Vol. 4 - Chapter 8 - Jungle exploration
"Here is...?"
Pluto jumped up strenuously. "Beat me. But isn\'t it somewhere inside Kurikala?" he suggested.
The rest of his comrades also stood up and confirmed their bodies didn\'t hurt.
Everyone was safe. Seeing this, Mia felt as if a lump of mass had fallen out of her shoulders, and she let out a sigh.
"Hmm, but I haven\'t seen this place from the material from the guild," Eight muttered to himself as he put a hand on his chin.
"There seems to be something like a door!"
In front of Teresa\'s fingertip was a lavishly-decorated big door.
"It looks like that\'s the only way out. Nothing will change if we just sit here doing nothing, so let\'s try to move on."
"There\'s no guarantee that a rescue team will come even if we wait here... I think we don\'t have other options either. I agree."
Everyone nodded at Pluto and Eight, the two aces of Class G, and walked up to the magnificent door. Then, Eight carefully touched the door with his right hand, and the door slid while making a creaking sound like stones rubbing against each other.
"......"
Everyone gulped in silence at the bizarre scene that filled their vision.
"This is Kurikala... right?"
Pluto squeezed out his shivering voice.
They were confused. Except for the door that stood up alone amidst the large trees behind them, the place looked nothing less than a jungle with tall and overgrown trees no matter where they looked.
"It should be, but now I\'m not very sure," Teresa muttered as she looked up at the brilliant sunshine peeking through the shadows of the trees.
"What should we do? Shall we head back for now?"
"You\'re right. Let\'s search the place once again. Maybe there will be something like another hidden door that can take us back to Kurikala."
"No objection."
"I agree too."
"Me too!"
Everyone agreed. There was no doubt that this was an emergency situation.
Methods of coping with an emergency by Shirabe Sensei 1: Classifying the situation according to the degree of urgency.
So, if the situation isn\'t critical, don\'t act recklessly. The first is to calm down, then search for a solution.
Right now, they should investigate the strange space.
"In the end, there aren\'t any other doors..."
They had investigated every corner of the space when they returned to the golden room. Let alone a magic circle, they couldn\'t even find a stain.
Maybe because they felt like they were embroiled in an accident, everyone\'s shoulders were slumped up dejectedly.
"We have two options. We can either wait for rescue just like this or search the surrounding area. Choose one," Eight asked everyone\'s opinion while looking at them.
"I also think we should search the area. It\'s impossible for the sun to get inside a dungeon. We are probably teleported somewhere on the continent. We may be able to figure out something if we can get to a surrounding village or town."
"I agree with Pluto. If it\'s a trap, it might not be possible to wait here until rescue comes. No, even if it did come, who knows, maybe it would be after several months, and we all might have died from starvation. We should at least move around and search for some clues."
In general, Mia agreed with Pluto and Cliff.
The area outside of this room was a jungle zone. If it was a dungeon, the sun would either be artificial or an optical illusion. However, Mia just couldn\'t rule out that that realistic landscape was just a lie.
The magic circle was on the 4th floor. It might possibly be discovered someday, but perhaps not within several days. Just as Cliff said, the possibility of them taking months to be rescued was more than zero.
Besides, even if they found something to eat and didn\'t die out of starvation, they couldn\'t simply stay in this place for even a month. Mia and the others would have been expelled from Magic Knight Academy by then.
For Mia, until a while ago, expulsion had once meant the death of her mother. She absolutely would not want to do anything to be expelled. But, her mother had already been saved. Therefore, there was another reason for Mia to be so obsessed with the academy now.
That was, she wanted to continue taking Shirabe-sensei\'s classes together with her friends. It might be a selfish desire, but it was just as strong as before. So, she couldn\'t remain at this place.
That\'s why—
"Mia also think we should explore."
"Yeah. I also agree."
Eight looked at everyone and said, "Seems like we\'ve reached an agreement. Let\'s explore the place. However, it doesn\'t change the fact that this room is a safe zone, so for now, we should just search around its surrounding area. What do you guys think?"
He laid out the plan to proceed with the search.
"Okay, I don\'t have any objection," Pluto replied on behalf of everyone.
Mia and others stood up. Once again, they entered the door to that jungle.
