Hey, Shun here!
I've always thought that monsters attacking you during your journey to other cities is the norm in every fantasy worlds but, from my experience during my two fantasy world trips, it doesn't seem to be the case. Unless you pass through a highly dangerous location, you wouldn't really meet anything dangerous.
I guess it does make sense since people surely wouldn't be able to travel from one city to another if that was the case, limiting the trades between cities and hampering the development of the entire world itself.
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(Shun's POV)
It's already afternoon of the next day and I just got back from scouting ahead of our carriage's path, after I let Liza take over at driving it. The road ahead was relatively straight so I didn't need to worry about her bumping into something or having a hard time while I'm away.
During my time scouting the area, I saw a pretty huge mountainous path ahead of us, which is about half a day or so away from where our carriage is currently. We should be able to reach it faster if I place an [Enchant] to our horses after taking a break for lunch.
While I'm at it, I searched for locations where we can spend the night in. In my search, I found what seems to be an abandoned cave where animals used to live.
"Ah, this is a perfect resting spot for us. The road is not very far from here, which is also very convenient."
With that decided, I took out the tools that I have bought from Mutsuko-san's dimension and its [Dimensional Shop]. These tools that I mentioned are a pickaxe and a shovel that's enchanted with [Unbreakable], [Efficiency], [Fortune], and [Silk Touch], as well as an axe that's enchanted with [Efficiency], [Unbreakable], [Sharpness], [Fortune], and [Smite].
I've been experimenting on this for a while now and I found out that these tools are very useful for almost anything. There's actually an upgrade to these weapons called [All-Purpose Farming Tool] but that one is so expensive that a hundred thousand d-coins is not enough to buy it.
These tools that I already have are already expensive on their own, making me lose all of those d-coins that I saved up from logging in every day, but they're really worth every d-coins I spent on them.
"Okay! Since I'm feeling rather good today, I'll a favor to those who's going to be traveling to this place!"
With that, I began busying myself. I began by demolishing the cave before picking up the 'items' that I got due to the [Silk Touch].
Looking at the now rather plain field in front of me, I couldn't help but nod to myself in affirmation. Alright, looking good.
After the first step was done, I used the axe to cut down some trees that are a bit on the way. Then, using the hoe and the shovel, I made a two-way road that leads to the main road.
As for the previous location of where the cave was, I of course have some plans for that as well.
"Why didn't I just use these two to fix the road ahead of us much earlier? On second thought, that would be a bit too cumbersome, not to mention that it would be too suspicious if the road suddenly becomes smooth and plain, though…"
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Once I was done with my business with our stopping point tonight, I used the [Divine Warp Feather] to go to the agreed location of where we will set up camp for this afternoon. It felt like not even a second has passed before I was greeted by a change of scenery.
The previously slightly forested area that was surrounding me just earlier was gone, replaced by a huge boulder formation that was surrounded by a grassy terrain. This place seems to be at the very top of a hill, and the boulders seems to be about 2 meters high and nearly 7 meters wide.
Looking at the foot of the boulders, the girls seems to have already prepared everything, from tying the carriage wagon, as well as the horses, and cleaning the location a bit for a bit. Liza is already busy giving the horses water that came from one of the barrels from the carriage while Pochi and Tama brought out some premium hay for their food.
Before approaching them all, I scanned the surroundings for monsters for good measure, and when I didn't see any monster nearby, save for a few animals like some small rats and etc, I released a sigh of relief before walking towards them.
"[Admin-sensei]~! Tou~!"
"Master [Admin-sensei]! Tou~!"
Just as I was about to take a step forward, Pochi and Tama, who was busy on feeding the horses earlier, immediately stood in attention before calling out my name and running towards me. The moment they arrived in front of me, they both shouted "Tou~!" before recklessly tackling me from both sides.
"Gufuh!" I was slightly caught off guard and I was immediately tackled to the ground.
Our travels has mostly been filled with peace and harmony so, like everyone, I mostly relaxed without worrying too much about the dangers. This is why I'm not in my [NWO] avatar right now, but in my normal appearance.
This was a friendly reminder to me that I shouldn't be too lax…
"I'm back, Pochi, Tama. Can you let me go for a moment? Let's go back to the others first."
"Yes~—"
"—nanodesu!"
"You're back, [Admin] Shun-san. I already prepared us something that we could eat first while we prepare lunch. There's salad and sandwich. Touka help me in making them!"
As soon as we arrived at our camp, Kaede-san immediately greeted me before she pointed at the food that she just made. I only told them that I might be back a little later. It's a good thing that they prepared a light meal already.
"That's really good, Kaede-san. Then, why don't we cook our lunch?"
"Un! Let's go!"
Even before we could start preparing our lunch, Yukiko-san and Touka-san joined us while Ritsu, Liza, and Rinka-san chose to prepare the place where we will eat. As for Pochi and Tama, they don't have anything to do right now…
Hmm… What should I ask them to do right now. They seem quite bored just looking at the two horses eat grass.
