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Last night was honestly a bit too plain— for so much traveling to another major city. I wanted to dive into the local cuisine at the dining hall affiliated with the inn, but Riyad-senpai apparently spied something fishy and stopped us. So our dinner was the emergency portable ration tablets that we were carrying.

I didn’t think this had anything to do with me but I was feeling that stabbing presence more than anything. I had already captured the sign of a somewhat capable-ish stalker group following us after we left the association. So there wasn\'t any other option in this sort of situation except quietly staying put.

The hollering of the receptionist had done a number on us, I guess…

Who knew what kind of intention they had for following us, but a wise man knows not to entangle himself in danger.

“The time is ripe, so let’s set out for the forest. This season usually brings in plenty of strong monsters that you otherwise wouldn’t need to be vigilant for. So keep your wits about you.”

Senpai advised as he girded himself.

“The Dunce Tiger, who are out there taking care of their cubs, and the Linew in their mating season seems to be the first target we should be careful of in this Nyapu Forest. Are we going to cross the ridgeline?”

The question came from Coco, who utilized his wealth of knowledge here.

Recently, he had managed to come out of his shell of shyness. Well, he still had a lot to work on, but the community life in the cramped dorm along with serving as the president of the Geography Club put him in an inevitable arena of communication that he couldn’t shirk away.

He was gaining his foothold with increasing confidence.

The students of Class A were all hard workers. Coco himself had been diving into multiple activities ranging from independent life in the dorm, training in the Hill Road Club, doing tasks for the Geography Research Club, handling explorer quests, and attending the sophisticated lectures of the Academy. It would have been strange if he wasn’t at least able to hold his ground after being exposed to such an environment. Who cared about the trifling gaze of others when your eyes were looking straight ahead?

I also kept asking him about all sorts of things that I still didn’t know, like what monsters relate to what among other things, and his impressive knowledge bank was truly an amazing one that I seriously commended him for. All the students of Class A similarly acknowledge that none among us could best him in this aspect.

Honestly, ‘amazing’ wasn’t enough to describe it and probably no word was enough to do so. It was truly vexing.

“Heh~, I didn’t know you had such a keen insight for such stuff. Did you take the time to investigate that? Also to your question, we’re not going to cross the ridgeline. I presume you already noticed the danger of the Wyverns flying around in the area hunting for food due to the season?”

The ridgeline Coco spoke of was the line connecting the peaks along the mountain range on the map. It kind of looked like a wavy line drawn on paper that started from the base of a mountain, but it basically connected the peaks of the mountains with the rolling hills. He probably wanted to ask if our task involved crossing that ridgeline.

“He’s the walking database that knows everything from a monster’s habitat to their distribution level in this kingdom, Senpai. You know, he’s from that Canardial family who compiled the ‘Canardial’s Monster Encyclopedia.’”

Senpai directed his question at Coco, but I couldn’t help myself from answering. It was just a pity that he still hadn’t gained enough confidence to be proud of his knowledge bank when facing strangers.

“Oho, that explains things then. Hmm, I sure got a bargain for bagging an excellent monster navigator for a mere 60,000 rea.”

Senpai teasingly said to Coco.

“…Practical experience triumphs over desk knowledge… I want to confirm as much as possible with my own two eyes, for knowledge tends to change often. So I’m really glad to receive this chance. Please accept my gratitude.”

Coco, while still meek in tone, answered.

Well, that pretty much settled everything. Dunce Tiger and Linew are our main targets to look out for. Come to think of it, Linew are kind of like Okapi, a herbivore monster normally with stripes on their lower body part.

I heard that they typically don’t attack humans but the chemistry in their brain changes in their mating season. With a speed close to 60 km/h in the forest, it would be tough to escape from them if they set their eyes on someone.

◆◆◆

We took a narrow path on the unpaved road to the forest as we advanced swiftly and skillfully.

It didn’t take long for the three-man group that had been following us since yesterday to be left outside of my scouting magic range. They were quite antsy when they saw us gradually disappearing from their range, and their conversation being—

“Do these brats not know how to take it slow!”

“F*ck! We’ll lose the chance to rake in fortune at this rate if we can’t follow them!”

“It’s impossible, so let’s retreat! We’re not a match for the current monsters!”

“…W-Wait… There… I think I just saw something moving?”

“…No… freaking way…”

“ ” Run for your sorry life now!” “

The last of their words was unclear because my scouting magic couldn’t pick them up well due to the distance, but I was sure I heard them shouting to escape. All I could say was, Amen— I mean, I hope they got away safely.

Once we were a bit deep into the jungle, any resemblance of a road vanished. We switched on our vigilance to the maximum level as we navigated through the trees.

The journey was a non-perilous one, contrary to what Senpai had feared, as we didn’t encounter too many monsters.

Though I guess the credit for that was due to Coco. He would warn us whenever he saw traces of Linew, like its hoof marks or feces, as well as trees with claw marks indicating a Dunce Tiger’s territory, which helped us avoid trouble.

It might not sound like a big deal, but accurately grasping such traces when it was his first encountering them wasn’t something that could be easily discounted.

