Chapter 124
Chapter 124
In a dark forest.
Amidst the silence, the sound of crickets could be heard.
Step... step...
The footsteps of someone carrying a large backpack echoed.
The stride was slow, but not because the backpack was heavy.
“……”
In the moonlight filtering through the trees, her figure was revealed.
Carrying the backpack, Sia clutched her chest.
Cold sweat ran down her spine, veins writhed across her body, and her breathing grew ragged.
“Ugh…”
As if she could no longer endure, she set down the backpack and leaned against a nearby tree.
Her shoulders heaved with rough breaths, and strength drained from her legs.
Soon, her back slid slowly down the tree as she lost balance.
Sitting on the ground, Sia slipped her trembling hand into the backpack.
What she pulled out was dozens of pills.
She hastily shoved them all into her mouth.
The moment she swallowed, memories surged like waves.
It was the memory of a sealed-off place reeking of blood.
‘Endure it.’
The voice of a man dressed in blue surgical garb, his face hidden by a mask, echoed.
‘Don’t you dare cry over something this trivial.’
Lying on the operating table, Sia’s entire body was drenched in blood.
She raised her trembling arm and looked at it.
She tried moving her fingers slowly.
The sensation was connected.
Her fingers certainly moved according to her will.
But... those were ‘hands she had never seen before’.
Her body shook uncontrollably.
Then the man whispered again.
‘You have a mission. You must endure.’
Covered in blood, Sia had no choice but to force a smile at him.
…A splitting pain struck her mind, pulling her consciousness back to reality.
Sia wiped away her tears with her sleeve.
“I am Sia. I am definitely here. I will not disappear. I am…”
In the midst of pain, she whispered to herself.
After some time, perhaps due to the effect of the medicine.
Her ragged breaths began to steady.
The pain that had felt like crushing slowly subsided.
It was then, leaning against the tree and gazing at the moon.
Rustle—
…She sensed movement nearby.
Sia immediately became alert in all directions.
Was it a monster?
Picking up a stone from the ground, she focused on the sound’s direction.
Rustle, rustle—
Soon, the figure of an animal emerged from the darkness.
…It was a pure white fawn, its antlers not yet grown.
As if imbued with moonlight, its fur shimmered with a chilling radiance.
Its clear, glass-like eyes quietly watched her.
Then, the fawn began slowly approaching Sia.
“Stop.”
Sia spoke threateningly, glaring.
She gripped the stone tighter, but the fawn did not halt.
“Don’t come closer, or I’ll kill you.”
Yet despite her words, the fawn continued forward.
Did it not understand her?
Or did it understand and still approach?
Right in front of her, the fawn lowered its head without hesitation.
Slide, brush—
Then it gently rubbed its face against the back of her hand.
“……”
The sensation was soft and warm.
The fawn’s body heat seeped into her skin.
In that warmth, her guard gradually melted away.
Truthfully, that warmth wasn’t unpleasant.
…She wanted to pet it.
Such a desire quietly welled up.
Moonlight sparkled in Sia’s eyes.
After long hesitation, she set down the stone and reached toward the fawn.
At that moment.
Crackle—!
A sharp wave of mana split the air.
…A mana voice.
At the sound, the light vanished from Sia’s eyes.
The hand she had reached toward the fawn fell limp.
“……”
Her lowered face grew darker.
“…Understood.”
After replying to the voice, Sia slung on her backpack and rose.
—Mii~!
The white fawn cried out, trying to follow her steps.
But Sia turned back with a cold expression.
“Do not follow me any further.”
With those words, she vanished in an instant.
The white fawn only stood still, staring at the place where she had been.
I woke up early in the morning.
Everything was utterly quiet.
‘…Nothing happened while I was asleep.’
It was thanks to the [Danger Sense] skill I gained when I recruited Ramji.
I could sleep soundly without needing a night watch.
I rose from the hammock.
‘So, what should I do today?’
…No, ‘what should I do,’ really?
Even I found the thought ridiculous.
The exam wasn’t over, and I was still in competition.
Other cadets were probably hunting monsters or desperately fighting each other by now.
‘This place… is an entirely different genre.’
This little forest felt like a resort completely detached from the exam.
Quiet, peaceful.
I looked toward the Tree House and began planning my day.
Growing blueberries to cultivate a farm wouldn’t be bad, but that wasn’t the most important thing.
‘Water… I need water.’
The source of all life.
Not only for survival, but also for farming, water was essential.
‘The drinking water stored in Subspace is almost gone.’
The water I gave to Lapin and Karin yesterday was everything I had left.
I could use the teleport set on the tree to move to the Academy’s livestock shed, but… long tails get caught eventually.
‘If I kept supplying myself with full water containers without moving, a supervising professor might notice.’
If I went back and forth too often through the teleport tree, I could also raise suspicion.
The shadows of the trees made discovery unlikely, but if I ever got caught, it would seriously affect the exam.
In the end, I decided against sourcing water from the livestock shed.
I crouched down and looked at the plants around me.
Dew clung to their leaves.
But with just that, it was impossible to secure enough drinking water for three people.
