Hiss-! Hiss-! Hiss-! Hiss-! Hiss-! Hiss-! Hiss-!

Just as Kurushimi picked up the note, she was interrupted by a large collection of hissing. As the hissing gradually got louder, Kurushimi looked up to see an absurd number of salamanders charging straight at her. From the looks of it, the salamanders had called for reinforcements.

Picking up her polearm, which had cooled off enough by now to pick up normally, Kurushimi made the smartest decision she could at the moment. To retreat. As Kurushimi ran off, the infuriated salamanders angrily hissed at her. But her feet were a lot quicker than theirs and their flames that roared out from their mouths didn’t go far enough to reach her.

After Kurushimi had finally lost the armada chasing her, she stopped to take a breather. Whilst looking for a safe-space to read the letter she had acquired, she made sure she had left salamander territory to avoid provoking them again whilst making absolutely sure she didn’t accidentally enter rock golem territory. Finding a nearby rock, she sat down on it and made herself comfortable.

“Time to read it!”

Kurushimi opened the note. With a big smile, she held it out in front of herself. However, as she looked over the note, her smile gradually faded and her expression took on a blank stare.

“Kurushimi…?”

“...”

“What’s wrong?”

“..I”

“Yes?”

“I can’t read it.”

“...”

The note was entirely composed of a new language. Even the alphabet was completely different than anything she had seen before. It made sense, she was in a different world after all. But Kurushimi sulked as she lamented, “Why is it that in manga and anime, they get auto-translate but I don’t?”

To the lamenting Kurushimi, Voice-san suggested, “Should I translate it for you?”

“Oh right, you can understand this world’s languages!” Kurushimi exclaimed, remembering a discussion they had immediately after her death by Karshak’s hand. When he had said something to her, she was unable to understand what was said but Voice-san could. At that point, it was revealed Voice-san could understand this world’s languages and some of Earth’s too. “Yeah yeah, if you don’t mind, that would be great!”

“Alright, hold the paper up so I can see it better” Like that, Voice-san started to read the contents of the note aloud, “If you are reading this, I’m probably already dead-”

‘My party… Has all probably been wiped out by now. That big fucking dog. We didn’t expect something like THAT to appear this early into the forest. ̶W̶e̶ ̶s̶h̶o̶u̶l̶d̶ ̶h̶a̶v̶e̶ ̶b̶e̶e̶n̶ ̶f̶i̶n̶e̶,̶ ̶w̶e̶ ̶s̶h̶o̶u̶l̶d̶ ̶h̶a̶v̶e̶

It appeared suddenly. At some point beyond this area. I know very well that isn’t allowed, but I’ve learned the ‘appraisal’ skill.. And I used it on that giant canisfang. And guess what it’s level was? 120. One hundred and fucking twenty. It isn’t possible for normal people to defeat that thing.

That’s why we entrusted the info to a single party member. Putting all our effort into ensuring her escape so she could survive and warn others not to enter the forest. If we’re lucky, ‘high-level adventurers’ may come to face it. But we’ll all be long dead by then.

I have no clue if she escaped. God, I hope she got out safe…’

“...and that’s where it ends.” Voice-san said, finishing her reading of the note. In summary, it described a man that had adventured into the forest with his party. At some point they encountered a ‘giant canisfang’. Presumably, they had all been killed by it except for one of them. Though it was possible they were killed in the end too.

Kurushimi: “Giant canisfang? Karshak?”

Voice-san: “Know any other Lvl. 120 giant canisfangs?”

Kurushimi: “Right… And what did he mean ‘not allowed’? In what way is appraisal not allowed?”

Left with a lot of questions, Kurushimi was at the very least able to find out how this person had died. After thinking about it for a second, an idea came to her mind. If the reason no humans are in the forest is because of the warning, then it’s likely that girl escaped.

“That girl is probably alive then…” Kurushimi was a little relieved after realizing that the man had gotten his final wish fulfilled. She didn’t know who that girl was to him, but she was happy for him.

“But that also means that I won’t be seeing any humans any time soon.”

“The chance isn’t zero. Perhaps those ‘High-level adventurers’ will come for Karshak?”

“That’s if anyone can stand up to him…” Kurushimi folded the note back up and slipped it into her pocket, deciding to keep it for now. Only gaining so much information from the note, she was left with just one thing to do at the moment. Brandishing her polearm, she stood up from the rock.

“Time to farm some experience.”

. . .

Kurushimi laid on the ground. A thin veil covered her skin, taking on a yellow and sand-like hue. Up until this point, she had thought camouflage couldn’t activate when out in the open, but apparently she was wrong.

When prone, it was possible to camouflage into the ground. Being unable to move without breaking the camouflage, it severely limited her mobility and wouldn’t be practical in a fight at all but there were still plenty of uses for it. Laid across the ground, Kurushimi was watching a fight between an avemlärj and a cimex. She had actually seen the two species fighting before meeting these two, making her wonder if they were natural enemies or something.

‘Klink-!’

The sword-like legs of the cimex clashed against the avemlärj’s talons. The cimex was incredibly flexible, bending its body in strange ways to counteract the avemlärj’s ability to attack from any direction in the air. Kurushimi felt that the cimex would probably be quite the tricky opponent to face off against.

The cimex suddenly wrapped a leg around one of the avemlärj’s talons. The avemlärj struggled to break free of the cimex’s grip but it was in vain. Pulling the avemlärj towards itself, it stabbed another leg into one of the avemlärj’s wings.

The avemlärj crashed down with the loss of its wing. As the cimex got closer, the avemlärj pulled a last-ditch effort and locked onto the cimex’s neck with its beak. The cimex cried out in a loud and spine-chilling noise. It seemed the avemlärj, knowing itself was in a bad situation, was attempting to do as much damage as it could before dying. The cimex lifted a leg and stabbed straight into the main body of the avemlärj. It cried out as its beak slowly loosened off the cimex’s neck.

‘I think that’s my cue!’ Kurushimi declared, whilst slowly beginning to get herself up. The veil started to wane and lose strength. With her polearm by her side, she approached the avemlärj and cimex. She got closer and closer… Until the veil broke and she thrusted her polearm towards the neck of the cimex.

‘Shick-!’

The cimex suddenly pulled its leg out of the avemlärj and guarded against the attack. The hard, sword-like leg of the cimex blocked Kurushimi’s polearm. Inwardly cursing at her failure to kill it stealthily, she prepared to fight it head on. Time then began to slow down for her as evade activated.

The cimex’s leg was incredibly fast. It flew towards Kurushimi, the sharp ridges grazing the front of her face. Stepping to the side, she narrowly dodged it. The cimex leg was a mere few inches away from her head.

Retracting its leg, the cimex separated itself from the avemlärj to focus its attention towards her.