Pioneering the Apocalyptic World - Chapter 132
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Chapter 02: The long-awaited rice… But…
The next day was also largely peaceful.
A Large Raven came rushing in at great speed to attack from the sky, but was easily shot down by Uru’s stone throw.
Although small, if you try to fight it, a large number of formidable Soldier Ants will crawl out of their burrows… And I destroyed them by pouring the water I took out from the item box.
Although things like that happened, I didn’t have any particular injuries or hardships.
Along the way, we discovered another cave-like dungeon (the surrounding area is a wasteland, so the only place where a dungeon could be is in ruins or underground), and although Regulus was excited and tried to enter it, we were able to complete it in less than an hour and Regulus was completely disappointed. I was only able to salvage a few useful materials, so it wasn’t very tasty to me either, but I can’t leave a dungeon alone.
After eating lunch we continued on for a while, when Uru, shading her forehead with her hand and looking ahead, made a report.
“I saw something ahead.”
“Oh, it’s a dungeon again? I hope it’s tougher one next time.”
“No… I don’t think will be one.”
“…… Is that so……”
What Uru found was a village… Or what was one. This is what is called an abandoned village.
There’s no strange smell or presence of anything, so it doesn’t seem like it’s a home to any people or monsters. I wasn’t too worried because there wasn’t any miasma, but I’m glad it didn’t turn out to be something like the contaminated village during the battle with Zephyrus.
“It doesn’t seem like it was abandoned recently, does it?”
“Yes, it doesn’t look to have been used for at least ten years.”
Judging from the traces, it seems like it was not abandoned just a few days ago, but several decades ago.
“The only thing left is the foundations of broken houses…”
As Liese said, there is nothing there, and there are almost no traces of human habitation left. The roof has long since rotted away, and the walls are in pieces. There was no trace of cloth items. It’s not even clear whether they were destroyed by monsters or decayed naturally.
After a quick search of the entire place, I was inwardly relieved to find that, let alone bodies, there were not even bones left.
… Looking back, I have never seen a ‘human corpse’ since I came to Asteria. Well, even in my original world, I’ve only seen one at funerals.
In this world, people die easily. It must be some kind of good luck that I have never seen one before.
I feel sorry for Regulus and Liese considering the Chimera battle, but I decided to recognize that as a monster… As for monster’s bodies I already saw piles of them, so I have resistance to gore…
–Will I be able to remain calm when I witness a human body?
After imagining something I will definitely encounter in the future.
For a moment my felt my body froze.
That night. In the tent of my second camping trip.
“Umm… Why?”
Right now, Fricka is holding my head. Yesterday she was just grabbing my clothes, so why did she make such a drastic advance?
I-It’s not that I don’t like being close with her, it’s just that the difference is so large that I was surprised.
“… It’s because Rion-sama.”
“?”
“You seemed to be worrying about something.”
“Ah……”
The only thing I remember… Is about what happened during the day, but is not to extend that I am worried about it. Even though I didn’t say anything, I’m impressed about how much she’s really looking at me,
… It’s embarrassing, but I was grateful for her thoughtfulness.
Was the natural habitat of rice located further away than expected? I think it’s about the time to build a statue of the creator god, make a return stone, and return to the base.
Just as I was starting to think about it, the dry wasteland became wet and turned into a grassland, and then into a wetland, so it might be soon. If I can’t find it by tonight, let’s go home.
Fricka became nervous as the terrain changed to a wetland… I guess she’s afraid of slimes.
I’d like to think that it will okay because Uru is there, but cases like the last time might happen, and I can’t let any slime touch her, so while being careful to not slip, I continue to walk, sometimes going deep in the mud and walking carefully so as not to fall into a hole.
As expected, Fricka almost fell, but Uru quickly supported her, so it wasn’t a big deal. If it were me, I would have fallen down with her, let’s make sure to train my core muscles properly…
After about an hour advancing while being attacked by monsters that live near the water, such as mud frogs and dragonflies.
“Mu… Was it grass with golden-brown seeds, right? I can’t find it anywhere…”
We searched through the long grass, but we couldn’t find what we were looking for, and Uru began to grumble.
“Well, none of us have ever seen the real thing.”
“There might be the possibility that we had overlooked it…”
Although the water in this area has drained and it’s easier to walk around, I don’t think I’d want to stay there for too long because there are a lot of insects, the grass stings me, and it’s humid.
The sun has already crossed the mid-point of the sky. And now is the time to go back for a little bit and prepare for return before it gets too dark to move.
“It probably looks green and beautiful from a distance, but… Oh, this grass has a lot of small flowers blooming.”
Fricka bends down and touches it with her hand. Indeed, when I look closely, I can see a whitish thing attached to the bell…
Ah-
“…… It’s it”
“Huh?” voices rose from everyone, and all eyes were on me.
Uru questioned while frowning.
“The colors seems to be quite different, don’t they?”
“Sorry, that’s only after the seed has ripened. Harvesting time is in autumn, so I should have told what it looked like before then…”
Autumn is approaching, but it’s still summer. I was careless.
When I looked around, I’ll can see that it grows over a wide area around here… I’d be an idiot if I missed it.
“Mu… So that does mean we can’t eat it yet?”
“I guess so.”
Uru and Regulus seemed very disappointed in my answer, and their shoulders slumped. Although not as bad as these two, Fricka and Liese also look somewhat disappointed.
I’m sorry that I couldn’t meet your expectations.
“Anyway. I’ll take it back and replant it at base. I think it will bear fruit while we explore the desert.”
“Now that we’ve found it, we’ve achieved our goal. Let’s look forward to the future.”
We brought back a large amount of rice and replanted it in the farmland I had created before heading out.
Oops, there are some sick ones mixed in, let’s remove them. It seems like some of them don’t have enough nutrients, although I’m sure they’ll grow because the soil has been improved (and has the blessings of the earth god).
Ah, now that I stopped to think about it, isn’t Japanese rice improved by selective breeding over a long time just to improve its taste? I just picked what was growing in the wild, so this year’s version might not be as delicious. If I set their expectations too high, they might be disappointed and say, “It’s not delicious.”… Oops.
Although I was a little worried about the future, I personally couldn’t help but look forward to being able to eat rice for the first time in a while… Well, I have to make sure I don’t raise my own expectations too high and end up crying later.
The various tools for harvesting have already been prepared, so all that is left is to wait for the time to pass. After taking a little break, let’s head out to explore the desert.