Should I ask Pochi and Tama to collect firewood?
Looking at the two, they're exuding atmosphere like they're about to run towards the meadow at any moment now. Everytime the bushes make those rustling sounds, their ears twitches along with it.
Their gazes that are now directed towards me seems to be telling me everything they wanted to convey. "I want to hunt prey and play!" is what they wanted to say.
Uh-huh, they're still kids alright. Like Ikumei and Zenko, I should let them play games appropriate for their age.
With that said, let's make them play.
"Private Pochi! Private Tama!"
"Aye!"
"Aye, nanodesu!"
Humu… I like the snappy replies.
"I have a very important mission that I want to you two specifically!" At my words, the two immediately straightened their backs before saluting at me.
"Aye—"
"—nanodesu!"
"Check the perimeter in search of firewood and anything you find dangerous or interesting!"
""Aye aye!""
As if they were two arrows that was fired through a very taught bow, they immediately bolted away from their previous position.
"Don't go too far, okay? I'll call you two back when the meal is ready!" I reminded them so that they wouldn't overdo it.
I heard two very energetic replies coming from far away a second later. They seem to be singing a camping song as they marched further away.
"Looks like they're very excited…" Yukiko-san said as she looked at where Pochi and Tama disappeared to with a smile on her face.
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After eating our lunch, we immediately tidied up everything before once again departing. Although our lunch was a simple curry rice, it was still a very scrumptious meal which was cooked by the girls themselves.
The only thing I did was watch as they did their work, do the taste test, and teach them how to improve their dish more. Honestly, their dish is already very tasty — probably already close to a professional level. Aside from those who are very picky eaters, this lunch is already at the very top of those home cooks.
As there was really nothing interesting during this trip of ours, the girls decided to make merry instead of not doing anything the entire way. On that note, girls are really something. It's really amazing how they're able to bring up almost any subject and talk about it for a lengthy period of time.
Not like I'm complaining though. Some of their topics are genuinely interesting, aside from of course those genuinely girls talk that I, a male, couldn't help but feel left out.
Thankfully, there are three angels who are accompanying me at the driver's seat. They continued to brighten my day as they sang along their favorite anime song openings and endings.
If you thought that a Vorpal Bunny, a catkin, and a dogkin singing along an anime song is already adorable enough, well, that's just not the full extent of the adorableness of this trio. What's even more adorable was the fact that, along with Tama's very unexpected beautiful singing voice, Pochi and Tsuka were accompanying her singing by copying the instrumentals.
This gave birth to a very peculiar and cute situation where a cat sang while a dog and a rabbit did the beat. To think that such a day in my life would come, I bet even the past me would be jealous.
"Pumpshh, tshh tshh pumpshhh! Yo, yo nanodesu!"
"Squeak, squeak~! Eyy, eyy, chickitout yo~!"
And so, with their adorable singing as the background, we continued to travel until before sundown. After entering the mountainous roads and reaching a certain juncture on the road, I steered the carriage to the left before continuing to drive through the forested mountain road.
Noticing the slight deviation in our traveling path, Ritsu peered at me from the carriage before asking me about it.
"Are we going the a location on this forest where we can rest for the night, Shun-san?"
"Yep. I scowered the roads starting from the boulder formation where stayed at earlier until this mountainous road and figured that I should also search for someplace where we could rest comfortably for the night. You girls should be feeling rather bad, not being able to take a real bath for a while now, right?"
"Um. It feels a little stuffy and weird not being able to take a bath for over a week…" Rinka-san replied immediately.
To this statement, the other girls seems like they couldn't agree more. Thankfully, I took this into account when making that cabin earlier.
When we arrived at the destination, I stopped the carriage and alighted it before everyone else.
"Everyone, we're here! This is a cabin that I made earlier today."
The moment they laid their eyes on the pretty extravagantly designed wooden house in the middle of the forest, everyone was momentarily stunned.
"You made this in one day, [Admin] Shun-san?" Kaede-san asked.
"Yep."
"This whole house?" Rinka-san asked.
"Yep!"
"I think you've overdone it a little, Shun-kun…" Yukiko-san commented.
Looking at the wooden house, the bath that I made beside it, along with the different fruit trees that I placed around it, yeah… I guess I did overdid it a little with this small cabin house that we wouldn't even stay at for more than one night…
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※~To be continued~※
Supporters:
Very huge thank yous to those who supported me even though I'm clearly running through a lot of problems these past few months. We're done moving out and we're currently doing good where we're currently situated so I'll now try to slowly bring back my writer spirit xD.
Thank you to:
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You guys are awesome!
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Author's Remarks:
※ Done. I'll accelerate the pace a bit since there's really nothing too interesting that could possibly happen for a while.