Chapter 38: Pip’s Mist Forest Adventure

Chapter 38: Chapter 38: Pip’s Mist Forest Adventure

The Mist Forest was much quieter than it had been in late autumn. With the leaves all fallen, the wind had lost its medium for friction, leaving behind only a low, brief WHOOSH as it blew past the bare branches.

Lorin squatted down and rubbed a fern leaf that had frozen to the ground. He flicked the dirt from his fingertips and looked around. "Are you sure it’s this way?" He truly had no idea how the little guy was distinguishing directions.

The forest was filled with a pale, ashen mist that hung loosely between the tree trunks, much like the condensation on a window on a winter morning. Where it was thin, the twisted branches behind it were visible; where it was thick, it was a complete expanse of white, obscuring everything.

Pip was currently stepping on an exposed tree root, turning the map over and over. After gesturing with the compass for a long while, he finally pointed forward with apparent certainty. "This way!"

"You just said it was that way." Lorin’s mouth twitched.

"That was earlier." Pip hopped down from the tree root without a change in expression, but the ground was so slippery that he nearly planted his face in the dirt. Fortunately, his center of gravity was relatively low. After windmilling his arms a couple of times, he managed to steady himself. "The sun moved, so the direction naturally has to move with it," he insisted stubbornly.

Lorin couldn’t even be bothered to expose his nonsense.

The two of them had been wandering in the woods for the better part of the morning without catching even a Shadow of Fire Oil Grass. Fortunately, they still had the compass, so they weren’t just walking in circles.

The little guy walked ahead to lead the way. He was still full of energy; despite walking for two days, he didn’t show the slightest sign of fatigue, humming a tune he’d picked up who knew where.

"A Dwarf’s hammer can’t smash it, a Halfling’s pot can’t boil it, the human kings have changed three times, and my shoelaces still aren’t tied..." Pip suddenly asked, "What did you say Fire Oil Grass looked like again?"

Lorin rubbed his head as if nursing a headache and replied, "So you didn’t memorize a single thing when you looked at the illustration earlier?"

"Pip saw that you were memorizing it." The little guy whistled.

He sighed helplessly. "Red, jagged leaves. They’re shiny and oily on top, and they smell like lamp oil."

"Isn’t that everywhere? Look at this leaf, it’s oily and shiny too..." Pip fixed his eyes on a low shrub and reached out to touch it, retracting his hand the moment he made contact. "Ew... slippery."

Lorin walked over to take a look. It was a round, fleshy leaf, and it was green. It was safe to say it had absolutely nothing in common with Fire Oil Grass. "Careful, it might be poisonous. Stop touching everything," he sighed.

The two of them walked a little longer in the direction Pip had pointed. The light in the forest gradually dimmed.

"Yikes!" Pip jumped up from the ground.

SHING—

Lorin swiftly drew Rusted Throat, taking two quick steps forward to reach his side, and followed his gaze. A snake as thick as an arm was coiled in a pile of dead leaves. Its grayish-brown scales were almost indistinguishable from the foliage. Had it not raised its head and flicked its tongue, it would have been completely invisible.

HISS—

It glared angrily at Pip. Its coiled body squirmed before it launched itself straight off the ground, snapping its jaws toward the Halfling.

A cold gleam of light flashed.

The snake’s head separated from its body, landing on the ground with a PLOP. Coated in Sword Oil, Rusted Throat was incredibly smooth. Lorin merely flicked it, and the blood splattered onto the ground from the tip of the blade.

"We’ve got extra meat for dinner tonight." He pulled out a dagger, sliced the snake open along its belly, and removed all of its internal organs before wiping away the bloodstains. Finally, he forcefully coiled the snake up and stuffed it into the back pocket of his backpack. "I just don’t know if the snakeskin is worth anything. Later, you can try and see if you can peel it off."

The little guy nudged the snake’s head with his foot, finally breathing a sigh of relief. "That scared Pip."

Lorin raised an eyebrow in surprise. "You’re actually afraid of snakes?" Given the little guy’s wild combat style, that hardly made sense.

"Pip thought it was a tree root! Who knew it would suddenly start moving the moment I stepped on it!" the little guy grumbled.

"No wonder it tried to bite you." Lorin swept the pile of fallen leaves with Rusted Throat. Once he confirmed that nothing else was hiding inside, he stood up and said, "Let’s go."

"Do you think there are other snakes in the forest?"

"Obviously."

"..."

"Stop hopping around like that and walk carefully."

After walking forward for quite a while, the terrain began to slope downward. Tree roots bulged from the soil, exposed to the air in a crisscrossing mess.

Pip suddenly stopped in his tracks. He raised a hand to signal Lorin to stop, whispering warily, "Shh... do you hear that?"

Lorin pricked up his ears. Nearby, the freezing branches contracted with a CREAK. Not far away, snow slipped from a bough and hit the ground with a soft RUSTLE. Mixed in with the ambient noise was a very faint SQUELCH—SQUELCH—like wet mud sliding down a wall.

"Over there," Pip reminded him softly, pointing to a tree to their front-left.

Lorin followed his gaze. A grayish-green blob was squirming on the tree trunk. Wherever it passed, it left a wet, glistening trail that emitted a faint white steam. The thing had no fixed shape, reminding Lorin of the slimes he frequently saw in video games from his past life—just a much more disgusting version.

"Goddess above! It looks like a Dwarf’s vomit after getting drunk." Pip curled his lip.

Lorin said in surprise, "You actually believe in a deity? This is the first time I’ve heard you mention it."

"All Halflings believe in the Goddess! She’s our creator! Besides, don’t you humans believe in even more deities?" the little guy retorted.

Pip was right about that. Humans believed in all sorts of random Divine Spirits. Some people even worshipped the patron deities of other races; who knew what they were thinking. However, if it proved useful, Lorin wouldn’t mind believing in something either. He had always been a pragmatist. Though he had a feeling the Divine Spirits wouldn’t be too fond of pragmatists anyway...

"Isn’t the relationship between you Halflings and Dwarfs pretty good?"

"That doesn’t mean we have a good relationship with their vomit!"

"Shh! I think it heard us!"

As if hearing their whispers, the blob slowly turned in their direction.

"Is it looking at us?" the little guy asked in astonishment.

"It obviously doesn’t have eyes."

"Then what is it looking at?!"

Lorin didn’t have time to answer, because the glob had already launched itself off the tree trunk, pouncing straight at him. He silently apologized to Rusted Throat, thinking, "I’m really sorry, old pal..."

He swiftly dodged to the side. As the Dwarf vomit landed on the ground, he immediately thrust his sword, stabbing right into its center. The thing contracted for a moment, then continued to squirm forward as if nothing had happened.

"Tsk... I can’t cut it." Lorin pulled Rusted Throat back. The tip of the blade was coated in a layer of grayish-green slime that gave off a pungent, foul stench.

"Make way, make way!" Pip charged over, brandishing his hammer.

"Holy shit, don’t!" Lorin’s eyes widened.