“Now, now, you two, let’s keep some tension in the air,” said Rona, chuckling. She swiftly geared up, completely unfazed by her gawking onlookers. The deftness of her movement, however, spoke to the nature of both her current and past professions.
“Pack this camp up. We’re going to scout the surroundings. Put out the campfire too. We’ll use a more controlled light.”
“What about the pots, Renya?” asked Shion.
Renya grimaced. After spending so long setting the pots up, it pained him to leave them behind.
“I want to go grab them… but I doubt we have the time.”
“Why not go pick them up then? We’ll go dig them out.”
Shion casually held out her hand and motioned at him to give her the shovel. He hesitated.
“I don’t believe there’s any reason to rush right now. What seems to be the problem?”
“Yeah. We’re wasting more time waiting on you, Renya.”
Rona held out her hand and asked for a shovel as well. With doubt still lingering in his mind, Renya took out two shovels from his inventory.
“Right, we’ll go dig those pots out.”
“Renya, we’ll leave the tent to you, then. All right?”
Before he could answer, the two were already heading toward the pots. Figuring that he’d only waste time by saying more, he immediately started folding up the tent and returning it to his inventory.
“Ew! Renya! It’s gross how many of them are in here! They’re li— Hey! You! Stop sucking on to me!”
“Big ones, small ones… You’ve got quite the selection here.”
So much for keeping tension in the air, thought Renya to himself as he brought out cloth and string from his inventory.
“Here. Use the cloth the cover the pot opening and tie it with string. I’ll throw them in my voidbox after.”
“Got it. This sure is one heck of a good haul, though.”
“Coming here was well worth it, wasn’t it?”
“You know, this might be weird coming from me, but the two of you sure are laid-back, aren’t you…”
The pots were filled with octopuses of various sizes. So much for being hard to find. Renya had no idea whether his bait had good effect or the octopuses simply had a habit of gathering in places like these to rest, and he didn’t intend to think too hard on it. He had caught plenty, and that was all that mattered. If he had to guess at the reason for his large haul, it would be a lack of exposure. No adventurers focused on hunting forest octopuses, and he doubted there were fishermen who specialized in them either. As a result, they probably hadn’t been trained to be wary of things like traps.
He put the sealed pots into his inventory.
Had he not taken the time to do some experiments beforehand, the storage of the octopuses might have presented a problem. Thanks to his testing, he had learned that he couldn’t put living things directly into his inventory. A picked flower went in without problems, but a potted plant was barred. There was, however, a loophole to this rule that he discovered. When he wrapped it completely in a container such as a box, he could store it as a “box (potted plant inside).” It occurred to him he might be able to apply the same logic to a “box (human inside),” but he never worked up the nerve to ask Shion or Rona for help with his experiment. The transportation of humans in voidboxes, therefore, currently remained within the realm of conjecture.
“So, Renya, what next?” asked Shion after seeing the last octopus pot vanish from his hand.
“For now, we’ll start heading back toward the outer edges of the forest. Slow and steady. If anyone sees or feels anything weird, speak up immediately.”
“I know I’m the one who said it, but should we really be moving based on a gut feeling that something was wrong?”
It was true that Shion’s feeling was nothing more than just that — a feeling. There was no concrete evidence. Nevertheless, Renya deemed that enough to warrant packing up their camp and moving. Rona also made no objection. From Shion’s perspective, it must have seemed baffling for them to make such a fuss about a simple hunch.
“If nothing happens, then that’s fine. We don’t lose anything,” replied Renya as he quickcast an Illuminate in the palm of his hand with the brightness toned down. He had recently tried this as a part of his training regimen and discovered that he could simply make a fist to block off the light. It was a very practical application of the spell. He planted an orb in both Shion’s and Rona’s hands as well.
“The problem is if something does happen, so whenever anyone raises a concern, we follow up on it regardless. It’s better to err on the side of caution. You can call me a coward, but I’d rather be a coward than dead.”
“Is that… how it’s usually done?”
“Don’t ask me. I don’t know what’s usually done.”
Renya could only stand there and shrug when the topic turned to generalities and common rhetoric. With no memories of his past life, he couldn’t even figure out what his previous self would have done. Perhaps old Renya would have laughed up a storm had he seen what new Renya was doing. He had pondered the thought on more than one occasion, always to no avail.
“Enough talking. Let’s move.”
“Sure.”
Both girls responded simultaneously with a nod.