Chapter 23

: Defense Specialized and Exploration Resume
 
After the two walked through the grasslands for an hour.
They could already see the forest ahead.
The two regained their liveliness and increased the pace they were walking.
 
「W-We finally made it!」
「What a deep forest…」
 
The two entered into the forest.
The dense forest was not letting most of the light pass from the sky, and was very dim.
And, it has a lot of bushes making it a terrain well suited for the surprise attack from monsters.
 
「I will protect you alright〜!」
「Really, I can count on you more than anyone else」
 
The attack that would make Kaede collapse, anybody wouldn’t be able to endure it. Risa, while being cautious of the surroundings, hid in Kaede’s shadows while moving ahead of the forest.
And after 30 minutes.
There wasn’t one surprise attack that the two was worried about after all, and their exploration continues peacefully.
 
「Nothing’s coming out?」
「Instead, it’s too eerie that nothing’s coming out」
「Ahaha… that’s true…」
 
Shin, the forest that was very silent was as Risa had said, very eerie.
The more they move deeper, the sounds were really disappearing.
 
「C-Can we talk about something?!」
 
Because of the anxiety beyond description, Risa shouts.
 
「Eh?! I-It’s okay though? Uhmm…」
 
At the time when Kaede forcefully started to talk to change this atmosphere.
The two heard Po, a sound of igniting a fire.
Because it was the first sound since they came here, the to sensitively reacts, and looked towards where the sound came from.
 
And, the two saw a few blue supernatural fiery balls, floating, and approaching them.
 
「This is a game, this is a game, this is a game……!! Yosh, it’s okay, it’s okay……」
 
Risa mumbles to herself.
 
「That’s not okay at all, right?!!」
「You want to run? Let’s run? Let’s do that?」
 
It was proven that it was not okay.
 
「Well, using【Akujiki】is also a waste, so……」
「T-Then remove your equips! I will let you ride okay!! It’s coming you know!」
 
Kaede left Shingetsu equipped just in case, and rode on the back of Risa.
That instance, Risa started to run without saying anything.
After that supernatural fiery balls appeared, the monsters also became lively, and.
Floating skulls, supernatural fiery balls with different colors, zombies, and transparent humans, various kinds of ghosts and specters started to appear.
 
「Khuu……! We shouldn’t have entered this forest!!」
「Oh〜! What a beautiful flame! There’s also a green one there!」
 
The two who have an intense difference in temperature just as a desert and a tundra, ran around the forest without fighting.
And, they finally found a crumbling deserted house, and jumps in it like an emergency escape.
 
「It’s crumbling… you want to search around?」
「I’ll leave it to you」
「Well, you’ve always been bad with ghosts right〜」
「That’s impossible getting used to that. It’s inside the game, so it’s better since we could run away from them……」
 
Risa, seemingly very exhausted, sat on the chair in the deserted house. Kaede started to search around, but in the first place, there wasn’t many furnitures inside the deserted house.
There was only a worn out table, and the worn out chair that Risa was sitting on.
The dirty carpet placed beneath the table.
And an old chest of drawers.
In this room that there wasn’t even a bed, a person couldn’t live in it.
The windows are shattered in some parts, it was barely closed shut with the remaining shards of glasses.
 
「Inside the chest of drawers if… there’s nothing huh〜」
 
Kaede had a faint expectation that there might be a medal, but it couldn’t go that easy.
Kaede opened her status, and checked the current time with the clock that was with it.
 
「What do you think? It’s already past 6 in the in-game time… it’s evening soon」
「Ah〜… maybe that’s why the ghosts came out… we had the wrong timing to enter…… we have some food that we had brought so we can do something about it though. I think I’d hate to stay here〜…… but〜」
 
Risa silently took a glance outside of the window.
There were silhouettes that were clearly not of the players outside.
Since the monsters were not entering the deserted house, it seems to be safe.
But if they go outside, it would sure be a pandemonium of hell for Risa.
 
「It can’t be helped… I should bear with it……」
 
Kaede who finished searching around sat beside Risa. Because there wasn’t a chair, directly on the floor.
 
「Re-equip just in case, there… large shield is, Snow White is good huh…… after that, you want to play trump cards?」
 
Inside the game, a few simple entertainment items exist. That was one of those.
 
「It might distract us for a while, but… we’re only two so it will end fast you know?」
「Ah! I-I see! I was not thinking of that!」
 
Risa saw that Kaede, Fufu laughed.
It looks like she regained herself a little, and received the trumps card that Kaede was reaching out, and begins to distribute it.
The night had just started.
 
「Yo〜sh… it’s this!!」
「There, too bad, it’s joker desu」
「Gugugu……」
 
Kaede groaned.
The two were playing games, trump cards, Othello, and chess that Kaede brought out one next to the other.
In the middle of it, they ate dinner, and continued the game.
It has no problem even if they didn’t eat inside the game, but Risa said that she wouldn’t be at her best if she didn’t eat just like in the real world while in spending time inside the game, so they brought a lot of food.
Risa gave food to Kaede, and the two ate.
What Kaede brought was only about entertainment items.
 
「n〜… this one! Yosh, I won!」
「Damn it〜…」
 
It was like a scene cut out from a school trip, but it was a sea of trees around the, and they were inside a deserted house.
 
「That took plenty of time huh… it’s already 10」
 
Kaede checked the time, and returned the trump cards and the rest into her inventory.
 
「They’re still eagerly walking around outside, so… this is, sleep the night here huh〜…」
「I think that’s good. I think that there’s probably medals or equipments inside this forest, so… isn’t it okay in the morning after the monsters disappeared?」
「I’m sorry, we couldn’t explore」
「It’s okay, right! But, you should do your best tomorrow!」
「I understand!」
 
The two took out their sleeping bags, and spread it on the floor.
They said greetings to each other, and got on the floor.
Because the possibilities of monsters attacking weren’t zero, the two slept two hours alternately.
First, it was Kaede’s turn to sleep.
 
「It’s quiet〜…」
 
Inside the deserted house where Kaede’s sleeping sounds could only be heard, Risa sat on the chair and got cautious of the surroundings.
Their worries were only a pointless concern because the monsters didn’t attack.
And at the time when it’s 12, when she was about to wake Kaede up.
 
A low, unclear voice was heard near the table.
It was intermittently, but it can be clearly heard.
 
「Uuuwwwaaaaaaaaa!!」
 
Risa who stood up to wake up Kaede, fell towards where Kaede was.
Kaede was sleeping because of the defense powers that she had even with that, but she woke up with the triple combination of the loud sound of the armor hitting the floor, Risa’s shouting voice, and the low voice.
 
「What happened……?」
「I-It came out!! In the table! In the table!」
 
Leaving Risa who had lacking vocabulary because of the fear and impatience for the meantime, Kaede approached the table.
She really could hear a voice from there.
Kaede focused on hearing to find out the place where the sound comes from.
 
「The table… beneath it?」
 
There, was a tattered carpet spread.
Since Risa had curled in a corner, she moved the table with full force.
【STR 0】means something like that.
And she flips out the carpet and checks what’s below.
 
「This is… there is underground?」
 
The floor had a cut in it, and had a handle.
Kaede immediately opened that.
 
「It opened easily! …stairs huh」
 
The voice was getting louder, the source of it was below there for sure.
 
「I’ll go exploring okay?」
「I will…also go. It would be bad if Kaede got defeated…」
 
Risa stood up slowly, and stuck closely to Maple from behind.
 
「Ahead, leave it to me〜!」
「Thanks… yosh…! Let’s go!」
 
Risa regained her fighting spirits, their destination is where the echoing voice from the underground comes from.
The two went down the stairs.