53. Grasslands
“Woah! That’s bad. A swarm of Giant Killer Bees. Facing that many at that size? Not gonna be easy!” Albert shouted, unusually agitated.
The Giant Killer Bees weren’t actually giant—compared to regular insects, they were about twenty centimeters long. Level 15 each. But each one was Level 15, and there were hundreds of them. And they covered a surprisingly wide area.
So even a regular adventurer would have a hard time surviving if caught in the middle of one.
We’re still far off, so we’re safe for now—but we need a plan. The five of us discussed it.
Meanwhile, Shiro adjusted the visual interface parameters again, having noticed something unclear during the scan. Then, he received two new skills: [Zoom] Level 1, [Microscope] Level 1. Using Zoom, he confirmed it was a swarm of several hundred Killer Bees.
Shiro then used the same mechanism he’d used to create the translucent doll, leveraging external UI functions to float a display about two meters ahead.
He projected his view onto it, letting everyone observe the swarm together.
“How do you normally take these down?” Shiro asked.
“Run,” Shestia said.
“Right. Taking on a group like that? Impossible,” Aria added.
“But the honey from their hive is delicious—priceless,” Shestia said, eyes sparkling.
“Haha. So that’s the real prize, huh…” Shiro smirked.
“Shiro, if we eliminate eighty percent of the swarm, the rest will retreat to their nest. Once they do, we can pinpoint the nest’s location and secure the honey. We could also locate it through scouting, but either way, we’ve got to deal with that many first,” Mitoka explained.
“Alright, I’ll handle this with Mitoka. Two of us, homing ice bullets—how many can we fire total?”
“Shiro, yes. After narrowing the search to the swarm itself, we’ve confirmed the count at four hundred thirty-six. Let’s aim for three hundred seventy—the eighty percent mark. Should take two or three shots to take care of them.”
“Got it. I’ll set up a barrier up close. The rest of you wait there. We’ll go for an aerial strike from above,” Shiro said, and the group moved in.
They took cover on a rocky outcrop about a hundred meters from the killer bees, where Shiro and Mitoka ascended into the sky. Shiro cast a barrier for the other three.
From a height of roughly one hundred meters, they fired the 【Multi-Homing Ice Bullet】 at the swarm.
After the second volley, the surviving bees scattered, then regrouped and flew off in a single direction.
“Good—let’s follow them!”
Shiro and Mitoka descended, dispelling the barrier. The whole group gave chase.
When they found the nest, Shiro said, “Alright, Mitoka and I’ll use stealth skills to approach quietly and grab a little honey.” They succeeded in harvesting the honey without incident.
Shiro paused, idly wondering just what kind of plant these massive bees were harvesting from—but then let the thought drop.
◇
“Huh. This mushroom—looks familiar. Is this normal?”
Shiro stares at the mushroom. It’s about eighty centimeters tall, with a cap diameter of fifty—massive.
“…Hmm, I’ve never seen one this big. Not exactly an expert on fungi,” Shestia replies.
“Mm, I’ve seen something like this before… where was it? Albert, do you remember?” Aria says.
“Nope, don’t know. I hate mushrooms,” Albert says.
“Shiro, no unusual data populates during鉴定. Though, considering past incidents, we can’t actually claim it on the ledger,” Mitoka says.
“Yeah. Let’s just grab one,” Shiro says, collecting a single specimen and stowing it in his inventory.
◇
“Guess we’ll stop here for today?” Shiro mutters.
They’re deep in the woods now—past the great grasslands, veered east a bit. The forest ahead stretches endlessly, no open plains in sight. Up until now, they’d been following rivers or traversing grasslands, so finding space to pitch a tent hadn’t been an issue.
“Mm, camp out tonight?” Aria says.
“I want a bath,” Shestia says.
“Shestia, don’t be so demanding. We’ve stayed in inns every time so far—feels more like a vacation than an expedition,” Aria replies.
“Hmm, I really want to get out of the house. I miss my bed,” Shiro says, then quietly conjures a glowing sword.
He cuts trees down to about one meter high, evenly, slicing them clean as butter—each piece neatly stored in his inventory.
The three stare, dumbfounded—this kind of precision, this effortless efficiency, hadn’t been seen in a while.
Once Shiro clears a space of sufficient size, he summons a house atop the uniform stumps.
"Yeah, no problem. The foundation's a solid metal block—won't budge an inch even with all these stumps. Just stack the house right on top," Shiro said, leaping onto the porch and stepping inside with Mitoka.
The three snapped back to themselves and followed Shiro into the house.
From this point forward—though, really, even before—Shiro would summon his house every night without fail, turning their journey into a comfortable, uninterrupted trek with not a single night spent camping.
◇
Afterward, the journey progressed smoothly, and they reached the southern cliff edge of the Demon Tree Sea.
The Demon Tree Sea sprawled across a vast plateau, so the demons rarely ventured beyond. That was fortunate—otherwise, this world might have already collapsed. Still, it wasn’t perfect. Occasionally, demons would rise from beneath the earth. The town they were heading toward lay in a region where such appearances were fairly common.
The river they’d traveled so far had become a waterfall here, with a slightly eroded path around it. If you stepped carefully, you could manage to climb up and down.
A little further south, descending from here, and they’d be out of the Demon Tree Sea’s domain.
And so, Shiro and the others made it through the Demon Tree Sea—safely.
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