I thought of the waterfall where I had tested Ramji’s ability, but quickly shook my head.
‘That place… won’t work either.’
The waterfall had plenty of water, but it was far enough away that even using Shurk’s ability took a long time.
‘Besides, there’s the chance of running into other cadets while fetching water.’
The wider my range of activity, the higher the risk of encounters.
So, finding a spring relatively close to the Tree House seemed best.
I first searched within a 200-meter radius.
…Unfortunately, I found nothing.
‘I should check farther, but the farther it is, the worse.’
While searching for a spring, I happened to notice something.
A tree that looked very different from the others.
Its long drooping leaves swayed in the breeze.
‘…A willow?’
Instead of a spring, I found myself drawn to the willow.
‘Something… feels familiar.’
A memory resurfaced of some ‘information’ I once saw in a TV documentary.
Kneeling on one knee, I touched the soil around the willow.
It was damp and moist.
Then I looked around.
The area was relatively low in elevation.
Just as the memory returned in full, the system fed me that ‘information.’
…The spring wasn’t visible yet, but I saw the ‘possibility.’
I immediately dashed back to the Tree House.
It was close enough that I didn’t need to use Shurk’s ability.
At the base of the Tree House lay the farming tools I had prepared in advance.
Among them, I picked up the heavy shovel and walked back to where the willow tree stood.
A short distance away from the willow.
There, I struck the ground with the shovel blade.
Squelch—!
I kept digging out the soil, the smell of nature spreading in the air.
‘…Will it really come out?’
I set aside the idea of searching for a spring.
Instead, I decided to dig a ‘well’ myself.
‘…I hope I hit the jackpot.’
I had never dug a well before.
Without any devices to locate groundwater, I couldn’t be sure of the depth, direction, or exact position of the vein.
But because there was a high ‘possibility,’ I trusted the information the system provided and silently kept digging.
‘Dig, dig, and dig again…!’
I wordlessly raised my shovel.
After about an hour of digging, the hole had grown taller than me.
Another hour passed, and the pit had become nearly twice my height.
‘That’s about three or four meters deep…’
By then, my hair, face, and entire body were covered in dirt, yet I didn’t stop.
…That was when it happened.
Splash—!
A strange sensation ran up the end of the shovel.
It was the first time I had felt it since I began digging.
The shovel blade, which had been pushing aside hard soil, struck something damp and soft.
‘…Could it be?’
I drove the shovel in again.
Squelch—! Squelch—! Squelch—!
The more I struck, the wider my smile became.
Scooping away more earth, something transparent burst forth from the bottom of the pit.
…The thing I had longed for.
It was water.
A clear stream seeped out between the thick soil.
‘…I did it.’
Quietly laying down the shovel, I knelt.
Digging carefully with my fingertips, clear water began gushing up from the gap.
Shallow but slowly, it pooled.
“Found it…!”
A soft exclamation escaped my lips.
‘So it really was here…’
I had acted only on clues that the terrain was low, the soil damp, and that groundwater was likely around the willow.
Luckily, it was a success.
‘If digging a well had failed, I would have just gone searching for a spring.’
I was fortunate.
Now there was no need to fetch water from a distant spring.
The well was fairly close to the Tree House too—about 300 meters.
It was within the range of Ramji’s [Danger Sense] skill, which made it even better.
‘If I can secure drinking water while reducing the risk of encountering enemies… then for survival, this is the best spot.’
I pulled out a water container and began filling it with the clear water pooling at the bottom.
‘I thought it might turn muddy since it came straight out of the ground…’
Surprisingly, it didn’t.
What filled the container wasn’t muddy water but clear water.
Despite being groundwater drawn directly from the earth, I hadn’t expected it to be this pure.
‘This is hardly different from filtered water, is it?’
Willow roots had strong purifying power.
Thanks to that, the water was clean drinking water, free of toxins and harmful substances.
I took a sip from the container.
…Freshness spread through my mouth, coolness running down my throat.
No smell, no turbidity.
It was perfect drinking water made by nature.
‘With this, the water problem is completely solved.’
I climbed out of the well and searched for fist-sized rocks nearby.
‘Now just the finishing touch remains.’
I needed to reinforce the well with stones.
By stacking rocks into a stone wall, the water could flow out naturally between the gaps, preventing it from stagnating.
I stored usable rocks into Subspace, then went back into the well and stacked them carefully.
Before the water filled up completely, I quickly worked from the bottom and succeeded in making the stone wall.
Time passed, and wiping the sweat from my brow, I gazed at the finished well.
Inside the stone wall, clear, transparent water was slowly rising.
‘It’s complete…!’
My body ached all over, yet my heart felt oddly light.
Feeling immense satisfaction, I was filling the water containers for Lapin and Karin when it happened.
‘What is that?’
…I felt a gaze from somewhere.
Looking up toward it, something unusual caught my eye.
Swoosh—
Beneath the swaying willow tree.
…There stood a pure white fawn, its antlers not yet grown.
Bathed in the sunlight filtering through the trees, its fur shimmered faintly.
Its crystal-like eyes quietly fixed on me.