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The next morning, we left the injured at the cabin and resumed our pursuit.
With a sizeable number of essential supplies secured, which made us feel better about the march. Luckily, all the camping stuff was neatly stocked in the storeroom.
The traces left by the goblins were quite clear due to the wet ground. There were more of them than us. We should be able to catch up to them. It all depended on how fast Haruka could go.
To be ready for unexpected weather changes, we hunted and picked up dry firewood on the way.
The good firewood in its natural state was fallen branches, but even better are standing dead trees that have been dead for years. They can be used as fuel without any extra work, making them treasures in a survival situation.
During our journey, we came across a standing dead tree, which was quite convenient. I intended to break it into smaller pieces for firewood but then something incredible caught my attention.
"Seriously."
As I mentioned before, this multi-dimensional bag isn't very suitable for storing anything other than weapons. However, when I tried pushing the whole log into it, it fit and got stored without any issue.
A whole log fits—however, if I break it into smaller pieces, it won't go in anymore.
In other words, the log is classified as a weapon. A log is a weapon. I see.
Feeling amazed by what just happened, I finished putting the dry logs into the bag when I saw Haruka nervously checking her feet.
"Did you sprain it?"
"Ah, no..."
"Let me see."
Haruka was trying to hide it, but when I went over to her, she let out a small sigh and took off her shoes.
It was a blister. The skin was peeling and it looked swollen. This kind of injury could be a problem, but the supplies we got at the cabin would be enough in dealing with it.
I found a good rock for Haruka to sit on and took out the first aid kit to deal with her blister. While I worked on it professionally, she watched me quietly.
"For the finer details, it's a bit tricky for me to handle, so you should do the last bit yourself."
"Thank you very much..."
"Is something bothering you?"
"No..."
Haruka seemed like she wanted to say something, but time was limited, let's keep moving first. If she has something to say, she'll tell me when she's ready. With the treatment done, I got up.
"By the way, where's Yakumo?"
"Eh!?"
Surprised, Haruka also stood up and looked around. But he was nowhere to be found.
――Hey, hey, this is not good. Getting lost in a place like this.
I felt a slight panic, but I soon remembered that I had placed the "prey brand" on him.
By focusing on "wading," I quickly found Yakumo crouched in the bushes. He was leisurely sketching while poking at the mushrooms growing at the base of a tree with his finger.
"Stop that."
Mushrooms are no good. Some of them can cause blindness if you rub your eyes after touching them.
"Thank goodness...!"
Seeing Yakumo, Haruka breathed a sigh of relief and immediately hugged him.
"We were lucky this time, but if he had been attacked by a magical beast while we weren't looking, he would have been killed."
In reality, we had already been attacked by those several times by now.
"I'm sorry..."
Haruka and Yakumo both became sullen.
"Yakumo, you too. Try not to wander off on your own too much."
I decided to caution him just in case. Not sure if he really gets it though.
—I finally get why Natsuki was being so overly protective.
After spending time with him for the past few days, I had come to understand that Yakumo had super low survival skills. To put it bluntly, none at all. If he were alone, he'd probably die even inside his own house.
He wouldn't even drink water unless someone offered it to him. If no one reminded him, he wouldn't even drink even if his lips were drying up. The same goes for food, he wouldn't eat unless someone told him to. It's like he'd be completely still, and then suddenly, he'd move without anyone noticing. And he had no problem diving into dangerous situations without a second thought. I couldn't take my eyes off him.
That chase continued for several hours.
At one point, my nose caught a foul smell. Drifting from deep in the forest, it was my favorite kind of smell.
"Stop. There's something here. Don't make a sound."
"Yes."
Leaving Yakumo under Haruka's watchful eye, I proceeded cautiously ahead.
Between the trees, the view opened up, revealing a pile of scattered corpses ahead.
"Uggf..."
Haruka covered her mouth and made an unseemly sound. The scene was utterly gruesome.
There were probably multiple human bodies, which wouldn't be that unusual, but the problem was how horribly mutilated they were.
