Chapter 150 - Countermeasures (2)

Made a notice

Wild Grylls

(Photo of the notice)

Planning to put this up where people can see it from across the river.

Wasn't originally going to put one by the river, but I saw someone on the other side today;;

It happened too fast to get a picture, but yeah, I think it was someone the Holy Kingdom sent.

└Heavenly Demon Did you truly see a person?

└Wild Grylls Yes. They were riding a giraffe and fighting lions.

└Sword Masta A giraffe is that long-necked animal you mentioned earlier, right?

└Wild Grylls Yes.

└Sword Masta Seems like that neck would make it hard to see ahead;;

└Wild Grylls I haven't asked them myself, so I wouldn't know.

└What if they bring the giraffe over too?

└For real lol. One more mouth to feed lmao

└With a neck that long, wouldn't it have nowhere to rest?

└That too, but it might have a nasty temper;;

└Don't Abandon the Hero That's a great idea! Other survivors will be able to see it too!

└Are you sure you didn't imagine it? It's the Forest of Four Seasons. Could've shown you an illusion.

└That's way too detailed for an illusion. Guess we'll wait and see lol

└What if that person kills Grylls?

└Don't Abandon the Hero That would never happen! Ludwig is a good person!

└Even good people turn bad when survival's on the line, admin;;

└I'm worried about that too. Never mind this Ludwig guy, what if another survivor comes over and wrecks the place?

At first, the responses were typical forum fare, but then came a string of concerns.

Suppose there really were survivors in the Forest of Four Seasons. They might see the notice and cross the river. But what then? What if one of them had malicious intentions and hurt me?

'It's not impossible.'

When survival was at stake, every animal was a competitor. Even members of your own species were no exception. And since I couldn't speak this world's languages, reasoning with them wouldn't be easy.

'I'll just have to make the most of the forum.'

Even an insanely strong sloth had trouble finding food in the Forest of Four Seasons. Without the forum, I would have starved to death too. Out here in the middle of nowhere, simply having access to it was an advantage. I could start by showing them the forum and try using it to interpret for us.

'Either way, winning them over comes first. What matters in the end is manpower.'

There were things people could do, and things the forum could do. Just then, comments echoing my thoughts came pouring in. A few included insults, but I didn't particularly mind.

'Let's go put up the notice first.'

It was big, but that wasn't a problem. I had my extradimensional backpack. Before long, I had carefully positioned it so it was clearly visible from across the river. I could check on it whenever I collected the traps.

'Crossing the river is a problem too.'

The width was one thing, but the current was far too strong. Crossing without a boat looked difficult. I wondered whether they might be able to leap across, but assuming someone of that caliber had survived without any injuries was itself optimistic. The more survivors there were, the greater the chance that one of them would have trouble walking. I myself would have been left disabled if not for the Elixir.

'I'll have to build a bridge.'

You might ask what use a bridge would be when the space across the river kept changing in real time. But it was the far side that changed. The river itself always stayed the same. That meant there was always a stretch of ground in roughly the same condition on the opposite bank.

'First, measure the distance.'

I took some rope out of my extradimensional bag. I always carried basic tools around. Then I tied a dagger to the end and threw it across the river—not into the shifting space beyond it, but right to the boundary.

'It really is pretty wide.'

I marked the rope and reeled it back in. I was about to head home when I paused to look across the river. The Forest of Four Seasons held all sorts of environments. Right now, that space was filled with fog. What was inside that fog? Could there really be survivors even in a place like that?

'No matter how you look at it, I've been lucky.'

Even setting aside the forum, the fact that survival itself was possible was a huge blessing. If I'd ended up in a fog-covered region, a volcanic region, or even a desert or snowy mountain... Just imagining it was horrifying.

'Where was that person, anyway? Don't giraffes live on grasslands?'

The lions surrounding them were grassland animals too. But even that wasn't certain. There were kangaroos living not far from here. Like humans, animals made their habitat wherever they adapted.

