I Will Never Submit to Miss Grim Reaper - Chapter 485
Chapter 485: Scent Tracking
So, I, along with Ewen, Luni, and the others, formed an “Expedition Team to the City in the Forest.” We followed the map step by step, waving our flag and heading deeper into the forest.
The goals for Ewen and Weiying in searching for the City in the Forest were straightforward: find treasures in the city to sell, supplement household income, and pay for medical expenses for their ailing mother and grandmother. Luni, on the other hand, didn’t have any specific goals but decided to join because she had been friends with them since childhood.
“If possible, finding the scroll with the forbidden spell would be the best,” Ewen said.
My goal was also simple: search for treasures in the City in the Forest and… explore.
Originally, I came out to the forest for training, to learn about life in another world, to interact with people and animals here, to understand the most primitive combat modes, and to experience the mysterious Black Forest life. Whether or not I could obtain treasures wasn’t that important.
After over a month of working at the cafe, which was incredibly exhausting, being in another world allowed me to cast aside all worries and completely relax. It was a perfect place for a rest.
With increasing stress on Earth and worsening conditions online, even though my daily task as the cafe’s manager was to run the cafe, various forms of criticism and negativity were unavoidable.
You could say that if “hostility towards the cafe” or “hatred towards Nuo’er” were to be considered kill targets by Xiao Mo, the entire world would be awash with blood.
Anyway, I don’t quite understand why everyone harbors so much hatred.
This sometimes makes me feel “mentally exhausted.” Xiao Mo, who has lived for thousands of years, is long accustomed to such things, but I… well, I’m still relatively “young,” so I need to decompress and work on developing mental resilience in this regard.
Of course, obtaining the “forbidden spell scroll” they mentioned would be great. I could try to study its contents and, if necessary, buy it later.
Xiao Mo was right. There is still much I need to learn, both physically and spiritually.
“This place is completely different from what’s marked on the map.”
“This area is also incorrect, there’s no so-called entrance ahead.”
After joining Ewen’s team, we spent two days living in the Inverse Forest.
During the day, Ewen and Weiying took care of navigation and hunting. They know much more about the forest and its wildlife than I do—what wild chickens are tasty, what wild boars and wolves are easy to catch, how to lure plump prey, and what method of cooking makes it taste better. Ewin was particularly skilled in this, being a fire mage. Starting fires in the forest relied entirely on her magical abilities.
As for me… well… that…
Even though I cooked a lot during my time living as an “uncle,” the ingredients I bought were all pre-processed by market vendors—the fish were already cleaned, the chicken was cut into pieces, and the pork was sliced. I… apparently haven’t even handled larger small animals myself.
Moreover, my need for meat has greatly increased in cat-girl form, so I had no choice but to join their “hunting team.”
Living in the forest as a cat-girl is far from as peaceful as in elf form. If we were to rate the three forms—“human,” “cat-girl,” and “elf”—using the game “Minecraft,” their difficulty would be approximately… “normal,” “easy,” and “peaceful.”
In elf mode, you would never be attacked by surrounding monsters or beasts. But in cat-girl mode, that’s not the case. Aside from some friendly cats, Ewen and I had to stay on constant alert during our journey to guard against the beasts and monsters that might appear at any moment.
Monsters, yes, as we got closer to the “possible location of the Black Forest” marked on the map, the number of “monsters” around us increased.
These monsters seemed like “creatures tainted by something.” They looked quite abnormal.
To put it in game terms, they were like monsters with black smoke coming from their bodies, red glowing eyes, and red names above their heads. Approaching them would trigger system messages like “High danger target detected.”
As we walked, a black wild wolf suddenly appeared in front of us, intending to kill us. It was a classic case of “in a narrow path, the brave win.” Either we would eat it, or it would eat us.
“This place doesn’t feel right either. This map seems to be completely wrong.”
“Surely not all the locations marked on the map for the Black Forest are wrong? If that’s the case, wouldn’t our efforts over the past two days be in vain…”
Two days in Grandis felt like about three days on Earth.
During these two days, Ewen and I had been wandering around in the Nien Forest. We had encountered and dealt with some troublesome creatures, like the wolf and wild boars attacking chickens. We even made a soup with a large-mouthed frog and some mushrooms, which tasted somewhat like the frogs from Earth.
Just as in previous findings, Grandis is rich in resources, with frighteningly abundant beasts in the forest. We didn’t even need to actively seek out harmless little rabbits or wild chickens. Just fighting off the monsters that jumped out at us filled our stomachs. Ewen and the others’ travel bags were stuffed with meat.
However, no matter how we followed the map’s directions to find the “Black Forest,” we couldn’t locate the legendary entrance.
“This is bad. We thought we were incredibly lucky to have such a powerful cat-girl companion, but now we can’t even find the entrance to the Black Forest?”
“Wuwu… It feels like we’re going to return empty-handed.”
Two days in Grandis, if spent walking continuously in the forest, still felt quite long to me. It seemed like we had been going in circles around the forest.
“How about we stop using the map?”
Finally, as the sun rose on the third day, I suggested to them, “Let me be the guide.”
“Eh? Does Lulu know the way?”
Ewen was a bit curious, “But didn’t you say before that…”
“I don’t know the way, but I seem to be able to track that strange scent.”
Under the warm morning sunlight, I pointed to the faint red gas occasionally drifting through the nearby forest. “It’s that… crimson energy? Also known as magical aura, right?”
“Yes, crimson energy.”
Ewen still looked puzzled, “Tracking crimson energy means…”
In this world, there are many things related to “magic,” much like how Earth’s atmosphere contains oxygen, nitrogen, and carbon dioxide. Here, the most commonly used “special energy” is magic power.
Besides magic power, there are other forms of energy such as “fighting spirit” and “crimson energy.” Fighting spirit is generally used by ordinary martial artists, while crimson energy and magical aura are favored by magical creatures.
“I seem to be very sensitive to crimson energy and can track it to areas where it is dense.”
Facing Ewen’s confusion, I explained, “I’ve been thinking these past two days… If the Black Forest is indeed a place with many magical creatures, then the crimson energy there should be especially dense. If we follow the direction of the denser crimson energy instead of using the map, might we find the Black Forest?”
“That… actually makes sense.”
“My words made Ewin feel suddenly enlightened.
“Let’s do it the way Lulu suggested. We’ll stop using the map!”
“……”
…….