Chapter 42: The Dust and The Deforestation

I thought about firing two shots. But firing the first one and then the other would mean creating a gap for the monster to escape. To fire them at once would mean to shorten the range, and that would be no good.

Ah.

Perhaps, what I needed was full power.

So how much power did I need to detonate magic?

I’ve never seen magic that hit something and didn’t turn into a physical phenomenon.

Well, I didn’t know the standard qualities of this “something”, but when magic collided with another magic, it detonated.

No matter how small, magic was still magic and different from air, so even the smallest magic could detonate the enemy’s magic.

I decided to try it. For the time being, I prepared a rock spear (although it was no longer a rock) with the image of a sand grain. I tried to release a large number of sand grains toward the bird flying in the sky.

It exploded immediately about 30m above my head. Apparently, it was a close call, but it seemed to be a success.

Maybe I could hit it with this sort of attack while preparing a big shotgun.

While releasing sand grains to prevent the enemy’s attacks, I hardly felt that the speed of the shotgun was slowing down.

Wasn’t this a dangerous magic? I fired it when the shotgun was completed. When I looked attentively at the flying shot…

Ah, it self-destruct.

It seemed the bird was trying to hit us with an explosion even though the sand grains were flying towards it. Therefore, the bird ate its own explosion with its mouth.

Furthermore, the shotgun hit it too.

…Did I do it!?

I wanted to rejoice but I didn’t want to feel disappointed at a possible failure. However, the bird fell straight to the ground.

It almost seemed to fall straight down from my point of view, but it actually fell diagonally.

「Ohh! You killed the Ixprondre without putting much effort! 」

「You’re pretty good, aren’t you. 」

They spoke to me while I caught and stored the bird in the item box.

It was a very easy win.

There may be other ways to do it if I flew closer to it. But, I was the one being escorted. The adventurers would’ve been in trouble if the person they were supposed to protect became the target of the enemy. So I didn’t do it.

As a result, I created that sort of magic, so the outcome was okay.

「You’re like an anti-aircraft wizard who can move with the physical strength of a warrior! I want you to join our party! Would you like to come with us after we complete this quest?」

Did they belong to same party? I thought they were scouted independently. However, I did feel that they were well coordinated. So they were comrades, huh.

「No. I prefer to act solo. 」

I refused. It seemed that no one was faster than I was, so I didn’t see any reason to belong to a party weaker than me, even if it were temporary.

「I see. By the way, I felt the Ixprondre had self-destructed, but what did you do exactly?」

Did they notice the way I invoked my magic?

Well, this magic was a bit different from the others I invoked before. If I used it often, the decrease in firepower would be inevitable.

I decided not to divulge it unless I found a way to deal with this problem.

Well, but I could give it a name.

The name “Magic Explosion” would be nice.

It didn’t match the actual situation, but even if I made a mistake one day, it would be difficult to guess the specific properties with this name.

「Well, I did it by chance. 」

I cheated on this matter for the time being.

It seemed to have worked well, since they stopped pursuing this matter.

After that, there were no noticeable incidents, and we continued to run straight before arriving at a place that seemed to be Decibator.

「We have arrived. 」

Apparently, this place was Decibator.

It didn’t look like a city. At least, it did not look like the towns and cities I’ve seen earlier.

First, there were no walls here unlike the previous towns.

There were about three concentric circles of what appeared to be the remains of a wall, with a moat in between. It did not have water in it, but it was a magnificent moat with a width of 5m and a depth of 3m.

If I jumped over it, I would find something that looked like a fence. However, it looked completely different from what I’ve seen so far. I saw remnants of monsters here and there. The fence was about 3m high, which was made by something that resembled soil.

When I reached the fence, I had to jump on it. Could they not afford to make a gate?

The situation in the city was completely different too.

I couldn’t find a building with more than two floors, and the buildings were sparse.

Most of the houses were made of wood, and they had many doors and windows. All the rooms were full of doors, as if the doors were walls.

When I looked at a place where I heard a fuss in the distance, humans were fighting against something that looked like a monster.

The doors seemed to be prepared for monster raids. Did the Decibator people had no peace?

I arrived at the Guild while observing such things. It was near the center of the city.

The density of the buildings increased near the center, and I could see some shops. However, it seemed that nobody felt safe even at the center, since the Guild was also full of doors.

Well, this city seemed to be 1 km in diameter, so if the monsters were not subdued on the way, they would reach this place in no time.

「I came to report about the transportation request. 」

I spoke while showing the Guild card and the Transporter card.

「Ahh, are you the party that contacted with me yesterday? Do you have the valuables in the item box?」

「Yes, where should I put them? 」

「I’ll show you where. Since you have completed the request, so please go through the procedure right there.」

The Guild people guided me to a place that seemed like a food storage. They made it by digging a hole in the ground.

Well, it looked like a basement of sorts. Like a small warehouse. But it seemed to be considerably stronger than a normal warehouse.