◇◆◇◆◇◆
Mia and the others carefully took one step at a time while paying attention to the area between the overgrown trees.
"I didn\'t guess wrong! The terrain\'s changed!"
Pluto slammed his right foot against a tree next to him with a look of intense dismay on his face.
"Calm down, Pluto. You will only attract monsters by doing that."
At Eight\'s words of self-restraint, Pluto looked down for a while, grinding his teeth, before shaking his head several times.
"My bad. I lost my composure a bit," he apologized.
"It\'s alright. Rather than that, are we really lost?"
Eight looked at everyone and voiced his doubts on something that Mia and others were most worried about.
"I can\'t see any marks I left, so it\'s reasonable to assume that\'s the case."
"I\'m sorry. It\'s all because of me..." Teresa muttered dispiritedly with a fading voice. Her usual liveliness was nowhere to be seen.
"You know, we have been living together for almost half a year. We all are very familiar with how much of an airhead you are. So it\'s nothing out of expectation."
"That\'s right. At this point, you don\'t need to be sorry."
"Yeah. It\'s Teresa, so it can\'t be helped."
Everyone, including Mia, said the same thing.
"Hmph, what do you mean by thattt?!" Teresa reproached, puffing out her cheeks.
She finally seemed like herself. A depressed expression didn\'t really suit Teresa. She should always be cheerful and innocent.
"Anyway, I think we have no choice but to keep going. I once heard that it\'s possible to be stranded in some peculiar areas like this, so maybe there\'s some kind of hidden village nearby."
"You\'re right. Let\'s move on."
At Cliff\'s proposal, Pluto nodded with a mysterious look.
"Then, let\'s go."
With Eight\'s words as the cue, they resumed their search around the jungle.
After walking around the place for like an hour, they saw a burst of light straight ahead in the distance, faintly illuminating the surroundings amidst the gloomy trees.
"It seems like we are almost out of the forest," Eight strongly declared as his stern expression loosened a bit.
It wasn\'t like he thought there would be a town or a village ahead, but even so, it was much better than wandering along this gloomy mountain road.
"I wonder if there\'s a river ahead. It\'s really uncomfortable after dripping sweat."
"Who knows what\'s out there. We have enough water for a few months, so for now, restrain yourself."
Pluto took out a wooden water flask from his magic bag, sipped it, and poured the water over his head.
Nevertheless, it was November. It was supposed to be chilly, but it was so hot here as if they had been cooped up in a small room without a single window for several hours in the middle of summer.
They had been thoroughly taught the importance of water in labyrinth exploration, so they had secured enough water for this time. If they hadn\'t brought the water, they might have been unable to move a single step due to dehydration long ago.
"I know."
Teresa pouted and sipped some water.
Eight smiled bitterly. Then, he pointed his finger toward the light source.
"But we are indeed at our limits. Let\'s take a break once we reach there."
"Agreed!"
"Me too!"
Mia was really at her limit. She wanted to take a rest at least once.
"Don\'t lose your concentration!"
"Umm, you too."
Cliff nodded at Pluto\'s encouragement before they made their way towards the light source.
They passed through the dense jungle, and their eyes recognized the crazy view.
"Is it a lake?"
They could only squeeze out these words. It was natural. Because, as far as their eyes could see, there was only a body of water that was deep red, just like blood.
Eight licked the water.
"No, it\'s a sea. Probably a red tide. But this is the first time I see it, so I\'m not completely sure."
He asserted his lack of confidence.
"S-sea!? This is a sea?" Pluto exclaimed hysterically, scooped up the water, and tried to taste it.
However, he immediately spat on the ground.
"Salty!"
"It\'s much better here than inside the jungle. Let\'s take some rest here for the night."
While chuckling at Pluto, Eight took a tent out of the magic bag and began to set it up. Mia and the others also started helping him.
The sun had set, and they currently had an early dinner.
"I wonder where we are?" Pluto voiced his doubt in a murmur as he stared at the deathly silent water.
"I can\'t guess it either. The only thing I know is that it\'s a long way from Straheim."
"We can return, right...?" Teresa whispered, as her face was dyed in an intense color of anxiety, probably thinking they might not.
"It\'s okay, we can go home!" Mia strongly declared as she grabbed Teresa\'s hands that were trembling slightly.