Firstly, all of them were decapitated and all the corpses showed signs of being tampered with. Necrophilia. It seemed the perpetrator had cut off the heads and then inserted it and cum into the exposed esophagus. It was something I had never seen before.
And where the heads should have been, there were animal heads like deer and boar placed instead. The original owner's head was placed on the chests, positioned to face the animal heads. Furthermore, there was no hair on all the heads.
The guts had been pulled out. All the corpses had no abdominal region. The removed organs were piled up in another spot.
The man's testicles and penis had been shoved directly into the woman's womb.
The wristwatches, rings, necklaces, earrings, and other precious metals taken from the bodies were also thrown into the pile of entrails, with a layer of hair covering them. Presumably, these were removed from the heads. There were traces of semen on them too.
I just couldn't get why they were doing all these black magic fuckery.
While I, too, violate and eat my prey, I don't do anything beyond that. I have no desire to do so either. This was different from the goblin's ways I saw before. It appeared to be the work of a necrophile who get off on desecrating the dead. That's the conclusion of my autopsy.
Haruka's face went pale, and she looked nauseous. Although I felt bad for her, I asked her to identify the bodies scattered around. While she did that, I checked out the footprints around us.
Most of them were goblin footprints and human shoes, but I also noticed some other footprints mixed in. Could these be the horse monsters Ed mentioned? However, these tracks lead and disappeared in a different direction from the goblin group, leaving it somewhat of a mystery.
"Only two... I think they're Rocket and Beth..."
Haruka mentioned that she knew two people with those names.
"Then what about the other bodies?"
"I don't know... I don't think I know them..."
So, there were individuals among the corpses that Haruka didn't recognize.
"So you're saying that another place was attacked, too?"
"Maybe our Base Town was also targeted..."
"That's a possibility. Let's hope that Base Town is still functioning."
But why would the goblins do something like this here? What's the meaning behind defiling corpses without even eating them?
——Well, I don't need to understand what goblins are thinking.
"Let's bury your acquaintances and move on."
I sighed softly and then turned to Haruka and decisively reached into the multi-dimensional bag.
"Get down."
"Eh?"
"Now."
As I emphasized my words, Haruka hugged Yakumo and dived into a pool of blood.
I drew my butcher knife.
The iron mass roared through the air, grazing Haruka's hair.
And then, the "thing" that was standing behind her splattered into the trees with a spray of blood.
"Stay down like that."
"Y-yes!"
Red humanoid monsters began to rise one after another around us.
I couldn't tell what they were based on my knowledge. But judging from their appearance, they were probably made from the scattered corpses around here.
My first thought was zombies, but they were different. They stood up, leaving behind bones and flesh, their body reduced to just blood vessels. Meanwhile, the bodies on the ground had dried up like mummies.
These monsters looked human, right down to the smallest blood vessels. Their brains, eyeballs, hearts, lungs, stomachs, and intestines were all in the same place, but they were just blood vessels. That's why I can see through them faintly.
Such an unidentifiable monster was encircling us.
I glared at our surroundings.
"Surely you don't understand my words, right?"
"Aaa... Aaaaah..."
I tried speaking to them, but instead of the blood vessel ghosts responding, we heard a groaning sound from behind.
The voice felt hostile, as if it held all the world's resentment and bitterness, giving me a chilling sensation like claws scratching my back.
Slowly, I looked back over my shoulder.
Something ominous was trying to emerge from the pile of gore.
As if crawling out from the bottom of a well, a pool of blood swelled atop the entrails, attempting to take on a living form.
The blood puddle absorbed the hair around it and kept growing until it became a small four-legged creature about the size of a cat. Black fur was plastered all over it, sticky with blood, and precious metals such as wristwatches coiled around its body, giving it an eerie appearance.
The creature had shiny black eyeballs that glowed, and its pupils were vertical slits.
It stared right at me from atop the pool of entrails.
"Whoa..."
