chapter 8

「Caam, do you have a minute?」 「What is it?」 「If it’s fine with you, we could deal with that thing with the forest today」 「Is that true! Then, I will be waiting at that place after I eat」

As I was waiting in the forest, Sc.h.i.n.ken and a person with pointy ears came . 「Hey, we kept you waiting right?」 「I didn’t wait that long . Nice to meet you, I am Caam . You are…」 「I’m Arc(アルク), Sc.h.i.n.ken’s mother . I’m greatly indebted to you for that time during harvest」 「Nice to meet you Arc-san, I only did that because I thought it would make everyone’s lives easier」 「You want to know the way of walking in the forest and how to find prey right? What kind of weapon do you use?」 「Because I’m hopeless with a bow, I use this」 As I said that, I hit the place where I made a mark on a tree 30 meters away with a stone I had in my hand . 「Stone throwing, is it? It might be difficult when it gets to a certain distance . Couldn’t you just use magic? I heard from my son that you are pretty good at it」 「I just want to know my limits for now because I need to know everything that I cannot do if I am in a pinch . And also because magic is too convenient」 「Is that the case? Well, it’s not a bad thing to put constraints on yourself」 「Well, because I don’t know how to find prey, I would be depending on you」 While saying that, I showed them the bolas and somai . 「Are these throwing tools…… I’ll do as much as I can for my son’s friend who taught him the trick to use magic」

「The trick is in concealing your presence, erasing the sounds of your footsteps, predicting the wind flow and reading the scents of the forest . These four are more or less the main points you need to know . I’ll teach you how to erase the sound of your footsteps later . Let’s first start by erasing your presence . First of all, you need to control your breathing . By the way, try not to let out any sound when you are breathing as much as possible . Please try it in your own way at first」 「I understand」 Remember those survival games . Slowly inhale and exhale through your nose . This is self-taught of course . With this method, I can hear my own heartbeat and I can sense every minute movements .

【Skill・Concealment・1】aquired .

Oh? Is this good?

「Okay, that’s enough . You have a good apt.i.tude with this considering that you just did it on your own for the first time . I think that there won’t be any problems at this rate but please stay vigilant」 「Thank you very much」 Well, that is because I have worn a ghillie suit before when we were pretending to hunt in the mountains . Although I got noticed because I got stepped on my back .

「Next is to predict the flow of the wind . If you can do that, then you can also read the scent of the forest . You isn’t something that you can acquire immediately so I’ll be giving you some tips . It would be fine if you can just get a sense of it」 「I understand」 It’s more or less like reading the wind in a survival game . BB bullets are light so they can get easily swept away .

「Let’s go over to that side of the creek . That area of the forest is dense . Have you been there before?」 「No . My mother always tells me not to go deep into the forest」 「I see . Then, I will take the lead so please follow me while trying to erase the sound of your footsteps as much as possible and do your best to conceal your presence . Sc.h.i.n.ken will be behind me . And Caam will be in the 3rd position . 」 「Yes」 「Understood」

Wow . It looks like she’s walking normally but I can’t hear her footsteps . She’s right in front of me but I can barely feel her presence . I’m walking normally but I’m slowly running out of breath and my breathing sounds are starting to leak out . Arc-san is a professional so that is to be expected but Sc.h.i.n.ken is rather amazing as well . I can’t hear his footsteps . I truly need to “practice!” right?……White death-san .

I don’t know if she noticed it but Arc slowed down her pace . Then, after 10 minutes of walking, Arc suddenly stopped and slowly raised her hand . It’s probably the sign to stop .

She nocked the arrow, slowly pulled the bow back and let it loose . Just when I thought that it was going into the thicket, the arrow firmly struck on the rabbit that appeared and it died instantly .

「Therefore, you should do it like this . You may think that I was just randomly walking but with a slight flow of wind, I got the scent of an animal upwind . When an animal is upwind, it would not be able catch our scent so you should always try to face downwind even when the wind is calm . When I saw a slight movement on the thicket, I just guessed on where to shoot . And you also need a bit more training to get rid of the sound of your footsteps . If you move slowly you won’t have problems with your breathing」 Like in that sniper training school, I had 3 hours to get close to the instructor while she was looking for me . I really have to practice this .

「Let’s wrap it up for now . Please lie down over here and close your eyes」 I just did what I was told for now . 「You can hear the sound of the tree swaying with the wind right? But if you listen carefully, you can hear the trees moving even if there is no wind . If you take in that wind, you would be able to trace the scent of an animal . That’s not something I can explain even if I try to put it simply . It all comes down to your experience and intuition . If you listen carefully and sharpen your sense of smell, you can open up all of your senses and you will be able to become one with the forest . If you keep that in mind, you will be able to find the location of your prey in nature」

I don’t understand…… Is Arc-san the genius type that can just somehow do it? Or is that something peculiar to elves? While I was thinking that, she stood up and said, “Okay, fine already” . Wasn’t that too quick? Is she just going to teach me the tricks and it’s up to me to get used to it afterwards?

「I understand . I will keep in mind what you taught me today . And also, that’s the same as earlier, right?」I pointed to the bush that was slightly moving while I was saying that . If you look closely, rabbit ears can be seen .