「You can put the valuables here. Please put as much as you can. 」

I put the food as much as I could, but there was still a lot of food left in the item box.

「Well then. This way. 」

With that said, the people of the Guild went out of the building.

While I wondered where they were taking me, I noticed that the destination was a grocery store right next to the Guild.

「Please enter here. 」

It was a slightly larger grocery store than the ones I’ve been.

I put some food in there as well.

I went around a few houses after the grocery store, and finally the food ran out from the item box.

「Your item box has a great capacity. This completes the request. Do you have a card so that I can give you the reward?」

「Yes, I have. Thanks. 」

When I handed over the card I got from Photoren, the person from the Guild put the card in something that resembled a box. After doing so, he returned it back to me.

The card said, “18950000”. It was nearly 20 million income.

「The transportation quest has put a lot of pressure on me, so I want to concentrate on the fight for a while.」

「Yes, please do. There are great benefits here as well. 」

I decided to look for requests for the time being.

I felt like it was a waste to go home after doing only trade.

Unlike other cities, the requests were only subjugation requests. It did not matter what rank it was.

I discovered one strange request among the requests to subdue the Black Wolf and other similar monsters.

—

Subjugation request

Rank: Regardless

Request details: Logging of trees around Decibator

Reward: 50,000 Tael per tree

Quantity: Any amount

Description: Be careful since it is very hard. We recommend bringing weapons or axes made of special materials.

—

Trees…? Why were trees on the subjugation board?

The reward price was 50,000 Tael.

Why were they asking to cut trees? Were they going to use it as firewood? But if that was the case, they would ask specifically for it instead of putting it in the subjugation board.

I decided to ask someone in the Guild.

「Excuse me. Are you asking me to subdue this tree as in cutting a normal tree? 」

「Yes, that’s right. The area of monsters expands because of the delay in logging trees, so if logging goes well, there is a possibility that we can push back the area of monsters…Well, it’s just a dream, since it’s been difficult to achieve.」

「Is that so? Then, I’ll cut some trees. 」

Logging of trees seemed to be very important.

In Japan, it was said that humans and forests should coexist, but in this world trees seemed to be the enemy of humans.

Seeing that the forests of Ain and Herrera were like monster territories, reducing those areas would be beneficial to limit the number of monsters.

「Wait a minute. There are a lot of monsters in the forest. It won’t be easy to cut the trees. So it will be better if you don’t go by yourself.」

「Well, I can fly, so I can escape in case of an emergency. If it gets too dangerous, then I’ll run away.」

It sounded like a death flag.

However, I wanted to increase my stats by going into a battle. I would still go there to find monsters whether I cut a tree or not.

「I see. I can’t force you, but be careful. If you’re confident about your level and capabilities, then it’s okay as long as you don’t venture that deep. You’ll have too much to lose if you risk your life just for the sake of cutting trees.」

「Yes, it will be okay. I have enough magical power that match the capacity of my item box, so if I use my magic for defense, the enemy’s attack won’t reach me that easily. 」

I said those words and left the Guild.

I tried to go by flying in the sky, but it seemed that there were no trees on the Photoren side. I felt that there was a difference of about 5 times less in the number of monsters on the Photoren side and vice versa.

Perhaps, logging was truly a way of reducing the number of monsters.

I went toward the side of the forest and tried to cut down the trees with the magic sword while flying through them.

I cut them quickly. It seemed the trunks were not that hard.

I cut 2 of them with too much power.

I held the wand sword in my left hand, and held the magic sword in my right hand, and then I spread both of my hands and cut some more all at once.

After cutting down three trees with the magic sword on the right hand, I saw a tree on the left side, so I cut it down with my wand sword.

*bang*

Painful. Very painful. I may have broken my hand.

I couldn’t cut it easily and it stuck. The wand sword dug in about 10 cm, but the trunk was as thick as 30 cm.

Impossible. After all, the wand sword had a strong level of sharpness when compared with an ordinary sword.

But it was no good.

Anyway, I was sure that I would cut it if I did it with the magic sword. Moreover, it cost 50,000 Tael per tree.

That was great. It was not as good as the transportation requests, but if I could carry as much as they needed, then I would be done.

So I held the magic sword in my right hand, spread it all the way through while flying through the left side of the tree.

50,000 Tael trees were slaughtered in rows. I found some monsters on the way, but they were not that much of a threat.

This was not a battle, but a harvest.

Both monsters and trees were just crops to be harvested.

I decided to cut trees for about 3 hours before returning to the Guild.

I forgot because I was not tired, but I was running for 8 hours before coming here.

…Speaking of which, I cut many trees in 3 hours, but I wondered if it would be too much for a first try.

Maybe it would seem strange to achieve so much and receive millions in a single day.

What would I say if I went to report such unrealistic thing?

Well, there was no common sense in Decibator to being with, right? I’ve been noticing it ever since I began my transporter exam.

But, would it be okay to say to the Decibator people that I kind of floated in the air while cutting a large number of trees? Who knows…

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