The Otherworld Conquest Method of a Reincarnated Porter Chapter 42 Part 1
Plundering
After lunch, we start walking again. The appearance rate of golden bees is high in this area. The hive must be close by.
When Zuma gives the signal, five of his comrades, including the magician, hurry onward.
「Hey, you guys. From here on, private conversation is strictly forbidden. Make sure to keep quiet, okay? Anyone who talks will be expelled immediately, got it?!」
When Zuma warns in a different tone of voice than before, the place quiets down in an instant. It is clear that if they were to be banished in such a place so deep into the forest, they would not be able to make it back alive.
「Alright, don’t talk. Follow me slowly. I’ll show you something good.」
After following Zuma for a while, we can see a small hill. Amazing. On the hill in front of us is a stretch of huge beehive, wrapping around several trees about a hundred meters high. In terms of size, the hive is probably 70 to 80 meters long and wide. I cannot tell the depth from here, but it must be pretty deep.
There are dozens of golden bees about 40 centimeters long in the hive, but as if in confusion, they are flying around in a chaotic orbit and attacking each other.
I can sense a flow of magical energy at the foot of the hill. When I turn my gaze there, I see the magician raising his wand in the forest a short distance away from the hive, sending white powder flying toward the hive using wind magic. I see, that is the powder of the illusionary butterfly, huh.
The male porter takes eight barrels out of his storage and places them under the hive. He then pulls out a long spear and makes a deep cut into the hive, through which honey drips into the barrels. When the work is done, the porter and one guard hide in a bush on the hillside.
「All right, everyone listen up! Right now, I’m going to hold a test for joining my party! The test is simple. All you have to do is make it back to the city alive. If you meet an enemy, don’t fight, just run. That’s all!」
「Huh, no way. Even if you tell us to do so so suddenly…」
「I don’t have any weapons, you know?」
「If we can join his party just by going back to the city, why not?」
「I don’t remember the way back, you know?」
They bring these rookie adventurers, who are ill-equipped, so deep into the forest and then tell them to go back to the city? What a joke.
「I’ll let anyone who makes it back to Magt in one piece join my party. Oops, and don’t take off your cloak, okay? It’s a pretty good defense, after all.」
After Zuma says that much, several golden bees emerge from the forest. They seem to have sensed the abnormality in the hive and returned.
Mistaking them for bears, their natural enemy, the bees attack the rookie adventurers in black cloaks one after another.
「Uwaa, bees, run!」
「Gyaaa.」
「The forest! Run into the forest!」
Zuma and the others laugh as they watch the rookie adventurers flee, scattering in all directions like baby spiders. As I thought, it seems that if you don’t wear a black cloak, you won’t be preferentially attacked. I move to a place out of sight of Zuma and the others, quickly take off my cloak and put it in my storage. Then I put on my leather helmet of the small fire dragon. If I see an opening, I will launch an attack at Zuma.
「Oops, you stay here.」
Zuma grabs Marin’s arm.
「Kya, wha, what are you doing?」
「Hey, Marin, what’s going on?」
「Are you this girl’s elder brother? It seems impossible for her to return to the city by herself. As such, if you, her elder brother, can make it back to the city, I’ll let you both join my party.」
「R, really?」
「Big brother.」
「Think about it. It’d be too dangerous to go back to the city while protecting your little sister, right? She’ll be safer with us, and you’ll be able to move more easily on your own, right? Now, what will you do?」
「G, got it. I’ll entrust Marin to you.」
「No! I’m going with you, big brother.」
「Marin, listen to me. I’ll definitely pass this test. If I do that, we’ll both be able to join Zuma-san’s party. We’ll never get another chance like this, you know?」
「But… But….」
「Zuma-san. Please take care of Marin.」
「Leave it to me. Make sure you get back to the city safely, okay?」
「Yes, sir!」
Saying so, Marin’s elder brother disappears into the forest. Zuma and his men will probably attack Marin after they are done collecting the honey. At least until then, Marin should be safe.
「Alright, take off your cloak.」
「Huh, but why?」
「Just take it off already!」
「Uh, yes.」
Making Marin take off her cloak, Zuma and the others look up and down at her with creepy smiles on their faces. I guess I should take advantage of this opportunity to deal with the magician at the foot of the hill.
Using presence concealment, I move closer to the magician. The magician is looking up at the beehive with a few bottles of illusionary butterfly scale powder lined up at his feet. After a while, he puts the scale powder on wind magic and scatters them on the hive. It seems that after a certain amount of time passes, he uses magic each time the effect of the scale powder is about to wear off.
Zuma and his four comrades, along with Marin, are in a place a short distance away from the hive, protecting Marin as they engage the golden bees coming back from the forest.
The magician is using magic in the forest a short distance from the foot of the hill, so although stray golden bees come at him from time to time, the comrades standing on either side are there to protect him.
And then, the porter and one guard are waiting near the hive, covering their mouths with a cloth. It seems they are waiting for the barrels to be filled with honey.
At that moment, a large, horned golden bee attacks Zuma and the others. Zuma and the others are fighting back desperately, not paying attention to the area around the hive. Alright, here is my chance. I approach the magician and his two guards from behind, take out my two mithril alloy iron balls from my storage, and infuse them with magical energy. The magician is so engrossed in his magic and the bees that he doesn’t seem to notice me at all. The buzzing of a single golden bee is already loud, so the buzzing of dozens of confused golden bees is deafening. With this, even if I were to engage the magician and his two guards, I don’t think we will be noticed by Zuma and the others, who are fighting at a place away from us.
Throw! I shoot the first throw at the back of the guard’s head. *Splat* The skull shatters and brains fly about. He should be unable to fight now. Then, I shoot the second throw at the other guard.
「Huh?」
The iron ball hits the man, who is startled by the state of his comrade who suddenly collapsed, on the side of his face and bursts it open with a dull thud.
Using instant step, I close my distance with the magician, who is still concentrating on his magic and continuing to send scale powder flying, and cut off his head with my sword infused with magical energy. The two guards seem to still be alive, so I thrust my sword at them and finish them off. The area is noisy with the buzzing of countless confused golden bees, so everything goes unnoticed by Zuma’s comrades. Quickly, I put the corpse and the scale powder into my storage and hide myself in the forest. After moving to a location quite a distance away, I take out the corpses.
「Whoa, this magician’s wand is quite something.」
Passing magical energy through a wand allows you to activate magic more smoothly, but I have never used a wand before. That was because when I learned magic from Alma, she told me that if I ended up getting accustomed to using invocation mediums such as wands or rings, it would slow down my mastery in magic.
After searching through the corpses, I get myself ten lower-grade red, blue, and green potions and money around three small gold coins. I also collect their iron swords and shields.
While erasing my presence, I move closer to Zuma and the others. In the surrounding area lie the corpses of golden bees and their superior species. They seem to be thinking only of raping Marin and are completely oblivious to the fact that their comrades are dead.
I drink a low-grade blue potion to restore my magical energy and take a look at how Zuma and the others are doing.
RELEASE RATE
Otherworld Conquest Method of a Reincarnated Porter
Speed up schedule by 10 hours
Current schedule: Every 90 hours
Tftc