So, that black magic fuckery was actually black magic after all.
prev TOC next
The next morning, we left the injured at the cabin and resumed our pursuit.
With a sizeable number of essential supplies secured, which made us feel better about the march. Luckily, all the camping stuff was neatly stocked in the storeroom.
The traces left by the goblins were quite clear due to the wet ground. There were more of them than us. We should be able to catch up to them. It all depended on how fast Haruka could go.
To be ready for unexpected weather changes, we hunted and picked up dry firewood on the way.
The good firewood in its natural state was fallen branches, but even better are standing dead trees that have been dead for years. They can be used as fuel without any extra work, making them treasures in a survival situation.
During our journey, we came across a standing dead tree, which was quite convenient. I intended to break it into smaller pieces for firewood but then something incredible caught my attention.
"Seriously."
As I mentioned before, this multi-dimensional bag isn't very suitable for storing anything other than weapons. However, when I tried pushing the whole log into it, it fit and got stored without any issue.
A whole log fits—however, if I break it into smaller pieces, it won't go in anymore.
In other words, the log is classified as a weapon. A log is a weapon. I see.
Feeling amazed by what just happened, I finished putting the dry logs into the bag when I saw Haruka nervously checking her feet.
"Did you sprain it?"
"Ah, no..."
"Let me see."
Haruka was trying to hide it, but when I went over to her, she let out a small sigh and took off her shoes.
It was a blister. The skin was peeling and it looked swollen. This kind of injury could be a problem, but the supplies we got at the cabin would be enough in dealing with it.
I found a good rock for Haruka to sit on and took out the first aid kit to deal with her blister. While I worked on it professionally, she watched me quietly.
"For the finer details, it's a bit tricky for me to handle, so you should do the last bit yourself."
"Thank you very much..."
"Is something bothering you?"
"No..."
Haruka seemed like she wanted to say something, but time was limited, let's keep moving first. If she has something to say, she'll tell me when she's ready. With the treatment done, I got up.
"By the way, where's Yakumo?"
"Eh!?"
Surprised, Haruka also stood up and looked around. But he was nowhere to be found.
――Hey, hey, this is not good. Getting lost in a place like this.
I felt a slight panic, but I soon remembered that I had placed the "prey brand" on him.
By focusing on "wading," I quickly found Yakumo crouched in the bushes. He was leisurely sketching while poking at the mushrooms growing at the base of a tree with his finger.
"Stop that."
Mushrooms are no good. Some of them can cause blindness if you rub your eyes after touching them.
"Thank goodness...!"
Seeing Yakumo, Haruka breathed a sigh of relief and immediately hugged him.
"We were lucky this time, but if he had been attacked by a magical beast while we weren't looking, he would have been killed."
In reality, we had already been attacked by those several times by now.
"I'm sorry..."
Haruka and Yakumo both became sullen.
"Yakumo, you too. Try not to wander off on your own too much."
I decided to caution him just in case. Not sure if he really gets it though.
—I finally get why Natsuki was being so overly protective.
After spending time with him for the past few days, I had come to understand that Yakumo had super low survival skills. To put it bluntly, none at all. If he were alone, he'd probably die even inside his own house.
He wouldn't even drink water unless someone offered it to him. If no one reminded him, he wouldn't even drink even if his lips were drying up. The same goes for food, he wouldn't eat unless someone told him to. It's like he'd be completely still, and then suddenly, he'd move without anyone noticing. And he had no problem diving into dangerous situations without a second thought. I couldn't take my eyes off him.
That chase continued for several hours.
At one point, my nose caught a foul smell. Drifting from deep in the forest, it was my favorite kind of smell.
"Stop. There's something here. Don't make a sound."
"Yes."
Leaving Yakumo under Haruka's watchful eye, I proceeded cautiously ahead.
Between the trees, the view opened up, revealing a pile of scattered corpses ahead.
"Uggf..."
Haruka covered her mouth and made an unseemly sound. The scene was utterly gruesome.
There were probably multiple human bodies, which wouldn't be that unusual, but the problem was how horribly mutilated they were.