'I can take my time with the bridge. Let's make the swords first.'

Even a temporary bridge would take a long time to build, unlike a sword. I also needed to test Papa Raccoon's abilities. Of course, sharpening swords was the dwarf's specialty, so I decided to ask him.

Passing Dwarf

I think this every time,

but you tend to be way too optimistic about the world.

What do you mean?

Passing Dwarf

I get that you're happy you saw a survivor,

but you shouldn't make rash decisions when you're happy.

Think it over at least two or three times.

What came back was some pointed, substantive advice. At first, I wondered what he was talking about. This was the dwarf who usually joked and laughed with me. If he was saying this, my decision must have been that rash. It was a well-deserved scolding.

'Um...'

I pressed my lips together and considered what had worried him. My plan to throw supplies—namely, weapons—across the river for survivors. I'd decided weapons would be better than food, since mithril and orichalcum were lying all around me.

'... Could something like a gorilla end up using them?'

Apart from their appearance, those gorillas were practically no different from prehistoric humans. Some used crude weapons, and the gorilla chief even used mana. Imagine putting Mithricon swords in their hands. Forget survival—the whole ecosystem would go to hell.

'Come to think of it, they said there were monsters too, didn't they?'

Goblins, orcs, gnolls, ogres, and all the usual fantasy creatures. They knew how to use tools, making them even more dangerous. In a place where even apes used mana, why wouldn't they be able to? One wrong move, and I would be personally creating what could become the worst threat of all.

'Tsk...'

It left a bitter taste in my mouth. As the dwarf had said, finding a survivor seemed to have gotten me a little overexcited. In the end, I abandoned the idea of throwing swords across the river. The risk was too great. Still, I would make a separate sword for Ludwig, as a spare.

'Before that, let's build the bridge.'

I asked the dwarf about this too—whether he knew any good ways to build a temporary bridge. I wanted it arched to account for the river rising in the rain. If even he didn't know, I planned to put down something simple and improve it bit by bit.

Passing Dwarf

There is one way, but I don't know if you can do it alone.

What's that?

Passing Dwarf

It's called a da Vinci bridge.

It's a construction method people have used for ages.

Pretty simple too, so I hear it was used a lot in wars.

Da Vinci? Surely not the da Vinci I knew? Hearing such a familiar name startled me a little. Cement was one thing, but da Vinci was the name of a famous person. That bothered me.

Da Vinci?

Is that someone's name, by any chance?

Passing Dwarf

Dunno?

All I know is it's been around forever.

I would probably be better off asking Allfather about that. What mattered right now wasn't its origin, but how to build it.

Can you teach me?

Passing Dwarf

Explaining it's easy, but building it's gonna be a bitch.

Your call.

But can't that person just jump across?

You think someone can cross a river like that?

Besides, their legs might be injured.

Passing Dwarf

Lol if that's the issue, just mass-produce Elixir and scatter it around instead.

That'd be better.

It wasn't as though I hadn't considered that. But... mature mandrakes alone weren't enough to make Elixir. Starlight Lady would of course agree to make it if I asked, but constantly asking favors was embarrassing. More importantly, the mandrake population was starting to visibly decline.

'When I actually go through it all, I'm in danger myself, aren't I?'

Thinking it over two or three times, the dwarf's advice was right. This was no time to get complacent. The joy of seeing a survivor seemed to have lowered my intelligence.

'So this is why they say not to make decisions when you're happy.'

It had only been twenty-two days. That was all, and yet I missed human company so much I was going crazy. Seeing a survivor in that state must have temporarily scrambled my brain.

'I shouldn't be too optimistic.'

Soon after that thought, I learned how to build a da Vinci bridge from the dwarf. Naturally, he explained it through a forum post. The structure itself wasn't complicated. He even went out of his way to upload a video of himself assembling one from sticks, which made it easy to understand. Easy to understand or not, the prospect of building it from timber was already daunting.

