Third Outer World Story Series: Pumpkin Sorcerer - Chapter 20
Translator: MadHatter Editor: MadHatter
“Bye!”
“Hoisa!”
It was spring now.
With the animals’ fur being carried on Pumpkin’s back as an exchange for money, and the bear’s fur concealing his body of vines and various catalysts used for [Resonance Spell], he set out towards the town that could be glimpsed in the distance from Lean Forest.
Of course, the purpose of heading to the town was to obtain writing materials!
He was sick of writing with blood ink, let alone mokkan! The amount of magic power leaking out has been escalating these days!
Part of his objective was to gather information on the “Kage-Ochi” and other various topics as well. After spending three seasons (summer, autumn, and winter) in Lean Forest, Pumpkin has received basically no information about the outside world, and if things continued in this way, it would be a poor choice for many reasons.
He will simply respond, “Hibernating animals do not move so it is easy to tighten them up,” if someone inquires about the fur to be traded for money.
“Hyulololoo.”
By flying as high as possible to refrain from stirring unnecessary trouble or attracting attention, Pumpkin passed over the forest where the snow had melted and new shoots were sprouting, and over the village where he was born, where spring farmwork was just beginning.
“Even so, the village seemed a bit rowdier than usual.”
Once he was out of the sky over the village, Pumpkin slowed down to admire the scenery.
His thoughts drifted back to the village he had just passed.
He had actually made numerous trips to the village last winter to gather information, but in contrast to prior trips, the village appeared to be somewhat noisier today in an unfavorable way. To put it simply, the village seemed to be in a deadly frame of mind.
Yeah, I can think of a lot of primary factors that would raise a ruckus… Well, it’s not my place to worry about.
“What I should be more interested in is this liberating experience… Mmm. What a breathtaking landscape.”
Turning sideways in mid-air, he surveyed the surrounding scenery.
Lean Forest, which was a sea of trees as it should be, was surrounded by a diverse range of plains-based topography.
Concretely speaking, there were mountains with plumes of smoke rising from their summits, the ocean with a clear horizon, roads plunging through the plains, and fields where people seemed to be growing some kind of crops.
Pumpkin, incidentally, was presently flying at an altitude of little more than 100 meters, so with his enhanced eyesight, he could plainly spot what was going on on the ground.
Though from the ground, it will look like a dot.
“Ngh? Hmm? This is…”
While observing the ground, he was slowly making his way towards the city that was visible in the distance. Yet, after feeling something, he descended to the ground at one point.
“How should I say this…”
After landing on the ground, Pumpkin pulled out the appropriate grass and observed the magic in detail.
He then verified what he had felt in the air and was positive that the thoughts floating around in his head were correct.
“There is almost no magic?”
That was what he had felt. The plants growing on the roads, the stones scattered about, and the animals observing at a distance, all seemed to have little or no magic power.
No, to be exact, they did possess magic power.
But compared to those in Lean Forest, the amount was relatively small, and unless he looked closely, he could not discern exactly what kind of magic they possessed.
“I should test it out. [Overburst].”
With the proper amount of magic power, he poured it into the grass in his hand.
The grass then glowed with the same amount of magic power as the front teeth of the Anregirat, which, as far as he knew, was the easiest catalyst available in Lean Forest to activate [Overburst], and it burst apart with a bang and a firecracker-sized impact when separated from his hand.
Yeah. According to my research results, if I were to use [Overburst] on a plant with green color magic power, the opposite of red color magic power would be the most efficient way to make it explode, and green color magic power shouldn’t explode so easily. The fact that it’s so susceptible to explode means that the magic power tolerance of the grass here is extremely low.
“Anyway, I should get moving back up there. Hyulololoo!”
After finishing checking, Pumpkin flew back to the original altitude.
And when he returned to the top, he thought about it and realized that he was talking about Lean Forest as a reference point.
However, Lean Forest is the forest where the God sleeps, in other words… Lean-sama. If this is the case, there is a high possibility that the forest has been affected by the God’s influence in various ways.
If he was right in his assumptions, the amount of magic power that the grass earlier had was normal in this world, and Lean Forest was out of the norm.
Or rather, it was known from his experience to date that water, soil, and of course blood, which were overflowing with magic power, tasted delectable when they had a lot of magic power. In that sense, it would not be shocking if the more delicious food he ate, the stronger he would become.
“Ah, this might be a fortunate fact for me to have realized before entering the town.”
If that amount of magic power was really normal, it would have been very intimidating to the people around him if he had released all of his magic power.
According to Mizuki, magic power was something that living things would sense as pressure or discomfort.
“In the meantime, I’m going to have to be extra vigilant with my camouflage.
With his body’s magic power extremely suppressed, he reduced the amount of magic leaking out of his body to an amount slightly greater than that of the creatures around him. From a casual observer, it would appear as if he were a slightly stronger living being.
At the same time, there was a surplus of magic power under his thin layer of skin, which he used to strengthen the defenses of his entire body.
With this, even if an adversary caught off guard by the amount of magic power Pumpkin appeared to have and attacked him unexpectedly, the attack would end at the point where the thin skin was ripped open.
Furthermore, since a thin layer of skin was truly only a thin layer of skin, it was impossible to inject poison into his body. For the poison to spread throughout his body, there must be some kind of current, like blood circulation.
Huh? No blood is flowing in my body? It is true that there is no blood circulation in my body, but there are veins in my body that allow water to flow through. That’s why poisons work properly. Poisons for animals are almost completely nullified, though.
“So now that I’m camouflaged and have had a quick look at the surrounding scenery, I’m in a hurry…”
When he was ready, he was going to rush to the city by fast flight but…
“Hah hah… someone, someoneeeee!!”
On the ground, a girl in simple protective gear was being chased by a swarm of bees.
Well, what do I do now…?