A Frontline Soldier Awakened as a Gamer In The War! - FSAGW Chapter 123 (Part 1)
“Kkiuuut!”
Upon returning to the spirits’ dwelling, the first creature Kaiyan encountered, a wind spirit resembling a baby griffin, fluttered its wings and rushed toward him.
“Kkirut?”
“It’s okay. I’m not hurt.”
The wind spirit carefully inspected Kaiyan’s body for injuries.
Since the day after Kaiyan dealt with the Kuma pack and started hunting monsters around Havnheim, the spirit seemed worried about him, repeating this behavior daily.
[Kaiyan is perfectly fine!]
“Kkiuuut? Kkiut!”
Hearing Rieka’s words, the wind spirit finally stopped inspecting Kaiyan’s body and smiled adorably, prompting an involuntary smile from Kaiyan as well.
Although his visit to Havnheim wasn’t intentional, the sight of these pure spirits made him feel it was still a good thing after all.
“Rieka, ask if anything happened while I was away.”
[Yes! Windy, was there anything happening today?]
Windy is the name Kaiyan temporarily gave to the baby griffin spirit, as lower spirits don’t have names.
“Kiruroot! Kirut!”
[Really? No injured spirits?]
“Kkiuuut!”
“What happened?”
Injured spirits? What could have happened while Kaiyan was away?
Worryingly, Kaiyan asked Rieka, who patted his shoulder with her short front paws as if to calm him down.
[The Kuma brutes attacked.]
“What? The Kumas? Those bastards…!”
[Calm down! Luckily, the spirits knew in advance and hid underground, so no one was injured.]
“Phew… That’s a relief. Rieka, could it be my fault that the Kuma are attacking?”
[Hmm… That’s not certain. They have attacked a few times even before we arrived.]
“But it’s happening too frequently now. It wasn’t like this before.”
The Kuma brutes, crocodile-like monsters, have attacked four times during the 30 days Kaiyan spent in Havnheim.
Compared to what Windy mentioned about their occasional invasions, these are quite frequent.
Fortunately, aside from today, there were no issues during their invasions because Kaiyan was there to fend them off, but if they keep attacking whenever he’s away, it would be too worrisome to leave.
“…If only there weren’t so many of them, I would’ve killed them all.”
After the first day, Kaiyan went to the Kuma territory to hunt them intensively. What he saw in their territory was countless Kumas.
[That’s because there are too many of them. Plus, hunting Kuma brutes all day is impractical due to the bad terrain.]
“If only it wasn’t a swamp…”
The number of enemies isn’t the main issue. Kaiyan could just keep killing them as they appear.
The real problem is that most of their territory is swamp. When Kaiyan first encountered them, he wondered why they were so weak despite their size, but it turns out they are monsters inhabiting swamps, like lizardmen.
‘Even for me, continuously hunting the Kuma in the swamp is impossible.’
Kaiyan tried fighting the Kumas in the swamp, and surprisingly, their combat power was comparable to that of ogres there.
It’s impossible to deal with thousands of ogre-level Kumas alone, especially since his mobility decreases in the swamp.
“Should we temporarily move the spirits’ dwelling elsewhere…? We can just come back when they become mid-level spirits.”
[Hmmm…. Wouldn’t it be okay to leave them be? The spirits have managed to evade on their own so far.]
“It’s just that… Ah, Havnheim is so troubling, and these unnecessary nuisances are bothering me.”
If not for the Kuma brutes, Kaiyan would have explored not only the east but other directions as well.
But he can’t just leave the spirits here in such a situation, especially if his actions seem to provoke frequent Kuma invasions.
“There must be a good solution… Ah! Rieka, how’s the high-dimensional cube doing?”
[It’s synchronized, but entering it now would just show an empty space. Should we move Blacky one there? Let it roam freely.]
“We should move Blacky one there. And how about letting the spirits stay there too?”
Rieka mentioned that the subspace of the high-dimensional cube is large enough to encompass an entire territory. If the spirits could stay there, wouldn’t Kaiyan be worry-free to roam around?
[Yes? The spirits?]
“Why not? If any problem arises, we can just give up.”
[Hmmm…. There shouldn’t be a problem… As long as you feed them the energy of the World Tree consistently, it won’t be much different from now. Once they become mid-level spirits, we can bring them back here.]
“Then… let’s ask them if they want to go to the subspace.”
Spirits don’t need anything but the energy of the World Tree. They don’t require food or sleep, practically beings that are hard to call life forms.
Spirits could surely adapt well even in a subspace, not necessarily in Havnheim.
[Hmmm…. What if something goes wrong? We don’t know much about Havnheim or the spirits.]
“That’s true……”
Hearing Rieka’s concern shook Kaiyan’s resolve. He was also feeling unsure, and there was also the possibility of the spirits refusing.
“Phew… Then, we have no choice but to gradually reduce the number of the Kuma.”
If only there was a way to eliminate the swamp, or at least lure them to a different location.
“Kirut?”
As Kaiyan and Rieka were having a serious conversation, Windy, looking worried, poked its cute face into the conversation.
[Oh, Windy, don’t worry! This is a conversation for adults!]
“Kiruroot? Kirut?”
[Yes, it’s troublesome to deal with the Kuma because of the swamp.]
“Kiruroot!”
[What? Really?]
“Kirut! Kiruroot!”
Suddenly, Rieka looked at Kaiyan with sparkling eyes after talking to Windy.
[Kaiyan!]
“…What’s wrong?”
[There’s a way to make the Kuma leave the swamp! Windy knows how!]
“…How?”
Kaiyan had thought about ways too. Whether using magic scrolls or something else, the vast expanse of the swamp made it impractical. But Windy has a way.
[It’s…]
“Rieka, is this the right thing to do?”
[Hmmm, we have no choice but to trust it, right? We’ve come this far.]
Right now, not only Windy but all the spirits dwelling here were moving with Kaiyan toward the Kuma brutes’ territory. They were almost at the swamp where the brutes were mainly active.