└Passing Dwarf If it's too much of a pain, want me to just make it for you?

└Wild Grylls Nah. I have to account for the space across the river too, so I'll make it myself.

└Passing Dwarf Then I'll give you a plane. Use that.

└Wild Grylls Thanks, thanks.

└Passing Dwarf By the way, what if an animal comes across instead of a person? Have you thought about that?

└Wild Grylls I need a bridge if only because of the golden frogs. Those bastards are gatekeepers.

└Passing Dwarf Oh. Fair point.

With the plane from the dwarf in hand, I got to work on the bridge in earnest. Logging came first. This wood was for building the bridge, not for firewood. I didn't use mana, since the cold might ruin the job.

CRACK!

A huge tree toppled over. Now I just had to work it into shape bit by bit. I set the branches aside for firewood and charcoal, then cut the large trunk down to size.

'Doing this alone really is hard.'

When would the other side of the river turn back into grassland? I hoped it would happen soon.

'But a da Vinci bridge? Could it really be the da Vinci I know?'

Between that and cement, there were several strange details. Were they things I knew, or mere coincidences? It was something to ponder, but I decided to set it aside for now.

'Who cares?'

What mattered in the end was survival.

* * *

While Grylls was hard at work felling trees for his temporary bridge, Ludwig, the paladin riding a giraffe, found himself in a difficult position.

Had the giraffe betrayed him? No. Quite the opposite—they had just won a battle against a pride of lions. Thanks to the giraffe's towering height, they had effectively fought a siege.

Reach had not been an issue either. The Mithricon sword Grylls had given him had performed admirably. It reacted strongly to even the tiniest amount of mana. The Forest of Four Seasons had an exceptionally high mana density, making mana difficult to use.

But difficult was all it was, not impossible. With concentration, he could manage it to some extent. The drawback was that it was like forcing an elephant through the eye of a needle: he couldn't muster even five percent of his usual power. Even so, the Mithricon sword's outstanding performance had been an enormous help.

"Mmph..."

But even that had its clear limits. Resting beneath a large tree after the fierce battle, Ludwig groaned as he examined the wound the lions had inflicted. Fortunately, both his arms were unharmed, but his right foot had been bitten.

Lions were already renowned for their terrifying bite strength, and this was a lion from the Forest of Four Seasons. It had literally chewed through his steel boot, leaving him badly injured.

'This is bad. I don't see any herbs I could use to treat it, either.'

He had given all his healing supplies, including his potions, to Lace. Aside from the Mithricon sword, he had effectively entered the Forest of Four Seasons with nothing. At first, coincidence and good fortune had made survival easy, but it seemed his luck had run out.

'Considering the risk of infection, I should cut it off, but...'

He looked around, contemplating the worst-case scenario. There was nothing but vast grassland. He could see nowhere to hide and rest. A cave? Every cave he had found so far had contained a three-headed lion or some equally monstrous creature.

'Was what I saw back then an illusion?'

Ludwig recalled the moment: a person across the river who looked as though he came from the Central Plains. The sight had distracted him so badly that he had sustained this injury. He was fortunate it was only his foot. Without the giraffe, his life would have been in danger.

'If it wasn't an illusion...'

He turned toward the river. A different landscape lay before him. Earlier, there had been a forest with a river between them, but now he could see nothing but desert. His delight at finding a source of water had been short-lived. Even the river had changed completely.

'If the skin turns necrotic, I'll have to amputate.'

For now, all he could do was monitor its progress. Ludwig frowned and looked up. It seemed he would have to make this large tree his temporary shelter. In his current condition, going anywhere would be dangerous.

'I'll hold out until the forest beside the river appears.'

Having made up his mind, Ludwig turned his head. The giraffe was lying curled up where he looked.

'And I'll take that fellow with me.'

Ludwig was growing increasingly fond of the giraffe.