“This is also Linew feces. This solidified feces at the base of the fern is a sign that there’s still a male who has yet to find a mate. But it has been three days since this got left behind judging from the stink and the degree of softness, so we can go through without worry.”

Coco explained while pinching the excrement and taking a sniff with a calm face to confirm his guess.

I had also read about them in books, but that was just to fill the gap in my knowledge at best. I wasn’t a hardcore nerd about it. So all the lumps shared the same roundness in my eyes.

Even Riyad-senpai couldn’t help but whistle in marvel despite his extensive knowledge about explorer stuff.

According to Coco, he had often accompanied his parents for field trips in his fief or the ones adjacent to it. Adding to that was the number of journals and detailed records piled up in the Canardial family, a relic from when the Canardial completed their encyclopedia. Apparently, there was such a mountain of them that it could be compiled into 50 volumes easily.

I was curious about some aspects of the Linew like ‘Why does its lower half have stripes?’ or ‘Should it really be at ease as a herbivore monster in the forest where carnivores rule’ and asked him.

He didn’t even pause to collect his thoughts and simply replied, “A human with their vibrant perspective would find it strange, but a majority of monsters or animals can only see the world in a monotone color of black and white. What could be better camouflage than stripes in the grasslands, right? The forest Linew seemed to have adapted their color and pattern — of their upper and lower body — to blend into the trees here.”

The Canardial apparently also had some restricted journals and records, which couldn’t be taken outside of the premises due to their forbidden nature. I was planning to take the excuse of hanging out with his family and see if I could take a peek at them one of these days for sure.

Speaking of which, the Canardial used to be a Count family — a peerage holder without a territory so to speak — for their efforts in compiling the monster encyclopedia that took them over 30 years, and even held an anti-monster strategical post in the past for a long time.

However, following their loss in the political strife that happened around 100 years ago, a part of that restricted research fell into the hands of the enemy which pushed them out of their peak to the bottom of the barrel at Baron rank and their post was transferred to handling the royal family’s managed territory at a remote frontier region. The pompous bunch at the top must have had dung in their minds to leave a family so enthusiastic about their research at the fringes for over a century.

Oh, right. Where was I… Yeah. We only dealt with the bare minimum of monsters that we would have otherwise taken a long time to avoid due to Coco’s knowledge and my extensive use of scouting magic. It would have been unwise to increase our burden with materials when we were still en route to our destination.

Oh, right. Al was also following us, though his presence was so thin that I almost forgot about him. He also helped out in his own way— producing water with his water magic for Coco to wash his hands with.

Though he was uncharacteristically down today, perhaps because he sensed how thin his presence was.

“Truly, I’m glad to have you with us, Al. A water mage honestly solves one of our biggest headaches— water. We would have to either carry additional weight with us in the form of water or have to take a detour to procure some on the way in explorations like this.

I bet a water mage with such formidable stamina like you would receive hundreds of party applications in a jiffy if you look for one in association, unlike someone who is just a sitting duck with his sword.”

Said the ever-so-kind Riyad-senpai who took the helm in this situation. Truly not a gap in this capable person’s consciousness, even when working in the group.

Senpai’s encouraging words, along with Al himself being a bomb of optimism, quickly brought him back to his cheery self.

But Senpai was right. A water mage who was also a capable warrior was a hard find. Al had kind of become the butt of our teasing but in a different party, he might as well be a goose that laid golden eggs.

The rest of our journey was also uneventful, and we reached our destination — the waterfall — by evening.

◆◆◆

Our destination appeared immediately after we arrived at the heart of the forest. The trees suddenly gave way to clear land and presented the marvel of the Lipupu-Nyapu Waterfall before our eyes. With a depth of around 100 meters, this enchanting waterfall gracefully held still waters on the gently tiered cliff that looked like a staircase creating a fantastical scene.

A spring of approximately 15m in diameter circled the base of the waterfall. The water was carving its way out of the spring and into several small water streams that vanished into the forest.

“Great. I was fully ready to arrive here by tomorrow, and maybe even in the dead of night. I think this is my first time arriving here this early when the sun is still on the horizon. Honestly, Coco-kun’s expertise truly shocked me. But Allen, what’s with your foul scouting magic? I’m sure you didn’t know about scouting magic on our first field trip, right?”

“Yeah, I just learned it recently. The sight of Senpai unhesitatingly pushing through the forest in the dim light had intrigued me. I just happen to have a mentor whose specialty turned out to be scouting magic so I learned from him.”

Senpai seemed truly astonished as he rubbed his forehead.

“You’re telling me you learned scouting magic and have become accurate in a mere few months? The sky truly is the limit for you, huh?…

Alright, let’s set up our tents here. We can collect the moss tomorrow morning as well, so for now, I just want to take a rest. My stomach is rumbling after all that walking.”

“Ah, I’m also hungry. Senpai, you said we could catch fish in the spring, right? But we don’t have any fishing tools, though…”

“Haha, well I thought since it would be just the two of us, we would chase the school of fishes to one end and then use our body-strengthening magic to capture them… Yeah, don’t comment since I know how inefficient it is. But our labor is cut short with Al-kun here.”

Senpai expressed what his idea was earlier and burst out into laughter.