Firstly, all of them were decapitated and all the corpses showed signs of being tampered with. Necrophilia. It seemed the perpetrator had cut off the heads and then inserted it and cum into the exposed esophagus. It was something I had never seen before.
And where the heads should have been, there were animal heads like deer and boar placed instead. The original owner's head was placed on the chests, positioned to face the animal heads. Furthermore, there was no hair on all the heads.
The guts had been pulled out. All the corpses had no abdominal region. The removed organs were piled up in another spot.
The man's testicles and penis had been shoved directly into the woman's womb.
The wristwatches, rings, necklaces, earrings, and other precious metals taken from the bodies were also thrown into the pile of entrails, with a layer of hair covering them. Presumably, these were removed from the heads. There were traces of semen on them too.
I just couldn't get why they were doing all these black magic fuckery.
While I, too, violate and eat my prey, I don't do anything beyond that. I have no desire to do so either. This was different from the goblin's ways I saw before. It appeared to be the work of a necrophile who get off on desecrating the dead. That's the conclusion of my autopsy.
Haruka's face went pale, and she looked nauseous. Although I felt bad for her, I asked her to identify the bodies scattered around. While she did that, I checked out the footprints around us.
Most of them were goblin footprints and human shoes, but I also noticed some other footprints mixed in. Could these be the horse monsters Ed mentioned? However, these tracks lead and disappeared in a different direction from the goblin group, leaving it somewhat of a mystery.
"Only two... I think they're Rocket and Beth..."
Haruka mentioned that she knew two people with those names.
"Then what about the other bodies?"
"I don't know... I don't think I know them..."
So, there were individuals among the corpses that Haruka didn't recognize.
"So you're saying that another place was attacked, too?"
"Maybe our Base Town was also targeted..."
"That's a possibility. Let's hope that Base Town is still functioning."
But why would the goblins do something like this here? What's the meaning behind defiling corpses without even eating them?
——Well, I don't need to understand what goblins are thinking.
"Let's bury your acquaintances and move on."
I sighed softly and then turned to Haruka and decisively reached into the multi-dimensional bag.
"Get down."
"Eh?"
"Now."
As I emphasized my words, Haruka hugged Yakumo and dived into a pool of blood.
I drew my butcher knife.
The iron mass roared through the air, grazing Haruka's hair.
And then, the "thing" that was standing behind her splattered into the trees with a spray of blood.
"Stay down like that."
"Y-yes!"
Red humanoid monsters began to rise one after another around us.
I couldn't tell what they were based on my knowledge. But judging from their appearance, they were probably made from the scattered corpses around here.
My first thought was zombies, but they were different. They stood up, leaving behind bones and flesh, their body reduced to just blood vessels. Meanwhile, the bodies on the ground had dried up like mummies.
These monsters looked human, right down to the smallest blood vessels. Their brains, eyeballs, hearts, lungs, stomachs, and intestines were all in the same place, but they were just blood vessels. That's why I can see through them faintly.
Such an unidentifiable monster was encircling us.
I glared at our surroundings.
"Surely you don't understand my words, right?"
"Aaa... Aaaaah..."
I tried speaking to them, but instead of the blood vessel ghosts responding, we heard a groaning sound from behind.
The voice felt hostile, as if it held all the world's resentment and bitterness, giving me a chilling sensation like claws scratching my back.
Slowly, I looked back over my shoulder.
Something ominous was trying to emerge from the pile of gore.
As if crawling out from the bottom of a well, a pool of blood swelled atop the entrails, attempting to take on a living form.
The blood puddle absorbed the hair around it and kept growing until it became a small four-legged creature about the size of a cat. Black fur was plastered all over it, sticky with blood, and precious metals such as wristwatches coiled around its body, giving it an eerie appearance.
The creature had shiny black eyeballs that glowed, and its pupils were vertical slits.
It stared right at me from atop the pool of entrails.
"Whoa..."
So, that black magic fuckery was actually black magic after all.
