Chapter 108

Ch 108 — The Forest of Ishtam

We stayed that night at an inn called "The Spinning Wheel", recommended to me by the Guild Master Rodolpho-san . In the morning I tried on the clothes I bought the day before . They felt really good, comfortable and easy to move in with a texture I had never experienced before . I wondered if I could ever go back to the sorts of clothes I had been wearing when I arrived in this world . My shopping expedition had been a definite success .

It was now time to fulfil Rodolpho-san's request so we got ready to head off to the forest of Ishtam to collect Venom Tarantula threads . I didn't want my new clothes to get dirty but there was no helping it .

"Fer, ready to go?" I asked .

"Uh huh . " As usual I got on Fer's back with Sui in her bag on my shoulder .

"Okay, let's go . " Fer ran off towards the forest of Ishtam .

* * * * *

"That seems to be the forest of Ishtam, isn't it?" I said as we paused for a moment, gazing at the gloomy forest spreading wide before us . It had a creepy atmosphere .

"Looks like it . " Fer agreed . A low sound like creatures calling to each other, "Giii Giii" resounded from the forest .

"Let's go . " Fer said, pacing slowly up a slope and into the forest of Ishtam . Although it was still before noon the darkness enveloping the trees was disconcerting .

"Oh, that's right . Rodolpho-san told us there are lots of poison-insect monsters here, can you handle them OK?" I said nervously, looking around . The darkness could conceal anything, after all .

"We have the Goddesses' blessings and my Barrier as well . Don't worry . " True, Fer, Sui and I all had blessings from the Goddesses . But, I worried, I only had Deplo–, ah, Wind Goddess Ninril-sama's blessing (small), would that protect me properly?

"But I've only got a blessing (small)," I reminded Fer .

"Don't forget what Ninril-sama told you . Yeah, it's a blessing (small) but unless it's an instant death poison your blessing has the power of state abnormality invalidation so it will nullify any lesser poisons . " Ah, now that he had mentioned it I remembered what the Goddess had said when she bestowed her blessing (small) on me so long ago . "From what I can detect," Fer continued, "there aren't any monsters with immediate death poison in this forest so you don't need to worry . " I was glad to hear it . Safety first, after all .

"So, do you know where any Venom Tarantulas are?"

"Ah . I've got an idea where they're likely to be found . It's pretty deep in the forest . Let's go . " Fer headed for the place he thought the Venom Tarantulas would be . Giant moths and other insect monsters like huge mosquitoes attacked us as we passed but they were dealt with casually by Fer's claw-slash magic without him even slowing down . It just showed how inconsequential he considered them as opponents, I supposed . Bad luck, insect-sans, to encounter Fer today .

However a bit further on Fer suddenly came to a halt . "What's wrong?" I asked .

"Something big's coming . " As Fer spoke an enormous centipede appeared before us, at least a metre wide at its head and its seemingly-endless body receding back into the forest's darkness .

"Giiii-" it screamed .

"Hey, is that a Giant Centipede?" I asked worriedly . I had been warned about them by Rodolpho-san, they were A-ranked monsters and really dangerous .

"Yeah . Get off and wait behind me . " Fer bared his fangs and faced off against the Giant Centipede which raised its head . . .

Pew . Thud . The Giant Centipede fell down sideways . There was a big hole in its head running from its underside all the way up through what was left of its brain and out the top .

"Yay! Sui defeated the big creepy-crawly!" Sui bounced around happily . Su-Sui-chan . . . ? When did you get out of your bag? And how . . . ? Fer was shocked that Sui had dealt with his intended prey .

"Uh, sorry, Fer-ojichan-" Sui apologised for butting in, a bit late perhaps .

"Humph . " Fer conceded, not very graciously . Since the Giant Centipede that Sui had defeated was an A-ranked monster I put it into my Item Box .

"Right then," Fer announced, "We actually came here for Venom Tarantula, didn't we?" He looked at me . "Didn't we?" Yeah yeah Fer, the A-ranked Giant Centipede that cute little Sui-chan one-shotted through the head was a mere distraction and hardly worth your attention and you're definitely not annoyed she killed it before you got the chance to fight it yourself . Sure .

