We still don’t know anything about the ground veins, but there’s no doubt that the sewers are located underneath the town, so it might be useful to find out their location.
Maga is visible, so if it occurs in a place where it’s easy to see, it’s not surprising that rumors spread. However, even though there have been rumors of monsters appearing, no information has been gathered about the maga, so if we investigate and assume that it’s happening underground, it will go more smoothly when the Saint visits in the future.
“First of all, do you have any diagrams of the sewers that were installed in this town?”
Sewers and other public facilities need to be cleaned and inspected regularly, so I feel like there must be one somewhere, but I’ve never been involved in that kind of work, so I don’t know where such a thing would be.
“If there is one, it might be the town hall. Let’s see if there is anyone who knows who has evacuated.”
My father told me, and I nodded, thinking it would be better than searching without knowing much about it. I didn’t even know where the town hall was in the first place. If you don’t live in this town, you wouldn’t have a chance to go to the town hall.
We went back to the temple to see if anyone knew anything about the sewer pipes, and found a man who worked at the town hall in a different department among the lightly injured. Therefore, it was decided that he and the other healthy people would investigate the entire town hall, and my father and I were asked to do different things.
“It’s true that it would be easier for someone who worked there to find the piping diagram, and there’s a higher chance of finding it using human wave tactics, but there are monsters outside so it’s dangerous. Is that really a good idea?”
Being inside a temple where monster rats can’t get in, it’s easy to forget that there are monsters outside, but the danger hasn’t passed. In fact, isn’t it possible that the real monsters are just starting to appear?
“Of course it’s dangerous. But I guess they thought it was odd that we, who don’t come from this town, should be the only ones going into danger.”
Even if you can use magic or swords, monsters are still dangerous.
It’s not uncommon for a Saint’s guardian to die as a martyr. No matter how much you train, no matter how much you learn, there’s no way you’ll be safe against monsters.
“So if someone else can do it, let’s leave it to them and do something else. There’s a chance that the number of monsters will increase as we move closer to the south, but it’s precisely because there are so many monsters that there may be people who haven’t been able to escape and are hiding.”
“Yeah, that’s right.”
It’s also important to investigate the south gate in order to save as many people as possible and have someone smuggle the mushroom spores out through the south gate.
When I reached the central plaza, my eyes widened when I saw a tree that was about waist-high.
“What? Are you kidding me? I just planted the seeds yesterday.”
There was no such tree here yesterday. My eyes widen as I see a brand new tree growing in the middle of the road.
“It’s impossible for something to grow this much in just one day. This is definitely the effect of the maga.”
“Can you check it with the glasses once?”
“Is it okay?” I asked, but I was already rummaging through my bag. My father didn’t stop me.
I looked through my glasses with excitement and saw something red spurting out of the tree with great force. It was spitting out more than the tree I had seen up in the mountains, and even the trunk of the tree seemed to be glowing red.
“Wow. Amazing. Huh?”
As I examined each tree one by one, I noticed what looked like a red lump on one and took off my glasses.
“Oh. So mushroom spores got on it too.”
The bump was a mushroom. Come to think of it, the mushrooms growing on Theo were also emitting mana. It’s unclear whether mushrooms are plants or monsters, but seeing as they were emitting mana, they did seem closer to plants.
I look closely at what kind of mushroom it is, and tilt my head at how strange it is.
“Hey, Dad. Could you take a look at this mushroom? It looks like the bottom part of the stem is semi-transparent.”
The thing growing on the tree was a false shiitake mushroom.
However, I have never seen a mushroom imitation with translucent parts. I thought that my father, who has been in the forest many times, might know what it was, so I called out to him and showed it to him, but he just froze, with a very difficult look on his face.
“Dad, have you ever seen a mushroom like this?”
“No, I haven’t, but… it looks like it’s crystallized.”
“Crystallization? Is that even possible?”
Speaking of crystallization, is it the same thing that the glasses are made of? It wasn’t a result of mushrooms changing, but rather something that dripped from the roots of a tree.
“This is the first time I’ve seen this, but it might be caused by having too much mana. Why don’t you try growing mushrooms on other trees while you’re at it?”
My father’s face is also excited.
There is no one who doesn’t get excited when they see a phenomenon for the first time.
“Then I’ll sow the spores all over this area.”
If I was going to sow them anyway, I might as well do it all together. …No. In fact, if I was thinking of doing an experiment, I should have left spores from various kinds of mushrooms on them, but right now, rescue is a higher priority than experiments.
If I wasn’t in this situation, I would have done more research and experimentation. Unfortunately, I’m going to cast a spell to do the maximum amount of experiments I can now.
The spores must have been on the trees, but they won’t grow back right away, as humans and monsters can be infected. There’s nothing we can do but wait patiently, so I join the search.
I said goodbye to my father and went into a random building.
I thought I had gotten used to it a little by yesterday, but I still felt nervous about stepping into someone else’s house with my shoes on. I checked each room, freezing the rats that were trying to attack me. Then, just as I was about to enter the bedroom, I heard a loud noise.
The noise made me gasp.
It wasn’t the size of a mouse. Was it a human or a monster?
Before opening the door, I take a handful of glowing mushroom spores and throw it open just before I finish chanting the spell.
“Sylph, spirit of the wind. Grant me the power to dispel the stagnation. May the new wind fill this land.”
A breeze blows through the room, causing the curtains to flutter and letting in a little light.
In the dimly lit room was a human-sized thing. It was crawling around, stained red, and the nasty sound of sticky liquid splashing made my skin crawl.
I quickly closed the door.
Dang!!
There was a bang on the door.
It’s a force that seems to be telling me to open up.
But there is no human voice. No one calls for help.
As I continued to hold the door, the impacts eventually subsided. Still scared, I continued to hold the door for a while, taking shallow breaths repeatedly.
That amount of blood would be lethal no matter how you look at it.
So that must not be a patient waiting for help, but an undead. But the undead were originally human, and it’s highly likely they are residents of this house. It’s not that I’ve never seen an undead before. But the ones I’ve seen so far have been wandering the forest, and they don’t seem like they were originally human, they seem more like monsters.
But the previous scene was a vivid depiction of a human turned into an undead. That’s why I was even more shaken. I kept telling myself that it was already dead.
I sat there with my hands pressed against the door for a while, but I couldn’t stay like this forever. Still, I couldn’t find the courage to open the door again.
I used my physical strengthening and ran as fast as I could outside, even though it was a short distance. Once outside, I slammed the door.
My hands were shaking and I felt so pathetic that tears started to well up in my eyes.
Still, I couldn’t find the courage to go back and check again, so I raised the red flag.
Even though I have the means to defeat the undead, my body still trembles and I feel uneasy.
“Amelia, are you okay?”
My father, who was checking out the houses nearby, saw the signal fire and rushed over right away.
“…Sorry for calling you. There was something that looked like an undead in the bedroom…. I planted the glowing mushroom spores, but I just couldn’t find another chance to check…”
“Thank you for letting me know. It’s dangerous at night if we overlook the undead. Good job.”
No matter how you look at it, it was a double effort, but my father didn’t get angry. I tried my best to keep up with him, putting strength into my legs and standing up. But I couldn’t stop shaking.
“Amelia, could you please keep an eye out to make sure no monsters come in from outside?”
“…I understand.”
I responded as much as I could, and my father went inside the building.
I hope you enjoyed this chapter and thank you for reading!