"Thank you."
Lately, Teresa had shown different expressions from time to time in front of Mia and the others, unlike before.
Teresa\'s sorrowful expression, which she rarely showed to others, was just so beautiful and charming that even Mia, who was also a girl, couldn\'t help but be amazed by that.
The beginning of her change must have been due to the marriage interview partner she\'d once mentioned. She\'d asked Mia for advice a few times without telling her his name or identity. But after some time, she stopped talking about it as if she\'d put it behind, despite being so worried before.
Maybe it was the right chance to hear about how it went.
"Umm, Teresa一"
Just as Mia was about to open her mouth一一
Prepare for evacuation.
Pluto extinguished the bonfire and stood up, grabbing his spear as he stared at a point in the vast water surface.
Mia and the others also immediately stood up from their seats in front of the tent and grabbed their weapons.
In the direction of Pluto\'s narrowed gaze, countless small creatures were squirming on the surface of the water.
"Just take your magic bag and immediately escape into the jungle!!"
"Yeah, you\'re right!"
Eight also nodded and took several steps back while holding his favorite sword.
"T-that..."
However, Teresa curled up in fear as if she was scared of something while staring at the jungle. Reflexively, Mia also turned to look towards forest, and一一
"...!?"
She somehow stifled her scream. Countless bright red eyes were glaring at Mia and the others inside the jungle.
"Dammit. We are completely surrounded!"
There was an unusual number of glowing red eyes moving in the darkness. There were at least ten of them.
It would be too optimistic to expect all of these monsters to be small fries. Then, a few fish with arms and legs emerged from the water.
"L-lie down!!"
Along with Pluto\'s distressed voice, everyone immediately ducked and lay on the ground.
The fish with limbs were distorted, and right where Mia and the others were, something passed through the area with terrifying wind noise. Then, a rage-filled roar of a beast echoed from the sea of trees.
Instantly, a 4-5 meter radius tornado erupted from the sea of trees, sending large trees high in the sky, shattering them in several pieces as they fell down.
The moonlit scenery of the sea of forest became a vacant lot in concentric circles, and in the center of it, multiple wolves four to five meters tall roared towards the blood-red sea to threaten them.
Then, several hundred fish with limbs filled the seashore of the red sea. The monsters imitating fish clenched their sharp teeth.
Amid the large chorus of beasts\' roars and fish\' fangs gnashing, the two creatures faced each other, completely ignoring Mia and the others.
"Y-you gotta be kidding me!!"
Pluto\'s hoarse voice, as he lay next to them, shook their eardrums.
At the same time, more than several hundred fake fish leaped from the water at once, filling up the night sky completely.
Just when the wolves also opened their big mouth to aim at the fake fishes一一
"..!?"
Mia saw something long and narrow jump out of the water far away.
Boom!
The large blackish thing gulped down all of the fish monsters flying in the night sky, landed right in front of the students\' eyes, and looked down at them with its perfect saucer eyes.
"Ah..."
Maybe, it was the instinct of a living creature when they were facing mortal danger. Just by looking at the dull eyes, Mia understood the fact immediately. The hopelessly deep gulf between them and that creature could never be filled by any means.
Sure enough, the huge creature opened its large mouth and pointed its big eyes at the stiffening wolves.
Immediately, the hair on the body of the wolves stood up, and giving a low whimpering roar at that giant creature, they turned their backs and immediately tried to run away. But the black mass flew past Mia\'s head.
The next moment, the wolves, which once were there, were now in the belly of the long and thin creature without even having the time to scream.
And then, the big, long, and narrow black creature raised its crooked neck and approached Mia and the others.
"Ugh..."
At this rate, they would definitely end up in the belly of the creature. And yet, like a frog stared at by a snake, they couldn\'t move a single fingertip as they looked at the crazy spectacle, while their whole bodies gradually shivered.
As if it was enjoying their panicked state, the huge creature slowly approached them and opened its large, fishy mouth.
However, a crimson-blazing pillar fell from the sky all of a sudden.
The crimson- blazing pillar then swallowed the huge black creature, instantly turning it into dust.
"Why are the brats of that person in this place?"
A scowling man wearing a monocle with a swept black hairstyle stood in the center of the circle that had turned into a vacant lot.