre.
Its two mouths were wide open with the tongues sticking out, and its eyes looked like the eyes of a dead fish.
「Uwaah… You beat this bastard real good, Mark-bocchan.」(Weikel)
「Hmph. It’s too bad I didn’t kill it myself.」(Luard)
Saying that, Luard kicked one of the monster’s heads in frustration.
「Killing it? You? Impossible.」(Delica)
「Huh!?」(Luard)
「I doubt there’s someone who can kill it in Fatia other than Mark.」(Delica)
「That’s… I admit I’m too weak to kill it… But I will keep practicing, and I will become the strongest warrior in the town someday!」(Luard)
「Oh! That’s the spirit, Luard-sama!」(Weikel)
「The strongest in the town? No way. Not in a million years. First of all, you have to beat Mark, which is never going to happen.」(Delica)
「Gununu…!」(Luard)
Umm, Delica, I think you should stop before he loses all his confidence…
「Weikel-san, you need to report this to the Adventurer Guild later, right?」(Mark)
I asked Weikel a question to change the topic.
「Yeah. The guild needs to know this bastard’s existence. Even more so because I think this special variant was a newborn.」(Weikel)
「Newborn?」(Mark)
「It probably hasn’t been long since it was born. I mean, if a kobold warrior this strong had dominated the kobold forest for long, the kobolds would be likely to attack the goblins. After all, from the kobolds’ perspective, a powerful leader had appeared. There was no reason for them not to spread their territory and take control of this entire forest. I think they were planning to attack the goblins soon, but then we invaded their territory, and you killed their leader, spoiling their entire plans.」(Weikel)
「I see…」(Mark)
It was just a guess, but he might be right.
The fact that Weikel was able to make such a deduction suggested he wasn’t stupid despite his goofy personality.
「If you didn’t kill this kobold warrior today, the kobolds might have succeeded in overpowering the goblins and proceeded to invade our town in a few days. That would be really bad. Mark-bocchan, you’ve really done a commendable job!」(Weikel)
Seems like I’ve just saved the town before I knew it.
「Nevertheless, we need to bring this body to the guild. Mark-bocchan, you don’t mind putting a monster corpse into your Item Box, do you?」(Weikel)
「There are already a countless number of monster corpses in it, so I don’t mind.」(Mark)
I stretched my arm toward the body and put it into my Item Box.
《Twin-headed Kobold Warrior’s body (riddled with holes)》
「Alright, let’s return to the town, shall we~?」(Weikel)
Before replying to Weikel, I whispered to Diadora, who was standing next to me.
「Diadora, have you said goodbye to your mama?」(Mark)
She silently nodded.
It seems that Diadora has had a lot of fun playing with her mother today. I’m glad for her.
「Alright then. Let’s go home.」(Mark)
「Wait, Mark… Umm…」(Luard)
Just when we were about to leave, Luard talked to me. He looked somewhat shy for some reason.
「I will take care of the enemies on our way home. You’re tired, aren’t you? You can rest.」(Luard)
Looks like he really doesn’t want to go back before doing something. I can understand the frustration of being a burden.
I think I should accept his offer here.
「Alright. I leave it to you then.」(Mark)
He replied to me with a smirk. He looked kinda happy.
「I will clear our path too! Luard, I won’t lose to you!」(Delica)
「Hmph! It’s a competition then!」(Luard)
「Hahaha! I like your spirit! Alright then, you two, lead the way!」(Weikel)
『Hahh… What energetic people…』(Nicola)
With Luard and Delica leading the way, we headed back home, but when we were about to leave the spring, I suddenly heard someone’s voice in my head.
『Please take good care of her for me…』(??)
Hm?
『Nicola, did you say something?』(Mark)
『Huh?』(Nicola)
『I heard someone’s voice in my head just now. I thought it was you.』(Mark)
『Nope. Aahh… I’m sleepy… Let’s hurry, Onii-chan.』(Nicola)
『Y, yeah…』(Mark)
So it wasn’t Nicola.
Could it be…
I stopped and turned around. I saw nothing but the spring. However, I knew that the person who had just talked to me was there.
It must be Diadora’s mother.
I smiled and lowered my head toward the spring.
「Hm? Mark-bocchan, what are you doing?」(Weikel)
「Nothing. Let’s go.」(Mark)
I couldn’t see her, but somehow I could tell from her voice that she was smiling right now.
I promised myself to take care of Diadora for her and visit this place again with Diadora someday.
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