「Yeah, that’s right . Do you want to try hunting it? If you are not confident then I could take it」 「I will try . I won’t start by saying I cannot do it . But please prepare your bow just in case I make a mistake」

It’s convenient that I had 2 ping-pong sized stones in hand . 「Distance, 35 paces, wind・0 . 5 degrees to the right… is that right?」 At this distance and with this weight, the stones probably won’t be swept away .

After taking a deep breath, I stopped breathing . I concentrated just like that and throw the stone . A second later, I immediately threw the 2nd one . It became confused and started to run away when I hit its body with the first shot so I hit it’s hind legs with the second shot so it could not escape .

「Well done . The way you read the wind was still rough but it’s fine for now . Your next priority should be to be able to locate your prey . After that, you should ask Sc.h.i.n.ken how to get rid of your footsteps while chasing after your prey . I should let that kid get some experience as well」 She loosened her draw on her bow, which was drawn just in case I missed, and returned the arrow to the quiver as she said that . 「I’ll also say that you should not enter the forest alone so it’s good if you are with Caam . I’ll leave him in your care」 「Yes, I’ll be in your care」 「Best regards, Caam」 He said that with a difficult expression . Is he not that confident yet?

【Skill・Throwing：2】aquired

It went up even though I only threw that much . Is there some rule that it would go up when you’re hunting animals or something? Well, it’s good that it went up .

「Could you please lend me something sharp? I want to drain its blood but I don’t have a knife yet」 「It’s better if you drain the blood quickly but let’s leave the forest for now . It’s possible that the scent of blood will attract monsters . Let’s try our best to avoid dangers . It would take longer to drain the blood of larger animals so keep that in mind and try to do it in a safe place as much as possible」 「I understand, safety is better that it being fresh . Thank you very much」

With today’s results, we left the forest and drained the rabbit’s blood close to the village before going home .

「Mother, I have something you can add to our dinner」 「ara, it’s good that you were able to catch it without using tools . That’s amazing, isn’t it」 「I hit it with a stone」 「Hm? Is that amazing? I’m not really sure」 「I tried it out with a bow but I was hopelessly unskilled at it」 「So you just decided to use stonesー」 Although I used my previous life as my standards, I didn’t lie .

And so, meat was added to our salt soup dinner . The salt content increased because it was used to dry the meat but I’d like it if there are other condiments, mother .

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Now then, since I have already decided on my own rules, I should come up with a modern-day weapon-like magic . I guess it should be a gun after all . Making an actual gun might be impossible but I might be able to make ammunitions . Let’s list out my options .

1 . Make bullets using stones and firing it using earth magic 2 . Turning sand into iron sand pellets and firing it using earth magic 3 . Produce a gem and fire it using earth magic

These are all my options . Then, let’s start from number 1 . 『Image・Long and narrow, egg-shaped stone・High rotational speed・speed: 800m/s・Point of impact: straight at an obstacle at the center of the user’s point of view、Disappears after 500 meters・Execute』 I don’t remember all of the details so I just winged it! And if I miss, it would be scary if it just continues to fly so I added a restriction .

A 50cm bullet was formed in front of my forehead and was fired . There was no gunshot sound because there was no gunpowder but in place of that, there was a sonic boom instead . My target, which was a tree 50 meters ahead, was. .h.i.t and got something like a bullet hole . I’m satisfied because it was almost like how I imagined it . Would the bullet drop or be affected by the wind if I increased the distance afterwards?

Next is option 2 . I was somehow able to understand it seeing the result . It’s a frangible bullet . It can penetrate soft objects but would disintegrate when hitting hard objects . I changed ‘long and narrow’ line earlier with『harden an appropriate mineral into an elliptical shape』 .

Then it’s the 3rd option . Since it’s special, I would like to try using that . Emerald○○○。 ○ュ。[TN: I don’t know what the author is referencing here…] Since the emerald has a hardness of 8 on the Mohs scale, it would be too hard as a bullet so I don’t really expect it to forcefully pierce even through soft objects . So instead, I’ll use Malachite, a similar green gem but with the hardness of 4 in mohs scale . I expect it will probably be crushed when it hits . If it does, it would be like a shotgun effect .

A shotgun is a gun that fires a number of small spherical pellets . This time, I used『Fire 10 pieces of 10mm pellets of malachite inside a 3cm diameter casing with a speed of 400m/s』 . And since this is dangerous, I’ll make it disappear after it reaches 100 meters .

A loud cracking sound could be heard like the tree was forcibly snapped . It opened a large hole on the tree and wood sc.r.a.ps are scattered all around . I succeeded… I succeeded but something feels off…… Good grief…… I guess I should first yell out three times the next time I use this .

【Skill・Offensive Attribute・Earth：2】acquired .

I really don’t understand the basis for increasing the skill level…… Oh well .

I’m going to practice in the forest next but as someone once said, “Don’t think, feel!”, so I’ll try to do it like that . I would like to believe that I can take on a bear right now that I have lifted the ban on my magic .

Ahー, I guess it’s going to be winter soon……