"Let's go then . Get on . " Fer said brusquely, not meeting my gaze . I resisted the temptation to pat him on the head and say 'there there' as I climbed back on board after collecting Sui again .

"Is there something else to pew-pew where we're going-?" Sui asked eagerly . Fer's hackles rose .

"Ah, let Fer-ojichan do it this time, will you?" I said, trying to defuse the situation . For a country-destroying monster Fer's feelings were more easily hurt than I had anticipated .

"But, Sui wants to pew-pew some more-" she persisted .

"Help Fer with knocking them down but only if he needs it, OK?" I told her .

"Yeah, I got it-" Sui sounded disappointed .

I hoped there would be plenty Venom Tarantula-sans where we were going since battle maniac Sui wanted to go pew-pew a lot more . I got back on Fer and he ran off quickly . After a little while we came to a place where there were curtains of thick spider webs between the trees . I could see a huge spider with a blackish-purple body about 1 metre wide in the middle of the webs .

"Is that a Venom Tarantula?" I asked .

"Yup . " Fer confirmed . I'd been told you can eat Venom Tarantulas but was that really true . . . ?

"Rodolpho-san said we only needed two Venom Tarantulas to meet the request so go ahead and get this one for now . " Fer could probably find another Venom Tarantula quite quickly . . .

"I'll get all of them . " Fer said, immediately firing off his magic . What did he mean, all of them? I could only see one . . .

Blam . Blam . Blam . Blam . Blam . Blam . Blam . Blam . Lightning Magic? It was like a super-powered stun gun .

Splat . Splat . Splat . Splat . Splat . Splat . Splat . Splat . Eight Venom Tarantulas fell out of the webs . There had been some kind of hidden nest behind the one spider I could see where more of them were lurking, apparently .

"All done, no assistance required . " Fer said with some satisfaction, glancing at the bag Sui-chan was peering out of .

"That was quick . " I was a little reluctant to approach the spiders lying immobile beneath the webs . "Are they all really dead?"

"Uh huh . I fried their brains with electric shocks . " Well, that was us finished the request then . Fer's a quick worker, I mused as I packed away the 8 Venom Tarantulas into my Item Box .

"Is it Sui's turn now-?" Sui-chan appeared out of the bag .

"Sorry Sui, next time maybe, yeah?"

"But Sui wanted to pew-pew and knock down the Bad Guys too-"

"Oh no, that's . . . ah," I struggled to avoid disappointing cute murderous battle maniac Sui, "Uh, you see, there's a dungeon in the next town we're visiting, you can pew-pew and fight a lot there . "

"A dungeon, is that full of Bad Guys Sui can pew-pew?-" Sui asked hopefully .

"Yes, that's right . "

"Dungeon-! Dungeon, dungeon, fun~ " Sui bounced around happily . Sh- . . . I never thought I'd ever agree to enter a dungeon again .

"Kukuku, you're committed to going into that dungeon now . " Fer sniggered . Damn you, Fer, it's not a laughing matter but I couldn't deny darling Sui her chance to go pew-pew at Bad Guys .

"If Sui is looking forward to it I'll have to go with her . Make sure nothing bad happens to us, OK?"

"Hah, there's nothing to be scared of in a dungeon . " Fer stated authoritatively, glancing over at Sui who was still eagerly bouncing around . "I'll make sure Sui doesn't get hurt . " Uh, me too Fer, right? Right? I sighed, if Fer was with us I'd probably be OK too . I was his meal provider after all .

"Are we done here? Should we head back to Claire?" Fer asked . I think he was hoping to run into another Giant Centipede or two but I demurred .

"Yeah, let's go back . " We had what we came for . I got on Fer's back and he started running back the way we had come until we left the forest . The sun was still quite high in the sky, it wasn't that late in the day .

"We got done really quick today, I'm surprised . "

"Yeah, we've got plenty of time to get back to the city . " Fer stopped and looked around at me . "I'm hungry . Let's eat something here . "

"You think so?" I shrugged . "Okay, gimme a minute and I'll start getting it ready . " The day's work was done, time for a well-earned snack .

"Gotcha . "